"The ocean is kind of interesting"

Today is my third day with the Matsudas. Within this short time, so much has happened. Two days ago, my first day with them, My host father took me to the school where I met the principal and a few other faculty members. We discussed when I should start and it was decided that I will start on Wednesday, the first as many important tests finish on the 30th. Later that night, we got to know each other at dinner. My host father was eager to teach me Yonago's dialect word for idiot (あんぽたん）

Yesterday, I spent the day with my host mother as she had the day off of work. We visited many shops, most of which were in walking distance of our house. These included an electronics store, a bookstore, a manga shop, a stationary shop, a Uni Qlo, and a secondhand store. At the secondhand store, I bought a T-shirt that had the tattoos and necklace of One Piece's Portgas D. Ace printed onto it. I also saw a figure of a One Piece character being sold for 500 Yen, roughly $5. In the U.S. I saw this same figure being sold at a convention for $60. Needless to say, I was very surprised. We also visited Makie-san. Makie-san is my host mother's grandmother and is 102 years old. It was certainly an amazing experience. 

Today, everybody had work or school, so I spent the day with Youko-san, my host grandmother. During breakfast I had grapes, and was surprised to learn that in Japan, the skin of the grape is not eaten. Rather, it is thrown away like the pit of a cherry. After breakfast, Youko-san took me to mount Daisen, All of the pictures below were taken there. Mount Daisen is near Yonago in the Tottori Prefecture. Despite Youko-san not knowing any English, we were able to communicate enough were we both had alot of fun. We also went to the Museum of the Sea and Life in Sakaiminato. There were many taxidermy fish and crabs there. I was given the English guide titled "The ocean is kind of interesting" as pictured above. I thought it was more than just "kind of" interesting.

Something interesting about the Tottori prefecture is that characters from the manga "GeGeGe no Kitaro" are all over that place. The reason being, Kitaro's author is from the Tottori prefecture. It's interesting to walk around and just see a manga character statue just standing there. 

These first three days truly have been very fun.  

California Day 3

A lot of pictures today! Today was the last day of orientation so it was our last day with our kumi and our Japanese classes. The above pictures are group photos of the entire blue kumi. The picture below is of my Japanese class. It's amazing because even though we were only together for the past few days, we feel like we've known each other for months or even years. Blue kumi made a group chat in Line to keep in contact during and after our exchange.

The photo below is of Chris Senpai and I. Chris also went to Athens and took Japanese with Mori Sensei. He was here as Yellow Kumi's sensei. He is also a YFU exchange alumni.

 The three photos below are pictures are squad within blue kumi took. We spent a large chunk of our free time just going around taking crazy pictures. It was a ton of fun, and these were some of the best.

It's kind of hard to believe, but at this time tomorrow, I'll be in Japan. As such, expect blog posts to thin out somewhat. I won't be able to maintain the once a day schedule I was able to do with orientation. However, two to three times a week will still be possible. I hope you will continue to follow my journey, and that you are as excited as I am.

California Day 2

 As expected, I woke up today completely free of jetlag. This made everything much more enjoyable as I wasn't dealing with a constant headache. Today was jampacked with a wide variety of orientation style activities. The day began with radio exercises, a practice common in Japan especially among company workers. The exercises were basically a series of movements to get blood flowing and to stretch out muscles. From then on the day was a combination of meals, meetings about our exchange, and language lessons. Language lessons were done with people in our skill groups while meetings about the exchange and meals were done with our Kumi.

Kumi are groups we were placed into at the beginning of the weekend. There are six Kumi, each represented by a color. Each Kumi also has a flag to represent themselves. That is except my Kumi. My Kumi, Blue, has a cape (making us the best). Within our Kumi we pass possession of the cape around to whoever wants it. The picture below shows me wearing the cape when I received it at dinnertime. We've grown within these first two days to become good friends within our Kumi. As such, in the few times we weren't already with our Kumi we typically ended up together anyways.

Many of the things discussed in the meetings have me feeling very confident about my exchange. I'm more excited to be there than ever before.

California Day 1

Well, I've made it to California. The flights were long, and crossing the time zones was rough, but look at that view. It's just amazing to look outside and see an endless sea of clouds below.

Upon arrival in California we were taken to the U of C Berkeley campus. We're here now killing time as we wait for the rest of the students to arrive and for dinner at 5:45 (8:45 back home) We were also assigned to our rooms and met our roommates. My roommate is Kevin, a student from New Jersey heading to Osaka this summer. We quickly became friends and found various ways to kill time including cards, Foosball, and wandering the campus. We wish we could explore more of the surrounding area, however we are not allowed to cross the street limiting us to the block that is the campus. We understand that this is so YFU doesn't have to track everyone down when the time comes but its still a bit of a drag.

I am experiencing some jetlag, making it somewhat difficult to think. Things have been going by in a bit of a blur as a result. But, a small nap in our free time did help with the problem so I suspect it'll be gone by tomorrow.

30 Minutes

I'll be boarding my flight leaving Michigan in 30 minutes!

This is it, my journey is beginning.

Tomorrow

This is it! Tomorrow I leave. Just about everything is packed up and ready to go. Tomorrow I've got a 6 AM flight from Detroit to Chicago. From there I fly to California for the 3 day orientation. I don't think I've ever been more excited in my life. This is a first for me. It's the farthest I've been away from home and the longest. I'll be just about on the other side of the planet. That being said, I do still have methods of contacting home. Below, I have listed various ways of getting in touch with me.

• On Skype as ZKuchar, you can call, message or facetime me
• On Line as ZKuchar, all of the same functions as Skype
• Using Google hangouts with my email, zckuchar@gmail.com, the same three functions as above are available
• You can always email me
• I can be messaged on Facebook
• I can be DM'd on Twitter @zkuxhar
• My Snapchat is zkuchar
• Do not attempt to text or call my cell. My plan does not work overseas so I'll just be turning cell data off

If you try contacting me, keep in mind that Japan has a 13 hour time difference from America. Also keep in mind that I will be more focused on stuff going on in Japan rather than what's going on back here. If I don't get back to you right away, please don't take it the wrong way. I'm planning on experiencing Japanese life more than I plan on spending time on my phone.

Within a few days I will be in Japan. I find this amazing. About three years ago when I first signed up for Japanese class, I had no idea that it would take me this far. In reality, I had signed up for the class because I hated my Spanish and French classes so much that I wanted to clear the foreign language requirement with a language as far from those two as possible. I had no intention of becoming fluent in Japanese or doing anything with it. But now I'm here. It's crazy just how much we change in such a short time. I've come so far with Japanese already, and now I'm anxious to see how far I'll go.

6 Days Left

Well, this is it! As of today only 6 days remain before I leave for my exchange. First I'll be in California for 3 days for orientation. From there I head for Japan. To be honest the whole thing is still sinking in. For the past few days I've had moments where I've stopped and thought to myself "Holy crap, I'll be in Japan in a week." For someone who's never seriously traveled, the thought is mindblowing. At the same time however, I feel completely prepared. 

I'm ready to go.

From here on out I will be documenting my exchange periodically. I will make updates from time to time about my daily life. Whenever anything exciting or important happens, there will be a post. 

Welcome, to Six Weeks in Yonago.