Kaspar! in Japan

Holiday Season in Japan!

2007-12-24T13:56:00.000+09:00

I've done it again, I totally forgot about my blog. It's hard to come on here and update every day, especially when I'm just trying to enjoy every last day I have left. The end of my stay here in Japan is inching closer and closer, it's hard to even think that within months I'll be setting foot back in Australia for the first time in almost 12 months.

I think instead of long winded accounts of my time since my last blog entry, I'll keep this one shorter and a bit more focused. It's that time of the year again, it's Christmas time, a time that even comes around every year here in Japan! This country with a tiny percent of Christian population, even here the holiday comes in full force.

Walking down the streets of Kyoto it's hard to forget that the holiday you either love or hate is drawing nearer and nearer. Bright lights hang from the shopping streets, giant Santa's climbing chimneys hang from the roof. Kyoto Station has an amazing, gigantic Christmas tree making it even more beautiful than usual. That, and no matter where you go there are fantastic light displays everywhere. Here they call them simply 'Illumination', and they're a much bigger part of Christmas here than they are in Australia.

One of the biggest, is Kobe's Luminaire. I went to see this with a few friends about a week ago, and it was amazing. It's essentially a gigantic light structure that is put up every year and has been going since the tragic Kobe earthquake. Words and photos can't do it justice. It is just amazing.

One thing is very different about the holiday season in Japan, though. It is very commercial (One could argue it's commercial everywhere, though), with little meaning beyond the decorations, lights and gifts. That, and instead of spending it with family members, it is a night for couples to spend together and go out for dinner. Meaning places are always booked out with mass amounts of couples wanting to spend a special night together.

In reverse, the upcoming New Year celebration is a very family orientated event for Japanese people. Lots of people living away from their extended families in other prefectures travel home for the period and there are a lot of traditional things to take part in. I'm looking forward to both experiences!

So how am I spending Christmas night? I will be going to dinner with my girlfriend, Erika and hopefully having a great night out, despite my predictions for awful crowds. I hope everyone back home has a very Merry Christmas, and of course a Happy New Year!

Chevalier College

2007-12-17T15:42:00.000+09:00

Recently a group of kids from Chevalier College in Bowral, NSW, came to my school for about 2 weeks. Chevalier is sister schools with Murasakino, so it's a common event for kids from there to come here and kids from Murasakino to go to Chevalier for short exchanges. This group were students of Japanese at Chevalier and ranged in age from 13-17. They came with their Japanese teacher, as well as some other teacher aides as a class trip.

I'd been asked to help them out during their time here. Both by just being a bridge for communication and by helping teach them Japanese along with the people who usually teach me Japanese, a group of university student volunteers.

It was a great 2 weeks. It was very odd to have this group of 14 or so Australians suddenly hanging around the place, but I soon got used to it and it was a welcome change. Actually, being around them made me notice just how much I myself had changed since I came here. At times it was hard to fit in, and I found myself being more comfortable around the Japanese students than the Australian ones! That said, they were a great bunch of people, and it was a pleasure having them around for that time.

Birthday

2007-12-03T13:45:00.000+09:00

On December 3rd I finally turned 18. Back home in Australia this means I'm a full fledged adult. Gaining the ability to drink, smoke, vote, and a million other responsibilities I'm sure. In Japan it means I'm allowed to marry haha.

Japan's age of adulthood is 20, meaning most of the things Australian kids do to celebrate their coming of age are off-limits here for me. Interestingly enough, I am old enough to go to clubs and gamble in Pachinko parlours (Most other forms of gambling are illegal), but not anything else. My birthday started off lacklustre. I didn't feel like I'd turned 18, and it was a school day to boot.

A lot of people just had no idea it was actually my birthday, although I had received some really nice midnight emails from friends wishing me the best, and one of my closer friends at school went to the effort of buying a present, which made me really happy.

It got better, I guess. By the end of the week I had eaten 3 different cakes from different people, each with my name written on a sign made out of chocolate on the top. They were really delicious, and it was the first time I can remember receiving a personalised cake like that in a fairly long time. So to get 3 in one year was amazing!

I am 18 now. The change didn't happen over night, I think I've slowly becoming more and more like an 18 year old adult over this whole year. If I had spent this time in Australia, I feel like I might have been able to drink and all, but I probably still would have had the mindset of a kid.

JLPT

2007-12-02T20:43:00.000+09:00

December 2nd marked the 2007 日本語能力試験 (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) for me here in Kyoto. I was fairly confident about it, seeing as I ended up opting to take 3rd Level, despite being told I should be able to go for 2nd Level by a few people. After sitting the exam I can say they were probably right, after all. Level 3 was a bit too easy and I often found myself finishing the exams too quickly and having a lot of time left over.

I suppose in retrospect it might have been better to challenge myself a bit more, although there's always next year. The results get sent out in February so then I'll know for sure exactly how I did.

The day started off pretty routinely. I woke up, got ready, and got a lift from my host dad to a nearby train station where I was meeting some friends who were also taking the exam. From there we walked to Kyoto University and were running a bit short on time. En route I noticed I'd forgotten to bring any form of ID. The book we got sent told us to bring either our Alien ID Card or a Passport along, and I had neither. After panicked emails to host family and whatnot, it turned out I didn't even need them. They weren't asked for even once.

Did anyone else reading sit the exam? I'd like to know how others thought about the difficulty.

Host Change

2007-11-28T17:04:00.000+09:00

I changed host families yet again, making this the third and final family I will live with in Japan. As always the change was met with a bit of worry and the like. I had adjusted well to life with my second family and was anxious about the new one. I found out, that actually, they were people I had already met before. They hosted a Thai girl that came to my school briefly, and I had met them to go to a festival together and visited their house before. It gave me a bit of relief and I felt like the move would be okay.

Thankfully, it was. I've managed to adjust well to this family too, and it's taken a bit. I've had to sacrifice stuff like morning showers, but benefited by being a lot closer to school - a 10 minute commute compared to a 1 hour plus commute at the previous home.

The family is really interesting. The mother, father, 2 sisters (20 and 23) and grandmother and grandfather all live at home. There is a brother who lives in Tokyo at the moment, too. Both sisters are easy to get along with and always interesting, and the family is in general very warm and friendly. I'm glad I've got to experience 3 very different, very positive home stays while I've been here.

The picture above is of my second family, the Ota family.

PIEE Trip and Speech Contest

2007-11-23T15:16:00.000+09:00

Since I have a day free, I figure I should go back a bit and talk about some of the larger things that have happened since my last update. On November 23-25th I went down to Tokyo yet again to take part in the PIEE trip, which meant meeting up with heaps of people I hadn't seen since our first orientation in Tokyo.

A few of the other guys living in the Kansai region and I decided to go down by night bus. This was either a good money saving idea, or a bad idea period. It was difficult to sleep, since they kept turning the lights on and speaking over the microphone every time they stopped, and besides that it was just uncomfortable. They made a pit stop at about 3am and we braved the freezing cold to get drinks from the vending machines and make use of the toilets. When I say freezing cold, I mean it. It was ridiculously cold outside, especially after having been in the warm bus for so long.

We arrived in Tokyo early in the morning, and met up with Azuma, a guy that works for PIEE and he took us around Ginza which was not all that interesting. Maybe it was just being really tired, but looking at pens wasn't what we were wanting to do. Besides this, I had been developing a very sore throat since the day before the trip and wasn't feeling tops. We had delicious ramen for lunch, but that was the only real saving point.

After meeting everyone at 1pm, we headed off to Akihabara. One of the places I could have gone without going to. Sure, it's typical geek Japan culture, with no lack of dirt cheap electronics and suspect anime (Japanese animation) stores with even more questionable customers, but I'd already been there before and I feel there's so much more to Japan that they should be promoting besides anime and stereotypical geek culture.

In Akiba we split up into groups. Our group went to karaoke. Totally un-Akiba, and it was a short 1 hour trip due to time constraints, but fun nonetheless. I sung with a strained, sore throat... probably not the best idea. After meeting up again we headed back to the Olympic Center; the same place we spent a week at for our orientation. It was as we remembered, with the horrible food and all.

The next day was our big trip to Nikko, a very famous place known for the Toshogu Shrine, as well as famous waterfalls. We spent hours and hours on a bus, which wasn't the best. The trip there sucked, to put it simply. I was even more sick, I hadn't slept the night before and the heating in my room was so weak as to not be existent at all. That said, after that it was fun. We had a nice, very traditional, Japanese lunch. Saw some amazing architecture at the Shrine, went to the waterfall which was beautiful and covered with snow and ice. Then it was back home. With a short stop for Mos Burger dinner.

I slept much better that night, despite it being a late one, and then we were up bright and early for a trip to Odaiba. Odaiba is a manmade island in Tokyo, and home to the famous Fuji Television Station. I'd been there before, so it didn't bother me that our stay was a bit short. We broke into groups again and the group I was with visited Fuji TV, taking lots of touristy photos, and then lunch in a nearby mall.

After Odaiba we all split up and had to go home. We had decided to take the Shinkansen home, which I was happy of... being very sick by this point. The cold I had caught lasted over a week and wasn't much fun at all.

Another highlight was the speech contest held by PIEE in Osaka on December 15th. All the PIEE students from Kansai were supposed to attend, but the turnout wasn't that grand. About 8 of us showed up with speeches to present in Japanese. That said, the prizes weren't too bad. There were prizes for everyone. Ranging from an iPod shuffle, an electronic dictionary, and then the dud prizes like... gloves, hot packs, a calender, photo album and maid cookies.

My speech was about my own experience here in Japan and how I feel I have changed as a person because of it. I ended up winning first prize and chose the iPod, since nothing else really spoke to me haha. I was surprised and happy to win! I think the crunch line was the fact that I had tried to set the content of my speech apart from the rest.

Long Time, No Blog

2007-10-25T17:01:00.000+09:00

It's been at least 2 months since my last update here, and I have been meaning to change that for awhile. Thing is, whenever I sit down and actually have the time and energy to blog, my brain isn't exactly in the mood. I keep thinking of what I could write about and I think about it so much that I never decide on anything. Should I write about my day to day life? About the oddities and differences I notice every day in Japanese culture? Should I be writing for myself, or for an audience? Well this time I'm not going to think about anything and just let it run its course. Hopefully the result is somewhat coherent and understandable.

I said I would blog about a family trip to Nagano, but never did, and won't be dedicating this entry to it now. It was too long ago, and it the memories are still pretty vivid, but I don't feel like digging down and writing a long entry about it after so much time. I will say that it was fantastic, a real change of scenery. We stayed at a nice Japanese style hotel where I was treated to my first Onsen experience (Which was about as nice as bathing with total strangers can be, really), wearing a yukata and eating a ridiculously traditional and very expensive looking Japanese dinner. We went in a cable car over 3000m high and got to walk around at the top of the mountain, seeing wild monkeys, lots of cloud and some great scenery. Not much of a view down though, thanks to the aforementioned cloud.

After returning to school we soon had the school Bunkasai/Gakuensai (Culutral/School Festival). It was a great success and probably one of the highlights of my time at school here. Basically, every class puts together a performance of some sort. My school did the 2nd year performances on the Big Ground (Oval, minus the grass) and all the 2nd year classes put together individual dance routines with different themes and stories. Our class decided on a Pirates VS Ghosts theme for ours, starting with the Pirates waking the ghosts, then fighting them and eventually becoming friends and splitting into pairs to dance. It involved a pirate-specific dance (or ghost-specific, for the ghosts... I was a pirate) as well as the pair dance to be memorized. As such we had a LOT of practices. This involved being at school all day on Saturdays and Sundays (Often till about 5 or 6pm) and staying back on school days (Until around 6 or 7pm) for the weeks leading up to the festival. It was the best part though, I was able to feel like a real member of the class and bond with a lot of people I hadn't had a chance to yet.

The performance itself went well and I think if memory serves me right, we came 3rd in our year. Besides the bunkasai, we just recently had the Taiikusai (Sports Day), and I was entered into the 100m sprint thanks to a loss at Scissors/Paper/Rock. I expected to lose, and I did. I was unlucky put in a race with 4 other guys who were all undoubu (Sports Club) members and way more athletic than I. My loss was my slightly easier when everyone commented that I looked cool losing haha. What can I say to that? There were a lot more fun, non-serious events than in Australian carnivals. There were ones like the 6-legged race, where people had their legs tied together, or obstacles courses and such. Even one where you had to run out with a big elastic ring, pick up a sign with a description on it (Like... Person Wearing a Red Shirt, or a teacher's name etc.) and find a person in the crowd that matched the description, then tie yourselves together with the elastic before running to the finish line. The classes also had jump rope competitions where everyone in the class lined up and had to see how many jumps they could get in the time limit. We got 55 which wasn't too bad.

It's started to get really cold here, although there are still warm periods during the middle of the day. You really get the whole 4 seasons deal here in Japan, and they are proud of it. Japanese people will always say things like "Japan is the country of 4 seasons!", and then you may think "But, Australia has 4 seasons too! Doesn't every country?", but then you can see just how different the seasons are here. And you actually get the whole feel of the season. Autumn in Australia is a little colder, but little different... here the Maple Trees turn bright red before shedding all their leaves and it really is a sight to see.

I will definitely keep trying to upload photos and whatnot. I have had a lot of trouble with the program I was using not really wanting to work at all. So I will have to explore some options and get back to you. This all said, I will try to update more often. Sometimes I feel like I just want to keep the great memories in my head instead of forcing myself to write them down, but I suppose it's nice to keep a record and let people know what's going on.

Tokyo Stay (The One With the Maid Café)

2007-08-26T17:22:00.001+09:00

As I write these blogs it is actually the end of my one month Summer Vacation, considering my last update was at the beginning of the vacation, that’s a fairly big gap to fill! I suppose I really should start writing blogs more often so that I don’t get left with all these blank spots to fill in. I will try to recap the most major events of my holidays as best I can. Starting with the first and biggest event – my 10 day trip to Tokyo!

On the 29th of July I woke up much earlier than usual, as I had a very early Shinkansen to catch at 8:30 so that I could arrive at Shin Yokohama station, and meet up with fellow exchange student Craig, at 10:00. This was my second time riding the Shinkansen, or bullet train as most would know it as, and it’s definitely not as interesting the second time around. It’s extremely fast and super comfortable, but aside from this it’s essentially just another train. No complaints though, because it’s much more desirable than sitting on a long overnight bus ride.

I arrived in Shin Yokohama, met Craig and then we has to catch a few trains to get to his host family’s apartment in Kanagawa. This would have been easy, apart for the fact that someone actually accidentally took my transfer ticket from the gates as I was going out and we needed to cheat the system a bit to get through the next few gates at the other stations.

After finally getting to the station we had the task of carrying my excess amounts of luggage for the 15 minute walk from the station to Craig’s home. It wasn’t too bad with two people and the scenery was all new and interesting so it was exciting enough. When we arrived at the apartment, Craig’s host father Satoshi was just in the process of waking up, and Satomi was still asleep. Craig’s family are both very young (In their 20’s), not yet married, and often work late at night. It was such a different experience being able to live with them for such a long time and I really had great fun with them as well as Craig.

We decided we would go and see the new Harry Potter movie together that afternoon/night and headed to Kawasaki. This involved a fairly long bus ride, and the buses in Tokyo are different too! Here in Kyoto we pay for the bus fare when we get off the bus (At the front, you get on from the rear doors), but in Tokyo they use the same fare paying process as in Australia. It shocked me at first.

After we got to the shopping mall we had a look around and eventually got to the cinema where we went to see the movie. It was alright, I never have much expectation with regards to Harry Potter movies. After the film I went with Craig to search for the new Harry Potter book but soon found it futile, as with most places the shop was sold out. Eventually we ended up ordering it over Amazon, I got it and it was amazing!

Met up with Satoshimi (Satoshi and Satomi) again and we went to grab raamen for dinner, look around the stores a bit more and grab Starbucks before going home. It was storming and raining all this time, which was nice.

My trip essentially consisted of going with Craig around Tokyo and seeing/trying loads of things. Along the way I got to meet up with my friend Will from back in Brisbane who was also here on exchange, and Tomohiro and Ryoko. Tomohiro was at my school in Brisbane on exchange for a year and left towards the start of last year. Ryoko was a student teacher in my Japanese class for about the same time frame. We met them in Yokohama and went to China town and then a manmade island named Minato Mirai, where we got to ride a roller coaster and then eat dinner at an Okonomiyaki place. It was nice to be able to meet some familiar faces.

Other highlights included visiting a Maid Café in Akihabara with Samantha and Craig. This is something we were all pretty interested in doing, since there is absolutely nothing like it in Australia. Essentially it is something that first started in Akihabara, a district of Tokyo known to cater for the most elite of nerds (Particularly those fond of anime and most commonly referred to as otaku), but since the ‘Otaku Boom’ in which the geek culture got a load of media spotlight, the cafes have become more widely popular. When we went there was a variety of people there, including couples and a surprising number of female customers.

After lining up for about half an hour outside we were finally let in. When you walk in, all the waitresses (Who are fittingly dressed as anime stylised maids) all stop what they’re doing and turn to you to say “Okaeri nasai mase, goshujinsama” (Lit: Welcome home, master) and bow some of the lowest bows I’ve seen yet. One maid is then assigned to you and takes you to your seat.

We ordered drinks and Craig and I both decided to order a bowl of spaghetti as well, since I was keen to get a photo with a maid for a souvenir, and to do so you need to order both food and drink. The pricing was expensive for what you were getting, but it’s undeniable that the service was one of a kind. When the drinks came the maid serving us asked which colour straws we would like, and even poured and stirred the syrup into my glass for me!

In order to start drinking them though, we had to go through a little bit of an embarrassing routine. The maid said she was going to make the drinks more delicious by using her magic ‘moe’ powers (Moe is a hard concept to describe, it’s used in otaku culture to refer to burst of feeling one gets from something… for instance a cute girl dressed as a maid could be referred to as moe, or even the more subtle things like the lace on the dress or whatnot). She made a heart with her hands and then circled it around our glasses chanting ‘Moe, moe! Kyuu, kyuu’ and we had to do it too in order to get to our meals already.

The same deal happened with the food, but that was after the maid who brought it to us (A different one this time, and much more outgoing, I was glad that she took the time to have a bit of a conversation with us) stirred the sauce into the spaghetti for us. After we finished I ordered a photo for Samantha and me. This costs extra, but was worth it since I doubt I’ll be going back anytime soon.

We took our photos and then an event started. They have daily events where the audience participates in games with the maids who stand on the stage out the front. Aside from this you can pay to play kiddy board games with the maids like Uno, the alligator game where you push down the teeth until it bites down, and a similar one with a pirate in a barrel. This game was a big game of Scissors, Paper, Rock and the winner got invited out on stage and received a prize from the star maid of the café, Hitomi. Sadly all three of us lost in the first round! After the game had ended, and the nervous (No doubt socially inept) otaku had stumbled off of the stage, another special event started! One of the customers was having his birthday the next day and the maids helped him celebrate it by singing him happy birthday, giving him a cake and inviting him on the stage to have a photo with every maid there (Except of course the star maid, who took the photo for them). When asked what he thought of the café he replied with, “It’s the best! I’m going to come back for my birthday next year!”.

That day we also went to Odaiba with Samantha. Odaiba is a big manmade island in Tokyo and to get there you take a completely remotely operated monorail with no driver at all. On the way back we got into the front car and you can sit at the very front window and look at the tracks below.

Another highlight of the stay was making our way to Fuji Q Highland. This is a big theme park near the foot of Mt Fuji, and home to three very famous and record breaking roller coasters. One is called Fujiyama, and when it was opened it was the tallest in the world. Now it’s been defeated, but it’s still the tallest in Japan and was lots of fun. The second is Dodonpa and was once the record holder for fastest acceleration and it gets to over 150mph in less than 2 seconds. The most recently opened is called Ee Janai Ka!? and is the current record holder for the most loops/inversions in the world. This is partly due to the fact that you aren’t in the regular cars, but in seats that spin around in 360 degree circles as you are going around regular loops. It was very high too, around 75m in comparison to Fujiyama’s 80m.

Another of the rides we went on was a Haunted House that takes around 50 minutes to walk through. It was designed like an abandoned hospital and was very elaborate, and genuinely scary! One of the girls who came in with our group was with her boyfriend and kept throwing herself onto the ground in tears while screaming to be let out because she’d had enough. Makes you almost feel sorry for the guy haha.

All in all I had an amazing time, and Tokyo wasn’t a disappointing thing at all. I went to just about all the places I’d wanted to go and had fun going out to dinners with Craig’s host mother, her friends, and at another point with Craig’s friends who live in Australia. There weren’t any days where nothing at all happened, so as a result I was absolutely drained of energy when I got back.

I will hopefully write about a trip I had with my host family to Nagano soon!

Kaspar! in Katsura

2007-07-23T12:40:00.000+09:00

It's been almost a month since I last posted an update here, and over that month so many things have happened that it would be impossible to list them all. My social life improved a lot, I've made great new friends and started really feeling at home. But now that's changed again, because I have moved host families for the first time. I am now living away from Kyoto's city center, and in the Western suburbs of Katsura. I'm no longer with the Tomori family and now part of the Ota family!

I just moved yesterday, so my impressions and feelings are still all messed up and all over the place. The distance is a worry for me. Mainly because I feel more cut off from my friends as well as all the places familiar to me... That said, the scenery is nice. There is greenery and trees everywhere, although being a city boy myself I quite enjoyed the scenery back in the city.

The family is nice and have been very welcoming. I have an older brother and sister. The brother is 21 and is studying at Ritsumeikan University. The sister is 18 and studying at Ritsumeikan High School, and she spent one year on exchange in Adelaide last year. They are a busy family, which is different to the Tomori family. With the Tomori family, the father was always busy and I almost never saw him, but the brothers didn't do club activities and the mother didn't work, meaning there was usually at least one person home. This morning I woke up and no one was here, so I've been home alone all day and it's a really weird feeling.

There's not much point thinking about the negatives, because I have to live here at the end of the day, and it will take adjusting, but I just need to do my best to fit into this new family. Since it's Summer Vacation I have more time to get to know the area better, and hopefully get out with some of my friends, since I think that's what I really need most right now.

Kobe, Osaka, Karaoke and Lots of Gyoza

2007-06-29T13:14:00.000+09:00

The past few days have been excellent. If not extremely tiring. Since it has been exam week at school, I haven't been required to attend at all, meaning I had heaps of free time on my hands. I decided to spend it with the other foreign students from my school, Miyako and Ellen. Mostly since they are both leaving at the end of next month and we may never see each other again!

On Tuesday we met at school and rode to Teramachi and Shijo to do some shopping. Originally we had planned to see a movie, but over Starbucks it was decided that we would go to karaoke instead (Much to Ellen's dismay). Karaoke was fun, but Ellen had to go and meet her sister so we had to leave fairly quickly. We took purikura and then Ellen left. Afterwards Miyako and I grabbed some KFC to eat. It was my first time eating KFC in Japan, and it wasn't all that different haha. It was filling though, and not too disagreeable. It started raining while we were riding home, which was annoying, but kind of nice since it was so hot that day and helped cool us down a bit.

On Wednesday I met up with Miyako again and we went to a nearby art/craft center where her grandmother works. We tried our hand at making some...things. I don't even know what to call what we did in English, that's how unartistic I am. But it was fun and afterwards we watched a kimono show and then ate lunch at the cafeteria with her grandmother.

Thursday was fantastic. I met up with Miyako again on the bus to Kyoto Station and we caught a train to Osaka. At first we just explored HEP5, a big shopping mall out the front of JR Station Osaka. I went there last time I went to Osaka, and it's most recognizable by the huge ferris wheel on its roof. I saw heaps of stuff I wanted to buy but it was all kind of pricey. 8,400yen for a belt is a bit extreme for me.

After HEP5 we walked around Osaka a bit and where feeling hungry. Lucky for us we stumbled upon Gyoza Stadium! Craig had told me about this place before and said it was great, so I had to go myself. It's kind of like a theme park attraction in the fact that it's very themed to the point where they play mock traditional Japanese songs about gyoza all the time. There are two main seating areas and around each one there are differet stalls set up. They all specialise in different types of gyoza, and they're fairly affordable. So you choose a seat, order from 2 or 3 different stalls and then you can eat all the gyoza you want! It was all really, really good.

Gyoza Stadium was a hit, and I'm definitely going back there sometime. But after that we had no idea what to do! Miyako suggested catching a train on the Hankyu line and going to Sannomiya in Kobe. I thought it was a great idea, since I'd never been to Kobe before. So we set off that way! Sannomiya is great. It's a much more lively and interesting shopping district than anything in Kyoto. There are those digital TV screens on buildings and everything.

After looking around Sannnomiya we started walking towards the sea and Harborland. We had a mission... after trying Gyoza Stadium we had to try Kobe's Sweets Harbor. A themed place like Gyoza Stadium, only specialising in sweets and cakes from all around the world. We finally made it there after a lot of walking and went in. It was designed to feel like a harbor, with the seats being little ships and everything! In Gyoza Stadium fashion there were a lot of different stalls specialising in different things, from ice creams, to cakes, to a stall which boasted to have all the different types of pudding from around the world!

We ordered ice cream first and Miyako went with the random ice cream flavour. The store has a new flavour every day which is a mix of lots of different things, once you order it you have to try and guess what it is! I think this time it was Coffee, Melon and something else all mixed together. I played it safe and went with a Mango ice cream haha. After that we ate this wafer-ish thing with strawberries, custard and cream on it. Very filling.

After Sweets Harbor, I got a message from Carissa who I had emailed knowing she lived in Kobe. I called her and we planned to meet up in Sannomiya for a karaoke get-together, and she was bringing along Felicia, who I had met last time when we all went to Osaka together.

Before catching a train back to Sannomiya I got around to purchasing an ICOCA card. Basically it's this nifty alternative to buying train tickets. You scan the card in at the gate when you go into the station, and then when you go out again at whatever station you end up at; it calculates the fare for you and deducts it from the prepaid charge balance on the card. Better than having to choose which type of ticket to buy every time, which can be annoyng and tricky if you aren't sure.

I've heard I may be changing host families within the next few weeks and will probably be catching a train to and from school, so it will be handy to have. Anyway, we met up with Carissa and Felicia who had just come from school in their school uniforms (Haha) and we went to karaoke. They had to be out of the city by 9PM, since their teachers were apparently patrolling the city to catch any students who were out late at night! Only in Japan. We ended up taking purikura after karaoke and eating McDonalds. I tried the teriyaki burger for the first time and it was rather agreeable, they sure didn't hold back on the mayo though.

After McDonalds we all headed home. Once we were back at Kyoto Station we found out the bus we would normally catch to get home had already finished, so we had to catch another bus that went on a huge detour. I ended up getting off out the front of the Daitokuji and walking home for 20 minutes or so. This wouldn't be too bad, but despite being past 11 at night it was still around 28 degrees or even higher, and ridiculously muggy and humid.

I was home a bit late, which wasn't so good. But this is the first time it's ever happened, so I got let off the hook for now... haha. I need to be more careful about the trains and buses here! I didn't realise how long it would take just to get back home.

Today I am recovering from all the walking done yesterday and just relaxing for my last day off school before classes start again on Monday. Not long to Summer vacation now! How exciting! I have photos from all the stuff I did, and hopefully will get around to putting them up soon!

Ice Cream: My Best Friend

2007-06-23T15:48:00.000+09:00

Today I as I was walking home from the local 7/11, I received the strangest 'What-The-Hell!?' stare since I have been in Japan from a father walking along infront of me with his son. I have had the mouth wide open gapes from people riding past me on bikes while I walk to school, but this was on a whole new level. It doesn't surprise me. I haven't showered for 24 hours, it's disgustingly humid and here I was waddling down the road with my skinny leg jeans, thongs and an obscenely brightly coloured yellow Astro Boy shirt on. Fashion faux pas, my bad.

The stare was worth it though. I arrived home with a tub of Häagen-Dazs Green Tea ice cream. Kind of expensive, but worth every cent. This is the nicest tasting ice cream ever. Well maybe not. It's not as sweet as chocolate or vanilla, but it's damn nice and very refreshing on a day like today.

The past week or so has been a bit hit and miss. On Sunday my friend Ayano visited me from Hyogo and we went shopping in Shijo-Kawaramachi and Teramachi. It was kind of fruitless. I saw heaps of stuff that I wanted but didn't want to part with money. I did end up buying a new (And rather gangster) short sleeved hoodie. It's for Summer so the material is really thin and nice. Ayano randomly bought a watch from one of the Department Stores we visited. After shopping and trying the limited Azuki Bean Frapuccino at Starbucks (So good, this is one we won't be seeing in Australia anytime soon), we went to see Pirates of the Caribbean 3 at the cinema.

Our seats were so close to the screen, since all the other tickets had been bought. One of the downsides of reserved seating in theatres. The movie itself was mediocre. The series has become progressively worse as it goes along, and a fourth one is already being planned! Quit while you're ahead, I say. It was overly long too. By the end of the credits I just wanted to sleep. I'm being pretty negative though, it wasn't THAT bad. Entertaining at least, and funny at times.

On Thursday in PE we had track and field. Running 50 metre sprints for an hour first up. Japanese kids are good at everything. I guess because they are so active in club activities and do PE as a compulsory subject. I was outrun by most of the people there haha. But my times weren't too awful. After running we went to the gym to do Muscle Training on the equipment. It was tiring, but worth it. I reckon going to a gym at least once every week would make such a difference.

Tomorrow I'm attending a seminar-ish thing being held at a nearby University. It's being held for students in Kyoto and is about international exchange and the like. Should be interesting. Part of the deal is that I have to make a 7 minute speech about school life in my country and my experiences in Japan thus far. I am still in the process of making myself get down to writing said speech. It will be done eventually.

This week I started planning a trip to Tokyo with my friend Craig. The idea is for me to stay there with his host family for a week or so and at some point go to climb Mt Fuji with Samantha. Hopefully it all goes ahead! I coudln't pass up a chance to explore Tokyo properly, and climbing Fuji is a once in a lifetime kind of thing which poses so many photo ops.

Next week I have every day but Monday off school! Reason being that Tuesday-Friday is exam period for the other students. I don't take any exams, so it was either study in the school library or stay at home. Obviously I chose the latter. I'll use the time to do some more exploring around town and waste money on some more Summer-friendly clothes for my wardrobe.

Mostly Living

2007-06-16T17:29:00.000+09:00

It has been too long since I've updated here, so I am kind of forcing myself to sit down and write something. This time I haven't been updating simply because I can't think of anything worthwhile to say! The past week hasn't been the best ever, I can say that much.

Last Saturday was enjoyable, as it was my host father's birthday party. It was held at the house and lots of family friends attended. It was interesting to meet their friends and whatnot. About an hour into the party Hiroki disappeared and didn't come back until long after it had finished haha. Seems to be normal for him these days, he hasn't been around much at all.

As seems customary at Japanese parties, much alcohol was consumed by all in attendance. I was greeted with a new bottle of beer everytime I finished one off, without even requesting it! By the end of the night people had drunk too much to drive home and plenty of taxis were called.

This week has been fairly dull. I took Wednesday off school because I was feeling mentally and physically exhausted. I really felt like I needed a day to just relax and lounge about, and it did help. In PE on Thursday we played Volleyball (Which I am pathetic at, still) and it left me with bruises all over my arms and hands. What I found funny is that on Friday half the class turned up to school with bandages on their hands, apparently Volleyball is hard work!

Today was spent at home, since I have a splitting headache. I watched some movies to get away from the Japanese overload and here I am updating this blog! Earlier today I was sitting in my room and I heard my name being called repeatedly from out on the street. Surprising to say the least, but it turns out some of my friends from school were outside my house screaming out my name haha. They were nearby so they dropped by to say hi, which was nice of them.

Tomorrow I plan to go out shopping and hopefully see Pirates of the Caribbean! I'm going to force myself to wake up early so I follow this plan through.

Japanese Cuisine

2007-06-03T20:27:00.000+09:00

Today we went out in order to celebrate Hiroki (My host brother) and Hideharu's (My host dad) birthdays which are this week. We headed into Shijo at around 5:00 to buy Hiroki's presents which were reasonably enviable. First stop was a Louis Vuitton outlet. Everything in that store was way out of my price range, that's for sure. He was looking for a small carry bag, but didn't like anything there so we soon headed for the Prada store. A small satchel-like bag (And by small I mean small) was settled on and cost about $700 Australian! Amazing. He also bought new, nice shoes for about $200.

After the shopping was over with, we made our way to the restaurant we'd be eating at. It was a small, but expensive, restaurant called せき川 (Sekigawa) a mere walk away from the main shopping street of Shijo. The restaurant was totally traditional Japanese food. Meaning lots of raw meats and seafoods were eaten, horse and whale meats included. I did not want to eat the whale meat at first, but my host family insisted so I thought I may as well try it. It was not revolting but very edible. Must have cost a fortune though.

As far as I could tell the horse meat was raw and very cold and chewy. Not really a remarkable taste either. But overall the meal was delicious and relatively filling while not being fatty at all. After eating lots at Western style restaurants you always feel bloated and large, but after this I felt the same as when I went in! Minus the stomach pains, of course, I was starving beforehand.

It was interesting to experience some of the more Japanese styled foods, and I was surprised that I actually liked most (If not all) of what was on offer!

No, I Don't Have a Girlfriend

2007-05-29T15:34:00.000+09:00

I have been pretty slack regarding updating lately, for no good reason really. Whenever I have time I feel unmotivated to type anything up, and when I am motivated I have no time or access to a computer! Disaster in the making. But here I am, forcing myself to sit down and write a bit about what's gone on lately.

Last week was exams and as such I didn't have regular school, meaning lots of sleeping in was done and very litle time was spent at school. I had to go each day to work on my presentation for Australia, but apart from that I was fairly free. On Wednesday I went with the teacher in charge of me and the other foreign students, Yoshimi-sensei, and a foreign student from Germany named Miyako (She's 3 quarters Japanese) to an art shop in Shijo to take part in a lesson on dying handkerchiefs using a Kyoto technique. It was more fun than it sounds and was very enjoyable. After that we ate lunch at an Italian Family Restaurant which was great.

All this week I have presentations to give to various classes within the school on Australia. Yesterday I and the other foreign students presented to my class and another second year class, which went well. Some of the questions asked were a bit odd though. Naturally we got the standard 'Do you have a girlfriend?', 'Is there someone you like right now?' kind of questions, but for variety they also asked 'Are you hungry?' and 'What time is it?' :D

Today I presented to two first year classes in a row this morning by myself. It went fairly well, I think. The teacher was happy with it and he invited me to come back to the class at any time, which I may, since everyone was super nice!

I was thinking of joining Kendo club so yesterday after school I went to check it out. They practice from 4:30-6:30 every school day except Fridays, so it's pretty intense. I think I might take part though. The only thing I'm not sure of is the uniform and gear you need, which is really expensive. It would be nice if they had rental stuff, but the club doesn't seem that big or popular.

I've also managed to get out of Biology classes, since they were becoming a pain. In the classroom it's okay for me to tune out and do my own study, but in Biology we often go to the labs to do work and experiments etc. I can't follow the class sometimes and I felt like I was getting in the way when my friends had to help me out all the time. I've joined another second year English class now, and I've gained some more self-study periods in the Library... which I can't say I'm too fond of, I'm hoping to get them switched into some classes soon though.

I also talked to my family last week about switching host families at some point. I really want to go ahead with it, since I want to try and experience as much different stuff here as I possibly can. While spending the year with this family would be amazing, and really comfortable for me, I can't help but feel I could experience so much more! I think if I didn't change at some point I would regret it. I'm hoping I can move around the start of Summer vacation in late July/early August, but I'll need to talk to my coordinator about it.

And that's about all I can think of to say really! I will try and update every few days, but if I disappear for awhile I wouldn't say that's unusual haha.

Osaka Excursion

2007-05-21T13:51:00.000+09:00

Yesterday was the day of our planned visit to Osaka! Although it was originally just going to be Carissa, Alistair and I, we were joined by Felicia, Ben and Felicia's host sister Nao. The more the merrier, I say!

So I woke up bright and early at 6AM to start the day. At first I was worried about whether I'd be able to make it to Osaka at all, having never travelled on trains in Kyoto on my own before, let alone out of the prefecture. Thankfully the transport service here is pretty easy to navigate. I left the house at 7:30 and caught a bus from Horikawa-dori to Kyoto station. Once I got to Kyoto station I bought my ticket from the vending machine and, with some help from Carissa's host mother over the phone, chose the right train to get to JR Osaka.

The train ride was dull. I didn't get a seat because it was pretty busy. It took around 40 minutes or so to arrive at the JR station in Osaka, and after that I had to find the exit we planned to meet at. This wasn't so easy, but was eventually managed and I met up with Alistair and soon after, Carissa.

Osaka is fantastic. Even walking out of the train station at 9AM in the morning it was fairly busy and just fantastic. I think it's one of my favourite cities, pushing Tokyo down a bit. We didn't really know what to do at first, but we just felt like it would be good to catch up and talk about what's been going on with us since we hadn't seen each other for a few months. After standing around talking for awhile we did a bit of wandering and came upon one of the more sleazy areas in Osaka by accident (I swear!). It looked less sleazy later in the day with people around, but since every second shop was an adult shop or had signs with suggestively dressed girls on them, it was hard not to think of it as so.

We quickly made our way out of there and onto one of the more main roads and eventually ended up back outside the train station. There was a shopping mall right outside the station which boasted a Starbucks on the 7th floor, so that was our next destination. It didn't open until 11 though and by that time it was only about 10:45. We waited with everyone else at the bottom of the elevators and eventually got up to have some coffee and wake up a bit!

After coffee and a bit of shopping we met up with Felicia, Ben and Nao and with a little convincing from me it was decided to go to karaoke. Karaoke is always great fun, but it's so much better here in Japan. The rooms are unbelievably nicer than the dodgy place I used to visit in Australia. Felicia and Ben escaped about 3 quarters of the way through and didn't come back to pay! We met them afterwards back in sleazeville but forgot to get the money off them haha.

Next up was food, since we were hungry. Osaka is the town of takoyaki so we couldn't not eat it. Nao took us to a nearby stall and we ate and ate. It was probably some of the best takoyaki that I've had so far. Very good. No chocolate though, sadly.

After takoyaki was eaten more shopping was done, we rode the Ferris Wheel at the top of the aforementioned mall, which gave a great view of the city. It was just buildings, buildings and more buildings though. I have a feeling it would have been nicer at night. Ben sat it out since he wasn't fond of the height I guess, and Nao waited with him. We took purikura (:D) next, which I helped expertly decorate haha. This lasted well into the afternoon. We visited countless clothes stores, book stores, CD stores and whatnot. I managed to contain myself and didn't spend too much of what I brought with me though. At about 6ish Nao, Ben and Felicia had to leave so we said goodbye and then Carissa, Alistair and I went off to do some more browsing at Tower Records and then find somewhere to eat dinner.

We eventually found a small restaurant that sold various forms of curry and omlete rice. It looked good, and was pretty cheap so we chose to eat there. Good choice too, it was delicious. I had their 'Kappa Curry', rice with curry, salad, and fried potato goodness. It was fantastic and really filling. I also stole an Orange Juice. Actually, when I went to pay I had the right amount and even gave him the exact amount needed for the meal and drink, but when he reread my order he just said the curry. I corrected him and said, 'With an orange juice too', he even said yes after that but then proceeded to hand me back some of my money and charge me only for the meal! Crazy.

After dinner we went to a crepe store to buy the best desert I have personally ever had. I ordered a Tropical Mango crepe, which was mango, banana, strawberries, whipped cream and custard in a vanilla crepe. It was great and I'm going back there again as soon as I can! After we were full to bursting point we decided to call it a day. Or rather a night, since i was about 8PM by then. We went back to the train station, bought tickets and headed off to our individual trains. I made it home in one piece by 9:30 at night and was suitably exhausted. Luckily I got to sleep in today, since this week is exam week and I wasn't due at school until 9:30. I got to come home at 12:30, too!

Tomorrow I have takoyaki eating scheduled with my University Japanese tutors. This will be the third time I've eaten it in a week. On Friday night I went to Horikawa Matsuri, a tiny festival nearby my hosue, with my host brother Fumiaki and we ate it there too haha. Not that I'm complaining, I could live off that stuff.

Today AU called me about my phone. Basically, I was being charged crap loads for the sending and receiving of emails and also the internet fees, since I wasn't signed up to some form of discount plan they have. I signed up today over the phone and although there's a fee to do so it will apparently save me 70% on my next bill... which was supposedly set to be stellar. The perks of having a phone in a country that has a different language, I guess. Fingers crossed.

There are Osaka photos up in the gallery. Leave a comment too, for the amount of views this page gets I receive very little feedback. It'd be good to know who is reading it...

Rain, Rain Go Away

2007-05-17T15:57:00.000+09:00

Today it rained like I've never seen before. Actually, it started raining early on last night and continued all night into the morning. I made a call to walk to school instead of ride, because I'm not confident enough of my coordination to ride with one hand while holding an umbrella. Good call, I'd say. The rain got really heavy just after I left the house, the wind was really strong too, and despite having an umbrella I was absolutely drenched by the time I got to school (And it stopped raining shortly after). This afternoon it looks like more rain... wouldn't surprise me if it rains tomorrow.

School is going great. I am slowly making more friends outside of my homeroom class and it's great to have people waving and saying hi around the school rather than gawking at you. According to my friend Oda Misuzu I have hundreds of girlfriends haha.

I'm not a huge fan of PE lessons period, but today we played volleyball. I should mention I was never good at volleyball and never had any interest in it, but today I had a tonne of fun. Apparently I suddenly got good (or half decent anyway) at it!

I don't know I think something just clicked recently and I don't care if it's become routine, or I can't understand the lessons, I am having the time of my life. I can wake up every morning and think to myself 'Wow, I am actually in Japan!' and it's a great feeling. I have only been here for around 2 months, and already I don't even want to think about going back to Australia! Naturally I miss family and friends in Australia, but I feel so at home in this country right now. It's the best feeling ever.

I'm planning a trip to Osaka this Sunday with Carissa and Alistair (Two of the other Australian exchange students with PIEE) which should be great, since I've wanted to go to Osaka for a long time. Takoyaki city! I am definitely eating some Osaka takoyaki. I've been told some people there even put chocolate in it! Crazy.

The Japanese Cinema Experience

2007-05-13T20:23:00.000+09:00

Yesterday I went to my first cinema in Japan, to see Spiderman 3 with two friends from school, Misuzu and Yoshiko. I cycled over to the school to meet them at about 1:30, since they had classes on that morning (Yes, on a Saturday!) because exams are coming up next week, or something like that. Students here are overworked so much. Anyway, after meeting them at school and making use of the school's parking for my bike, we went and waited for the bus we needed to catch to Nijo, where the Toho Cinemas are.

The bus ride was surprisingly long, especially considering that Nijo is close by to my house, and not that far by bike. I guess making the detour to the school beforehand made the trip much longer. We finally got there and just in time too. Since cinemas are so busy here, and the tickets are reserved seating, it's always best to get in early. Luckily my friend had planned ahead though, and bought us all tickets a few days earlier on her mobile phone. Once you've purchased them that way you just go to the computer terminal in the cinema lobby, enter your phone number, ticket code and a password and it prints off your tickets for you! Very good, and it meant we got pretty excellent seats.

When you order food at the cinema, they put it all on a tray for you and give you refresher towels and stuff too. It's pretty great service. I ordered a Fried Potato Set (Think great fries and a coke). And these fries were pretty damn good, much better than any McDonald's ones I've had. That said, this all wasn't cheap. The ticket cost 1000 yen and the food was 550 yen. After getting used to $5 for a cinema ticket in Australia, that's a lot of money.

When you get into the cinema the first thing they play is a short film explaining the rules while trying to be entertaining. It was done by an English voice actor and subtitled in Japanese, and the English was a bit weird... haha. But it was amusing, even though it seemed a bit much. The weird thing about Japanese cinemas is that they are deadly silent. No one talks, no loud obnoxious laughter or cheering... it's just silent the whole way through, no exaguration at all.

Even after the movie is over and the credits roll, the lights stay off and people stay silent. You have to wait for the credits to end for the lights to come back on, if you don't want to stumble over people to try and find your way out in the dark. After you do leave though, there's two cinema workers waiting outside the exit. One to take your tray and throw out any papers and rubbish, and the other to collect paper drink cups/lids etc. Talk about handy!

After the movie we all went home pretty quickly, since it was getting late and we needed to be home for dinner etc... I caught the bus back to school to collect my bike and made my way home.

Today was spent doing nothing much at all! I helped out a bit with the gardening and watched stuff on the computer and did no proper study at all!

2-6's Class Trip 2007

2007-05-08T17:25:00.000+09:00

Today we, 2-6 (2nd Year, Class 6), had the annual class trip that is organised within the home rooms and coordinated by the students with the help of the Home Room teacher. We'd decided to go for a Barbeque in the rural scenery of Omori Resort Camp, about an hour or so away from the school by bus. We'd already seperated into groups and decided that each group would cook a different type of food, which would then be shared around the whole class.

My group had decided on Okonomiyaki and within the group we'd each been allocated items to buy and bring on the day, mine being eggs. Anyway, we met up to get on the bus outside the tennis courts just before 9:00 and had left by about 10 past. The bus trip there was pretty uneventful, but the scenery once we'd escaped the city was really nice. There were some amazing mountains, rivers and whatnot. The kind of thing I have never seen in Australia. It was really something else.

When we got closer to the site of our barbeque we had to get off the bus since it couldn't go any further - we had to go on foot. This was okay, despite the heat... and it is getting hotter! In the high twenties, and I keep hearing that Summer is going to be hellish.

Anyway, when we arrived at the little park we were having the BBQ we seperated into our groups and went about preparing and, eventually, cooking. It took ages to actualy get the fire started though! I was proud of my fire-starting skills though, since I got it going after not too long haha. Our Okonomiyaki was quite great tasting, and we got a few compliments on it :D

After everyone had eaten a few games were played. Some people played badminton, others played volleyball or softball. I wandered around talking to different groups of people and being asked to take photos with people haha. Emika had brought along a big teddy that doubled as a purse or (very) small bag. She asked me be in a photo holding it haha, and after that we took way too many photos involving the bear...

At the end of the day we took a class photo which I rather like and you can see above! And then we headed back to the bus and eventually back to the school. I had an awesome time, and it was really great to just relax and get to know the other class members a bit better outside of the classroom setting I see them in. I managed to make some new friends and get to know some people I hadn't yet talked to much at all :D!

Live House

2007-05-06T11:59:00.000+09:00

Yesterday was probably one of the most fun days I've had recently, which is weird because it started off really poorly. On Friday my friend Azusa emailed my phone telling me that one of the Senpai (Japanese word you use when referring to a senior) from our school's band was performing at a live house the next day and if I'd like to come. Of course I really wanted to go, but had no idea how to get to the Live House itself... haha.

So we exchanged mail a bit and then the replies stopped coming. So I waited for mail that never came, and assumed I wouldn't be going. Then yesterday at about 3 o'clock she finally replies saying that they were meeting up at 4 o'clock nearby my house! So I quickly got ready and rode my bike to a the nearby Uniqlo to meet Azusa, and then we headed to McDonald's to meet another friend from school, Chihiro. After that we sat in McDonald's for a bit and Chihiro's boyfriend, Chuchuya, joined us. After we'd sat around and eaten a bit Azusa decided she wanted to go home to fix up her hair... so we waited for her to come back before we left to go to the live house, Jigen-Ya and met up with another of Azusa's friends, Sayuka.

By the time we'd arrived it had already well started, but I don't think we missed much. Essentially 6 bands played, and most of them seemed to be high school bands not much older than me. They all played mostly covers too, of bands like The Used, Rancid and some Japanese bands. They weren't too bad, and some of them really got the crowd moving. The mosh pit was crazy simply because there was no security and no barrier between the stage and the mosh, so people were falling onto amps and speakers and my legs got a real beating from being knocked against the stage. Anyone that tried to crowd surf promptly fell onto the hard ground haha.

The highlight band of the night were the last to play, and by looking at them they seemed like University students. They said they would be releasing their first mini album with 4 original songs on it, and they were the only band of the night not to play covers. The crowd reacted well to them, but I think by that point people were just too tired.

The live finished at about 9:00-9:30 and afterwards we went out and stood out the front talking and meeting up with more people. We met up with Yousuke, Yuusuke and Satoshi. We didn't end up leaving until around 10:00 when we all decided we were really hungry and needed something to eat quickly. Queue second visit to McDonald's in a day! We ate and lounged around, mostly exhausted, then we decided it'd be fun to do some English conversation which was amusing.

One weird thing about being here is that I find myself being closer to the people that can't speak English well. I guess it's because I can practice Japanese with them, they can practice English with me and we can make fools out of ourselves together and then feel a lot more comfortable. It's probably a good thing too, since it'll help me improve quicker than if I hung around with great English speakers.

After we'd eaten I exchanged numbers with the people I hadn't yet so we could keep in touch, and then headed home at around 11:00. It was raining lightly, but nothing too bad. I think I left at a good time though, since it started pouring down last night and has been raining constantly since.

All in all yesterday was fantastic. I made some new friends, got to visit my first Japanese live house and ate way too much McDonald's. What more could you ask for? :D Updated the album with a few McDonald's happy snaps. Excuse me looking awful, especially in the post-live ones haha.

Rivers, Mountains and Samurai!

2007-05-04T15:51:00.000+09:00

Today was a big day out, and the weather was good for it too! Although I think it was a little warm for my liking, we reached the 26 degree mark here. You can tell Summer is coming already. So today I went with my host mother Junko to a few places. Mainly 嵐山 (Arashiyama) and 映画村 (Eigamura)!

Arashiyama is out on to the West of Kyoto and we had to take a fairly long train ride to get there. I'd take a guess at 10-15 minutes. This was my first time on a train in Kyoto, and it wasn't nearly as packed as I remember them being in Tokyo. I wouldn't go so far as to say it was comfortable though... I much prefer the layout and seating in Brisbane trains! After we got off we were greeted with the hustle and bustle of Arashiyama. It was packed, there were people going in all directions! But tha said I had a great time just taking in the scenery and going into the many gift shops around the place. Thankfully, there were also lots of food samples to enjoy!

As well as tonnes and tonnes of shopping to be done, there's also a monkey park on the slopes of Mount Arashiyama, that does seem interesting but it wasn't visited today... possibly sometime in the near future? :D There's also a lot of religious Shinto shrines and whatnot. I have been told the mountains are most beautiful when the cherry blossoms are blooming and in Autumn when they turn a red and gold colour. I'll have to visit again in Autumn, I'm thinking!

After a bit of shopping had been done and photos had been taken, we caught the train back in the direction of Shijo Omiya but got off to go to Eigamura, a studio/theme park in one! It's a huge studio park themed in period Japanese style, complete with Geisha and Maiko wandering around, guys dressed up in Shinsengumi outfits (Which I thought fitting, since I bought a shinsengumi phone strap from Arashiyama haha). There are rides and stuff too, I only went into the Haunted House which was much scarier than I first thought! It was period themed with dead samurai and civilians, blood splattered all over the walls and even decapitated heads and bodies stuck to the walls... haha. That and the ghost that leapt out from the wall behind me and started chasing me D:

What's also interesting about the place is that it's where they film a lot of period movies and TV dramas. Kyoto is probably one of the most popular places to film those sorts of movies, and that's the place where it all happens!

Since I got my camera yesterday, plenty of photos were taken and they can now be seen in the updated photo gallery! Or soon they will anyway, I'm uploading them as I type this.

JLPT

2007-05-03T18:07:00.000+09:00

Since I came here I've, essentially, been without any solid goals or things to achieve. Of course I've had vague goals that I'd set out to complete ever since I decided to come on an exchange, but I kept feeling like I needed something to work towards and motivate me. As such, I've decided I want to try and sit the annual 日本語能力試験 (Japanese Language Proficiency Test). Essentially it's an annual exam held all around the world through which you can certify your skill level. There are 4 different levels, and I've decided to work towards Level 2, the second most challenging (I'm thinking Level 1 is impossible in such a short amount of time...).

The exam is held this December 2nd (That's right! The day before my birthday!) and actually costs about 5,500 yen to participate. Today I visited some book shops and purchased 3 textbooks (About 7,000 yen worth!) to help me prepare for it. If any of you other exchange students are planning on taking the exam, please share what books you've purchased/plan to purchase! I'm not sure if I got the best ones, but they seemed fairly helpful to me. One has some mock versions of the exam to work on as well as answers, another is purely kanji practice so I can learn about 1000 new kanji D: and the other is a grammar textbook I've been working on photocopies from.

Also today I finally purchased my new camera. As I posted earlier, the camera I brought with me was stolen (Partly due to my carelessness I guess), so I've been without one for a few weeks now. Today I bought the Canon IXY Digital 10. It's a fairly neat looking camera, and it's more powerful than the old one I had. Along with a 2GB SD Card it came in at about 40,000 yen. In other words, I spent a lot of money today. My wallet feels sufficiently lighter... (Or maybe heavier, since I think I gained a lot of shrapnel while losing a lot of notes).

I also should note I made my second visit to McDonald's today and can safely report that it is exactly the same as every McDonald's I have ever visited in Australia. Nothing exciting to report here :(

Today is 憲法記念日 (Constitution Memorial Day) in Japan - one of the many holidays that make up Golden Week. As the name implies it's to celebrate the day the new constitution came into effect and replaced the old Meiji Constitution. Golden Week continues tomorrow with みどりの日 (Greenery/Nature Day).

Photo Album, Mobile Phones and Golden Week

2007-04-29T16:43:00.000+09:00

So it's been awhile since I updated, and today I finally got around to fixing the photo album! It should work fine now, the larger versions weren't being uploaded earlier on but they should view correctly now.

In the past week or so not much has happened. I finally got my 'Alien Registration ID' which allows me to do numerous things... the first of which I got around to was purchasing a mobile phone :D It's been tough living without one for a month! I'm with the popular Japanese compeny AU, on a plan. The phone itself isn't top of the range for Japan, but compared to the phones in Australia it's pretty fantastic. Here's a link!

I wish I had more to say, but school is becoming more and more of a routine rather than a new experience... so it's a bit hard to think of new things to talk about! Since I got a mobile phone though, lots of people have been asking to exchange numbers and e-mails. A lot of times it's someone I've only just met, too. The way it's done here is much better than Australia, too. Basically you create your 'Profile' on your phone, which includes your number, e-mail, birthday, photo, blood typ (!), address etc... and you can send that profile to friends via Infra-Red, after which it then goes into their phone books. Reminds me of the whole Digimon battling fad with people standing around pointing their phones at each other haha.

Anyway, today marks the start of 'Golden Week'. A string of holidays in a row. Basically I get 7 days off school, but still have to go on the 1st and 2nd of May. Should be good, since I need the rest. I just hope I can get my friends from school to do something during that time. This weekend has been painfully boring, since everyone I contacted was busy with something or other. Anyways, I should be off!

Photo Album!

2007-04-23T19:13:00.000+09:00

New photo album up with more photos! Hopefully I'll add to this when I eventually get a new camera. The webspace is courtesy of my good friend Craig, by the way! Many thanks to him. To find the gallery, just click the link in the sidebar. It's been updated to the new one.

EDIT: Photos are annoying. Program all in Japanese, need to go so will fix tomorrow afternoon if possible..

Not much else to report on, since everything is going pretty well! School is amazingly enjoyable and I love my friends and all the other random people I meet that make my days what they are. Today during my self-study period in the Library a class of 3rd years came in... the students were talking about me so the teacher got me to do an impromptu self-introduction. After that, some of the girls sitting near me started talking to me and eventually asked me to take photos with each of them on their cell phones haha. I've never taken so many pictures with people at once, it was really odd.

Actually, what was more odd was that the first thing they asked when they talked to me was 'Do you have a girlfriend?'; that seems to be a conversation starter in Japan, or at least from my experience at school it is.

Another event that made today that little bit more interesting, was my friend Misuzu Oda searching for the word 'bi' accidentally in my electronic dictionary (She meant to find 'bill'), after reading the Japanese translation she freaked out... a lot. It surprised me since that word is pretty casual and normal in Australia, people chuck it around a lot in fact. But here her and Azusa were freaking out as if it were something really unusual. There's cultural difference for you!

This computer is being a little odd today, and I keep getting 'Generic Host Process for Win32' errors that stop the internet from working till I restart... I hope it sorts itself out - I have no idea what to do, computers entirely in Japanese confuse me. So anyway, I'm keeping this short so I don't lose it all to that said error... If anyone has any idea what this error means or how to fix it - do share! I'm sure the family has less of a clue than I do...

Tomorrow is my mum and sister's birthdays! An early happy birthday to them!

Photos

2007-04-21T13:57:00.000+09:00

I've uploaded some photos from my trip here. There's only 30MB of space, so I can't fit all the photos on there. Hopefully something less temporary will be worked out soon, but until then this will have to do I guess. I'd love to update new entries with photos, but this is impossible right now since I don't have a camera...

Today is not so good, so I won't elaborate on it any more :D!

Thursday the 19th (I Blame Lack of Inspiration)

2007-04-19T17:35:00.000+09:00

It's been almost a week since I updated so I thought I'd better get around to doing it sooner, rather than later. This week seemed to fly by; I'm more than a little surprised at how quickly actually. So I guess I should try to recall some major events and summarise them. The biggest thing that happened this week wasn't too good; I noticed my camera had gone missing. After scouring the house for it and trying to remember when I last had it I came up with very few leads... it's possible I lost it or it got pinched at school, but it's hard to tell. I'm going to the police station tomorrow with my head teacher to file for a police report which I need to claim it on insurance...

Anyway, on the weekend I went to Shijo with my host brother Hiroki. Shijo is a very busy, and very big shopping street in Kyoto with tonnes of department stores, restaurants and the like. Essentially it's shopping heaven. We visited Daimaru and some other stores but I didn't buy much at all. I'm being careful about spending much money at all at the moment, since I need to buy a mobile phone next week when I pick up my Alien Registation Card.

This week has been great for me, although there were down points where I just missed things in Australia. I guess the food is one of the major things. What I would give for some salty chips and tomato sauce right now! Or at least some cereal! I haven't even eaten tomato sauce since I came here, and while Japan has tonnes of salty foods, they don't put much salt on potatoes... why!? Haha. The food has been easier to get used to than I first thought though. I still don't like natto, and miso is a bit too salty for my liking (Miso Soup is fine) but the other night I ate a whole squid for dinner, something I could never ever see myself doing in the past. It was good - squid and octopus are my new favourite seafoods.

I'm feeling more and more at home in Kyoto every day I think. Especially since I've started to get closer to my friends at school. At the moment most of my joy on school days comes from them. During home room and most classes I sit next to a girl named Oda and Azusa (Who I mentioned earlier on) sits infront of Oda - they're probably two of the more funny people I've met at school so far.

The last few periods of school today were pretty uninteresting though. Everyone went for a health/body check which I didn't need to attend, so I had to stay in the classroom - by myself! After 40 minutes or so Hiroki turned up and we eventually went home at about 2:00 though, so it was an early finish for me.

I think I've become somewhat famous at school. People I don't know call out my name and wave, it's the oddest thing ever. I love Japan. Haha.

Friday the 13th

2007-04-13T17:42:00.000+09:00

I didn’t realise it was Friday the 13th until I sat down to write this blog and checked the date. My day was actually great, so I guess Friday the 13th hasn’t got any power over here in Japan. Lucky, that! So I started school on Tuesday and today was the last day of my first school week. So far, it’s been a mixed bag for sure, but I don’t have any real complaints to voice.

The first morning my nerves were all over the place. I was excited about meeting new friends and whatnot, but I was also worried that it just wouldn’t happen. It turned out to be a much better day than I had imagined, though. First up I met the teacher who will be looking after me at the school, Yoshimi-sensei. She’s incredibly nice and has good English skills, which is always a good thing this early on. After sorting through a few housekeeping matters I went off to my homeroom to meet my classmates. I have to say I am very lucky. I have a great homeroom, and all the other students are fantastic.

On the first day alone I was able to make a few friends. Most notable are; Yuji, probably one of the nicest guys I’ve met here and his English is pretty stunning; Koba, Yuji’s friend and also exceptionally nice, both of them have helped me out a heap since I started at school; and Azusa, a kind of quiet girl who just gives off a nice vibe, plus, she’s learning guitar! Winner! Of course, being the only male foreign student in the entire school I have been getting a heap of attention for the past few days. At first the attention was great (Ego boost!), but it does get a bit tiring. It makes for good stories though, I guess.

Anyway, I’ve digressed a bit, so I’ll try and get back on track. After Long Home Room we got to go home, as normal lessons haven’t started up again yet. The next day I once again met Yoshimi-sensei and then a fellow foreign student, a 15 year old girl from the USA named Ellen. Yoshimi-sensei showed us to the library, where we’d be having some Japanese tutorial lessons with some volunteers from a nearby University. The first lesson was a bit of a bludge and we mostly just talked (In Japanese of course) for the whole time, I also got to meet yet another foreign student, a half Japanese/German girl from Germany named Miyako.

After the tutorial lesson finished, I went back to my homeroom to eat lunch. Unfortunately, the rest of the class was out getting health checks and preparing for a special assembly, which introduces the different clubs to the freshman students. Lunch was a bit lonely, obviously. After I’d eaten, I met up with Hiroki and we went to the assembly to see the different clubs that I could choose from. The assembly was pretty entertaining, although a bit long. At the moment I’m thinking I will join the English club, in hope that I can help out a bit and make some new friends outside of my classes.

Day three started with another Japanese tutorial and then regular classes. Classes are tough. It’s hard to understand anything in any of the classes (Besides Oral Communication and English, which are both English based), especially Maths and Japanese (Think our Australian English classes, just Japanese). Hopefully it gets easier as time goes on to understand what’s going on though. I also had PE, which was Soccer, and much more fun than I thought it would be. I really enjoyed myself.

Today was better than the past two days, for certain. The first lesson was English, and the teacher, Okubo-sensei, had me introduce myself a bit in English to the class. After I’d ranted a bit about my background, she gave the class a chance to ask me questions in English and one of the first questions asked was “Do you have a girlfriend?”, I totally saw that one coming (Funnily enough, the same girl asked me later in the day what kind of girls I like haha). When there were no questions left to be asked, the teacher had me help out as an ALT with some exercises and then the class was soon over.

The rest of the day saw me joining in Japanese class, Home Economics, Maths and finally Chinese. Yes, Chinese. I have no idea why, but the way my timetable was made I am in a Chinese class. It was actually a lot of fun, and the teacher was interesting to say the least. I imagine it would be hard to learn another language in one that I can’t even fully understand yet though, so I don’t know if I’ll be able to stay in the class for long. It’s one of the many things I have to talk to Yoshimi-sensei about on Monday.

So that’s my week in a nutshell. A very condensed version of events, if I went into too much detail I could probably go on forever. So far school is good, I just hope that my Japanese skill can progress to a point where conversation is easier than now. I guess I should study more and harder, just living here isn’t going to make me a fluent speaker at all. I have to do a spot of shopping this weekend so I think it would be a good time to pick up some Japanese learning textbooks and whatnot.

Day Five of Arrival Orientation (The One with the Sad Goodbyes)

2007-04-12T18:05:00.003+09:00

The day we had been waiting for had finally come. After breakfast at the usual cafeteria we left the building just in time to see the salmon leaving the Center in busses (There were so many buses! There must have been a row of around 10 at least). We started waving goodbye to each bus that drove past and some of the reactions were great. We all agreed that it was good to be leaving at the same time as the salmon, the place would feel empty without them.

We were all being shipped off to our host families in different parts of Japan. Those of us taking the Shinkansen (Alistair, Sununtha, Elina, Kor-anchan, Carissa, Kwan and Jessica) all met at around 9:00 in the original 4th level classroom… with all our bags. This meant, of course, lugging them up the stairs again. After saying goodbye to everyone that was staying behind and taking last minute photos, we headed off to the train station, bags in tow. We had to catch a few trains before getting to the station where we could catch the Shinkansen. By the time we’d arrived we were all exhausted, the bags were heavy, my arm felt like it was going to fall off any minute and we hadn’t had the pleasure of sitting down on any of the trains prior!

Finally we were in our designated seats in the Shinkansen, though, and it was very comfortable. Best train ride I’ve ever been on, that’s for sure. The trip itself wasn’t too exciting though. Everyone was really tired and the scenery was nothing to write home about – the weather that day was way too cloudy and the visibility was really low. Saying goodbye to people as their stops came was sad, and nerve racking since every time we stopped I knew it was one closer to Kyoto! When we finally arrived at Kyoto Station I could already see Junko (My host mother) and Fumiaki (My younger host brother) standing on the platform with a bright sign that said ‘Kaspar Spencer’. I was excited, but just so tired that I guess I didn’t feel all that nervous anymore.

After we’d waved goodbye to the other students from the platform and the train had moved on, we quickly made our way to a taxi and off to the home where I’d be staying for at least the next 6 months. By this time the nerves had returned and it was all a bit awkward since no one really knew what to say. By the time we’d reached the house things were lightening up though. After we got inside, settled a few house-keeping issues and whatnot, I headed to my room to relax a bit and ended up falling asleep almost right away! Yes, I was that tired… haha. I got woken up at about 6 though, since some family friends were coming over for dinner that night.

Dinner was lively, if not a little awkward. The older brother, Hiroki, was absent since he was working and the same goes for the father (Who hasn’t been around for one dinner yet, he seems to work long, hard hours). As such it was just Junko, Fumiaki and Junko’s friend, as well as her daughters (One about 14 I’d say, the other much younger). Trying to think back I can’t even remember what dinner was that night, I was just so tired it’s all a blur. I’m sure it was great though, since every dinner I’ve had since I’ve come here has been awesome, I’ve tried so many new foods in just the two weeks I’ve stayed with the Tomori family!

So that was the end of the week long orientation with PIEE. After writing this much for just those few days I still have two weeks of living with my host family that has gone unmentioned! It would simply take way too long to write out every little detail of my time here so far, so I guess most of it will have to be told in pictures. I will go over some things though.

The family itself; very friendly! They were very welcoming at first and now I feel like I’m really starting to become more and more of a family member. I’ve met a few of Fumiaki and Hiroki’s friends and they’re very interesting. My first time going to karaoke in Japan is definitely unforgettable! I’ve seen quite a bit of the surrounding city nearby the house, and so far I definitely like Kyoto. Where I’m staying has that city feel (Nowhere near Tokyo calibre, of course) and a certain charm to it. I’ve visited both the 金閣寺 (Golden Temple) and 哲学の道 (Philosopher’s Path) the latter of which I walked when the sakura were at their peak; quite the sight indeed! Even still there are heaps more touristy things to get around to over the course of my stay. Kyoto is just full of them, really.

The only real big downside so far has been the lack of internet connection! I have been disconnected for the past few weeks and as such unable to update this blog, unable to check & respond to email and unable to check myspace! Horror, horror! I did visit an internet café briefly just over a week ago but even then, myspace was blocked and the keyboard was just too annoying to think about updating the blog. I hopped on MSN for a brief hour or so though, which was definitely a relief for the addict in me. By the time I post this though, the internet will have been installed in the house (10th of April), unfortunately the same time I’m due to start school. Fingers crossed I have enough free time to regularly update.

Day Four of Arrival Orientation (The One with the Salmon)

2007-04-12T18:05:00.002+09:00

Day Four started the same as all those that had come before it. Wake up at 6:30, down to breakfast by about 7:30 and then back to the classroom for a quiz on the PIEE rules and regulations. Stuff we’d read over a million times before, but had to have drilled into us once more in a painful 1 hour and a half long quiz. Not so much a quiz, though, since every answer was read out and explained to us in depth again and again.

Next on the schedule for Friday (Our last full day at the youth center!) was a lesson on Japanese manners including bowing, how to enter someone’s house, table manners and the usual fare. This was at least more fun than the previous quiz, since it was more interactive and hands-on. After the explanation was over and done with we had a game where each group had a bowl full of smarties and they had to transfer them over to an empty bowl using chopsticks, each person in the group was to transfer 5 over and then hand the baton to the next person. It was a lot harder than it sounds! The shape of smarties meant they kept slipping out of the chopsticks unless you got them on a really good angle. Regardless, Ao (The team I was in) won! Our prize was that we each got a pair of chopsticks (Made in China).

After manners we got a short break and then came back for a lesson in calligraphy. Some volunteers and the staff helped us translate our names into kanji characters so we could have a go at writing them in calligraphy. My attempts were pretty lacklustre. I say it’s due to my lack of artistic talent :D! Afterwards we all lined up on the stairs outside and took a photo. I really like this one, despite some people hiding in the back.

Calligraphy, manners and rules out of the way we could finally go and get something to eat! After our last lunch in the youth center we went back to the room to have a bit of a presentation with two students who had been in Japan for 7 months so far, as well as Japanese host families and Kana. The staff had questions written up which they asked them and they answered to the best of their ability, it was interesting to get some insight into life as an exchange student/host family from those who had actually lived it. It gave some more reality to the fact that the next day we’d all be saying goodbye and going our separate ways, something we hadn’t thought about for awhile.

After the presentation was over we were able to prepare for our presentations on our countries. Since there were so many Australian students, we split into 2 groups and I ended up working with Craig, Alistair, Carissa and Samantha. The presentations were all fantastic, and I was really happy with the poster our group came up with (Mostly thanks to Carissa). My favourite presentation was from the group of Thai girls who showed different aspects of Thai culture like bowing, ways of saying hello and traditional dance; as well as showcasing traditional Thai dresses! Some guests were there to see the presentations too. Harrison and Pear’s host families had come to watch and that meant they’d be leaving that night, as well as a PIEE staff member that was taking Lilianna to stay with him until she left for Kagoshima.

During dinner we sat with Harrison and his host sister as well as Sununtha and Hugo. It was nice to finally be getting to know everyone better! For the whole time we’d mainly associated with the group we were familiar with, but now I was getting to know the other students much better. Sad that it had to be on the very last night! After dinner we said our goodbyes to Harrison, traded emails and whatnot and then we had to return to the classroom to get the details on what was happening the next day. Before going to dinner we had a run-in with some friendly Salmon though! Outside the cafeteria they approached us and started talking. For our entire stay it had been a bit of a mystery what the salmon were doing at the center… we guessed maybe some sort of sport or something along those lines. But it turns out they were all nursing students! Guess we were a bit off the mark with that one.

In the classroom I got a chance to talk to more people again and ended up exchanging emails with most of the other students. As I write this though I haven’t been able to keep in touch with any of them! I haven’t had Internet access since I moved to my host family! It was nice to be talking to so many people but sad at the same time, considering we’d be saying our goodbyes early on the next day.

After sticking around in the classroom for a while our original Aussie group headed out again to vending machines and whatnot. While I was waiting for the others outside some of the salmon walked past me and then one of them turns around and shouts out “Hey! How are you!?” in English. I replied “Hey! I’m great! How about you?” and then she spazzed out and screams “I am very happy!” haha. The same girl kept spazzing out and we saw them a few times after that… at one point she fell on the ground and her friend said (In Japanese) “Don’t mind her, she’s a bit funny in the head”. I wouldn’t argue that.

So our last day at the Youth Center ended pretty well. I’d made some new friends, and was anxious for the next day when I’d be boarding the Shinkansen with some others to go to Kyoto! At this point nerves were beginning to really set in, I guess.

Day Three of Arrival Orientation (The One with the Maid Cookies)

2007-04-12T18:05:00.001+09:00

Day three was our big tour of Tokyo courtesy of the PIEE staff; something I’m sure we’d all been looking forward to for a long time. The day started off interestingly enough with Craig sleeping in and due to a miscommunication through the door of his apartment, the rest of us waiting for him for almost an hour before giving up and going to breakfast with hardly any time to spare. Despite this we managed to get to the room to meet everyone in time! Go team!

After we’d all split into groups and met our group leaders and assistants, we headed out of the center for the first time since we arrived. It was good to see some people that weren’t wearing pink sweaters for once. We headed to the train station where we caught a train and then another train once again to get into the main part of Shinjuku via the Odakyu Line. The train system in Tokyo is pretty amazing. Everything down to the ticket system and all, it’s much more advanced than back in Brisbane and much more efficient – if a little (Hello, understatement!) crowded and packed.

Our first stop was the observation deck of the Metropolitan Government Building. Nothing short of a breathtaking view as far as city skylines go; there was literally nothing but buildings, buildings and more buildings as far as the eye can see. There were scattered parks of course, but for the most part it was just a mass of buildings. Seeing the city lit up at nighttime would have been amazing.

After taking in the view and taking more than a few pictures of it, we headed back down to the ground floor and made our way to Asakusa with our groups. Getting to Asakusa meant more trains, and we took the Marunouchi and Ginza Lines to get there. Once we’d arrived I made the wise purchase of a hot milk tea from a nearby vending machine and we got to witness the clock above the tourist information center’s performance. Many photos were taken, of course.

The Asakusa leg of our tour involved seeing the Kaminarimon Gate, the shopping street of Nakamise which was just beyond the gate, and then the Sensoji Temple and Sumida Park which lay just beyond that. The parts that stick out most to me are Nakamise and the Sensoji. Both great in their own right, the shopping street was packed and really fast paced but there were a bunch of great stores with assorted food and souvenirs. Sensoji Temple was pretty large and very beautiful, we managed more than a few photos in the temple alone, as well as the nearby Sumida Park. At the Sensoji I also got my first おみくじ (Omikuji – A written oracle, or fortune). You had to pick up the giant tin (After paying about 100yen), shake it around a bit and then pull out a stick. You take a sheet out of the draw corresponding to the number on the stick you pulled out. My fortune was great – I pulled out ‘The Best Fortune’ which foretold many great things for me… Sununtha wasn’t nearly as impressed with her fortune.

After all this was said and done, we headed off to have lunch at an Okinawan style restaurant called うちなー家. I can’t remember the specifics of my meal, just that it was delicious and that I totally neglected to take a photo before I ate it. I do, however, have an exceptionally flattering photo of a crazy foreigner. During lunch one of the other Australian guys who was with another company (WEP, not SEA) was showing off his Maid Cookies, which led to a discussion about Otaku and Akihabara. The Maid Cookies will never be forgotten.

After lunch was eaten and we were all ready to leave we headed off to take the 水上バス (A water bus, or ferry rather) from Asakusa to Hamarikyu. At first we all sat on top of the boat to see the sights better, but with the wind it was way to freezing and eventually we all migrated to the lower levels. While we were on the top of the boat though, a random old Japanese man kept looking at Alistair (Who is reasonably tall, as a random Japanese girl had mentioned in the lift at the youth center on an earlier occasion) and ducked as the boat went under every bridge, while saying ‘Watch out!’. He had a can of Asahi in his hand, so I’ll assume he was drunk.

When we got to Hamarikyu we went for a walk through the Japanese gardens, took a lot of photos and just took in the scenery for a bit before heading off on a trek to the PIEE office from there, which involved walking to the subway, catching another train and then walking a lot more. I personally felt suitably fit after the day was over. At the PIEE offices we introduced ourselves in Japanese to the staff behind the exchange program, which went pretty smoothly for most; showing just how much everyone’s language skills had benefited from our time in Japan already.

After the introductions we headed back to the center by train – a much shorter trip than getting there, and we were back in time for dinner at the center’s café this time. The atmosphere (And the salmon) of the cafeteria was missed. Sleep came easily that night after so much trekking around the city.

Second Day of Arrival Orientation (The One with the Crazy Foreigner)

2007-04-12T18:05:00.000+09:00

My waking up on Wednesday morning wasn’t exactly ideal… I managed to forget to change the time on my phone’s clock to Tokyo time, meaning it was still set for Sydney time. So even though I wanted my alarm to go off at 6:30 I got woken up at 4:30. Not the best way to start a day… But I managed to cram in 2 more hours sleep after changing the time to Tokyo time.

Waking up, take two. This time my alarm goes off as expected at 6:30! Relief on my part. Managed to shower and make myself semi-presentable (To the best of my ability) while taking photos of the dorm. Excuse the mess. After which I met the other Australian students down in the lobby by the elevator and we went to the cafeteria for our first breakfast of the orientation. Breakfasts weren’t the best meals of the orientation stay, that’s for sure. But since I skimped on the details of the cafeteria set-up on the last entry, I should do that here.

It was a self-serve cafeteria, much like anything you’ve seen on movies of American schools. The food was damn good for cafeteria food, and we had little meal tickets for every meal of every day while we stayed, so we didn’t have to pay for it (I guess that’s part of where all that money goes to…). All I remember of our first breakfast was the lack of appetite in just about all of us, and the nice egg we ate… until you got to the center and there was a prawn in the middle. Just about everyone left them unfinished. Looking back they were pretty good breakfasts though. Just at the time I was used to the simple and light breakfast, which included no more than cereal, toast and milk. Even the bread they had was sweet!

After breakfast we went to the classroom for a run through of the PIEE rules and guidelines by the staff. Incredibly dull. I guess it had to be done, but reading a book along with teachers is never fun, I’m sure you all know the feeling. This went on for about 2 hours (Or more, I can’t remember). We got short 5 minute breaks at points… but 5 minutes is hardly enough to do anything.

After the dullness of the rules we had a ‘Cultural Experience’ where a Hogaku group by the name of ひびき (‘Hibiki’) performed a short concert for us. It was a great experience, and it was nice to get a taste of the more traditional side of Japan’s culture. After the performance we got to try out some of the instruments they brought with them, including Koto, Shamisen and Shakuhachi. I tried out the Koto and Shakuhachi; both of which were notably difficult! The Shakuhachi more than the Koto, for sure. Alistair was surprisingly adept at playing the shakuhachi though! Many props to him.

After the performance we went down on the lift to the bottom floor and Craig managed to shut someone out of the lift as they ran for the door and flailed their arms around. The second of many… Lunchtime in the cafeteria was busy, in a word. Most of the crowd were little kids, so I assumed there was some school outing or something… It was quite the sight. I regret not taking any photos (And of course, missing every single photo opportunity of the salmon! I wonder if anyone got any…).

After lunch we wandered about and Craig started shouting ‘見て、見て！’ (Look, Look!) at the top of his lungs. Which soon developed to ‘見て、見て！変な外人！’ (Look, Look! Crazy Foreigner!) by no time. This got the desired effect of lots of stares, mostly from the little kids that were everywhere. Some of them were surprisingly rather nasty stares. He ended up writing ‘おかしいがいじん’ (Funny/Strange Foreigner) on his nametag beside his name.

Japanese lessons after this, which dealt with self-introductions; more revision. Nothing all that interesting to write about the whole thing, really. It was more of the same from the day before, just not as interesting or fun. After the lessons was dinner time and I actually remember what I ate! I had deep fried white fish or something along those lines. It was really delicious and went down really well after a long day. I think Noriko, one of the returnees sat with us this time. And at some point the discussion turned to Sumo wrestlers since there was a Sumo match on the TV in the cafeteria. This was also the start of the ごちそうさまでした (‘It was a real feast!’) episode, too. Craig started writing the word on a napkin and placing it on his tray after every meal. After you finish eating, you put the tray onto a conveyer belt like contraption that sends it back into the kitchen. I’m pretty sure he did this for every meal until we left.

After dinner we were walking back to the dorms when Craig and Samantha started skipping. Some older Japanese guys and girls were behind them and I’m almost certain one of the guys remarked ‘What the fuck!?’ (In English) to which one of the girls replied ‘Skippu! Skippu!’ and then they started mimicking the skipping in parody. Something we had a good laugh over for the majority of the night that remained…

First Day of Arrival Orientation (The One with the Cold Chips)

2007-04-12T17:58:00.003+09:00

We woke up bright and early on Tuesday for what was expected to be a pretty long day, but with a good night’s sleep the night before I was feeling pretty ready for it. We had breakfast at the same hotel café as dinner the night before, but this time it was a self-serve cafeteria-style meal. Writing from memory I can remember eating some form of scrambled egg, bacon and waffle, I also remember the distinct aroma of Natto, a traditional Japanese food (Fermented Soy Beans) which was repugnant enough to keep me from even trying to eat it. Someday, maybe. Nobody at the table bar Lilianna was brave enough to stick even the tiniest bit of the stick bean paste in their mouth!

After breakfast we headed up to our rooms and finished packing up and gathering our belongings into bags again, as we needed to take the bus from the Hotel to our next stop; the Olympic Memorial Youth Center in Shinjuku! The bus ride was pretty tedious. We resorted to playing I Spy in Japanese; it didn’t last too long. Nearing our destination the traffic started to get really congested which I guess is to be expected in Tokyo.

After way too long we arrived at the Youth Center. First impressions weren’t the best, but I did grow to absolutely love the place! Basically it’s a huge center which is currently used mostly for educational purposes, a lot of the people staying there were either students or business employees there for meetings or whatnot. Anyway, when we got off the bus we had to lug our bags up lots of stairs to the 4th floor of the main building for an afternoon of crash course Japanese lessons.

Before those though, we were introduced to the staff and some Japanese students who had studied abroad before and were volunteers helping out. After introductions and some house keeping stuff was over with we went to the cafeteria for lunch. First impression: wow. So many people in one place! Probably the most prominent people staying at the center for us (Us being our little Australia group we had going on) were a huge group of girls all wearing a bright pink jumpers and beige pants (There must’ve been hundreds of them, I swear!). They came to be affectionately known as the salmon girls at one point (And then, eventually, just the salmon). There were many amusing and fun run-ins with the salmon during the course of our stay… I’m pretty sure I could write an entire entry about just that! (And I just might do that :D)

If I could remember the kinds of stuff we’d eaten that day at lunch I’d write about it, but I can’t for the life of me. One of the returnees named Kana who had gone to North Carolina came and sat with us during lunch, we discussed the finer points of the Japanese language – haha – like the difference between お元気ですか (‘How are you feeling?’) and 気分はどう？ (Also ‘How are you feeling?’). The oddest finer details come back to me, but I can’t remember what we ate for the life of me!

Anyway, after lunch we went back to the same classroom for our Japanese language lessons, which were, admittedly, nothing new for me. They were essentially just basics revision for people that might have needed it. Nonetheless it was fun and I enjoyed myself. We worked in groups and if memory serves me I was with Sununtha (From Thailand), Kana, Samantha, and I’ve forgotten two people… but my memory is pretty good since this was almost 2 weeks ago!

After a few hours of these lessons Kana showed us to our rooms. One thing I have learnt from this whole trip is to back better! Not that I forgot anything, quite the opposite. This is my first time overseas, or even away from home for any longer than just under a week, so I guess I can be excused. Anyway, we had to carry our stuff down the to the ground level and then to the dorm building and I was exhausted by the end of it. I was talking with Kana at the back of the group and because of that I ended up getting left behind at the elevator in the dorm building (Thanks, Craig. He was to do this to other people many, many times during our stay… but that’s a totally different story altogether. I could write an entry about that too… chances are I won’t).

We got our own rooms this time! Something that made me very relieved, sharing rooms, especially bathrooms, gets tedious after too long. Since this was a 5 day stay I made myself relatively at home in my room. The rooms were fairly standard dorms. We had our own (Small) bathroom, TV and bed. Not big at all, but fair enough for such a short stay and just one person. The view of the Tokyo skyline was nice too.

I think the most fun I had during the orientation stay was wandering around with the other Aussie students every night. The first night we made a fairly routine visit to the vending machines and purchased some dry, not very appetising ‘Hot’ Chips from the hot food machine, which served other things like hot dogs, yakisoba, onigiri among other things. One of my chips was still frozen. Not recommended. The drinks were much more agreeable though, and they have hot and cold drinks in the vending machines here. So you can order a can of hot coffee or hot chocolate straight from a vending machine! Very nifty, and utilised a lot since it was freezing cold for our entire stay!

I don’t think I slept till fairly late that night, maybe around midnight or so. But it was a pretty big day so I didn’t have any trouble at all falling asleep to the crazy shows on TV.

In Japan! (The One About Arrival Fascination)

2007-04-12T17:58:00.002+09:00

The day I’d been waiting for had finally come, and it felt like it crept up on me out of nowhere. Even when I was standing with my family and friends in the Domestic Terminal of Brisbane airport, the reality hadn’t even begun to hit home. It was pretty hard to say goodbye to everyone I’d been with for so long, but the prospect of being in Japan within 24 hours or so was exciting! Mixed emotions all around, I’d say.

It was probably hours later, coming into Bangkok Airport after a long and gruelling 9-hour flight, that I think I really started to realise. General gist of Bangkok Airport is that it was impossible to work out where a Starbucks was, despite help from the interactive map terminals; the security was even tighter than in Australia; and when we got off the bus we had to take to board the plane, the weather outside was humid like I’ve never imagined!

So taking a bit of a step back, the flight to Thailand itself wasn’t that spectacular… the novelty of flying quickly wore thin and boredom struck… It was nice to get to meet the other students flying to Japan from Australia though (Or rather, Craig, Samantha and Lilianna; Carissa and Alistair met up with us in Bangkok airport). Attempts to sleep on the flight were unsuccessful to say the least; the same was the case on our flight to Narita airport.

And so we arrived in Japan; deprived of sleep and showers for 24 hours and generally not in the best mood. What’s the first thing we get to do? Fill out forms! And then stand in a really, really long line at immigration. With all the formalities over and done with we finally met up with the PIEE staff waiting for us as well as a group of students coming from Thailand (Who were actually on the same flight as us, as we found out later on) and a French boy named Hugo. It was decided that we should call home using the payphones and at some point we decided to test the weather outside and were greeted by freezing cold! A world away from Bangkok, that’s for sure.

Much to our dismay, we weren’t given any time to rest at all, and shortly after making our calls and sending off our suitcases we crammed our bags into a bus and were whisked off to Excel Hotel Tokyu in Narita, where we’d be spending the night before heading off to the center where our orientation was being held the next day. We left our bags in the lobby and had a bit of free time to wander around and enjoy the scenery.

Soon after we met up again as an entire group and the PIEE staff took us on a tour of the area. We visited Niomon Gate and various other touristy sights within walking distance. And we did do a lot of walking, or maybe it was just the jet lag and general crappy feeling from taking 3 consecutive plane flights the day before that made it seem that way… By this point we’d been joined by a group of students from Finland, among them was a girl named Elina who was being filmed by a documentary about exchange students’ lives in Japan. Naturally, we all got a bit of camera time by the end of the orientation week, since the cameraman was trailing us pretty much everywhere we went.

So after a lot of walking we came to a shopping mall and I spotted my first Starbucks in Japan (Sadly, not a foot was set inside this one… How regretful!), the PIEE staff treated us all to a traditional Japanese bento lunch at a small restaurant in the mall. The place had a great atmosphere, and we split up into groups and got our own little rooms to eat in. The food was probably great, but I couldn’t really tell because my appetite may as well have not existed at that point. Highlights of the lunch were drinking coffee whitener (Don’t ask) and poking/prodding at unknown foods. Always fun.

After our small lunch, we were given some free time to wander the shops and do whatever buying we wanted. My first observation; Japanese malls are so much better than those back in Brisbane. There were so many things just calling out to be bought, but I held back and ended up buying a CD single from a CD shop in the center (Flavor Of Life by 宇多田ヒカル for the curious). Highlights of the wandering with the other Australian students include a psychotic mouse in a pet store that kept running backwards and forwards in its cage. Craig ended up taking a short video of it – I think it’s one of those “had-to-be-there” kind of moments.

After this we got assigned our rooms (I was sharing with Alistair and Craig) and went back to the hotel to check-in, grab our keys and head up to clean ourselves up for the first time in over a day! One of the worst bathrooms ever; I’m not too keen on hotel bathrooms, but I must say one of the most relieving showers ever! After we’d all taken turns at using the bathroom to fix ourselves up, it was almost time to head down to the café for dinner. We’d all chosen our meals earlier in the day and I ended up having a really delicious beef curry. Much better than the airflight dinners I’d had the night before, and by that point my appetite was coming back to me. Dinnertime was suitably awkward though, with silence coming from almost all parties as the hotel played acoustic versions of X Japan songs in the background. At this point we hadn’t really talked outside of our existing groups (ie: Australians with Australians, Thai with Thai, Finnish with Finnish… and French) so that’s probably what made it most awkward.

After dinner we went to our rooms, phoned home and went exploring for the shortest time before realising just how freezing it was outside and quickly returning to the safety of our hotel rooms and bed. Most of the night before sleeping was spent watching random Japanese television; which did not disappoint in the random department in the slightest.

And so my first day in Japan was spent. It was tiring, it was fun, but the reality still hadn’t come home yet! Whenever I took the time to think I was suddenly hit by this feeling of “Wow, I’m in Japan!” Very odd indeed, but I slept very well that night.

Internet!

2007-04-12T17:58:00.001+09:00

So my family finally has an internet connection and I am able to update this thing again, even if I have to use a Japanese keyboard for the time being (Very annoying, I must say). I`m going to post some catch-up entries now and hopefully get around to adding photos and whatnot very soon! Anyway, enjoy!

My Life in a Suitcase

2007-03-17T18:05:00.000+09:00

So tonight is my last night in Australia for the next 12 months. The feeling is almost surreal at the moment. Even as I was cramming all the different objects of my life into a big suitcase the reality was still somewhere above my head. It's an odd feeling. Maybe one of the oddest nights of my entire life. I just can't believe that this is the last time I'll be sitting in this room, in this chair for the next year!

It's going to be a huge adventure, and this is the beginning of it all. I'm totally psyched, and I can't wait to just dive right into it all! Tokyo on Monday morning, and I'll be living out the dream I've been wanting for so long.

I'd never had any experience with packing beyond short one-week trips before today, and it was definitely hectic. Just getting the weight right is such a hassle. I did manage to cut my suitcase weight down to 20kg though, and my carry-on luggage is under 7kg... that is, not counting my laptop bag which alone weighs a good 7kg. My dad assures me that they won't weigh my laptop bag though, and that what I've generally heard, so hopefully that's the case! If not, my parents may end up having to pay excess fees, which would not be good at all.

Undoubtedly, this is going to be so hard. But it's all so worth it. I can't wait!

One Week

2007-03-12T21:55:00.000+09:00

This post is about one day belated, but better late than never! This time next week I will be in Tokyo, maybe asleep (And then again, maybe not), but regardless I will be IN TOKYO! Which is an amazing thing to even think about, and to be honest the reality of the situation hasn't yet 100% sunk in. I doubt it will until I'm faced with the stresses of packing and actually getting on the plane to Sydney.

I think the hardest part about this whole experience is leaving behind friends (And of course, family). On Saturday I had a BBQ outing with my close friends to say goodbye to everyone and see them all before I left. The turnout was great, and it was really nice to see people that I hadn't been able to catch up with for ages, as well as those that I see all the time. It's the last time I'll see most of my friends until next year, so it was hard to endure. But it was great fun regardless, even though I woke up the next day with bright red arms and got a shock when I looked in the mirror. I haven't been as sunburnt as this for a long while!

The farewell shindig was so early because this week I am and will continue to be flat out busy. I have a tonne of appointments and things to remember, and I'm sure it'll be like this till the day I leave. Just one of the many perks that comes along with traveling overseas, I guess. There's so many little things to remember that it's just annoying after awhile. The effort will be worth it in the end, and my parents are great, they're probably doing the worst parts of it all haha.

As the days count down I'm progressively becoming more and more nervous. This is something I've wanted to do since I can remember, but the nerves were unexpected. I don't think I've ever felt like this before! I'm sure it'll be crazy on the morning I leave. That said, I'm definitely looking forward to the adventure. I've always wanted a break from routine and monotony in my life; I'm definitely about to get it!

Host Family Information

2007-02-20T16:35:00.000+09:00

Since yesterday I received news on where I'd be going to school, all I was waiting on was the news of my host family. That arrived earlier today and I have to say I'm pretty pleased! I'll be spending the first 6 months of my exchange with the Tomori family. The family consists of 4 people; Mother (Junko), Father (Hideharu), and two Sons (Hiroki and Fumiaki). They also have a pet dog! Hiroki and Fumiaki are 16 and 13 and they're interested in skateboarding, music, painting and reading. Which sounds interesting, I'm sure they're both great guys.

According to the information sheet I was given, Junko enjoys cooking which should be good, I can imagine. Unfortunately they can only host me for the first 6 months, so I might have to move to a new host family after the first 6 months. This could be interesting, it'll be good to live with different types of families. I'm looking forward to my stay with the Tomori family though, they seem like a really nice bunch.

They describe themselves as; kind, tolerant, cheerful, individual, tidy, independent and strict. Definitely a great blend of traits for a family to have!

Murasakino High School

2007-02-19T16:34:00.000+09:00

Today I was told I'll be attending Kyoto's Murasakino High School this year. After browsing the school's site it looks like a great school, what did seem peculiar to me is the fact that Murasakino High School is one of the few schools in Japan without a school uniform. On one hand it could be a lot more comfortable and easy going to not have a uniform, but on the other I was pretty fond of my old school uniform being able to save me the trouble of picking outfits every day, as well as the fact that for a lot of schools in Japan the school uniform is a big deal. Anywho, on the bright side of things at least I know what city I'm going to be going to now!

My new best friend

2007-02-18T18:17:00.000+09:00

Since the date of my departure is growing nearer and nearer, there are tonnes of purchases that need to be made in the next few weeks. From clothes, to cameras and luggage. A few days ago I ordered this beauty - the Canon V80 Wordtank. A Japanese-English and English-Japanese translator with a massive amount of useful features.

One of the biggest bonuses of the V80 is the ability to draw on the screen using the pen tool, this would make searching for unknown 漢字 (Kanji) a lot easier than using the keypad and dictionary. These things aren't cheap but definitely worth it, and I can't wait to get my hands on it. I'm pretty sure this is going to be one of my best friends once I'm in Japan.

A few mundane updates

2007-02-11T12:52:00.000+09:00

I wish I could post here more often at the moment, but the reason I haven't been doing so is that there is very little to update on. I haven't heard much else at all regarding my trip to Japan, which is really quickly approaching as I'll be leaving in a little over a month, if the estimate departure date I was given is correct. There have been a few mundane updates handed down to me from Student Exchange Australia, but it doesn't help much to ease the apprehension that's going through me right now.

Apparently all the students going to Japan with SEA this year have been assigned schools already, and possibly host families, but I still haven't been told where I'm going. The coordinator that was assigned to me wasn't sure either last time I heard, so it's all rather up in the air at the moment. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that something is told to me soon, because as soon as I know where I'm heading this will seem much more real and I might be able to plan things a bit better.

Pretty soon it will be time to start buying all those essentials I need for the trip; clothes being the main thing, but also things like a camera which I wouldn't be able to do without. At first I was planning to work part-time until my departure but sadly those plans actually never came into fruition. I applied at places, had trial shifts, and even got hired somewhere - it's a long story, but fast food chains in Australia are unbelievably slack. This said, I won't be able to go on any massive shopping sprees while I'm over in Japan, but I can't imagine I'll be dirt poor for the entire year either.

I guess the main reason I wanted to write something here was to just make sure you all know I'm alive and actually intending on posting, as soon as something does happen. With any luck the next month or so will be much more interesting. It's only a matter of time before I start getting more and more information about the trip.

First of Many

2007-01-29T18:56:00.000+09:00

So this is my first entry here, a new blog I've created for the express purpose of documenting my one year long stay in Japan, starting towards the end of March this year. I decided I really wanted to start a public blog whereby I could keep memories and let all my friends and family here in Australia keep posted on life as an exchange student in Japan, this said it'd be great if I could draw readers in that may be considering taking part in an exchange or just curious about life in Japan! As such, I guess I'd best start from the beginning and do a little back tracking.

As you've probably gathered, my name is Kaspar. At the moment I'm 17 years old and just last year I graduated Year 12 at Kelvin Grove State College in Queensland. About a year ago I began seriously contemplating the idea of taking part in an exchange as a Gap Year between graduation and starting University, the idea was just floating up in the air for awhile and was nothing more than fantasy due to the financial aspects that could be a problem. After attending a meeting with Student Exchange Australia, my parents seemed pretty sold on the idea, and I am really thankful to them for supporting (And not to mention financing!) the whole thing. I am really lucky to have such a supportive family.

SEA (Student Exchange Australia) seem to boast a fairly great reputation as far as I've gathered, and their team has been really supportive and great with updating me and my family on the situation. I applied for a Language Scholarship worth a sum of $3,500 to go towards my exchange about midway last year. The whole process involved writing an essay (In English) on my motivation to learn Japanese; after writing and sending this off I was stoked to find out I was short-listed. All the short-listed applicants were given a moderately lengthy phone interview (Entirely in Japanese) to assess their abilities, and I was absolutely ecstatic to find out that I was a winner of one of the scholarships! Winning this meant I could at least save my family as much money as possible.

So here we are today, in the meanwhile I've had to deal with school and grades and applying for passports, but for the past month or so I've heard little news on anything at all. I'm still waiting on the news of a host family and where I'll be spending the next year, so that should be a surprise (Be it good or bad, I'm sure it'll turn out fine in the end). In the past few weeks the nerves and excitement have really been settling in. I guess it just finally clicked and I've been thinking "I'm going to be spending the next year in Japan!”. I can't even begin to imagine all the things I'm going to experience, the bad and the good, because I know I am picking myself directly out of my comfort zone.

I hope that I can keep you updated with exciting stories and photos directly from Japan this year!