Foundations — Grade 12 • Jackson, Mississippi
Episode 1: “Takeoff”: August 20-26
August 20 - 16:57 Local Time
The journey begins! After a long hug session with my parents and anticipation for 5 long months, it’s finally all happening!! Security went by rather smoothly and I by far had the FUNNIEST gate attendant ever; I and everyone that was at my gate got the same treatment of “Your gate has changed, you’re going to [somewhere else in the U.S.]” It was so funny watching people’s faces turn into horror by the hands of this guy who looked and sounded like Mike Tyson. I think he likes his job. A lot.
August 21 - San Francisco
A lot of you asked me about the other exchange student from Texas, and when I’d be meeting him. He just walked around the corner to my gate! His name is Josh, and he’s the exchange student from St. Stephen’s Episcopal in Austin, TX. Around this time, we were both hungry, as he just got off of a four hour flight from home, and he said he hadn’t eaten anything. After he settled in and checked in with his family, I led him to the same place that I went to last night.
August 22 - 13:07 Local Time
14:31 Landed in Osaka (flight time: 10hrs 21 min)
Finally here!! Got here kinda early. After a delayed taxi due to the plane in front of us getting stuck on the taxiway, Josh and I got off and took a short tram to the immigration terminal. The whole process was a little confusing, but I just did as I was told. A few minutes of filling out paperwork, confirming things, and more legal mumbo jumbo, I grabbed my bags and headed out to the exit where the staff from Momoyama Gakuin were waiting for us! I met my Japanese language teacher, the head of the exchange program, and another teacher. The head of exchange, Mr. Yoshida, and Mr. Kitagawa drove me about an hour to my host family’s house.
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The journey begins! After a long hug session with my parents and anticipation for 5 long months, it’s finally all happening!! Security went by rather smoothly and I by far had the FUNNIEST gate attendant ever; I and everyone that was at my gate got the same treatment of “Your gate has changed, you’re going to [somewhere else in the U.S.]” It was so funny watching people’s faces turn into horror by the hands of this guy who looked and sounded like Mike Tyson. I think he likes his job. A lot.
August 21 - San Francisco
A lot of you asked me about the other exchange student from Texas, and when I’d be meeting him. He just walked around the corner to my gate! His name is Josh, and he’s the exchange student from St. Stephen’s Episcopal in Austin, TX. Around this time, we were both hungry, as he just got off of a four hour flight from home, and he said he hadn’t eaten anything. After he settled in and checked in with his family, I led him to the same place that I went to last night.
August 22 - 13:07 Local Time
After a movie and a few powernaps (I dunno if you call 5 naps “powernaps”...), we’re just an hour out! I’ve been on this plane for literally 9 hours, get me off...
14:31 Landed in Osaka (flight time: 10hrs 21 min)
Finally here!! Got here kinda early. After a delayed taxi due to the plane in front of us getting stuck on the taxiway, Josh and I got off and took a short tram to the immigration terminal. The whole process was a little confusing, but I just did as I was told. A few minutes of filling out paperwork, confirming things, and more legal mumbo jumbo, I grabbed my bags and headed out to the exit where the staff from Momoyama Gakuin were waiting for us! I met my Japanese language teacher, the head of the exchange program, and another teacher. The head of exchange, Mr. Yoshida, and Mr. Kitagawa drove me about an hour to my host family’s house.
After I got there and settled in, Mr. Kitagawa, my host mother and brother, and I had a short meeting about what I’d be doing on Saturday at the school. Nothing else really happened that night, and I promptly went to bed at around 19:00.
August 24
Six hours after my unfortunate jet lag suffering, it was time to head to school for the first day. After a quick breakfast my host brother and I took a 15 minute walk to the station. We had three stops to take, but I didn’t realize it at the time, and when we got to our last stop, my host brother realized we just missed our stop right as the door closed. A few people around us laughed with us, so that at least calmed our spirits out of empathy. After another few minutes of waiting for, getting on, and getting off the train into more sweltering heat, we took another 15 minute walk to the school, which I was already drenched in sweat by the time we got there. I’d forgotten how bad Mississippi heat was, and this was exactly it. Thanks 58 degrees in San Francisco... and to think I was in a hoodie 6 days ago in the middle of summer.
Six hours after my unfortunate jet lag suffering, it was time to head to school for the first day. After a quick breakfast my host brother and I took a 15 minute walk to the station. We had three stops to take, but I didn’t realize it at the time, and when we got to our last stop, my host brother realized we just missed our stop right as the door closed. A few people around us laughed with us, so that at least calmed our spirits out of empathy. After another few minutes of waiting for, getting on, and getting off the train into more sweltering heat, we took another 15 minute walk to the school, which I was already drenched in sweat by the time we got there. I’d forgotten how bad Mississippi heat was, and this was exactly it. Thanks 58 degrees in San Francisco... and to think I was in a hoodie 6 days ago in the middle of summer.
After we got to the school, I met Mr. Kitagawa in his office and he told us that we’d be doing a broadcast over the school’s intercom system to introduce ourselves. I hadn’t been told this information, but no worries! All there was to do was give your name, age, what school you’re from, and something else you’d like to say. I’d say I’d went through it easily. After that, we were sent to our homeroom, several faculty offices, and various other classes to do the same introduction. I think I said that paragraph at least ten times that day.
August 26
Today was the first day of “classes” (see next week why this is in quotations). What makes this worse is that I woke up at 4 am again. If you have any tips on jetlag that don’t include caffeine, please email me... After another slow 3 hours of waiting for the sun to rise, my host brother and I walked to the train station and to the school on another blazing sunny morning. This morning, Josh and I had our first Japanese lesson with our teacher, Miki-sensei. Today we learned about basic greetings, self introductions, and some kanji readings. For homework (yes, I’m getting homework. I’m an exchange student after all...), I just had to pair some kanji with pictures. They’re like pictograms, yeah? Ask me about this when I get back to America. After about 2 hours of that, we had a review of our student handbook with Smith-sensei (who’s actually from New York!). A lot of it was pretty daunting, but it’s mostly what you all have at St. Andrew’s. Afterwards, I had about an hour to kill, so I went back up to the cafeteria (after asking two people where it was.. This building is like 9 floors.) after a while and had Karaage again. I swear, this stuff reminds me of Mississippi. If you want to do the exchange, PLEASE try this stuff. After meeting some new friends and another long walk in the blazing sun, we made it back home! Tonight was another slow, sleepy night...
The first week away from home is over!! I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss you all, I really do. I hope all of you enjoyed the first week. There’ll be a lot more in the coming weeks, this is just the start of the journey! Thank you all for reading!
August 26
Today was the first day of “classes” (see next week why this is in quotations). What makes this worse is that I woke up at 4 am again. If you have any tips on jetlag that don’t include caffeine, please email me... After another slow 3 hours of waiting for the sun to rise, my host brother and I walked to the train station and to the school on another blazing sunny morning. This morning, Josh and I had our first Japanese lesson with our teacher, Miki-sensei. Today we learned about basic greetings, self introductions, and some kanji readings. For homework (yes, I’m getting homework. I’m an exchange student after all...), I just had to pair some kanji with pictures. They’re like pictograms, yeah? Ask me about this when I get back to America. After about 2 hours of that, we had a review of our student handbook with Smith-sensei (who’s actually from New York!). A lot of it was pretty daunting, but it’s mostly what you all have at St. Andrew’s. Afterwards, I had about an hour to kill, so I went back up to the cafeteria (after asking two people where it was.. This building is like 9 floors.) after a while and had Karaage again. I swear, this stuff reminds me of Mississippi. If you want to do the exchange, PLEASE try this stuff. After meeting some new friends and another long walk in the blazing sun, we made it back home! Tonight was another slow, sleepy night...
The first week away from home is over!! I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss you all, I really do. I hope all of you enjoyed the first week. There’ll be a lot more in the coming weeks, this is just the start of the journey! Thank you all for reading!
Foundations — Grade 12 • Jackson, Mississippi