Tokyo 'r Us RE-ENACT

So it’s just about a week to go now before I have to go back to Sweden. I’m thinking of buying space for extra luggage for my trip back home because there is a lot of stuff to bring back… and on top of that I want to buy some more stuff! The alcohol here is crazy cheap. Yesterday, we had dinner at David’s place. Asami made nabe and David made some Philipino chicken which was awesome. To this, we drank umeshu. You can buy a two liter pack for about 750 yen and that very cheap. In Sweden, alcohol is really expensive so I was thinking of bringing some home with me so I don’t have to care about buying that much for parties when I get back. There are bottles of wine for about 300 yen (750ml) as well.  It’s not like it’s the best wine or so, but it still tastes like wine.

Tomorrow’s my last grammar and vocabulary test. Hopefully I’ll score well on this one as well. On Wednesday we have tests in speed reading and listening comprehension but other than that, we’re all done! Friday is our last day here at Nihon University and on by Saturday morning we have to take our belongings and get out of these apartments so they can clean up after us and prepare for the next term. I’ve finished written all my reports as well so I’m now officially done with all of them. For some reason two of the reports are about food. I think Kyle’s influence on me is greater than I ever thought!

In any case, back to Kansai! The hotel we stayed at was in Osaka. The good thing about Kansai is that Osaka, Kyoto, Nara and Kobe are all close to each other. We didn’t go to Kobe though, but that’s alright. It takes about 30 minutes by train from Osaka to Kyoto and to Nara which isn’t that bad at all actually! Osaka is well known for its comedians and business. We didn’t go around that much in Osaka. Asami has an old childhood friend living in Osaka and who’s working at an expensive Izakaya.
After our trip to Nara (still Saturday), we went to check-in at the hotel, rested for an hour or so and then we went out on our adventure to look for this Izakaya. It took quite a while actually. Osaka is like a jungle if you’ve been living in Tokyo for three months. It’s hard to find where to go and so on and even with Asamis cellphone with GPS, it took us about 2.5 hours to get there. On our way there, we ate some takoyaki. Osaka is well known for okonomiyaki and takoyaki and the place we ate at was awesome.

So anyway, after wandering around for a while we finally arrived at the Izakaya and it was a very nice place indeed. The atmosphere was really good and we got to meet with Asamis childhood friend Yui. She seems to be a person full of life and speaks in Kansai dialect. We ate some food, drank some alcohol… and it wasn’t that much at all but the price came up to like 4000 anyway, expensive indeed but still a nice experience.

The next two days we spent in Kyoto but we stayed in the same hotel in Osaka until Monday. So during Sunday evening, after our first trip to Kyoto (will report about Kyoto soon), we went to a real nice Okonomiyaki place. Since there are a lot of Kanto people went to Kansai during the three day holiday, the line was quite long to get in, but it was worth the wait. The okonomiyaki was excellent and we didn’t even have to do it ourselves which you usually do when eating at okonomiyaki restaurants. Okonomiyaki is probably one of my favorite foods and I love to make okonomiyaki as well. I’m a specialist, so to speak!

Osaka feels a bit more like Tokyo mostly because of the night-life here. There are streets which looks quite similar to Shinjuku’s Kabukichou. I’ve also come to notice that Kansai people tend to not line up that well when entering the train. Surely they line up before, but once the doors open it’s like a crazy rush towards the door and no one seems to care about the order.
Compared to Tokyo they also stand on the right side when riding the escalators while Kanto people stands on the left side. It was quite funny because you could distinguish which people who were from Kanto and which ones who were from Kansai.

Since the last post it has been rather hectic. I’ve been writing on my report for JASSO (in Japanese) which is required by those who received the scholarship. Other than that, I still have a report due this Monday for my economy class. The good thing though is that we can chose to write about anything as long as it’s related to Japanese culture or economy. I’ve decided to write, yet again, about food. Not about Swedish food as I did for my graduation paper but about Japanese cuisine and etiquette. It’s quite interesting actually as I’ve found out a few things I never knew about Japanese food and its food history. Apparently eating meat was banned for over a thousand years before emperor Meiji decided to lift the ban, wanting to modernize Japan.

Next week we have our final chapter test and on top of that a 2kyuu test which we take to see if we have progressed. Although it doesn’t have anything to do with our grades or the book we use it would be nice to see what score I can get on it. I’m uncertain though, because they say we have it tomorrow and if that is true I don’t think I have that much of a chance to get the 70% which is required to pass for E-class. My kanji knowledge isn’t the best right now since we’ve been forced to “learn” over 2000 new words which include kanji. We’ve been jumping real fast through our book which new grammar and words every day. The pace is pretty crazy and since we’re in Japan we don’t want to only do homework and tests but explore Tokyo and other places while we can. Who knows how long it will take before we can get back here. I’m going to write the test which Monbusho has to offer but I have to study for hours every day when I get back home, which I’m willing to do.

By each day it’s getting colder and now it’s so cold that I can wear a scarf without sweating. A month ago that would be unthinkable but it’s been rather cold lately and apparently it’s been colder than usual at this time of the year. It’s been raining quite often as well and that is one of the reasons why it grew so cold in such a short time. The trains get uncomfortably overcrowded during rainy days and the trains are sometimes late as well during these kinds of days. If a certain train is late, they will hand out a proof document that says that you’re late because of the train by how many minutes. This is to prevent you from getting into trouble with your teachers or work related people. It would be funny to use it as an excuse to get late for a date.

Last weekend (Nov 21-23) I and Asami went to Osaka, Nara and Kyoto. On the first day we went to Nara straight away and Nara was an old capital of Japan during the Nara period (years 710 – 791) with a lot of legends, temples and… deer! Yes, you read it right. A lot of deer. Nara is full of deer and as a result of all the deer there are also deer spilling wherever you go. You have to watch your step, otherwise you might (or actually most probably) step into it. Other than the deer poo, Nara was quite beautiful. We didn’t spend that much time there though as our main trip was focused on Kyoto. We went Toudai-ji which was very nice. We went to a shrine as well but I can’t remember the name. We couldn’t get in though, they had some sort of ceremony for kids turning 3, 7 and… something I can’t remember. Nara really felt like an old city. Not only that, Nara is out in the suburbs so you won’t find any tall buildings like in Tokyo, Osaka or Kyoto. The atmosphere is hard to describe when it comes to a city with such old history. You have to go there yourself in order to experience it. If not, go there to experience the deer!

Anyway, enjoy the pictures!

This past week has been hectic as usual. As always, we have kanji quizzes almost every day and a chapter test as well. Asami came by during the Monday and I cooked some spaghetti and meat sauce for her and she brought some pudding for dessert. She also bought this cute mobile phone strap for me. I eat bananas everyday here since they’re cheap and good, but unfortunaly they go bad very quickly here for some reason. In any case, I’ve been saying that I want a banana strap for a while so she bought me the perfect gift. Today I had a speech about Gustav Vasa, the “farther” of our country. He liberated Sweden from Denmark during the 16:th century and became king June the 6^th, which now is our independence day.

I’ve also been writing on my JASSO report which is due later in November. It’s actually harder than I thought to write it. We are supposed to write about our achievement during our stay here and for some reason it’s hard to praise yourself in a report. I’ve written about one A4 page (which was the lowest limit) but I want to do at least one more page. Tomorrow is also the deadline for our graduation composition, which I’m basically done with I just need someone to correct it one more time. It became like 5 pages long including some pictures. I wrote about Swedish food which was more difficult than I could ever imagine. To think that food is such a complicated subject!

So who would’ve thought that November could be such a sweaty month (literally speaking). We went to Okinawa last weekend and damn it was hot. It was humid even as soon as we stepped out from the airplane and into Naha airport. The very same day, Friday, had been 27 degrees Celsius which is like high summer in Sweden except for the humidity. It was my first time in there and it was certainly a real nice experience. It seems to be “off season” for the Japanese, but I wonder how that can be since it’s colder during autumn and winter while the weather in Okinawa is crazy hot.

In any case, Ryosuke was the kindest for having planned the whole event for us, including reservations of trip, taxi, hotel and even where we should go and visit. The first thing I was kind of surprised of was that we actually rode a Boeing 747-400 to Okinawa from Haneda. The 747 is usually meant for long distance but Haneda – Okinawa only takes about 2.5 hours.
When we got out the airplane it was like walking straight into a sauna. Well OK, it wasn’t THAT bad, but it was most definitely warmer than Tokyo (and Swedish summer). We went by Taxi to the hotel, which took about one hour. On the way there we bought some food, awamori (Okinawa Sake) and Okinawan beer.  The Okinawan beer was alright, but I prefer Asahi over it and I’m not too fond of sake except for Umeshu (plumwine, sweet) but I drank it nonetheless! So we arrived at the hotel and it goodness it was a very luxurious hotel with ocean view. The rooms were big as well and the hotel had onsen (hot public bath) along with sauna and the whole kit. It had been a while since I’ve gone to an onsen and it felt real nice. Me, Ryosuke and Kyle went down to take a bath as we talked about various things. Afterwards it was time to go to the beach and to enjoy the ocean during the fine evening with a few beers and snacks. We were supposed to get up around 8 o’clock the next morning because our schedule was pretty much full for the entire day. Mikael was the first one to go to bed and I was the second one. Apparently in all the drunkenness, the rest of the people went out for a swim in the ocean.  Kyle and Ryosuke, who I shared rooms with, came back around 3 o’clock in the morning so I had to get up and open up for them.  You could imagine how they looked like in the morning… Or check the pictures! :>

So the Saturday started off with us going to eat the biggest breakfast I’ve ever had in my whole life. It was a buffet (Japanese call it Viking which is actually another term for Smörgåsbord!) and god they had everything there. There were mostly western style dishes, but also Japanese food sorts as well.

The first even we went to was snorkeling! And it was really nice. I never thought the ocean could be so beautiful. I got to borrow Asami’s underwater camera so I took some photos but I probably won’t get them processed until I get back to Sweden. After that we stopped at some random place where apparently 10 000 people can sit at the same time. I can’t remember it name though, but it was nice. It had some fine views of the ocean and cliffs. After that we continued to theme park of some sorts. It had an aquarium, dolphin show, museums and stuff so we all went around looking freely as we pleased. After that we went back home to eat at a restaurant and then to get together to play a game called Maffia in our room until late.

Sunday came and it was our last day in Okinawa. We went to a cape which was not far from the hotel, a artificial made Ryukyu Village (Okinawa used to be it’s own kingdom before it became a part of Japan. There’s still an Okinawa language and such.), the old castle of the Okinawa Kings and to the international street (It’s just simple called that). After that we went back to Naha airport and flew back to Haneda.

I wanted to try to make this post short so I could explain it with pictures instead. There’s no point in writing how beautiful something is unless you can’t show it!
So enjoy the pictures!

It's almost only one month left until the JLSP term ends. Accordingly to the schedule we have the closing ceremony on the 4th of December and we also have to move out from the apartment by the 4th... Unless I can get my extention approved. They said that they would let me know by this week, but I haven't heard anything so far. Accordingly to Hosaka-sensei there were only 12 students who applied for the next term which isn’t many at all compared to this term. This term we’re over 22 people and last term there were only 15. Jonas in my class says that there’s some sort of deficit of exchange students at Nihon Daigaku and that they need to let more people in so I’m thinking the chances are pretty high. Hosaka-sensei said that the chances are high as well so I’m hopeful.

If I won’t be able to stay it’ll be sad for many reasons. It will, of course, be sad even if I stay in some ways as well. The problem with being an exchange student for just a few months is that you meet new people, become friends, experience new things together and laugh together.  Then three months later, everyone returns to their own home countries to continue their previous lives they had before they came here. It’s a wonderful thing to make new friends, but also sad to “lose” them so quickly. Of course there’s Facebook and such, but it’s not the same thing as real life.

Enough said about the sad stuff! Under Monday’s class we had Peter Mizuki and he demonstrated how kendo works. We got to try out different basic strikes as well on him as he wore armor. Compared to soccer, baseball and other sorts of sports kendo can even be practiced by older people. In fact, the older the person is the high rank they usually are. The highest rank can only be achieved after passing a certain age. In budo sports such as kendo and sumo, you’re never allowed to cheer after you’ve taken a point or won. That is a very no-no. In recent events, there was a Bulgarian (I think he was Bulgarian) sumo wrestler who did just this. There’s been a lot of talk about it and the manager had to apologize over and over.
Trying out kendo was fun, but it’s nothing for me. It feels that I’m a bit too old to start doing it now. Most people start out very young and in my case it feels too late… And unfortunaly, even though it was a fun experience, I’m not that interested in martial arts. I prefer my jogging and from time to time weight training.



Above: Mizuki-sensei shows us how to do a "Men" strike.




Above: Me performing a "dou" strike.

During the weekend I went to Asami’s place. We went to the movies and watcher The Time Traveler’s Wife starring Eric Bana. The last time I saw Eric Bana was in München, which was an OK movie but way too long. It was nice to see a different Eric Bana actually compared to the assassin in München or the Hulk. It’s a romantic movie and even though I usually don’t watch romantic movies it was quite alright. The problem with it is of course that it felt like a never ending story. Time Traveling, remember?

On our way back, there was this huge place with tons of vendor machines. We have those in Sweden of course, but they’re EVERYWHERE here in Japan. It’s unbelievable what the sell in these as well. In Sweden some of this would be unthinkable, such as alcohol and tobacco. Of course, it’s not legal to drink or smoke in Japan until you’ve turned 20 (18 in Sweden). Some of these machines have ID-check functions but most of them don’t though. In Sweden,  when you’re 18 you can only buy alcohol up to 3.5% in a local shop such as supermarket or convenient store but you can still drink stronger beverage at bars and such. However if you want to buy your own beverage outside restaurants and such, you need to go to what’s called “Systembolaget” which is a state owned company which has monopoly over all the stronger spirits and such.  For this you need to be 20 years old. It’s a somewhat odd system which has its ups and downs.





Above: Sake!



Above: Here you need to insert your ID in order to buy sake or tabacco.



Above: What would life be without instant ramen?

Tomorrow I’ll be going to Okinawa. Expect a nice post with pictures when I get back! (If I have time, it might take a while O_O)