Day 3

Today was my first day of school! I'm still super jet-lagged though, so I had trouble staying awake in class. The school I go to is Toyama International High School, so there are a lot of exchange students, foreign students, and students of mixed heritage. I was a little disappointed to find that most of the students could speak English rather well, but I still had a fun time. There are two other students from YFU who are in my class. One I met at the orientation, Jane (left).

While the other students had their classes, the other host students from my class went to a Japanese class for all of the foreign students who weren't fluent. They are taking a test next week but the teacher said that we don't have to. Most of the exchange students there have been there for over 4 months.

We played volleyball in gym and had lunch afterwards. My host mom prepared a bento box for me - it was so good! The school couldn't provide a uniform for me because they have to order them, so Iori and Su-chan gave me their old skirts and school sweater, and I bought a polo shirt at Uniqlo. 

My ride to and from school consists of a long train ride and a short bus ride. I got to stand at the front of the train and watched the conductor. I noticed the conductor pointing at things in a very precise manner, later I looked up why Japanese train conductors point at things and it turns out that it's something called pointing-and-calling. It combines the jobs that they do with physical actions and a vocal response. I read that it helps reduce accidents and human error in Japan by 80%! Apparently they sort of do it in New York but not as much. I highly suggest checking it out, it's super interesting: http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/pointing-and-calling-japan-trains