Xandra's Livejournal

26 February 2009 @ 02:30 pm

It's springbreak! I have 7 weeks off before the OUSSEP program starts again with the second semester. I'm staying with my family in Singapore at the moment. 5 weeks to spend time with my family, soak up the sun and enjoy the food! Don't get me wrong, Osaka has delicious food as well, but coming back here I realize: Nothing beats the hawker centers!!!

Anyway I thought this would be a good time to catch up with my blog. The following account of my adventures might be a bit bland, but I just want to catch up and get this over with :P Caution, this might get a little lengthy!

Saturday 8 November: Tea Ceremony class
My friend Yuriko goes to tea ceremony class every week and she invited me to join the class that weekend. I didn't really know what to expect since I have never witnessed a tea ceremony before, but now I understand why you need to take classes in the ceremony! Every single movement is completely prescribed; from the amount of steps you take from the entrance of the tatami room to the seat, to which foot should go first and which should cross the borders of the tatami's etc. All the actions are incredibly detailed and I can imagine it takes some practise before you memorize all of them and can perform them perfectly.

The ceremony is also quite lengthy and sitting in the seza position (with your legs folded under you) for such a long time hurts like hell!!! Luckily I was allowed to sit in a more relaxed manner, but when I was allowed to practise one of the tea ceremony rituals myself I must have sat in the seza for atleast 20 minutes. When I finally got back on my feet again it felt like there was no blood left in my legs and I needed a minute before I could "gracefully" exit the room.

(When we went to an official tea ceremony party the next time Yuriko's teacher was so nice to dress us up in Kimono)

Tuesday 25 November: Najio papermaking
Over the last months I had kept in touch with mrs. Littlejohn, the Japanese woman from Scotland who I had met during my flight to Osaka. She invited me to join her and her family on a little excursion to the paperfactory in Najio. This Najio paper is entirely hand made and the production cycle for 1 piece of paper takes about 1 whole month!!! We all got to make our own piece of Najio Washi, but it was definitely much harder then it looked! You had to dip a framed filter in to the solution and try to get just the right amount of paper to set on the frame, evenly distributed. It took me about 3 attempts and some help from the master craftsman Mr. Takenobu Tanino himself (a Living National Treasure) before I got something that could be produced into an actual sheet of paper.

Saturday 29 November: Kyoto Arashiyama
Just check out the pictures. Autumn in Japan is truely beautiful!

Sunday 30 November: Maiko make-over
After the visit to Arashiyama, Sol, Christelle, Katlyn and I stayed in a hostel in Kyoto so we could explore the city a bit more and the next day we would go to a studio to get a "Maiko make-over". In the night we walked around Gion and Ponto cho and we saw some real geisha's hurrying by on the way. Eventhough we had no way to make sure, we were convinced that these ones were the real thing. Something about the way they carried themselves and the quality of their makeup and clothes that made it quite obvious that these were no giggly tourists merely dressing up as geisha or maiko-san for a day. It was really exciting to see them somehow and most of the time we just stared in awe. We were lucky to catch one waiting for a cab though and though I didn't have the guts to bother her for a picture, a Japanese couple first approached her for a picture. After that we quickly got our camera's out to snap a few pics with a real geisha as well. Funny thing that when I posted the picture on Flickr someone actually recognised her and told me her name was Ayano, a geisha from the Ponto-cho district.

The next morning we went back to Gion to get our Maiko make-over. For about 8000 yen (65 euro) we got the whole make-over with 3 studio pictures included. We were quickly "painted" and then got to pick our kimono. The kimono's were put on for us (I can't imagine how someone could put it on by themselves, though I heard Yuriko's teacher does it all by herself) and finally a wig was placed on our heads. The transformation was complete! I hardly recognised myself when I looked in the mirror haha.

Christmas in Hongkong
For christmas I went to Hongkong with some friends (Yuriko, Shuai and Masato). My first impression of Hongkong is just... massive! With all those skyscrapers and the busy stream of people making it's way trough the narrow streets it just looks like a massive termite nest. I remember it really reminded me of Gotham City for some reason (Not so strange when Kwok later told me the last Batman movie was actually shot in Hongkong). We were there only for 3 days, but we managed to do quite a lot in such a short time. We had loooots of delicious food, took the starferry, had our nails done, went shopping in Causewaybay, met up with my good friend Kwok (who moved to Hongkong about half a year ago), visited the Peak, shopped some more at ladies street (where you can buy lots of fake brands etc) and celebrated christmas eve with a delicious chinese hotpot untill the early hours. When we finally said goodbye to Kwok it felt just like the old days. I mean, eventhough he lives in Hongkong now, I just felt like I would see him again soon anyway. You definitely have to come visit us in Osaka Kwokkie! :P

New years eve, Japanese style!
We had decided to go to a shrine in Kyoto to celebrate new years eve traditional Japanese style. I'm glad we did, because it sure was a unique experience! Half Japan seemed to be out on the streets of Kyoto to visit the local shrines and pray for their good fortunes. No fireworks, champagne or oliebollen, but praying, buying lucky charms and eating mochi. I heard that the Japanese eat the mochi to ensure long life. When you take a bite the mochi stretches and the longer it stretches the longer you'll live. On the other hand I also heard there are always some old people who choke on the sticky mochi around this time of year, so success is not guaranteed I guess.

It's funny to see that as some Dutch families might attempt to fry their own oliebollen (I have attempted myself sometimes, though they didn't quite turn out as "balls"), Japanese families will be making mochi at home. My hostfamily, the Mizutani's, were no acception. They used some modern mochimaker which kinda looked like a breadmaker. They made many different variations, plain white mochi, mochi filled with beanpaste, shimp flavored mochi and some with black beans. The mochi quickly become hard as rock after cooling down so normally you toast them a bit or bake them in a pan.

At my Japanese tutors home I was treated to a lovely traditional Japanese new years meal. I can't remember all the names of the dishes or the ingredients, but it sure was delicious! And so much variety, very typical for traditional Japanese meals (just imagine how much time and effort it takes to create all these different dishes for 1 single meal).

Meet the Mizutani's and the Hasegawa's
Actually let me explain a little more about the Mizutani's and Hasegawa's, 2 wonderful families I have met here in osaka.

First of all the Mizutani's, my host family I was hooked up with through the universities program. I don't live with them since I have my own room at the dorm, but we just get together every now and then. I've been to their house a few times and enjoyed some home made cooking and mrs. Mizutani also took me out a few times to different cultural events.

My hostdad is a fan of yachts and a skilled practisioner of Kyudo (Japanese archery). We've visited one of the practises and it was quite impressive to see these people draw their massive bows with such calmness and grace. I noticed that the older people didn't quiver at all, while some of the younger ones were obviously struggling to keep the bow drawn as they were aiming for the shot. The meetings with the Mizutani's has been a great way to get some more insight in Japanese culture and I've really enjoyed spending time with them so far. Hopefully I can spend more time with them in the next semester.

(That's mr. Mizutani in the right picture! ;) )

Now about the Hasegawa's, an incredibly nice elderly couple I met randomly at a sushi lunch. Their daughter married a dutch guy and they have 2 half dutch/half Japanese grandsons. Mrs. Hasegawa has over 30 years of experience as a Japanese language teacher and she offered to give me japanese lessons for free! So every week I visit them and we spend a few hours talking a bit of english and then doing some Japanese exercises. It has been really helpful and fun and I praise myself really lucky for having met these wonderfull people!

Snowboarding in Nagano
At the end of January we went for a weekend snowboarding in Hakuba, Nagano. It was about a 9 hours drive by nightbus from Osaka. Hakuba is supposed to be one of the best wintersports places with very good snow. It had hosted some of the ski events from the 1998 Winter Olympics. We had actually taken the olympic course by accident we found out later. Being the noob that I am, red was already a struggle for me, so it took me about an hour to get down the Olympic course. Most of the time I was just sliding down on my butt, too scared to stand up haha (since sitting on the slope almost felt like standing anyway!). We had no other choice though, since this was the only route from the point where we dropped off the lift to the green course a little further down. I had lots of fun though, eventhough I fell so many times. Next time I'm definitely taking more snowboard classes though instead of trying to learn by myself :P

Current status
I think I have really gotten used to my life in Osaka. I'm really glad I'm staying for a whole year instead of the half year I had first planned. I feel like I'm just getting started and I wouldn't want to go home right now. There are still so many places I want to see and things I want to do.

Eventhough I have been living in Osaka for half a year now I feel like I haven't properly explored it yet. Osakajin are well known for their openness and sense of humor (this movie "Osaka Bang" is a perfect example of that Osaka spirit I think), but I haven't really got the chance or made the effort to interact with any of the people out in the city yet.

The language barrier being the main reason I think, but that's why I'm really more determined then ever to try to start speaking Japanese! My listening skills have improved quite a bit (considering I started at level 0 basically), but I'm still talking in english most of the time. I think as long as I don't speak Japanese yet it is hard to say anything about this culture, because you're not really getting trough to it. I feel just like an observer, like any other tourist.

I also realized that the only areas I've been to in Osaka so far are just the main/touristic/shopping areas like Shinsaibashi and Umeda. What about that area where all the comedians come from? What about the ghetto's? (apparently some of the most dangerous areas in Japan can be found in Osaka) I've never even seen a real yakuza member yet (though my friend said he had often seen those guys with missing fingers).

The more I think about it, the more I realize I haven't truely experienced Osaka yet at all! So now that I'm done with all the touristic things, I want to put more effort in to escaping the mainstream and try to get a taste of the other aspects from Osaka and Japan. But don't worry I won't get involved with any of the bikergangs or anything like that ok :P

Tags: japan, pics

Location: Singapore

Mood:

relaxed

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02 January 2009 @ 06:28 pm

Week 44: Dance party and vacation to Okinawa

Merry Christmas and a Happy new year everyone! My new years resolution: Just blog whenever I want to, because I can't stick to any plan anyway haha :P I've done so many more fun things I want to tell you about, so I really hope to catch up with blogging soon!

Thursday 30 October: Studio Lab 3 party
On 30 October my dance studio hosted a part in a club in Shinsaibashi and a lot of different dance groups came to perform. I made a few videos of the dance performances which you can view on Youtube.

Sunday 2 November: Okinawa

We went to Okinawa for 4 days. It was a bout 3 hours flying from Osaka. Okinawa is actually closer to Taiwan then the rest of Japan, I had no clue haha. It was was quite funny when my Japanese teacher did his usually round of "what did you do this weekend" the next week. He was quite surprised when I replied "Okinawa" (We just went over the weekend cause we had a few extra days off on monday and tuesday). "Didn't you also go to Tokyo a few weeks ago?!" he asked. "uhm...yes!" "Okanemochi ne!" (He thinks I'm rich haha) . He made an effort to draw a map of Japan and then Okinawa, to illustrate to the class just how far it was from Japan haha.

Anyways we got a good deal on the ticket, flight and hotel included was only about 250 euro's or something. Well when we arrived at the hotel it wasn't hard to understand why it was so cheap. The hotel itself was fine, but it was located in an area full of love hotels and buildings that sounded and looked a lot like brothels. When we were walking trough that area at night I was quite happy we had the guys with us haha. Maybe they'd think we're on our way to a love hotel as couples, still that's better then being mistaken for a "working girl" by yourself!

No wonder our hotel was so cheap :P by you.

Let me give you a short introduction of my travelcompanions on the Okinawa trip:

Girls from back to front: Yukie, Shuai, Ann
Boys from left to right: Julian, Masato, Vinh, Jos

I actually didn't know any of the girls before we went to Okinawa (I knew the guys from my classes), but we got along really well. The group was really well balanced and a lot of fun!

Yukie: 19 years old and the youngest of the bunch. Seems to enjoy teaching us Japanese and I think she learned a lot of "new" words from the boys in return hehe.

Shuai: Born and raised in Harbin, China but came to Japan at the age of 8 so she speaks both Japanese and Chinese fluently. She loves Hello Kitty and her cellphone is a real piece of art (bright pink, covered with stones, flowers, you name it). She's got that cute asian way to everything she does, from playing ping pong to her "loving" karate-chops to the head. She is really openminded though and really not so typical asian/girly as you might think. Eventhough her english was not so good (according to her own sayings) and my japanese even worse, we really "clicked". After Okinawa we continued to spend a lot of time together and I consider her one of my best friends here in Japan :)

Ann: aka "That hot BSP girl with the long hair and short skirts" haha. Considered by many as the hottest girl in Osaka University ;). She's malaysian and came to Japan to study law (yes beauty AND brains!). She's been to Japan before when she took part of an exchange program during her highschool, so she is also fluent in Japanese. We were roomies in Okinawa and everytime after we went to bed we'd continue to talk for hours through the night haha. She's a really cool girl, but sadly I've hardly seen her after Okinawa.

I already knew the guys from my classes. Some of them are OUSSEP students like me (a sort of special short term exchange program with a large variety of different subjects to chose from) and others are regular exchange students (means that the subjects they do here are directly related to their study at home, so their results here influence their study progress at home) who are also only staying for 1 or half a year.

Julian: A history student from Groningen. Practised judo at a good level and is a very eager Japanese language student (I consider him my "competition". Since we're both dutch and started out at the same level, his efforts motivate me to study more Japanese as well :P ) Blunt as a Dutch guy can be haha. Is being adored by Japanese women, young and old alike, comparing him to the likes of Tom Cruise (Well he does have stunning blue eyes, I'll give him that :P). Only one old lady in Okinawa was not so fond of him. She saw him for an American soldier and flipped her finger "GO HOME" haha. Okinawans are not fond of Americans (because of the old armybase there after WW2 and all) :P Despite all the asian attention he is loyal to his girlfriend back home (well except that he does spend an awefull lot of time with Vinh ;P).

Masato: One of the best looking Japanese guy I have seen in real life by far. I tried to convince his girlfriend (Shuai!) to sign him up for a moddeling agency or something. Seriously, when I look at the advertisements with Japanese malemodels around me I seriously wonder if that's the best Japan has to offer on "male-meat". Some of the idols are cute, I'll admit (Oguri Shun and Ichihara Hayato <3 ), but the commercial male models are quite disappointing. I think Masato could make a fortune if he signed up as a model. Anyways, Masato was born and raised in Germany, but both his parents are Japanese so he is fluent in Japanese as well as German and English (the lucky bastard!). I was actually quite surprised when I first saw his picture in the exchange students list: "What the hell is a Japanese guy doing in the Osaka University's exchange program?!"haha! He studies computer science, used to be a fanatic pingpong player and is an exemplatory good guy (without being boring!). I really got along with him from the start and he often mentioned this other girl he got a long with really well (Shuai!). Still I never expected I would really connect with Shuai the way we did, I'm really happy he brought us together! And who would have expected that he and Shuai would end up being a couple!!! Things were a bit complicated for them in the beginning actually, but I'm really happy it worked out.

Vinh: Originally from Vietnam but came with his family to Sweden when he was still a kid. Also really motivated on learning Japanese language and culture. Excells in picking up dirty words in Japanese. Has been crowned "Hentai King" and gathered loyal followers (Toyo :P). Although he seems to be having a really good time in Japan, he misses Sweden sometimes (and especially his girlfriend I think). I can really feel that longing when I hear him reminiscing about Sweden and I'm more determined then ever to pay Stockholm a visit when I'm back in Europe haha! Masato, Vinh and Julian were kind of like the three musketeers together, all good fun-loving guys who vowed to be true to their girlfriends back home. So after they "lost" Masato to Shuai, Vinh and Julian have become inseperable haha! They make quite a cute couple ;P

Jos: Another student from the university of Grongingen. Really easy-going and friendly. Fully enjoying his adventures as a single man in Japan. Exploring the beauties of Asia ;P He has spent half a year living in Hongkong before, and hopes to go there again someday since it became his favorite city. Jos has adopted a wonderfull Brittish accent when he speaks english instead of the American accent most non-native english speakers tend to pick up. He's only staying in Japan for half a year, leaving us in Februari. After going back he'd also like to spend some time living in the UK.

The time we spend in Okinawa was really fun. We went snorkling, canoeing and sightseeing all over the island. We went to Omoro Arboretum (a reproduction of a traditional Okinawan village community as it was from the times of the Ryukyu Kingdom until 1889), Shuri Castle and the Churaumi Aquarium. We were lucky to have met a really nice cabdriver who took us everywhere for a really cheap price.

I was warned about the Okinawan food, so I was not so disappointed, but it's true that Okinawan cuisine is not really impressive. Typical Okinawan food is apparently really simpel, but not in the chinese/thai tasty way. Okinawan cuisine seems to be more like my style cooking, throwing random ingredients (veggies, tofu, canned sausages etc) together and stirfrying them with eggs (they call that sort of dish "Chanpuru"). Or simply noodles wrapped in an omelet with some mayo and ketchup on it haha. The Okinawans seem to particularly fond of this weird green vegetable, that looks kinda like a pickle, called "Goya". It tastes really bitter and I thought it was absolutely disgusting, but they believe it is healthy and the bitter taste is supposed to be refreshing in the summer heat. Maybe people that drink beer can better understand this theory, but I don't think there is anyone who finds the bitter taste of warm beer very refreshing either!

Click here to view the Okinawa picture album @ Flickr

Next update: Tea Ceremony class and the Garasha Matsuri!

Tags: dance, japan, okinawa

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07 December 2008 @ 07:56 pm

Week 43: Ponyo, family visit, Hiroshima and naughty deers

First of all, sorry for neglecting my blog! I came up with a new system, since I'm about 6 weeks behind with my blogging anyway, I will try to write the updates whenever I can and every sunday I will publish a new story to my blog. This way I hope there will be more consistency in my updates and I will feel less pressure to write a whole story in 1 entry haha. Let's see how this will work :P

Tuesday 21 October: Ponyo

Finally watched the newest animation movie by Studio Ghibli. Ponyo on the Cliff by the sea (Gake no Ue no Ponyo). I watched it in the cinema so there was no subtitling, but you don't really need to understand what's being said to get the story. The movie is obviously targeted towards a very young audience, but even at my age I still enjoyed watching it. If you are familiar with the Ghibli movies, this movie falls pretty much in the same category as My Neighbour Totoro, Very innocent and suitable for a very young audience. The story is about a sort of fish-girl (not a real mermaid) who falls in love with a human boy and wants to become human. It's like the classic Little Mermaid story, but where the US version had a big boobed, half naked teenage protagonist, the Japanese mermaid is fully dressed and in kindergarten (typical huh?).

Friday 24 October: Visit from Singapore and Bento box
My cousins Jean and Joan from Singapore were in Osaka for a vacation so I met up with then in Namba. Was really nice seeing them again after so long! I'm really thinking about going to visit my family in Singapore during the spring break next year. Since it is relatively close anyway (compared to the Netherlands) and I have about 7 weeks off during the springbreak.

Anyway we did a bit of shopping in Namba and after seeing Yingying's post on her brandnew bento box, I decided I wanted to get one too! For the people that don't know what a bento box is, it's a traditional Japanese lunchbox. Often it has 2 layers and sometimes it comes with seperate compartments. The idea behind the bento box is that if you fill the box with 3/6 carbohydrates (like rice for example), 1/6 protein and 2/6 veggies&fruit a box with a volume of 600 ml will contain a 600 calorie meal. Therefor you need to select the right volume (size) for your age/sex/height, so you get the right amount of calories. Well whatever, I just picked the biggest bentobox they had to offer. Apparently I bought a male model, but if that means the others were all female models, I guess all Japanese women are supposed to be anorexic or something. Those boxes wouldn't even fit enough food for (Dutch) elementary school kids!

Examples of Bento boxes. Mine is plain black, since I couldn't find any cute designs in that size :P

So anyway, since I got the bento box I have been cooking a lot more. I always found it too troublesome to cook a single meal, just for myself. But since I now always pack my leftovers in the bentobox so I can have it for lunch the next morning, I have really started enjoying cooking... YEAH I KNOW YOU ARE LAUGHING!!! But honestly, I'm also surprised haha. I really thought I would enjoy going out for diner every day, and was looking forward to not having to cook for a whole year. But I found myself really craving a simple home cooked meal. For the people that thought I would be losing weight in Japan because Japanese people always eat so healthy, you are SO WRONG!

Home made veggies vs. Katsudon from the cafetaria (fattening, but ohhhh so delicious!)

First of all, Osaka is apparently THE place for delicious food in the whole of Japan, also called "the belly of Japan". Secondly, times are changing, and the traditional Japanese meal of plain rice with some vegetables and smoked fish is not so popular anymore. Japanese people nowadays eat a lot more meat then they used to (hamburgers are very popular). And sushi is not really your daily food here either :P. And who'd ever thought the Japanese people eat so much mayonaise?! They LOVE it! I've eaten more mayonaise in my first few weeks in Japan, then in my entire life before that! (Thanks to all the Okonomiyaki and Takoyaki haha). Lots of my favorite food here also contains lots of fried stuff, so I really had to start watching my diet a bit haha. And you always get plenty of rice and meat or fish, but hardly any vegetables. So all of this caused me to start cooking my own meals. I usually just cook some rice and make a dish with loads of vegetables. Or as a snack I just boil some corn, or sweet potatoe with apple and raisins. Just plain boiled pumpkin with a little salt is a real treat! Maybe I'm really turning a bit Japanese, enjoying the natural taste of the vegetables :P

Saturday 25 October: Hiroshima
In this weekend we had a school trip (part of the OUSSEP program) to Hiroshima and Miyajima. We stayed in a youth hostel in Hiroshima and everything (food, travel etc) was paid for by the Osaka University, pretty cool huh! On saturday we went to Hiroshima and visited the Peace Memorial Museum. The museum was really impressive. To see the artifacts like torn clothes and watches from the victims that all stopped at the same time, indicating the start of the nuclear age on the minute. Or the white walls with traces from the black rain on it and stone stairs with a human shadow etched in it (the atomic heat rays turned the surface of the stone white, leaving only a dark "shadow" on the spot where someone was sitting at that time). Not to mention the pictures of the victims of the atomic bomb and all the medical horrors it created. By far the most impressive experience that day was to hear the story of one of the atomic bomb victims herself. She was only 10 year old orso when the bomb dropped, out in a field 1,5 km from the bombs epicenter. To hear her recall her experiences in person was really heartbreaking. It is incredible how much one person can suffer in one lifetime. The fact that she is still around and has kept a will to live is another miracle, it shows the amazing resillience that a human mind is capable of.

click here to view the Hiroshima picture album @ Flickr

Sunday 26 October: Miyajima
The next day we took a boat trip to a little island near Hiroshima, Miyajima. Miyajima litterally means "Shrine Island". In the old days, the island was considered to be so holy, that no person was allowed to live on it. The island itself was worshipped as a god. We visited the most famous shrine of the Island, the Itsukushima shrine. It is partially built over water and has a huge floating Torii gate. On the whole island there are a lot of deers, walking around freely on the streets. They are quite tame and very hungry. One of them had got a hold of my map of the island and had eaten half of it before I realized what had happened haha. Putting a digital camera in a paper bag is also not a good idea as Kondo-sensei soon discovered!

click here to view the Miyajima picture album @ Flickr

Next weeks update: Lab3 party and vacation to Okinawa!

Tags: bento box, cooking, hiroshima, japan, miyajima, oussep, ponyo

Mood:

relaxed

13 comments | Leave a comment

18 October 2008 @ 10:07 pm

Tokyo, the full update

I took the nightbus to Tokyo on the 7th of Ocotober, tuesday 2 weeks ago. I only stayed for 4 days since I had classes again the next week (I already skipped the ones on thursday and friday). 4 days is really to short to stay in a city like Tokyo, I didn't even get to look around Shibuya or Shinjuku. I will definitely come back again. Anyways, here is the big update!

(Wednes)Day 1: Korean BBQ and couchsurfing
So I arrived on wednesdaymorning at Shinjuku station. I first headed to Yuji's house to drop my stuff and freshen up. Now Yuji was a guy I had never met before, but I was about to spend the night at his place. Before you kill me dad, please let me explain :P Have any of you ever heard of the concept "couchsurfing"? Well it's pretty much like ebay or marktplaats.nl, but then for housing for travelers! On the website you can find travelers looking for a place to stay and locals offering a couch or bed (or simply a roof over your head, you can't be picky when you're staying for free!). The hosts and surfers hook up trough the website and afterwards they leave references for eachother. So that's why I was referring to ebay, the vouching system work pretty much the same way. Now in Yuji's case he has hosted over 750 couchsurfers, and I have seen nothing but extremely positive messages about him, PLUS a friend of a friend had already stayed with Yuji before and recommended him to me. When he told me about couchsurfing it seemed like a really cool experience to me and since Tokyo is not exactly the cheapest place to stay at I thought this would be a good opportunity to try out couchsurfing.

Anyways when I arrived at Yuji's place, he had already gone off to work, so one of the other couchsurfers opened the door for me. On average there are always about 6 people staying with Yuji. Some stay only for one night, others stay with him for MONTHS sometimes!! The group seems to be everchanging with people coming and going, but at night there's not a single spot left uncovered of the tatami room, people are sleeping everywhere! Since it was early in the morning none of the other couchsurfers were up yet and the french girl who opened the door for me quickly explained the basic house "rules" and "whatswhere" etc and then went back to bed. I took a shower, left my luggage in the hallway and then headed back downtown.

I met up with the boys from Blammo (they were also in Tokyo that week to visit the Tokyo Game Show) at Shibuya and joined them for a visit to Akihabara, the "electric town", famous for it's discount electronics, anime and manga shops. I have to say, I was a bit disappointed. I had always imagined Akihabara would be my paradise on earth since it offers all stuff I like in excess. But to be honest, I didn't feel anything special walking around there. Maybe because of the weather that day (those damn milky grey skies that make EVERYTHING look dull and grey) or because I had already indulged in the electronic stores of Den Den town and Yodobashi camera in Osaka. And probably because I have already stepped out of that anime/manga adoration phase many years ago. Well whatever the reason, I was not impressed with Akihabara.

The best thing I experienced in Akihabara was actually a game in one of the Arcades there: Mobile Suit Gundam: Bonds of the Battlefield. As you might have guess it's based on the famous Gundam mecha series (aka japanese-cartoons-about-giant-robots-series). In the game you take control of one of the giant robots and battle another team in a 4 vs 4 match. Each player has to get into one of the big pods (As seen on the foto) with a huge half round screen in it. There's also a headset inside trough which you can communicate with other pods. To play you actually need to create a pilot card first. After inserting your pilotcard and coins, your data is loaded and you can start the game. Simply sitting in the pod, headset on, pretending to be controlling a giant robot really stirred the little boy in me. When the game was done, the replay was shown on the main unit (where we got the card). I tried inserting my pilotcard again, since I figured it had to be good for something. I couldn't understand anything of the Japanese menu, but I think my battlestats from the previous game were saved and my character got upgraded. The new data was stored to my pilotcard and when I got it back a little squadron logo was printed on it. Pretty cool stuff! Afterwards I felt a bit nauseous (motion sickness), but OH SO COOL with my pilotcard haha. If only getting my driverslicense would have been that easy (or if only it looked so COOL!). Oh another nice little detail: there were printed handouts of the battlefield map available at the main unit. I guess these were provided for the real strategists out there who like to carefully plan their team tactics. It's ultra geeky, but stuff like that really gets me excited haha! If you want to know more about the gameplay, click on this link (The Coolstuffinjapan-guide did a pretty good job explaining the game in detail).

So anyway in the evening we visited some less touristic parts of the city. We decided to go to a Korean BBQ restaurant for diner. The menu was completely in Japanese, but we figured it wouldn't be so hard to just order a variation of meat. Cow meat that is, Ruben was quite particular about that. Since the waiters spoke as much english as we spoke Japanese, it was still quite a suprise what the outcome of the first round would be. I thought it looked quite good actually, red and meatish (remember, you still have to BBQ it), but still we weren't convinced wether this was actually COW meat. So we ordered another round of "BEEFU". This time we did get cow meat alright. Cow tongue and intestines that is. We stared at it for a while, then optimistically put everything on the BBQ. I bravely tried a bit of tongue, but I can't say I enjoyed it much. The taste is not bad, I'll give you that, but the structure is just not... meatish. I just couldn't get myself over it (I know you're laughing at me Linh! :P). Before the tongue I was willing to try the intestines, but after BBQing it for a while the slimy piece of meat that had faintly looked like a piece of raw squid before, swelled up like a sausage with yellowish fatbulbs sticking out of the open ends. It's hard to describe, but just take a look at the foto. The guys tried to make me eat it, but none of them were quite eager to try it themselves! In the end we just settled for another plate of the meat from the first round. In the end it also turned out to be the most expensive diner I've had in Japan (so far), but still I'd say it was well worth the experience haha!

At night I returned to Yuji's place. A small group of couchsurfers was sitting around the table, just finishing their diner. I got introduced to Maxime and Deborah a couple from France who had been staying with Yuji for one and a half month already, Toni a Spanish medical student from LA, John from the States who was visiting his daughter who was studying/living somewhere in Asia and some other people who's names and faces I have already forgotten. (Of course I remember Carmen, the Australian hitchhiking girl, but I don't think she was there yet at that time). I also met Yuji for the first time, preparing a delicious raspberry/custard pie for desert. (Yes my timing was perfect ;) )

It was really fun those few evenings and morning I had spend talking with Yuji and the other couchsurfers. I really admire Yuji for his lifestyle. His knowledge of people and the way he just opens up his house to anyone looking for a place to stay. I find it hard to explain, this is something You really should experience yourself sometimes. The fact that anyone could just walk in to his house, but nothing has ever been stolen during all those times. Don't you find it hard to imagine a place like that exsists nowadays? There's a certain laidback and very open atmosphere. It just feels like home. These are not strangers like you would meet in a hostel, but they feel like housemates. Maybe because the space is so small and everyone sleeps close to eachother on the floor. Or it's just the whole couchsurfing experience. Like Florian said, it really is a bit of a hippie lifestyle hehe. Anyway, my couchsurfing experience has been really great. I can definitely recommend Yuji to anyone who wants a cheap place to stay in Tokyo! (only 900 yen a day! Normally couchsurfing is completely free, but Yuji does it on such a large scale that his water/gas/electricity bills went trough the roof, so he just asks for a small contribution to the bills) Or to those who like some sense of adventure and is open to meeting a whole variaty of new people.

(Thurs)Day 2: Tokyo Game Show
Thanks to Boris I was able to visit the Tokyo Game Show at thursday, the first day it opened. The TGS doesn't open for the public untill saturday and sunday, but because I was registered as a Blammo employee I got a press-pass so I could enter during the business days! Being at the Tokyo Game Show has really been a dream come trough for me. Even though this year might not have been so spectacular compared to previous years since no real big/new announcements were made, I was completely satisfied. This is what I have always wanted! The only thing I regret was that I was just SO DAMN TIRED. I had slept very little the days before and at one point I was just ready to lie down and go to sleep. What I would not have given for a few minutes of sleep! Anyways in case of the Tokyo Game Show you should really just check out the pictures. There's not that much to say about it otherwise. Just that the one game I am most excited about after seeing it at the TGS is Phantasy Start Zero Online. We have to play that when I get back Pris! ;D

(Fri)Day 3: Ghibli museum and Nike party
On friday Vasco and I went on a little "cultural" trip to the Ghibli museum. For the people who are not familiar with studio Ghibli and their fantastic works, SHAME ON YOU!!! In a nutshell, Ghibli is sort of like the Japanese equivalent of Disney. Both make animated movies with a kind of magical aura (which Disney kind of lost when they stopped doing 2D animations imo) and are targeted at children in the first place. Some of the most famous movies from Studio Ghibli are Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke and My Neighbor Totoro. The museum was a lovely building that really captured the spirit of the Ghibli movies. It was forbidden to take any pictures inside the museum, but being there I could understand. You really had to be there to experience that "Ghibli magic". I think pictures would n't do it justice. And it was really cool to visit a place that you haven't already seen in pictures of advertisement or other peoples pictures before. I think they did a good job maintaining the magic.

In the evening we joined up with the rest of the Gamekings crew to go out for diner and party. There was an openingsparty for a new Nike store somewhere in Shinjuku and somehow we ended up there. I had fun simply looking at the people around me (Japanese people really have a great fashion sense!!) and trying to talk to the Tokyo-jin. I met some really nice people and in the end someone arranged for me to be able to get unlimited food and drinks haha, that was pretty sweet :D. We stayed at the party untill 5 am and then I took the first train back to Wakoshi.

(Satur)Day 4: Azakusa
On Saturdaymorning I was simply EXHAUSTED. I already had a bit of a sore throat when I came of the nightbus, and those days of non-stop activity combined with very little sleep really wore me off. I hardly had any voice left to speak and felt like a zombie. But still, no time to rest cause I had another meeting planned with Toshiya, his friend and Carmen to go sightseeing at the shrine in Azakusa! Toshiya is a guy from Yokohama who I first came in contact with on Facebook about half a year ago, when I started my application for Japan. So basically he was one of the first contacts I had in Japan and had been up to date about my whole process of coming to Japan from application to going to Tokyo. So I was actually really looking forward to finally meeting him and I felt soooo bad for being so MESSED UP that day hahaha. Because of my sore throat I could hardly speak and while normally I'm "quite" talkative, I was really quiet and zoned out because of the damn fatigue. Again I'm so sorry Toshiya, I'll be sure to be well rested next time!

(Sun)Day 5: Harajuku and Yoyogi park
On sunday I met up with Yingying to go shopping in Harajuku. I know Yingying from my faculty in Delft and we had both worked as "Heinejuku's" (combination of the word Harajuku en Heineken) at festivals a couple of years ago. We had to dress up as Japanese Harajuku girls to promote Heineken beer, who would have thought we'd actually be shopping down Harajuku street for real a few years later! Yingying went to Japan 1 day before I did and will be staying in Tokyo for 4 months to do research on robot technology for the Dutch Embassy (really cool!!!). It was really fun, the shops in Harajuku are just fantastic. Well I'm getting kind of used to it, because Japanese fashion is simply awesome in general and we have shops like this in Osaka as well, but I think the stuff in Harajuku was maybe slightly cheaper. One of the coolest shops I saw there was the so called "Thank you"/390 Yen shop (Thank you would be pronounced as San-kyu, which sounds like the numbers 3-9 in Japanese) Everything in this shop, EVERYTHING sells for only 390 yen each. They sell a lot of second hand clothes, but also a lot of accesories. Fun shopping there anyway!

Later in the afternoon we met up with Carmen and the 3 of us went to Yoyogi park. On sundays a lot of youths dress up wildly and go to the park to hang out. There are random people giving little performances, like bands playing their music to weirdly dressed people dancing like there is no tomorrow. It reminded me very much of the "Vondelpark" in Amsterdam actually. Since there were also a LOT of people just chilling there, jogging, throwing a frisbee etc. It was a nice way to spend the last day in Tokyo, since I had been so dead tired anyway. Just before leaving Tokyo I met up again with Deborah and Max, now joined by another french friend (who is also staying at Yuji's place of course) for some coffee. We've only known eachother for a short while, but I really hope I will see them again. (I'm meeting up with Yuji again tomorrow in Kobe actually!) Then at midnight my bus finally left from Shinjuku Station. I'll be back soon Tokyo!

Tags: gaming, japan, tokyo, tokyo game show

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14 October 2008 @ 08:48 pm

Pre-Tokyo update

Sorry for the delayed update, I'm getting lazy already haha. A lot has happened in the past 2 weeks. I've done tons of stuff, but not everything is as interesting to write about as it was to experience (like clubbing and diners etc), so in this update I will quickly update you on the topics related to 2 weeks ago and then I will write the blog about Tokyo, which I will upload soon after this! ;)

Topics from 2 weeks ago:

Dance classes
The dance classes were really cool! I went to the Streetjazz class on friday. In my excitement I forgot to bring my sportspants, but I had been looking forward to this class so much that I would not let that stop me from participating. I looked quite retarded trying to stretch in my skinny jeans. It's pretty much impossible to spread your legs any further than half a meter and I felt a bit awkward when everyone was lying in a split with their stomach on the floor while I had my legs only inches apart and couldn't even reach for my damn knees haha. Anyways, it was really cool to participate and I'm much looking forward to the next class!

On saturday I joined the student circle in Umeda to dance from 11 am to 2 pm at another dance studio. (After half a year of no sports at all it was quite tiring to suddenly dance for 4,5 hours in 2 days). It was a really big group (I think over 50 people) of students from all different universities in the area. First we did a really extensive warming up and after that there were 2 different sets of classes. The first set you could chose between House dance, Lockin' and Hiphop and the second set you could choose between Soul or Poppin'. I decided to try out House dance the first hour and join the Soul dance class at the second hour.

Well house dance was really quite impossible at my current condition (half year no sports remember). Since the basic move is pretty much jumping up and down and all other moves include jumps and ridiculous fast steps. I just didn't have the energy/stamina/strength to do it! Next time I think I'll try the Lockin'class instead :P The second class was pretty cool. I really like the Soul dance! I tried to find an example on youtube, but couldn't really find anything that resembled the style. I can only describe it as very Japanese and girly (think of para para dance, but with a little less arm movements and more footwork).

...
*interuption. Cableguy came by cause there was something wrong with my creditcard, so I had to change the payment info to my japanese bankcard. And he abruptly asked if he could take me out for diner sometime. I was so surprised I didn't really think when I gave him my cmail adress. That was WEIRD!!! Oh well, I'll deal with him later :P*
...

Anyway, after the class was over everyone sat in one huge circle and they discussed some things. After that the new people had to stand up and introduce themselves after which the group would decide on their nickname (everyone has a nickname in the circle). With my limited knowledge of Japanese I still managed to give a very simple introduction of myself, which made me quite proud haha. After some discussion the group finally decided to nickname me "Nee-san" which basically means "sister". It's a bit impersonal in my opinion, but I guess they didn't want to risk to offend me in any way. I wouldn't mind if they had called me "ichigo"(strawberry) because of the color of my face after dancing or "buta" (pig) like my dutch friends do ;P hahaha. I couldn't join the classes last week cause I was in Tokyo, but I will surely go again this week.

Clubbing in Osaka (Izakaya VS. "Sam and Dave's")
Ok so we had been hearing these rumors that people in Japan (or Osaka at least) normally don't really go clubbin. They don't really go out to dance anyway. Normally people would meet up with friends at an Izakaya, a really nice traditional Japanese styled bar where you can have drinks and some fingerfood. A few weeks a go Akiko took us to a very nice Izakaya in Shinsaibasi. We had tons of food (TONS! garlic potatoes, baby shrimps, salted beans, raddish, cesar salad, pizza, fried rice, sashimi, chicken wings, BBQ meat and I'm probably forgetting some more dishes) and 2 cocktails, for less then 10 euros!!! It was really incredible! We also has some luck that Akiko's friend was working there and he also gave us a really nice discount, but even then in Holland you would have easily paid 30 euro's for an evening like this!

Then Saturday we want to go out for some drinks and dancing. We tried to get in club Platinum, but couldn't get in because not everyone fitted their dresscode (the guys had to wear buttoned shirts, but almost all of them had T-shirts on). So we ended up at Sam and Dave's where the boys from Suita had already become regulars haha. For me and most of the girls from Toyonaka it was the first time though. I really liked it, but seemed so NOT-Japanese to me somehow! Suddenly it was like I was in the Coconuts in Holland haha. It was very "fout", but they played just my type of music haha! They played mainly RnB/hiphop and even the breezer-sletjes were included haha!!! It was quite remarkable to see these japanese girls shaking their booties and hooking up with guys (since it is really quite uncommon to see Japanese people be really intimate with eachother in public). As "innocent and cute" as the average japanese girl seems, these girls were quite different. Like I said, just like the dutch breezer sletjes, same thing! :P It's funny cause I felt almost reliefd, maybe the Japanese culture is really not that different from ours after all haha. I guess you have "foute" clubs like this in all different cultures haha!

Anyway it was a really fun night! We came home around 6:30 that morning, and after sleeping during the day we went to the boys dorm in the evening where they had prepared a lovely BBQ for us. Guys, again I'm sorry for eating a sandwich before hand, I had no idea you were such excellent BBQ-ers and you had taken excellent care of everything! Oh and seeing the boys dorm with my own eyes, I finally realize how lucky us girls are in Toyonaka! I will never complain about my room again!! I have to add, eventhough it's a lot dirtier there, it's much more cozy because they have to share everything. At the girls dorm, we spent most of the time in the privacy of our own rooms. And the boys have a tabletennistable. That's the 2 plusses for Suita campus haha.

Ponyo
I can be very brief about that, I didn't go yet :P I did visit the Ghibli museum in Tokyo though! But more on that later.

Japanese toilets part 2
The Japanese toilets never seize to amaze me. I have encountered a few other excellent models which I wanted to share with you. The traditional Japanese toilet (that you still encounter sometimes in shabby public places) consist of a urinoir in the floor, pretty much like the french ones, but the japanese have come a long way since then! (after all, didn't we all start with a simple hole in the floor at some point). One of the most common Japanese toilets at home nowadays is the one as shown in the picture below. It's a very simple design, but it is very efficient with water! You see, they put the sink to wash your hands on top of the water reservoir of the toilet. So after you flush, the water starts running from the little tap, giving you the oppurtunity to wash your hands with the water that will be used for the next flush. It's brilliant!

Then in Tokyo I encountered another one of those super high-tech toilets. This one was equipped with a "powerfull deodorizer", now I know a lot of people that should make GOOD USE of that button!! In fact, I think every toilet should have a button like that, this is the future people! A funny sidenote, eventhough I had used one of these high tech toilets before, I had to spent another 5 minutes looking for that damn flush button again. This time it wasn't hidden behind the toilet seat so I had to go trough all the buttons again. Finally, when I widened my search to the entire walls and floor of the toilet (pressing random tiles like I was Indiana Jones) I discovered they nicely integrated the stupid thing into the wall right above the paperroll holder. Classy, but a bit annoying to have to search for the freakin flush everytime.

Powerful deodorizer, I hadn't seen that one before!

Took me 5 minutes to find that damn flush button

Whew, so that was last week! Coming up next is the update about Tokyo:

- (Wednes)Day 1: Korean BBQ and couchsurfing
- (Thurs)Day 2: Tokyo Game Show
- (Fri)Day 3: Ghibli museum and Nike party
- (Satur)Day 4: Azakusa
- (Sun)Day 5: Harajuku and Yoyogi park

Will update you on that soon!! ;D The pictures are already online though, so if you want to have a preview, check them out at

Tokyo general: http://www.flickr.com/photos/xandra-aka-ghostgirl/sets/72157608005696436/
Tokyo Game Show 2008: http://www.flickr.com/photos/xandra-aka-ghostgirl/sets/72157608005618276/

Tags: dance, japan, osaka, party, toilets

Mood:

lazy

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01 October 2008 @ 02:32 am

Streetdance & Kyoto

The day I arrived in Japan it was sunny and friggin hot. Well in less then 2 weeks, the season has changed completely. Autumn kicked in with milky skies and lots of rain. It’s starting to look more and more like Holland everyday!

Last Friday we had the first day of our OUSSEP orientation. The classes will officially start this Thursday. I can’t wait to start with the Japanese lessons! The orientation is a bit boring. They give you so much information which you are never gonna remember and will have to ask about again anyway when you actually need it. For some reason they also found it necessary to make it very clear that if you plan to sell your body or “work at certain entertainment places”, the Osaka University will NOT approve of your application for the work permit. I really wonder how the hell this topic ever made it to the welcoming speech of the OUSSEP program.

Anyway, friday night I went to this dance studio In Shinsaibashi. I had found it trough a search on Youtube. When I found out they had a studio in Osaka I just had to go there to check it out for myself. It turned out to be everything I have dreamed of. The teacher is this incredibly funky Japanese chick with amazing flexibility and some really cool moves! The choreography just blew my mind. I have seriously never seen anyone dance like this in reallife before (the style is called streetjazz). I think it’s even better then the stuff you see in an average musicvideo, I kid you not!! I can’t wait to get started next Friday, this will definitely be a real challenge! None of the people there speak English btw, but luckily I had my trusted interpreter Keisuke with me haha. And dance is a universal language so I don’t really need to know Japanese yet to be able to follow the class. (And besides, it will be good for learning Japanese!) Check out this video of the dance studio’s performance:

( http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=-wSdhopuyRk )

After the visit to the studio I was completely psyched. I have really missed dancing and I’m just so happy that Osaka turned out to have quite a dancing scene! Keisuke also showed me this seemingly random spot in the subway in Osaka, called OCAD, where there are always a lot of streetdancers and bboys gathering. When we arrived at the spot there was indeed a whole group of breakers practicing on the left side, while small groups of girls were practicing their dance routines on the right.

It’s so strange to see these people practice their dancing in such a public place. First of all, Japanese people have this reputation of being kinda shy. Second of all, I heard they don’t dance in the clubs. Noone dances period. But here they are, shaking their butt on the street, checking their own reflection in the shiny marble and mirrored windows or the buildings around them. Look, I have no problem shaking my booty in the clubs or to practice the shaking at home in front of the mirror, but I do NOT feel comfortable to practise in public haha. I really want to get to the bottom of this Japanese streetdance phenomenon. 2 girls were actually so nice to let me film their routine. I wish I could remember their names though argh!

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9w0ZpH5Zqqs )

We even have “street”dancers at campus. I passed by a group of students practicing their dance moves just outside one of the faculties several times already. You see more of these groups of students gathering together outside at random spots troughout the campus to practice musical instruments, singing or dancing etc. Apparently these are the different student "clubs" (official groups) or “circles” (more informal groups). Somehow I find it surprising to see these groups get together in their free time without the facilities like their own clubhouse or anything (it does liven up the campus though!) . Again I would not feel comfortable standing outside in a little circle with my friends, trying to practice my singing or blowing a trumpet or anything. Or maybe it’s not about feeling comfortable, it’s just that in that setting you’d probably just “hang out”. Get together, have some laughs, talk etc, but seriously practice?! No way! When you see these clubs at work though, they’re all really focused on their activity and everyone is seriously practicing whatever it is that they do.

I’ve actually been "warned" about joining these clubs. Some of them are very strict and demand your complete dedication. They get together almost every day of the week and if you can’t make it you’re out. So you should think twice before you want to join one of these.

When Tetsuji and I passed by the group of dancers again tonight, we decided to go over for a talk. Tetsuji started the conversation by asking one of the students who we should talk to if I wanted to join their club and the guy introduced us to a senior girl who goes by the name Teru (pronounce it as “tell”, I already forgot her real Japanese name btw haha). She was really friendly and I was welcome to join their dance group. Luckily they’re not a official club, but a "circle" so they are not strict. Like she said “just a group of people who loves to dance”. They normally practice once a week, and the other days the people are just free to join whenever they feel like it to dance together.

Again, I’m really excited about joining this group and I’m pretty curious what their skill level is since I haven’t really seen them dance yet (hell, I don’t even know where my own skill level is at now since it has been over 6 years since I last had lessons). Saturday morning I will join them at Umeda to practice at another studio there, so I’ll find out soon enough!

OK enough about the dancing, time for some other cultural aspects of Japan hehe. Last Sunday Tetsuji took us to Kyoto. We visited the Kiyomizu temple and walked around the outskirts of the Ginzo district (famous for the geishas!). I took a lot of pictures, which you can all admire at my flickr page, but here is a small preview of the images.

Check out the rest of the serie at http://www.flickr.com/photos/xandra-aka-ghostgirl/sets/72157607607163813/

Sadly we didn’t get to see any geisha’s this time (sorry Iris! ;) ), but we plan to go again to Kyoto anyway because it’s supposed to be even more beautifull mid October with all the red autumn leaves. And we definitely have to go again during spring, when the sakura are blooming! Kaitlin has been there before and her stories got me pretty excited about visiting Ginzo again during that time of year.

For next time: More on Japanese toilets, the newest Ghibli movie "Ponyo" (want to see it somewhere this week) and the report on the dance classes!

Tags: dance, japan, kyoto, oussep, streetjazz

Location: Osaka

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25 September 2008 @ 05:15 pm

Japanese gadgets and karaoke

I have finally got a Japanese cellphone (and money, internet, toiletpaper and curtains. Life is truely great!) I only paid 10.000 yen (about 75 euros) for the phone and I got student discount on the subscription. For 1000 yen (E 7,50) a month I can make free calls between 1 am and 9 pm to any other Softbank user and outside of that I have to pay 21 yen (about 0,15 euro) a minute. It has internet and can even work as a TV. I thought it was a pretty sweet deal! The menus are a little complex at first sight, but I'm falling more and more in love with this phone everyday hehe. Btw it's funny, in Japan you don't really use sms, but everyone has cellphone mail instead. It works just like sms, as in you get a little notification when you have received a new message, but unlike sms you can mail from a regular email account to a cellphone mailadres as well! (So for the people abroad, please bare in mind what time it is in Japan before you send me an email to my cellphone! :P We're 7 hours ahead of Holland for example)

(If you can't see the embedded Youtube video, check out the video of the phone at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDC0B2NHsrA )

I have also had my first experience with a public toilet in a big shopping mall. It had a lot of features like seat heating, adjustable water pressure, "flushing sound", bidet, a waterbeam to clean your ass etc. There were a lot of buttons, but like... how the hell do you flush?! (After a closer inspection I realized the flush button was not that hi-tec, but just a simple handle behind the seat.)

Anyway, of course I had to play with the buttons. I first pressed the "flush sound" because I thought it was japanese-english for flushing. But no, it really produced an actual flush SOUND. I have heard of this before, and I think that people use this when they want to take a dump and are affraid to make "embarassing sounds". Covered by the noise of the fake flush you can comfortably apply some more pressure without worrying that anyone can hear your accidental farts. This sounds nice in theory,but the sad truth is that it is painfully obvious that it's not a real flush. The sound quality is pretty bad and you can clearly hear it's not natural, but electronic. Whenever you hear that fakeflush, you know it's going down!

Second button I had to try was the butt-beam (the pictogram is just too cute). Man, they really fine tuned that thing. I was prepared, but still a bit shocked when the water beam hit it's target with military precision. And this is not some weak water fountain people, it was pretty powerfull! This experience convinced me though, this works way better then toiletpaper. (I think the correct order is actually: paper, water, paper) And it's really not that unpleasant either :P

ANYWAY, I also did my first groceries at a Japanese supermarket. Everything is so neatly organised and presented. Walking around it with my little cart, looking at the cute small packages, I just felt really happy haha! The size of the shoppingcarts really made me wonder how the Japanese families did their weekend groceries (visualizing my dad's bus packed with groceries for the weekend). A talk with Tetsuji (another Japanese friend I met trough Facebook) confirmed that they don't massively stock up on stuff for the whole week/weekend like most dutch families do. Besides if you check the expiration dates of the products, you will also notice most things often expire within a 2 days already. So most of the people do groceries every day. I guess they don't mind the effort to have fresh products every day. I also noticed the japanese supermarket had electronic price tags. I thought that was pretty cool! I guess this saves the staff a lot of time changing all the tags whenever the price changes, like with special deals and stuff. Whenever there was a special deal, the price on the electronic tag blinked. Silly things like that just make my day. I just really love gadgets!!

On tuesday night we went to the park near Osaka castle for a little late night picknick. The castle was really beautiful at night! I can't wait to visit it again during daylight. We had a few drinks and then took the last train back to Umeda. We stayed there at a karaoke club untill the early morning (since the last trains stop so early it's either go home early or stay out all night). You might think 6 hours of non stop karaoke would get boring, but time really flew by and we kept singing till the very end haha! It's really cheap, we only had to pay about 15 euros each for 6 hours of karaoke and unlimited drinks (alcohol included). I guess these karaoke clubs are really packed during the weekends when all the youths are stranded in the city after a night out. Karaoke, manga or internet clubs are one of the cheapest ways to spend the night in Japan. They're opened 24/7 and for a few thousand yen you've got a roof over your head, some entertainment and sometimes even a comfortable couch or bed to sleep on.

More pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/xandra-aka-ghostgirl/
(o.a. Pachinko, facecloths, bird-butterflies?! and square oranges!)

Tags: gadgets, japan, life, osaka

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21 September 2008 @ 01:58 pm

First post from Japan

Friday 19 September 2008 10:30

Don't worry, I have arrived safely! I had a good flight, met some really nice people on the airport (Mr. and Mrs. Littlejohn!). Romain (the french exchange student) and Keisuke (the Japanese guy I met trough Facebook) were already waiting for me at the arrival gate. We went to our dorms to drop all the stuff and then met up again to explore the city a bit (joined by Danilo, the Brazilian student).

My first impressions of Japan:

It's very sticky here, hot and humid, kinda reminds me of Singapore.

The people I've met so far are really nice. Eventhough they rarely speak any English and I know about 5 Japanese words, people will always make an effort to try to help you. And you'll be surprised how far you can get with 5 japanese words and some hand and foot work!

And Keisuke, he's our savior!! He never met us before in reallife, but he came to pick us up at the airport on his day off work. I seriously don't know what we would have done without him. He guided us trough the Japanese public transport, explaining how the ticket machines worked etc. Took us downtown to shop at Umeda and had delicious okonomiyaki! He even helped me out the next day when I went to the bank to open a Japanese bank account. Trough the phone he acted as a translator between me and the employees at the bank haha! Seriously, he's a lifesaver! It's a blessing to know you Keisuke, thanks a million! ;)

For what I have seen so far, this is a SHOPPING HEAVEN!!! There are so many cool shops with all the stuff I like: clothing, shoes, accesories, gadgets/electronics, anime/manga, videogames, random cute stuff etc, etc. Durign my first walk trough Umeda my jaw just kept dropping at every shop I saw. I can't wait to go back there and do some proper shopping!!! (I was with the guys so I couldn't really go all out :P)

Osakajin really are in to fashion. The girls/women have some really cool styles. I always get the urge to take pictures of their outfits, but I have the feeling that would be a bit rude, so I just discretely glance at them in quiet admiration :P The guys are also pretty in to fashion it seems. I have noticed a trend that some men here wear really feminine shoulderbags. Like way too many buckles, pockets and strings etc to be worn by a guy. I'm not really sure wether I dig it, have to get used to it I guess hehe.

My room is TINY. Even smaller then expected haha! It's 14 m2 (or so it sais on paper), EVERYTHING included! Kitchen, bathroom, washingmachine, bed and desk, it's all in there. I have to get used to taking a shower with the showercurtain sticking to half of my body all the time haha. Oh and my room doesn't have any curtains. I noticed when I was already half naked and suddenly spotted this guy in the opposite building looking my way with something that looked like a camera. He slowly turned from left to right with it then looked straight again. I just hope he was filming the surroundings and didn't notice me haha!

Anyways, I definitely have to buy some curtains. And toiletpaper. I keep forgetting that. I actually bought a new digital camera (Canon IXUS 860 IS, for half the price I'd have to pay in Holland!) before I bought some toiletpaper, talk about basic needs huh! The shops here are opened untill like 8 or 10 PM btw, which is really cool (some are opened 24/7 even!) It's just strange that the last train from the city to my place already leaves around 11:15 PM or so! I experienced that the first day, I stranded at a station halfway and had to take a cab home. Thank god I had cash with me! Thanks to Keisuke again, because apparently I can't take any cash from the Japanese ATM's with my dutch card (Everywhere I see the visa sign, but sadly no maestro or mastercard). Keisuke borrowed me money on the first day so I could make the downpayment for my room and I've survived on that cash these last few days. I only have a few thousand yen left now though so I really need to figure out how to draw money from my account fast! But anyway, they will also send me the ATM card for the Japanese account next week. I just need to figure out yet the right info so I can make the international bank transfer (I can still use internet banking with my dutch account!)

Fruit is indeed very expensive from what I've seen. The grapes on the picture costed me almost 4 euros! They're really huge though, more like little plums. I promised the foodlovers out there I would take lots of pictures of the food, but I have to honestly admit that I can't seem to remember this untill I have already finished the food haha! I will try to pay more attention to it now that I have my new camera. I can tell you though, the food here is GOOD! I really love it! So far I had Okonomiyaki, onigiri, some sort of dumplings, ramen soup and some fried rice with chicken... ok it doesn't sound so good without the pictures. Better luck next time! The drinks here are also really interesting btw. They have drink-vending-machines on nearly every corner of the street. A colorfull collection of all sorts of cans and bottles. I pick something new everytime so I can try out all the different tastes hehe. So far my favorite is Calpis, it looks like milky water (it's the white drink in the picture of the 4 coke glasses) and it tastes like Yakult!

At this moment I don't have internet access in my room yet, but I hope this will be fixed by next week. I'm affraid my phonebill will also be extremely high, since I can't get a Japanese phone yet (I need to wait 1 month for a certificate from the Alien registration or something) but I really have to make some calls every now and then. The good news is that at least my phone works in Japan (Not every phone has 3G). Calling or receiving calls is really expensive though (like 2,50 euros a minute), but I can receive sms for free. And starting next month I can send unlimited sms, all over the world! So you'll be hearing from me more then you'd like maybe haha :P

PS. This post is already a little outdated cause I have got a Japanese phone by now! I will save that for next time though (its really japanese and gadget-y though, with internet and TV/rotatable screen heehee!), Im posting this from an internetcafe and the connection and computer are soooo slow it takes like 5 seconds for the text to appear whenever I type something. So more on that later!

PS. You can view more pictures on my Flickr page http://flickr.com/photos/xandra-aka-ghostgirl/

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14 September 2008 @ 02:26 pm

Back from Venice, bye to Delft

Venice was beautiful. About every 5 steps in to town I felt the urge to take more pictures. I mostly used Linh’s camera though, so sadly I don’t have any pics to show yet. The landscape just seemed surreal sometimes. The bluegreen canals, the terracotta walls with chipped paint, byzantine fences and windows, colorfull clothing hanging from the washlines in narrow alleys, the miniature gardens people had on their balconies… a pitiful attempt to describe the wonder of Venice, you’ll just have to wait for the pictures (or go see it for yourself!).

Like Walter had promised we got to experience Italian design at first hand during the preparations of the Biennale. My impressions of Italian design: Italians are really in to the creative part of the process, but not so much with the practical part. They live in the moment. Just focus on this task, forget about the past and present. They really know how to get in to the flow. And they will drag you along with words like “Just follow us, everything has already been thought of!” (remember that one Walter?! :P). The process is more like a by-product of the product. The product gets pampered with attention, but the planning and organization are a little neglected. The end result is a fine piece of Italian design, but it’s a long way there! I never thought of myself as an organized person, but I found myself longing for a plan or even just a timetable! In my opinion the whole process could have been more efficient, but I guess this is what it takes to come to the end product. Definitely interesting to have experienced at least once!

I would like to thank Walter for inviting us to be a part of this project (and the hostel!!!) and Id-lab and NABA for having us there. Also a special thanks to Joanna, who took the effort to arrange a place for me to stay in Milan between the writing of her final thesis, rushing all over Milan to pick up stuff and taking the flight back to Portugal. Props to you! And thanks to her friends in Milan: Sara, Catarina and Giorgia, who were so nice to let me stay over and bring me to diner with their friends. I really enjoyed my stay with you and wish I could have stayed longer!

Some random thoughts/findings on Italy:

1. Beware of the mosquitos! Especially in Venice at the Giardini they had a particular nasty species: the Tiger Mosquito. When they first told me about this mosquito I thought it was a joke. Sadly they are very real, black and white striped and thirsty for blood. Actually, striped as they are the name doesn’t do them justice. They should have been called Piranha Mosquitos, those ferocious little fuckers! They attack en masse as one. Their collective mind is pure sadist as they not only try to suck you dry, but they like to make you suffer as much as possible by singling out one specific tender spot to have their little blood banquet. Clothing won’t stop them since they’ll sting right through and I bet the citronella just gives them laughing kicks.

2. When someone offers you something or some service in Milan, they’re not just trying to be nice, they expect to get paid. Of course you can find these con-artists all over the world and to most people the scheme would be quite obvious, but it had to happen to me twice in Milan before I learned my lesson.

Example A: I just came out of the Milan Metro when an African guy grabbed my wrist and tied some little colored string around it exclaiming: LONG LIFE, LONG LIFE AFRICA! When I tried to pull my hand back and uttered some weak protests, he kindly reassured me and repeated his African praises. I thought it was some sort of attempt to integrate in Italian society and promote Africa so I just accepted the little string. As soon as the guy tied the knot though, he wanted to see money. 5 euro’s for some colored thread, WTF?!! I paid 2 euro’s just to get rid of him. I would have given the same if he had just begged for it, but it didn’t feel the same. In this case I wasn’t the good Samaritan, but the gullible sucker!

Example B: I was on my way to the airport, walking around Milan Central station looking for the bus to Bergamo. I must have looked a little lost, cause this guy immediately came up to me and took my luggage and put it on his kart, telling me he worked here and would take me to the bus. I thought it was a little strange that he wasn’t wearing some sort of uniform, but told myself I would keep an eye out for the signs that we were in deed going towards the bus and that we would not be going into any quiet areas. The guy quickly walked to a shop and got a bus ticket for me , then continued to the bus where he loaded my suitcases in. As soon as he was done he held up his hand, smile vanished from his face sternly saying: I work too Xandra! (the fact that he added my name to the sentence really made me laugh actually) Again I had no problem paying him 3 euros for arranging everything so quickly and carrying my stuff, but it’s just the way he did it that annoyed me.

3. Maybe because they’re all quite young, or maybe it’s the uniform, but there’s something about the Milan policemen… They’re really quite cute.

4. Italians eat pasta as an appetizer

5. Even though Milan is a really big city, visited by tons of tourists, hardly any Italians there speak English!

When I was in Venice I would often look around me, really absorbing the scenery because it was just so different to what I’m used to. It was so weird, trying to imagine that one week later I would have exchanged this scenery for yet again another totally different environment.

Before I knew it I was back in Delft again, preparing for the Sayonara party. My dad, Frieda and Duco came early to help with the preparations. Groceries, decorating, preparing the food, etc. And my housemates helped a lot also with cleaning up the living room and doing the dishes. I’m so thankful for these people around me, really. And I’m gonna miss them so much! The party was really nice, I couldn’t have wished for anything better (except that some people sadly couldn’t make it to the party. I wish they could have been there too of course!) . It was so nice to see my family and friends before going away for so long. I have received so many nice and thoughtful presents (extra silent, now that’s REALLY thoughtful :P). The collective gift of the book and charm bracelet was just.. WOW. Thank you so much everyone!!! (Also for cleaning up afterwards, I’m really sorry for the trouble and I really appreciate it!!!) Around 2 am we had to leave. Amy went trough my room like a hurricane cleaning the last bits and pieces I had overlooked (thanks to you too!). I said my goodbyes, packed my stuff, took the last couple of boxes and left Delft.

I’m glad I already got to say goodbye to most of my friends. It was really a lot more emotional then I had expected. Anyways, now I just have a couple more of goodbyes at the airport. I think I can only really start enjoying the adventure when I have finished all these goodbyes and am on the flight to Japan. There’s really no reason to be sad, I’ll be back before you know it and we’ll keep in touch anyway! But I just couldn't fight the tears when I hugged my best friends for the last time this year. Or when we drove home last night, my little brother crying softly after we had said goodbye to Karlo and Amy. With Karlo leaving for Peru on monday and me leaving for Japan on tuesday it must be a bit hard for him. This is the downside of leaving. And for a while I was wondering what the hell I'm getting myself in to. Since I've also heard from some people that coming back could be even harder. This time you know you're coming back, but when you have to leave the other country you don't know when you would be coming back there again. But that was just for a minute, it's pointless worrying about it now. To truely enjoy this adventure and experience it to the fullest I should live in the moment. So hereby I promise myself, as soon as I go trough that gate, I will only live in the present!

Tags: events, japan, life

Location: Heerhugowaard

Mood:

thankful