Update!!!!

I have been so busy lately I haven't been able to do anything with vlogging or blogging! But today I have a day off (even though I"m going out later) I swear to god I have more of a social life here than I did in Canada. Its exhausting!!I am uploading a video today so look out for that (www.youtube.com/teaforbunny)
So with the school festival over with, we are now practising for out performance in Kyoto. Its our class trip and we get to stay in a traditional Japanese hotel. I'm so excited!! It means that there is either a huge indoor bath OR a huge outdoor bath. I must say I'm very excited. But that is in November so I will be with my second host family unfortunately and fortunately. I love my host family so much!!
Oh yes, this weekend past, my cousin came to visit from Akita. So on Thursday evening, I ventured down to Ikebukuro and met up with her. We ate okonomiyaki. Which is quite possibly the best food ever. It roughly translates into "anything you like; fried", Its also described as a savoury pancake. So delicious, I swear I could eat it everyday.

Being cooked it doesn't look appetizing. But then.....

...ITS TURNS INTO THIS BEAUTIFUL CREATION

So we stayed out until 2:30am singing karaoke. It was awesome. Then we woke up at 7ish and went in search of food. I had a panini and starbucks blueberry scone. So lovely. We went arounf all of Tokyo and didn't really buy anything. So we went to Ikebukuro, Shinjuku, Akihabara, Shibuya, and Harajuku. We were so exhausted!!
We got back to my place around 10 and my host mom and her friend waited for us at the station. She is so nice! We ate garigarikun and then went up to bed. In the morning we had to go to a Rotary thing then after we went for sandwiches at this small cafe near the rotary function with my Counsellor. It was very delicious. After we went for sushi. I ate whale.  And I must say... it was disgusting. It was really fatty and just gross. After that we went to karaoke with my host dad, host mom, and counsellor. My host mother is very good at singing enka! My host dad was drunk so he sang a bit too. The next morning my cousin left and it wasn't really sad because we plan to meed again in the winter!
On that day I decided to meet some other Rotary students in Oomiya. It was interesting haha. I got lost in the station but found out they were literally 600m away from where I entered the station and ended up walking around for a half hour in search of them. We ate okonomiyaki after taking purikura. It was really hard to find the okonomiyaki place but this nice couple took up there. Times were had and then we went home.
All in all my life is pretty busy here. It is a nice change.

Today I don't have school so I went to the Rotary meeting. Got money, got paid. But I didn't eat anything even though it looked better than last time. My tummy hurts :(
So I'm going down to Ikebukuro to meet a Rotex (a person who went on the exchange program with Rotary but is now back in their own country.) that I met last weekend. I'm excited!!!

I will update as much as I can!! I'm so sorry!!

School Festival (Photos)

So for the past week or so we have been preparing for the Yotsubasai (Clover Festival) which is an open event that happens at most Japanese high schools (the festival I mean, not the Yotsubasai, that is just my school) that display class food shops and other fun activities. Since my school is a performance school there was dances, skits, musicals and musical performances. My class had a Discotheque, which for whatever reason had nothing to do with a Discotheque it was just us performing. I am absolutely amazed by the work that energy the students put into school festivals; arriving at school for 7:45 and not leaving until about 9 at night, practising every chance they can, and just thinking and talking about things they can do for it! There is certainly nothing of this calibre in North America. So with everyone I had to do the same. It was so exhausting! But the festival was so much fun! The thing with Japanese schools is that not only do they clean the school as for lack of janitors but they also organize everything by themselves. What to do, where to do it and setting it up! They even did the lightning for the stage which they built. All. By. Themselves. I was basically blown away.
So the festival was on Saturday and Sunday, so we didn't get a weekend (but now it is Tuesday and we have it off, along with Wednesday) and so now everyone is exhausted. I was asking my classmates what they were going to do on the holidays and all of they just said "sleep". My friend and I performed "Sora Iro Days" the theme song for the anime Gurren Lagann. It was so much fun! We did a mini cosplay as well. I was Yoko and my friend was Simon. A lot of people watched so it was a little embarrassing but I could totally do it for a living (that is huge pipe dream of mine). There was ballet performances, jazz dances, hip hop, Japanese traditional dances... all choreographed by the students! Once again, my mind is blown.

 

After everyone had performed the last dance (Japanese dance), so many of my classmates were crying and I couldn't understand why. I kept asking people but all the replied with was that they were happy. Oh well. On the last day of the festival (Sunday) there was performances in the school gym. It was a mini festival for just the students. I didn't stay around long because I wasn't feeling well but it was really fun looking and everyone was full of energy. On Monday we had to go to school again but it was to take down everything and clean. This was a shorter day but I still ended up staying at school until 3:00pm. After that I went out with some friends. All in all the festival was such a good experience. I want to do it again next year but sadly I will be back home.