Pictures

A video of all the pictures I have taken in my first week in Japan.

My host family

I have been with my host family a few days now. As most of you know I dont speak any Japanese but thankfull my host family know a little english, not a lot but I can at lest talk to them a little. I have my own room and sleep on a futon, they are not as bad as you may think they are. My family has 2 houses right next to eachother, I dont know if thats normal but it works. I live with 9 other people, ya it sounds like alot and ya it is. I live in a really small farming town in the mountens. So far its been a lot of fun with them. I have to ride 20mins on a bike to get to school. I havnt been to school yet but I will in about a week. My family is a lot of fun and they take me to a lot of art shows, I like art. Its been a lot of fun and I cant wait to see what this year will bring me.

I am in Japan!!!

Wow, I really need to write on this blog more. I have been in Japan for a little over a week now. Its been cold and rainy but there has been a few days with sun. The first night I was in Tokyo with 180 other AFS kids from around the world. There were only about 30 of us from the USA but we still had the biggest group. The next day they split us into three groups based on were we were going. Me and about 40-50 other kids whent to Nagoya for 3 days. We stayed in a place that was like a hotel/school/whatever. We had to make our own futons and I had to sleep in a room with 14 girls and we had to bath together. At the end of the 3 days AFS had a talent show we could do. There was 4 of us from the USA there so we sang the 50 nifty song and danced to it. We all got to know eachother and we all made a lot of new friends. So when it was time to leave to meet our host familys it was really sad because most of us will not see eachother till the end of the year. But we can still talk to eachother thanks to a wonderfull thing called facebook.

Host Family

I just got my host family!!!!!! Ono-shi is the town I am staying in, it’s in the Fukui-ken prefecture. I will be living with a family of nine. One of my little brothers is about four years old and the other one is only a few months and has the same birthday as me, September 5^th. I can’t wait to meet with them and get to know about them and their culture.

I also learned what school I will be going to. Ono Senior High School Is the name of the school I will be going to. I tried to check out their website but its all in Japanese, and I don’t really know Japanese.

Update

I have been accepted by AFS-Japan! I will be leaving for Japan March 20th. My luggage tags also came in the mail. A few weeks ago I went to Minnesota for my pre-departure orientation. I learned a lot about Japan, how to prepare to go and what I should know before I leave. When I was there I got to meet two other kids who are going to Japan with me. There were also two kids from Japan that are staying in the USA for a year. It was a lot of fun to talk to them and they both really like it here in the USA. I have not yet gotten my placement yet, and I can not wait until I do. If you have not yet, please check out the ChipIn button at the top right of this page. Anything you can give would be a great help :)

My First Post

Hello, my name is Brianna Weaver and I am from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I am a sophomore at Roosevelt high school. I have applied to go abroad to Japan for a year with American Field Service (AFS) intercultural student exchange program. They place me with a host family, a school, and for the year abroad, I will be immersed in the culture. I have always been interested in Japanese culture and can’t wait to go.

I hope to see how people from other cultures see the world. When I get back I am going to share what I have been through to help people understand more about the world they live in. Also when I am there I hope to share my culture with the people in Japan. Learning about different culture, people and places has always been really important to me.

I will use this blog to tell people about my experiences, and to aid people who are looking into participating with AFS. Another part of this blog is to help me pay for this adventure. This is one of many fundraisers I will do to try to pay for my tuition. Hopefully, I will be able to raise enough money for this great experience of a lifetime. Whatever you are able to give is greatly appreciated. No amount is too small every little bit will help me get a step closer. Click on the ChipIn! Gadget to donate.  I would greatly appreciate it if you could forward my blog to anyone else who you think might be interested in sponsoring my AFS experience by forwarding the link http://briannaw-journeyinjapan.blogspot.com/. Thank you so much!