Tokyo 'r Us RE-ENACT

So a few days has passed since the last time I wrote. Nothing much new has happened except for yesterday and today. I’ve been here for about 2 months now and it feels like it’s been like 1 week. I will say it again; the time goes by so fast when I’m here. It feels unrealistic for some reason and I think every other JLSP students agree with me. By next week I will know if I can stay for another term or not. The deadline for the next JLSP term was due today and accordingly to one of the senior teachers, Hosaka-sensei, the probability of staying for another term is pretty high (at least accordingly to her opinion). I also finally received my scholarship this week, a hefty 240 000 yen. A lot of the money has been spent already though, but that’s alright. I’m going to Okinawa next weekend and in the end of November to Kansai (Kyoto, Osaka and Nara). A lot of money will be spent on these trips, but it’s worth it. I’ve never been to any of these places so I’m excited.
We’ve had kanji quizzes and stuff like every day and the latest test I did last Friday I got a whooping 49/50 again, so far so good.

Yesterday afternoon some of us went and played football (or soccer (...) if you’re American) at a futsal (5 v 5 court). It was really nice actually and it’s been like 3 years since I touched a football the last time. Although my legs are a tad sour at the moment, but that’s alright. I managed to so awesomely forget to bring a fresh pair of underwear so I had no choice but to do it the Italian way without underwear. It wasn’t that bad though, freedom to say the least I guess. Nothing I would do again however!



In the evening we went to Alpis in Shinjuku. The good thing about Alpis is that you can make reservation for a lot of people there as the Izakaya has like four floors. The event on Facebook indicated that we were going to be around 50 people at least and I’m guessing we were about that amount as well. Ontop of that since it were almost Halloween, people dressed out as different creatures, things, characters and what not. I and David made masks of each other. I wore a mask with his face and he wore a mask with my face on it. Anyways, lots of fun people and fun time.




Today was the most peculiar day however. Kyle is a US Airforce soldier and US military personal has entry permission to the bases here in Japan if they want to go inside. He bought some pop-tarts and stuffs for me the other week but this time he asked me if I wanted to go with him. Me, Kyle, David, Asami and Liz went to the base which is located in Fussa, Saitama. Anyways, for the most part I wanted to go there and shop some American food and candy but the trip itself became quite interesting itself. The first thing I noticed about Fussa was of course the amount of foreigners there. The second thing I noticed was the “result” of the amount of foreigners there. If you live in Tokyo you would be surprised at first how clean the streets are. People never throw trash and such on the street, well at least not the majority of the Japanese at least. However, in Fussa where a big chunk of the population is of foreign identity the streets look dirty.

When we finally got to the base there were a lot of kids with Halloween costumes waiting to get inside. American base = American traditions, yeah that sounds about right. A lot of the kids are half-Japanese half-American since a lot of the personal marries Japanese women (or men, but I’m guessing that there aren’t that many). In any case, Kyle and Asami got to go inside and get some sort of permission papers as they’re military and Japanese respectively. Me, Liz and David got to wait outside the building and when Kyle and Asami returned we could go inside. We had to show our passports as well before we could go in. Apparently, they don’t allow people from certain countries to enter the bases. In any case, we entered the base and it wasn’t like anything I imagined. Imagined it to be more military but I guess we could only see the civilian side of the base from where we were. In any case, it was kind of surreal and creepy though. 100 meters behind us was Japan and now we were standing in America, but it wasn’t really America either. I’ve never been to the US before so I don’t know for sure what it looks like. Apparently the US bases even looks different compared to the outside in US as well. It was very open, clean and sort of plain but yet there were restaurants, a department store, a supermarket and so on. It was very peculiar to say the least.

In any case, we checked out the department store first. It wasn’t all THAT big but it had sufficient stuff for my hometown to be jealous. I found some nice Quicksilver t-shirts in there for $16 apiece and that’s like less than half the price you buy them for in Sweden or Japan. When I got to the cashier though, I was greeted by “Where’s your military ID?”. Apparently you need a military ID in order to shop here, except for restaurants. I was going around with Asami and Kyle and the others had gone their way. We were supposed to meet up 5 minutes later though so I fetched Kyle to buy it for me.
Happy ending!

Then we got to the supermarket and god there were a lot of food and stuff there. I’ve never been to a store with American food and things like that so this was kind of exciting. I managed to get hold of some nice things such Pop tarts with banana split taste, Reese’s (chocolate + peanut butter candy), some Pringles taste I’ve never seen and so on. I also bought minced meat as it was _really_ cheap. I don’t know how much it weights in grams, but I’m guessing it’s like 500g or so for not even $3 which is even cheaper than Sweden. I felt a bit like a child in a toy store actually as there were so many things for very cheap prices there. I managed to hold back some though! Asami bought only like chips and candy though!


After the supermarket we went to meet up with a friend of Kyle’s who has been stationed in Fussa since 6 weeks earlier. We went to a restaurant called Chili’s and it was kind of what I imagined. The food was really good, but the since of the meals were like made for two people or maybe even three. However, as I said the food was really good though. I had a “margarita grilled chicken” and along with that were baked beans and some sort of rice with small taco stripes.




That’s it for today though! Good night!

Today has been one of those days I’ve just been inside and studying. I woke up at 9 and went for a jog before I ate breakfast. So far I’ve finished my report for the Hakone trip which isn’t even due until the middle of november. I felt like it was time to do it now though before I start ”forgetting” about it and I’ve done at least one report out of a few.  We’re supposed to write a small essay for our graduation book as well (everyone are) and other than that we have a to do another report of whatever topic we want to related to Japan.

The food in Japan is good. The most unfortunate thing is that some things are more expensive than others. Meat for an example is very expensive and so is instant coffe, yoghurt and cereals among other things. I eat yoghurt and cereals every morning and I usually eat the branflakes type for fibres.
Yoghurt is very expensive here compared to Sweden. It costs about 170 yen for like 400g. There yoghurt isn’t the same either as in Sweden. The yoghurt here is like Turkish or Greek yoghurt while the Swedish one is more like a thicker form of milk. Maybe that’s why it’s so expensive. But still, the yoghurt tastes good and all, so except for the price it’s all nice.
The fiber cereals here costs a fortune as well compared to Sweden. I’m not quite sure why though, because Sweden is importing most of the fiber cereals from the US as well. 240 gram of fibre cereals costs about 420 yen, which is really expensive. The package is like half the size of the ones in Sweden as well.


Today though, Kyle went to a US military base here in Tokyo to buy some American food. I asked him to buy some cereals if the package was bigger and cheaper. Of course, it was both bigger and cheaper. It was half the price but double the size which is awesome. I also asked him to buy pop-tarts! The oh so awesome pop-tarts which can’t be bought in Sweden at all. Two packages of pop-tarts is just what I needed!





Tonight I will eat udon and my own vegetable wook mix. The good thing about Japan is that they sell cheap vegetables, at least their own produced ones such as enoki mushrooms, daikon, negi and so on. I’ve noticed that the potatoes however are expensive as hell compared to Sweden, but then again Swedes eat alot more of it just as Japanese eat alot more rice.

I've written two posts today. Be sure to check out the one before this post.

Today a few of us went to Asami’s, Ryosuke’s and Yuki’s campus as they were having a school festival there. I’ve never been to one so I didn’t really know what to expect. We started out from Shimotakaido around 10 o’clock. We weren’t many JLSP students at all who were going just me, Stephanie, Lina and her boyfriend Lucas and Chris. Asami was with us all the time as well.
So at Shimokitazawa, we were going to change trains but we went out the wrong exit. All of the sudden, Chris was gone. We looked back behind us but he wasn’t showing up. We waited for about 5 minutes but still nothing. We thought he might’ve gone ahead to the platform already, but that didn’t seem to be the case. Since we had no way of getting hold of Chris (he doesn’t have a cell phone and tends to disappear and reappear as he sees fit during times we do group activities) we went on without him.

We arrived at Mutsuai Nichidaimae, the station, around 12 o’clock and the campus was very close to the station. The stairs down from the station are a bit special though.  As we descended the stairs Asami told us to look behind us at the stairs. I didn’t really get it at first but turned backwards and understood what was so cool about it.



As you can see, that’s what was cool. Before I studied at Stockholm’s University, I studied at Linköping’s University. There’s a slope leading towards campus which is called the “Logo slope”. Every summer before the new term starts, members of different groups and programs paint their logo on the slope. It’s exactly what they’re doing on these stairs but in this case only one program is doing the job.



In any case, as we got to the campus there were a lot of people there since it was open house. Before I move on, I want to add that I asked Lina’s boyfriend Lucas to buy some Djungelvrål and Turkisk Peber. These two sorts of candies are very popular in Sweden and tastes very good or at least to a Swede. Japanese people dislike concentrated tastes such as too much soy sauce or food with too much fat in it. Thus I took a bag of djungelvrål with me to the festival as I wanted to introduce it to my friends. After Asami and Yuki tasted it Asami wanted as many of her friends as possible to taste it so about every person we met on campus got one. There were even a few who liked it! Djungelvrål is kind of special. It’s very salty first but once the first layer of the taste is gone (the salty taste) the licorice part kicks in. Licorice is very good actually and most of the Japanese are OK with it as licorice is sweet. However, it’s usually the first layer of salt which makes them go all crazy. Here, let me show you:





From candy to the food and dessert stands. There were a lot of different stands with different kinds of food and desserts. We ate stirred fried innards which was surprisingly good. However, the consistency of the actually innards was very weird. I’ve never eaten this kind of food before, but it was still good. Number two was chijimi which is the Korean version of okonomiyaki. They were also selling Nihon Daigaku's own produced sausages, bacon, vegetables and other kinds of things as well. The campus we were at is specialized in animals and such as well as plants.
As for the sweeter things the most curious thing I ate was “age-ice”. Age stands for, in terms of food, deep fried and the ice part for ice cream. Yeah, that’s right. Deep fried ice cream. From the looks of it, they have the ice cream inside a sort of bread like ball, they dip it into some sort of mix and then into the bread crunches or whatever they use. And it was godly good. I don’t think I’ve eaten such simple yet “complex” ice cream before.



Later during the afternoon Mark and Kyle joined forces with us. Mark had apparently gotten his scholarship today (240 000 yen + another 80 000 next month) and he was very happy. He’d been having some problem with money since he had expected to get the scholarship in time. Apparently there have been some problems at JASSO and all of us who are going to receive the money have to wait. At first they said the end of October or even November, but we got a mail last night and apparently we’re going to receive our scholarship on Monday! Wooooo! There was also a man cheerleader squad. It's kind of cool actually. It's more like military, heavy drums and deep voices screaming. I've played a game called Ossu! Tatakae! Ouendan! and this reminded me of it!





During around 5 o’clock we disbanded and I and Asami went to Machida to check out the 4 stories 100 yen shop. It was crazy; I’ve never seen so many things which sell for 100 yen.  They had everything from tableware and cleaning products to food and snacks. We went there to look for some sort of hats or something for Halloween next week. Well, actually we’re going to celebrate it on the 30^th at Torikizoku (the Izakaya nearby the station) and then go back here to drink some more until 31^st. In any case, I’ve never celebrated Halloween in Sweden and it seems to be fairly new in Japan as well. We went to Tokyu Hands in Shinjuku yesterday and some of the JLSP-students bought full costumes.  I’m not sure what to buy and if I’m going to buy anything at all. But we’ll see.

Last night I actually cooked meatballs for the first time. I wanted to make something Swedish for Asami and I simply picked the most simplest of all of the dishes. The result was pretty good and I’m proud of myself! Too bad meat is so expensive in Japan compared to Sweden, but then again the fresh fish here is much cheaper. I made sauce for it as well, but the only problem is that they don’t seem to have anything else than like REALLY fat cream here. In Sweden we usually cook with 15% or lower when making sauce, but the one I used now was like 45%. It became very thick to say the least, but still good. I’m surprised how simple it is to make your own sauce without having to use any mixes.

I’m still waiting for the answer if I can stay for another term here or not. We were told that they were going to have an answer for us by this weekend but nothing yet. I’m kind of nervous because the time just flies by. We only have a bit over a month to go before the term is over and my current flight back home is scheduled for the 7^th December. If I’m able to stay, I’ve already sorted out the questions about my insurance, rebooking of my flight and so on. I just need the damn confirmation now!

This is a topic I’ve wanted to do for a while now and I’m going to do a speech about it in class next week. Might as well jump on the bandwagon and write it down in my blog. In Sweden, going by train is a pretty simple and nice thing. You make a reservation for a seat and you just go. Sometimes on shorter distances you don’t have or can’t reserve seats. If you don’t make a reservation and just jump onto the train and buy a ticket from the conductor you might get a seat for a while, but if someone has reserved that spot you have to give it up once that person gets on the train.

If I’m not completely mistaken, you can only reserve seats for the Shinkansen (Bullet train type) in Japan while the regular ones you have to literally fight your way inside the train in order to get an open seat. If you’re working in Tokyo but live outside in another prefecture, you still need to fight for the seats. If you don’t get a seat during the rush hour, you’re pretty much done for and have to stand for the rest of the trip. Hell, I don’t even possible to get a seat unless you’re getting on the train on the first station. I remember two years ago when I was here during the summer. I went to a language school in Tokyo but lived with my grandparents in Ibaraki-ken. It took about 1 hour from Ushiku station to Takadanobaba. Fortunaly, I mostly had my classes on the afternoon so I didn’t have to worry about the rush hour, but there were some mornings I did have to worry about them and it was chaos.

Now when I live inside Tokyo and have to go to school on the morning it’s like going to war. Some days are worse than others but the most irritating thing is that it’s getting colder outside but as soon as you step inside a train it gets hot as a cooking pot. I usually have my jacket with me, but I have it in the bag cause in a train full with people it’s irritating to have more luggage than necessary.
So, war you ask? The only place where there’s a subway and it’s in Stockholm and not even that can be compared to the mornings here. Ok, it’s not THAT bad, but if a Japanese takes a manin densha in Stockholm, he or she will probably feel that it is 20% full (creds to Mikael for all the data collection) and go like ”Oh there are so many spots here and there left in this train”.
The manin densha in Tokyo, however, don’t have even have one decimeter to spare. Once you’re inside squeezed between all the people you’ll have to stick to that spot, shut up and focus on not to swing to much from the trains irregular movements. Fortunaly you don’t have to worry about falling down since you’re surrounded by human cushions, and they most likely think the same way about you.

Now, where to put your hands when you’re in a train like this? There’s a thing called ”chikan” in Japan which means molester. As far as I know, I’ve never seen one or heard of any at all since I got here. Most people try to keep their hands occupied by holding them high, holding their bags, hold on to the supporter ring (I’ve no idea what to call them, but they’re the ones hanging down from the above which you can hold onto so you don’t tumble) or something like that. The higher up you hold your hands, the better so to speak. Because if you hold your hands below your belt and are unlucky, I’m guessing that you can be misunderstood for being a molester.
During rush hours, some of the train cars are for women only, which is a great idea but most train cars are for both sexes. I usually hold either both my hands on my bag or one hand on the bag and the other in the support ring or if possible both hands in the ring.

There’s also something holy about the Japanese trains. The Japanese people tend to be very quiet on the trains. In fact so quiet that it’s almost embarrassing to have your iPod running. I usually lower my volume when I enter a train just because I’m afraid I’ll make too much noise. Of course, if there are friends inside the same train they make conversation, but usually it’s not that loud. However, when westerners step into the train that section of the train becomes like a farm. Westerners tend to talk alot and it’s especially notable in trains where most Japanese are quiet. Of course, as a westerner myself it’s hard not to talk but I try to do it in a low voice or not at all. The train is like a sanctuary to the Japanese and most of the time when they sit down they sleep. I hardly see anyone sleep on the subway in Stockholm. The train is also the perfect place to check blogs, other home pages and your mail. Since most people go by train pretty far it’s another good way to spend their time if they don’t have a seat.

There’s also a few things that are pretty much different in some Japanese trains. There’s alot of advertisement. In Stockholm’s subway trains there are a few ads, but in Japanese trains they’re everywhere. And on top of that, there’s no limit to what kind of advertisement they can put up either. The most bizarre ads I’ve seen are the pornography ads. Funny thing is that the Japanese doesn’t seem to be bothered by it at all or at least not on the outside.

One of the things which is “annoying” about Japanese railway is that there are like a hundred different lines. Of course most of them go to the bigger hubs such as Shinjuku and Ueno but there are so many lines to keep track of, where they go, which stations the different types of trains stop at and so on. There are usually local, rapid and express trains but in some cases even rapid-express. You have to be careful not jumping on the wrong train, because rapid and express trains don’t stop at every station. Thus it’s necessary to keep a look out for which one to take. The safest way to go is by local of course, but it takes longer time since it stops at all stations.

So last Friday we went on a bus tour to Hakone with the JLSP students and volunteers matching the JLSP student numbers.  Two busses, lot’s of talk and snacks made a real nice bus trip. So anyway, Hosaka-sensei appointed me and Kyle as translators in our bus. Actually, I did all the translation in the bus while Kyle got to do it out at Hakone. It was kind of embarassing but still educational.  I seem to have the knack for translation Japanese -> English rather than English -> Japanese. Listening comperhension is fun though, and you get to be proud of yourself for being able to understand what is being said. I give myself a pat on my back as I write this. Good job Simon. The university has a ”buddy-system” for these type of trips, which basically means they pair a JLSP student with a Japanese volunteer student from Nihon University. The Japanese students are asked to use as much Japanese as possible since after all we are here to learn Japanese. My buddy was Mitsuyoshi, real nice guy and funny as well.

So anyway, the bus ride took about 2 hours, including a 10 minute break at some sort of rest stop. Funny enough this rest stop had a real big store for omiyage (presents) and some small food stands. I think it’s the biggest rest stop I’ve ever seen in my whole life. In Sweden you usually only see maybe a few restaurants and a toilet. I was kind of suprised of how well the toilets were being handled here.  Stopping at these kind of places you don’t expect a royal welcome from the toilets, but Japan is different (at least some parts).

Enough about toilet talk and let’s move on to the snacks. For some reason Japanese people have a tendency to bring lots, and I mean lots, of snacks with them for trips. Ikuho had brought with her snacks enough to feed a whole army. I’ve noticed that Japanese people eats alot of sweets. There are like crepes stands at every corner, icecream stands and what not. Of course, Swedes eat alot of snacks and candy as well, but I never though it was this popular in Japan. You’d think that Japanese people are eating raw fish and rice constantly but BUH BUH wrong. But then again, as a foreigner I can’t keep myself from eating all the macha (green tea) flavored candies, icecreams and frappuccinos. They are infact godsent and unbeatable, no doubt about it. Unfortunaly though for a student like me is tha they ’re expensive as hell, but then again it’s not like I buy them everyday either.

From sidetrack to maintrack, the bus trip was fun. I made some conversation with Mitsuyoshi. Infront of us were Liz and Ikuho and to the right of us were Kyle with his buddy Yuki and then David with Asami. We had a few good laughs and it was fun! I guess my need for flying or traveling alone has taken a turn cause it is more fun to travel together with someone in a bus or airplane. The bus tour included a tour guide as well, but in Japanese. There were alot of beginners in Japanese in the bus and I don’t think they understood what she said. Oh well, hardly anyone cared though. Most of the students were sitting and talking to each other instead.


 

We arrived at Hakone around 10 a.m and the weather was nice. Although not good enough to see Mt. Fuji during the day. We did get to see it during our way home though. We started out at Hakone shrine which was quite big and nice. But most shrines looks about the same and it didn’t stand out very much from the rest of the 10 000 shrines I’ve seen in Japan so far. There’re the usual things there such as charms, fortune telling and stuff like that. There was a wedding ceremony held there though and this is actually the second one I’ve seen so far held in a big tourist attraction place. When we went to Kamakura, there was a wedding ceremony being held there as well. I’d say it’s probably a bit embarassing but at the same time very nice. The people who gather around the ceremony to watch are not only watching it because it’s sort of a tourist attraction but also because they want to wish the groom and bride good fortune. As usually you clean your hands before you go in with what they call pure water. Hakone sort of lies at the foot of mount fuji so it was a bit chilly, so it was a good thing I brought my jacket. I didn’t wear it when we were at the shrine though. I didn’t die from it but it wasn’t like summer weather either so. They sold omochi there as well (rice cakes) with different flavors. Me, Asami, Mitsuyoshi and David shared a plate with different flavors and I ate the one with sesame which was really good.


  
I think the time was like 11:30 or something when we headed towards our next destination by bus, which was the Hakone Checkpoint. During Tokugawa period the Hakone Checkpoint was used as a measure to search people and to control the ones passing through. During the Edo period the checkpoint was the border to the Kanto region as well. In any case there were some exhibitions here with models showing how they worked during the Edo period.



After the checkpoint we went to eat food at a restaurant and oh my goodness it was really nice food. In Japan they call it “washoku”, which means Japanese style food. Japanese style food is usually divided into small dishes with different kinds of food. Small plates, but there are many of them. After the meal we went upstairs to the gift shop and I bought some ricecake (mochi) for my grandparents and for Masuda. I asked Masuda when we could meet to have a bite and talk some, but he hasn’t answered yet. I hope I can meet him soon!




There’s a big lake in Hakone as well. We crossed it by a pirate ship. Can you imagine? A pirate ship in a lake. First I thought, does this have a history to it? But that’s impossible. Who would build a pirate ship in a lake covered by forest and land. I mean, it’s not like you can raid a beach and then hide afterwards. Anyways, the view was beautiful from the boat. Since the weather was clear the sun was reflecting beautifully on the lake as well. Before we rode the boat, we bought some icecream and it was really nice. I hade one with sesame flavour. I think I’ve fallen in love with black icecreams and black mochis by now.




Once we crossed the lake, it was time to go by the ropeway. Since Hakone is surrounded by mountains you can get very nice views from the ropeway.  And from the ropeway, we could some steam coming out from the mountains. I was wondering what it was. They had been talking about some sort of black eggs before we got to Hakone, but I wasn’t really sure what it all meant except for that it was black instead of white on the shell and that you could eat it. Accordingly to legends, if you eat one egg you prolong your life by 7 years. Two eggs, 14 years and three eggs a whole life time (I think). In any case, I got my answer pretty quickly. Once we got to the top, it started to smell like rotten eggs all over the place. Apparently, the steam was sulphurgas and the eggs are boiled in the water thus making them black (but still edible).  Not so much of a pleasant experience for the nose, but it was still fun. After this small adventure it was time to head back home. The time was almost 5 p.m and we were pretty well synched with the schedule so it was all good.



The busride back home took longer than the way to Hakone. You can imagine it yourself, a Friday night and heading towards central Tokyo. Yeah, that’s right, lot’s of traffic. It took about 1.5 hour longer than going the other way but it was still expected from the very beginning. The teacher warned us about it beforehand so it was alright. Besides, we still had each other and there were lots of laughters and talking!

Between October 14th and 17th (Wednesday and Saturday) my good friend Johan from Stockholm stayed at my place. He’s been traveling for about 2 months in Japan and Korea but his trip ended last Saturday. I met with Johan a few weeks ago as well when he was in Tokyo after coming back from his trip to Korea. We’ve been talking alot about different stuff and it was good to have a familiar face around here. Since Johan was leaving soon Johan and me decided to have a small reunion with Ikuho, Midori and Gakuto. All three of them had been studying in Stockholm last year up till spring term this year. So Johan had made Korean food for us and was waiting eagerly for us to come home.
It’s been almost 5 months I think since I saw Gakuto last. He’s been busy studying and stuff like that so it’s no wonder he hasn’t time. Midori and Ikuho are both volunteers so I meet them from time to time. It was very nice being able to have this get together and eat good food. Johan’s cooking skills are as good as ever.



During Sunday I went to visit my grandparents. They live in the Ibaraki province in a city called Ushiku. From Shimotakaido it takes about 2 hours tog get to Ushiku station. On the way to my grandparents I walked from the station and it took about another 25 minutes. The weather was as clear as ever and the sun was frying my back. I wish I had brought an extra t-shirt with me but whatever.
Ushiku is a pretty small town for a Japanese and after living in Tokyo for over 1 month it really does feel like a rural area. There are about 70 000 people living there but the town itself is pretty big I think compared to a Swedish town… Well, compared to Karlskoga if anything.

I arrived at my grandparents house and was greeted by my grandmother. I was very happy to see both my grandparents since it’s been over 2 years since I met them. They’re old as well so while I have the chance I would like to see them more often. Unfortunaly, there’s alot to think about here in Tokyo as well and I’m practically busy almost everyday. My grandfather is 92 years old now and to me it’s an age I can’t even comperhend yet. He’s been living for 70 years longer than me and it’s hard to imagine what it’s like. They had ordered some sort of Chinese food and it was delicious. Apparently the chef was Taiwanese but I guess that happens pretty often. I mean, in Sweden there are alot of sushi restaurants which are run by Chinese or Thai.
And for the first time I’ve heard my grandfather talk quite alot. He can be pretty quite but that day he talked alot. We talked about life, the Japanese language, me being here and all sorts of stuff.
Around 5 p.m we’ve been chatting and eating for a while and I was about to head home. My grandmother offered to take me to the station by cab, which I refused of course since it’s not that bad walking, but she insisted and so we went. I bid my grandfather farwell and went to the station where I bid my grandmother farwell as well.
Asami is collecting Hello Kitty cellphone straps and in each city and or prefecture they sell straps which are exclusive to those areas. So anyway I bought two of them and headed back for Shimotakaido.



About two hours later I got home and was pretty tired but as usual I had homework and quizes. This week is a very busy one… So anyway, the camera works very well but I haven’t taken that many pictures with the Tamron macro yet. I’m thinking of buying a cheap tripod because taking photos with macro without a tripod is very hard. You can imagine yourself when you’re zooming very far and naturally your hands are shaking.

So that’s it for now, I hope you enjoyed my rambling and the pictures. Take care until next time.

There's always something peculiar about Japan. The country never seems to cease suprising me. Two days ago we went to Yokohama for some sightseeing... and some German October Fest. I kept asking myself why they have an October Fest every year in Japan. But it might not be that weird since the culture exchange is larger than ever nowadays. Not that I mind having a beer together with my friends and all the other 10 000 people sitting around you singing, knocking their glasses together and talking with complete strangers at other tables.
The atmosphere at the October Fest was very nice indeed. In one way undescribable because you have to see and experience it yourself in order to understand. You would think that there would be some kind of ruckus since the place was so big and there were so many different people going in and out of there. But then again, the Japanese are a very nice people and I don't think I could imagine two Japanese people starting a brawl.

The day started out at Shinjuku. We all met up at Shinjuku east exit and went from there to Shibuya and then to Yokohama. The Japanese volunteers always set the meeting time 30 minutes or up to 1 hour earlier than the ”real” appointed time. Why? Because many of the exchange students are late for the meeting time while Japanese people are almost always right on time.

In any case, we got to Yokohama around 12 O’clock I think and the first thing we did was to give people free time to do what they wanted before we were going to the October Fest. So anyway, we split up in China Town and walked around for a bit. They were selling Nikuman everywhere. Nikuman is sort of a dumpling / bun with a meatball inside of it. Very tasty and nice but when me, Atsuko, Makoto and a french girl wanted to eat some real food all we could find was Nikuman. After a while we finally found a quite alright place to eat at. We ordered some different dishes and they were all very nice. For an example was a special type of yakisoba. Yakisoba is a dish which includes noodles, vegetables and some meat (or whatever you want to put in there) and sauce of course. Mix it all and then you stir fry it. The Chinese version however was a bit different than the Japanese. It was hard on the outside and soft on the inside. Sort of like okonomiyaki, but made out of noodles.
After we ate we went to a buddhist temple which was of Chinese style.

It’s been a while since I wrote on the blogg. I’ve been busy with lots of different stuff. Excursions, studying, girlfriend and whatnot. And all of the sudden the blog is going English? Yeah, it is and it’s going to be permanent. One of the courses we take called Japanese Mind requires us to write a journal, blog or a paper by the end of this semester. Since I’ve already started blogging, I might as well use it to get some grades as well! Our teacher for this course Peter Mizuki is a hilarious fellow and I wish there were more people like him teaching out there. Making people laugh at the same time as you teach is a good way to go. There’s actually one more teacher who does this, Kaneko-sensei who teaches our D-class on Tuesdays. He’s one hell of a teacher as well. Last week we had him for the first time and after a whole afternoon with him, full of laughter, I become so tired (in a good way of course).

So I had my first ”test” in Japanese last week in grammar, kanji and expressions. I got 47,5/50 which is pretty good, especially since they hardly gave us any time at all (like 15 minutes). I didn’t even get the chance to review my answers before I had to turn it in so I’m pretty happy about it. And of course, the screw ups I made were simple mistakes I shouldn’t have done at all.

I’m pretty busy everday here actually. We have kanji quizes, homework and stuff constantly. Ontop of that I try to socialize myself as much as I can because I really like hanging out with my friends here.
I’ve done the homework for tomorrow and prepared for Wednesdays kanji quiz already so I should be good until tomorrow at least. I have yet another speech on Thursday and speeches are killing me slowly everytime I have to do them. The weird thing is that I had no problem with speeches at Stockholm’s University, but here I choke quite often and it’s really getting irritating. I’m not sure what to think of it actually except that I should probably prepare even more and ontop of that try to relax more as well. Oh well, it’s not like speeches has been my strongest side at all anyway.

Anyway, a few things has happened except for school these days. I recently fell for a lovely young lady called Asami. It’s hard to explain but I feel very comfortable around her. She’s funny, talkative, cute and very helpful (correcting my Japanese and such). I went to her house the other day and was offered to eat supper there as well. It was kind of awkward, truth be told, cause I was very nervous. Asami laughed at me cause I was so ”stiff” (sitting in a very stiff postition usually called ”seiza” in Japanese. You know, the one where they sit like they’re made out of stone?). Since my Japanese is still ”under construction” so to speak, it’s still hard to make proper conversation, which also irritates me. I want to get better and real soon for that matter. Since Asami don’t know English I’m forced to use Japanese everyday, which is very good. Funny thing since Asami’s dad mentioned the word ”nenkin” and I had absolutely no idea what it meant… and of course my electronical dictionary was in my bag upstairs. That was kind of embarassing as I had to apologize for my bad Japanese and only nod.

A few days ago our dear friend Masuda-san who lives in Narita sent me a box with fruits.
It had all sorts of stuff in it, like banans, apples, mikan, kaki (Japanese persimmon), grapes and of course the fruit of the season: Nashi pear. Masuda was very kind to send me these and it seems I don’t have to buy fruits for a while at least. The Japanese nashi pear tastes very good and so does everything else here for that matter.




Above: Look at the size of that thing. I don't really want to know what kind of crop dusting they have here.

Japanese food is one of the highlights of being here I think. I made okonomiyaki the other day for Asami and David and I was well praised. I think of it as my ”speciality” when it comes to cooking. First it was supposed to be only me and Asami, but we bumped into David on our way home and it was his birthday so we couldn’t just leave him hanging. It’s very easy to make okonomiyaki though.
One of the other things I love is that they have fresh vegetables, fishes and meat that you never see in Sweden (or at least not very often). Especially corn, I love corn. I buy corn every time I get the chance.



I’m also working out here… Well, I don’t know if I can say it’s properly or not, but since the dumbbells in Japan costs a fortune (12 kilograms for like 6000 yen? No thanks) I’ve filled up a few 2 litre bottles with water and shoved them into my traveling luggage and using the luggage for bicep training. For triceps, I do diamond push-ups instead which works quite well… I think. Not as isolated as with dumbbells though, but whatever.
I’m also jogging quite often here. Kyle showed me a route which takes about 30 minutes depending on the pace. Even though I run in a pretty fast pace nowadays, it still takes around 30 minutes. But I’m pretty excited that it’s so simple just to take a jog in the middle of Tokyo. Well, it’s not the middle middle, but it’s still pretty central. Usually I go during evenings cause there is less traffic on the streets by then. I try to runt at least 3 times a week.

We often go out to Izakaya here in Japan. Izakaya is actually pretty awesome. Compared to Swedish pubs, you can drink and eat alot more than you can do in Sweden for the same amount of money. Usually it’s around 2000 yen for like 5-6 beers and lots of food which just doesn’t exist in Sweden.
The good thing about Izakaya is that you eat while you drink, thus making the body ”stronger” against alcohol. I have to diminsh the reputation of asian people being weak towards alcohol. There drinking culture here is quite crazy come to think about it. Working in a company as a life-long-employee often requires you to go out and drink alot with your collegues or bosses or whatever.

Yesterday me, Asami, David, Ryosuke, Kyle and Yuki went to the Global Fiesta 2009 at Hibiya Park. It was nice with alot of shops and food. It’s some sort of festival where NGO: s and such makes appearances and trying to win people over for their cause. They also had some sort of stage with some people appearing (celebreties of some sort I’m guessing). There was one older man who apparently was a news presenter on TV and very famous for being able to explain complex news in a simple way, so that school children would understand too. Asami got to take a picture of her and him and then we went to hear him talk about world maps. It was quite intresting actually, because I never thought about it before. The world maps are different depending on where you buy them. For an example, if I buy a map in Sweden, it would have Europe in the centre of the map while Japan is to the east, America to the west and so. Buy a map in America and you have of course America in the middle. Buy a map in Japan and you have Japan in the middle and so on.
He talked about some terretorial conflicts because of world maps as well.








We’re also in the middle of the planning stage for a trip to Okinawa in November. I’ve never been there but it looks like a very beautiful place. Accordingly to Ryosuke, it’s still warm even in November which is very crazy thought to someone like me, who comes from Scandinavia. Hell, it’s still warm in Tokyo even now. Can’t even walk 10 meters before I start to sweat.

In any case, everyday is a lively day and I’m loving it. Even though we have alot of things going on in school I love it. Learning Japanese and being here at the same time is nice and I’m forced to use the language constantly since the lessons are held in Japanese as well.