Snö

Igår snöade det friskt här i Chiba, och även i Tokyo. Somliga gick så långt och kallade det snöstorm. Nog för att det snöade på rejält under hela dagen så hade jag aldrig någon stormkänsla över det hela. Jag och några andra studenter firade snön med att kasta snöbollar på varandra. Några andra passade på att bygga stora snögubbar, det fanns gott om bra snö att leka med! Dagen efter nu så ligger snön tyvärr kvar. Jag har ingen termometer men jag tror temperaturen ligger runt nollan.

Alla utbytesstudenter jag umgås med har sett snö förut (tyskar och finnar) så inga chockade miner. Var dock några asiatiska utbytesstudenter som verkade extra fascinerade över snön. Japanerna själva var uppenbarligen förberedda för snö, för nu kör de flesta fordon större än personbilar runt med snökedjor runt ett hjulpar. Jag tror inte de har varken sandat eller saltat vägarna här, men 1 dm snö och snökedjor? Visserligen har jag inte sett någon med dubbdäck, så kanske det enbart är sommardäck som används här året om. Idag är det knappt ingen snö alls på vägarna, om den är bortkörd eller smält kan jag inte avgöra, men i vilket fall så kör många runt med snökedjor.

Sen tycker Japanerna om att hålla rent utanför sina affärer, så utanför de flesta affärerna var det snöfritt, så jag förmodar att någon stackare har fått skotta hejvilt. Vid mitt boende har de gjort en gång som är ungefär 2 skyfflar bred, med tanke på att det tog dem cirka 4h att göra den så hade de nog enbart skyfflar. En rejäl snöskyffel och det hade gått på halva tiden!

Cykelbanorna och gångbanorna är dock inte speciellt snöfria eller isfria, men är inte värre än i Sverige. Tåls att nämnas att japanerna har aldrig någon speciellt hög gångfart, men nu är det är is ute så har den sjunkit ännu mera! Nog för att det är bra att ta det försiktigt, men lite fart kan man ändå ha.

 Allt som allt var det kul med snöbollskrig, men jag önskar att snön hade försvunnit tills idag, den är mest i vägen.

Christmas

Another year has now passed by. It went by fast, in a blink of an eye. I've now been in Japan for about 4 months and still having a great time here! Sadly it's now the end of the winter break and on monday I've to go back to school once more. I've been doing some christmas celebrations and new years celebration during the break, but mostly been sleeping and doing nothing at all. It feels like I've been relaxing a bit too much maybe but it was holiday after all!

So how did I celebrate christmas this year? On the 24th I was on two christmas dinners. The first one was at Ikea together with friends, then directly after that one there was another dinner at the dorm where everyone brought different dishes and shared. Myself I made meatballs. My meatballs did not really taste and feel like they would if I would have done them in sweden. Mostly because I did not find bread crumbs in the food store so I took something else as a substitute. In the end they were eatable at least (but the one I ate at Ikea was better). There were a lot of good food at the dinner, finish traditional food thingy, finish sallad, Italian pasta thing, sushi and the list goes on and on. But because I already ate a dinner right before I was not that hungry, but I tried most of the dishes anyway!




Other things I've been doing this winter break is visit LaLaPort, a huge shopping mall. it was 3 floors that consisted of mostly cloth stores. To be honest we were there for about 4 hours but still we did not manage to get to the 3rd floor, so what is up there is still a mysterium. But the other 2 floors were mostly clothes so I presume the third floor is the same. It was me, Mikko, Katta and Milla going. I do believe the girls appreciated the trip more then me and Mikko (girls and their clothes). After the shopping spree ( I did not buy anything) we went to Kaiten sushi.

Kaiten sushi (回転寿司) is a sushi resturant where there is sushi plates going around on a conveyor belt and you have to fetch the one you have to eat. You could also just order what  you want to eat and then the plate will show up on the band. I've been to 3 different kaiten sushi places, one was a small place where the chef stood in the middle of a conveyor band putting out dishes and people just shouted what they wanted to him. The other two have had a touchscreen where you can order, and the on one it was a small special band for the orders and it came a train with the orderd sushi. The last one had special plates for ordered sushi. When you are done they scan the plates you have and you pay according to how many plates you have eaten, and in some plates different plates have different prices.

So what else have I've been doing this break? I've been to a Onsen with my tutor and his friends. It was really awesome, and you could sit outside in hot water and ponder about everything and nothing. There was alot of different pools that claimed to have different health properties if you choose to believe in stuff like that. If the water is healthy or not I dont know, but it sure was hot and nice. They also had a steam sauna and a dry sauna. It was a really calm and relaxed atmosphere!

Another cool thing is when we went to the onsen we went there by monorail! It was of a hanging type(?) where the rail was above and the train was hanging down. Was just as a normal train but maybe a bit more smooth ride. And it was a bit up in the air so had a good view!

And I have a lot more to write but this is already way too long. So じゃね！