Feeling sick :(

Oh well, now yet another week is about to end. Time is passing really quickly here, even though every day seems really long (makes no sense, but still). School is shaping up fairly well and I'm even managing in my Kanji class (believe it or not) my teacher is letting me stay in my current level with the promise of me working extra hard since I started on a level far behind the other students. However, right now I feel that I'm basically on the same level, so I should be okay with a little bit of motivation.

Feeling like crap right now, and this cold that pretty much everyone has been walking around with finally hit me. Trying to rest a lot but can't really sleep. Oh well, not much of interest to say here, except that I hope I'll get better.

I was/am intending to head to a field-trip tomorrow (Saturday) but in my current condition I'm not sure if I should be going or not. It's a really interesting trip and I'd love to go... but we'll have to see. Maybe what I should really do is just rest, but that's no fun at all.

Went to Osaka last week and went to the shopping districts there. Woooaaah they are huge, and omg do they have a lot of stores. It was a lot of fun just walking there. We forgot to take enough pictures, but before you entered the huge stream of people, it looked like it would be impossible to move through the enormous crowds. Well, definitely had a lot of fun and we found everything you could possibly imagine. Definitely a great day and I have to return there sometime soon. When I get better I should definitely head to Kyoto as well to go shopping there :D.

Been looking more into the Kendo club and I'm totally loving it. I've ordered my training wear and bamboo-sword and all that good stuff and it should arrive next Wednesday. It's a little bit expensive, but I guess that's only to be expected under the circumstances. He is, after all, letting me train for free so I'm not complaining :).

I am really starting to feel settled in here and I don't feel like a stranger everywhere I go all the time. I've found a few places that I can go to and relax and I've also made good friends and I feel relatively settled in. Although it's fun to come to a new place, it's really nice when you can feel that you are starting to make sense of the place as well, in order to get a stable ground to stand on.

Well, morever, meeting my speaking-partner today again with some friends. She's a really sweet girl but very shy. We managed through one lunch already by talking about random stuff and today we'll be there with a few friends so it should be a bit more comfortable and language barriers should be okay. If nothing else, it's a great way of practicing my Japanese.

Another week

Okay, so yet another week is reaching its end and lots of fun things have happened. We've spent this week doing all kind of random things, including studying ^^. After we cooled down from the sugar-kick that we received from the giant chocolate bar (ref. previous post), we decided to spend more of the week studying in a more mannered way :).

I went to the Kendo club, and it seems amazing. The teacher there speaks surprisingly fluent English, which I guess is both a benefit and a con, depends on how you look at it. It is really helpful right now in the beginning, and I'm very happy that he helps me out so much, but perhaps in a month or so I'm hoping that he can start instructing in Japanese or that I will at least understand it. Anyhow, he's currently training me and my friend separately (considering most the other students are about 11 years old and have done this since forever). He's very strict with the small kids, but he's so relaxed with me, which I hope we will get past soon, because I want him to point out every detail he can find :P. He's very happy to have a foreigner there though, no doubt about that. He's even planning on translating a piece of a Kendo handbook in order for me to read it in english and really understand. That's so nice, he's really taking his own time to do what he can to teach me both Kendo and the Culture around it.

Oh, for something completely random, this time of the year is chocolate season (my weakness) and they have Chocolate Pies at McDonald's... I'm gonna turn fat, no doubt. A dollar and they are the best things since chocolate was invented. Well, enough of that, picture is now posted :D.

Went to the Arcades! Amazing experience, no doubt. I mean, I headed to a small one in Hirakata, and it was allright. This one was in Neyagawa (where my host-family lives), and it was this smoky place with lots of sounds and packed with machines. They had the funniest fighting games that I've ever seen. Not so much photo-booths and music games as one might imagine, I guess they're really hot for fighting games. Unfortunately most of the ones that I love and know, are not available here. I'll have to settle of Tekken and Virtual Fighter and keep learning those along with all the anime-games :P. Me and my friend sat down at a game that was basically "Type or Die" and it was like a game where enemies would pop up with a text under them and you type it. All was in romanji (roman alphabet) so it was sooo easy for us, we annihilated that place. Well, until all of a sudden there was "Question Time" and the questions where in Japanese and you had to attack the targets in the right order... well, nightmare for us and we got squashed. Other than that, lots of fun! :D.

Now, as for this weekend, we're planning on heading to a Mall in Hirakata later today, I'll probably buy a new bag and a pair of shoes for the work-out (they violently rejected me while I tried to enter the gym without proper shoes). Furthermore, tomorrow we'll probably head to Osaka and hit the big shopping/gaming districts, that'd be fun! :D. I can't wait to try to Arcades
there, it'd be so much fun :D.

Classes and stuff

Well, besides karaoke and a sushi-night, this weekend ended up being a lot of studying in order to maintain the level that I was placed in by the placement test. I had my Speaking test today and it actually went fairly well. I managed to score like an 89% on it, which for studying for two months (unlike the others in the class who’ve been doing Japanese for at least one year) is fairly okay. At least it’ll keep me in this level (I hope) and I can keep working on getting ahead.

What I’m more worried about is the writing class. My Kanji knowledge is just waaay inferior to the others in the class, and although that serves as an inventive in some ways, it’s really demoralizing in other ways. I guess I just need to practice a crapload more, but she’s a really difficult teacher and she’s very strict. During our first class she said that we’ll have a homework due today, and frankly, I didn’t understand a word of what she was saying that time, and obviously, had no idea we were supposed to do it ^^. She gave me a look saying “who the heck do you think you are coming to class without your homework done?” and I felt horrible. Well, on the other hand it’ll make me work twice as hard to prove her wrong (I’m stubborn that way) so maybe my dislike for her will serve as yet another incentive, big enough to do well.

On the more positive side, I’m starting with Kendo tomorrow! My Okaasan took me to the kendo clubs meeting two days ago (Sunday) and we talked to the sensei there and he was so excited that there was a gaijin (foreigner) that was so interested in Kendo that he decided that he’ll let me train this remaining period for free. Sweetness! J. Moreover, he seemed really nice, however strict, and it’ll probably be a lot of fun. Currently I’ll probably be put with the children while learning the basics, but in a month or so I should be allowed to train with the rest of the group. It all depends on how quickly I learn this stuff.

Me and my friend split a huge bar of Chocolate today (see picture) and it ended up replacing our lunch. At the end of it we were kinda sick of it, but still, a huge bar of chocolate is never wrong! I’ve been high on sugar the entire day.

Other than that there’s not too much going on. Right now I’m trying to get on track with my studies, but still trying to balance it with exploring this place. I’m meeting my speaking partner tomorrow, which I’m really looking forward to. I’ve gotten a lot more confident with my Japanese due to all the conversations with my host-family. I’m really enjoying this language, and I hope it won’t just end up being something that I forget later on. We’ll see.

First week of classes is now over :)

Now there’s definitely been some time since I last posted. Sorry about that, but since having like no access to the internet and being busy pretty much all the time, it’s hard to fine a spot where I can sit down and write. Anyhow, enough about that, here we go :P.

So far the homestay is working out great. I could not possible imagine the host-family being any better (with the possible exception of lack of internet) and they are so helpful. They asked me about things that I wanted to do here in Japan and I said that I really wanted to start Kendo here but that the school-club is apparently kind of shaky. Since there’s no teacher, it’s a lot up to yourself if you actually want to join the club. Hence, I wanted to join an “actual” club in Neyagawa or something (which is where I live). My hostfamily went through fire to find a club for me that I could join that wasn’t too far away. They printed lots of maps and called all their friends and guess what? They found one! :P Going there this Sunday to check it out. Apparently one of the teachers has been in Australia for three years, so he might actually speak pretty decent English, imagine?
Classes so far are going pretty well. They seem rather chilled compared to Westminster, I’m not gonna lie; at least the two that are taught in English. I hear from other students that since so many people come here for other reasons than to study, the teachers go fairly easy on us. The Japanese classes though are pretty intense. They are fun, no doubt about that, just intense. My reading and writing teacher is a Kanji-nazi, but then again, considering my lack of knowledge, it’s not surprising. Everyone else in both of my classes have studied for like 1-1.5 years, so I’m really on the lower end of the spectrum, but at the same time, I really enjoy the challenge. Furthermore, in my speaking class I’m not that far behind. My vocabulary is fine, but I don’t know the grammar well enough, so study study!
Got my cell phone now as well, it’s really sweet actually, I doubt that I’ll find these kind of cell phones in America or Europe. Maybe I’m wrong (considering I haven’t been on the cell phone market for years) but this thing has got TV, recording movies, dictionaries, and so on put into it. Furthermore it’s got this sweet thing that you can flip the screen around and watch it like a mini-tv. It wasn’t too badly priced either, at least not compared to Sweden (then again, is anything?).
We had lots of fun yesterday, headed to a Karaoke bar. I was kind of nervous considering I’m neither a great singer, nor do I particularly enjoy singing. However, no joke, this was soo much fun I’ll do it again any day. We rented a small room that’s basically sound-isolated, so it’s only the group that goes there that can really hear it. We were like 8 people, so it was pretty crowded. You pay like $25 for three hours and you can drink as much as you want during this time (!). It was great, my throat is actually really sore today, but no doubt that it was worth it. Yeah, totally going back there at some point in the future. Found one of my favorite Japanese bands there too, but I couldn’t read the Japanese fast enough to keep up with the song, so it ended up being all western songs :D (they had a frikking HUUGE selection, phone books after phone book of music).
Other than these events, I’m really having a lot of fun here. I’m trying to stay in touch with people, although that’s proving harder than I originally thought. Eating really well, and comparably cheap. My host-mother is a really good cook and she tries so hard to feed me more than I can eat. She thought I hadn’t eaten enough so she brought out some seaweed and wrapped rice in it, and served them as small snack-sized bites so that I could eat it whenever I got hungry :P. The Japanese itself is going well, having a review test on Tuesday to certify which class that I should be in, so I need to keep up with my grammar-studies right now. Going out tonight again, but Sunday and Monday (national holiday, so we’re off school) will be dedicated for that. Oh, and today it’s snowing for the first time, so I’m very c-cc-c-c-oooold.
I almost forgot! My speaking partner contacted me yesterday as well, so I'll try to get a hold of her. It's a program where you meet up for the purpose of talking english/japanese as much as possible in order to improve both sides language-abilities. That should prove to be a lot of fun!

Host-family wa ii desu!

Okay, now it’s definitely time for another post. It’s been a truly intense weekend with so much stuff to tell! Well, I can’t tell you too much about Kyoto, the pictures will have to speak for themselves. (Beautiful place though, if you ever come to Japan, that should be among your top-choice destinations).
As for me, I met up with my host-family this Saturday morning. I was just ridiculously nervous, ended up getting a headache during the meeting because I was so tense. However, it turned out to be a wasted worry as things so far are going really, really, well. I was met by the Otosan (the father) and he’s pretty much what I had hoped for as the family head. We had a meeting together with some Kansai Gaidai staff to set the ground-rules in the house to make sure we can get off to a good start. It did not take long until I realized that they are really laid back and that I’m granted a lot of freedom. So lucky me, I was kind of worried that I’d end up living in a cage :P. They’ve had like 8 homestay students before, So I count myself really lucky as they’ve gone through a lot of these things before. The Okasan (mother) of the family is extremely nice and speaks to me as slowly as humanly possible in order for me to understand. Since they had expected that I would speak absolutely no Japanese, I guess they’re surprised my ability to point and say the few hundred words that I do know :). I’ve got things like commuting pass taken care of and ended up getting a library card to borrow some children books in order to practice my readings. I find that to be ironic in of itself ^^ me? A library card? I barely read the books that are assigned to me in class! However, this is really interesting. I spent like lots of time trying to translate as much as I can :P. Now, fortunately since they’ve had so many homestay students they did not prepare a humongous and expensive welcoming meal which I am actually rather happy about, as that would just tend to make things somewhat more tense. Instead, they’re just ridiculously relaxed and behave as almost nothing happened (or so it would seem anyway, I hope I’m not totally misreading them right now). They try to talk to me as much as they can I and work so hard to understand them, and it’s going fairly well considering my language abilities. Their English is just slightly better than my Japanese, but I consider that a good thing as it helps me when I am missing a word or two, but it’s not good enough so that they only speak English with me. Quite the opposite, I can proudly declare that I’ve spent two full days speaking Japanese (or at least pointing at things and brutally mispronouncing things).
We went to a sushi place today where you have a band going past the table and you can pick out whatever looks good. Amazing idea and really cheap too! They made loud protests on my attempts to pay, so I gave up :).
Although the food is delicious, I can only fit so much. These people are not bigger than me, any of them, and they eat like 50% more than I do! They have three children and one of the daughters is home right now. She’s like my height and I swear to god, she can’t be over 45kg and she eats like a horse. I can’t see how these people can fit that much food, but I just can’t :P. I explained this to the mother that I really do like the food, but it’s just way too much! She eventually let go and today at dinner she asked if this small portion was enough, and I said that this would be excellent, upon which she added even more food! :P She’s really sweet, so I feel very at home. I hope that things will continue this and that I won’t do anything that’s just too out-of-line.
Well, after hearing all the horror stories about possibly homestay-scenarios, I count myself extremely lucky and I hope that my friends are having the same luck. They do not, however, have internet. So I will be limited to checking my mail in the school and so on. I can kind of pick up some wireless connection but it’s very shaky and only works like every 2 minutes for 5 seconds.
Tomorrow (Monday) we’re heading to get my papers done before I head to school, and then I’ve got the daily commute of 45 minutes (*snore*). It’s not bad though. It’s like 15 minutes by bicycle to the station, then like another 20 minutes on the train, and then lastly 10 minutes walk from the station to the school. It’ll be good, not complaining at the moment.
So far I’ve spent a lot of the time reading, watching game-shows (there’s sooo many of them on TV) and trying to have conversations. Tomorrow I’ll actually have my first Japanese class so everything seems really promising.

Pictures from Kyoto

Beautiful view!








Kris ala Japanese :)








The Kyomizu temple









Group-picture!










Still Kyomizu









You know the building is big when I can't get the entire thing on a picture!










Water designated to purify mind and body.















Downtown Kyoto









River flowing through Kyoto








Takoyaki - Traditional food from this region. Octopus, really good.








Not sure what the heck it was, but really pretty :)