Journal- yet more updates

Thursday July 24, 10:00pm.
Yeah it is late; I just finished watching Charlotte’s Web with my host mother. Since Rieko’s teacher was here (he comes every Thursday) she had to study. So me and my host mom watched one of the movies my host dad rented. The other one is animated, and I don’t recognize the name. I have seen Charlotte’s Web at the movie theater and really liked it, but it has been a while since I have seen it again, so I was glad that they rented it. When I woke up this morning I was told one of Rieko’s friends was coming over with her mother and sister around 10:00am. I asked which one, and was told it was the girl that was right in front of me (I know her name but cannot spell it!), and also she is the one that I traded slippers with the last day. (Since I was only going to be there for a short time I had to wear my host mothers slippers, for if she did need to go into the school for some reason. But the school slippers are way more comfy, so I traded slippers with her for the last day!). She is my best friend from school, and I have pictures of me and her, we also played card games, and the game where you take a piece of wood out of the tower, and try to make it really tall with out it falling! We each had a turn to make it fall! Her mother brought ice cream; I had one that was called sweet ice cream, and Rieko and her friends had green tea flavor (I have tried it, but do not like it!!), her mother had, I think, strawberry with condensed milk in the middle. I updated my blog today, it was only going to take a short time, but ended up taking really long, it kept spacing the photos really far apart, and when I would try to get rid of the space I ended up deleting a picture, and I even deleted a movie, twice! And the movies take a really long time to load! I finally got most of the space gone, but didn’t get it all. I didn’t go anywhere today, but my host mom went food shopping and brought home a big bag of Kit-Kats!! I had a couple, they taste the same as the ones in America, and I love them!! Well I am going to go ahead and stop writing, since Rieko is going to play a game with me, its really fun, and you keep putting monkeys on a tree that we build and when It falls over whoever’s turn it fell on gets all the monkeys that touched the ground, once all of your monkeys are gone you win.
Bye!
P.S. My fingernail fell of tonight, right after I took a shower, it didn’t hurt at all, and my new fingernail is already half way grown. (The finger I squished in the car door).

Friday July 25, 11:00pm.
Today I went to the dentist with Rieko, it was a nice place, and we had to take our shoes off at the door. And then we put dentist slippers on. Most of the time the places that provide slippers have them in a shoe cubby beside the door, this place however had a small machine inside at the door that you pushed the big button and out came a pair of slippers at the bottom!! Kind of like a drink machine, and then when you leave you sit the slippers on the top of the machine and they fall back into it for another person to wear! I got a picture of the “Slipper machine” and will be posting it on my blog. When we came back home Rieko got out and I was told that she had to stay at home to wait for her teacher to come, so my host mom was going to take me to a Kimono shop to buy a tie for my and another girl I got a Kimono for. It was a really nice shop, and they even had wedding Kimonos there! I finally picked out the tie I liked (and that went with my Kimono), so then we looked at the children’s Kimono ties, (they were silk). I ended up picking out a green one with a pretty pattern on it, I was told that it was silk (like all the others). After my host mom and I left the Kimono shop we went to a bakery. I picked out what kind of bread I wanted to eat for lunch, and my host mom also brought 4 pizzas. Then when we got home since Rieko was busy I was allowed to do email on their computer. Once I finished on the computer, I came out of the house and the car was turned on with my host mom and Rieko in it! I asked where they were going, they said to grab my camera and hurry since we were going to a LABO party (this is like my 5th LABO party!) but I don’t mind since I get to see all my friends! My friend that may be coming to America next year (if so I hopefully will host her!!!) was there, and afterwards Riko came!! Riko’s mother took me home, so I got to ride in a different car (and also spend time with Riko!). I think its funny how my really good friend Riko is so close to Rieko (I love Rieko, and now Riko is my friend too!) and their names are soo close to each other! Once we got home, at 10:30pm (we ate supper at the party), I watched some cartoons on the TV with Rieko and her brother. And then I went to write in my Journal and go to bed!! Camp is next week, and I am told Riko will be going (and Rieko will be going with me).

Saturday July 26, 11:27pm.
I just got home from going to see fireworks, I was told yesterday that we would go see some fireworks, (I don’t know of any kind of holiday, 4th of July has already passed!!). Rieko’s Uncle came over yesterday and drew a map of his house, I found out today he did that because he would be out of town tonight when the fireworks were going, so he offered for us and some friends to use the house and we can see the fireworks really well on the balcony, we even stopped and picked up food for supper before going to the house. We also brought my host mother’s sister, her little child, and a friend (we stopped by their house). I had to bring my Kimono and tie with me today (and Rieko brought hers), since it would be an event were most people would be wearing kimonos. But half way through watching fireworks the Kimono was kind of annoying to wear. So Rieko, another girl, and I all changed back into our regular clothes!! Of course I got pictures of us in the kimonos! They fireworks were from 6pm-9pm. We ate supper around 5:30; the fireworks were really loud, so some people stayed inside watching them from the windows. But me and 3 other girls stayed outside on the balcony with a tarp, and all laid down and watched them. The fireworks kept moving to different sides, so we had to keep flipping over! I got 4 movies of the fireworks, and some pictures (I got movies since it was dark out and the pictures weren’t turning out that good. For some reason, one of the LABO kids that was with us (around the same age as me), gave someone beside me a 100 yen coin, (1 dollar), she had no clue why, so asked if I could have it, she gave it to me, and the person didn’t even care! And then right before I left someone was giving a person money, so I said “can I have some?” and he gave me 10yen (10 cents, not that much but its something!!). So I left with 110yen! And I didn’t pay a single yen for it! We went walking around the town when the fireworks were going, (not a good idea), since they were still going it was crowed with a lot of people sitting and standing there watching them. But since there were people selling food it was really crowded on the walking path. It took us a whole 15 minutes to walk a 4 minute walk! When we were eating some snacks we had Coke and green tea to drink, since I don’t like tea I had coke. I wasn’t wearing my kimono (which was a good thing!), as the little kid we brought with us was playing in front of me, he suddenly bounced back, falling on me and knocking the glass (with it half full of coke) out of my hand, and it spilled all over my shirt and shorts (and of course the nice floor). We finished cleaning it up, (my shirt and shorts I so far don’t think are stained), and his mother told him to apologize (she had to tell him how to say it in English), he was quite sad, but got over it quickly and was playing again! He even ended up hitting his head on the table, not even caring! Once we were on the way home he was getting sleepy.
I can’t believe I leave for camp the day after tomorrow! And it’s for four whole days! I am not going to take my computer with me, so will have to do a lot of updating when I get back. Good night and I don’t know yet what I am doing tomorrow!

Sunday July 27, 9:14pm.
Well I found out that we were celebrating Rieko’s brother’s birthday today (he turned 17), his birthday was on the 24th (that I didn’t know), but we went out to eat today. They even bought him a dessert that said “Happy Birthday”…it was hand written, and in English! I don’t think I have said this before, but he went to America 4 years ago, so he and Rieko have both been there!). We went shopping today, we went to the mall, which had 2 pet shops, one was selling real pets, and the dogs there were too cute! If my real mother was with me I might have been able to convince her to let me get one…
But I picked out some different dog things, so I can give them to my friends who have dogs. We went to an ice cream place after that, but before buying the ice cream we saw a photo booth, (where it turns them into stickers, and you choose the background), I have never done that before; it ended up being quite fun! It had a timer, and when we were choosing our backgrounds it ran out of time, so then it got ready to take the picture, we moved just in time to make it in front of the camera, but Rieko was a little too short, since I was wearing my host mothers sandals (I like them a lot, and they have a little bit of a heel, so I was even taller for the pictures!!). Some of the pictures turned out really good, Rieko said we can go get some more (different booth so we can have a different selection). We went to the 100 yen shop next (but it was more of a Family Dollar store than a Dollar Tree since not everything was 100 yen). I found some Japanese playing cards (my brother asked me to get him some), and Rieko found the hand towels (we had to take a couple to camp), she picked out Elmo for me and her, but I don’t care much for Elmo, so I asked her if I could change it for Minnie Mouse (I liked it better) so she got Elmo and I got Minnie Mouse. I wake up really early tomorrow to go to camp; I think it must be a long drive since we have to leave so early. I am charging my camera, I am going to bring my camera charger with me, but don’t know if there will be a plug. I am all packed for camp, and have gotten the things that I didn’t have (my host mother is lending them to me), since I didn’t bring a flashlight, rain gear, or a water canteen. I have learned how to say “mother”, “I am hungry”, and some other words in Japanese today, I am learning lots of words, but the more I learn the more I forget the ones that learned first! I can’t remember them all!! But I can remember what “cool-great” is! I do miss my family, but am not homesick. Time has flown so quickly, I had a dream yesterday that I was leaving for America (not even getting all the things I was going to get in Japan), but really I only have 1 and a half weeks left. I am going to be pretty sad when I leave, but it is going to soon be a whole month since I have seen Frankie, all my animals, my house, well…and my family! Maybe Rieko can come back to America in 2 years. I am going to go to bed now, since I want to be somewhat awake for tomorrow. Update in four days!!

Thursday July 31, 9:00pm.
Okay I am back from camp! I did keep a journal there but it was on paper, so it will be like I updated it each day. I had a lot of fun, and if I came back to Japan again I would love to go there, and see some of the same people again!! Right now I am watching Happy Feet, and updating my journal at the same time!

Monday July 28th, 10:00pm.
Rieko and I left at 8:13am (yes her mother was driving), and then met some LABO people at 8:30am, since the parents weren’t going to drive us to camp. We were going to take a bus to camp with some LABO people. Riko was there with her mother (well her mother is the LABO tutor). The bus wasn’t that far to walk to from where we met, and it was really big, I went straight to the back and Rieko and I sat there with no one beside us! I didn’t bring any snacks with me, but the people beside me did. They shared with me, so I taught them games to play and songs to sing. The reason being I thought it might be 1-2 hours ‘til we get there, then I was told that it was a 6-7 hour drive!! I was bored for some time, we went though a whole bunch of tunnels, I decided to count how many we went through, they were always really long and also right after another. I fell asleep for more than an hour, but before that I counted 28 tunnels!! And I know there were a lot more. Since it was going to be such a long drive we were to bring lunch with us, we ate in the bus because it was raining outside. When we finally got to camp it was really crowded! I found out that instead of 4-7 people in our lodge it turned out to be more then 35! There were 16 lodges and each had more then 35 in them, that’s how crowded it was. Each lodge had too many people and had to send 2 people away every night to a hotel, and if there was an American with there host sister/brother then they always went, since most of the kids there were really little so they would rather let the older ones go. Well there was a girl named Courtney in our lodge with her host sister Junko, they offered to go tonight and me and Rieko would go tomorrow (I guess we will have to do rock-paper-scissors to see who goes the third night, since that is the last night then neither of us will want to go). We set up and take down tables for eating, so we have more room in our lodge. We do lots of activities. I was told that we had a meeting tonight for just the international kids. They told us what we had to do at camp and what we can’t do at camp. And then we had 10 minutes to talk to each other. They also had food there for us to eat. They said that if we are having any problems with your stay in Japan you were to tell them then. One person that was asked how her stay was answered with “I lost my passport,” she was joking of course, but she said she wanted to. So that must have been a good sign, since she wanted to stay. When we went back to our lodge we had to choose what activity we wanted to do tomorrow. We chose Team Challenge, I really didn’t know what that was but it sounded fun. Today was my first day doing public bath, though it was only me and my host sister it is still really different! If I wanted to shower alone I had to be last, and that was going to be really late at night (I am told public showers are used only at night). But they did have a lot of kids so they had a shower time in the afternoon also. Early today we exchanged name cards in our lodge; I got a whole bunch and have asked Rieko if I can buy a name card holder. I have made lots of friends. I have to go to bed now since I am told that I wake up at 6 in the morning!

Tuesday July 29th, 11:00pm.
Today was quite fun, we picked the activity Team Challenge yesterday; it was a really fun activity! Since it was raining outside we started by doing games inside, the activity had no one but Rieko and me from our lodge doing it, since there were 19 games to choose from and most people wanted to go hike, but I didn’t bring hiking boots since I really didn’t want to hike. I woke up at 6 this morning so I was kind of tired, but the games were fun! All the games inside were in Japanese so I didn’t understand them. After playing 1 game and not really understanding it, they were trying to teach me this rope game. I didn’t get it, until this Japanese girl stepped up and started speaking plain English, she sounded just like an American but I knew she was Japanese since she was making sure what the game was before she explained it. I knew just what she said and understood the game perfectly!! She stayed right beside me and Rieko when doing other games and explained each one of them; she was soo easy to understand! Then we noticed it stopped raining outside so we went to do activities outside. When we got to this really tall wooden wall that had a ladder on one side and just a wall on the other side. The girl (who I found out is named C.C.) explained the activity to me. We were to think of a way to get to the top of the wall, people would be at the top by climbing the ladder, and they would help pull you up. C.C gave the idea of picking the person up by their feet (she has done this before since she does cheerleading), they liked the idea so they then asked who wants to “climb” the wall, me and C.C both raised our hands. I went first. I took off my shoes and I got to the top pretty easily! So did C.C. Since it went so quickly we had time to let any more people who wanted to try do it. I tried to get Rieko to but she only wanted to help on the top. I ended up doing it twice so I could get a picture of me climbing it, then it turned out kind of blurry but at least I have pictures to show I did it!! I then had a couple minutes to talk with C.C, I of course asked her how she had such great English, and asked if she had ever been to America. Her answer was, “yeah I live there” well that was a surprise to me! So I asked how long and she said “I was born there, and this is my second time going to Japan”. I found out she is 12 years old. She’s really nice and I got her name card so I can write her some time. She lives in Nevada so I can’t visit her, but letters work for me!
We are going to do the bazaar tomorrow, I was told I had to price my items, but I don’t have price tags, and really don’t know what price to do them. So I am just planning on taking them to the bazaar and letting them figure it out. Me and Rieko were the first ones to get back to our lodge after the activities, we brought lunch with us (that I helped make this morning) so we didn’t have to wait to eat it with the rest of our group. We had 4 different kinds of sandwiches, orange juice, noodles, and some little balls that I didn’t like so I traded them for one of Rieko’s sandwiches that she really didn’t like. We have been practicing a play “The Sign on Rosie’s Door”. It’s a book and that is what the focus is this year, I even got to be Rosie! (She is the main character). I am going to go to bed now, goodnight!


Wednesday July 30th, 11:47pm.
I have learned how to play “rock, paper, scissors” the way Japanese do it. Which is really good since they use it for solving little things like if there is a couple extra something’s left over and half the lodge wants it. Like today, we had 2 bananas leftover, I didn’t ever like bananas but for some reason I really like them. So I wanted a second one. And so did everyone else. Of course I didn’t win, but I tried! I got knocked out on the first round, that is how good I am!! We had the bazaar today; it was the wildest thing I have ever seen. After every lodge was done setting up their tables they had someone with a microphone say that the person dressed up as Rosie had 100 pins that said “The Sign on Rosie’s Door, 2008” well when they said go EVERY kid ran to her, she was wearing high heels (since that is what Rosie wore in the story) so I was afraid she would get knocked down. She didn’t, I ended up not getting a pin, since I wanted to look at the tables by the time I got half way around the circle of tables it ended, and I walked over to Rosie she said all the pins were gone. But I got a couple things at the bazaar, including a name card holder!! It was made in Japan but has French on it, it was 10 yen (10 cents about) so instead of spending 500-1000 yen I just went with the French one, it had a little dog on it, and I really like it. It has room for 100 cards, I only have 30 in it so far. I put C.C’s card first so I could find it, since hers is in English and all the others are in Japanese.
After we got back to our lodge it was nap/bath time. I didn’t want to do either, so me and a couple other girls were sitting down being bored. Until I remembered I brought 3 game pads with me. One of which was tic-tac-toe, which even though is a 2 person game, it’s a lot easier to teach than hangman, or the other one I brought. And since they were all around 9 years old they didn’t understand very much English. But somehow I explained it right and they all wanted to play, I gave each child a number so when it came their number they could play; otherwise it would be one person getting to do all of it. I even got them playing so well that I couldn’t win! It was always “cats game” (were neither person wins), then they understood the game enough that I started “playing” with them. It would be “cats game” and I would say I got three in a row and write down “Allie won!” They all knew it was a joke, but sometimes not right away, so they were like “how did you do that?!?” But after a couple seconds they soon got it! I won (yes I really won, not just joking win!) the first 2 times, and on the 12 more times I played I didn’t win again!! Before nap time we did games, all pertaining to a story that was used for each year of LABO camp, like this year is “The Sign on Rosie’s Door”, we got to paint rocks with markers, but we first had to find a rock we like from the ground, it took me way longer than I thought it would since I wanted a flat rock. I ended up just getting the rock I found first since I couldn’t find a flat one! I colored it orange with pink polka dots, and wrote my name and the date on the bottom. We were told we can take them home. Right when I was getting ready to leave with the group I was with, Rieko’s LABO tutor came up and handed me a rock that said “Allie and Rieko, and friend on the other side” she also drew hats on one side. It looked really pretty and I put it in my bag to take home. We also played a game that there were about 20 cones scattered around a small field and our group and another group were going to do a game with them. First, our job was to keep all the cones up, and the other team was going to knock them down. We ended up wining, and then we switched and we had to knock down the cones. We won that time too! It was a really fun game. We then went to a place that we laid down on a tarp and the helpers turned on music and had us close our eyes, and when the music/story was done we opened our eyes. We were given a big piece of paper and a selection of markers, I found out that we were going to draw what we daydreamed, I didn’t daydream anything! So they told me I could just draw whatever I wanted, I would have but our group had lot of little kids that like to take a big part of the paper, so there was no room for me. So I just laid on the tarp waiting for them to finish. We did 6 activities all together, but a couple I don’t really remember what we did. The last one we did though was really fun. We were given a big hunk of dough that I was told needed to be split up so all of the kids could get some. We were to sculpture something, I don’t really know how to sculpture, so I just made a dress and my name “Allie.” The dough smelled really good, but I couldn’t convince the helpers that we could eat it. They said “No, it’s for making things.” I think it kind of smelled like the biscuit dough that I have made before at home, since I love eating that (well if mom is reading this just skip that part please, I don’t eat the biscuit dough, I just “try” it to make sure its okay before cooking it), I really wanted to try this dough, but I didn’t.
We then went back to our lodges since we were done doing the activities outside. We did more drawing when we got back inside, but just like I said before there were so many little kids that wanted to draw such big pictures I had to sit to the side watching. What we (they) were drawing was what they thought might be in Rosie’s room. Then when you were done each group in our lodge would make one of those things with the people. Our group did a bed, I was asked if I wanted to be a door, I said no I want to be the person sleeping on the bed. Of course I was joking since I knew the little kids couldn’t hold me, and I didn’t want to risk hurting someone, but they said okay and once the bed was made I laid on it, and it didn’t fall over!! All the kids were on their hands and knees with 2 people in the front being the bed posts. It was quite fun lying on the bed, but I didn’t get to do it again.
I taught the song “baby shark” to all the people in my lodge yesterday, and last night they had me write down the words for it. The time on my journal yesterday was so late, because I did the journal after I wrote the song. Since today was the last day of camp (all tomorrow is, is eating and leaving) we had a camp fire, all the international youth had to come to the front of the stage to sing a song for all the kids at LABO camp. We decided on and practiced the song yesterday night, I don’t know what it is called but it has to do with a Moose who likes to drink juice! All the kids did really good at it, and after some other people teaching Japanese songs we went back to our lodges, most people were busy with getting people to sign their hats and books, I signed a lot of hats(which I did in English and didn’t misspell anything!), and some books to. Rieko brought lose pieces of paper (what I used to journal on there) so she let me use some so people could sign it. But before I got 2 people to sign it, it was time for lights out. (which is time for bed) I found out I leave at 8:40am tomorrow, and am hoping to go and get a picture with C.C. before I leave. I am going to bed now, and I hope to get more people to sign and write a message tomorrow. Goodnight!!

Thursday July 31, 10:30pm.
I am stopping now since my hands are way to tired, Happy Feet finished about 40 minutes ago, I have never seen that movie, but it is really good!! And my host family really loves it too. I will update about today tomorrow. Night