May 5th, 2019

This entry will cover my experiences: February 18- 24th 2019.

Monday (February 18th):

• Watched Zootopia in English with my host sister. I just love the thing. Nick is irresistable <3
• Also watched Kimi no Na wa ("Your name") for the first time. It was a really great movie with beautiful animation and a lovely soundtrack. Unfortunately, I had been as stupid as to have listened to the soundtrack before, so I wasn't flashed or anything. I added "listening to the soundtrack of a show beforehand" to my spoiler list. [SPOILER] Also I was kind of surprised of the ending because I really didn't expect it to happen. [SPOILER END]

Tuesday (19th):

• My host sister invited me to Shabu-Shabu, which is a dish. On your table there is a big pot with boiling water that is split in half by a piece of metal. We could choose the flavor of the two "soups" and then make use of the all-you-can-eat buffet with vegetables that we would put in the hot water to boil and eat as we please. The main thing was the meat that we would order, though. We could choose from beef, chicken and pork (I think) and they would bring us plates with thing slices that we would put in the pot and eat. Definitely a must-try if you ever come to Japan, very delicious and entertaining. I ate a lot!!
• Played League of Legends with my brotherrrr (maybe Monday).

Wednesday (20th):

• I went to Sanrio Puroland ("Hello Kitty" franchise amusement park) with four 12th grader girls, that I had met quite a while ago when my class and the other 11th graders went on a school trip to Taiwan. Since it was a normal work day for non-high school students from Kanagawa, it wasn't really crowded or anything, which was awesome! I don't particularly like or hate Hello Kitty and I didn't know any other characters (did you know Hello Kitty has a boyfriend named Daniel Starr or Dear Daniel?!?!?), but it was still pretty entertaining and as opposed to Disneyland, as I said, not crowded so I could enjoy everything much more. Furthermore, my friend(s) knew the area pretty well, so we got to see and do everything.
• The parade was amazing: We had good seats in the front row and saw the dance of real dancers and the Sanrio characters like Hello Kitty or Cinnamoroll (didn't know him as well) and their singing about friendship and so on. And how they "fought" an evil queen by convincing her that having friends is pretty neat and so on. Sanrio is really rather aimed at children, but since it wasn't crowded and the performers actually pretty good that didn't do any harm. I also fell in love with one girl dressed in a costume that referred to time and clocks (e.g. her dress). 
• Also watched a Kabuki performance with Hello Kitty and other characters. The dancers again were impressive.
• We had a "boat ride" through part of the area (btw it was so much smaller than Disney and all inside with no outdoor attractions). 
• Conclusion: Very enjoyable actually if you are not an absolute anti-cute things person. Only go when it's a normal workday though because crowds decrease the fun by about 40%  in my opinion. If you manage your time right, you can see and try everything in just one day (unlike Disneyland/-sea). The price is also less than half the price of Disneyland, but the size is not really comparable (Disneysea is a whole new country).

Thursday (21th):

• Gave my friends (and people who just stood/sat close to me) souvenir cookies from Sanrio Puroland and received some Valentine's chocolate in return from some people, which was so kind.
• Packed for the weekend I would spent at another hostfamily's place because my usual hostfamily had booked a birthday trip for my hostfather's birthday, that I couldn't attend since they had had it all booked and planned before they knew they would take me in.

Friday (22th):

• In music class it was finally time for the students' performance, so mean and my group performed Oto no naru Hou e on two guitars, one piano, one cajón and a lead singer.
• Met some 12th graders at the library and we talked and I showed and explained them the German/Bavarian (?) card game "Mau Mau". That was very satisfying since I've been very hyped to play card games with Japanese people here. It's been too long ;'(
• Met my Ayusa Area Coordinator in Shin-Yokohama at a Café to get to my hostfamily for the weekend. The mother fetched me up from the nearest station to their house and I found out that she was very good at languages and interested in German, which she had studied a little when she was in university (btw there are many Japanese who learned a little German at university, but since it's a minor subject most of them can't use it any more.
• Arriving at their house, which was very new, cool and modern. Reminded of a (big) wooden lodge. The family consists of mother, father and three daughters (all younger than me). The daughters were a little shy, but so was I. Eventually, they showed me some (Japanese) card games, though, which was neat.

Saturday (23th):

• I did something I should have hesitated to do.
• The host father, two of the daughters and I went to Cosmo World, a small amusement park in Minato Mirai ("district" of Yokohama with a harbor), I'd been before. I rode some new "roller coasters" and won a stamp. It was fun :D
• My host fam invited me to nana's kitchen, which is a fancy café chain specialized in Matcha (green tea) sweets and drinks. I love Matcha ;)
• When we came home we played a Japanese game called Hyakunin (100 people or sth). I'm too lazy and don't remember well enough to explain it, look it up if you need to. It was nice.

Sunday (24th):

• I watched Kiki's Delivery service in spanish with Japanese subtitles (my hostmother had the dvd).
• My hostfather and I went to Shibuya (Tokyo) and walked the area a little. We saw some rock'n'roll performers (dancers) and other things and a stadium that might be used for the Tokyo Olympics 2020 and we saw the building he works in, which was a huge complex of impressive buildings and so on. We walked on Harajuku's busiest streets and since the weather was okay (I think) it was a very lovely experience.
• In the evening my hostfam and I went to a (Chinese) restaurant in Ebina's La La Port with good food and delicious dumplings and then they drove me to my usual hostfam's place were we said goodbye and so on.
• It was actually very cool even if it was only 2 days, but unfortunately me and the daughters couldn't really warm up. It was only two days and I'm a total stranger. And in addition to that I feel like I'm not so good with people younger than me (also btw you guys know that it's been hard for me to make friends at my school: they are also 1-3 years younger!!!). I hope at least they had some fun or something ^^'
• It was also nice to see my usual hostfam again :D I'm in love with the dog ;3