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Published: September 11th 2010
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Night time Nagoya
My final walk home at the end of each day :) YO😊
Saturday, 11th September
I'm still having an absolute whale of a time and could actually write forever!
I’ll start from the weekend…
Saturday some of us decided to meet in Sakae, supposedly ‘main town Nagoya’. We wandered around town, and found a modern complex called Oasis 21 which was just mega sightseeing galore..(pictures on facebook). Lunch was interesting since once again pointing at pictures on the menu got us not really what we wanted but it’s all an experience 😊
Sunday, my host grandmother (お母さん) took me shopping and she sorted me out a beautiful Japanese phone which I still find the most exciting thing ever to play with! I can send/ receive e-mails for free on it which is a wonder that shall never get old…(If you want to make my day that little bit more exciting, my e-mail address is posted somewhere on facebook!) Texting in Japanese is just whole new world…! Also for some reason still unbeknown to me, the same day she made me walk up a lot of steps and back down again, but I said it was beautiful and took a picture just to be polite.
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday I
Alcoholic Calpis
A can of 6% Calpis, mental! don’t even remember, just orientation for everything imaginable…to use the library/computer/gym/anything is a massive polava! but there have always been numerous people hanging around after school for some afternoon karaoke/department store/100yen shopping fun and just generally discover bits and bobs with so it’s all really good fun :o)
Wednesday I woke up to rain which was so refreshing-we had caught the edge of a typhoon so everyone turned up to school dripping with other than sweat which was fun 😊 Luckily it stopped in time for the field trip which was to the Tokugawa art museum and Nagoya castle which is the most beautiful thing and views from the top over Nagoya and to the mountains beyond were pretty cool.
Thursday was back to uncomfortable heat and also was the first days of lessons. Speaking English has now been made ‘だめです’ in class 😞 I’ve chose to do a culture module which looks at the socio-linguistics of Japanese which is SUPER interesting and also ‘fieldwork research methods of Japan’ which appears to include a fieldtrip to every festival going on in the area-so that also seems fun. I’m saving the aforementioned tea ceremony module for next semester 😊
Big Japanese building..
...proof that I'm actually in Japan So yesterday was Friday and last night there was a birthday party and I was unsure about how my family would be since I know I always have to return by the last bus (which is only like midnight) however okaasan was chill when I asked if I could stay out all night so that was a huge relief…we visited the shared house of some of the guys for the party which was really fun and then went to a 24hour karaoke bar 😱 Another relief is despite the drinking age in Japan being 20
(GUTTED) I managed to get through at the liquer store pretty smoothly with my various beers and ALCOHOLIC CALPIS!! A beautiful invention! My issue was that I had offered to cook an English style breakfast and dinner today so I felt bad when I returned home well past breakfast time in the morning…I’ll save the bacon and eggs for tomorrow perhaps. Also being hungover and feeling gross was the least fun thing ever on the hour long journey home this morning. oh and i almost forgot there was a massive panic at the party when the police rocked up since there had been noise complaints...being a boy dorm, girls are strictly forbidden and so all of our residence permits were at stake-i had to hide under a desk for a very long time and not giggle sadly neither of which is easy for me but at least we've learnt that a headphone disco is the best plan for next time...!
Dinner this evening I cooked omelette and trimmings for 6 (not really an English meal at all, I know ) which was fun but sadly it ended up being miniature portions of omelette since their frying pan was on the petite side.
いい点 - good points so far:
- All the 外人(foreign students) are mostly from the States, out of 143 there are only I think 3 of us English people and it is SO weird having American people being all ‘Woah I really wanted to meet you’ and ‘you have the cutest accent’…which is the most flattering thing I think I’ve ever heard in my life!! Before I came I was slightly worried by the prospect of SO many Americans but It’s lovely how everyone is so so friendly here and eager to meet everyone and make friends😊
- Because I spend so long commuting each day we’ve been told to make the most of the time and study, but the bus ride on the way home from school is a part of the day I enjoy so much because it’s dark by this time and we get to drive through Nagoya with all the lights and neon etc . I need the time to gawp out the window and go over all the exciting bits of the day in my head so I can’t imagine ever studying in that time.
- Unlike Europe it’s exciting to actually hear not English/American music in department stores - we actually get some nice cultured Japanese stuff here which is fun!
- Also since it’s been so sunny I’ve turned my standard redish-tan colour which is amusing.
悪い点-not so good points:
- I am stared at a LOT- obviously being gaijin and excessively tall this was totally expected and usually if I turn and smile people tend to get all embarrassed and look the other way but each day there’s always one or two who do not stop staring and in not the nicest way which is slightly creepy and a tiny bit uncomfortable...
- Also my body clock has finally sorted itself out again; for like the first 5 days I was unable to stay awake past around 7pm and would be wide awake by 5am but I’m now back to my normal self and begrudgingly wake up to the 4th or 5th snooze on the alarm in the morning 😱
- Another slightly less good point is how I didn’t realise how bad my spoken Japanese was until I got here-it’s really embarrassing how little I can say compared to what I can read/write but I really hope that will improve fast and that’s the whole point of being here I suppose
Oh I almost forgot the most exciting thing ever was Sunday when the older sister of my host family came round with husband and 3 month old baby for an evening welcome party for me and also a celebration of the baby’s first meal of real food. We ate sushi and seafood pizza and they made me feel very welcome which was nice. Also I got many cuddles with Kokona the baby who is massively cute so it was good fun and they are a really friendly couple. Seems like they come each weekend cos they were here again tonight to experience my shoddy cooking!
As you can imagine I’ve also met plenty of Japanese people too now and they are all so friendly. There’s a group at Nanzan who I think are in charge of inviting us out and things and there’s another welcome party for us on Wednesday lunchtime with food and everything, score!
I realise again that Ive written so much, sorry for that but thanks for the blog lovin' 😱
xxx
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