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Locked Out!

Today was a school day but this is the day everyone gets their exams back. I only took the English one. We were given another essay to do and put into separate rooms. We could see each other after they were done. After I was done I went into Alison's room where I just practiced my Kanji. Each class was 30 minutes long and I was supposed to go to homeroom at 5th period to get my test back. It was hard to keep track of the classes since we weren't given a time schedule. I started to eat lunch in the classroom when Jerry came in and said I was supposed to be down there already. He didn't seem very happy about it. I said I was sorry and sprinted down stairs. We were given our tests and I had the best score. Everyone had 39 or 40 out of 76 and I had 72. I can't blame them, English is hard. After that Jerry told us to go to Hiroshima Castle. I already went but Alison hasn't so we walked there and looked around for a bit, then we went back. It wasn't very long that we were there. It was very hot outside. When we got back we had Japanese Class. That class is always fun for me. Alison fell asleep.... My Japanese teacher said that she wanted a copy of the poem I made about 2 weeks ago about the bomb. She will be in the peace day performance and wanted my poem for it. So I thought that was cool. Then I went home but nobody was there and I didn't have a key but I didn't panic. I just went to buy ice cream and took a 3 hour walk around the neighborhood until Akari came home. Apparently I was supposed to stay at school for a presentation.....oops. Well I took a walk....and ate ice cream. Then for dinner we ate Yaki Niku which was great! No school tomorrow so more sightseeing. Akari will be going to Disneyland with her friends but I can't go because it is expensive. So I decided that I will go to Akiyoshidai which has a cave and beautiful landscapes. It will take about 3 hours to get there though.

Day Out With The Girls!

Today we were doing prayer like we do every morning but this time it was in English by my English teacher through intercom. The whole school listens at the same time. He has done it before, I was just relieved that now I can understand. He said, "Summer is getting closer and I want you all to be productive. I have some ideas for you... invent a new pizza....make a root beer float....lay down and watch the clouds...make a Harlem shake video...and if you don't know what that is go ask the American students." I almost died of laughter! XD No one knew what a root beer float was or the Harlem shake. It was so unexpected. Then after that I met a Harvard student and that came to the school to talk for a couple of days. She is really cool. Then we were all told that we need to go to the Peace Park again with Kaitlyn (The student from Harvard.) We almost got lost but it was ok. At the street car station I was on the other sided of the tracks when a street car pulled up and a group of ladies kept looking at me and when they pulled away they all waved at me. Then at the Park the little kids kept saying hello. It was cute. When we got back it was time for Hondori. Jin, Alison and I all went to Alison's house to get ready. Alison tried to put eyeliner on Jin but it didn't really work out. I thought I knew where to go to get to Hondori but I didn't. I really wanted to go to the mall I went to last time. Jin then went up to these two girls who were talking to ask them for directions. One kind of screamed and looked like she was going to run away until she realized she was asking for directions. We eventually found Hondori and then searched for somewhere to eat for about 30 minutes. We finally decided on an Italian restaurant which was rally good. Then I took them to the mall I wanted to go to to show them all of the cute stuff . There was so much Lolita but it was so expensive, so we went to the anime store where I bought One Piece stuff and a Kingdom Hearts action figure. All they have here is One Piece!! But it's ok because I like one piece. When we all were done shopping, we went back to Alison's where I was super excited to assemble my action figures and one piece ship. Then I went home and watched one piece. Today I probably walked somewhere between 5-10 miles. My feet hurt so much but it was so worth it.

VIDEO COMING SOON!!!

Mobilized Student Tower

Watch Stopped at 8:15

Aioi Bridge (Target for Bomb)

Peace Park

Dome Close up

3 in one sink!

I found a Mos Burger!

Accessories!

My Bus Stop!

Balcony of Alison's Apartment!

Hiroshima Peace Park Video!

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Hiroshima Peace Park!

Today was Peace Park day. I was nervous and excited all at once. My books have taught me a lot. We went to meet everyone that lives in Hiroshima. Akari and I took a bus into the inner city that I had no clue about. I thought where we lived was the city but this was the real city. Then we walked through a really cool street to reach the Park. I was kind of nervous. I then saw the Park. We walked across the bridge and that was the first time I saw the A-bomb dome. They were doing repairs and it was a really powerful moment. Then we went to meet everyone in the Peace Park museum. We split in 2 groups and toured the museum. It had a very eerie but familiar feel to it. The most powerful thing in the museum was when I saw the models of the people with their skin hanging off just like my books described. Everything that I had read about became real at that moment. I also saw real cranes that Sadako folder, They were very small. After the museum we went to see the rest of the park.  We saw the Peace Memorial Cenotaph which had the names of everyone that died. As I was waling through the park I felt a small amount of sadness overcome me. We went to see Sadako's statue and I put 3 cranes in the little glass box that they had there. There was some very cool crane artwork. After the park we decided to all eat lunch at a buffet. I was starving. It was really fun and everyone had really funny stories. The boys wouldn't stop eating even as we were leaving. Then everyone left and Akari and I waited for Mama. She took us to Hondori street which is the shopping street of the city. I bought a lot of gifts. We went to a mall with 10 floors and was partially underground I found a lot of gifts. We also went into an electronic store where the prices were ridiculous. There was a rhinestone plastic Iphone case for 300 dollars but you could get a Camera for about 60 dollars...I was so confused. Then we went home but on the way home Mama wanted me to see a bridge. I went on the bridge and Mama told me that this bridge was the bridge that the soldiers walked across to war. It was over a rives so I asked her what river it was and she said the Kyobashi River! The Kyobashi River is the river in my books that so many people died because they tried to drink the water. I stared at it for a while then we left. I got home and needed to go running so I ran around the neighborhood with Akari on the bike for about 20 minutes. Going uphill was not fun. After running we came to the point that was overlooking the city and there were fireworks, so we watched that for a while. Then I went home and watched some anime and chilled out for the rest of the night. PEACE PARK VIDEO WILL BE UP SOON!

School and a New View!

Today I woke up and ate breakfast. Akari really like donuts so she brought home Krispy Kreme yesterday. So we ate that for breakfast. Also yesterday Akari bought me some Japanese sweets as a gift. Walking off of the bus to school was a new experience itself. When I got to school I realized something....I left one of my books at the bus stop! I was freaking out so I told my homeroom teacher and he said he will look into it.  I hope that it is still there  or my host mom maybe found it. To take my mind off of that during Japanese Literature I read my book. Then study hall which I had with Alison. She was telling me about mormons, then I just continued to read. After study hall I went to Calligraphy and I was scared that I was going to be terrible at it but it was really fun. After Calligraphy my homeroom teacher told me that Mama found my book at the bus stop. I was so relived. Then I ate lunch. I ate with Alison's class and had an interesting conversation about piercings and tattoos. None of the girls had their ears pierced. So Alison and I were trying to explain gauges to them. Alison had an open coke on her desk when a student accidentally knocked it over all over Alison's uniform. She had to wear her P.E uniform for the rest of the day. Then after lunch I went to computers where this time they actually tried to talk to me. But I still didn't understand much so I ended up reading. Then in English and History I just read my book. I got home by myself again. On the way home I saw the bridge again that was in the book I read. I wanted to confirm that it was the same so I asked my host mom about it. She said that it was used during the war for soldiers to walk across it's a very skinny narrow bridge. Mama and I were looking around the neighborhood on google earth and tried to find places described in the books I read. It was interesting. I ate a bunch of snacks and we all joked about getting fat so I said I will go running tomorrow. I told Akari tat we will also watch a scary movie. My Japanese is improving tremendously and wish that I could just stay here. I love it here in Hiroshima. When I walk outside now I have a new view on the city instead of just being a city, I see years of history. Earlier when reading my book at school I heard a siren and thought it was an air raid siren and got scared but then realized that, air raids happened in the book just fueling my imagination.

Interesting Day!

Today I woke up for school and Akari was gone because she went to go get her visa in Osaka. She will live in Michigan for a year and leaves July 29. So I rode the buss by myself and didn't get lost. I finished my first book 2 yesterday so today I started on a new book. My first class was P.E. Since it was raining we were inside and I didn't have inside shoes, so they gave me a pair that was really small. It really hurt but I pushed through it. Then I just red my book through science. During the break  I went to go find Jerry (my English teacher) to ask him for a copy of Summer Cloud because I really liked it. He gave me a new copy. Then later during the day he gave me and Alison another book which is called My Hiroshima. It' like a kids picture book but it is really good. Then Home Economics which I just read through. Then my classmates told me that the schedule was changed and now I have to go to computers instead of Home Economics. That was confusing. So after lunch and computers I went to ask Jerry about school. It says that  I am only in school  until July 3rd but I am actually in school until the 23rd. The last day for the students and the last day before I leave. But starting on the 5th everyone has exams so Alison and I were told that during test week we have to write essays and sent on little field trips. One to the little peace garden that the school has then writing an essay on it. And the other to the Peace Park which is only a mile from my school. I will so excited when he said that. I will go get to see the peace park 2 times. Then I went to English Conversation where I had to give a improve presentation on my favorite place after everyone did theirs. that was ok. I don't think I will go back to orchestra because it was kind o boring. I really want to finish my book. On story I read was about A Hiroshima Jogakuin College student and what happened to her. The setting was the mountain I live on. The college is o close. So many things happened there. In study hall the librarian gave me more books to read. They were so interesting. One of them was Sadako and the 1000 cranes! I really love that story.Then I went home by myself and when I got home I ate a lot of snacks and wanted to read mt book. I was reading and got kind of sleepy so I took a shower and had energy again. Then later Papa and I went to Hiroshima Station to get Akari. It was weird going outside since reading all of those stories. I can imagine what happened in the places that were described. Especially when I went to Hiroshima Station. Akari wasn't around to translate Japanese to English, so we tried our best and I actually understood most of what they said.

Hiroshima books!

Today I woke up and was tired just like everyday. I went to school and my first class was study hall. I was excited because I can finish looking at all of the pictures in the Hiroshima book. Then I found another book that had stories from A-bomb survivors. I am truly interested in this subject. time was running out so I asked the librarian if I could check the book out. I signed the card for the book b3casue they don't have an electronic system like in America. She was surprised that I was interested and told me that she was happy that I'm trying to learn about it. She then handed me a bunch of books that related to the Hiroshima incident. I really wanted to read all of them. I checked them all out. I really wanted to start reading them. In history class all I did was read the book. This book was published by Hiroshima Jogakuin, which is the school that I am attending presently. It told stories of the  girls who went to Jogakuin who were A-bomb victims, what happened to them, the parents and teachers. I really liked the book because I was in the place that these stories took place. (Well the building was destroyed, so not exactly the place....but you understand.) At the end of history I was almost done with the book. Next in music we were watching a movie so I continued to read. Then I went to lunch and was very hungry so I ate my bento and bought Anko(red bean paste) bread. In the Hiroshima Jogakuin book I found this passage "President Truman later explained that the purpose of using the A-bomb was to minimize causalities for both Japanese and Americans. But the true purpose was to be for the Americans to have a chance to use Atomic bombs before the Soviet Union declared war on Japan and to show American power in the postwar world." This confirmed the true purpose of the bomb. America wanted to be claimed hero of war. Then in Japanese class when I came in with a pile of books my teacher looked at one and opened t to the end and her picture was in it. She wrote one of the stories in the book about a girl and her piano during the bomb. I thought that was so cool. This was also another book published by Hiroshima Jogakuin. Then after school I joined Orchestra club. That was fun. I haven't picked up a violin in a year. In the first book I was reading it was giving vivid descriptions of the events that happened at Hiroshima Jogakuin University. I thought this was cool because it is right by where I live. i could imagine what happened. I want to read many first hand experiences so that when I go to the Peace Park, I can imagine what was happening at that very moment. The stories were very descriptive about where they were and what everyone was doing, so I hope I can picture their stories.

Second week of school!

So very sleepy...don't want to go to school. The second week of school started. English class was boring. English Conversation was boring. Then I went to study hall in the Library. I wanted to look at books  and ended up finding books on Hiroshima so I looked through a lot of those then I found a really big picture book with photos from the bomb. It was really interesting. Then I was just thinking that I'm going to go to the place where all of these pictures took place. It was an overwhelming feeling. All of the pictures were really sad and showed the aftermath of the bomb. It made me think why are innocent people the victims of political warfare? They have nothing to do with political matters, but they are the ones getting hurt while the political heads sit and watch as so many people are being sacrificed because of their decisions. This goes for any political matter even today. Wars, the soldiers for a country, military, everyone is a pawn of the political heads and they just sit there completely safe. That is one thing that completely bothers me. no one looks at the consequences that could happen or the possible outcomes, they just do what they want and they don't look at the outcome of humankind. Anyways....back to school. Then we had PE which was softball again. Then to lunch. I was sooo hungry. my lunch was another Bento and I bought a little pastry. Alison told me that her host mom told her that she doesn't have to come home until 6, so we thought we where just going to walk around after school. I don't know what we planned to do. After lunch I went to the writing class and had a conversation with some of the students. They were telling me that they wanted to go to America, and asked me if I miss it. I told them not really and I like it here better. They thought Japan was boring and they all liked America. Then math....just wrote in my journal. Will never understand math no matter what language it is in. After school Ally and I checked out all of the clubs. The tea ceremony room is really cool. But she wants to do swimming and I want to do orchestra. Afterwards we walked t o7-11  and got a little snack. The we said goodbye and I went to the Bus stop. It was the first time on the bus by myself so I was afraid I would get lost but I was fine. At home I ate my ice cream and decided to continue my study on Hiroshima so I read stories on A-bomb survivors and they all were very interesting and sad. I plan to continue my study because this weekend I am going to the Peace memorial and I want to research as much as I can.