http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/ikarihnayrb/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from ikarihnayrb en-us Fri, 04 Dec 2009 08:07:29 +0000 Fri, 04 Dec 2009 08:07:29 +0000 As I mentioned before I have joined a volleyball circle here in Japan. For the longest time I did not post any photos of the group but finally I got around to taking some pictures. We had a tournament the other week and actually did very well. It was a 16 team tournament and we entered two teams a girl's team and a boy's team. It was an unfair tournament style system that immediately elimi http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Hyogo/Nishinomiya/blog-74783.html Some people have been asking what my car looks like and such so I decided to upload some pictures because I have free time now. I hope that mom and dad you are taking care of it while I am away and not letting it get too dirty http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/Sunnyvale/blog-74871.html Quite possibly one of the hardest and most physically demanding activities I have done. A bunch of the exchange students 10 of us total took a 7 hour bus ride over to Mt. Fuji the day after school ended. Our goal to get to the top of the mountain We started the day off early having to get to the bus station by 7 in the morning which meant getting up at 5 to make it on time. From Osaka http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/blog-74810.html Well everyone I'm terribly sorry that this post has come so late. I have been constantly busy with school work and the little time I have when I'm not doing homework is devoted to volleyball. I have neglected my duties to report back to you but I will give it my best shot now. The last time that I wrote in this blog was during midterms. Those went well and I have scored high marks on al http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Hyogo/Nishinomiya/blog-67538.html So I finally finished my Midterms. It took a while to study for them but now they're over and out of the way. The only one I've gotten back so far was my Japanese Language one and I scored a 94 on that one. Pretty happy with that grade so we'll just keep hoping the other ones turned out like that one. As for the temperature it's finally starting to get hot. Before it would be hot fo http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Hyogo/Nishinomiya/blog-63346.html 424 512 Yeah... I know.. I'm sorry I haven't updated in a long time.. but it's been crazy with homework. The biggest thing was a lecture I was supposed to give about the Japanese Contemporary Economy and I ended up having to do a lot of research to cover the time requirement of 90 minutes. I've never given that long of a presentation for class.. so it was a little strange and tiresome to hav http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Hyogo/Nishinomiya/blog-59453.html Yeah... I promise the next post will have a description of what I've been doing but for now... just some more pics to hold you until then... http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Hyogo/Nishinomiya/blog-57998.html I will update later when I have some more time... Golden Week was fun but now I'm backed up with homework but here are some pictures to hold you until then... http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Hyogo/Nishinomiya/blog-57812.html 416 423 Sorry that it's been a week since I last updated I've been pretty busy with homework. I have to give a 40 minute presentation in my Japanese Business class and preparing for that has just drained me. The lecture is on the Japanese Contemporary Economy and I had to read a lot of books so that I could understand what actually happened in the past few years. Anways it's been crazy an http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Hyogo/Nishinomiya/blog-54699.html 413 415 Let's see Friday I had class again but this time it was a special class. It was Japanese class not one of my elective classes but it focused strictly on speaking. It is a Japanese class where the whole time we just speak Japanese. I found it to be very straining but probably the best practice I've had since coming. I can tell that Fridays are going to be interesting and I just http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Hyogo/Nishinomiya/blog-53181.html 49 412 Well on Sunday indeed we went to look at the flowers. Monday I had my first class yes only one and it was my Japanese language class. The are only two people in it and boy are we going to get good. The reason that there is only two of us is because we chose to take a less popular track that focuses on various other aspects of Japan instead of the actual language itself. I ended http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Hyogo/Nishinomiya/blog-52493.html 43 48 Ok so Tuesday wasn't all that exciting. There was more all day orientation that started at 9 and went pretty much until 3 or so in the afternoon. We went over rules for the gym more rules about homestays etc... and I had lunch with my Japanese Partners. There are two of them one boy named Hama and one girl named Momo and they are volunteers that help exchange students make a smoo http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Hyogo/Nishinomiya/blog-51654.html 330 42 After saying my goodbyes to everyone at home it was off to SFO to start my long flight to Japan. After getting on the plane bound for Chicago the Captain announced that there was a problem with the plane and that it needed about 10 minutes to fix. This of course put everyone on edge and it probably would have been better if he didn't say anything at all. The problem was soon fixed http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Hyogo/Nishinomiya/blog-51038.html So after having to go twice to the Japanese Consulate in San Francisco I was finally able to get my student visa that will allow me to study in Japan for a year. It took a while for my new university to get me the required paperwork to even apply for the visa so I am lucky that I got it this early If you can call this early. 10 days before I ship out I can finally cross out one of the ma http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/Sunnyvale/blog-47873.html Well I finally received some information from KGU about my host family. It appears that I will be staying in Takarazuka which is 20km north of Osaka and will be living with 2599130007 Fumio 70 and 213154037223376 Chizuko 67 2649426412 Matsumoto. Takarazuka is known for it's theater and onsen. An added plus is that to get to Osaka's Umeda Station it takes less than http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/Sunnyvale/blog-44368.html Dawn one of my classmates who will attend the same school in Japan as I will is headed off to Kansai Gakuin University soon. I want to wish her and Lexi another one of my friends who is studying in Japan the best of luck as they begin their new journeys. I can't wait to hear about their experiences hopefully more good than bad and I can't wait to join them in a few short weeks 8 to be exa http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/Sunnyvale/blog-39762.html My name is Bryan Zen Hiraki and I grew up in Sunnyvale California. I am currently 20 years old and am double majoring in Global Economic Relations and Japanese at the University of the Pacific. So far I have visited Japan twice and have loved every second I was there. That is why I plan to study abroad in Osaka for a year. It is official now that I will be studying at a school called 38306 http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/Sunnyvale/blog-23461.html