Morjesta kaikki toverit, ystävät, kaverit, sukulaiset, kamelit, boomarit, möffelit ja muut tyypit, jotka eivät kuulu em. ryhmiin. Toivottavasti koto-Suomi on edelleen pystyssä ja kaikilla on kaikki hyvin, yms yms... On ikävä ja silleen ja nähdään sitten kun nähdään. Nyt jatkuu jorinointi maailman tältä laidalta...
It´s November already
Time sure flies and the past two months have really gone by quickly. Well when your having fun time goes more quckly, ayeh?Basicly my time goes to large variety of activities. I study Japanese each day for some 3h and rest of the time I hang around, travel around Tokyo or near by areas, do sports (dance at Smooth Steppers), drink&party, hang around some more and spend time with my girl friend (yes, I got one a while ago :).
Last week end there was ICU festivals. Our universitys own festival where all different clubs and groups had their own food booths, cafes and most importantly shows. Smooth Steppers, The latin dance group (carnival group?) and Japanese drumming group were all absolutely marvelous. Good weather, tasty food and spectacular performances made last week end absolutely enjoyable. Also Clubbing at Velours (really nice club just three train rides away) was
splendid.
Our Strike team to Velours Yeah, beat those drums! Maki, Z, Shoin, Eiji
A while ago we wont to Kawakoen to see local party format called Matsuuri. Basicly there are Matsuuris all over Japan and they are huge events. I don´t know if its always the same format, but the one we went to had these portable shrines that rolled around the city pulled by dozens of people. Then they stopped to "battle" against fixed shrines. It pretty weird procedure and one should experience it before one can truly understand it.
More stuff coming shortly... this time for real :D
Couple of forewords about this blog. The main reason to write this is to keep my friends and relatives up-to-date about my coming and goings here in the other side of the world. The second reason is to reflect my experiences and to keep track of all the things I manage to do and would like to do before I eventually leave here. If you want to know something specific about life in Japan or something else that I might know you can ask me to write about it. Ikuze!
The First Month or so...
Ja, watashi wa Tuomas desu. Doozo yoroshiku. Those were the famous words that most people start their stay at Japan and I wasn´t an exeption. Even though I had studied some two years Japanese before I came here it was still really odd to start using it for real. But knowing me I usually go boldly to meet people (even in Japan ^^) and talk to them. They look at me first but starts talking eventually.
First five days I were here alone. I arrived to Narita Airport in the morning of 27.8 Thursday. It was hoooot and I had only a faint clue where to go, a guest house some where in Nakano. Luckily the train system of Tokyo is really easy to use (though some what expensive) and found myself soon at Nakano. Weird enough after asking directions from a local I found the quest house and discovered that the receptionist was a Finn :D There were also some 6 other Finns living there :D Can´t escape ´em even here. I think they had heard that it was the cheapest place around. For the five days I traveled around Tokyo and tried to get some bearings of places. Visited places like Harajuku, Shinjuku, Shibyao, Tokyo. So mainly stayed in the Yamanote line (which is the main line in Tokyo that circles around the cental places, very handy).
After that my lonely days were over and I entered Global House <3 This four story building resides some 64 students from dozen or so countries. Half the people are aboriginals (also called Japanese) and the other half is OYRs (One Year Regulars=internationals). Also half the residents are boyz and the half are girlz. So it´s the only mixed dormitory here. Dormitory life is really social and it was really easy to get abundant of new friends. It also instanteniously created an safety net around me which was quite nice.
The ICU (International Christian University) grounds are really beatiful. The campus area is like a big park filled with grass, trees and buildings. I really love the small hills in front of our campus, called Bakayama (stupid mountain). As a whole I have been really satisfied to ICU. I really like my courses and mostly they´re quite high quality. The Japanese Language program is really good. I can just feel how my Japanese improves daily.
Other than school I have spent my time traveling around Tokyo, partying with Global & other people, making short trips outside Tokyo (Matsumoto castle sightseeing & Couch Surfers Potluck in Yokohama), dancing in Smooth Steppers (ICU street dancing club) and just socializing in Global House. This places biggest drawback is that you can really get stuck here some times (jumittamaan). Kinda feels like I`m losing my initiative to move freely. I really should just galvanize my movements again :D
Observations of Japanese Culture and Language
So yokai here´s Earth round, chilling... To understand Japanese people and culture you reaaally need to learn the language. Since most people here doesn´t speak English (at least outside campus) you need to use Japanese... which I think is a really good thing. Gives me more motivation to study this freaking language that I really need it to do something useful ^^ The language really isn´t one the easiest there is but it is really interesting. It´s so mystical and beatiful. To unravel the meaning behind kanjis and then recognize them in texts is really fun.
Japanese seems to be even more quiet than Finns. Which in itself is peculiar. The threshold to go and speak with some stranger is really high because it is considered rude (I might be wrong, since these are just MY observations). So as a gaijin (foreigner) we get a lot more leeway than the locals from courtesy rules since we don´t know any better (gives us ``permission`` to drink in trains).
The city is really clean considering its size nad population. Even though there isn´t trash cans anywhere (because the trash are separated and recycled) there isn´t any trash in the streets. Also smoking seems to be prohibited in most places (like streets! at least in some locations). But luckily, if you´re a smoker, you can smoke inside some cafees and bars. So there´s no cigaret buts in the streets.
The food is package sizes are quite small. That makes the food more expensive than in Finland. Also it creates a lot of trash. Overall most things are somewhat as expensive as in Finland. One thing that I must say is the price if transportation. IT IS HIGH! That really limits the the amount of my traveling in Japan. Well better just to go to South East Asia... again. Well at least Vodka is cheap (phew).
I`ll write when something exiting happens... This was just an overview of something that has occured here and I`ll go in to more detail next time. それで、次の時間まで
ain rides away) was
Our Strike team to Velours Yeah, beat those drums!
ain rides away) was
Our Strike team to Velours Yeah, beat those drums!
