Report 12

 Hey this is hana. I have a lot of things to wanna tell u today too. When I posted the last report, i got a lot of good messages from my friends in the US and they look forward to reading it. I love to do this too cuz it’s kinda like a diary and i can tell u about japan and a Japanese girl’s normal lifestyle. I’m sure that there r many differences so I want u to know about Japan and someday come to visit me in Japan!

First of all I’ll talk about my family. I told my family how much I love nacho cheese. Then my mom tried to make it. My American mom sent me a recipe but cheddar cheese is really expensive here. So my mom figured out how to make nacho cheese as her style. And it was really good. I literally love it and so does my family. I told my sisies to make whoppie pies for them but I didn’t do it yet. Yui often asks me when I make it. And Claire does too. So I gotta make them soon. I learned a lot of American jokes from there so I try to say it. The other day I was talking w Yui, my old sis, and somehow she asked me who. So I thought it’s good chance to tell her ur mom jokes. After I said ur mom, she couldn’t even catch it. She goes “What? What is it?” And next time she asked me who, I said “asked “ like who-asked. But she couldn’t get that one either. So I laughed by myself. It was kinda sad to laugh by myself.

 My sis asks me a lot of questions about English. She asked me to fix the sentences of the letter to her professor the other day. But there were many things to fix, so I just rewrite it. And when I checked her, she was like "Ahhh I didn't know the way u write. This is much better." I'm not perfect, but I'm trying to help her :) Yui told me that she learned when u write a letter to ur professor or like polite people, u should not use shorten words like "I'm". It was kinda interesting for me cuz I never thought about it and I often use shorten words. Maybe it's more polite to write whole sentences. We also hav shorten words in Japan, but we don't use them when we write like polite letters and so on, But I feel shorten words are less work to type, and they r cool;)

I’m getting used to have school life in Japan. I got many new friends. Some of them talked to me to know about the US. So I always try to tell them a lot of things there. But I feel teachers are more interested in the US. Teachers often ask me questions like “How did u take classes in the US?” “Did u understand what they said?!”and so on.  I love to talk w ppl so I’d love to answer these questions. And I think it’s very good for them and also me to share my experiences w them. 

I had speaking English test few days ago. My partner asked me a question randomly, and I need to talk about it for a minute. My friends were super nervous but I was not. My question was if I go to foreign country, where would I go. So I said Dillsburg in PA. I was like I miss everything there so I wish I could go there rn. I never stop talking and it was easy to talk whole minute. My teacher was like good job!!! Then it was my partner's turn. He was talking about why he thinks sports are important. While he talked about it, he had kinda struggles. He didn't hav any topics to talk about any more. So I asked him a question to give him a topic to talk about. And he could keep doing it. As a result, we did it!! We were good pair and we did gr8 job! It was super fun. 

I hav another fun story to tell u. My classmates say jokes to me studied abroad. In a gym class, we played volleyball and whenever I made a serve, my friends were like " Wow this is American serve! She is from Pennsylvania." It doesn't make any sense but this is just funny for me. They try to connect everything to America. I'm a Japanese tho!!

My HR teacher told me that I might have a chance to have  a presentation about the US. Some of u know I had Japanese on for freshman in Mr. Ramsey’s class. It’s kinda like that ig but this time is Japanese one. So I try to remember what I was surprised in the US? what r interesting things in the US?   I want u to help me like coming up w ideas and sending me pics. And if u hav something that I should tell ppl here, u gotta tell me. I was thinking I should tell them American handshakes or like show them caps and gown for the graduation. I need ur advices!! What should I do?

I had sports festival in middle of July. I ran relay which 4girls and 4boys in each HR ran 180m, and against each class. I was first runner and I didn’t do any exercises from track club in the US. So I was kinda worried what if I got hurt...but at the time I also thought just suck it up!! And I ran. I was good at starting cuz I practiced a lot in track club in the US. So I got first  of 4runners. The result was gr8. My classmates said good job to me and I was so happy to run w them. Even some guys in different classes talked to me. I was so glad to talk w them. This is one of good points to have school events. I can make new friends:)

My relay team

 the scores

Only one month has passed but I feel I lost my English skills a little bit. Listening or writing r fine, but speaking is not. I don’t have any chances to use English to communicate. So I needa make by myself. So I started to say whatever I feel  in English and record my voice. So that I can listen to it later. Also I joined English club in school. There is a teacher from the US. So I often talk w him. The club has few members and they also have other clubs as well. So there r only me and the teacher most of time. But it’s fun to talk w him. He’s from Washington state and has a daughter and son. We talked about lots of things like Japanese schools and American schools, traveling abroad, Starbucks and Tully’s. I really want many students to join us. So I’m trying to invite my friends. It’s definitely good for u to study English. The club had  a debate in English and I went there. It was about diversity. It was kinda difficult topic but I could do it. I talked about studying abroad. And it was fun to talk w students from different school!!

Id like to introduce Japanese restaurants to u!! I love American food, but also Japanese food!

There is a ramen restaurant near to my house. I havn't had ramen for a long time, so when I had it it was so good. It is soy sauce base, and has sliced poke in it. Mmm so yum! Hav u ever heard that it's ok to eat noodles w making noises in Japan. If I do same thing in the US, I'll b killed, it is so rude in the US isn't it. U can feel different culture from ramen:)

I love sweets too. Some Japanese restaurant is very cheap and good. R there a lot of family restaurants in the US? I didn't see them in Dillsburg. In Japan, they r popular. They hav a lot of kind of dishes, and most of them hav soda foundation! This is a pic I went there to hav sweet w my mom the other day. It was big, good , and cheap!!! It was less than $5 ig. U definitely should try to go there some time;)

menu

U can order menu by iPad. 

Guys finally summer vacation has just started!! I hav English HW during summer vacation which is fun. I needa take a lesson online to improve my English skills. I talk w teachers from different countries, and just talk for 25min. I hav talked w a teacher from Philippines. It was fun to share own school systems, and so on. And I'm so happy to talk in English. I mean I already hav chances to talk w foreign ppl. Like facetime w my host fam and my friends.  It's so fun!!

There is a big high school baseball tournament in the summer. Each prefecture competes to b NO.1 baseball team of all high schools in the prefecture, and there r another tournament to compete NO.1 baseball team of all of Japanese high school. My friends play it so I went there to watch it. I like watching baseball so it was fun. It was hot tho lol.

What I do during summer is prob finishing HW, visiting my grand parents, going to the beach, and just chilling  out. I'll try to hav a lot of plans! And I'll keep telling u. 

THX so much to read this! HAV A GR8 SUMMER!!

Report 11

 Hi Friends! I’m Hana.  

I started writing a report in English for studying English! There might be some weird expressions, but please suck it up!

First I could come back to japan safely. Thank you all for supporting me and giving me lots of happiness. 

The plane I was in.

I was so excited to see my family and my friends in japan cuz I’ve not seen them for a long long time. I didn’t even keep in touch with them. First night when I came back from the US, I couldn’t speak in japanese. So I spoke English and they talked to me back in Japanese. My little sister, Momo couldn’t understand what I said so my mom translated for her at dinner. After we had dinner, I opened up three suitcases. My Japanese family was so surprised that I got most of clothes from Paige. When they saw my body works, they went “Omg. I wanna this”. They were so excited to see what I got in the US. 

At the airport 

At home with my sises

Then I called my host family to tell them I arrived at home. When I talked with them, I was so happy to talk with them cuz I didn’t see them a long time. 

After I had a video call, I realized that I left there for Japan. Like it was so weird. I felt they are far away. This is true but I actually felt it.I can’t see them in person soon. We’ll be fine cuz we can often have a video call. But there are big time differences and they and we gonna be busy.  I’m not with my host family any more. I was so sad and I’ve missed them a lot. I was not sure that I can do this. First night I stayed up late. 

School 

My high school is really near to the ocean. I can see it from classroom. It’s rare to have such schools in Japan. I go to the station by bike, and take a train, then change another one. This one runs along the ocean so the view is awesome! I go to this high school for three years.

The station 

My high school had school festival so I started going to school like 4 days later when I flew back. I went school on Monday to see my home room teacher. I told some of you, but I’ll tell you again. So I’m going back to same grade for studying for college. Which means I’ll be in the class which are students are younger than me. So I’ve never seen them and my old classmates will be older grade. I made this decision cuz I thought I should spend time to study and it’s gonna be fun to go to school which is near to the beach for three years. I also thought I can make a lot of friends. 

After I talked with them, I saw my old friends who I used to have same class together. When I saw them, they jumped up at me and we screamed cuz we didn’t see each other for a while. We didn’t even keep in touch while I stayed in the US.They were surprised that I could speak Japanese. They thought I forgot Japanese. I regretted it. I definitely should talk to them in English!!

On Tuesday I went to new class. I went to school early in the morning just in case. There were few people studying. So I asked them my seat. They told me and went back to study. It was kinda awkward. When everyone was in the class, my teacher asked me to introduce myself. So I did in English. When it’s over it was so quiet then everyone said “Wowwww I didn’t understand what she said!!!” So I was like this is me,  a foreign exchange student lol!!

I made new friends. But they are different from my friends in the US. My friends in my class care their bangs. I don’t even have one tho. They never talk about cursed words. I used to say a lot in the US...lol I think my basketball team remember that. When I have lunch with them, they asked me some questions about the US. It’s so fun to share with them.

School is so hard. I  have a lot of homework every day. We have quiz every class so I need to study for it as well. We have big tests after summer vacation in every class. So we can’t just be lazy and hang out with my friends in the summer. I gotta study in the summer which SUCKS!! Guys, it is different “your summer “and “my summer “ But it’s alright cuz I like being busy and I’ll do some fun stuffs in the summer anyway lol.

On the weekend, my school had school festival. We wore original t shirts and sold Japanese snacks. After school festival, I went to the beach with my classmates and hang out together. It was really fun.

These are all my classmates.

At the beach 

Japanese people 

I feel Japanese people are really different from American people.It’s just my opinion, and that’s not about everyone. But I feel there are a lot of people have serious and careful personality. For example, we still wear face masks here. We don’t often say jokes. We have a lot of rules in public, and home. For example, there are many recycling rules for trash.

I also feel American people are very good at expressing feelings. When I talk with them I realized that many people talk with using hand gestures, reaction and so on. I got used to do these, so sometimes I’m not sure that my family or friends are really happy even if they are cuz I can’t tell. 

There are many students aren’t willing to do first at Japanese school. We decided a leader of dodgeball other day but nobody wanna be it. Then I said “Ok I will do that !” So I’m  a leader and also first runner of class relay.(Nobody wanna be this either so I did.)

My Japanese family was so interested in everything in the US. I mean not only my family, my friends, teachers at school, people read my report about my lifestyle in the US. So I wanna tell them as much as I can, there are a lot of things and Idk what I should start from!! Even small things, we are so surprised cuz it’s different from ours. I will show them the pics I took, or like I can make American food by using the special recipe my American mom made for me!!!

My older sis, Yui always goes “When do you make Whoppie pies?! I wanna have them soon!”. So I gotta make. And my favorite dishes!! 

If you have any suggestions, just text me and lmk!!

On the weekend 

I saw my friends at junior high school other day. They held on karaoke party for me. They prepared Japanese food for me and tell my good friends. We talked and sang a lot. When I sang up town funk by Bruno, everyone sang together but after that they got quiet. So It was kinda awkward. But I enjoyed a lot!!

These days, I often go to the beach on the weekend. Even though I go there every day for school, it’s not enough for me. I just take pics and post on the Instagram, or swim in the ocean. You must be jealous of me cuz I can go there whenever I want:) I can share pics with you!

I am getting used to lifestyle here, but I am missing EVERYTHING in the US sm. I wish I could come back there. I saw my friend’s instagram and they look like having fun at the vacation, I was jealous. I already had a video call with my host family and friends in the US. I talked like 2 hrs with one of my friends lol. I have more things to tell you. And I wanna know over there as well.

I’m scared to lose my English skills what I got in the US. I try to use English, but there are only few chances to use it in Japan. So if you have free time, I’d love to have a video call!!

Anyways I’ll see you soon:)