Blogs from Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan, Asia - page 4

......and About Dining In General in Japan Im getting along pretty well with the Koreans. Its pretty tough communicating with them as you may expect, given the double language barrier. But as Japanese class progresses, our repertoire of language and potential of understanding increases, so our progress quickly shows. I had a funny thought that, for the first time, time spent hanging out with your friends is now time also spent studying. What better way to practice what we've learned in class than to just hang out and talk to your friends? We went out to a restaurant and took turns cooking our dishes in the center hotplate. Koreans like to share their food. Its custom to order something, then everyone share their plates and have a bit of everyone's food. Its kind of cool if ... read more

Fun-Filled Weekend This weekend was filled with unexpected events. My Friday begins as always with me heading to class. Our teacher (sensei) informed us that this weekend's (shumatsu) culture class excursion will correspond with Sunday's holiday. According to Japan's old lunar calendar, the start of the new year took place on Setsubun. There is also the tradition that the people born during that year would have to eat the same number of beans as their age to bring health for the entire year. People also dress in oni (ogre) costumes while the others would throw beans at them. Oni doesn't only refer to the monster, but symbolizes all other bad things such as illness, bad luck, etc. Our teacher then handed us some beans for us to try; for dry beans they were quite delicious(oishii). At ... read more

Der Scheiss Wecker klingelt und ich schmiss meinen Korper vors bett um mit der morgentlichen Geisselung in Form von Liegestuetzen zu gebinen. Als ich 20 Minuten spaeter frischgeduscht an Yus Zimmer vorbei ging schien dieser immernoch zu schlafen. Naja der wird schon wissen was er tut dachte ich mir. 5 Minuten spaeter war er immernoch nicht aufgestanden und es war schon 7 Uhr um 7.30 mussten wir aus dem Haus sein. Ich kopfte an seine Zimmer Tuer. Klopf ...... Klopf.......... Ein Lautes OHHHHH FUCKKKKK ( spaeter hiess es dann nur noch SCHEISSE, SCHIESSEN, man bringt leuten auch nur mist bei) ertoente und Yu stuermte aus dem Zimmer in die Dusche, waerend ich mir mein Fruehstueck einverleibt......Brot, Marmelade, Joghurt , Obst.......oleole. Fuck man we are late we have to run. "Fuck you are late dachte ich and ... read more

Im a School Boy Japan has alot of getting used to, even for me. The best advise I could give anyone before coming here is........learn some Japanese...please (onegaishimasu). That past week consisted of getting my schedule down. Im gonna get all the boring daily things out of the way, so you have an idea of what my week looks like. Then I will add cool(sugoi) posts when I see fit.I'd prefer there be a strong emphasis on cultural differences and other noteworthy things, rather than just, "Today I did this and that". Those take time to prepare, but hopefully it will be soon. I will also put useful japanese words in parentheses after the english word like I did above. Mondays through Fridays are my school going days. It takes an hour to get to ... read more

Pour notre dernière nuit au Japon, nous avons essayé un hôtel capsule. Ce sont des hôtels où au lieu d'avoir une chambre, chacun a une "capsule" privée de 2 mètres de long par 1 mètre de large par 1 mètre de haut. Une sorte de cercueil dans lequel on s'enferme pour dormir! C'est habituellement utilisé par des hommes d'affaires qui ont travaillé tard ou par des fêtards qui ont manqué le dernier train. La plupart n'acceptent que les hommes, mais nous en avons trouvé un qui acceptait les femmes et qu'il était possible de réserver par internet (c'est rare pour les hotels capsules). Nous l'avons donc essayé! Il fallait le faire au moins une fois pendant notre voyage! Nous avions chacun notre capsule, sur des étages différents. Les étages pour les hommes et les femmes sont ... read more