I moved in with my second host family two days ago. Going to miss the Kawamura's. But I think good days are ahead. Or at least very interesting ones... My new host family is kind of crazy. Being rotarians they are kind of rich, so the house is big. Very very clean. My okasan is a clean freak, literally. I'm pretty sure she has some sort of compulsive disorder. She knocks on my bedroom door before entering even when no one is in it. She knocked on the door when I was standing behind her and she was going to show me the room. They had an aussie a couple of years before me so maybe she got in the habit and never got out. ANYWAY. Everything is so completely organised I get headaches sometimes. I have to wear a traditional japanese housecoat around the house EVERY time I wear my pajamas. Have to clean the shower and sink out after every use. Have to wear slippers in the house. And every sunday is cleaning day - I moved in on a sunday and had to clean the room, even though I had just unpacked and she cleaned it before I came. So yeah. A tad crazy. But they are both really nice people. I have two host brothers who are married, one with two kids and the other with two kids plus one on the way. So I'm a host-auntie. Neato. Oh and they have a tatami mat tea room which I love. There is a little Buhdda shrine in it as well as a shrine to her dad and two brothers who died in a jet plane crash. She sets coffee out on the shrine every morning.
AND we live beside a crazy lady. She is really bonkers. She rambles random stuff that I can't understand. Okasan says it's Japanese but it doesn't make sense, and to be careful around her because she is a nutcase. Her front yard is full of the strangest garbage, like what looks like a giant globe with the countries painted over. And her foyer is stacked to the ceiling with garbage. She rummages around in it all the time, just moving it around and not doing much else. So now you know about the Crazy Lady.
So, with this backround info, today was pretty freaking neat. In the morning Me and okasan went out to the bus terminal, got my card. nothing much there. I had originally planned to go to Sapporo eki to study with Donny but he forgot and made other plans, so I texted up my lovely Lian (the aussie version of Darby) and we made plans to go to the eki to hang. Because Lian lives out in the middle of nowhere and never comes to Sapporo so the last time I saw her was when I met her. Since I didn't know how to get to the eki from the new house, okasan went with me. We were really early when we got there so we decided to go around shopping for a bit. She wanted to buy me some stuff so we went to the 3 coins store (sanbbyaku en shop) and got some random stuff… Really awesome knee socks, and two pairs of leg warmers that I can double as arm warmers, a necklace and chains for my pants. Then we went to a panya and got some bready stuff… For me a bagel and maple scone. Then to another bigger pastry shop for coffee. After that we parted and I met up with Lian.
We went shopping around the eki for most of the time we spent there. A little trip to the Loft, where I bought the best poster EVER. Featuring Mau, Stalin, Lenin, Castro and Karl Marx, all with booze and party hats with the caption ‘Welcome to the Party‘. In the eki we also went to puri kura which was awesome, but we couldn’t get it on either of our keitais, and we diddled around in the arcade. It was all really fun.
After the eki, me and Lian split ways and I went home. I remembered how to get home using the chikatestsu (subway) and the bus. But by the time I reached my stop it was pretty dark outside and all my landmarks looked too different to identify. So I didn’t know where to go from there. I got kind of lost. Went in a straight line up and down one street, which I knew was the right one, but didn’t know which leg off that street was the right one. I went down three other streets but none of them seemed right. This all took a good 45 minutes. I gave up eventually and went back to the bus stop, phoned okasan and asked her to come get me because I am baka gaijin. So otosan came instead and walked me back to the house. I made new landmarks.
Now for the scary part. When we were about to walk past the Crazy Lady’s house, I pointed a bit and said “okashii onna” which translates roughly into ‘the crazy lady’ because my Japanese is bad. I didn’t know that the crazy lady was in fact OUTSIDE her house, and crouching in amongst her garbage. I didn’t see her. But when she heard what I said she stood up, in time to catch my pointing (straight at her as it turned out). There was a little weird moment of silence. Then she started talked. I didn’t know what she was saying but she sounded pissed. And I was laughing a bit too because the situation was just so funny. That couldn’t have helped. We got back into the house and I asked my otosan to get the dictionary and tell me what she said. So he got the dictionary, but couldn’t seem to find something. Then he showed me the word ‘murderer’. I thought he was saying the Crazy Lady was a murderer. He looked serious and kind of worried and nervous. So I was like ‘Honto??’ and we was all…yeeaahh…. So I was a bit scared. She was going to kill me now. Okasan and otosan were telling me to go quickly past her house especially when it was dark out. Then the cover for the light fell and the corner shattered, wiping out the lillies on the table (but not the vase, somehow. Only the flower parts.). Then I found out that she was actually calling ME a killer. Which was a big relief. I wish my Japanese was better so I could understand her ramblings. Well, I’ve got three months living beside her. And now she hates me because I called her a crazy lady. Let the good times roll.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Thursday, November 19, 2009
I’ve been slacking off bigtime with my blog, I know. And I havn’t even been all that busy. Just procrastinating. So I guess I should inform you about Halloween, even though that was weeks ago.
Anyway, Donny, Emmi, Tiffany, Elina and I met up and Sapporo station, without costumes on. We went to moss burger for lunch and from there I think we went straight to karaoke. So we came into karaoke dressed like normal people. When we were set up we took turns going to the bathroom to change, and then I painted Donny’s face. He was a zombie, a much better one than me. It was his first and probably last Halloween so he wanted to go all-out, and he did. Emmi was an assasin, Elina was traditional kimono girl and Tiffany was some ninja guy off of Naruto. Basically, we all looked pretty cool by the time we were done. When we went to leave karaoke everyone was staring at us. It was awesome. We walked back to the eki then, did purikura, had our picture taken with some random person, and went to an arcade. Donny and Elina basically ruled the Dance Dance Revolution. Me and Tiff played some rambo. After that we went for supper - ramen of course. Some people took our picture with their phones, trying to be sneaky about it. But I saw them. Kind of creepy, but neat at the same time.
After ramen we were all pretty much done. I got dressed and headed back to Ainosato. Since then I’m sure things have happened, but I can’t remember anything in particular to write about. See, this is why I should blog more. So I can remember. But it’s snowing now. There is definitely a good layer of snow on the ground. A little chilly, not too bad. Maybe 1 degree. Oh and I’m moving to my new host family in two days. Just found out yesterday. Kind of a shock. I don’t think I want to leave this family, since I’m so comfortable here. But it will be good to know different lifestyles. Plus, if I get too attached to one family it will be a lot harder to leave.
Anyway, Donny, Emmi, Tiffany, Elina and I met up and Sapporo station, without costumes on. We went to moss burger for lunch and from there I think we went straight to karaoke. So we came into karaoke dressed like normal people. When we were set up we took turns going to the bathroom to change, and then I painted Donny’s face. He was a zombie, a much better one than me. It was his first and probably last Halloween so he wanted to go all-out, and he did. Emmi was an assasin, Elina was traditional kimono girl and Tiffany was some ninja guy off of Naruto. Basically, we all looked pretty cool by the time we were done. When we went to leave karaoke everyone was staring at us. It was awesome. We walked back to the eki then, did purikura, had our picture taken with some random person, and went to an arcade. Donny and Elina basically ruled the Dance Dance Revolution. Me and Tiff played some rambo. After that we went for supper - ramen of course. Some people took our picture with their phones, trying to be sneaky about it. But I saw them. Kind of creepy, but neat at the same time.
After ramen we were all pretty much done. I got dressed and headed back to Ainosato. Since then I’m sure things have happened, but I can’t remember anything in particular to write about. See, this is why I should blog more. So I can remember. But it’s snowing now. There is definitely a good layer of snow on the ground. A little chilly, not too bad. Maybe 1 degree. Oh and I’m moving to my new host family in two days. Just found out yesterday. Kind of a shock. I don’t think I want to leave this family, since I’m so comfortable here. But it will be good to know different lifestyles. Plus, if I get too attached to one family it will be a lot harder to leave.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
School Trip
Ok so I havn’t been able to write in a long time. And now I have a very long entry for my school trip that happened last week. I wrote it all down on paper because I didn’t have my laptop with me then, so now I’m basically just copying. Fun.\
Day 1
The journey to Osaka was a long one. First we took the train to Chitose Airport. That train was a half an hour long and packed. There was a lot of standing and waiting in the airport. Two plane rides later we were finally in Osaka. Then we had to take an hour busride to Nara.
Nara was actually really nice. Too bad I wasn’t allowed to use my keitai to take pictures. But it was really nice. There were deer everywhere that you could pet. And a building called Todaiji (todai temple). The largest wooden building in the world, even though it is actually 33% smaller than when it was originally built. It holds a huge Buddha, as well as a few other big statues. And a souvenir shop of course. That was a bit disgusting to find in a place worshipping Buddha. Then we walked around Nara Park for a while. It was very pretty and I’ll just have to steal pictures from Donny.
After Nara we drove back by bus to Osaka to our hotel, the Monterey, where we had supper and went to bed.
Day 2
So today was a ‘free’ day with out groups. After breakfast we went to Kyoto to see two temples. The first temple we went to was called Touji. That temple is the tallest building with five roofs in Japan. The second temple was Byoudoin. It is supposedly very famous, since it is on the 10 yen coin.
Nothing of real significance happened at either of the temples. They were both very beautiful and scenic, but not much other than that. There were also some Buddhist shrines around Touji that we went to.
I spent literally over 5,000 yen today just on train fares and admission fees alone. It was ridiculous. It costs so much money to travel around Osaka because it’s just so huge. And since we took so long with the temples we didn’t have time to stop for lunch, which was a shame because we were going to go to this famous food bazaar thing, but I didn’t mind too much. I didn’t feel like spending a bunch of money on lunch, then again for supper anyways. So it worked out. After the temples we did go to a matcha place though. Me and Ai skipped on the matcha for money reasons though. It was very expensive. I think 600 yen for a cup of matcha.
So from Kyoto we went back to Osaka and to a big aquarium thing. Like a sea-creature zoo. It was pretty neat. The day turned out to be fun. I talked a lot in Janglish with two of the other girls, but I don’t remember their names.
We ended up having okonomiaki for supper. It’s hard to describe, so...maybe just google it haha.
Day 3
More temples. Today we stayed with our class so we had to wear our uniforms all day. Our first temple was Kinkakuji. It’s also known as the golden temple considering it is plated in gold. It sits in front of a large pond and is surrounded by gardens. We were behind schedule since the buses were late too pick us up, so we didn’t get much time there. Out next temple was Kiyomizudera. It was huge and surrounded by forest and sitting like… on the side of a mountain. We had some time to look around at the shops here and I managed to get some togarashi and yatsuhashi for my host family as well as some yatsuhashi for myself. Yatsuhashi is a popular sweet in Osaka. It is like rice dough triangles with anko in the middle. And togarashi is just a red pepper spice that is really hard to find in Hokkaido.
After temples we caught the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Tokyo. We all had to rush on it because we only had 2 mintues for all of us to get on. (All 300 of us). But we made it. The Shinkansen is super fast. We had lunch on the train and I listened to Creature Feature. Love that band.
As soon as we arrived in Tokyo we went to the Tokyo Historical Museum, which was kind of fun. We got some really funny pictures with me pretending to be godzilla with the miniatures displays.
After the museum we went for supper. The same stuff we had last night, only waay more. Oh and there is another girl in our group now. She couldn’t come for the first bit because of influenza but is fine now I guess.
After supper we went to our hotel. The Hilton. Tokyo Bay Hilton. I was so excited. I literally ran to my room, ran to get my bags, then ran back to my room to change. I collected my Donny and we explored the Hilton together. We got some of his Japanese boys and went to the star bucks in the lobby a little later, and talked about colonoscopies and hospitals...
Day 4
Today we had a free day so we planned to go to Tokyo Disneyland. It was the first time I’ve been to Disneyland and I’m really glad I went. I don’t think I would have had much fun if I went when I was younger, because back then I let my huge spectrum of fear control me too much. The only rides I would have went on would have been the boring slow ones.
Anyway, as soon as we got there we literally ran to the Splash Mountain. It was a really cool log ride. The final drop was huge and nearly completely vertical. The first time I have ever been on a roller coaster type ride. Talk about diving headfirst into things hm? We went on that ride twice.
Other than Splash Mountain, we went on an African boat adventure thing, Pirates of the Carribean, Teacups, Pinnochio, Haunted Mansion, Thunder Mountain and Space Mountain. My favorites were Thunder and Space mountain. For Thunder we had to wait nearly 2 hours in the line. And we were lucky because we went right after a parade so there weren’t as many people. But the ride was worth it. Space, we didn’t have to wait long because we got fast passes. That one was amazing too. It was like a roller coaster in a pitch black building with little lights like stars and it really felt surreal. And the Haunted Mansion was based off of Nightmare Before Christmas. It wasn’t really as scary as it was freaking neat, with all the special effects. The robotics were amazing in POTC too. At first I thought the Jack Sparrow was actually a real actor guy.
For lunch we went to the Red Queen Banquet Hall, which is Alice in Wonderland themed and a really nice place to eat. The food was really good too. For supper we went to some average place in Tomorrowland. After that we were basically done.
Day 5
Not much happened on the last day. We visited the Nippon Maru and a boat museum for a bit before heading back to the airport and returning to Hokkaido.
Day 1
The journey to Osaka was a long one. First we took the train to Chitose Airport. That train was a half an hour long and packed. There was a lot of standing and waiting in the airport. Two plane rides later we were finally in Osaka. Then we had to take an hour busride to Nara.
Nara was actually really nice. Too bad I wasn’t allowed to use my keitai to take pictures. But it was really nice. There were deer everywhere that you could pet. And a building called Todaiji (todai temple). The largest wooden building in the world, even though it is actually 33% smaller than when it was originally built. It holds a huge Buddha, as well as a few other big statues. And a souvenir shop of course. That was a bit disgusting to find in a place worshipping Buddha. Then we walked around Nara Park for a while. It was very pretty and I’ll just have to steal pictures from Donny.
After Nara we drove back by bus to Osaka to our hotel, the Monterey, where we had supper and went to bed.
Day 2
So today was a ‘free’ day with out groups. After breakfast we went to Kyoto to see two temples. The first temple we went to was called Touji. That temple is the tallest building with five roofs in Japan. The second temple was Byoudoin. It is supposedly very famous, since it is on the 10 yen coin.
Nothing of real significance happened at either of the temples. They were both very beautiful and scenic, but not much other than that. There were also some Buddhist shrines around Touji that we went to.
I spent literally over 5,000 yen today just on train fares and admission fees alone. It was ridiculous. It costs so much money to travel around Osaka because it’s just so huge. And since we took so long with the temples we didn’t have time to stop for lunch, which was a shame because we were going to go to this famous food bazaar thing, but I didn’t mind too much. I didn’t feel like spending a bunch of money on lunch, then again for supper anyways. So it worked out. After the temples we did go to a matcha place though. Me and Ai skipped on the matcha for money reasons though. It was very expensive. I think 600 yen for a cup of matcha.
So from Kyoto we went back to Osaka and to a big aquarium thing. Like a sea-creature zoo. It was pretty neat. The day turned out to be fun. I talked a lot in Janglish with two of the other girls, but I don’t remember their names.
We ended up having okonomiaki for supper. It’s hard to describe, so...maybe just google it haha.
Day 3
More temples. Today we stayed with our class so we had to wear our uniforms all day. Our first temple was Kinkakuji. It’s also known as the golden temple considering it is plated in gold. It sits in front of a large pond and is surrounded by gardens. We were behind schedule since the buses were late too pick us up, so we didn’t get much time there. Out next temple was Kiyomizudera. It was huge and surrounded by forest and sitting like… on the side of a mountain. We had some time to look around at the shops here and I managed to get some togarashi and yatsuhashi for my host family as well as some yatsuhashi for myself. Yatsuhashi is a popular sweet in Osaka. It is like rice dough triangles with anko in the middle. And togarashi is just a red pepper spice that is really hard to find in Hokkaido.
After temples we caught the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Tokyo. We all had to rush on it because we only had 2 mintues for all of us to get on. (All 300 of us). But we made it. The Shinkansen is super fast. We had lunch on the train and I listened to Creature Feature. Love that band.
As soon as we arrived in Tokyo we went to the Tokyo Historical Museum, which was kind of fun. We got some really funny pictures with me pretending to be godzilla with the miniatures displays.
After the museum we went for supper. The same stuff we had last night, only waay more. Oh and there is another girl in our group now. She couldn’t come for the first bit because of influenza but is fine now I guess.
After supper we went to our hotel. The Hilton. Tokyo Bay Hilton. I was so excited. I literally ran to my room, ran to get my bags, then ran back to my room to change. I collected my Donny and we explored the Hilton together. We got some of his Japanese boys and went to the star bucks in the lobby a little later, and talked about colonoscopies and hospitals...
Day 4
Today we had a free day so we planned to go to Tokyo Disneyland. It was the first time I’ve been to Disneyland and I’m really glad I went. I don’t think I would have had much fun if I went when I was younger, because back then I let my huge spectrum of fear control me too much. The only rides I would have went on would have been the boring slow ones.
Anyway, as soon as we got there we literally ran to the Splash Mountain. It was a really cool log ride. The final drop was huge and nearly completely vertical. The first time I have ever been on a roller coaster type ride. Talk about diving headfirst into things hm? We went on that ride twice.
Other than Splash Mountain, we went on an African boat adventure thing, Pirates of the Carribean, Teacups, Pinnochio, Haunted Mansion, Thunder Mountain and Space Mountain. My favorites were Thunder and Space mountain. For Thunder we had to wait nearly 2 hours in the line. And we were lucky because we went right after a parade so there weren’t as many people. But the ride was worth it. Space, we didn’t have to wait long because we got fast passes. That one was amazing too. It was like a roller coaster in a pitch black building with little lights like stars and it really felt surreal. And the Haunted Mansion was based off of Nightmare Before Christmas. It wasn’t really as scary as it was freaking neat, with all the special effects. The robotics were amazing in POTC too. At first I thought the Jack Sparrow was actually a real actor guy.
For lunch we went to the Red Queen Banquet Hall, which is Alice in Wonderland themed and a really nice place to eat. The food was really good too. For supper we went to some average place in Tomorrowland. After that we were basically done.
Day 5
Not much happened on the last day. We visited the Nippon Maru and a boat museum for a bit before heading back to the airport and returning to Hokkaido.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)