Ying Xu - NSW to Japan

Fri 09 Jan 2009

Ying Xu from Roseville College in NSW is currently on our Summer Explorer program to Japan. Here is her latest news.

It's great here in Japan. In Tokushima apparently they have an accent/dialect. But it's all the same to me.

At my high school everyone is very nice and even though it's hard to communicate they kinda understand me. I'm learning new things everyday. There is also another exchange student in my class from NSW, Australia.

Remembering everyone's names in a class of 40 is very hard ... but I'm doing my best. At school I'm doing Judo, Basketball and I'm in the Women's Soccer Club and Tea Ceremony Club (tea ceremony is only once a week so I can do two clubs).

My host family is great, and I'm going to school by bike everyday, at first with my host sister Yumi. Now I can go by myself because Yumi has extra classes in the morning (40 minutes). They take their education very seriously here, JUKU almost every day.

I've been to an onsen, the 1st of the 88 famous otera(s) (temples) of Shikkoku. I've been to Tokushima city with friends (within curfew), made pancakes for my family and more. Although Tokushima is very country and mountains are visible everywhere, it's busy everyday ... well almost.

So far, besides missing my dog sometimes, I'm doing fine.

Ying

(The images are of a postcard that Ying has made, featuring a collage of photos she's taken in Japan. Ying says "They send postcards every New Year to friends and family ... It's so cool, my host family has postcard making software").