Now and Then, Here and There
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.
After the temple we headed towards the ocean and what a view! We met up with some other people here including Asami, Takashi and the finnish army.
So, now it was time for the October Fest! There were loads of people there, both foreigners and Japanese. The atmosphere was great and I’m sad to say this but it was a good thing that the german beer was expensive. Because on Tuesday I had a test on chapter 2. I bought Erdinger Weissbier for me and Asami and it was a nostalgic taste. I haven’t had an Erdinger in a while so it was a nice change from the Japanese beer. Takashi bought the same and both he and Asami loved it. They served the beer in real glasses and in this case the special glass which you’re supposed to drink Erdinger out of. The deposit for each glass was 1000 yen and I actually decided to keep the glass and give the other one two Asami’s father. I’ve always wanted one of these so why not! Asami’s father seemed happy about it, although he apparently laughed. You don’t see these kind of glasses in any Izakaya in Japan.
Around 7 O’clock we went to the amusement park to ride the Paris wheel. Me and Asami got our own gondola while the others had to fit into two other gondolas. Since it was dark, the view was awesome. The reflections of the lamps in the ocean and all that… Yummy. Unfortunaly, I didn’t take any pictures but I hope you can imagine it at least!
So I had a test this week and my score was 49/50 this time. Better than last time actually and I’m happy about it. I’m hoping to get 50/50 next time. There’s alot of new grammar and kanjis that we need to study and alot of these grammatical expressions are similiar to each other, but still might be used differently. So it’s hard to keep track of them all.
Yesterday my good friend from Stockholm, Johan, came to stay with me for a few days. He’ll be here until Saturday which is the day he’ll be going back to Sweden. He’s been in Japan and Korea for about two months and a week. Johan is of Korean ethnicity and you can imagine how much more Korean he looked after 2 months in Asia!
Tomorrow the JLSP classes are going to Hakone on a field trip. It’s going to be very exciting because I’ve never been there before. It seems like Hakone is very nice during autumn with all the red leaves and that. For this trip we’re supposed to write a small report (about two pages long) about Hakone. Mizuki-sensei told us that we can write in all kinds of different ways. From a tourist perspective, historical perspective and so on. We’ll see what kind of report I will do. I’m thinking a mix of photography and tourist.
Speaking of photography, I bought a D200 house and as well as a Tamron 90mm macro. The D200 house cost 63 000 yen and the lens 29 000. I’m quite pleased over my decision of buying these two things because first of all the D40 is getting boring. It takes great pictures but with the D200, which takes even better pictures, I can adjust alot of settings easier. Ontop of that, the body is built out of magnesium instead of plastic which makes it more sturdy and better weather resistance.
I haven’t tried the Tamron much at all yet, but I will get there. I’m going to run around one of these days and take lots of macro shots of stuff in Tokyo.
I’ve also decided to stay for another term. Which means I won’t be coming home until april or something I’m guessing. I sent an e-mail to my student advisor in Stockholm and asked him for permission. I got it, as long as it doesn’t effect the amount of student which the university can send next year.
I’m also getting the JASSO scholarship. I heard that it’s 320 000 yen so that’ll help alot as well!
Take care until next time!
