Introducing Mayu

About Me      March 14th, 2016

My name is Mayu Takano. I am 15 years old and I live in Chiba, Japan. When I was seven, I went to California and stayed there until eleven. My hobbies are to play basketball, bake cakes, and romp around with my dog, Wel. At school, I have just finished my junior high school and I am going to senior high school from April.

In New Zealand so far, I am having a great time. I have enjoyed swimming in the pool, feeding the animals, and biscuiting in the lake. I am looking forward to visit the caves, go camping with Annabelle’s family, play games with the primary school kids, and wander around in Auckland. I’m also excited to make some Japanese food for my host family; I am making Teriyaki chicken and mochi.

I have found some differences between New Zealand and Japan. It was very surprising that most of the people don’t wear shoes outside. In Japan, everyone wears shoes outside and takes it off in the house. Also, I am still not used to the number of the flies; I am fighting them wherever I go. In addition, I had a culture shock when I knew that the ways of eating fruit differ. In Japan, we cut everything into pieces; however, people in New Zealand were just eating them as a whole. What most surprised me about the fruit was that people ate watermelon seeds. Japanese people spit out the seeds: we actually have a little game of ‘Who Can Spit the Seed Farthest’.

I would like to share some facts in Japan that might be interesting to you. First of all, houses in Japan have two or more floors up. Our land is very small compared to the number of people living, so we need to use the space above the ground. The houses are high up and also, they are very close to each other. There aren’t any yards at houses in Tokyo(the city, they have yards in the countryside even in Tokyo). Some schools don’t have a field outside. Another fact is that we eat raw things. Most of you may know we eat raw fish for sushi. Not only we eat sushi, but also we eat raw eggs. We put raw eggs on hot rice and pour some soy sauce on it. We call it “Tamagokakegohann”. I actually love it and it is really good. When you visit Japan you could try eating it.

If you have any questions that you would like to ask, ask me on Wednesday. That day would be the last day that I will be staying at school for the whole day.