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!
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Monday, April 23, 2007
Photo Album!
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!
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!
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Photos
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!
Today is not so good, so I won't elaborate on it any more :D!
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Thursday the 19th (I Blame Lack of Inspiration)
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.
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, April 13, 2007
Friday the 13th
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.
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.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Day Five of Arrival Orientation (The One with the Sad Goodbyes)
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.
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)
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.
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)
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.
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)
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…
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)
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.
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)
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!
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!
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