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!!