julinan's diary in Finland

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Busy and dizzy

Last week was very very busy. I had many plans for school. I had test week and Finnish prom party and ”penkkarit”. I enjoyed so much but very tired 😓 I thought many things during this week but I cannot write now… It’s so pity 😦

This week is skiing holiday! However my region doesn’t have snow… I don’t know why but I wanted to have many plans in this week so I hangout with my friends! However, I was very melancholy feeling at morning yesterday. I was thinking so many things alone. (As usual 😅) I couldn’t stop to think. I was very suffering myself. (It’s so stupid thing…) I like “Legend of the Galactic Heroes” which is Japanese novel and anime. There are many fascinating characters and the story is very deep. One of the character, Reuentahl is very intelligent and has a compassion. However, he is aggressive sometimes and ambitious person. I could understand him a bit now. If we think many things alone and can’t stop, this feelings is like a desire. It’s hard to explain but, it’s like a Desire brought by intelligence.

I am dizzy now 😅

I went to friend’s house with thinking like this. My friend is very kind and I feel relieved. I made Japanese food for her family and enjoyed. She understands my dreams and favorite. She showed me beautiful pictures and we had a lot of discussion. We watched Ghibli movie “Kiki’s Delivery Service”. I din’t remember clearly. I was very very surprised. I knew the story and contents but, I could understand many details. Many of them was something that only I could understand now. Kiki’s feelings, facial expression, way of thinking about friendships. Also this movie has many landscapes of Europe. The most important scene that KiKi realized her passion and solution of her problems was very Finnish. I was crying. My heart got hot. I was very happy to came here and watched this with my good friend. I can’t write my feelings. I want to find the way of expressing this feelings.

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Happy merry Christmas!

I’m sorry to be late posting… I was not so much busy but my lifestyle was changed a bit because Christmas holidays were started! My Christmas was very happy!!! Everything is different from Japanese Christmas, so I could enjoy so much!

Japanese Christmas is very weird because, we didn’t have Christmas culture before. our Christmas is for lovers. We don’t spend time with family. So some Chribotti are sad. Chribotti means alone people in Christmas. It means no lover. Some shops and advertisements started to celebrate Christmas. Therefore we celebrate to eat Kentucky Fried Chicken and Christmas cake. Cake is also new food in Japan. Cake and Christmas came almost same time. Our most important day is New Year’s Day. Christmas and before the new year is the busiest season in Japan. It’s little bit difficult to celebrate Christmas like Finland but we have very good illumination!

I went to my host uncle’s house. We put presents under the Christmas tree, and drank ”glögi” at first. There were so many presents. Everyone can get many presents in Christmas. I was very surprised because one person had 8~10 presents! It’s too much for me 😅. We saw traditional Christmas channel on TV. Turku church is very beautiful! We ate so many good foods! There were many kind of ages and characters! I like this atmosphere. I talked many people! There were very kind and enjoyed Christmas! I performed Japanese traditional dance. It was little bit weird time because Japanese traditional song doesn’t fit in Christmas atmosphere 😂. However, everyone said very good performance after this. I am very happy! In the end, we opened presents! I got moomi’s T shirt, the lump with clock (I don’t know how to explain 😅) and mug cup! There are so nice presents!!! I gave some presents for my family and, gave origami for all relatives! Paper crane and heart!

Before we went to uncle’s house, my host father and I went to the Church. We put candles on the grave . However, my host mom came from Italy so we don’t have a grave here. Therefore there are some place for this kind of people. Sun was already risen but it was very beautiful. I want to say thank you for all of my family!

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My First Blog Post

Tervetuloa!

welcome to my blog.

I will write a diary of my exchange student life in Finland

This is the first post on my new blog. I’m a exchange student from Japan. I’ll go to Finland in this August 7th. And, I’ll come back to Japan in end of June. This is my diary. I’ll post my pictures which I took in Finland. Please enjoy. So… I’m very nervous now. I will make myself what I have to do to eliminate my anxiety!

My host family was decided in May. So I could get in touch with them early. My family is äiti (mother), isä (father) and sisko (sister). My sisko is same age with me, but her birthday is done. So now she is 17, and I am 16. I’m a little sister! They are very kind and positive. They are interesting in Japan, and my sisko is learning Japanese now. I want to help her.

See you next time!

My Vision for the future

When I was in middle school, I participated in very strict club and I had so many things to do. I didn’t have time really. I couldn’t think hard about my future because I didn’t have an afford. However now I am always looking for future.

My friend asked me “what are you thinking for house”. I couldn’t explain in English at that time.)) What kind of elderly do I want to be is very important for me. I know someone doesn’t agree. In my opinion, how you die will greatly affect the value of your life. Everyone will dead. Therefore, we can live. (I think) It sounds negative but I don’t think so. I’m respecting my grandma and grandpa. They experienced so many things. In the new year day, Japanese eat “Toshikoshi-Soba”. This is noodle. This noodle means, wishing we will live thin and long. When I was little, I didn’t like this “Thin” because, this is just wishing, so we should wish THICK and long. Now I realized, even if the life was thin, if we will live long, it makes your life more valuable.

I want to be the best grandma. I want to live with independence but not alone. I want to learn and explain so many things as much as I can. Then, I want to use my experience in elderly time.

Everyone is traveler. We will travel so many places in the life. However, after the long traveling, we will go back to our house. Snufkin said, house is unnecessary. He says like this but, I think his house is Moomit valley. I think one day he will notice that there is a place where he can come back even after a long journey. Because he ’s still young lol.

Mid year camp

On this weekend, I attended a my organization’s camp. There were all exchange students from my organization. They are from different countries, and live in different cities now. I didn’t know well other exchange students but now I could have many friends! We went same place for first arrival camp. Me and other Japanese students were very scared to speak English at first lol. We grew so much! I thought I am very normal Finnish level but, almost others can’t speak Finnish. However it’s happened, because almost everyone can speak English in Finland. I could have little bit confident in my situation. “Kaikki ovat Hyvin!!!”

We share our situation and what we feel. I was always happy in this exchange now. Off course there were some bad things happened, but these things connect to my satisfaction and thanks. However some of exchange students suffered or suffer now. Some people can’t have good friends, some people have to change host family so many times, some people can’t have enough communication… I want to say thank you for everything surrounding me.

In the camp, there are very nice Italian girls. I talked with them. My host mother is an Italian, so I could tell some Italian words for them, and they learned some Japanese word. Also, many people asked me “where are you from?” And after I answered Japan, they started to speak about Japanese Manga. I could have grate time lol.

After the camp, my friend had a time for next train so I walked and introduced Helsinki to her. She is living in Oulu and this was the first time to sightseeing Helsinki. I am not living in Helsinki but I know many things! I hope she could have good time.

At the home, I gave a letter for my host family. Because in the camp, I reserved a letter from host family! I was little bit scared but also excited 😆. They wrote very polite and positive. Off course I wrote in Finnish! Now I realized that I didn’t have enough confidence in my Finnish but, actually I had enough skill to speak. From now, I want to speak Finnish always and develop more! (If my friend read this, don’t get angry if I speak English 😅) Just I want to write my positive feelings…!

Winter without snow…

I’m in Finland on winter time. However, There are no snow… Today was really good weather and 7 degrees! I saw many grasses started to grow… I am little bit shocked… Good weather but sad… I don’t know how to say. Today’s dinner, I didn’t say “Gochosousama” which means thank you for food. Because, sometimes I am shy to say this words because, foreigners don’t say it. Therefore these times, I join hands and say it in my heart very much. Usually, I say thank you at home but I didn’t say it because I was shy, and my host father said, say to thank you. I say thank you in my heart so many time and I always say thank you. My host father doesn’t say thank you usually… I got angry but, I didn’t say thank you today. I was afraid to say “thank you” and also afraid to say something to my host family… I shouldn’t be halfway. There is no snow, so plants misunderstood spring is coming. I don’t want to be like a halfway winter.

New year , New feel, New aim

Happy new year! This is my first blog in 2020. I was quite busy these days so I couldn’t write posts… but I enjoyed the winter vacation so much!!! My purpose in this year is “start to go ahead for my dreams”. Last year, I could understand what I want to be and what I would like to do. I could find my dreams clearly. So I want to go ahead this year. Now I am “0”. Now I want to be “1”.

Today was the school and Finnish language class. There are new students from January from Honduras. They are very kind and friendly! (They call me Yuriko…) I am very happy to meet with many foreigners and learn Finnish together!

Wednesday is very hard day for me. I have many classes at school and this Finnish language class. I have many homework today and the weather was very bad. However, after the Finnish lesson, there are cookies front of the classroom. The paper said “Saan syödä”. Maybe some cooking class made it. I felt very good. I ate it and went back home. I was little bit thinking to quit this blog and do other things but I don’t want to forget these kind of little happy things so I’ll continue!

I went to Muumi museo. I’ll practice Finnish more!

Best winter Finland!!!

I’m in Kivijärvi now!! This place is in middle Finland. My host father born and grew up in here. There are great natures!!! Big lake and forest! My father has special memories and feelings for this place so I am very happy to be here!!!

I walked around our cottage. Sun is low, so the sky is mixed yellow, pink and light blue. I didn’t know that yellow sky is beautiful like this. This sky fits to the iced lake. The lake is iced and it’s like a land. I understood in my brain but I realized that how beautiful is it right now! “百聞は一見にしかず” “Hyakubun wa ikken ni shikazu.” This word is Japanese saying. It means, even if you heard 100 times you can’t feel well more than seeing only once. (I don’t know it’s good English…)

In the last time, I wrote dark and gray Finland. However, there are so many lights and colors from many things! From sun, sky, temperature, lake and snow! I love it so much. There are no sounds. So we can hear little sounds. For example, ice crack. Railo! I could hear the ice which is under the ice layer. It’s special experience for me! I heard wind’s sounds, woodpecker’s sounds. I realized I am in the fairy place! (LoL) (←it’s true)

My host father taught me many episodes of him. There were happy things and also sad things. This great natures are beautiful and dangerous. We went to his relatives’s graves. There are front of big lake. I felt special!!! I took pictures in my different camera so I’ll upload after came back!! Tomorrow is the new year day!!! Happy new year!

Music is soul.

I have favorite musician. I went to their live stage. It is my special memory! My soul beats and also everybody is same. Different gender, age, way of thinking but everyone is enjoying in same time and place. Not only audience but also musicians get power. Live music is only once. So it’s special. I watched many live performance video on YouTube, and there are many comments. Everyone has different episodes and favorite. All of them are very beautiful. If you have favorite artist, you should go to live stage!!! I draw a picture about live stage. I’ll go to live stage of Popeda which is Finnish rock band. I want to enjoy a lot!!

Joulu starts!!

Today was the last day in school before Christmas holiday. No lesson but we had big Christmas event!! Everyone was very happy! Be honestly, I didn’t think so much about Christmas because we don’t have big culture of Christmas. However I had thought, I was thinking very much for it but, I realized today, my intention was not enough. Finnish people are thinking so much for it. After the event, there was very good atmosphere. I can’t explain well but, everything was bright. It’s rare for me to feel bright energy from people. All exchange students introduced own Christmas. I thought we should speak and explain something, so I prepare text and some Finnish students helped me to fix my Finnish. However, it was just say our name and say “merry Christmas” in each language… I felt so bad for friends, but I learned Finnish from them! Thank you 😊

After the school, I went friend’s house. It was very good time! We saw Ghibli movie. We have to choose one movie from them. I thought Hayao Miyazaki’s film is the best. Some friend said “this is my top 3!” and showed 3 movies. But they were no Hayao Miyazaki’s film!🤣 I was surprised! Genius Hayao failed 😅 but I agree all Ghibli films are great!

Christmas is starting now! I’m excited!

Japanese words

I’m sorry I was very busy last week so I couldn’t write blogs… I sang Japanese song with playing piano in school. But I could practice only 5 days! I was thinking only piano and sing😅 It was not so much good quality but I could enjoy!

These days, I felt Japanese spirit between culture differences. Sometimes I feel weird. It’s very difficult to explain but I remind some Japanese original words. I saw a video on YouTube, it was “the Japanese word which doesn’t have translation in the world”. After watching, I realized this is why I felt weird. I’ll try to explain some words.

“Okagesama”

It means, “I can be fine because everything is fine and, natures and my friends give me luck.” Like that…? It is very humble but useful. If someone ask How do you do? or You looks good!, we reply this word. Japanese don’t ask “How are you”. Collect sentence is “okagesama de genkidesu” genkidesu is I’m fine, but we don’t say this. We don’t say our feelings. (Maybe it’s weird for foreigners but for me is opposite 😅)

“Mottainai”

Mottainai is common word in the world. It means “what a waste!”. Japanese people think gods are in everywhere. In rocks, mountains, trees, cars, pens… so we respect for everything. This Mottainai is 3Rs and respect. I saw many seems for Mottainai 😅

I want to introduce many Japanese spirit but it’s hard to explain and also, maybe annoying at first 😅 I want to just do and show! I think it’s better.