But that doesn't mean that it wasn't fun! Far from it!
First off, we picked up two of Tsumu's friends from the train station, Yuu and Momoko
Then we drove to, not a hiking mountain, like Tabletop, but more like Picnic Point, as a big park on top of a mountain, with playgrounds, hiking trails and lookout points.
Here are some pictures.
At the top of this mountain is a look out to see Mt Fuji! We met a man at the top who said that this was one of the best days to go up.
So, it's not just a mountain. I've got some pictures of the playgrounds too later.
Yeah, they actually have warning signs for this. That's just sad...
Most of the rest of the way was on the roads, so it was pretty easy going.
There's a surprising amount of evergreens here.
I like to appreciate the little things that are different, like the animals and trees. I'm used to gums the like, but these are nice.
Almost at the top!
No idea what it is, but it sparks my childish imagination!
Honestly, this is something I imagined to find in Europe somewhere, but Japan.
The view is amazing! These pictures don't do it justice!
Not sure if you can see it, but there's Mt Fuji.
Now, I KNOW that you can't see it because the picture isn't too good, but we could see the Tokyo Sky Tree, which is the tallest building in Japan. and Tokyo's well over an hour train ride away!
Most of those aren't clouds. They're snow-capped mountains. Now, if only that snow would come down to where we live...
These are for 6 to 12-year-olds. If I was 12, and a bit more daring, I would have gone down!
We never found the end of the slides...
For 6-year-olds? Really? I wouldn't send a child down that...
The first playground!
I want one in my backyard.
This thing is massive!
and yet, just like all the equipment here, for 6 to 12.
No, I wasn't this far behind all the time. I just dropped back to take photos.
Yeah, this is designed for kids. XD
I WANT ONE
They're just big bouncy... Things!
Like a trampoline, but not as bouncy and a whole lot safer. Again, for 6 to 12-year-olds, but I flopped on it anyway.
Why don't we have parks like this in Australia? All we get is a swing set and a slide. Maybe a seesaw.
Even the bubblers look cool!
We could learn something from Japan about how to make playgrounds.
Just a big hole in the ground, designed for climbing. PERFECT
Yeah, it says 6 to 12, but Tsumu and I went through anyway! You can see her, right?
You know how people go on about how kids don't spend enough time outside, in the parks?
Well, if we had a bit more money for it, and a bit more care from the council, we could have parks like this! You have no idea how hard it was to get pictures without heaps of people in them! There are kids EVERYWHERE, running and playing, and jumping.
I'm telling you, if we had parks like this, you'd have a lot more kids playing outside than there are on our basic slide and swing thing that we get in Australia.
It's no surprise that kids don't want to play at our parks, if they're all exactly the same, spare a few like Picnic Point, and Queens Park, but even they don't have much replay value for kids, who can cram hours of stuff into a few minutes.
Tsumu even suggested that I make my own!
The return trip
They're supposed to have water, but Momoko explained that they drain the water in winter, because it just freezes.
Like this one!
Not much water in it, but enough that it's frozen! I dropped a stick on it, and it literally just bounced off.
The water is supposed to pour down here into the pond.
Yeah... Most of it's frozen.
Even in winter, this looks like such a nice place. I can imagine busking here in spring.
We stopped off for lunch.
Tsumu's meal. I forgot to take a photo of mine...
She's eating minced fish eggs of pasta, with seaweed.
Fish eggs.
Call me closed-minded, but ew.
Momoko's food.
WHY IS IT MOVING?
I'M FREAKING OUT HERE!
I had carbonara, without the bacon. On top, I also had those moving flake thing...
Before I got it when I saw that the seaweed on Tsumu's was also moving (and everyone's so casual about this! Just, waving dry food? Why?) I said that "If my food is moving, I'm going to stab it."
Well, I already said that I got the same flakes, so... I stabbed it. Multiple times. Until it stopped moving...
Yeah, so a note to anyone reading this before they go to Japan, be prepared for moving food.
So that was yesterday. After all that, since I hadn't slept well the night before (just one of those nights) I just went to bed for a nap. I woke up about 3:00 this morning from it...
So... yeah. A refreshing nap.
Anyway, it's been pointed out to me that I should put in some advice to future SISEP participants.
At first, I didn't think that there was much to say, which is why I haven't said much before,
but, the more I thought about it, the more I realised that there were a few things that I wish I'd known beforehand.
1- Know Japanese
I can't stress this enough. While you can get through this with just English, you'll find it a lot harder, and likely less enjoyable when you end up playing charades every conversation. You probably won't end up wanting to make a lot of friends when communication is this hard.
I'm not saying that you need to be fluent. I'm far from it. You just need to to know basics.
I'd suggest if you're not taking classes, make flash cards and just learn words. Sentence structure, kanji and all the fancy parts aren't important. You'll pick up on those as you go. You just need to know words and how to tell if it's negative or not. Honestly, my 5 years of studying Japanese through BSDE didn't do much to help. Most of that stuff, I'm not using. Grade 8 and 9 taught me words and tenses, but after that, it's not helping in a casual setting.
2-be open minded
I'm guilty of this, honestly. Constantly comparing Tsumu's school to Harristown SHS gave me a rather negative impression of it. Try to clear your mind each morning, and look at everything without comparison.
3- Know yourself.
Possibly the biggest mistake I made when I first got here was trying to be excited and social all the time. I'm INTP, the I standing for Introverted. I pretended that this wasn't a thing, and the result was... Undesirable.
I got emotionally exhausted after the first couple of days and ended up withdrawing too much to recharge. It had the potential to put a rift between me and my host family.
I've managed to mellow out now, thankfully. Because I already know Tsumu, she seemed to know that I'm not good at interactions, and was the first to realise my stress at Animate, and suggested leaving early, instead of going all the way to the top, and going to a quiet cafe.
However, most of you won't have that privilege. You may have to explain to your host family if you're introverted and need time to yourself to recharge, or if you're extroverted and can't handle staying at home for long periods of time. Also, know your limits. Know your eating habits, such as me being a 'grazer', which essentially means that I nibble on fruit and such throughout the day, instead of just big meals. Try to make this clear within the first few days, instead of forcing yourself to adjust to their style. Utayo now leaves a little bowl of fruit on the table for me if she leaves for work before I get up so that I can nibble on that, and she's started letting me serve my own meals so that she doesn't give me too much. Last night, I didn't even eat dinner!
Your host family will, more often than not, make adjustments to make you more comfortable. Don't try to push yourself too hard, or you won't have a good time. Know yourself, your limits and your habits.
4- Keep in contact with friends and family
I've heard a lot of people talk about avoiding contact with your family because it'll make you homesick. Honestly, I don't believe that for a second.
It's true that you should spend more time with your host family that your real family, but don't cut off all contact with them.
I started feeling homesick despite not talking to people often, so I just had to contact my parents with, no joke, a paragraph of everything that I missed. For me, it was a bit more than it may be for some of you because I've also just graduated. I don't have a usual routine waiting for me at home. I have job hunting, then work, needing to put effort into social interactions now that I won't see my friends every day, etc. That's pretty daunting. But, just spouting it all off to my parents helped a lot. Especially when they replied with a video call to assure me that I don't have to worry. That I'll still have my friends and family, my pets, and, this may sound superficial, my things. the little things that make me happy, like all the stuffed animals that I still have on my bed, that I used to bury myself in when I got upset. All those big fluffy things, my familiar mattress, the posters on my wall, even that old floorboard that occasionally creeks outside the toilet, that I'm pretty sure no one else has noticed.
You don't have to come to Japan, or any country for that matter, and pretend that your life doesn't exist. If you're feeling homesick, call the people you care about most, and, if they're anything like my friends and family, they'll help you realise how silly all your fears are.
5- Don't think that your fears or concerns are childish.
Nothing that you'll think of during this experience will be childish. You may miss your parents hugging you. You may miss just staring out of your window at the street. You may miss a pet or a book. Or anything. You may be scared of embarrassing yourself by mistranslating something.
None of those are childish. None of those are unreasonable. They're all genuine concerns that you should talk to people about. just get them off your chest, and I'm sure you'll feel a lot better and be able to enjoy your time.
That's all the advice I can think of for now. I may post more in later updates, but I hope that this is useful to both my friends and family to understand my opinions of all this, and to anyone who may read this in the future.
This afternoon, my craving for video games should be satisfied! Tsumu is taking me to a friends house to play some Nintendo. YEAH!
I'm not expecting any Switches or games that I'm familiar with, like Super Smash Bros, but it should be good just to hold a controller again.
Taking a gamer away from games for 2 months is not normally a good idea. ;)
See ya!
