Long time no see
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.
