#12 - Leaving for Tokyo

Tomorrow I am leaving for Tokyo so I can do New Year's there! I am going to be goign with my friend Alice for about 4 or 5 days, coming back on the 4th January. As much as I'd like to take the Shinkansen it is too expensive so we will have to travel by night bus which will take a long time! And also because we looked for rooms kind of late, we don't have anywhere to stay for the night of the 31st (we can move in on Jan 1st afternoon), so we will have to stay out all night. This means that the ridiculously late nights I have been having the past few days may help me to stay up, as I have been going to bed around 5/6 am.

This week I've pretty much not done anything. Just playing computer games and sleeping. Right now though, I have to do some laundry as I realise I have not got that many clothes! And also, I have to try to find a suitcase to borrow from someone that is small as I only have a large suitcase to take which is way too space to fill.

I will be sure to take lots of photos and prepared to write a long entry on this! I havn't decided yet whether to take my laptop or not...so it may be a while before I type next.

Happy holidays

#11 - Japan Scrapbook #5 - Himeji Castle 姫路城

This was our first school trip as international students and it was to Himeji Castle in Himeji (duh) which is in Hyogo prefecture, so about and hour or over from Osaka. The castle itself was beautiful and large. The gardens had various different paths and it was all delicatly laid out. Sometimes the path that seemed to lead to the main castle went in a different direction - this was a defensive attempt to confuse anyone trying to invade. There are also lots of gates (which are made of metal and not wood) that you have to go through, which had two purposes - to prevent the spread of fire, and to hinder the enemy and stab them from above!

We climbed up the inside of the tower. An interesting note is that from the outside it looks as if there are 5 floors to the castle, but there actually 6. This hidden floor was once again to confuse people invading! Throughout all the castle there are signets and markings of all the different people that helped to build the castle (these are the small dark circle things).

#10 - Japan Scrapbook #4 - Arashiyama 嵐山

A selection of photos from a trip to Arashiyama, which is near Kyoto. We originally went to see the momiji / red leaves and ended up also looking at a garden and also a temple comple.

I wrote about this trip in an earlier blog, click here to go to the post : http://guesswherealexis.blogspot.com/2008/11/5-happy-birthday-jessica.html

#9 - Japan Scrapbook #3 - Mijayima

Miyajima was probably my favourite place to visit in Japan. It is not far from Hiroshima and easy to get to - just take the tram from Hiroshima and it takes up to an hour. You have to take a ferry across because it is an island, and it was fun because you got to see the island and everything as you went to the dock, which is beautiful.

On the island there is the famous floating torii (gate) and also the water shrine behind it. When we got there the tide was out so there was a mass of people on the sand underneath the torii. We decided to climb the mountain too, despite my suggestion to use the cable car to go up and walk down. It turns out we took 4 hours to get to the top, but it was worth it because the view of the moutnains and the sea was stunning. There are various little shrines and ruins as you go up the mountain and if i went back again I would go to the temple furthest away. It was a 60 minute walk out of our way and we had already been walking for 3 hours, so we decided not to go, but now I am just really curious as to what it looks like and wonder how many people who come to Miyajima have actually seen it.



If anyone visits Japan this is one place I recommend to visit! Apart from the wonderful scenery, there is a local delicacy called 'momiji manjyu' which is manjyu shaped into the shape of momiji leaves. It is basically bread like with different fillings such as chocolate, or anko, or red bean, and all are delicious. I have only been able to find these in Miyajima and Hiroshima, so if you visit - be sure to try some!

#8 - Preparing

Following suit of the returning Americans, I have started to organise and pack up my things ready to take home. I have realised that although I am leaving in January, that is about 2 weeks away, and there is quite a lot of stuff I have to try to organise into my suitcase and bags so that I don'thave to throw a lot away. So far I have done nearly all my books and papers. I think I narrowed it down alright. I'm only really keeping the text books and other sheets and folders. The rest of the class content, like quizzes and dictations etc I am throwing away - I have no need for them.

I still havn't been to Nara yet, and I really would like to go and take photos because it seems everyone else has gone, and it is close so it's not a massive way to go.

Yesterday I made some slideshow films for my youtube, so if anyone wants to see them then just go to my channel - http://jp.youtube.com/user/6atale Hope you enjoy!

#7 - Christmas time!

It may be a little delayed, but I hope everyone had a a nice Christmas! As for me, it was a fairly sad day. A few of the international students had to go home forever on Christmas day, so a lot of use went to the bus station to say goodbye. After that we went to KFC for some food, then just wandered around and looked at some shops. There were so many people out shopping so I didn't buy anything.

I have now got bus tickets and a room in Tokyo because I am going there on the 30th to be there for New Years! I am going with one other friend, and hopefully it will be fun and I anticipate I will take lots of pictures of Tokyo. I want to also meet up with the friends from home who are doing their year abroad in Tokyo.

But before I go off travelling, I need to write a short report on my time in Japan, as I had received a scholarship from the Japanese government, which I had totally forgotten about. I have now written it in English, but I will need help from a Japanese friend to translate it into Japanese because my langauge skills are not good enough for such a high register writing!

I was trying to organise my photos on my laptop yesterday and I uploaded quite a lot to my facebook account. I wanted to upload to my flickr too, but it has been too long since I have used it and i have forgotton all my login details. Hopefully I can upload the photos I havn't uploaded to facebook today.

#6 - further explorations

This weekend was quite interesting. On Saturday I went with a friend to see Morning Musume in concert. They are a jpop group of female members who are under 20 (then they get kicked out cos they are too old). I had fun, and it was funny/scary to look at all the creepers and old men that came to the concert to look at little girls......

On sunday, I went with a few other international students and visited Kinkakuji ( the golden temple). I really wanted to go here as it was one of the most famous spots in Japan, and it was fun - but cold! We explored some of the area a bit, and then went further into Kyoto and went to see the Kyoto Imperial Palace. It was closed on Sundays!!!


Later in the evening we went to some arcades, and I spent way too much money. Way too much. And all I won was a little rabbit toy thing. Meh. On the train back home we had someone teach us how to say some mandarin - interesting and fun! I want to learn chinese now, so much simpler grammar than Japanese.

Tomorrow I have to give a short presentation in class....I am trying to write it, but I really do not care very much so as you can probably guess...it's goign very slowly (and hence the prompt for another update to this blog).

#5 - Happy birthday Jessica!

This weekend was eventful for me. On Saturday I went out with a small group of friends to a place called Arashiyama 嵐山 which was fun! I was originally just going to go with my Japanese friend but it was still fun. We went to see the red leaves (もみじ). We also looked around a couple of temples which were interesting. The first was a garden and had lots of beautifully coloured leaves and plants. The second was even more interesting. We paid an extra 100yen to go into the main temple building and look around. As expected the garden was beautiful too, and the outside walkway around the building was mostly designed so you could see the pond and trees outside. It was really fun to walk aroudn the grounds too, and I took lots of pictures of the trees and leaves.

Sunday night it was one of the international students' birthday celebration, so we all went and gathered in a 'american style diner' for nomihoudai 飲み放題 which is all you can drink for a certain amount of time (usually an hour and a half to 2 hours). It was fun! And quite a lot of people got quite drunk and it became interesting. Had a bit of a scare with of of my friends who didn't quite have a good reaction to all the drinking so we ended up having to call an ambulance for her and spent the night/morning in the hospital. Luckily she is feeling much better now :)

Today is a national holiday (something like Labour Thanksgiving day) so there are no classes! Which is great as most people probably have a hangover...

#4 - second school trip

Today was the second school trip. Wasn't sure how fun it would be, but it turned out pretty great! The first place we went to was a ninja house. We learned about some crafty ninja things like hiding holes and secret stairs, and there was even some shuriken throwing you could do, which was fun but also hard!

After we left there, we headed to a pottery factory, where it was arranged for us to paint our own tanuki. It was really fun! I enjoyed it. I really like this photo of the paint I took, so here it is!

After having lunch at the pottery place too, we left to visit our last stop which was a temple. I'm not too sure what the area name was but the sign above the gate was 石山寺 or Ishiyama Temple, so I am going to assume that is what the complex is called. This place was SPECTACULAR! It's that time of the year when the leaves on the trees are changing colours, so I have many many photos of the trees and plants. Everything was just really beautiful.
I didn't end up going to Nara yesterday as planned. When I woke up I was completely tired, so instead opted to go back to sleep. I should be going soon though I think, because one of my friends who hasn't gone wants to go too.

#3 - Umeda Sky Building

Today I was invited out into Umeda (big kind of city area with lots of shops etc) to go to do things and go to the sky building, so I went as I've been wanting to take pictures from the top for a while.

After train ride to Umeda, our first stop was the Pokemon Center. I have already been a few days before but the people I was with hadn't so we went again. It' still cool :) I bought a little figure of a Vaporeon and one of a Marshtomp (my favourite!) (Yes, I am a little nerdy). The Pokemon Center is basically a largish shop selling pokemon merchandise like toys, the computer games, note pads, t-shirts, cards...basically anything to do with pokemon, but mostly it was to do with the newer pokemon versions.

After that we tried to find the Sky Building but we didn't have a clue where it was so we walked around for quite a while until we were distracted by an arcade where we had to go in and play. An hour or so later we decided we should actually go to find the building so went off in search again. By this time it was dark so I was taking some cool pictures with my camera of random views and buidlings, which look quite good.

After a long and boring walk to the building I was pleasantly surprised to find that there was a German Christmas Market being held underneath it! So naturally we had to buy some food and have a quick look at the stalls. It was fun and I heard quite a bit of German spoken in the background.

Figuring out how to get to the top of the Sky Building was hard. There were various escalators and elevators and basically we took the wrong ones, as they went nowhere near the top. Eventually we got on the elevator, which was made of glass so you can see everything going up, followed by revelations of a friend who now decided to say he was slightly afraid of heights. I know it's not really funny, but it was! He got comfortable fairly soon at the top though so it's all good.

The weather is a little smoggy so we couldn't see that far, but the view was great! You can see all the lights of the shops and restaurants, the lit up bridges across the water and even the top of Osaka Castle all lit up far far away. It was great. The floor at the top was also speckled with flourescent paint, and there are blue lights around, so it looks like a colourful starry floor.

After leaving that and the German Christmas Market we decided to go get something to eat, finally going into one place. My 2 friends had shabu shabu (I can only describe as cookign your own meat in boiling water) while I decided to try the ikateriyaki - squid. Being a little aprehensive at first, I soon discovered that it was actually quite tasty!

#2 - Arrival in Japan and reflections

The beginning is a good place to start so that is where I shall begin.

I flew from London with a friend of mine who is at the same university for the same semester, so at least I wasn't alone and worrying too much. The flight to Japan was good, and the staff on the plane were genuinly helpful. I remember I was hungry so wanted to buy some chocolate or something small as I would normally do on a plane. When I called the stewardess and told her this she quickly ran to the back of the plane and came back with a small box of sweets and biscuits and basically told me to take my pick. What's more is that she didn't expect any money from me, and simply gave me the food. Whether that was included in the plane ticket or not I do not know, but it surprised me, even making me a feel a little uneasy about just being given this for nothing in return.

Getting to the university from Kansai airport was scary. We had instructions from the university about how to do this so we boarded the bus from the airport. An hour or so later we arrived at Umeda station, where we had to try to get a train to the nearest stop to our dormitories. This was so confusing, seeing a row of different coloured machines and having no idea what the stop names were or having a reliable map (as the one sent to us was pretty much useless). Eventually we sought help from one of the guards/station staff and found the right stations to get off at.

On the train it felt odd. Looking out of the windows you could see us passign all these buildings which are pretty close together, some looking nice and others looking a little run down. People on the train kept looking at us too, which is somewhat understandable as there are not many foreigners in Japan, but it was also completely unnerving!

My stop was one before my friend's so I had to get off first. Lugging my suitcase and heavy bag, I climbed the stairs out of the train station an was greeted by a big sign and gate saying "Kansai University" in Japanese. The dorm must have been closer than what it had looked like on the map. I went to a big map of campus and tried to figure out where I had to go.

No luck. Didn't understand it, and neither did the few Japanese people I stopped to ask. Finally a nice Japanese woman helped me to the dorm, even though it was the opposite way she was going. It was not tha close at all. Lots of slopes, very heavy luggage and hot weather do not mix, so I was feeling tired and light headed, meaning that on reaching the dorm and being greeted by my roommate and others, all hope of speaking a little Japanese was gone with my energy.

Probably one of the first big differences between living in a dorm in Japan and accommodation in England is that in Japan, whenever you pass or see someone in the dorm, you would have to say hello and excuse yourself. Also, going into a room you would have to excuse yourself (and have everyone excuse you too), and then do the same again on going out. It took a bit of getting used to but now I do not really notice it that much. It's not such a surprising thing.

Despite this exaggerated courtesy in the dorm, walking in the street outside is a completely different thing. I have had a few cases where I accidently bumped someone, and when I turn to apologise the person is jsut walking off and not paying attention. People walking in the streets are not deterred by anyone else they don't know, so no one apologises either. Even now this seems very strange.

Well this is getting a little long now, and that is about all that happened on my arrival, so this is where I shall end it!

じゃ、また
Alex

#1- Introduction

Although it's rather late to start writing a blog, I have decided that it is a good idea nonetheless.

But before explaining that, let me introduce myself a little. My name is Alex, currently 21, and I am a university student from England studying French, German and Japanese. I am now in my 3rd year of my 4 year course, and this means that I have to go on a year abroad to live and learn in the countries where my languages are spoken. Since Septemer I have been in Osaka, Japan, attending Kansai University. After this, in January I will be heading to Strasbourg, France, and while there I will have to organise a summer course at a German univeristy.



True, it is now November, I have missed so many blogging oppurtunities! But I have decided to start blogging for a few reasons; because it would help ease moments of boredom; to rant about silly things like strange customs; to boast about where I am and what I am doing(!); but mostly, because it would be nice to have an account of what I have done to look back on.

So, to help start off, here are some few things about what I am doing. As I said above I am currently an international student at Kansai University, which is is Suita City which is in Osaka. I live in the male dorm and share a room which a Japanese named Tsuyoshi. He is a cool guy, but hardly ever here so I rarely get to speak with him. I am taking 8 classes, 7 is the compulsary number (of classes for international students) but I am also taking an extra normal university class for no credit (i.e. it's for regular Japanese students!). Some of the classes are quite hard, and the others are so easy it's barely a class. To be honest, I have spent most of my time with the Americans and other international students from my dorm so I have fallen into the habit of speaking more english than Japanese, but I am aiming on changing that!



In the following blogs to this one, I will try to recap on the field trips I have been on and where I have visited, and of course provide a few photos !

I also have a youtube channel although I don't really have much time to update it a lot, but it has some older blog videos and some more fun ones.

http://jp.youtube.com/user/6atale Subscribe :)


じゃ、また

Alex