新大久保

I went to Shin-Okubo Station on Monday, to visit Koreatown. I was really excited because I love Korean food and was looking forward to buying some presents for Camille before she left. We both like the same music and music is always something that brings people together so I was glad to have that in common and give her a goodbye present that she’d like. I ate dakgalbi which was very cheesy and very delicious and I also tried patbingsu, similar to Kakigōri, and I really loved it a lot! It’s a great summer dessert. I also got to try that really cheesy Arirang hot dog that is pretty popular in the area and that was a really interesting experience! The past few times I have been to Shin-Okubo, I’ve only gone to the Indian store so it was cool to see more of the area. Since there’s a lot of different kinds of people there, the fashion you see and the languages you hear in passing are also really interesting, I really like how different every area of Tokyo is; I think that’s why it’s very difficult to get bored if you live here!

お別れ会と初めての映画館

This week is Camille’s last full week. It’s very sad because I, like the other students and teachers at Fujimura, have gotten pretty close to her and I think we’ll miss her a lot! Last Friday, the chorus club and some teachers had a joint farewell party for me and Camille (but I think mostly for Camille because she’s leaving very soon) and I had so much fun! It was really great to eat and play games with the students and teachers, and they also did really amazing performances so I was very impressed and touched. I always like speaking with the students so it was really nice to get the opportunity to talk with them there too. It made me think about how I will leave soon too but I will really miss the people at this school a lot so I don’t want to think about it! After that, a friend wanted to see a new marvel superhero movie so we went to Shibuya. It was the first movie I have seen in Japan because usually I don’t go to the cinema so it was pretty cool, especially to see both Japanese people and foreigners reacting to the same movie. I also noticed some of the translations with the Japanese subtitles were a bit different from the English dialogue so that was interesting to try and figure out. I want to try watch more things in Japanese so I can improve!

藤村女子とニュージーランドのスポーツ大会

On Wednesday, Fujimura had its sports day! After visiting the other school and seeing theirs, I was really excited and looking forward to Fujimura’s own sports day. I think the different types of activities and games were so interesting and fun, especially with the energy and spirit of Fujimura’s students. They were a lot different to the activities and games I was used to from my own high school but I think it was a lot more exciting! Kibasen, especially, was very different to any game played in New Zealand so I enjoyed watching it a lot. In New Zealand we had four different houses (teams) that every student is assigned when they start school, kind of like Hogwarts in Harry Potter! They were named after New Zealand trees: Kowhai (yellow), Matai (blue), Rimu (red), and Totara (green), and I was in Rimu. When we had our sports day, called Tabloids, we would compete to earn points for our house; so there would be a winner for sports day but at the end of the year all points would be counted to see who the overall winner would be. I wish our school was more like Hogwarts though! This year, at Fujimura, I was part of the blue team and I was very happy and proud of the students because… blue team won! I think it was really amazing to see, once again, how talented the students are! Although it started raining, everyone kept their spirits up and had a great time so it was nice to see both the students and teachers relaxed and having a lot of fun.