Winter Break!

Finally winter break!

It feels like it been a long time now without any real time to rest, so finally is there a break. My plans for the break are of course celebrating christmas and new year. But now lets not start about the future, lets start with what has happend in the past! It's been a little while since I updated and I have done somewhat noteworthy things recently.

I've been to the universitys international festival, with mostly consisted of presentation of 3 countries. It was about Mayar and two other countries that I now forgotten all about apparently. Most noteworthy about the festival was the belly dance performance, and the meeting afterwards where countries gave out free food. At the gathering thingy afterwards some school class was there with their teacher that runed around dragging their students to us foreign students there, wanting us to convince them to go to Chiba. I just tried to stay away from that, but damn that teacher guy was persistent! That was a fun day anyway.

I've also visited Ikea once more, this time with Katta (the other swedish at Chiba) and then some other swedish people and together we ate Christmas dinner at Ikea. There was all the traditional swedish food that are supposed to be eaten at Christmas so I did not have to miss "Julbord" this year!

Furthermore I've been to Ageha, a night club that several people claimed to be the biggest one in Asia. Sure it was huge, it had 3 dance floors I believe and a pool. Sadly none was swimming in the pool. Before we went to Ageha we had a nomehoudai (all you can drink) in Shibya. Noteworthy was the table next to were me and my friends sat that consisted of what I believe was middle school teachers. I've never met drunk teachers before, I have to say I hope I'll never see that in Sweden neither. But it sure was fun, they even wanted to take pictures together with us. All in all it was a epic night with good company and good music at the club!

In one of the weekend I was also at Sakura, a city close to Chiba. There we went to museums and visited old samurai houses and also an old hospital museum. It was summer weather during the trip and I got to see a lot of different cultural thingys, perhaps not my biggest interests but I thought it was really interesting!

Winter

So now there is finally winter here in Japan and the christmas decorations has appeared in the stores. The decorations are mostly the same as in Sweden, except that the english greetings varies from Merry Christmas to Many Christmas and such alike.

Because the winter has nog gotten here I was today to Ikea with my tutor and got myself better bed wear, nothing wrong with the blankets I've been using thus far but nice with some real stuff. The Ikea in Japan is exactly as the one in Sweden, about the same floor layout, the same food shops and yhea everything is the same. The only different thing is that here you can buy Glögg that actually has some alcohol in it at the store! Probably not as good as the regular ones in Sweden but it's still Glögg I guess. I also got myself some gingerbread, just because I could.

The thing the japanese people claim to be winter is actually very close to swedish autumn. Its about 10 degrees in the days or less and the trees hasn't even lost all their leaves yet! I have been warned that will get colder to about -1 degree but still that is not that cold. This winter gives me great joy when hearing about all the snow and -10 in Sweden, cant say I miss that at all!

 

 

 

 

 

鋸山

Yesterday me and a couple of friend was to  鋸山 and climbed to the top! Or well there was stairs all the way to the top, but the legs got tired anyway! We went to the mountain by a rented car and it took over one hour to get there (1.5h?). First thing we did was taking a bite at a local resturant thingy that served a lot of different fish dishes, I don't know the name of what I ate but it was different things from the sea and rice to that, really good food! After that we went to the mountain, got some fortune telling at a local shrine and looked on some old statues spread out on the mountain. And most important we went to the top of the mountain and looked at the nice view!

After climbing the mountain we went to a local onsen. It wasn't a natural hot spring but nevertheless it was hot and really nice! I've never been to a onsen before so it was a good experience, must go to more onsen!

After the onsen (looks odd without kanji 温泉) we went back to Tokyo, went to a Okonomiyaki ((お好み焼き) place and ate good food. Kinda fun that you pay and also has to cook your own food, but it's social and really good (and apparently kinda simple).

All in all: An awesome trip! \^_^/

試験

Finally is this week over! Sometimes it feels like I only have time to study, of course it's not true at all I've got plenty of free time here too! But this last week on tuesday I had my first test here in japan. It was a test of probability theory and of course the class is taught in japanese. I was a bit worried and studied a lot for the test. When I then got the test I realized it was exactly the same questions as the examples we have had during class, some questions even had the same numbers. Which actually really good because the test was 1.5 h and if I wouldn't have understood the question I would not have time to translate enough to get it. Being used to 4 h or more on a test and then go to 1.5 h.. horrible experience!

It has started to get a bit colder here in Japan recently. Sure it is not as cold as in Sweden right now (4 degrees difference) but in Sweden you can always go inside and heat up. Here it's perhaps 18 degrees inside and people are wearing their jackets all the time. Of course there are some room where they have cranked up the airconditioner so it is instead really damn hot inside. Having a normal comfortable temperature hardly never happens here. Sadly in my room I have to pay for electricity so I prefer to wear a jacket inside right now, sadly it doesn't cover my feet doubt. Anyhow I'm getting used to it!

- Me

Riding a bike

Today I forgot a book I needed at home so I needed to easily go from university to the dorm and back again. Walking to the dorm from the university takes about 20 minutes one-way trip so therefore I asked to borrow Katta's bike. This is the first time since I came here that I've used a bike but thankfully I remembered how to do it. But pedling and getting forward is easy, adapting to the traffic and following the traffic rules here with a bike was a lot harder then I imagined. First I tried to figure out what the rules was, when I thought about it I realized, there is no rules here for bicycle. Everyone is cycling a bit everywhere, on the street or the sidewalk whatever feels more convenient in the moment. The only thing I did was utterly stupid was going on the right side until I remembered that it's left-traffic here and not like in Sweden. But I managed to survive my bike-trip somehow! I've been thinking of getting a bike for a long time but after this trip I am not that certain that it would be good for my health, with my normal high speeds and this lack of good roads would probably kill me. Some reconsideration is in place I think.

I was on a bus trip the last weekend, I'll try to upload most of the photos I took here later.

無限小

So there has been a while since i wrote something here, mainly because of a bit of internet problem. The dorm where I live has had some internet problem for a about a week. In the end the dorm personal knocked on everyones doors and told them to stop torrenting stuff in my building. Seems that people where downloading so much so the connection could not handle it. Oh and it's also very illegal here. I'm glad that I've internet again but I seriously feel like downloading stuff now. I was able to coop without internet at home thanks to internet at the university, don't know what I would do without internet!

Here in Chiba there has been alot of fun recently. Last week we had 3 weekdays of thanks to a school festival. The festival mostly consisted of the circles and clubs at the university selling food from tents but it was also some other activities. I was to a maiden cafe (my second time) and this time with some japanese people, it was a fun experience, especially because I was able to see some magic. One of the japanese guys asked the cute maid who made the food to use some magic to make it extra tasty! ^_^

Other then that I also witnessed when they gave out the prices for a contest for Miss and Mr Chiba, sadly I don't have any pictures of them and I also missed when they showed up their skills so I don't really know if the right people won, probably did doubt. 

Other then that there has been a lot of things going on here on the dorm with the foreign students, a lot of partys and other social gatherings and every day life here is really fun! Sure is a lot of studying too. My tutor is teaching me quantum physics (which is hard but interesting) but sadly I won't get any credits for that. My classes are going just fine if someone would ever wonder. 

some turtles living at the university

Apparently they needed some art at the school festival. I dont get art. 

Katta and Mihoko eating some random food, it was tasty! 

Nothing here, move along

The life in Japan is forth going. There is a lot of things going on here mostly with the university. I think next week there is a university festival over 4 days where all the clubs and circles on the university will show up and I guess try to get new members. I'll see next week what it's all about! At least there is no school for two extra days next week!

I've got a bit more installed in my 研究室, my academic advisor wants me to do some kind of research so he has given me a computer that I'm going to set up as a server and do some kind of simulations on it. I think it will prove very interesting! It's in the quantum field and I have no idea about stuff like that. I've been trying three different quantum theory lectures but decided to every one of them not to take the them, it's too hard with my current japanese and math skills. Apparently my tutor is going to give me 1-1 lessons so I can learn something, it'll be interesting!

But everything here is of course not about school! The japanese students that was in sweden last year had a welcome party for me and the other swedish student that are here in Chiba this thursday. Together we went to a japanese restaurant and ate different japanese food and drank japanese drinks! I had really fun and even got to use my very underused swedish for a while!

Sea

Today I went down to the sea of Japan! It's an hours walk from the dormitory so its close and its also a straight way without turns so there is no chance of getting lost. And if you don't appreciate the beach there is also a park in connection with the beach that seems beautiful, did not check that out that much just walked a bit in it on the way back. Sadly I do not have a camera, but I brought my cellphone!

Wifi!

Now I've been here in Chiba for almost two whole weeks! Can't say that I am used to it or anything like that but I can say that I know a bit more how everything works in school and such. It feels a bit odd to not have regular practice lessons to every course I'm taking but I think I'll get used to that part. But sometimes during the lectures they without warning they give out some math work or statistical 問題 or something like that and then you have too little time to realize what you just received before it's time to turn it in. Of course the japanese people doesn't have the same problem as me instead they yawn and scribble down something fast. Perhaps I'll manage to survive those random tasks later on.

I went to a quantum mechanics introduction course this monday, that was a interesting experience that I hope I'll never have to do again. When the teacher enters the classroom he says something about that the regular teacher is not here today and we are going to to some practice.. and he gives out a paper with something I actually could read. But sadly that was the only thing I could do with the paper because the task was to prof some kind of complex matrices or something, and I saw like a questionmark for half an hour then left the classroom in shame. Sadly I have to get back because even that it was hard there is probably not any easier course in quantum mechanics. . .

Other then studying, I've visited the aikido club here once and tried it out. It was a bit different from what I've been training in sweden but the basic principle is the same. The aikido trains 3 times a week but sadly I can only attend to max 2 of them. On wednesday I got the honor to listen to someone from my professors office (研究室、forskarrum?) when he (probably.. not seen many girls) tells about a report/letter/article that is relevant to the science they do. The speaker speaks in japanese and has powerpoint slides in english, and afterwards people ask questions. The one I've been to this far was kinda hard to understand the japanese part but reading the english part was easy ^_^.

I've also decided to go down one level in the japanese course, mainly because one of my teachers more or less asked me to do it, and also because I think I can practice a lot more talking at that level. Hopefully I did the right choice!

Just to make this a bit longer I can report that connecting my Macbook air with the university's wifi seems like a impossible task. I asked the it-support for help and one guy tried his best to connect to the wifi but after alot of trying he just showed me an now unused relic from the past, a wep wifi that my computer actually could connect to. What the problem with the wpa one is still unclear.

/ Me

Chiba

I've now been living in Chiba (千葉) for about a week. I've got a new living quarter and started my life as a student in Chiba University (千葉大学). Everything here is new for me and it's only been a week so I havent yet got accustomed to it.

My tiny apartment is about 13 kvm (guessing) but it still got everything a person needs to survive. The kitchen part has a tiny tiny refrigerator with build in cooler, one plate that goes on 100V so it's slow. And there is also a sink which takes up most of the place in the kitchen area. The bathroom has a moving sink that goes over the toilet when you wish to shower, otherwise it's a minimal toilet with a huge sink. It my apartment I also have a bed (a bit too short for me.. ), a desk and then some different storing spaces. All as all it's a nice apartment but I havent got used to the small space yet. And for the rent that I have this is certainly livable.

During my first week here I've done all the necessary things, and most of them I've got help to do through the university. I've been to the Ward Office and changed my adress. Worth to note is when you move and change adress you have to go to the old ward office and notify them that you're going to move before going to the new ward office and register. If I had not notice that about 3 hours before moving I would had a huge problem..

Going to lectures in the university when everything is in Japanese has been not as horrible as I anticipated. I can't say it's been easy and that I've understood everything but at least I've been able to understand a fraction of what has been saying.

After a couple of months I think I'll get used to living here.

Earthquake survivor

When walking to school everyday in the heat I've noticed something. There is no button at the traffic lights like in sweden. Instead they seems to cycle automagicly and it works fine, and sometimes every car stands still because none is where there is green. And ofcourse the pedestrian crossings works the same way, this is a real pain because I have to pass some large crossings and always I got like four tries before I actually have to stop and wait for green light and every single day this far I've been forced to wait at the last one for a green light. Such a drag!

Other then that I've not much to complain about. I'm intrigued that we dont have a dishtowel in the kitchen neither do we have a washing-up brush (diskborste). Instead we use toilet paper ( I mean seriously toilet paper why not even some higher quality paper.. )  and a sponge for the dishes.

Can also report that I've survived my first earthquake. I was asleep at the time, woke up and noticed it shaking and thought a second about the durability of houses in Japan then I went back to sleep right after it stopped, it was just a tiny rumble. Next day I thought it was a dream until my friends at school discussed the earthquake.

And not it's time to study, have 3 big tests this week, already done one of them. It's placements tests so you can get into a higher Japanese class, but because I'll be leaving the school in about 10 days it doesn't really matter what I score, except for my self-esteem.

Cellphone and fluff

I've now started to get settled in the land of the rising sun. I've been going to language school for one whole week now and as long as it doesn't get any harder I think it will be just fine. I'm in a now very high level class but the speed of the class suits me. Every part of the class is in japanese so very good practicing for listening comprehension. I understand for the most part everything the teacher says, but I can't yet keep up with normal speed of japanese people. The lessons here is not what I'm used to compared to the lessons in sweden. Here we draw kanji after our sensei showed us the stroke order, and we have shadowing where the teacher reads a text and then we read it direct afterwards everyone at the same time.. (and everyone reads in different paces so it sounds horrible).

I've also managed to get myself a cellphone, a Softbank prepaid phone. I had checked up Softbanks english homepage and had seen they had alot of diffrent cellphones and also noticed that they only had two on their online-shop. So when I went to the first Softbank store with english speaking personal in Ginza, there they did not have any prepaid phones in stock so I quickly left and went for Harajuku. In Harajuku they had one phone in store, but they did not know anything about other phones as they were not in stock. Neither could they see if other stores had phones in stock. So I left that store too and went to Akihabara. There I went to a random huge store with Softbank counter and there they claimed to knew that it only existed to phones for prepaidplan. I belived them and bought a phone from them.

To buy the phone was a long process where I had to show them my passport, my registration card, give them a phone number (which I did not have but found on the internet for the school). I also picked the 4  final numbers on my phonenumber, and also got to pick my email-adress for the phone. Offcourse the personel here was none-english speaking but it worked out fine using my japanese skills. Only part that I could not understand and had to get an english speaking person for me to understand was a problem with my name. My name consists of family name, 2 middle names and one first name, ofcourse the computer system only allowed 3 names and I could not remove one name, that was impossible.. but we solved it. So now I'm a happy owner of a 携帯 (without å ä ö.. ).

/ Henrik

P.S. Sorry for making this so long D.S.

Some updates

Can report that getting the "id-card thingy" at the airport was very easy, I got some papers on the airplane to fill out, then when I got to the visum control I just gave a japanese dude the papers, he looked trough them, took my fingerprints and a photo then suddenly I had a card, no hard questions or anything that I expected. I've also gone to my local ward office and got my living address registered. They had a english speaking women that helped me out together with two other none-english speaking. It just took some time for them to figure out if I should have room 101 or 101b (my bed designation) or not on the addres, after some phone calls and discussions they made the conclusion that it doesn't matter! 

In my few days here in Japan I've now been at Harajuku, Akihabara and also the top of mount Fuji. Climbing mount fuji was very experiencing, never climbed a mountain, or well a vulcan, before. We climbed up late evening and 5 hours later we reached the top and the waited for the sunrise in the cold. We did not have that much gear with us as most of the other climbers but we did just fine, perhaps some freezing at the top but it was worth it for the awesome view of the sunrise! 

I've also been to a rotating sushi bar and karaoke with the habitants of the same house as I am living in, a real fun experience. I wonderd what japanese people do on their spare time and now I know! Karaoke was a bit embarrassing because my not so awesome singing skills, but it went just fine. 

But now my free time is over, school starts and at 10 o'clock tomorrow.

Oh and now I've met another habitant of the house here. I've have to get used to normal speaking pace of japanese otherwise I'll never be able to keep up with what people are talking about.

The Trip

Today is the day, or perhaps was the day, when I got to Japan. Traveling is always interesting when you haven't done it before. This is my first time going by airplane and I have to say going to an airport is interesting! Boarding passes, security checks and such and you never really know how they work. When I got to Arlanda it was no lines anywhere and it was very easy to get through security check and get my luggage and me checked in. My first flight was interesting, it was not really what I was expecting, I though it would be much more sit back and never notice its moving.. but it was not really like that. It was still kinda comfortable, but I expected less rumble and I did not expect to feel the plane turning. Still it was a nice experience! At this moment I'm waiting for a flight at a Finland airport. 

This airport is not as clean and tidy as Arlanda, and I got turned around a bit at first, did not know where to go. They had an extra pass control before I could get to the transit hall for the flight, it was kinda odd. Here in the waiting hall they don't have as much poweroutles as they had on Arlanda.. but still kinda nice. But its kinda fun that they shout out certain names, in different languages and tells them to hurry and go wherever. 

I've still got the most interesting part left, go trough pass controls in Narita and get a ID-card thingy and such. And then hustle my ass over to where I'm going to stay while in Japan and meet up with the house manager.

Another notice.. there is a lot of asian people waiting for the plane here.  

Oh, and I'm very tired and hoping to sleep soon.