Ok so yeah once again its been...forever since i updated. Oh well I'm busy deal with it. lol jk jk love you all. *^_^* Anywho, what all has happened...hm...i suppose I should start from the earliest exciting thing. So I did a Kyudo tournament. Hundreds of people and of course I was the ONLY person from a different country. I was sooooo nervous. I felt like it was the first day of school again except this time there were even more people looking at me. Of course I heard the usual Hellos from strangers and declerations of love from the boys but yeah it made me really nervous even though I suppose i should be used to it by now... oh well >_< Anywho, it kinda sucked because I missed the target every time but its ok because i think that my form was really good and in Kyudo the most important thing is good form. Hitting the target is only about 25%...ok so maybe more like 50% but whatever. Even though I did a pretty bad job shooting and stuff I still had a lot of fun. *^_^* Anywho, I didn't get anyone to take pics of me because I forgot to hand my camera to someone before but I did take a few pics of other people. So yeah:  I will try to explain. There are 4 spots where you have to wait before you can shoot. On the left side of the big blue thingy are 3 of the spots. Each time the line of shooters finish you move over a seat. Then the last part of waiting you have to sit in the chairs and watch the person before you shooting. Its a great way to build up the nervousness. I think i started shaking in the 2nd row of waiting. lol. We probably waited for about 10 min and it probably took about 2 and a half to actually shoot.
 Ok so I don't know if I have explained much about Kyudo. Basically its Japanese archery (if you didn't figure that out from the pics then slap yourself). Kyudo is alot more difficult then regular archery though. There are alot of movements and stuff that you have to go through before you actually shoot and doing everything correctly is more important then actually hitting the target. Kyudo literally means "the way of the bow" so its more about concentration and stuff then shooting and arrow and hitting the target. Anywho, its also more difficult then regular archery because the bows are over 6 feet tall. When I stand on my tip toes I can barely touch the top (and I'm 5'5"). Also, instead of just pulling the string back we lift the bow up then slowly pull it back behind our ear (lifting and pulling it back consists of 3 steps, 4 if you count letting the arrow go). So it requires alot more strength then regular archery. Well...if you want to know more about it then look it up on the internet. It is really interesting.
Anway, then best thing that has happened in Kyudo lately happened 2 days AFTER the tournament. Our first practice after the tournament I hit the target 9 times!! This might not seem like alot but in Kyudo (and for a beginner like me who doesn't even technically have a ranking yet) this is a lot! To give you an idea the president of the club hit the target 10 times that same day. It was so funny because he was worried that I would get the target the same amount of times as him. *^_^* I wish I had I love proving beating guys especially here were girls don't really do that too often. Oh well it was fun making him nervous. Ok so next was Karaoke. All the girls from Kyudo club went it was so much fun. It was really rainy that day and we had to walk from school to go eat Ramen for lunch (school was only 4 classes) and then we walked to Karaoke from there. There were so many of us that we got the party room. It was HUGE!! I think it could have fit 30 people in it! Anywho, here is a pic:  Yeah its small and bad quality but it was originally taken from a cell phone. Aren't the school uniforms cute? Anyway, there are 3 other girls in Kyudo club but they couldn't go. So yeah...it was really fun. *^_^*
Hm...ok so that is Kyudo and Karaoke, on to the next subject. Ah spring break! It finally started last Thursday. Anyway, I am super busy during spring break. The first day I went with my host mom to see a volcano in a different prefecture. It took 3 hours both ways to drive there but I had fun listening to American Oldies with my host mom. Anyway, when we got to the volcano we were riding this little ski lift-type thingy and the lady speaking on the intercom thing was like "there is a little bit of poisonous gases coming out of the volcano right now so anyone with lung problems shouldn't go to the top." Great timing really, tell us when its too late to turn back. lol. Anywho, it wasn't enough to kill anyone or anything and thank god my asthma decided not to be bothered by it. But it was really freaky because it was the first time I have ever looked into the center of a volcano. There was this green liquid stuff and lots of white smoke coming up from it. Yeah it was creapy. Here is a pic *^_^* :  <-Isn't that freaky?
 <-Me standing in front of the cloud of poisonous gases. Smart Tina. lol. Oh and if you notice the little wooden thing at the bottom left hand corner of the pic it says "Do not enter" ok one question: Who would want to walk near the freaky green liquid with poisonous gases floating above it. lol. Anyway, it was awsome.
Ok, the next thing I did was the day after the day after the volcano (so I had one day to sleep in late). I did a train tour thingy that went to like 2 or 3 different prefectures. It started in a different Prefecture so I had to wake up at 6 and ride in a car for 2 hours then hop on a train. Then when the tour was finished I had to take another train back to Miyazaki (by myself). So in total I rode 5 different trains. I think my favorite was the shinkansen (bullet train) it was so awsome, 300km/h and really really smooth. Really fun. Also, the other prefecture's sakura trees (cherry blossoms) were in full bloom before Miyazaki so I got to see lots of beautiful sakura trees. It was awsome. Hm...ok so yesterday was also great because I got to see Yabusame at the Miyazaki shrine. Yabusame is archery on horseback. yeah like people ride on a horse while shooting arrows at these little tiny targets. It was so awsome.  to see more pics go to this website: http://miyazaki.daa.jp/miyazakijingu/yabusame/index.htm
 <-This was the youngest person. He was in Jr. Highschool! wow.
Another totally awsome thing about yesterday is that my mommy and daddy called me from Nagasaki. The are going to be here tomorrow and then we are going to go to Kyoto, Hiroshima, and Osaka. I'm sooooo excited!! So yeah, I guess that is the big update. I'll try to update again after my mommy and daddy come here but I have to go back to school the day after I get back from Osaka so I'm probably going to be really busy. I'll update ASAP. *^_^* hehe bai bai!! P.S. btw for those of you interested in jdrama Nobuta wo produce is the most hilarious thing I have ever seen. I love Kame and Yamapi. *^_^* | 
