小夜鳴鳥

From English Assistant Language Teacher to Cooking Teacher

Sun, 11 Jan 2009 04:39:16 GMT

I seem to make quite a career in Japan. I don't think I wrote anything about my last experience as an assistant language teacher some time in november I think, and now that I have done that a second time (yesterday), I guess it's time to catch up with that.~♥

It seems to be sort of a tradition amongst the exchange students of the uni here that we go to the English classes of some Unesco organization here (don't ask me what the Unesco part has to do with anything, I have no clue either) and both assist with their English lessons and talk about our respective countries and cultures in English of course.
The teacher in question, Itakura-san, told us that she is specifically asking for young people whose first language isn't English rather than Americans, Australians, Brits, you name it, because she wants to show how English can connect people all around the world even when you didn't learn it from your parents or your natural surroundings. Which is a way thinking I both find find impressive and fully support, now that I think of it.
The first time I assisted her classes in november, I was with a Czech who spoke fluent English and almost fluently Japanese (handsome guy, too bad most western guys here are more interested by cute japanese girls), the pupils almost all retirees (both male and female) and middle-aged housewives. They were AWESOME! I wanted to hug all of them, they were so motivated, interested and funny, I really enjoyed those two hours, even though I had to speak through a microphone and I hate those with a passion.

Anyway. I heard yesterday that they seemed to enjoy that day with me as well and that they are asking when they'll see me again, which made me all warm in my little heart. But I don't know whether I'll have the same pupils again on my next assigned classes in february or not (but I will be with the Czech guy again as it seems... *g*)

But let's talk about yesterday, or more exactly the cooking class that preoccupied all my mind for those last days and quite some time before my holiday. Because obviously, being German and all and on the list of acquaintances of that English teacher makes you the perfect candidate for cooking teacher, when a junior high school wants to learn more about german dishes. More exactly potato dishes, and potato dishes only, although I told them that most potato dishes are rather side dishes and that it would be quite boring to serve roast potatos or the like without anything like meat or fish or well, anything!
I finally came up with the idea of potato pancakes (aka Kartoffelpuffer) - although I have never done any myself before, putting deep-frozen potato pancakes from the supermarket into an oven as a child doesn't count in my book, and certainly not when you have to entertain a whole class for an hour or two. So here I was, testing cooking recipes over the last days, desperately trying to know what the hell I should be talking about on saturday. (Thanks to eriakai by the way who willingly volunteered as a guinea pig for my very first Kartoffelpuffer. Merci poussin!~♥)
It went surprisingly well. Great even! I would be lying to you if I told you I was enthralled by the idea to use apple jam and ketchup instead of apple puree or any other topping, but the apple jam turned out to be a great substitute and even the ketchup wasn't so bad either, and the pupils and assisting adults were once again great and so much fun to be around. I was flirted with by a fourteen your old teen with braces, had even a "I love you" in the end (due to every pupil who had to thank me or tell/ask me anything either in English or in Japanese and he probably ran out of sophisticated options although being quite shy otherwise, but still LOL!), I gave one other (cute!) fourteen year old boy my phone number (because he stayed in Paris for the most time of his life before he had to return to Japan recently, and he was so happy to have someone to talk to in French), and... uhm, I can perfectly hear you over there, humming Simon & Garfunkel. I'd be very obliged to you if you wouldn't mind stopping this, like now!^^;

I wasn't prepared to have another English class later on that day. But I had so much fun with the junior highschoolers that I agreed on a whim, and here I was, with another teacher, talking about new year traditions in Germany and playing vocabulary games with teens of all ages. Where I stayed quite a while with another 18 year-old boy with braces, whose flirting methods were all but subtle. But it was still a lot of fun, especially that I seemed to have one of my Good-Japanese days where I was easily able to have several conversations with both teachers and students like it were the most natural thing to do, and gaaawd was I motivated afterwards, I could have learned kanji and grammar for hours afterwards if it weren't for me lacking many hours of sleep from the last days. Why can't I have one of those days more often, I usually just stutter around and barely understand people otherwise.;_;

Ooookay, and now, what could I possibly do with the 6 shiny new 1.000¥ bills that I got as a pay yesterday? Maybe this should cover the ticket for the Takarazuka show I wanted to go to in march...~♥ *sparkle sparkle*

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 18:48:55 GMT

A Happy New Year to Everyone!

Seeing as I'm probably the first timezone-wise, "Guten Rutsch!" if you're of the superstitious kind (and understand German).:)

I for my part spent the New Year in Asakusa, my favoritestestest place in Tôkyô, dutifully absolving my hatsumôde at the Sensôji (Sensô (buddhist) temple), the biggest temple in Tôkyô (I guess).
The line of people was crazy. Absolutely insane! But it was soooo worth standing out in the cold, especially since it has been my dream for years to do that exactly, to listen to the 108 strokes of the gong at midnight at this exact temple!
Well, when I finally arrived in proximity of the temple area, it was almost 1 o'clock, but I heard the last strokes and I'm perfectly happy with that. I was also quite impressed by the organization to keep the line working, there were police and security everywhere, and the people were surprisingly very civilized and walking slowly without pushing each other at all. The only moment were it got a bit "dangerous" was in the inside of the temple, where everybody tried to throw their coins in the giant boxes for offerings, one part pushed forwards, one part tried to leave in the opposite direction, and one other part just stayed in place in order to pray for a few seconds. My hair got caught by one who pushed forwards - and one other who pushed in the other direction. AAOOUUUUUCH!!! That much for the joy of having long and wavy hair that gets caught everywhere...;>_>

On the way out, I had a wonderful surprise. I had expected most of the part of going to the temple etc. due to my classes at university, but no one actually ever mentionned what a party there was behind the temple... Food stands everywhere as far as you could see, proposing all kind of japanese food you could ever dream of. And some more that I had never even seen before. And an atmosphere like I rarely had at any local fair in Europe before. That's Japan for you - have I ever mentionned just how much I enjoy being here?
I bought my obligatory omikuji (the first one I ever bought, actually), which promised me "regular fortune" and basically everything I'd ever be able to wish for, in the vaguest way possible. (And now I know I will surely succeed at my studies, find a new job if I search for one, find the person I've been supersekritly always been waiting for, I will be able to go on a trip... you name it. And no, this is totally a happy and believing smile on my face, not an evil and mocking snickering, not at all!xD)
Except for that, I resisted the urge to buy a corncob for 500 Yen and have the juice all over my face, but I just couldn't not have imagawayaki with cheese as well as one with ham and mayo. OmNomNomNom!

Unfortunately, the only pictures I took were done with my phone, hence the even worse than usual quality. Not that it did help that they were taken around midnight, hence in the middle of the night, of course... So, no pictures, sorry for that.

Anyway, I wish you a Happy Year of the Ox, have a nice party and lots and lots of fireworks! (The only thing I was missing here, despite my icon. But oh well, we had some pretty street decorations lighting up at midnight, not quite a firework but still nice.) ~~And I'm finally heading to bed now, I have to set my alarm clock for 8 to give my family a surprise midnight call after all :D~~

P.S. I came home at not quite three in the morning, and there was already some poor guy on a motorcycle delivering the first load of New Year's greeting cards. Could you ever imagine that in Europe? I know I can't.

23th of december, or the Tennô's birthday

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 10:04:40 GMT

Finally HOLIDAAAAYS!~♥

And boy did I wait for that to happen. I guess it wasn't that much physical exhaustion but more of inner stress, but I have felt so totally worn out for the last couple of weeks. Always sleepy, drained, you name it. But now I have three weeks to sleep as much as I want and try to find new sources of energy, and I am so looking forward to that.

Well, guess what I did today, on my first holiday? Sleeping in? Not exactly. Actually, I did wake up at 6 (like usual), forced myself out of the house at about 7:45 (like usual...) and went to university (...).
No really, I was aware that I don't have any classes today. But as our campus happens to be about five to ten minutes walking distance to the imperial palace and today is the Tennô's birthday, also known as the only(?) day where the "common" folk (included every single gaijin that happens to be in Japan, it seemed) is allowed inside of the enclosure...

As a warning: I don't claim any artistic value for these pictures, as most of them have been shot while walking and a bunch of people pressing around me. Not exactly the best conditions for taking perfect pictures, but I want to show them anyway for you to have a clue about what it was like.

I... don't think it's that surprising if I tell that there a lot of people. And an amazing amount of foreigners, in fact I have never seen that many foreigners in one place in Japan before! (And almost everybody was talking American English. I feel slightly silly now to pretend that not every cheesy white person in Japan is American.~_~

I didn't catch the perfect angle for that gate, but oh well, I couldn't go back with all those people pushing behind me. I just wanted to show this picture anyway because that gate is usually closed to the public.

There were always people moving in front of my camera, but I really liked that view anyway. I was in front of the gate as I was shooting the pic, and the crowd had to move behind the wall and cross that bridge, then enter that second gate in the background.
Two of the guys you can see on that pic belonged to a group by the way, every one of them dressed in very fine suits and I think I remember that they had a slightly bigger flag as well. Just that both Bakumyna and me agreed that they were looking quite strange... I don't want to accuse anyone wrongly, but we both secretly suspected this group to be Yakuza.

Again, I don't claim my pictures taken today to have any great artistic value, but I still sort of like this picture, even though it was taken while walking.:)

The view from said bridge.

Again, this picture doesn't have any value at all, but I wanted to give you an idea about what the reception hall we were waiting before looked like, although I would have liked to have a better shot than this one. Basically it was just long. Very very long. That's all.

And here be His Imperial Majesty, the Tennô and his family, speaking a few words of wisdom (or so I assume) on occasion of his 75th birthday!
(Well, for the family, I recognize his wife, empress Michiko on his left, I suppose crown prince Naruhito and crown princess Masako on his right, as well as his other son Akishino/Fumihito and his wife Kiko on Michiko's left.
Funny tidbit: While the Tennô's speech would have been quite understandable in my humble opinion if only I had paid more attention to his words than to taking pictures, the announcement of his coming clearly was not. After an endless list of titles, they used so many honorifics I have probably never ever even heard of before that I finally just stuck with the basic information: He's coming in ten minutes/He's about to make his appearance now. Which is the only information I really cared for anyway in the end.
Also: My zoom sucks. I clearly need a better lens. And there were so many people moving their little flags (everyone got one before entering the palace grounds, us included :D) while shouting "Tennô Heika" (which translates to His Imperial Majesty the Emperor) that this was about the only picture from about thirty or forty were no one was in the way of my camera, but the quality is still crappy.

The building of the Imperial Household Agency.

This pic isn't perfect either (and I have no clue about what this building is supposed to represent, except that all the windows seemed to be bricked up), but I'm not too unhappy with it considering that I had basically no time at all to choose the right angle etc.

Not the right light conditions, yadda yadda yadda, but yeah, that's in front of the palace. And we're still in the middle of the middle of Tôkyô by the way.;)

Basically, I took this picture just because of the three clowns that cosplayed as Santa Clauses (without the beard) while cheering for the Tennô. Yay, sometimes it feels funny to be a foreigner like them, am I overreacting when I want to shout out loud that not every foreigner is tactless like that? Or am I the only one who finds this sort of tactless at all???

So much for the pictures. Other than that, we had fantastic weather for today. Freezing cold, my fingers went totally numb with my camera still in hands in the end, but all in all sunny and none of the clouds the announced in the weather forecast in view at all.

Bakumyna and I ended our morning with a quick lunch at Loteria (one of the japanese concurrents of MacDonalds) before we proceeded to burn all those calories with an overly enthusiastic match of Taiko drums in our local Arcade Game center, our new guilty pleasure of choice.:D ~~AND I WON!!!:DDD~~

Also, when you go to the restroom and suddenly hear someone talking to you in the cabin although you know that you are all alone, it may just be the toilet that is speaking to you. Oh Japa~an... *facepalm*

Next task: Post a short entry about the koto club, the training in case of a fire/earthquake including simulators, find an affordable onsen for our holiday with chochajin beginning of january :D ...and figure out what I want to cook/eat for christmas tomorrow. Which is surprisingly difficult, I still have no clue at all except that I don't want this to be instant ramen. *facepalm*

Funny tidbit

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 14:51:46 GMT

I'm used to being told that my Japanese is very good by now.
Actually, you can't, as a foreigner, have a conversation with any Japanese without that at some point, they will compliment you on how good you speak their language. Usually at the beginning of the conversation, in extreme cases even when you barely stuttered a simple "hello" with a heavy accent and bad pronunciation. It became that much of a cliché that you even see that kind of scenes with the exact same sentence in movies whenever a Japanese speaking foreigner is involved. Except that no Japanese seems to be aware that most foreigners who have had that kind of experience for a few times don't take them seriously on that compliment anymore, especially when you don't hear it that often the better your Japanese actually gets.

However, this is the first time that a Japanese told me in their usual appreciative and very surprised manner that I'm indeed speaking fluently Japanese. And I barely even had the time to stutter my name in that particular case, maybe four words all in all, probably barely audible against the background noises. Now that was a variation I've never ever stumbled across before, because seriously, "fluent", me?

Not that I'm taking this seriously, mind you, but still, I love my Japanese!:D It's quite annoying when you hear the same compliment with the same wording over and over again for no good reason at all, but when I think of most Germans or French, they'd rather rant about how bad your pronunciation is or just how much you suck at grammar if they care to try to understand at all.
But Japanese? I often feel slightly mocked with that compliment when I know how bad I worded what I really wanted to say, but I clearly remember my first trip to Japan when I was nothing but a beginner in that language and just how good it felt to be praised for the effort I made. It's positive, and that's all what matters when you ignore the little voice that tells you that they praise you for nothing because they don't expect any foreigners to master Japanese at all, but hey, I like my happy little pink bubble at times.

Christmas Party!

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 12:08:04 GMT

Uhhh, I'd better not comment on how long I haven't updated anymore. *embarrassed cough*

Today was the Christmas party of the residence here.
In a nutshell? I'm... not too sure whether I shall laugh... or bang my head against the wall. In the meanwhile, I'm trying to do both. Simultaneously.

Let's start with the food.
Which was clearly the Best Thing at the party, hands down, it was really good. This was not just a buffet of home-made salads and bags of chips and lots of beer cans, oh no, we had a real catering service, no less. It was really really good.

And now that I mentioned the food, let's start with the girls. Which is a less pleasent matter. Because honestly, the girls that were at our table (no, we were just standing, there was no complicated seat etiquette of course) attacked the buffet like there was no tomorrow and began to stockpile about three pieces of those exquisite looking cakes - each - on their plates. Do I really have to say that there weren't that many cakes all in all? Good thing I reacted fast enough and snatched one piece before everything was gone, because I don't think they cared at all.

Another little detail at the buffet: The plates on the buffet began to look almost empty, one of them only had two little pieces of smoked salmon left. Well, I might be shy and uber-anxious not to take anything away from others, but the girl in front of me in the row didn't seem to have such fears. While I would have taken one piece only, no she took both of them. Why bother whether there are others who'd like another piece or not?
As for the paella? (Because yes, we had paella, you heard that right) When I wanted to take some at my second visit at the buffet, there was still plenty of rice left. But nothing else that makes the paella a paella, just almost bare rice with nothing but a few colorful splotches where vegetables and shells and other things had once been.

Japanese attention and courtesy? I begin to think this is a myth.

Well, that was about the food. Let's talk about those mysterious presents, the second incentive on the promotional poster.
Because yes, there were presents. And the party was for free. I have no idea where they take the money from, but I guess the girls' parents are paying more than enough for these little details in their daughters' student lives.
Anyway. The first round of presents were distributed to the winners of a bingo game. Where I probably would have won the loser's price quite easily, those were obviously not my lucky numbers, but *ahem*, I didn't really care because not winning would mean I didn't have to go and take my presents in front of everybody. And when I saw that said presents were in fact make-up accessories in various forms and sizes, I really Didn't Care Anymore!
That was my first attempt to bang my head at the next wall, laughing maniacally.
I didn't escape the make-up anyway. The second game was a quiz, the teams were the tables were you were randomly standing at the moment. Well, I didn't know one single answer, I didn't really care anyway, but "my" table happened to be amongst the winners. I got a Lady Oscar mascara, thick and curly.
Yes, this is a girl's only university, and that university happens to be in Japan, has anyone forgotten yet? I almost did, I got so used to ignoring the Barbie Dolls while they apply their make-up and bend their eyelashes into shape in classes, but welcome back to reality. No seriously, what am I doing here???

Third present, for I don't know what game "we" lost (I think it was to pod a piece of adhesive strip from a balloon without making it burst, where we had a real screech concert whenever there was a loud bang), we had the choice between Hello Kitty bath sponges, Winnie the Poo bath sponges... or hooks. I took the hook. And I don't even know where I could use this one, as you have to use it on a cylindrical piece of furniture, and I can't remember having any of that particular sort. But it was a black hook and I like black and...
*ahem* Anyway.
The fourth present topped it all. Two sponges. No bathing sponges, no, sponges for cleaning your bathroom or your kitchen. Yes, you heard me right. No, I don't know who chose to buy those presents. But they have a little german flag on the vinyl sheet, because something related to those sponges is supposed to be "born in Germany" (yes, "born", not "produced"), and that makes everything better of course. I'm not quite sure what exactly it makes better, but we had a very good laugh and that's all what matters in the end. And that I can do my cleaning with new christmas present sponges, yay for that! And if there is any kind of message (girls' only residence, make-up, sponges for cleaning...), I don't want to think about it, because my head already hurts as it is right now.
And no, I still haven't decided yet what's more appropriate, laughing... or crying. I guess I'll opt for hysterical laughter instead...

(Except for that though, we got to know a very nice girl, even though she talked and talked and I almost didn't understand her at all with all those screeching background screams, but oh well, it didn't seem to bother her too much that I didn't contribute much to the conversation aside from a regular "Oh really?", "No really?" or a "Ooh, so interesting!".^^;

Oh Noes, it's a Ranting Entry!

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 14:30:04 GMT

Hello there, it's been a long time!

No, I haven't forgotten that I have a blog. But when I tried to write a new entry (several times!), somehow everything ended up in a mere whining rant, until I finally gave up and closed the window, completely frustrated.

Well, let's start with a good point, because yes, really, they do exist. Like as of yesterday, I have new glasses!
Because yes, I did need new ones. As soon as possible. Because I broke my old ones. And spent therefor about ten days either blind as a mole, or with contacts. Which sucks when you turn your heater on and the air is totally dry and...
AHEM! Why, yes, my glasses are all shiny and new and not quite sparkly but anyway really shiny. And they coincidentally happen to look a lot like my old ones, rimless around the lenses and with an otherwise gold frame, I couldn't help myself. And I've written about far more thrilling topics before, I know. *coughs*
An interesting part of that anecdote might be how astonishingly easy peasy it was to buy new glasses here in the end. When the guys over at expatsjapan told me that I simply have to go to the optician's, choose the glasses I want, make a quick (and most often free) eye test and then, two hours later, can go home with the shiny new glasses, I didn't want to believe it at first. I was so used to have to go to the eye specialist to get a prescription done, then to have to enter unnerving negotiations about the price, including thousand and one formulas, until finally, about one week later, I can wear the expensive new glasses.
Nope, nothing of that sort here. Okay, I did take several days in order to find good and interesting opticians in Shinjuku (those are right about everywhere - unless when you are actively searching for them, of course), but then, no negotiations about the price (There is a fixed price for that category of glasses plus lenses? And there are seven different quality choices for the lenses? And the upper quality doesn't cost one single Yen more than the lowest category? Uuuh, well, I guess I'll take the best quality category then if you don't mind...), and indeed, one and a half hour later, I left the store with my new glasses on my nose. I didn't even have to do the eye test as I told them that my current glasses were just fine. And it was far less expensive than what I usually paid in Europe, and I didn't take the cheapest ones either. Seriously, have I ever mentioned how much I love Japan?

On the other hand... I don't have that much love for my universities at this time. At this point, a warning might be appropriate. Please sit comfortably, have your seat-belt fastened and take a last deep breath, it's RANTING TIMEZ!
Scared? You should be. I'm so fed up with this mess myself, I could puke at times!
First, my japanese uni. Which is definitely the teensy-weensy smaller one of two evils, because basically, we're just bored to death. It seems like the usual procedure in Japan though, stupid gaijin couldn't possibly ever learn the sophisticated twistedness that is the Japanese language anyway, so why even bother and try to teach us anything remotely interesting? Okay, there is one amongst us five exchange students who has been recruited out of a language school and who isn't an all-around-the-clock student of Japanese like us other four are, she is the one who has most probably a hard time with the stuff we have to learn. But. For the rest of us, some of the classes are almost insulting our intelligence. While discussing news articles is in my humble opinion possibly even interesting and all, spending about two hours in a week listening to vocabulary explanations that we could easily (and rountinely) look up ourselves in less than two seconds definitely isn't. Some exercises bring new vocabulary and can therefor be quite interesting... while others aren't even first-year basis but awfully remind elementary school games.
Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like anything will change when we complain. First because it wouldn't be fair towards Bakumyna, the one from the language school (from Benin), she has a hard time like it is already, second because we were once asked after our first month how we liked the classes. I don't know for the others, but I did answer truthfully that I thought some classes to be interesting, others on the other hand way too easy. You have three guesses whether anything changed, "yes", "maybe" and "no". You may place your bets now, go!

Well, that is one thing. I could complain a little about how universal bad food at uni refectories seem to be (tasteless food, I could understand, but cold rice that is supposed to be hot??), about how clean the uni toilets are on the other hand, especially when compared to the uni toilets I know in both Germany and France including those of my own uni of course, or also about how 90% of the students here look like japanese Barbie Dolls. And how they are applying their make-up in classes. Or, according to Claire, even pluck their eyebrows in the lobby. Not kidding, but oh how I wish I were!

ANYWAY. This is nothing, I repeat: Nothing, compared to the frustration I have with my french university at this moment!
Remember all the funny anecdotes about how I took the night train from Frankfurt to Paris just to be in front of the doors at seven in the morning of the next day, just so that I could adapt to the enrollment rules that had been changed three days before (and two days before I knew of those changes) and therefor have a chance to become a student there?
Or the day when I waited for eight hours in a line in order to choose my classes?
Or the three days I kept running from one end of Paris to the other (under the rain and with the main RER line closed for works to make things even worse) because nobody was ever able to tell me when that [censored] secretariat might remove that omnipresent "closed" sign on their door, not even the colleagues next door, and finally missed to enroll for those particular studies (International Relationships) because summer vacations came a rollin' and the secretary went on holiday?
Or a few months ago, where I traveled from Germany to France - again - just because I had to apply in person to get one little paper in the secretary's office for the master's course that gave me permission to apply for enrollment? Because people might get unemployed when you don't give them an almighty stamp for a job any stupid first-year student could do as well, namely see whether we have your bachelor or not? And it took me three days past deadline to have all that stuff done instead of an hour like it should have been?
Yeah, every single time, I still had the possibility to go there in person, see them right in the eye (unless the secretary's office was closed once again) and get things done on the spot. As much as it sucked to have to travel from Germany to France just for that.
And now? I refuse to even consider the possibility of taking a plane to Paris to appear in person, blame me, and thus we can only rely on email contact. Which sucks even more, when both Claire and I get different answers for the same thing, I have all the necessary documentary shipped to Germany instead of Japan... or don't get any answers at all when I ask how the hell I'm supposed to get my prof in France to sign a paper while I'm in Japan, just a friendly reminder that I should get things done as soon as possible, before christmas holidays. BUT I'm very happy to receive an invitation every week from that same secretary, for the Russian week, for two movies of the cinematic festival of Vesoul that are being played, or this week, for the Slavic Spiritual lecture.
I'm very positive that those lectures and movies and culture weeks are of highest interest and importance, certainly. But do I look like I cared about some Russian gramps that hold a lecture in a department that is not of any interest to my studies almost 10,000km away? Seriously, I must resist the urge to put that woman on my spam list. Or to remind her - kindly, of course - that if she has that much time to spam so many students in her working hours, she certainly has the time as well to answer a few questions of desperate students on the other side of the globus. But no, apparently not. I can be so naive at times...

Then, my prof in France won't answer my email yet, what exactly I'm supposed to be doing here, research related and all. And I'm sitting here, more or less clueless and without much motivation left, but with a huge amount of books to read that makes my head spin just thinking about it. And on the other side with a japanese prof that is uber-kind and uber-motivated (frighteningly so, if I dare to say), but that I barely understand at all due to some language barrier and the fact that he talks way too fast at times.

Yeah, I have it bad, I know. And yes, I do feel comfortable at times to act like a whiny brat who doesn't get all the lollies it wants, why do you ask? It's not so much like I'm desperately drowning in work, oh no, but I'm so tired of last minute information of highest importance, last second changings to said last minute information, and - of course - the specialty de la maison, total lack of information. Preferably with the matching hint that every needed information is on Teh Site (also known as Chaos Gate), except that it isn't. Or when it is, with the disturbing little info that said information has been last updated one year ago. Or two. Or three. And thus not reliable at all, especially when it comes to deadlines, as they are changing every year.

Oh well, please excuse me while I'll just calmly put away said homework for unknown deadline (in three days? Or that's what it was last year...), push important papers to be signed and handed in on the other side of the globus far away from my mind, and just pull my warm and cozy blanket over my head, on my futon, where it is comfy and snugly. In case you're searching for me, I'll be there until all those nasty deadlines go swooooosh and are far away, but don't tell anyone!

(But don't worry, just in case you're wondering, I don't feel homesick at all, on the contrary! I'm feeling great, except for some minor woes and booboos maybe, like breaking my glasses for example *facepalm* Just that those little woes and booboos take up far too much place on my internal hard-drive, thus my system being looooow and juddering at times and results in frustration and lack of motivation for anything and... yeah, you get the picture. *sigh*
And that much as I am tempted right now to shut the window once again and spare the world this pathetic excuse of a blog update, I guess I'll just go through with this and rant away, or you might keep wondering in the end in front of which train I threw myself in order to jam the whole Tôkyô city traffic.

[Not re-read, sorry, but it's bed-timez nao and my eyes too tired to register even the most obvious mistakes at this point. *yaaaaawn*
Good night/afternoon/morning, wherever you are.^_^

About homework and other little pleasures in life

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 05:11:28 GMT

"Autrefois sa mère lui racontait de longues histoires où il y avait des anges aux grandes ailes de lumière, qui planaient dans le ciel au-dessus de la ville, et descendaient pour porter secours à ceux qui en avaient besoin, et elle disait qu'on savait que l'ange était là quand on sentait sur son cou un passage de vent, rapide et léger comme un souffle qui vous fait frissonner."
("David" by Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio)

Remember the time when I used to curse the Japanese language with it's impossibly long sentences and many many determinants?
I failed to remember at that time that not only the German language can be very guilty of this phenomenon too, but French can obviously be as well. And now I'm sitting here, trying to translate this mess of a text into proper Japanese... RRRAAAAAHHH, curse upon thou Le Clézio!
On the other hand, I have to admit that his writing style is so beautiful it makes you cry. Claire was the one I think who mentioned how sad it was to have to go to Japan first in order to realize how beautiful the French language can be, and while I have more or less always been aware of that, I still wholeheartedly agreed with that comment.

And by the way, it's a good thing that I wasted my time writing this completely gratuitous ranting entry, because I haven't noticed before googling his wikipedia entry that he won the Nobel Prize in Literature this year.Oo; I guess I should really watch/read more news once again, having no more excuses with a new internet connection in my room and such... And it seems like I'm even getting a new tv very soon, or at least Hatsuhara-san, the one in charge of us, already contacted Séverine and me twice about her currently ordering new tvs for both of us, YAY!

[/pointless rant]

Sun, 26 Oct 2008 12:49:09 GMT

I don't know whether you know the situation or not, when you are talking in a language that is not your own and you usually suck at, and suddenly, out of nowhere, you're feeling your lips moving, hearing your voice talking, but that can't be possibly you talking that well. And your mind freezes in silent amazement, while your lips still go on talking on their own, and it sounds just great! Almost like you knew what you were talking about.

It's an amazing feeling, I can tell you. A bit disturbing as well, but who am I to complain? Okay, it wasn't that big of a conversation, I was just asking for a particular book in a bookstore, but I rarely managed to talk that fast and precisely without stuttering before, while I was even able to understand almost everything the bookseller replied, like I were totally used to talking Japanese.

Isn't it great?

Well, you may rest assured, that short period of euphoria didn't last for long. When I entered the small restaurant I'm sometimes eating at (fast, extremely cheap, nearest proximity, three very persuasive arguments, aren't they?) because I was too tired to do anything on my own once at home, I ordered a butadon (rice dish with pork slices on top) for take away.

They made me repeat my order thrice. I even showed them the picture on the menu to be sure. I told them it was a take away. They came with a steaming bowl of rice on a tray, along with a cup of hot tea instead.

Unfortunately, I forced myself hard not to show my foul mood all of a sudden, because I told myself that it had to have been me who wasn't clear enough, who used the wrong vocabulary etc., thus it had to be my fault and not theirs. And even though I was quite ready at that point to screw all logic and allow my nasty self to come out and play, I tried hard for my best smile when I sat down to eat. It wouldn't be that good an idea to be "that ill-mannered, arrogant foreigner" after all, not here, not now, not ever, and especially not in a restaurant I want to be able to go to another time... *sigh*

Mah room - second post

Sun, 26 Oct 2008 05:29:31 GMT

I really wanted to go outside and stroll a little through my own district today in order to search for cheap (secondhand) books for my master's thesis today. But then, it started raining just when I decided to get up... Of course. We haven't seen any rain in a while, so it's nice to have some rain for a change.[/dripping sarcasm]
Anyway, then instead, I'll just stick around a little more in my comfy pajamas and upload those pictures from my room. I made some a while ago, but now I finally achieved to put away all that stuff lying around, and even my giant suitcase is now safely hidden in my cupboard! That alone merits new pictures and a nice meal as a reward, don'tcha think so?<3
Well, I haven't managed to clean up everything, but this'll do for now for the pics.

Well, what can I say about that except that this is my room? May I draw your attention on the tidiness on the floor? You have no idea how many things were lying around because I didn't have any place to put them away, but now even the trunky suitcase is gone and I finally managed to throw the (completely) broken vacuum cleaner away.
My desk is still messy, but most of it with papers I need to throw away and just don't know yet in which trash bin. Seriously, in case you thought that the german or french waste separation system was complicated, you have clearly never ever been trying to figure out the japanese system!
Other items with modest interest: When Severine (one of the girl from Switzerland) and I went to the administrator of the hall with few hope that he might know how to repair our broken tvs, he had a brief look at them and told us to report this to the one in charge of us exchange students. When we finally did, a bit embarrassed to make such a fuss about what should be nothing but bad luck, Hatsuhara-san, the one in charge, had already been contacted by the administrator and told us she'd take care of that. Uhm, does that mean we are about to get new tvs, sponsored by the university?Oo Anyhow I haven't heard anything about a new tv being delivered to us yet, which is why I'm still hesitant as to what believe...
Those low tables are typical for Japan by the way, I adapted that custom in no time and can't even imagine how to live without anymore! Although I have a real desk, I rather use this table for homework, eating, reading... well, for quite anything! I'm seriously considering purchasing one to ship it back to Europe because I can't remember seeing any low tables that handy as that one, but then again I'm a bit scared to even ask for the shipping price. *coughs*

The view out of my balcony:

It's quite cloudy outside for the moment, but otherwise it's very nice here, and I love to have my window wide open whenever I can and listen to the birds and crickets. Unfortunately, my room is on the base floor, and it feels really weird to have the guys of the building in front of mine to walk around where they can have a good look of me, especially in the morning when I'm still lazy in my bed and they go to work. On top of that, I have to have my window closed whenever I leave the room and the our row of balcony is right in the watching field of the security cameras. Why, oh why can't I have a room, like, on the second floor for once? *whines*

By the way, say hello to "Onii-san":

...and the other angle of my room:

I GOT RID OF RILAKKUMA!!!*___* Severine was so kind to take it away a few days ago, now I can finally rest in peace!
No, ok, I'll admit that I didn't even notice it in the end, even though it was throning in the middle of the shelf, and I don't even go into the "right" shops where 50% of the articles consist of Rilakkuma merchandising, but that thing still grated at my nerves liek whoa!
Which grates at my nerves as well is still the incredible mess in there, although I have to confess that about 50% of that mess is my own. The other half on the other hand... I'm really looking forward to sort that out as well!
(On zanagi's special request though, have a pic of that bookshelf with Rilakkuma has it was a few weeks ago.)

The kitchen in the small corridor:

Unfortunately, I couldn't manage to have a good angle for the kitchen, which is sad, because I'm stupidly proud of my mad rearrangement skillz.
Then again, please ignore this mess in the entry, this is the stuff I have to throw away and haven't figured out where yet. Does anything have a clue where to throw away broken dishes (like a plastic soup bowl), clothes or half-melted batteries?;>_>

The angle for the bathroom photos is quite horrible, but I couldn't do better for now, and I don't have the patience to optimize the light quality with the photo editing software for those pics. Instead, have a pic of my baby and myself in my cutest Snoopy pajama doing impossible strains for the best angle. *drop*
The toilet unfortunately isn't one of the Captain-Kirk's-Commando-Seat types but a totally normal one, by the way. *g* Fortunately for me, those countless buttons and options are quite intimidating at times, when you don't dare push a button in fear that it will activate the catapult seat...;>_>
The shower on the other hand, is something I will miss so much when the time will come I have to leave Japan! Unlike showers in the West that are seperated by the rest of the bathroom by just a glass divider or a shower curtain, the whole cabin including the bathtub is the shower room. Which means you close the door and you have a complete room where you don't have to worry about splashing water on the walls or the ceiling, and since your showering outside of the bathtub, there is a drain on the floor. Traditionally, you have to make yourself completely clean before entering the hot bath, and if you choose the old style, you use a small taboret to sit down while you pour bassin after bassin of cold water on you. I have both, somewhere in a cupboard, but as I can use the shower head normally as well (yes, with hot water too), I have yet to use taboret and bassin.
I love this shower room, but there's one thing I like a lot less: I have to turn on the hot water with a button in a kitchen each time I want to use some, and of course it happened more than once that I forgot. I can choose the exact temperature and the quantity of hot water, which is nice, but not very handy when you have your 40°C hot water and you suddenly feel like it's not warm enough for a shower after all but you forgot to rize the heat beforehand. *facepalm*

One last pic, taken with my old camera a few weeks ago, because I'm too lazy to make another one right now:

This is what the corridor outside of my door looks like. To have your entry give on an exterior corridor is the usual way in Japan, even though this isn't handy at all when it's raining outside. Which is why on some days, when the rain and wind were especially strong, I didn't even dare to tiptoe my way to the lounge clinging at the wall, not with my laptop in my arms!

Anyway, that's all for today, and now I have to seize the last hours of daylight (at 5 p.m., everything is pitch-black night here) and while it isn't raining to have a good stroll outside and search for my books ~~and possibly the third part of the Phoenix Wright series on the Nintendo DS~~. See you later...~♥

COOKING DAY!

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 14:47:52 GMT

At first, I didn't like cooking by myself at all. I have only one hotplate, not one single centimeter spare place to work on, the gas stinks, some restaurants out there are impossibly cheap... and I won't even start about the junk the previous tenant graciously left me as so-called cooking stuff and that I mostly kicked in the trash bin on my more enterprising days. Imagine my mood when I discovered filthy ubercheap frying pans (that I tried to scrape for about ten to fifteen minutes before I finally threw in the towel - or in this case, the sponge), half-melted soup bowls (don't ask me, just... don't. I can't even imagine how that one happened!) and spatulas, some of the "melted spots" even looked like claw traces (...there are no words!), plus the unwashed rest. I love the girl that left me such a pleasant note to contact her whenever I have any questions or need an advice more and more with every day that passes and the more I decide to clean up my room once and for all.~♥

On the other hand, throwing away every tiny little teensy tidbit that reminds anything remotely eatable (olive oil with a date of expiry until may 2007, bottles with a few milliliters left, or my very favorite: an open package of pan cake mix powder with (hopefully just) flies happily building their nest in it - still wondering why I threw everything away without even looking twice in the end?) has an interesting side-effect as well: With no supplies left at all, you suddenly get the irresistible urge to fill your meager storage place up with those many yummy things you can find in your neighborhood supermarket!

...or, uhm, well, I guess at least I do...

No wonder that today, with a shiny new frying pan and all, I decided to expand my culinary experiments that basically consisted of spaghetti with japanese mushroom sauce, spaghetti with tuna sauce (one of the few leftovers from that lovely girl I ate up after all), spaghetti with tomato sauce, scrambled eggs, spaghetti with carbonara sauce... and instant miso ramen. Uhm, one single hotplate, remember? You can say I perfected the spaghetti-with-sauce-on-a-single-hotplate-technique, not everybody can pretend that![/childish pout]

ANYWAY.

I'm not too unhappy with today's result in Culinary Adventureland although I'd prefer not to mention that I basically only cooked the fry-some-vegetables-then-add-a-ready-to-serve-sauce version of a meal, and as an absolute premiere since my arrival, even the rice cooker played along nicely and produced me some hot and completely eatable well-cooked rice. Will try again the same receipt tomorrow, eggplants and carrots and minced meat plus spicy sauce on rice.

Even better: my very first self-made okonomiyaki!~♥ For some reason okonomiyaki always had that "undoable" feeling for me once, but when I stumbled upon an okonomiyaki package special promotion at our local supermarket with Claire (the other one from Paris) earlier this evening, we didn't hesitate for long and decided to have our first joint cooking evening. And lo, okonomiyaki isn't that hard to make, it's basically just mincing cabbage, mixing in the special powder mixes and the raw eggs, then frying all of that in a frying pan (when you don't happen to have a hot plate) in the best pancake shape you can manage, that's all. Plus cooking with and for two people is so much more fun than all alone for yourself in your tiny dark room, I'd love to do that again!

And now, it's definitely sleeping time, and instead of getting my sleepy ass up to send away one paper to that one professor over in France (the deadline would be today...), I'm pondering about next days menu and daydreaming over the pots and pans I could buy for even more japanese food. *headdesk* Oh well, tomorrow's still another day and we heard about that paper and deadline only very recently after all, so I guess it should be okay to be one or two days late...;>_>

Random Thoughts, round 1

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 13:51:19 GMT

So there won't be a big entry with pictures after all tonight, as I didn't know before that I was going to have to do some research concerning one seminary of my french uni now. But somehow I feel bad always promising things and never being able to do what I wanted to, so instead, have some miserable random thoughts of my humble self. Because heck, what is an internet connection in your very room good for if not for some spontaneous and totally unneeded jabbering on your blog while slurping your late dinner that are those overcooked ~~instant~~ miso ramen? *g*

Today, for some reason, one of our tutor graced us with a short presentation of the japanese "dating pattern". And while we, after an awkward moment of silence, began to stammer, as a reply to how western people start to date, about presents, long talks and overall growing intimacy which might (or might not) be followed by a confession any time later, according to our tutor (as far as I did understand), the Japanese start with a confession and begin to date when the response to the confession was "positive".
So either I did misunderstand some part of her explanation, or our tutor doesn't know all about dating in Japan yet... or those countless clichéd confession scenes in shôjo (girls') manga were a lot closer to reality than I would ever have thought possible. And for some reason the mental image of grown-ups sheepishly handing over their pink rabu-rabu (read: love love) letters to their love interest, like seen in oh so many teenage romance manga, scares me a lot more than it should. *coughs* Claire (the other one from my university in Paris) mumbled something about that being the method that children would use where we come from, to which our tutor only laughed at the cultural difference...
Seriously, I'm not sure how to classify that one. On the one hand, she is still very young (or looks very young, don't ask me how old she actually really is), but she doesn't exactly look like the typical romance-crazy airhead either... Any experience/knowledge on that matter? Is it just me who has a hard time picturing grown-ups in the stereotype teenage "I like you, do you want to go out with me?"-pattern, cultural differences or not...? *iz confuzzled*

On an almost-unrelated-but-then-still-frighteningly-matching side-note, why do I notice only now that I'm done eating that the only ramen bowl I own (not bought by me, mind you) has a phoenix couple pattern on the ground, including the charm sinogram for double fortune (also known as "good fortune in romantic relationships")? *facepalm*

Rebooting internet connection...

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 08:36:48 GMT

I'M ONLIIIINE!!!<333 (Vol.II)

Oh my gaawd, finally! I don't even want to know for how long I've been talking with this guy on the phone to install internet in my room and how many problems I faced ("Blank boxes? Yes, I do see the two blank boxes, but why on earth won't they accept neither my user ID nor my password???"), but finally, finally I have my own internet access!
And yes, I did say that I didn't want my own connection, no-no, never. But when I asked for a phone line in my room (also known as the "parents' hot line"~♥), it almost seemed stupid not to have an internet connection in my room as well, especially as the advantages of the infamous internet lounge of the hall are rather limited as I got to know.
Very limited indeed. Not even mentioning the hard chairs and small tables and shaky LAN cables here, I was a bit frustrated at how lame the connection was at times. But the most frustrating part was that my beautiful plan to come in contact with some of the japanese girls here that way was a total failure, and more than that, few were the occasions when my existence seemed to be more than made of thin air for them, whether it was for holding a door open or a simple "hello", let alone for more. And no, don't worry, not all the Japanese are like that... but it seems like that special type that lives in its own little bubble, untouchable for the rest of the world (including other Japanese) has built a nest here.
Just our luck. But well, at least now I don't have to balance my whole computer equipment plus homework stuff plus Pocky sticks plus other obligatory working material two floors up through the rain whenever I have to access internet anymore...
Plus, I'm very sorry to hang that much behind for the email stuff, I'll admit that I haven't even checked my emails for at least a week now, not to mention that when I did, I didn't have the time at all to reply to most of them. This is my homework for today and the rest of the week, updating my journal and catching up with comments and emails. *coughs*

By the way, if anyone wants my new fixed or mobile phone number or my mobile phone email address, just ask and I'll send you a personal message or email. (Chochajiiiin, I'll be sending you a PM right away!<3):)

Ok, that's all for now, I have to rush and go for some groceries before my motivation lets me down for today, but the next entry might come up this evening, maybe even with a few photos!

Ja, mata ne...~♥

Blah

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 12:38:52 GMT

I... wanted to sit down today, have a nice drink, and start typing up a few entries I wanted to post very badly this week. Then I wanted to post a ~~lot~~ few pictures I made this week. But then, I also wanted to clean up my room today, iron my laundry I piled up in two weeks, unearth a bakery that sells more than the usual ultra-soft toast-bread to eat with an omelet (instead of the nth spaghetti menu since my arrival)... and do most of my homework for my classes.

Instead, I was idly staying in or on my bed and at least finished that Gyakuten Saiban/Ace Attorney game on my Nintendo DS that had kept me occupied for way too much time. Finally, I can relax now and concentrate on more important stuff from now on, like my kanji. Or my grammar. And no, I can't help this sarcastic tone, why do you ask?

Well, for not making this entry a totally gratuitous one, I'll squee a bit about my new baby instead!~♥ Say, isn't it sweet? How long have I been dreaming of a neat camera to take pictures of Paris, my surroundings, Japan, you name it, and then I finally finally returned home on thursday, after the longest day of classes, sandwiched on the bank of the Tôkyô metro on almost-but-not-quite-yet rush hour, clinging at my baby against my chest in it's brown Bic Camera paper bag. The people must have thought that this crazy gaijin was on some kind of trip, with that stupid smile tackered on my face, but at least my next-door neighbor and friend Claire seemed more than understanding when I attacked her happily that evening.

Speaking of coincidences, we discovered that Claire and me shared the exact same dream when coming to Japan:

First, buy a really good camera.

Second, charge for the legendary World Outside and terrorize poor Japan with this camera as best as we can!

The only slight difference we have so far is that I'm primarily interested in taking photos of landscapes (helloooo waking up before sunrise in order to use the best sunlight at dusk and dawn, lucky me that at least dawn is at about 5 p.m. by this time of the year), Claire likes macros (small items like flowers) best. Now I just need to choose a good and light tripod(?) so we can start our bigger photo safaris through Japan...

And yes, of course I did take quite a lot of photos since thursday. And yes, I did want to figure out how to upload those many many photos on my computer with this new software from Canon, but, uhm, my hard-drive is almost bursting with unneeded stuff and I'd need to tidy that up first and, uhm, well, I didn't do anything of that kind yet. Yeah, I'm lame, and rest assured, I'm the first one to know that. *sigh*

But as a teaser, have this photo of my room that I took with my old (sweet, but crappy) camera (compared to my new one): I have more of them, but as I took the exact same spots with my new camera as well and 2 million pixels vs. 12 million pixels are that exactly, 2,000,000 vs. 12,000,000 after all, I guess it's more interesting for you and me to wait for the better pictures.:) That, or I'm just searching for more excuses for being lazy today, you choose. And, uh, sorry for displaying my laundry like that, although the messy room on the better pictures might be even more embarrassing after all...

The hall of residence

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 08:48:45 GMT

Next topic: the hall of residence I'm currently living in.

Well, what can I say about the hall? The good thing is, it's really nice here, the buildings are just a few years old and therefor everything is still quite new and comfortable. We don't have a park or a garden area, but there is a grass and plant border all around, so it's still okay. I... just don't like living somewhere where I don't have a lot of green around me, but probably that's just me being spoiled from being raised in a town where you literaly can't see the forest with all those trees around.
Our apartments are very nice as well, small but (in my humble opinion) comfortable and all. And - believe it - we are fully equipped with such luxury as a washing machine per apartment, as well as a rice cooker, a little oven (which probably doesn't take more than a single toast slice unfortunately)... etc. We have a single room including the bed and the desk, a tiny little kitchen (with a single hot plate, oh woes~!) and a bathroom. And a genkan of course, there is no such thing as a japanese household without such an entry where you leave your shoes (no exceptions, EVER!) and "climb up" the small step into the apartment. And we have a balcony, a bigger one than I expected (like the ones where the aircon takes all the place and you can barely turn around. Well, my room is on the ground floor, there is not much to see except for the building in front of us, but it's very nice anyway, and not just to hang up our laundry.
One more nice thing is that our previous tenant (which are always the exchange students) have left a lot of things behind, so we got a lot of extra-gadgets without having to buy them on our own, like a tv, a hair dryer, a even have an iron while another girl from Swiss has the matching ironing board... Nice.

But. Unfortunately, it seems like last years' previous tenants pushed the friendliness to leave us "useful" things a bit too far, in other words: We also have a lot of rubbish we are now having to dispose of. Thanks a lot, guys. Not!
While I have been quite lucky, I only had a mountain of empty plastic and paper bags as well as old medicine past their expiration date and a lot of little (but annoying) "decoration material" to throw away (and a giant Halloween Special Edition Rilakkuma on my bed, that beast is everywhere!Oo;), plus two vacuum cleaners, one of them broken, the other so full it was a wonder it didn't burst in my face when I tried to use it. My friend next had the first prize when she discovered clothes and underwear in her wardrobe (some of them broken shoes and belts, the underwear plainly vulgar), personal emails and love letters (in japanese?!) and half-full notebooks, not to mention the groceries past their expiration date and a dirty rice cooker and fridge. Not really surprising we're a bit peeved (or my friend's plainly angry) with the girls that have been living here last year. And they even had the chutzpah to leave us a letter in which they kindly advised us to contact them whenever we have a question or need an advise. Yeah, thanks a lot, we appreciate that, but cleaning up properly would still have been better than to tell us that one of the vacuum cleaners is broken. I'm glad to know about it, but now I am the one who has to throw it away!

Well, that's for our rooms. Another very, very annoying side of living in this residence are the rules.
Thou Shall Not Bring Boys Home! - Yeah, thanks, I don't have a boyfriend, but accidentally I do have a brother. And friends who happen to be male. And what if I can find someone who knows how to repair my broken tv and this someone unconveniently happens to not be of female gender?
But even worse:
Thou Shall Not Come Home After 11 P.M.! - And this, Ladies and Gentlemen, plainly sucks! I'm 27 years old, most likely the grandma of the whole campus, even older than several teachers, and I am not free to do whatever I want to do with my evenings, I can't even leave in order to shop in the nearest konbini or vending machines!
Well, at least I heard that we can announce our plans for the evening to the security guy before going away, it seems like this rule is mainly in order to not make the parents of those rich and innocent girls worry, but it still sucks. I'm not sure yet whether we can do that all of the time, but it seemed to me like coming back home after 11 o'clock too frequently would ensue our expulsion from the residence and therefor from the grant and therefor maybe from the university and therefor from Japan (unless we pay the rest of our stay ourselves), but everyone tells different versions of this exceptions, so I'm definitely insecure about this. And I think I understood that we have to announce plans to take a holiday about two weeks in advance - which sucks as well. Anyhow, our presence or absence from the residence is being controlled around the clock by a computer system, we have a card key to open the gates which registers exactly when we enter and leave by the gates, plus the cameras that are hanging everywhere.
On the other hand, I heard only recently that those many cameras are installed for our security instead of supervising our every movements, it seems like there were several stalker scandals in the last few years where some weirdos had a fetish about breaking into specifically girls only residences to steal underwear and the like. Niiiice.

And just for the sake of completeness, it sucks that we don't have wifi in here. My room's in front of the canteen and the lounge that have both internet access, but I can't hack in connect with free internet acess because we only have about seven lame cables with modem access in here.D:

But then again, up to now it wasn't so bad for me, it's completely dark beginning from 6 p.m. here so the evenings start a lot earlier anyway, and for now I didn't really have one occasion where I wanted to stay away until the critical time. Not saying that this will never happen, not at all, but I guess I'm getting used to this. But this sucks hard for my friend who has her long-term boyfriend living in Tôkyô here.
On the other hand, we had a good time amongst us in the residence as well, especially in the first week. I didn't mention yet that we are all in all five exchange students, two from Paris (including me), two from Geneva in Switzerland and one from Benin, all of us speaking French. It seems like we're going to get along very well, or at least we had a great start together, spending our evenings in each other's rooms and all that, sharing our (good working) material (like watching tv in the someone other's room for those who don't have a tv or a broken tv, like me).

Oookay, I wanted to post a few photos as well, but I don't think I have the time for this anymore, there is a small matsuri (matsuri = festivals with or without a shintô (=religious) background. But skip the religious background and come for the food anyway!:D ~♥) in Ikebukuro today and we are meeting in half an hour now... So, next time then?

[Almost Edit of Doom: I have been writing this entry for one and a half hour. One and a half hour! And then, when I wanted to finally post it, I accidentally clicked on some of the nerdy options here and lo, everything was away, replaced by some stupid html line, and the text not in the cache nor everywhere, simply GONE! Fortunately, it was just a minute ago that I opened the preview window, and there it was, in all it's integrity, minus the lj-cut, ready copy'n'pasta!~♥ *cries tears of joy*

Yôkoso! Japan

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 07:06:49 GMT

My first post is now long overdue, and there is in theory so much to tell... that I feel almost tempted to stop right here right now before this single post is turning into a lengthy novel. Well, anyway, I have to start somewhere, so lets just begin with a cheery "Yôkoso! Japan" like those many signs that plastered my way out of Narita Airport, Tôkyô, Japan.

I arrived in Tôkyô on september 16th, 10 days earlier, and while for some, Japan is complete unknown and exciting and stuff, so everything might seem like it's worth reporting in every single detail, but for me, I rather have a hard time feeling excited at all.
Not that I haven't been enjoying those 10 past days, oh no, quite the contrary. Except for the days when I decided that my little apartment needed some serious clean-up (like... this morning), I have been going out most of the times, either for just exploring the shopping arcade with all those tiny little shops in my neighborhood, or for a walk (including, yes, it's true, several shopping tours) through Shinjuku or other districts in Tôkyô. I just don't feel really excited at all. I haven't been particularly thrilled when I finally stepped out of the plane, nor when I was riding the bus from Narita Airport to Shinjuku (except when you count that feeling of content relief that I decided to send my 26kg heavy suitcase per delivery service to my new home and thus didn't have to carry that one around anymore), nor when I arrived. Oh, I was very happy! It was just that it rather felt like coming home than to start a great adventure...

Well, I finally sort of realized that I was in Japan (in Japan. In JAPAN, for God's sake!!!) when I had my first real "tourist"-day with zanagi on tuesday (on whatever official holiday that one was) where we headed to Odaiba (a place I didn't know yet), including a giant ferris-wheel, a beach and unfortunately no ice-cream. Furthermore a boat-tour on the Sumida river to Asakusa, some obligatory sightseeing at the Kaminarimon (one of the most famous places in Tôkyô) and a nice evening sitting at a typical Izakaya (some sort of bar) in Asakusa, my favorite district in Tôkyô like ever!♥

Other than that... I got to know that I am a very deep and healthy sleeper as I happily slept through a taifun (with an open window, mind you!)... and my very first real earthquake. Well, not so heavy that any stuff dropped from my shelves, but still a clearly noticeable one, as it lasted probably about 30 seconds and woke up most people on that day... except me. Damn! But oh well, I have one year to spend on this island and will very likely have my full share of earthquakes at the end, and except for my bruised ego when everybody mocked me, no damage seemed to be done.
(By the way, I might not have noticed a slightly heavier earthquake yet, but sometimes I feel like I'm sort of seasick or something like that. And I'm sure that I don't imagine things when I feel like the earth is slightly shaking at these times, especially when one friend remarked the exact same thing at the same time, sitting next to me. So the earth is often slightly shaking after all... Fascinating!

I could write about a lot of other things now, like my residence, the other exchange students, my first days in university... but I think I'll better write a new entry for that one, this might get a bit lengthy after all. Just a short notice before I head off (one of my friend informed me that she was booooored, while others already headed for Ikebukuro and wanted us to meet them there): We five "Gaijins" seem to get along really well for which I'm so very grateful, Tôkyô is great (no surprise there) ~~although the weather could have been a tad better on a few days if you ask me~~, and the women's only university is a women's only university. Which should probably mostly speak for itself. And listening to Japanese all day long is quite exhausting. But we're getting better anyway, even if I still probably talk like a two-years old at times...