The Chat with AGU2008

Hello, everyone~! ^^

On Aug 13th, I enjoyed chatting with the members of AGU2008 at Tapped In! As I expected, the chat room was really crowded. But I'm really glad to be able to talk to you guys! (virtually, though.) Thank you so much for letting me join the chat! I hope I'll see you guys in Japan. :)

Some of you thought you did well on the chat and others thought you could have done it better, but don't worry! It's natural that you would feel overwhelmed or you think that it's hard to follow the conversation. It depends on how well you can type or how much you get used to chatting on the Internet. If you think that it's a bit hard, I'm sure you'll gradually improve. :) Chatting at Tapped In and Doing IM(instant messaging) with mentors have helped me improve and sustain my skills of writing in English and typing! Additionally, you will be able to keep in touch with the people in Maryland by doing them! So, let's keep trying. :)

As many of AGU 2008ers mentioned that the program is about to end, I'm feeling sad as well... We do know that things always have an end and nothing lasts forever, but reading posts that you guys don't want to go back to Japan reminds me of the feeling I had when I was there in 2006. Hmmm.... honestly it still makes me a bit sad.

Anyway, I hope all of you keep having fun until the program finishes completely! (Actually, the end of the program is the beginning. That's what I talked about when I was at the airport, waiting for boarding.)

That's all for today! See you!

Welcome Back!

Hello, everyone~!

As I've said on the previous post, I'm going to talk about what I've done lately. I've done several things, so I don't know where to begin.... But the first thing that came to my mind was about the reunion of AGU '06 & '07 in Tokyo!

As some of you know already, Laura has come to Japan as a member of the JET program. Before she went to the place she would work, she stayed in Tokyo to receive a training for several days. So, Ai arranged the reunion at Shinjuku on August 5th! (Thanks a lot! :) )

Though I was the only one from AGU 2006, I was glad to meet Laura and the members from AGU 2007! We enjoyed eating and talking each other about what each of us has been up to. Laura showed me the handouts of the training and I was surprised to know that there literally was a lot to remember!

After that, we headed out to a "must-visit" place for us. Yes, Karaoke! As always, we were fascinated by Laura's voice and we all enjoyed singing! ^^

I enjoyed being there so much that I forgot to take pictures! (Sorry about that!) But, Ai took pictures! So, please visit Ai's blog if you're interested.

Okay, that's all for today!

AGU2008 has started!

Hello, everyone~!
It's been a little while since I've updated this blog several weeks ago.... how have you been?

I've done several things since the vacation began, so I'll talk about them one by one soon! But before doing so, I'm happy that AGU 2008 has started finally and to be able to see the members update blogs! ^^

Though I won't be able to join physically, leaving comments on the blogs makes me feel as if I were a part of them. (I almost forgot to tell you about myself when I left comments, I'm sorry!)

Also, reading what you guys did during the trip really reminds me of the wonderful time that I had two years ago. I'm still surprised to know that two years have passed since I visited the UM, but I do remember it as though it were yesterday! (Speaking of AGU2006, I talked with Ji Won several days ago. ^^)

Anyway, I hope you'll enjoy the trip as much as possible and learn something from this experience that you've had in a different culture. And if I could say a thing or two, it would be... please sleep well every day! I'm sure you've got a lot to get through in terms of classes and activities, right? When I was there, I got tired almost each day because of the classes and activities and it made me go to bed early! (I did enjoy going out for Karaoke sometimes, though.) Looking back, the tight schedule worked really fine for me to sleep well at night! Hahaha.

Lastly, I'm looking forward to talking to you in Tapped In! ^^

Sophia in Japan!

Hello, everyone~!

I just came back home from Shibuya, at about 0:30am. It's already June 16th, but I still feel like it's Sunday! Well, you're now wondering what I did today?

Yes! I finally could meet Sophia and the members of AGU2007 face to face, not virtually, I mean. We hung out in Shibuya for eating dinner together. I was a bit nervous to meet them because I haven't met them before and I wasn't so sure that they've recognized me as a person who left comments on each of their blogs. But the fact that I've known about them somehow from their blogs encouraged me to send an e-mail to Kana(Y), and asked her if it would be okay for the members of AGU2006 to join the AGU2007 reunion with Sophia. And she said okay! Yaaaay!

I went there with Eriko, and I really had a good time eating Asian cuisines. I enjoyed talking to them about the lectures that I once attended in the Fuchinobe campus and how I passed them, which is techniques from seniority students! Hahaha!! But that's definitely something we've had in common, and it made me remember the days I had in Fuchinobe.

After eating dinner, we visited an amusement center to play "purikura". You can make photo stickers by playing it, and you can even write something on photographs and print it out! It's really famous for young girls in Japan, and it seemed that Sophia was interested in it. So, we tried really hard to put all the people in pictures! To take pictures, we had to go into the small room covered with a curtain and get ready for "3,2,1...smile" calls from the machine! Looking at the picture on the left, you'll probably be able to imagine how hard it would be just to make everyone be taken! But at the same time, it was really funny, and I guess we did really great!

In addition to having a lot of fun creating "purikura", we decided to do our favorite thing, Karaoke!! Though I met them for the first time, I was the very first person to sing! I had no idea what to sing, but I chose to sing "Sk8er boi" by Avril Lavigne. I also sang this song when I stayed in Maryland, so it did remind me of the late night karaoke we enjoyed at the time! Hahaha. I also enjoyed singing Utada Hikaru's song ("HEART STATION", you can listen to it from the window below.)



On the way to home, I and Ai got on the same train and I found out that where Ai lives is close! That's why we happened to get on the same train, and I really enjoyed talking to her about the day she had in Maryland last year, and talking about the things like that reminded both of us of a little bit exhausting schedule we had in Maryland, which finally turned out to be awesome!

I literally enjoyed being with them because they welcomed me as if I were a member of AGU2007 as well! I hope I can meet them again face to face, or online! And also, I'm looking forward to seeing other mentors in Japan!

Anyway, I hope Sophia will have a really good time for the rest of her stay!
That's all for today! See you soon!