The worst news (pictures soon)
So last Thursday I got the answer on my extension here and it didn’t go through. It was like a bomb dropped straight from Enola Gay. It’s especially hard since Asami lives here and me in Sweden and long-distance relationships are very hard. But I do see a future however since my major is Japanese and I am pretty much set on getting to Japan again as soon as the first opportunity pops up. Monbusho has a scholarship which I’m going to try to get but in order to do that I have to study hard as hell since the test is pretty much 1 kyuu level (the highest level Japanese). However, I’m going to pass this test and get the scholarship then go to Japan during next autumn again! If I can’t, then I will try to get a spot for the next exchange with Stockholm’s University. The flight back is 7th of December and I will arrive the same day in Sweden.
Other than that, the week has passed like any other. There’s always lots of stuff to do when it comes to school. Right now it feels that we have too much work with school as I still have a lot of things I want to do before I go home. I still have one more report to write before the end of the semester and I’m not sure what I’m going to write about yet but I think I’m going to write something about the Japanese society. During Thursday’s conversation lesson we had to do interviews and we’re supposed to make a presentation of the interview this Thursday. We went to Housei Daigaku which is not too far from the Ichigaya Nihon Daigaku mainbuilding but it did feel awkward being dragged around interviewing people we didn’t knew. In anyway, Yuta who is a volunteer at our conversation class and studies at Housei was kind enough to arrange a few of his friends to come so we could start of easier. I was interviewing about food, what kind of food they like and so on.
Asami came by and I made her some spaghetti and meat sauce which turned out well if I might say so myself, so well actually that I’m going to make it again today. She’d brought crème caramel (pudding) with her from a famous shop in Machida called Pastel. I’ve eaten these sorts before in Sweden, but this one is the best one I’ve eaten so far since they’re made from scratch rather than with a mixture.
She also bought a cellphone strap for me, a monkey with a banana! It’s very cute and she thought it was a perfect fit for me since I eat bananas all the time. The good thing about buying bananas here in Japan is that they’re so cheap while the downside is that they go bad very quickly for some reason.
During Friday, I had made a promise to Mitsuyoshi as there was some sort of exhibition at the Bunri gaku bu of Nihon University. It’s pretty close to Shimotakaido so I figured why the hell not. The exhibition was about Kabuki clothing and they looked really expensive and I’m guessing they are too. They seem to be big and very heavy as well. They look nice though, but nothing I would wear since I’m the jeans and t-shirt type of guy. So after the exhibition, me and Michael (a German friend) ran back to our apartments to get our training outfits as we were going to go and play futsal. This is the second time we play futsal and it’s really fun. The first time my legs were so sour the day after that I couldn’t walk straight. It felt like something had… yeah, no I think I’ll leave it at that.
The futsal is in Tobitakyuu so it’s not far from Shimotakaido. It takes about 20 minutes or so by Keio-line and then another 10 minutes walk to the actual futsal.
It was very cold that day though and Michael was kind enough to lend me a long sleeved shirt for me to use during the game.
During the evening, we went to Wara Wara (Smile Smile) izakaya in Shimotakaido. We were fortunate enough to get a room with karaoke so Tomi the fin was really happy. It was really fun and I enjoyed myself very much. We had nomihoudai along with meal courses so I ordered a few umeshus (plum wine). I’ve fallen in love with umeshu actually. I’m not usually that big of a fun of sweet taste alcohol drinks, but umeshu is really nice.
Saturday morning wasn’t too bad but I had to go up early since I had a date with Asami, date spot target: Odaiba. Odaiba is a real nice dating spot. I had never been there so it was a nice change of scenery, well OK, not that much of a change but the thing with Odaiba is that it’s a man-made island. It feels surrealistic actually but at the same time very cool. These things only happen in Japan! We went to a place called Miraikan Museum, which was pretty cool actually. They had a planetarium theater and we managed to get seats for one of the movies. It was a cute movie, but not as exciting as the ones I’ve seen in Stockholm. I think the ones in Miraikan are made for children rather than adults. In any case, the museum itself had a lot of things, mostly with relation to technology and development of the human body and mind such as genome technology, robotics, green house effect and what not. What surprised me the most with Odaiba was the wonderful illuminations that were lit up. They’ve started to decorate some places with Christmas lights and putting up Christmas trees as well. There’s even a mimic of Statue of Liberty and of course the beautiful Rainbow Bridge with Tokyo tower in the background. Both Tokyo Tower and Rainbow Bridge were lit with blue lights that day as well.
Yesterday we went to the American base in Fussa again. I bought more Quicksilver t-shirts, Reese’s (yummy peanut butter inside of chocolate), some meat which is cheap as well compared to everywhere (!) and Armani cologne. We went to Chili’s again and I have to say even though it’s not the most nutrition filled food, it’s damn good. I had some fajitas this time instead of the chicken.
This coming weekend I will be going to Kansai for the weekend (+ Monday since it’s a holiday) with Asami, her mother and her aunt. Well actually, her mother and her aunt will be going on Sunday while I and Asami will go on Saturday. It will be interesting, once again since I’ve never been to Kansai. We’re going to Osaka, Kyoto and Nara so I hope I can eat some good Okonomiyaki. I’m good at making Okonomiyaki, but it’s hard to beat the restaurant made ones.
Next week I will finally meet Masuda-san before I go back to Sweden. I asked him to buy a Sigma 10-20mm wide lens for me, which he has ordered. Hopefully I’ll be getting it by next week. Dad asked me to buy a Nikkor 10-24mm for him and I did. Nikkor is usually very expensive, but the quality is usually unbeatable. The thing I love about Japan is the big market for used camera equipment. You can spend a whole day in these kinds of shops I tell you. I wonder how I’m going to solve the hand luggage issue though since I have to have all the lenses and cameras in there. Oh well, I’ll solve it somehow!
Other than that, the week has passed like any other. There’s always lots of stuff to do when it comes to school. Right now it feels that we have too much work with school as I still have a lot of things I want to do before I go home. I still have one more report to write before the end of the semester and I’m not sure what I’m going to write about yet but I think I’m going to write something about the Japanese society. During Thursday’s conversation lesson we had to do interviews and we’re supposed to make a presentation of the interview this Thursday. We went to Housei Daigaku which is not too far from the Ichigaya Nihon Daigaku mainbuilding but it did feel awkward being dragged around interviewing people we didn’t knew. In anyway, Yuta who is a volunteer at our conversation class and studies at Housei was kind enough to arrange a few of his friends to come so we could start of easier. I was interviewing about food, what kind of food they like and so on.
Asami came by and I made her some spaghetti and meat sauce which turned out well if I might say so myself, so well actually that I’m going to make it again today. She’d brought crème caramel (pudding) with her from a famous shop in Machida called Pastel. I’ve eaten these sorts before in Sweden, but this one is the best one I’ve eaten so far since they’re made from scratch rather than with a mixture.
She also bought a cellphone strap for me, a monkey with a banana! It’s very cute and she thought it was a perfect fit for me since I eat bananas all the time. The good thing about buying bananas here in Japan is that they’re so cheap while the downside is that they go bad very quickly for some reason.
During Friday, I had made a promise to Mitsuyoshi as there was some sort of exhibition at the Bunri gaku bu of Nihon University. It’s pretty close to Shimotakaido so I figured why the hell not. The exhibition was about Kabuki clothing and they looked really expensive and I’m guessing they are too. They seem to be big and very heavy as well. They look nice though, but nothing I would wear since I’m the jeans and t-shirt type of guy. So after the exhibition, me and Michael (a German friend) ran back to our apartments to get our training outfits as we were going to go and play futsal. This is the second time we play futsal and it’s really fun. The first time my legs were so sour the day after that I couldn’t walk straight. It felt like something had… yeah, no I think I’ll leave it at that.
The futsal is in Tobitakyuu so it’s not far from Shimotakaido. It takes about 20 minutes or so by Keio-line and then another 10 minutes walk to the actual futsal.
It was very cold that day though and Michael was kind enough to lend me a long sleeved shirt for me to use during the game.
During the evening, we went to Wara Wara (Smile Smile) izakaya in Shimotakaido. We were fortunate enough to get a room with karaoke so Tomi the fin was really happy. It was really fun and I enjoyed myself very much. We had nomihoudai along with meal courses so I ordered a few umeshus (plum wine). I’ve fallen in love with umeshu actually. I’m not usually that big of a fun of sweet taste alcohol drinks, but umeshu is really nice.
Saturday morning wasn’t too bad but I had to go up early since I had a date with Asami, date spot target: Odaiba. Odaiba is a real nice dating spot. I had never been there so it was a nice change of scenery, well OK, not that much of a change but the thing with Odaiba is that it’s a man-made island. It feels surrealistic actually but at the same time very cool. These things only happen in Japan! We went to a place called Miraikan Museum, which was pretty cool actually. They had a planetarium theater and we managed to get seats for one of the movies. It was a cute movie, but not as exciting as the ones I’ve seen in Stockholm. I think the ones in Miraikan are made for children rather than adults. In any case, the museum itself had a lot of things, mostly with relation to technology and development of the human body and mind such as genome technology, robotics, green house effect and what not. What surprised me the most with Odaiba was the wonderful illuminations that were lit up. They’ve started to decorate some places with Christmas lights and putting up Christmas trees as well. There’s even a mimic of Statue of Liberty and of course the beautiful Rainbow Bridge with Tokyo tower in the background. Both Tokyo Tower and Rainbow Bridge were lit with blue lights that day as well.
Yesterday we went to the American base in Fussa again. I bought more Quicksilver t-shirts, Reese’s (yummy peanut butter inside of chocolate), some meat which is cheap as well compared to everywhere (!) and Armani cologne. We went to Chili’s again and I have to say even though it’s not the most nutrition filled food, it’s damn good. I had some fajitas this time instead of the chicken.
This coming weekend I will be going to Kansai for the weekend (+ Monday since it’s a holiday) with Asami, her mother and her aunt. Well actually, her mother and her aunt will be going on Sunday while I and Asami will go on Saturday. It will be interesting, once again since I’ve never been to Kansai. We’re going to Osaka, Kyoto and Nara so I hope I can eat some good Okonomiyaki. I’m good at making Okonomiyaki, but it’s hard to beat the restaurant made ones.
Next week I will finally meet Masuda-san before I go back to Sweden. I asked him to buy a Sigma 10-20mm wide lens for me, which he has ordered. Hopefully I’ll be getting it by next week. Dad asked me to buy a Nikkor 10-24mm for him and I did. Nikkor is usually very expensive, but the quality is usually unbeatable. The thing I love about Japan is the big market for used camera equipment. You can spend a whole day in these kinds of shops I tell you. I wonder how I’m going to solve the hand luggage issue though since I have to have all the lenses and cameras in there. Oh well, I’ll solve it somehow!
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