This is a modest attempt at being productive.
Modest meaning that this might not be such a long entry.
I'll just try to tie up some loose ends and write about anything I feel like. Did you know that this blog gets like 20 hits every time I make an update? That's insane man, totally insane.
I've been meaning to write about this for a while but I kept forgetting. Japanese TV is pretty fun, as we all know. While I don't spend that much time watching it in general, I managed to catch a few glimpses in my old host family (I did mention seeing an episode of One Piece, right?). For example I saw a part of an episode of DMC - the live action drama, and boy was there drama. There was a running scene which was more dramatic and drawn out than the Lion King running scene (now that's hardcore). It also contained more uses of the F word than adjectives (or it replaced adjectives), though it was alright, since the F word with Japanese accent is simply hilarious.
Another show I got to see was a very very weird show. Everyone in it was a freaking ninja! And bad ninjas at that, they had colourful clothes, ninjas with glasses and weirdest of all, most of the ninjas were kids! (that's just wrong, dude). It also had silly plots like "catch the cat" or "unmask the stranger", there's nothing ninja about that! Oh, and the opening music contained lots and lots of awkward English, as well as everyone in the cast jumping around looking happy.
It was like Naruto for kids!
Oh wait...
On an entirely different matter, I was informed that I had not written about Ryuuta.
He's kind of my best friend in class, I guess. We talk a little from time to time (though some days it's just limited to おはようー and じゃあねー). What's really cool about him though is that he totally shares my passion for games, he always brings his PSP to school and he let me play Dissida on it for a while (totally awesome, if I might add). He also once managed to arrange a Super Smash Bros Melee match during a lunch hour and also took me to Nakano Broadway (it's like a small Akihabara), you can see why he's cool.
Other than that, he's also really good at soccer.
This will be all for now.
måndag 12 oktober 2009
söndag 11 oktober 2009
It's time
I've delayed this entry for too long.
Why?
Laziness. What else?
I wouldn't say that a lot of things have happened since my last entry, it's more like I still have lots and lots to catch up with, and that's a bother. What is worthy of mention I can tell you now though.
I had my first lesson in Kendo this week, it was fun. I thought I'd be embarrassed when struggling just to hold my sword correctly while the others were training fervently, but my worries were proven wrong. The other students were more than happy to teach us (Truls and me) the basics and even cut some of their own time training to do it. The sensei was just happy that we were interested, so need to worry about his approval either.
I'd also like to think I looked cool in a Hakama.
A less fortunate part of the lesson was that I somehow cut the underside of my left big toe, which caused quite a lot of bleeding and forced me to end the lesson a tad early (I'm all OK now though, worry not).
...
I actually had very little "schooltime" in general this week. Monday and Tuesday were normal (or well, Tuesday being my first day of Kendo) but Wednesday was messed up. We were told that the midterm tests had started and Wednesday was the first day but we would still have extra Japanese classes half the day, so I got up and went to school as usual, only to be told we were free until third term, so Truls and I decided to sleep in the library (because that's what people do). I was actually really tired that day and managed to fall asleep pretty quickly on the comfort of three padded chairs put next to each other.
I was later awoken by the librarian (think female hot librarian stereotype, if you will) who at first thought I was a student playing truant (as to not do the test) since I had made a makeshift pillow/sheet combination by wrapping my jacket around my head. She quickly realized her mistake when she saw my face and let me be. I, however, was not to let myself "be" (as in go back to sleep) since I quickly noticed two peculiarities:
1. Truls was nowhere to be seen.
2. The clock on the wall said it was 12.20
"Oh shi-" was what I thought.
After walking around aimlessly for 10 minutes, not knowing where to go, I finally stumbled upon Truls again, who told me there had been no class and we were free to go. But he had let me sleep since he figured I needed it (thanks, I did). We then proceeded to use the time we were given to visit some stores.
That day, I returned home with a fabulous new headset (cheap, nifty and it included a bag to put it in when not in use).
Later the same day, my host mother informed me that the school had called and said that Thursday was free because of a typhoon closing in on us.
"Cool" I figured, not feeling the slightest bit of compassion for the people who did not think typhoons were cool.
The typhoon also caused the entire week to be rainy, so I finally got to put my umbrella to the test.
It broke.
It still kind of works though, despite having limited effectiveness.
After using Thursday to rest and power up, I faced Friday with "Mod i barm" (Swedish). And I finally solved the club question, I talked a bit with the leader of the manga club and she told me she'd take me to a club meeting after the midterms.
Oh right, I ended up switching back to Japanese (from Swedish) on my computer, so I can no longer write properly when communicating with some of you. The upside though, is that I can now write stuff like 忍者 (ninja), awesomesauce.
Aaand the last interesting tidbit from my week that proved to be a lot more to write about than expected is that tomorrow (Monday) is also a free day. Very delightful indeed.
So this is where I figured I'd put up some diary entries but since it took me so much time just to write about this week, I guess I'll wait until some other time (you know the drill by now, I suspect), sorry.
Miss you, bye.
Why?
Laziness. What else?
I wouldn't say that a lot of things have happened since my last entry, it's more like I still have lots and lots to catch up with, and that's a bother. What is worthy of mention I can tell you now though.
I had my first lesson in Kendo this week, it was fun. I thought I'd be embarrassed when struggling just to hold my sword correctly while the others were training fervently, but my worries were proven wrong. The other students were more than happy to teach us (Truls and me) the basics and even cut some of their own time training to do it. The sensei was just happy that we were interested, so need to worry about his approval either.
I'd also like to think I looked cool in a Hakama.
A less fortunate part of the lesson was that I somehow cut the underside of my left big toe, which caused quite a lot of bleeding and forced me to end the lesson a tad early (I'm all OK now though, worry not).
...
I actually had very little "schooltime" in general this week. Monday and Tuesday were normal (or well, Tuesday being my first day of Kendo) but Wednesday was messed up. We were told that the midterm tests had started and Wednesday was the first day but we would still have extra Japanese classes half the day, so I got up and went to school as usual, only to be told we were free until third term, so Truls and I decided to sleep in the library (because that's what people do). I was actually really tired that day and managed to fall asleep pretty quickly on the comfort of three padded chairs put next to each other.
I was later awoken by the librarian (think female hot librarian stereotype, if you will) who at first thought I was a student playing truant (as to not do the test) since I had made a makeshift pillow/sheet combination by wrapping my jacket around my head. She quickly realized her mistake when she saw my face and let me be. I, however, was not to let myself "be" (as in go back to sleep) since I quickly noticed two peculiarities:
1. Truls was nowhere to be seen.
2. The clock on the wall said it was 12.20
"Oh shi-" was what I thought.
After walking around aimlessly for 10 minutes, not knowing where to go, I finally stumbled upon Truls again, who told me there had been no class and we were free to go. But he had let me sleep since he figured I needed it (thanks, I did). We then proceeded to use the time we were given to visit some stores.
That day, I returned home with a fabulous new headset (cheap, nifty and it included a bag to put it in when not in use).
Later the same day, my host mother informed me that the school had called and said that Thursday was free because of a typhoon closing in on us.
"Cool" I figured, not feeling the slightest bit of compassion for the people who did not think typhoons were cool.
The typhoon also caused the entire week to be rainy, so I finally got to put my umbrella to the test.
It broke.
It still kind of works though, despite having limited effectiveness.
After using Thursday to rest and power up, I faced Friday with "Mod i barm" (Swedish). And I finally solved the club question, I talked a bit with the leader of the manga club and she told me she'd take me to a club meeting after the midterms.
Oh right, I ended up switching back to Japanese (from Swedish) on my computer, so I can no longer write properly when communicating with some of you. The upside though, is that I can now write stuff like 忍者 (ninja), awesomesauce.
Aaand the last interesting tidbit from my week that proved to be a lot more to write about than expected is that tomorrow (Monday) is also a free day. Very delightful indeed.
So this is where I figured I'd put up some diary entries but since it took me so much time just to write about this week, I guess I'll wait until some other time (you know the drill by now, I suspect), sorry.
Miss you, bye.
torsdag 1 oktober 2009
Smile for me
I'm hyperactive right now, I know that because I can't stop shaking my right leg, this is almost like that night in November last year, when Wrath of the Lich King was released and I was jumping in anticipation (I'm a nerd, remember?).
This hyperactivity also makes me uncertain of what feelings I have right now, but I'm positive that they are certain feelings (see what I did there?)™.
I'll use this burst of inspiration to just write about anything that comes to mind and then top it off with several entries from my diary.
I was free from school today, due to some kind of day called "Tokyo day" or whatever, I didn't really clamor for details (I lost attention when he said "free tomorrow"). I used the free time to take care of several things:
I finally got that Alien registration thing done, it was a pain to fill the form and then wait but I feel good having it done. Though they called me later in the day, being all panicked over whether to transcribe my Ö as "O" or "OE" (OE sounds retarded to me, O is better, but they settled for OE anyway). Now I just have to wait for three weeks and then go back (alone, but it was really close, apparently).
Then I sent a package with stuff home to my family, it was mostly packed with presents for mah bro (apologies, elder brother, I'll never say that again, it was horrible) along with a card (in which I promptly forgot to write "happy birthday", d'oh! I'll write it here instead) Grattis på födelsedagen, broder! (lite sent men whatever).
After that adventure, I went shopping with my host mother. But not the kind of (admittedly) irresponsible shopping I usually do, but shopping for laundry soap and foodstuffs (and maybe some snacks...), I felt so grown up paying for everyday things at a supermarket. I really like supermarkets in Japan, they play music all the time, good music. Like, the ending theme to Bakemonogatari (repeatably).
Talking about stuff, I've gotten these weird bumps on my arms, turns out they're called muscles. Seems like all the P.E in school is paying off. By the end of this year, I'll be a Japanese-mastered, beard grown, responsible and strong adult (NO). That's fun.
Man, I can't really remember what I've written before, I might risk repeating myself. Which is a new turn for this blog (it's like a bad spin-off of my usual "contradicting myself").
So I take it I've told you about Ryuuta already, give me a heads up if I haven't.
That gives me a brilliant idea, if you want me to write about something - anything here, just throw me a comment and I'll be happy to write about it (don't worry, I'm finally writing more about school below). You'd be surprised if you knew how easily flattered I am by comments (and discouraged by the lack of them. I'm human after all).
Anyway, about Ryuuta, I haven't talked to him much at all this week, but from today on, I feel inspired to change that.
If you were wondering why I'm so hyper, it's because of a quasi-good reason called MyLifeIsG, I spent a good two hours reading the entries and it made me realize something about political correctness.
Oh and by the by, I got Fay's Booke (haha) a few weeks ago (did I write this?) and I resolved to uploading all of my pictures over there if you desired them. Though I might put one or two of them up here if I feel like it (which would be the first time I'd upload a picture on my blog). However, I do not want to become the kind of guy who goes around saying "Oh, just check my Facebook page" (similar to how I swore not to become the "Daaah, read my blog!" type. I might have tread the lines on that one though). So I won't make any vital information exclusive to that site, everything interesting will be posted here, see it as an extension of my internet persona (which has more or less melded with my real identity by now, that's something I should worry about).
...
By the way, I stole the "..."-thing from Neil Gaiman, though I haven't read his blog in quite a while (you can find it to the right).
I figured I should test the image uploading thing now and give you guys a treat. And to avoid having to pick between the many bad photos of Japan I've taken, I'll upload the picture I drew for the Art Café, the one I spent so much time filling in the white on.
Listening to "Paint it black" really helped in the making of this
Well, that's good enough, time to add the (very long) diary entries.
Thursday 10/09/2009
I'm 15 minutes early for homeroom and my only company is a sleeping guy and a girl who's just studying (another girl just entered but she doesn't seem talkative either).
I'll just start right where the last entry ended.
Ise-sensei told us some of the rules and that we should come to the English department (Eigoka) instead of having homeroom for the first two weeks (as of right now, we've been doing this for way longer than two weeks), except Thursdays. After hearing that, we were supposed to meet our classes, we got separated and Ise-sensei took me to my class, 11-6.
11-6 is located on the top floor in the south (or it might be the west) wing. The class has got 38 students, plus me. When I entered the classroom, all of those 38 students turned their gaze towards me, all I could do was to sneak onto a nearby seat with no hopes of actually being subtle.
Luckily the teacher needed to go through some papers with the class. So all the attention I had gathered was quickly abandoned in favor of the blackboard.
But soon the teacher (who is female and quite a serious person by her looks) called me up front and told me to introduce myself. For the task of introducing myself (in Japanese) in front of 38 Japanese students I'd never seen before, I'd say I did pretty well.
Aaaand there was the second bell, homeroom starts now.
Friday 11/09/2009
Oh hey it's the same date as that day when lots of people died in a terror attack, and two American buildings were destroyed, oh God no!
Being an insensitive jerk aside, I'm in the library, listening to my revived cellphone, it makes me miss you.
I just found out that the library had a Japanese copy of "The hungry caterpillar", a book I've loved since childhood. I read it with glee, and to my pleasant surprise, I could understand almost everything that was written. Go me!
Final Destination (Brawl) just started playing, inspiration comes to me.
Continuing from the last entry:
After the introduction, I made it back to my seat and faded into the (pale yellow) background, while the teacher started talking about stuff again. But fortunately I didn't fade too much (pretty hard in bright environments) as the girl sitting in front of me turned around and started talking to me. After a few minutes of complicated but amusing conversation, the teacher approached me with a box of folded notes in hand. Apparently it was time to arrange the seating. I picked up the first piece of paper I noticed, it had the number 4.
I was unamazed by this regular number, but then I looked up at the (green) blackboard and suddenly I couldn't stop smiling.
Number 4 is the second seat from the back, next to the windows.
Kyon's seat.
When all had gotten their new seats, the teacher dismissed us and it was the end of my first day in school. I was happy, I just knew my time in this school was destined to be good.
"Simple and Clean", the Intro to Kingdom Hearts, is playing. I need to find some KH fangirls to hang out with (haven't found any yet).
I actually need to find some friends in general, I'm starting to feel lonely (not anymore! To an extent).
Oh, Death Note music just started playing, and here I sit with a pen and a notebook, it can't be a coincidence! Mwahahaha!
This one's for you man
...
Goddammit, why won't it work?!
I think I'll skip the chronology when writing about school from now on, just so you know.
No more school stuff right now though, I don't feel like it.
What I do feel like (and have felt like all day) is playing brawl, I think I'll try to force myself to muster the courage to ask if anyone in my class knows about it, maybe even owns it (And that eventually lead to me playing Melee with Ryuuta & friends during a lunch break, awesomesauce).
Looking back through the pages, I see my handwriting has changed between every paragraph, it looks funny. But at least it's quite readable, that's a great achievement for me.
Oh and obviously my handwriting is the most screwed up when I write about it, I'm blaming it on the fact that I'm listening to "Hito Toshite Jiku Ga Bureteiru".
Whoa, it's becoming hard for me to avoid using Hiragana when writing Japanese, that's mostly good.
Looks like my self study hour is over (though I had no homework), thus I end this diary entry here and now.
If any of you were interested in the whole "handwriting" matter, I'll just go ahead and put up a picture of the page here.
See if you can spot the changes made during transcription
This hyperactivity also makes me uncertain of what feelings I have right now, but I'm positive that they are certain feelings (see what I did there?)™.
I'll use this burst of inspiration to just write about anything that comes to mind and then top it off with several entries from my diary.
I was free from school today, due to some kind of day called "Tokyo day" or whatever, I didn't really clamor for details (I lost attention when he said "free tomorrow"). I used the free time to take care of several things:
I finally got that Alien registration thing done, it was a pain to fill the form and then wait but I feel good having it done. Though they called me later in the day, being all panicked over whether to transcribe my Ö as "O" or "OE" (OE sounds retarded to me, O is better, but they settled for OE anyway). Now I just have to wait for three weeks and then go back (alone, but it was really close, apparently).
Then I sent a package with stuff home to my family, it was mostly packed with presents for mah bro (apologies, elder brother, I'll never say that again, it was horrible) along with a card (in which I promptly forgot to write "happy birthday", d'oh! I'll write it here instead) Grattis på födelsedagen, broder! (lite sent men whatever).
After that adventure, I went shopping with my host mother. But not the kind of (admittedly) irresponsible shopping I usually do, but shopping for laundry soap and foodstuffs (and maybe some snacks...), I felt so grown up paying for everyday things at a supermarket. I really like supermarkets in Japan, they play music all the time, good music. Like, the ending theme to Bakemonogatari (repeatably).
Talking about stuff, I've gotten these weird bumps on my arms, turns out they're called muscles. Seems like all the P.E in school is paying off. By the end of this year, I'll be a Japanese-mastered, beard grown, responsible and strong adult (NO). That's fun.
Man, I can't really remember what I've written before, I might risk repeating myself. Which is a new turn for this blog (it's like a bad spin-off of my usual "contradicting myself").
So I take it I've told you about Ryuuta already, give me a heads up if I haven't.
That gives me a brilliant idea, if you want me to write about something - anything here, just throw me a comment and I'll be happy to write about it (don't worry, I'm finally writing more about school below). You'd be surprised if you knew how easily flattered I am by comments (and discouraged by the lack of them. I'm human after all).
Anyway, about Ryuuta, I haven't talked to him much at all this week, but from today on, I feel inspired to change that.
If you were wondering why I'm so hyper, it's because of a quasi-good reason called MyLifeIsG, I spent a good two hours reading the entries and it made me realize something about political correctness.
Oh and by the by, I got Fay's Booke (haha) a few weeks ago (did I write this?) and I resolved to uploading all of my pictures over there if you desired them. Though I might put one or two of them up here if I feel like it (which would be the first time I'd upload a picture on my blog). However, I do not want to become the kind of guy who goes around saying "Oh, just check my Facebook page" (similar to how I swore not to become the "Daaah, read my blog!" type. I might have tread the lines on that one though). So I won't make any vital information exclusive to that site, everything interesting will be posted here, see it as an extension of my internet persona (which has more or less melded with my real identity by now, that's something I should worry about).
...
By the way, I stole the "..."-thing from Neil Gaiman, though I haven't read his blog in quite a while (you can find it to the right).
I figured I should test the image uploading thing now and give you guys a treat. And to avoid having to pick between the many bad photos of Japan I've taken, I'll upload the picture I drew for the Art Café, the one I spent so much time filling in the white on.
Listening to "Paint it black" really helped in the making of thisWell, that's good enough, time to add the (very long) diary entries.
Thursday 10/09/2009
I'm 15 minutes early for homeroom and my only company is a sleeping guy and a girl who's just studying (another girl just entered but she doesn't seem talkative either).
I'll just start right where the last entry ended.
Ise-sensei told us some of the rules and that we should come to the English department (Eigoka) instead of having homeroom for the first two weeks (as of right now, we've been doing this for way longer than two weeks), except Thursdays. After hearing that, we were supposed to meet our classes, we got separated and Ise-sensei took me to my class, 11-6.
11-6 is located on the top floor in the south (or it might be the west) wing. The class has got 38 students, plus me. When I entered the classroom, all of those 38 students turned their gaze towards me, all I could do was to sneak onto a nearby seat with no hopes of actually being subtle.
Luckily the teacher needed to go through some papers with the class. So all the attention I had gathered was quickly abandoned in favor of the blackboard.
But soon the teacher (who is female and quite a serious person by her looks) called me up front and told me to introduce myself. For the task of introducing myself (in Japanese) in front of 38 Japanese students I'd never seen before, I'd say I did pretty well.
Aaaand there was the second bell, homeroom starts now.
Friday 11/09/2009
Oh hey it's the same date as that day when lots of people died in a terror attack, and two American buildings were destroyed, oh God no!
Being an insensitive jerk aside, I'm in the library, listening to my revived cellphone, it makes me miss you.
I just found out that the library had a Japanese copy of "The hungry caterpillar", a book I've loved since childhood. I read it with glee, and to my pleasant surprise, I could understand almost everything that was written. Go me!
Final Destination (Brawl) just started playing, inspiration comes to me.
Continuing from the last entry:
After the introduction, I made it back to my seat and faded into the (pale yellow) background, while the teacher started talking about stuff again. But fortunately I didn't fade too much (pretty hard in bright environments) as the girl sitting in front of me turned around and started talking to me. After a few minutes of complicated but amusing conversation, the teacher approached me with a box of folded notes in hand. Apparently it was time to arrange the seating. I picked up the first piece of paper I noticed, it had the number 4.
I was unamazed by this regular number, but then I looked up at the (green) blackboard and suddenly I couldn't stop smiling.
Number 4 is the second seat from the back, next to the windows.
Kyon's seat.
When all had gotten their new seats, the teacher dismissed us and it was the end of my first day in school. I was happy, I just knew my time in this school was destined to be good.
"Simple and Clean", the Intro to Kingdom Hearts, is playing. I need to find some KH fangirls to hang out with (haven't found any yet).
I actually need to find some friends in general, I'm starting to feel lonely (not anymore! To an extent).
Oh, Death Note music just started playing, and here I sit with a pen and a notebook, it can't be a coincidence! Mwahahaha!
This one's for you manGoddammit, why won't it work?!
I think I'll skip the chronology when writing about school from now on, just so you know.
No more school stuff right now though, I don't feel like it.
What I do feel like (and have felt like all day) is playing brawl, I think I'll try to force myself to muster the courage to ask if anyone in my class knows about it, maybe even owns it (And that eventually lead to me playing Melee with Ryuuta & friends during a lunch break, awesomesauce).
Looking back through the pages, I see my handwriting has changed between every paragraph, it looks funny. But at least it's quite readable, that's a great achievement for me.
Oh and obviously my handwriting is the most screwed up when I write about it, I'm blaming it on the fact that I'm listening to "Hito Toshite Jiku Ga Bureteiru".
Whoa, it's becoming hard for me to avoid using Hiragana when writing Japanese, that's mostly good.
Looks like my self study hour is over (though I had no homework), thus I end this diary entry here and now.
If any of you were interested in the whole "handwriting" matter, I'll just go ahead and put up a picture of the page here.
See if you can spot the changes made during transcriptionI think I like to upload pictures of my notebook...
There's actually another entry (which is a lot newer), I should get it on here too but I've had enough for today, I'll do it tomorrow (have you noticed how I never keep those kind of promises?).
Bye for today people, I still miss you.
There's actually another entry (which is a lot newer), I should get it on here too but I've had enough for today, I'll do it tomorrow (have you noticed how I never keep those kind of promises?).
Bye for today people, I still miss you.
lördag 26 september 2009
Skoo(l)
Interpret the title in any way you want, it's multi-layered for your inconvenience.
It's been, what? 18 days since my last update, which was a delayed one on top of that. You guys must be at least 3 weeks behind me (hells, it's been 4 weeks since I started school and I've barely written about it).
I could tell you about how awful my current host family is, but it's not interesting and would probably be misinterpreted as whining, since most of you don't have a frame of reference. Instead I will just tell you about other, happier, things.
As of today, I have been in Japan for 7 weeks, which means tomorrow will be my 50:th day in this place (7x7+1 do the math yourself). Which can count as quite a lot if you consider that I will be in Japan for more or less 300 days, however, it is also just 1/6:th of my total stay (16.5% if you will), which in a depressing point of view makes it obvious that it's far from even halfway. My opinion on this matter varies greatly depending on my mood (and with the prior statement about my family, guess which mood I'm mostly in right now).
That aside, today was a great day for another reason, it was the first day of Bunkasai (school festival). It was great fun.
To be more specific, it all kicked of with a blast when the opening ceremony consisted of traditional Japanese dancing. The dancers were all dressed up (some even had make-up, one guy looked like a girl, fun times) and the drums were overpowering. The dance itself was amazing, it looked like a random madman's dance, but it was all coordinated and fit so perfectly to the drums' beat, I was enthralled.
After that, I mostly walked around the school area (occasionally with or without Truls and/or Amanda), looking at things (and talking about them, too). I did not have the time to visit my class' attraction, for which I had spent 2.5 hours the day before drawing a picture (of space!) which would be displayed. I did, however, see my picture framed before the opening ceremony. They had misspelled my name (Jorkim is the ugliest name ever, how did they even get that? They usually just call me something with an A and without the O, how the fook did they manage to switch the A to a consonant? Silly Engrish-speakers).
Some of the many places of interest I visited include: A stand selling Chocolate bananas (yummy, though they were out of bananas before I had the chance to eat another). A stand selling Ramune (tasted OK, cool thing with a glass ball in the flask). A booth where we were given a number and asked to find another student with the same number (I was 63, it took me all day, but eventually I found the girl who had it and we could then return to the booth to have our picture taken and be rewarded with candy, sweet!). A train model display, by the Train Spotting club (a freaking Train Spotting club. Suddenly the Butt Monkey from Katteni Kaizo is suddenly a lot more believable). And loads of other places unworthy of my mention.
A place I never got the chance to visit (despite standing in the queue for 15 minutes) was the Obake Yashiki (Ghost House), the queue was really long (the most popular of all attractions) and it must have been good, since I could hear the screams from the other side of the corridor.
While standing in a queue mostly comprised of Junior High students (this was before 12 o'clock, they had obligatory attendance and nobody else visited that early in the day), I was quite obviously identified as a Gaijin. I brought a lot more attention from these people since they are not at all as used to foreigners as the High School students (the Junior ones don't have exchange students, nor have they had any classes on other countries to help them eliminate the stereotypes and assumptions that still float in their tiny heads). So after a while of standing there, catching everyone's gaze, I was approached by a group of girls, who asked me if I knew Japanese and what my age was, which was then followed by a raised pinky-finger and the question "gaarufurendo imasuka?" (that is always one of the first questions I'm asked, have they no sense of tact?). After telling them so, they were shocked (the most common reaction to my answer) and one of them answered with "No, you should me".
I laughed.
Oh, my wonderfully beloved and awesome host family is back (Sarcasm brought to you by GOD himself), I need to leave the computer now, I'll make a follow-up later tonight.
It's been, what? 18 days since my last update, which was a delayed one on top of that. You guys must be at least 3 weeks behind me (hells, it's been 4 weeks since I started school and I've barely written about it).
I could tell you about how awful my current host family is, but it's not interesting and would probably be misinterpreted as whining, since most of you don't have a frame of reference. Instead I will just tell you about other, happier, things.
As of today, I have been in Japan for 7 weeks, which means tomorrow will be my 50:th day in this place (7x7+1 do the math yourself). Which can count as quite a lot if you consider that I will be in Japan for more or less 300 days, however, it is also just 1/6:th of my total stay (16.5% if you will), which in a depressing point of view makes it obvious that it's far from even halfway. My opinion on this matter varies greatly depending on my mood (and with the prior statement about my family, guess which mood I'm mostly in right now).
That aside, today was a great day for another reason, it was the first day of Bunkasai (school festival). It was great fun.
To be more specific, it all kicked of with a blast when the opening ceremony consisted of traditional Japanese dancing. The dancers were all dressed up (some even had make-up, one guy looked like a girl, fun times) and the drums were overpowering. The dance itself was amazing, it looked like a random madman's dance, but it was all coordinated and fit so perfectly to the drums' beat, I was enthralled.
After that, I mostly walked around the school area (occasionally with or without Truls and/or Amanda), looking at things (and talking about them, too). I did not have the time to visit my class' attraction, for which I had spent 2.5 hours the day before drawing a picture (of space!) which would be displayed. I did, however, see my picture framed before the opening ceremony. They had misspelled my name (Jorkim is the ugliest name ever, how did they even get that? They usually just call me something with an A and without the O, how the fook did they manage to switch the A to a consonant? Silly Engrish-speakers).
Some of the many places of interest I visited include: A stand selling Chocolate bananas (yummy, though they were out of bananas before I had the chance to eat another). A stand selling Ramune (tasted OK, cool thing with a glass ball in the flask). A booth where we were given a number and asked to find another student with the same number (I was 63, it took me all day, but eventually I found the girl who had it and we could then return to the booth to have our picture taken and be rewarded with candy, sweet!). A train model display, by the Train Spotting club (a freaking Train Spotting club. Suddenly the Butt Monkey from Katteni Kaizo is suddenly a lot more believable). And loads of other places unworthy of my mention.
A place I never got the chance to visit (despite standing in the queue for 15 minutes) was the Obake Yashiki (Ghost House), the queue was really long (the most popular of all attractions) and it must have been good, since I could hear the screams from the other side of the corridor.
While standing in a queue mostly comprised of Junior High students (this was before 12 o'clock, they had obligatory attendance and nobody else visited that early in the day), I was quite obviously identified as a Gaijin. I brought a lot more attention from these people since they are not at all as used to foreigners as the High School students (the Junior ones don't have exchange students, nor have they had any classes on other countries to help them eliminate the stereotypes and assumptions that still float in their tiny heads). So after a while of standing there, catching everyone's gaze, I was approached by a group of girls, who asked me if I knew Japanese and what my age was, which was then followed by a raised pinky-finger and the question "gaarufurendo imasuka?" (that is always one of the first questions I'm asked, have they no sense of tact?). After telling them so, they were shocked (the most common reaction to my answer) and one of them answered with "No, you should me".
I laughed.
Oh, my wonderfully beloved and awesome host family is back (Sarcasm brought to you by GOD himself), I need to leave the computer now, I'll make a follow-up later tonight.
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