Day 1: Ohayogozaimasu diary. My name is Kone Chi Wa. I am 14 years old and in the 8th grade. I was born in the year Meiji 10, now it is Meiji 24.(1892) Tomorrow is my first day of 8th grade. I hope it isn't as bad as 7th grade was. Most nights I only got about six hours of sleep. I was very tired all of the time. This year I get to learn advanced Kanji.

Since I haven't written in you before, I might as well tell you what has gone on during the Meiji Period. In 1868 Emperor Meiji took over, ending the Tokugawa shogunate. He moved his castle to Edo, which he renamed Tokyo. If Emperor Meiji hadn't took over I might not have a school to go to now. Ten years ago, when I was four, Japan opened its first bank. I currently have an account there. I have 1,000 yen in it. I'm saving up to go to college. I must go to sleep now, otherwise I will be tired for my first day of school.

Day 2: School was very boring today. Advanced kanji isn't as much fun as I thought it would be. Today we learned ten new characters and it's only our first day! At least our kanji teacher is nice. He only gave us two hours of homework today. I have to print each of the ten characters FIFTEEN times! That's 150 characters. I better go now, otherwise I wont have enough time to get my characters written.

Day 3: Ugh! I have at least four hours of homework tonight. Because my class didn't write our kanji the right way we have to redo all of them, and do 20 new characters fifteen times each. I have to write 450 characters by tomorrow. I'm never going to finish. I hope life isn't as hard once I graduate from college. My dad says it's harder because you have to handle your yen wisely and manage your family.

Day 4:(morning) I didn't get all my homework done last night. I'm afraid that i'm going to have to commit hari kari. I'm very sad. I liked writing in you very much. I must go now.

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