Seacret photoshoot of the school [schoolpost 1/2?]

School started about two weeks ago, wow already that much? At the same time it still feels unbelievable that is has ONLY been that long, since I already have gotten to know so many people and done all kinds of things there. On the other hand I feel like I just started school yesterday and yet don't know anything! What I am going to do now, is share some rare super seacret photo material from my school. I don't know if this is what my school would want me to do that but I'm gonna do it anyways. See, the school doesn't allow cameras (I got to know that after taking these pic's hohoho). The school has all kinds of rules and I've already broken a lot of them, for exmpl. opened the upper button of my school uniforms shirt 'cause it's freaking small for me.

SO without any further a do, here they are, let's start the tour:

View from school window (bamboo!)

Great room, for me it's about Japanese studying

This is the ICR from the inside. It's really nice because you can set the temperature to whatever you like (though I think that goes with every classroom?)

These little phones can be found on the hallways (note, school doesn't allow cellphones)

Average classroom with small crosses on top of the blackboard

And these Marias are freaking everwhere

OmG OmG it's my land!!

I have to tell you, I get so excited everytime I see something about Finland or any Scandinavian countries, so I had to check if this world map book had them and it had! Lovely, aye! Sweden is the absolutely most well known of these all. Have I told you the story when I went to a bookshop and saw a big Swedish flag and went to take a closer look, and guess what, under it there were all these things from Finland, like Iittala glasses etc etc. And they tend to think that Moomies come from Sweden. Thank god I am here to fix the issue.

I went to recheck and yep there it is! Actually there also was a small Finnish flag (wao wao)

More school

Cute clown clock...

...Is absolutely accurate

This post is getting pretty mappy but yeah. St. Mary wants to be global. And it kinda is, these are all the places in the world that this school organization excists

Here we leave shoes and change to slippers and the other way around

Looks delicioussssss

Is delicioussssss

Other window view

And what do I do here every day you ask? Well, I'll tell you. School starts everyday at 9 and last's 'till 16.00-16.30, if you don't go to any clubs. And I do. I decided to join the dance club. Yep, it's true. Though, I may change to art club soon. I was really in between with those two and now the teachers keep telling me that the dance is too hard for me. Well, both are everyday expect Wednesday and I know what they mean. I've now once been to the practise and it was harsh. And I am bad! XD So bad they put me to dance with the junior high students. I currently have one kind of a friend going to the same club and the rest I have no idea who they are. But I'll try like a month or so and then see if I want to change!

And this is me in ICR hi y'all

walk walk hallways everywhere

And that is the end of the tour, thank you for joining me on this journey. I still have some quick words about how the school is going in general here, but the second post is totally dedicated to that. So I study a lot of English, with Junior high and Highschool and besides that Japanese, art, calligraphy, world history and I started learning Korean also. Yeah, you can guess it is difficult trying to learn a new language WITH a language you really yet can't understand. But it's fun, the people there are so cool. And all the rest of the lessons are together with my own class and count as drawing because I don't really bother paying attention to a subject I barely understand what it is. But it's actually great I have gotten all these cool ideas for opening an ice cream shop of my own and stuff. It's good to have a little time to think once awhile. And Japanese classes are usually so much fun, there are only 3 people; me, the teacher (everyday a different one) and an exchange student from Germany! She has been here since August and already speaks awsome Japanese. I have gotten so much advice from her! She is so nice and I am so very happy she's at the same school as me. (Though she will leave in two months, sniff)  And I also have gotten to know really interesting Japanese people and my fears of getting no friends have started to go off a bit. Still, it will take a lot of time to make them like "real" friends, but I have a lot of time.

Absolutely out of context

Aaaaand this one is my name, Venla, written with kanjis. There are many many ways of doing that (here are two), but I totally fell in love with the first one! The photo's dated back to the dog show (so it's old, sorry I totally forgot about this), where this "frisbee dog raiser family" started talking to me. It was great! Their daughter works in my Host familys dog shop so I get to see them again, I hope!  I wanted to share this with you because I find really it interesting. See, it's funny I didn't even talk that much, well mostly because I ain't a master of Japanese and was shivering to death, but yet this was their first suggestion! Talking enjoying. Made me happy. 

Everything the light touches

I'll try to keep this short since I really don't have much time! But yeah, schools have started but I have got so many things I yet haven't said a word about, so I'll start up with those. So, I got invited to go to see the Gifu sakura matsuri with Ayuha and her friend Luli! Ayuha, is a girl living nearby and my HF introduced me to her which was awsome since she's such a cool guy (everybody's a guy to me okay don't get confused). We walked and talked a lot and first I thought this really wasn't going to be anything big, just tiny shops and all, but then I saw the omikoshi parade. (In the pictures below! :) It had dancers, trumpets, shoutig and carrying the mikoshi. It was super cool(literally as well). Also I did a kind of biking speed test and won a yellow towel! XD It was fun and I have a picture on my phone and at the moment I just can't get any pics out of it. Argh, try'na fix that as fast as possible.

Carrying omikoshi. Apparently this was a baseball team! :D

Yateya, small shops yummy yum

Just some reminder's that Gifu really isn't as small that they say it is, I bet it's larger than Helsinki, at least it seems like it. This large building is near the Gifu station, we went there to visit an anime shop but didn't find really anything else but a free One Piece flyer. Or only I did. But besides that I bought a lot of awsome things;
 I FOUND IGO AND SHOGI BOARDS NOW I CAN PLAY AND TEACH EVERYONE I'M SO HAPPY! Travel size and they were both like 6 euros, god that's cheap! Also bought a lot of food, ofc, including the world's best onigiri (wasabi taste). Here everybody keeps joking on how much I love riceballs but I just can't help it! Oh and melon cream soda is also freaking delicious! (And yeap, that in fact is the Paddington bear omikoshi they are carrying. I was so so surprised to see that one!)

 ~ This was my outfit of the day but after a while I realized the sweater was too much for outside (it was around 17C? idk). So in a nutcase I was in a t-shirt for most of the time while Ayuha and Luli were freezing with their jackets. Well, that kinda turned against me, since the day after we went to a dogshow with the family and they kept asking me are you really okay with those clothes and I laughed while telling them a Finn wouldn't mind getting a bit cold. But it was cold. REALLY cold. 5 hours outside I wrapped myself in blankets and drank hot tea but still shiverd. There went my reputation for having a great cold resistance.

 Dogs and their show^

And the next part doesn't really have anything to do with anything, but the day school started I was feeling a bit down and isolated but my HF took me to countryside to see some really famous cherryblossoms. It took an hour to get there first by car and then we took a train. Also visited an earthquake museum which was quite impressing. I really forgot all my worries and just 'let it go'.

On our way to see the Uzusumi sakuras! They were blooming full but guess if my camera's battery decided to die after this point. Uzusumisakuras are really old and beautiful and.. Well maybe I get the photos my HF took so I can so you sometime.

Yeah, randomy thingys so I went to see a movie and also took purikura with these fellas. Today as well had a great time with them! Can you guess what we went to see..?

(Beware more uneccessary stuff coming up:)

Went to buy stuff for school (and an umbrella)

And that is my AFS phone in it's newest form! These dayum cool stickers were found from a Disney store that is just 5 min's away walking. Actually all these stuff are from that huge shopping center. I'd call this some good luck!

I didn't know wheter Natsuko wanted to be on my blog so I didn't want to be rude and had to use my paint skills once more! That kimono though..

And finally a couple of days before schools started Natsuko took me to see Hanami again! It was fun but cold(again) so we weren't there for long. She's from same school as me but in different class. (School post is goun be the next one. I'll tell more then!)

So this was just to sum up some things I have done here but not everything. I hope you understood something and if u didn't just let the photos talk for themselves! Hopefully next time I have some more time. (Answer: we went to see Frozen (surprise surprise) or Ana to yuki no joo o, as it's called here)

School uniform(s) + pink flowers

We went to check out my school in the start of the week. I must say you really could tell it's a private school. The spesific busses were in a fine line all shimmering beautifully in the light. And there were like 20! And the yard was huge, a tennis court, volleyball court, random court.. Next to them weres these raincovered tables and chairs sets for lunch I guess. I could imagine the schools elite dining there just like in a standard shoujo manga, haha. The school consists of many independent buildings and I don't quite yet know what are they all used for (one of them is a church I assume).

Entering the school we found this nice teacher who guided us through the halls. I was relieved to say, I was fearing that every teacher would wear these nun cloacs, but no that's just the headmaster. And it was really confusing when we went to see for the uniforms that I didn't know where the people helping me teachers or students! XD It's really hard to guess a Japanese persons age but I'm now quite sure they were just young teachers from the way they talked.

They had this huge locker, or a pair of them, full of different size and kind of uniforms. I received tons of stuff including: Two different kind of summer shirts, one white blouse, blue vest and blue sweater for autumn and winter, a onepiece dress, a skirt, a ceremony jacket, school's special socks, shoes and indoorsports sneackers and finally two bags. Oh no, I forgot the sports suit. All for free and I don't even want to know how much they would've had costed.. Or actually I do but hadn't yet had the chance to ask.

I prefer this summer shirt (btw those socks are mine, no I won't use them in school XD)

And this is the onepiece dress! I have to say this uniform is copletely different than I expected! In a good way, of course.

Yo yo

And in comparison my own sense of style

Then let's gather up some of the schools rules, shall we?

1 - Absolute no for make-up

2 - No accessories whatsoever

3 - Forelock (fronthair?) mustn't hide your eyes (exlamation mark: the hairpin you have to wear must match your haircolour)

4 - School uniforms skirt must be about 6cm below your knees (mine's just 2cm and they were really worried will that do)

5 - No boyfriend(s) [so I guess girlfriends are ok]

I may have forgotten something as important but I'll go with these. Not all the students really follow these rules, like if you have a boyfriend then you may have it but keep it seacret, keep it safe. And make up such as skin products are okay if they won't show.  Rules are strict but that goes with almost every Japanese high school, so nothing unusual although most of  'em propably allow dating.

I'll start school at 7th and have to make a 3min speech in total Japanese. But I already wrote it and spell checked it with my HF so I'm okay with that. I won't apparently have any word with my timetable and now I'm just hoping that it won't be all mathematics and/or sience. And my schooltrip is to Australia so I'm not going to be able to go because of AFS's rules plus it would've costed too much. ;...; But I'll have enough trips here with host family and AFS so I guess I'll manage. :D Oh yeah, and I am, despite of my age, in first grade. Most AFS'sers I've heard are in 2nd and some in 3rd. Lucky for me because I hoped for this (if this'd go by age I'd be in 3rd).

Oh I've just talked, now I'll just end this with beautiful pictures of hanami to make this post a little lighter:

This place is so famous that even people from Osaka came to see it

Me and Ayuha both weared white socks and shoes which is now in fashion (I saw it on TV that day!)

 

 

These small stands sold taiyaki and caramel apples for example. Ayuha and I bought the apples but I haven't even yet finnished mine! (Could eat it now..)(Done)

Our lunch <33333

  
It was really fun and also beautiful, if I have to tell you. And oh that mop thingy, that's our dog, Jack! And one pic's older but still pretty. Today it's a bit rainy but I get to go to see the cherry blossoms again with this one girl from my school! I wonder where we go this time.