New Student Interview-Mai Ikushima

There is going to be a new student in 10th grade from the begining of the second semester, I interviewed Mai Ikushima so that people who is interested in her can read this article and get to know her. By reading this article, you will be able to see how interesting she is.





S: Hey! So, I guess you are the new student, right?


M: Haha, yup.



S: I’m Saya, and I want to interview you for the HIS web blog GUAVALOCO (Newspaper/journalism) so that everyone would be able to know a little bit about you before you officially join the school. Please tell me your name and your grade.
M: Mai Ikushima　生島 舞, 10th grade.



S: Nice to see you, Mai. So, where did you used to live before coming to HIS?
M: Huntsville, Alabama. Basically the middle of nowhere, where all the crazy rednecks live. I went to Virgil I. Grissom High School



S: Any reasons why you chose to come to Hokkaido?
M: There really is no real reason why I chose Hokkaido…basically, we had to move to Japan anyways, so I suggested somewhere we’d never lived before, a small town, some climate that snows so I can actually see a snowy winter, and Hokkaido seemed to meet all the demands. Also, the fact that we’d visited Hokkaido once before had a huge impact.



S: Cool, you must of like Hokkaido very much. What do you like about Hokkaido so far, do you play any winter sports?
M: For now, the snow infatuates me. I mean for a person that got an inch of snow maybe once a year, with luck, this is REALLY weird. Also, RAMEN!! It’s been about 2 years since I’ve actually had REAL ramen (Bama doesn’t really have any Asian food other than Americanized “Chinese” take-out…). And yes, I snowboard. Or used to, anyways. It’s been over 2 years since I last snowboarded…and that was in Cali…so not really…fun. It was more like mushy-cold-stuff-boarding.



S: Snowboarding seems fun!! I would like to try it someday. Oh well, do you know any of the things that are famous in Hokkaido?
M: Uh, snow? Skiing? Yoshitake-san’s nama-caramel. Lol and Ramen? Food? Honestly, I only know like Mashuko, Erimo Misaki, and Sapporo…beer. Lol and I don’t even know if I spelled that right…haha so, basically, ignoring my long-windedness, the answer to the question is no.





S: Nama- Caramel is so popular in Hokkaido, you have to line up in a line in a department store for about 3 hours, you know, to just get a package of it. what is your first impression about HIs?
M: “Wow. This really is a SMALL school…” not that that’s bad, but 200 students, give or take, for the whole K~12 school…is...wow.



S: Yeah, HIS is a small school. But the good things about it are that you can get along with pretty much, everyone in the school…Then, what do you think is the biggest difference between your old school and HIS?
M: The size, no redneck accent, not too much blond hair (not to be mean or anything!), no police officers/security guards, no fights, no kissing in the halls (lol), its warm! No cold air conditioning (our teachers seemed to think it was necessary to keep the class below zero or something. I mean, yeah, we can’t work in a hot class, but keep it above 65 F!! PLEASE!), uh, basically, everything is COMPLETELY different, so it’s hard to choose just one…



S: Wow, quite different. Wait, how many times have you moved?
M: Uh…lets think…Japan 4 and a half years, WV 3 years, Japan 1 year, AL 3 years, Cali 1 year, Bama 2 years, and now here? Wait, I’m missing a year…idk. So confused. Lol so 6? No, wait, I’m missing something….



S: 6 times?? Wow. You are really lucky to be able to see all kinds of places. This is my 12th year in Hokkaido, I wish I can move somewhere else. Oh well, I would probably be out of Japan after I graduate this school so, 2 more years of my boring life left in Japan, hopefully. Anyways, what is your favorite subject?
M: Math!



S: Really? Me too. And your Least favorite?
M: English…



S: What is your favorite food?
M: RAMEN! Oh, and for some reason, I love trying exotic food. Seriously. I’ve eaten chicken feet, cow toung and brain, whale, bees in some sauce, and a bunch of other crazy foods.



S: Well then, have you ever tried eating frogs? You should try them someday, if you like trying eating those kinds of food. I heard that they taste like chicken… Moving on to the next question, what is your hobby, things you enjoy to do when you are free?
M: Eat, sleep, read, eat, watch movies, sleep, eat, dance!, sleep, snowboard, eat. Oh, and did I mention eating and sleeping?



S: Interesting. Then, what do you want to be when you grow up?
M: Some singer in Japan.



S: Oh, then you must give me your autograph before you become famous!!! Tell me your number, tell me your address, and I will be a huge fan of yours. Lol (chill) So, you want to be a singer, right? Then what kind of music do you like listening to?
M: Mostly emo/screamo, rock, punk, stuff like that? Then, again, if you go through my iPod, it’s hard to say which genre is dominant…so I guess anything and everything.



S:Do you play any instrument?


M: Instruments seem to hate me.



S: (silence…) Okay…When was your best day of your life?
M: Uh hm…hard to choose…well, then again, I pretty much like everything about life…including all the bad things cause they led to the good things that followed. Wow I sound so optimistic…lol



S: Yes, you do sound optimistic. Do you have any favorite book or an author?
M: Just one?! OMG! NO! I’ll just make a list and let you choose a couple. Also, idk most of the authors.Death Note, Twilight series--Stephenie Meyer, The Land of Elyon series, Full Metal Alchemist (鋼の錬金術師)—Hiromu Arakawa (荒川　拡), Vampire Night, omg so many more…I just can’t think of the names right now…oh well, currently my favorite/obsession is Death Note.



S: Oh, so you love reading… This is going to be your last question; do you have any favorite quotes?
M: “On a scale of one to crazy, im a penguin.”—anonymous
“You know when you asked me if I’m ok and I said “I’m fine.”?, well, I lied.”—anonymous
And a bunch more. They’re all on my facebook. Lol



S: Thank you very much for taking up your time and answering these questions. As I told you before, this interview is going to be on the HIS student newspaper web blog, anything you would like to say to the people who reads this?
M: Any other questions? I’ll be glad to answer them, although I have NO idea why on earth you’d find me interesting. Other than the fact that I get hyper really easily. Now THAT’S amusing.












This is the end of the interview. If you find Mai walking in school, say hello and please give her a warm welcome. Have a nice end of the semester.

"Hello"ween Dance

The first dance party of the school year of 2008 was held on the 23rd of October, the last day of the first quarter, at HIS by the student council. Because it was decided to be held on October, the theme was Halloween so many of the people dressed up in Halloween costumes, and it was really great to see people in varieties of costumes. There were cats, vampires, devils, angels, witches, and more.
This was the first dance party for the new students and the 7th graders, but every one was having a great time and I appreciate the student council very much for putting such a wonderful effort in the party.
The thing I was very happy about during this party was that some girls from the neighbor High school came too and that they were making friendship with many people from our school. Making friends in dance parties I think is a wonderful idea because when you are dancing, you don’t have to communicate using languages, but you can express your emotions through dancing. Not every one in our school speaks Japanese, but I saw some of the people who can’t communicate really well in Japanese being very friendly to the girls from the Japanese High school.
We are very lucky that our school have dance parties, so if you haven’t been attending them, and if you have time, you should participate in the dance party next time, which probably will going be on the end of December.

Husky Soccer Team 2008

The season of the HIS soccer team of 2008 concluded on the 22nd of October. This year there were 16 players through 7th graders to 12th graders. Out of 16 players, 4 were girls but they played aggressively and did a lot to the team. This year, they had a brand new coach and a manager, coach Branson and Yuna K., and they helped the team to build up. There were a lot of “Husky Soccer Team” fans as usual, cheering the team in every games.

The team had games against other Japanese Junior High schools, and High Schools all over Sapporo, and was doing great for the whole season. Sadly, the Husky soccer team could not win any of the games this season but probably, every one of them had a great experience. I interviewed Shion S., how she felt as one of a girl player who joined the team this year now that the season has ended, and here are her words.

“This season was my first year on the soccer team. From the first soccer practice, since we ran so much, I thought I'd never make it through until the end. But when I think about it now, I'm really glad that I joined the soccer team since I got to experience a lot. Even though the practice was hard, I had a lot of fun and I hope I managed to become at least a bit better at playing soccer. It was a whole new experience for me and I learnt a lot from Mr. Branson and all the other soccer team members. Even though I couldn't manage to go to the last few practices, I'd really like to do it again next year!”

Even though they were not able to win, the team is improving every year, and they still have the futsal tournament on March. We hope that the soccer team will do well in the tournament. The results of the tournament will going to be posted after they come back from the tournament, so please keep cheering for the team.

PSAT coming up soon

The 9th-11th graders are going to take the Primary Scholastic Assessment Test(PSAT) this Wednesday, the 15th of October. A PSAT is helps us to get ready for the real SAT, which is a standardized test for college admissions in the United States. Since this is a practice test, the scores will not going to be sent to colleges, don't stress out about it.
PSAT is divided into two big sections, and they are the verbal section and the mathematical section, as it also is in the SAT. With in the verbal section, it is divided into to parts; critical reading, and writing skills. Unlike the real SAT, there are no essay questions. The Mathematical section is also divided into two parts; they are the multiple questions, and the student-produced response questions.
Some of the tips to do good on the PSAT are to memorize all of the directions by doing the practice PSAT booklets. Since the test has time limits, you don't want to waste your time reading the directions.
Also, don't get stuck on the same question more than two minutes. If you don't know the answer, skip and come back again if you still have time left, after going through all the questions. Another one is not to fill in the mark sheet randomly since you will get 1/4 point off the score for each of the question you get wrong. It is better to keep it blank.
These were some of the tips and advices from me for the first takers of PSAT, from my experience from the past year. I wish you all good luck, and get enough sleep on the day before the test.

Whole School Event

The whole school event of the year was held on the 26th of September. Elementary and secondary students were made in to partners, and shared our environment of studies to each other. This event was held for students to get to know younger/older students better than we did before, and also to make the elementary students feel easier to talk to someone in secondary school.
I was paired up with a 4th grade girl, and we had a great time together. We showed each other our locker/desk, and wondered around the school to look for something new, ate lunch, and went to recess together.
I usually stay out from the elementary floor, so I didn't know what the elementary school students were studying these days until she shared with me some of her works. One of her work I liked was the flag of a country where the Olympic game was held in. Since the third graders and the fourth graders are learning about Olympic games this year, each one of them was assigned to draw a diagram which was appropriate, such as logos of that years' Olympic, flags,etc.
As I saw the elementary floors, I realized how dramatically the school changed just in a few years, after I left elementary school. But some of the things stayed the same, and I started to miss the life as being a elementary school student again.
This whole school event was very interesting and meaningful. I am very thankful for the teachers who cordinated this, and I think that it will be great, if there is going to be a whole school activity again, later in the school year.

10th Grade Interview

Amazingly, we have got five new 10th graders in the HIS community: Alannah St Clairs (A), Dmitry Kosheverov(D), Man Prasongtham(M), Sasha Hooper(Sa), and Sevil Alyrzaeva(Se). Due to this, the smallest class of nine students increased to fourteen. I hope that you will learn something about them, reading this interview. ( More questions will be posted up soon)



1.First, can you tell us why you came to this school/ Japan?

A: I wanted to learn Japanese and live in Japan.
D:To be around English speakers and it is near my home.
M:Because I like everything about Japan.
Sa: The reason I came to the school was because of my parents and I wanted to go somewhere new.
Se: My father got here a new big job, so we've got to move here


2. What kind of school environment were you at before coming to this school?


A: A very ghetto public school. ( The second ghettoest school in the district.)
D:I went school with my own language speakers. I went to art school and to an international language speaking school.
M: not available
Sa:The school I went to before was a big private school.
Se:It was Russian school and we've got only one lesson on English. There're many differences between my school and this one.


3. What are your first impressions of Japan, and did they change after being here for a week?


A: Awesometacular, it felt like home.
D:My first impression of Japan are like, looks different from what I have been thinking about it. After being, I found more interesting things about Japan.
M:Nobody speak English, I see many people speak English.
Sa:My first impression of Japan was that it was crowded and lots of color. After a week I started to get used to Japan.
Se:It was like, Wow. I've been in many countries before Japan, but here , it's very beautiful. ;Now I don't like this place, cause I can't see my friends, may be I'll change my mind few weeks later.


4. Do you like eating Japanese food, and if you do what are your favorites?


A:I love ramen, sushi, takoyaki, okonomiyaki, and gyudon.
D:Yes I do. I'd like almost every kinds of food.
M:Yes, Takoyaki, Sushi, and Sashimi.
Sa:Yes, I like to eat tenpura, and noodles.
Se:I really like everything, so I can try all what on a table.

5. Anything you would like to tell the school about yourself?

A: I love HIS.
D: I like winter sports, and I would like to try cycling.
M: I have to eat food.

I hope this interview helped some people to know more about them.
I'm thinking of adding more questions, later in the year.

7th Grade Interviews

Three new 7th graders joined the HIS community this year: Chris Ohyama (C), Hyung Jung (HJ), and Hyun Ryung (HR). Please read this interview and know them, or know them better than you do right now. ( More questions, and pictures would be posted soon...)



1.First, can you tell us why you came to this school/ Japan?

C: Because I wanted to live with Dad.

HJ: Because of my mother’s work.

HR: I came to the school because father’s job.



2.What kind of school environment were you at before coming to this school?

C: Suberb/ Ghettoish place

HJ: There were a lot of teachers and students. It is located in the city of Seoul

HR: That school was good, teacher can teach us very well



3. What are your first impressions of Japan, and did they change after being here for a week?

C: Nothing Really... (he used to live in Japan when he was small)

HJ: The people are very nice, and it is a good country. They didn’t change.

HR: People are very kind. No, they didn't change.



4.Do you like eating Japanese Food, and if you do what are your favorites?

C:Yea, I like to eat sushi, beacuse there so many flavor.

HJ: I like sushi most

HR: I like Japanese food; crab.



Please welcome, and feel free to talk to them.