:)
Feb 11, 2015
XMas food in Japan ?
I went to the nearby store on christmas just to buy some food, not even thinking about the fact that it was xmas because nothing near me indicated so. At home we always decorate inside, and the snow decorates outside, but in Japan I had nothing of that.
Anyway, when I got to the store I was pleasantly surprised to see that where they normally have the bento I every so often buy, they now had a bunch of new things!
Don't remember where this came from but the text is funny: "Santa Claus is a big star for us." o.0 Ok then.
I guess this bowl of goddies became my main xmas dinner. Too bad for me I dropped about half of it on the floor when trying to put it in the microwave..
The white thing wrapped in plastic is edible. Or so I thought. Turns out it's mochi that is stone hard.. I gave it to a friend. The reason I got this without even knowing what it was is because they had had it in the store for quite some time and after xmas they probably wouldn't have them anymore so I got one. And also, you get a free cat.
I also got myself a pizza, because it looked great and it was the first time that they had this kind of fresh pizza for sale. Very xmas-y.
Last but not least, they acutally had some xmas candy things for the kids - with Pikachuu! Almost bought one.
I know xmas was quite some time ago but I just wanted to upload these pictures really bad ^-^ can't wait to get some of this years xmas food aswell!
Anyway, when I got to the store I was pleasantly surprised to see that where they normally have the bento I every so often buy, they now had a bunch of new things!
I didn't buy these, but they look good. They are like cones of ... sushi rolls? Not sure.
Behind them there are sushi rolls - rolled in pancake o.0
In Japan they like to eat chicken on xmas.
Sushi for xmas!
More sushi cones!..? I don't really know what it is.
And here's the mochi again.
Even bigger ones!
Delicious! =D
I know xmas was quite some time ago but I just wanted to upload these pictures really bad ^-^ can't wait to get some of this years xmas food aswell!
Jan 23, 2015
Apartment search
We will end school at the 13th of March and I will start my new school on the 8th of April. This means that I have to find an apartment quite soon, well, not only me, all of us here.
For that reason I have for a few days now not been sleeping so well, lol.
Before and going out to a realtor myself I called my next school and said that I wanted to discuss searching an apartment with them (because you are recommended to do that). I didn't know what to expect from it but we set up an appointment. When we got to the school at the time of the appointment there was already a realtor there waiting for us. They simply told us we would go with the realtor to see two apartments, and so we did.
The apartments we were showed were quite small and quite expensive (?) for being so small. But the price goes up if you want to live close to our school which is in Umeda (which is expensive!!). The apartments were also in buildings that weren't very old, etc and that also makes the price go up.
I who thought I would be totally fine with a small apartment now started to realize what "small" really meant. It was just too small!
The realtor drove us back to the school when we were done and wouldn't you know it there was another realtor waiting for us!
They told us this one would only show us one place, but after that we ended up going to their workplace so that they could show us some other places too.
This time we went a long way out of town to a place from where you could not bike to school. It felt a bit like the middle of nowhere and I just didn't like to be so far away from everything, but the apartment was BIG! Well, not big, but a lot bigger than the once we had been shown before, and quite a bit cheaper too! So I told the realtor that I want something of this size but closer to school (preferable walking distance).
They started looking for apartments for us and found 1 that would work for me. It's in Minamimorimachi and is by walking (according for google maps) 33 minutes away. Plus, it's not only 1 room, it's 2. 1dk. It's a very good size at a very reasonable prize, and in a very good area, so, whats the catch? Well, it was built 39 years ago and if a big earthquake etc hits, It probably wont be standing afterwards. Lol.
Anyway I like the place and I'll take my chances for now. :)
(Random picture of Minami mori machi from some company's website!)
For that reason I have for a few days now not been sleeping so well, lol.
Before and going out to a realtor myself I called my next school and said that I wanted to discuss searching an apartment with them (because you are recommended to do that). I didn't know what to expect from it but we set up an appointment. When we got to the school at the time of the appointment there was already a realtor there waiting for us. They simply told us we would go with the realtor to see two apartments, and so we did.
The apartments we were showed were quite small and quite expensive (?) for being so small. But the price goes up if you want to live close to our school which is in Umeda (which is expensive!!). The apartments were also in buildings that weren't very old, etc and that also makes the price go up.
I who thought I would be totally fine with a small apartment now started to realize what "small" really meant. It was just too small!
The realtor drove us back to the school when we were done and wouldn't you know it there was another realtor waiting for us!
They told us this one would only show us one place, but after that we ended up going to their workplace so that they could show us some other places too.
This time we went a long way out of town to a place from where you could not bike to school. It felt a bit like the middle of nowhere and I just didn't like to be so far away from everything, but the apartment was BIG! Well, not big, but a lot bigger than the once we had been shown before, and quite a bit cheaper too! So I told the realtor that I want something of this size but closer to school (preferable walking distance).
They started looking for apartments for us and found 1 that would work for me. It's in Minamimorimachi and is by walking (according for google maps) 33 minutes away. Plus, it's not only 1 room, it's 2. 1dk. It's a very good size at a very reasonable prize, and in a very good area, so, whats the catch? Well, it was built 39 years ago and if a big earthquake etc hits, It probably wont be standing afterwards. Lol.
Anyway I like the place and I'll take my chances for now. :)
Dec 13, 2014
Disappointed students
Hello!
Before coming to Japan I didn't really have any expectations for the school, dorm or anything like that. I just felt that whatever it is I'll be fine, because I got this awesome once in a life time chance so I really shouldn't complain. Coming to Japan though and meeting the other students I've realised that far from all people feel this way. Which is totally fine, but probably worth mentioning here.
Some students are disappointed about, well, everything as it seems. They ended up in the wrong city (because you don't get to choose), the next school they will be going to wasn't up to their thought standard (cause we don't get to choose school either) and so on.
When I went to open campus to my school I noticed that a lot of students weren't so good at drawing (and this is a school were almost all subjects have to do with drawing). There were of course some really awesome that stood out, but so did the bad ones. It's like someone who's never drawn anything their whole life one day wakes up and says "I'm gonna be an illustrator!".
I don't mind though. Atleast I wont be the person with the suckiest drawings at the school! But that's something another person complained about. I guess to them it seems like the school has no "standard" (?), that they just let anyone in without checking if they can actually draw or not.
But I think that's normal for trade schools, because you come there to learn the trade. It's different for university, there you have to show what you can do before they let you in.
Another person complained about the schools equipment, (I think about the pc's and things like that). They also said that things about the scholarship and stuff were not like they had expected read/been told. And they didn't really like that.
Also, if you apply for this scholarship or any other of the monbukagakusho scholarships be prepared that you might have to go to a year of preparatory language education at a language school before you can move on to trade school/uni. Doesn't matter how good you are. There's a person here that have lived in Japan almost their whole life, and they speak it better than their "mother tongue", still, they were not allowed to skip language school.
A person I met in Sweden that applied for a university scholarship and got it (that's 4 years of free education in Japan ppl) but then refused it when they heard that they HAD to go 1 year to a lang. school. Got it, but then refused it, because they aldready thought they knew enough Japanese, and they probably did, but to throw away that chance for something like that..!
When you apply for a scholarship like the one I'm here on, you'd better not keep any expectations. If just getting to come to Japan isn't enough for you, look somewhere else or be ready to be disappointed. You just cannot get everything =P. (Or maybe you can with another scholarship!)
Before coming to Japan I didn't really have any expectations for the school, dorm or anything like that. I just felt that whatever it is I'll be fine, because I got this awesome once in a life time chance so I really shouldn't complain. Coming to Japan though and meeting the other students I've realised that far from all people feel this way. Which is totally fine, but probably worth mentioning here.
Some students are disappointed about, well, everything as it seems. They ended up in the wrong city (because you don't get to choose), the next school they will be going to wasn't up to their thought standard (cause we don't get to choose school either) and so on.
When I went to open campus to my school I noticed that a lot of students weren't so good at drawing (and this is a school were almost all subjects have to do with drawing). There were of course some really awesome that stood out, but so did the bad ones. It's like someone who's never drawn anything their whole life one day wakes up and says "I'm gonna be an illustrator!".
I don't mind though. Atleast I wont be the person with the suckiest drawings at the school! But that's something another person complained about. I guess to them it seems like the school has no "standard" (?), that they just let anyone in without checking if they can actually draw or not.
But I think that's normal for trade schools, because you come there to learn the trade. It's different for university, there you have to show what you can do before they let you in.
Another person complained about the schools equipment, (I think about the pc's and things like that). They also said that things about the scholarship and stuff were not like they had expected read/been told. And they didn't really like that.
Also, if you apply for this scholarship or any other of the monbukagakusho scholarships be prepared that you might have to go to a year of preparatory language education at a language school before you can move on to trade school/uni. Doesn't matter how good you are. There's a person here that have lived in Japan almost their whole life, and they speak it better than their "mother tongue", still, they were not allowed to skip language school.
A person I met in Sweden that applied for a university scholarship and got it (that's 4 years of free education in Japan ppl) but then refused it when they heard that they HAD to go 1 year to a lang. school. Got it, but then refused it, because they aldready thought they knew enough Japanese, and they probably did, but to throw away that chance for something like that..!
When you apply for a scholarship like the one I'm here on, you'd better not keep any expectations. If just getting to come to Japan isn't enough for you, look somewhere else or be ready to be disappointed. You just cannot get everything =P. (Or maybe you can with another scholarship!)
Dec 2, 2014
Arashiyama in Kyoto
Right now it's the season to go look at red leaves. It's a thing in Japan, just like it is to watch the sakura in spring.
My hostfamily invited me and my friends to go to Arashiyama (we we're a part of a big group of foreign students, around 50 people) which is in Kyoto. Arashiyama means "storm mountain".
Me and my friends were all really exited to go, but unfortunately I got a really bad cold that day, I couldn't breathe and could barely keep my eyes open. It really stopped me from enjoying the place to the fullest.
There were A LOT of people at Arashiyama and we had to stand in a really long line just to be able to cross a bridge, lol. With all the people I couldn't take a lot of nice photo's but I'll post what I got that is good enough! =)
This is a bamboo grove, it doesn't look so special in my pictures but in real life it was really nice to walk through it!
At the end of the bamboo grove you walk a little bit more and get to the "top" of the mountain. You can then walk down the other way and walk back to the station along the water.
My hostfamily invited me and my friends to go to Arashiyama (we we're a part of a big group of foreign students, around 50 people) which is in Kyoto. Arashiyama means "storm mountain".
Me and my friends were all really exited to go, but unfortunately I got a really bad cold that day, I couldn't breathe and could barely keep my eyes open. It really stopped me from enjoying the place to the fullest.
There were A LOT of people at Arashiyama and we had to stand in a really long line just to be able to cross a bridge, lol. With all the people I couldn't take a lot of nice photo's but I'll post what I got that is good enough! =)
This is what we came for:
Really like all these small leaves on the mossy ground:
This is a bamboo grove, it doesn't look so special in my pictures but in real life it was really nice to walk through it!
At the end of the bamboo grove you walk a little bit more and get to the "top" of the mountain. You can then walk down the other way and walk back to the station along the water.
Nov 13, 2014
English speaking Japanese robot-children o.0?
Today we had a school trip to Nara (where I've already been, but it was still ok!) and there some kids also there on a school trip came up to me and started asking me some questions about where I am from and such, and then telling me where they were from (Gifu-ken apparently).
They had a really good accent, and were seemingly wellspoken in English, atleast it seemed to at first. But the more they spoke the more apparent it became obvious that they were only reciting from a script. They were speaking like robots and they all took their well rehearsed turns to talk to me.
There was no life in their voices, and had I started talking to them about something completely different they probably would've stood there dumbfounded without being able to say anything in return.
When they had said all they wanted to say to me they gave me two small origami birds and I was allowed to take off. I should've tried their real English ability, I wish I had, but it was just such a weird experience to talk to these robots that my brain just stood still. Like "wtf just happened?".
Those kids weren't the only ones trying to get foreigners to speak to them in English (it also seems to be a common thing to give foreigners that do talk to you origami stuff), it looks like a lot of schools have this as a sort of English assignment. Now this would sound like a good idea, but when they do it like this the kids aren't learning anything! They just have to remember a few phrases and when who is going to say what, then when it's done they might as well forget those phrases again.
No more English speaking robots please! ...
They had a really good accent, and were seemingly wellspoken in English, atleast it seemed to at first. But the more they spoke the more apparent it became obvious that they were only reciting from a script. They were speaking like robots and they all took their well rehearsed turns to talk to me.
There was no life in their voices, and had I started talking to them about something completely different they probably would've stood there dumbfounded without being able to say anything in return.
When they had said all they wanted to say to me they gave me two small origami birds and I was allowed to take off. I should've tried their real English ability, I wish I had, but it was just such a weird experience to talk to these robots that my brain just stood still. Like "wtf just happened?".
Those kids weren't the only ones trying to get foreigners to speak to them in English (it also seems to be a common thing to give foreigners that do talk to you origami stuff), it looks like a lot of schools have this as a sort of English assignment. Now this would sound like a good idea, but when they do it like this the kids aren't learning anything! They just have to remember a few phrases and when who is going to say what, then when it's done they might as well forget those phrases again.
No more English speaking robots please! ...
Nov 6, 2014
I got to see dinosaurs!
I've never seen dinosaur skeletons live before so I was really exited that there was a museum close to us that had some. I went there with two of my friends, and even though the amout of skeletons weren't that great, it was still awesome! If I ever get the chance I'd like to go to a museum dedicated to only (or mostly) to dinosaurs. They aught to have more than this one, since it had more parts not about dinosaurs than about them.
I tried taking some pictures with my phone but the lighting wasn't that good so they didn't turn out so well..
Cool, eh? There was also a wale skeleton hanging outside the museum, but sadly I don't have a good picture of that..
The museum lay in a nice big park, so we went for a stroll there too.
It was a nice day =)
I tried taking some pictures with my phone but the lighting wasn't that good so they didn't turn out so well..
Cool, eh? There was also a wale skeleton hanging outside the museum, but sadly I don't have a good picture of that..
The museum lay in a nice big park, so we went for a stroll there too.
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