courses

Introduction week is over and Monday is the latest day to hand in our course registration. The decision...has been made. Dam, dam, daaam! After long and careful consideration, I have decided upon the following (given that the class tomorrow isn't terrible):

• Basic Japanese I-1
• Basic Japanese I-2 (I don't have a choice - take one, take the other)
• Elementary Orthography I (essentially drawing practice; paint by numbers...but without the numbers)
• Basic Japanese Conversation I (tomorrow's class)
• Japanese Literature (without the literature, oh ha ha)
• Arts Workshop (favourite course so far!)
• Introduction to Japanese Cinema [from the 1960s]

7 courses - the minimum - mostly because a. there are no other courses I particularly want to take and b. I want at least one day off per week (Tuesdays) so am dropping the culture course with the insect-like seriously passionate professor who likes to use sports metaphors. A little sad, but I also do enjoy free time when I can go to the gym, write or go watch basketball etc. After all (and it sounds so bad to say it, but it's true) I'm not here to study, not really. So all in all, pretty happy with the selection. At the moment the most important thing is to get as much Japanese language training as possible, and with four courses, I think I'm all set.

Jo x

thursdays

I'll admit I've never been a huge fan of Thursdays. Not that I've disliked them particularly; they've just sort of floated by without any special feelings of neither joy nor dismay. Up until now that is. I officially strongly dislike Thursdays. With a total of four classes, or six hours of class, it's a miracle I survive. It's lucky I'm not a drama queen...

The morning start off with a brain-frying 3 hours of Japanese after which I have about 2 hours to regain brain capacity (this will be done through coffee - at that time I was ready to throw in the towel) before it's time for the next Japanese class where it is much needed, rest assure. A little break later, at 6.10pm and the final class begins. Fortunately this is my favourite class - the Arts Workshop! At the moment we are working on collage self-portraits, and I've come off to a pretty decent start. Might reveal my artistic masterpiece when it's done, who knows.

Today I did it. Finally. As I have waited, and waited, and waited. During one of my breaks I ventured to the very end of campus, down a gazillion stairs (or so it felt) then up some and into the corner of the building I'd just entered. And there they were. Just lying all alone, reaching out for me.

The hoodies. The Keio hoodies. Available in navy blue and grey, with a discreet Keio University logo on the chest, for a very decent price. Got the one in grey and it's all soft and new and lush! I love it already!

Only problem is that I am now broke. As in, broke broke. My account currently holds 50 yen, and my wallet 300 yen. So roughly possessing a fortune of £4 at the moment. My bank transfer from Sweden hasn't exactly come through yet and I dearly hope it comes tomorrow. But as I don't have class at Mita tomorrow I would have had to wait the WHOLE WEEKEND if I didn't get the hoodie today. Pah, as if. It's a good thing I know my priorities.

Isn't it lovely though? Totally worth living like a hobo for a few days, right?

Jo x

ps. The nice weather is back and a steady 25 degrees and bright sun have made our days a little more fabulous here.

on literature and reading

Today's adventure involved a new class - Japanese Literature. Now, as a literature student (English lit & creative writing BA at Royal Holloway for those who don't know) I was looking forward to this one. I imagined epic stories about samurajs, sword battles and coy geishas saved out of adversary situations. Kind of like British Medieval stories, but without the lazy and selfish knights. Here, the hero would act out of courage, out of the duty attached to his title - out of a pure good heart. But those are all details of my flurrying mind. As it turns out, I won't be reading anything. It's a literature course without literature! Like cheesecake without cheese, or Starbucks without coffee. Instead the course appears to be lecture-based, where the professor tells us about the traditions, periods and trends in Japan's literary history from the beginning of writing, to 1867. But if that's the way they want it...

The teacher is British. What kind of British I have yet to find out. But he's exactly the kind of stuffy, pretentious, self-important, chinos-wearing, making-jokes-no-one-really-laughs-at-but-himself kind of literature professor you want.

Edit, edit: New findings: he went to Cambridge University! Studied Natural Sciences and Japanese Studies (well, that explains why we're not reading any actual texts I suppose...)

Anyway, Mr Teacher is short and wears too large trousers for his own good. He looks somewhat like a hobbit, albeit (am I using that word correctly?) not a very nice one. However, I feel good having at least one British teacher. Perhaps there is hope for my accent after all?!

Tomorrow is the tough day. Four courses, 9am-7.40pm, and I have to find a printing device on campus somehow. Could be interesting. Or painful. Or maybe both. Maybe one for me, and one for everyone else who watched me fight tooth and nail with the copy machine before realising my mistake? We shall see.

Jo x

a few things

In learning Katakana, I have mentioned before that some of them look similar to their Hiragana equivalent. Well, scratch that problem. Here's a new one for y'all. Consider the following symbols:

ツ  シ   ソ  ン

You can clearly see there are four different ones, even if the difference is tiny. In fact, the only practical difference to these signs is the stroke order. Two of them you make the long line from up-down, and the other two down-up. Can you guess which one is which? I thought so. Now consider this: in print it's fine, you can clearly see the difference and learn which one is which. But have you ever had a friend, a colleague or a relative whose handwriting is completely illegible? I know I have a few. Of course everyone writes in their own individual style; some swirly, some straight, some more or less flowy. Now consider thus: these people (or even those with semi-legible handwriting) writing the characters above. 

Conclusion: I'm screwed.

On a brighter (...?) note I can amuse you with my Fail of the Day (maybe a tag coming up here...) which occurred in my hunt for breakfast. There is a lesson to be learnt here, or in fact there are two: 

1. Do not - I repeat, DO NOT - go adventuring in the supermarket without a Japanese speaking friend alongside.

2. Learn fricking Japanese, woman!

Anyway, I ventured to the supermarket and decided that I'd try a Westernised breakfast - soy milk and cereal. Just to try. So I got the soy milk (fairly simple as it had soy beans on the carton) and then continued to decide what cereal to get. Now, this sounds as though I had alleys and alleys of brands and kinds to choose from - no, there were two kinds. One which looked more or less like regular maize corn flakes, and then what you can see in the photo right. Brown ones. My mind immediately went to wholemeal, kind of All Bran type of cereal. And, as the health aspirant I am, I grabbed a bag, snorting a little towards the regular, unhealthy sugary stuff. Alas, I could not have been more wrong. 

As I discovered this morning, once I excitedly had poured milk into a bowl and added cereal and put a spoonful in my mouth, - they're bloody chocolate cereal! Sugar rush is an understatement and I might have put on 2-3% fat in that first mouthful. 

If there ever was a warning bell ringing, telling me I need to learn this language asap - this was it. Studying, I bend to thee.

Jo x

tough monday

One class today as mentioned: Japanese cinema. Best one so far. The teacher is Canadian and looks a lot like Tim Gunn (click here) from Project Runway. He's got that same semi-gay enthusiasm as Tim has, plus the grey hair. Considering I have two friends and will have two teachers from Canada, I'll probably end up losing my British English and come home speaking like them. I do prefer Canadian to 'regular' American though, so I guess I could be worse off.

Otherwise it was a quiet day. Just done some Japanese, watched some anime (with English subtitles, mind) and eaten the salty herring (liquorice sweet) from IKEA. Already running out of my stash but that's a good thing. Aren't you supposed to lose weight in Japan? I guess I have special powers...

More classes (read: class) await tomorrow. Trying a culture course with a professor who, according to his own notes in the course booklet, is "passionate about the subject". I bloody well hope so 'cause he did his BA, MA and currently working on PhD on the subject. Either you're passionate or just plain and simply nuts.

Also getting my Keio hoodie tomorrow. 'Been there, done that, got the hoodie' type of thing. And maybe a t-shirt. And tracksuit bottoms. Maybe.

Jo x

katakana

My next mission is to learn the second alphabet in Japanese: katakana. It works in a similar way to hiragana, but is used for foreign words and words with foreign origin, like the Japanese word for 'computer' = 'konpyūta'. Hilarious, but good for me as it makes it a hell of a lot easier to remember words. There are so many examples like above. Coffee = kōhī, and on and on.

Decievingly alike hiragana characters, katakana is built up in the same fashion and each hiragana has a katakana equivalent (why they don't simply use hiragana for everything? Trust me, I'm asking myself the same question). 

As such, compare these two: カ (katakana) and か (hiragana). They both represent the sound 'ka'. You can clearly spot the difference between them of course, but they do look fairly similar. I'm not entirely sure whether this feature makes it easier or more difficult to memorise. I think it might be the former.

Another 50-or-so characters to learn! On we go. Later today I've got a class on Japanese film. Could be interesting!


Jo x

ikea

 Finally, finally I got to experience a touch of home! Not that I'm homesick or anything, but I have a little special way of dealing with being away from what I'm used to - I get ridiculously patriotic. Before I moved from Sweden to study in the UK, I disliked my home country. Severely so. After one year in England I could not have loved it more. After two years, I'm as nationalistic as I'll ever be. So anything Swedish is pure love for me, and IKEA is no exception. Cheap, good quality stuff and of course, what I looked forward to the most, the Swedish food market! We managed to collect a whole bunch of stuff in the trolley before our more physical needs drove us to the restaurant.

Veggie curry with rice and (as is rare these days) vegetables. Doesn't look yummy in this photo, but trust me it was. Curry may not be the epitome of Swedish cuisine (but then again, what is?) but it gave me a distinct feeling of "rolling hills and broad skies" as the posters described Sweden as home to. 

I am now the happy owner of salt liquorice, proper dark chocolate, rösti (haven't had rösti in years, if ever, but there in the store it seemed a crime not to get it) and also a mirror, brand new paper boxes and things to put school stuff in. This lady is a happy cookie! I'm feeling as though I'm starting to settle in a little, getting a tad more organised, and it's starting to become more and more evident that I'm going to be here for a year, rather than a 3-week vacation.

Japan is cool.

Jo x

ljungberg

The Kawasaki mascot

Finally Saturday came too. I'd been looking forward to this event the whole week and in the afternoon we set off to Kawasaki where Fredrik (or Freddie as he's known as here) Ljungberg would play. Rumour had it he was semi-injured and wouldn't start the game, but I kept my fingers crossed he would come in later or at least be there. Otherwise the whole thing would sort of be pointless. It's not like I went for the football. Ha!

The arena was huge! I mean, sure, maybe not in UK measurements, but the biggest I've been to anyway. Granted, we were standing at the very top on the second floor so could possibly not get further away from the field so maybe that influenced my perception of size, but I was still like a little kid when I first came in: mouth o-shaped, a long outdrawn 'wooow' as the initial reaction.

The game was sold out and the arena was absolutely packed with blue for Kawasaki and orange for Shimizu S-Pulse.

The three mascots for Kawasaki were running around on the field (why do I want to call it a court?) before the game and having the absolute time of their life. One dinosaur/Sony/dolphin, one alien, and one what appeared to be a radish. A tad strange but they looked happy and got the audience going. I particularly liked how they were so cute! In Sweden at least, all the sports clubs have kind of mascots - and they all look evil! My local team at home have a dolphins (Norrköping Dolphins) but it looks more like a shark than anything else. RHUL Bears have an aggressive bear, for example. But these were like cartoon characters, happy and joyful and adorable. Perhaps that says something about the Japanese sports culture, I don't know. All I know is that Kawasaki fans and Shimizu fans rode the same bus to the stadium and there was no problem in that.

 Right, enough about mascots and football, and to the VIP of the evening: Freddie. It looked dismal for a playing viewing, and he was on the bench for a long, long time, not looking to have any intentions of playing. Six players were already warming up, when I saw the coach approach him, gesturing out to the field. Maybe, maybe, maybe...then, finally, he stepped up and changed to play! In the 35th minute of the second half - but still! Even snapped some shots of him without a shirt, but those I'll keep to myself, hehe.

Freddie did well, except missing an open shot right in front of the goal, and the goalkeeper had business elsewhere doing who knows what. Despite this tiny, tiny mistake, he was good, but obviously didn't have much time. You could tell he was frustrated by his co-players, and I understand why. This is the top league in Japan, and it was about the same level as bottom of top Swedish league Allsvenskan, or maybe second league UK.

I waved to him at the end when they were thanking the audience, but he probably didn't see me 'cause he didn't wave back...

Jo x

dancing

No class today as it is a National Holiday. Thanks for that, we appreciate it. Two of my friends wanted to check out the Dance Society so we went four of us, two dancing, two (including me) sitting on the side like creepy trolls taking pictures and videos. It was in Hiyoshi and we first went into a huge room, like a classroom with loads of benches and packed with people and their stuff. Proper dirty, like a hang-out place for dancers. Imagine Fame all over again! People were dancing to their own music through earphones, and there were stereos placed here and there bashing out loud music. Awesome place and everyone was so street! Amazing. The class looked like fun and they'll be performing at the Mita Festival in November which apparently is a big deal here. Proper hip hop dancing as well - love it!

The Philosopher's Stone

Afterwards we went to a second hand bookstore and look here what I found! Harry Potter in Japanese!

Fun fact #1: in translation, the text becomes twice as long so each book is published in two books. 14 books in total, in other words!

Fun fact #2: In Japanese, the pronunciation of the name 'Harry Potter' sounds a lot like 'hairy potato''.

Fun fact #3: Japanese books are read right to left, vertically, and backwards. So where we end a book, they start. Still getting used to it - it looks so strange!

s

R: Chamber of Secrets. L: Prisoner of Azkaban.

Found this in a boutique. Very, very odd!

Finally found some food! We went out for dinner and in a little cosy Japanese place I dined on the following: special tofu (a little sweet and very fried), udan noodles, green onion, and veggie tempura. Blinged up with soy and some spicy spice. Very tasty and it cost 510 yen, or £5 (50 SEK). Not too bad I don't think!

Tomorrow is the big day - football game with Shimizu S Pulse and Fredrik Ljungberg! There will be photos, rest assure. Sunday promises IKEA and somewhere in between these fun things I should probably study some Japanese + figure out where the bloody post office is!

Jo x

classing

First day of classes. I went from roughly 4 months of complete nothingness (academically speaking) straight into a 5-class day, 9am-7.40pm. Yeah, I don't believe in soft starts. I thought I'd most likely drop dead by the last two classes, but surprisingly am still alive and reasonably well.

So I started the day with a lovely 3 hours of Japanese. Now the Japanese course I'm taking is the very very basic one - the kind which uses educational cartoons of ridiculously over-acting characters displaying phrases such as 'good morning' and 'thank you'. There was even that awkward video where a foreigner introduces himself and makes even more awkward cultural mistakes. Highly educational, and also a minor bitch slap to my self-perception. Thanks to the classes I am now fluent in Japanese. Jokes.

After a proper rockstar lunch of plain rice and seaweed I headed to Mita Campus for more proper courses (the basic ones are at Hiyoshi Campus, where I live. Good for early mornings!). I felt so confident after the morning's success that I went to Elementary Orthography - learning to write Kanji, the Chinese characters. Allow me to give examples: 肉 or 全 or 食 or 用 or 適. Fun, eh? But it is, once more, a big part of Japanese language so necessary to learn in order to understand newspapers etc. I think on average you need to know about 2,000 of these to understand daily things. So I ventured, full of confidence, almost arrived late as I was rambling around the wrong building at first, sat down - and the teacher started speaking. In Japanese. Only, in Japanese. No English. At all. Thankfully the Swedish guy next to me understood a lot and translated for me. We learnt the numbers 1-10 in Kanji, and they weren't too difficult to be honest. We also got a schedule of the Kanji characters we'd learn each week. Holy cow, it gets difficult. Undecided whether I'll continue this class or not.

We finished early so I sat down with the girls and looked through clubs and societies we can join. I particularly liked the "I am uninterested in ordinary human beings. If you are a creature from outer space, please join." but then saw that no non-Japanese speakers were welcome. I can't but wonder - how the heck do those criteria go together? We wanted to e-mail the leader and ask (I mean, we do have Alien Registration cards!) but decided not to. He might be creepy and it's best to keep a low profile around the creeps. Anyway, found some interesting ones - cooking, basketball, dancing (of which I probably can do none as I am a. vegan, so cooking class will be awkward, and b. have a busted knee so no sports for me). 

Then it was time for class numéro 4: Japanese Psychology. It was all about conflict and anger management and the teacher spent one hour explaining why she was interested in it (cultural shock of the violent outrage anger expression from an African student, say no more) and discussing why more girls than boys took the course. Then we drew our representation of 'Anger' with coloured pens and everything. Very, erm, special class. Might not go back. Yeah, probably not. Seeing other people's drawings freaked me out. Fricking artists.

So when the bell rang (yes, they have bells proper high school style!) I thought the Arts Workshop might be a better place for the very artistic soul that I am (note for all Sheldons out there: sarcasm). However, this arts class sounds incredible. Field trips to museums, photo books, book covers, fake food, self-portraits, Edo glass art - the list is long! And the teacher wants essays to be fun and colourful! How can you not love that?! I just hope I can squeeze out some creativity, because at the moment it's all focused on writing, not 'art-art'.

Tomorrow is a national holiday which means no class. A whole 3 days free until Monday when it all begins again. Before then of course - football with Freddie on Saturday! Also planning a trip to IKEA in Yokohama...

Now - sleep. Awfully tiring this school stuff.

Jo x

typhooning

Got this e-mail from the university this morning:

"Very strong typhoon No. 15 is approaching Tokyo area and may hit the
area this afternoon. 

Today, Wednesday, September 21st, all the JLP afternoon classes (after
3rd period) are CANCELLED. Please stay alert and follow updates on TV or internet."

"Typhoon No. 15" - it sounds so ominous! And how do they expect me to follow updates? I don't understand Japanese! Let's just avoid going outside. It's raining like mad (and has done since last night) and I suppose it'll get windy as well soon. I wouldn't have had any classes today, so it doesn't affect me but I think I shall be staying inside nevertheless. Or I could go out singing in the rain, take a chance, live on the edge. We shall see...

Jo x

lazying

From 32 degrees yesterday, today the temperature dropped by a whopping 10 degrees! Rain, grey sky and a slightly chilly 20 degrees have characterised this Tuesday in the East.

And with grey weather comes laziness. Stayed inside my room until 3pm writing and watching tv-shows, but ultimately decided that it would very sad indeed if I didn't leave the house at all. I mean, in Sweden or UK it might be fine (and it has happened on several occasions, but with mitigating circumstances such as exam period or immediate time after ACL reconstructive surgery) but I'm in fricking Japan! So what did you get up to in your year abroad? Yeah, man it was mental - spent it inside a 10 sq. metre room! Nah, I don't think so.

So, feeling adventurous, I ventured out in the real world where people have a purpose, deadlines, a must-go-to - and went to the gym. Did my stuff and then ventured back to my little shelter. What a globetrotter I am! I did get a lot done today though, writing-wise. Tomorrow is the last cramming of Hiragana before the test on Thursday, and then classes begin! Exciting times!

Also, yesterday I may have come out officially as a bad cook, but I'd like to retreat back into the closet. Tonight I managed to make something really tasty! With more than two ingredients! Buckwheat noodles with soy + garlic fried mushrooms, beansprouts, cabbage, and thin sliced fried tofu. It was so good I had to compliment myself. I will probably be eating this every day now until I come up with another amazing recipe in like (well let's be honest here) at least a couple of weeks.


Jo x

potlucking

Second Welcome Party in two days today. This time in the shape of a potluck party! In my endeavours I found out that I officially cannot cook. I mean, sure, (as my former flatmate pointed out) I sort of already knew this fact about me, but today it became official. Zero imagination, zero skill. Not the best combination I'll admit. But I swished something together with noodles and tofu and veggies and Chinese chili sauce (thank frick for chili sauce - can save anything!) and people said it looked good so got to be happy with that. And it tasted fine, really.

Party was nice and after the name bingo (don't even ask) they brought out the booze. Gin and beer all the way around - the two beverages I cannot take. Took a little gin for the team and it only reminded me and assured me that it is indeed a terrible, terrible drink. Some people had a wee bit more than a little, and got very, very jolly.

Only two more days of freedom before classes start now, and I have officially learnt all the Hiragana symbols. Now it's only a matter of remembering them. They're almost like 50+ new tiny friends, each with their own characteristics and twists and twirls. It's kind of cute. I like it. Ask me again after the test on Thursday and we'll see how much I like it then...

Oh, and one of the French girls who is absolutely lovely plays basketball and wants to find a team here! I will finally have a legitimate reason to stalk and spy on their trainings/games! Win!

Jo x

partying

Quiet day with a wee trip to the gym and coffee with a Japanese friend of a friend (but who's now just a friend, not friend-of-a-friend. Got it?). In the gym I checked out their spa area. Amazing stuff! There is a hot tub and showers where you can either sit down (very strange) or stand up in a private cubicle. They even provide you with shampoo, conditioner and body soap! After you've had your shower you go dry off in the body driers before heading back in to the locker room. Once dressed you can sit down in one of the booths with hair dryer, big mirror, small mirror, towel and tap. I'm telling you I love this place.

On Saturday I might go watch a football game. But not just any old football game no - I will be watching Freddie Ljungberg play! He's just moved to Japan and is playing at an arena not far from here! Hello fellow Swede! Maybe he'll remember me from our last encounter in London 2008? Hmm...we shall see. If he doesn't remember me now, he will after Saturday, rest assure!

In other news there was a welcome party tonight and there is a welcome party tomorrow. Lots of welcoming for international people. They're basically mingling parties and strike me as a bit forced. Literally shove a bunch of strangers in a room, provide drinks and food and make them talk to each other. But I met some really nice people today who promised to take me to tea ceremonies and make Korean food for me so I really won't complain. Maybe I can go to IKEA (there is one in Yokohama), get some meatballs and make a proper Swedish meal for one of them? Or tacos. The most popular dish in Sweden. Food culture for the win!

I've learnt all the basic Hiragana now. Only about 20 or so combinations of them left, but that should be easy. Yay me! But I heard I will have to learn the other alphabet, Katakana, for lesson 2...bloody hell! I'll have no free time at all! Buu!

Jo x

johnny's

In Harajuku there is a place called Johnny's. Oddly Western style name come to think of it. Regardless. Johnny's is a terrific place if you are a girl. Apparently if a guy finds out you like/usually go/have been/appreciate Johnny's, they will consider you a bit 'uncool' (the exact word used by my friend) but girls still like it in secret.

So what is it? Located on a side street Johnny's takes up two floors. In the basement are the products: photos of guys. Literally rows and rows of glass showcases with small pictures of famous actors, singers etc. Talk about window shopping!

Every photo has a number, and to shop you pick up a sheet and a pen by the entrance and tick the numbers on the paper which correspond to the photo you want to buy. They are 150 yen a piece, so roughly £1.30. When you're ready choosing you take your sheet up to the tills where the cashiers will bring out the photos you've chosen and you pay.

You'd think it sounds like a dream place for teenage girls to go crazy over their male obsessions - but no, no - Johnny's is just as much frequented by thirty-somethings and older housewives. Everyone from age 5 to 60 will come in and get images of their favourites!

Johnny's is a perfect example of why Japan is a very strange, but at the same time adorable, country.

Jo x

ps. No, I did not buy any photos.

shibuya & harajuku

Rruff!

 Potentially boring day was ahead with plenty of Japanese symbols (getting more and more incomprehensive at this stage, grr...), so I protested and went with Vivien and Rin to Shibuya and Harajuku.

After visiting the famous loyal dog in Shibuya (see right photo). the huge crossing (see below) and three (!) 7-floor department stores with clothes, clothes, clothes and clothes, we ventured towards Harajuku.

On the way we sort of stumbled in to an Indian Food Festival, where Japanese women were dancing Indian belly dance in the tune of the masala smell that was all around. Then before we knew it there was doner kebab and we seemed to have landed in Turkey. Just as we accepted this fact, the sign said Vietnamese Festival '11 and the place was filled with Vietnamese food stands, performances and people. Once we managed to find our way out we remembered that, actually, this was Japan. Culturally confused if not before!

Kurakura photo

On the way to Harajuku we stopped by a Meiji temple (see below) which was very traditional indeed. Harajuku itself was nice. Loads of cheap shops with shoes, clothes etc. And kurakura. This fantastic invention is sort of like passport photo machines, although bigger. You take photos, the machine airbrushes them into amazingness and then you can decorate it however you want. It looks semi-freaky, 100% awesome! It's impossible to look bad in these photos. Honestly!

All in all a brilliant day but no studying done. Now onto learning 10 Hiragana symbols. There are so many left I'm starting to doubt I will be able to learn them all in time! Might not be a good idea to start cheating on Day 1. Got a couple of days left though so maybe.

Shibuya crossing

Meiji temple entrance

A couple was getting married at the temple and, creepy tourist as I am, I snuck up as close as I could without attracting their attention and snapped a shot. Awesome dress and beautiful robe on the guy.

Harajuku

Jo x

progress

Believe it or not (probably more towards not) but I can officially now read, write and understand the following:

こんばんは (good evening)

こんにちは (good day)

すこし (a little)

Sugoi! (means 'amazing' and would be written  すごい (no cheating!)).

Jo x

washing

I attempted the washing machine today for the first time. As my Japanese flatmate is away, it looked as if it would turn out into a wild guessing game of knock-out Who Wants To Be a Millionaire type of thing. Naturally it is all written in Japanese and without as much as a comprehensive image to go by, it could go either way.

Add to this set-up that I could only hope I had bought laundry detergent and not softener or some other chemical solution. Needless to say, I felt confident...

After five minutes of figuring out how to switch on the damn thing, I shoved my clothes in (all black, less risk of destruction) and the - hopefully - laundry detergent. Closed the lid, pressed a couple of buttons just to see what happened and BOOM - managed to start the machine. Still having no clue what I'd just done. But there was not much else to do but to go back to my room and say a silent prayer to every deity out there that it would be ok.

Half an hour later the washing machine started beeping. Fortunately beeping is a universal language and I guessed it signified that the laundry was done. I think I was right. One can never be too sure. And the clothes smelled nice and looked about the right size still, so I can only assume that I have been successful in my first attempt! Go me!

They're hanging outside drying, so I'm not too comfortable calling out victory yet. Anything can happen still...

Jo x

karaokeing

Last night we went for karaoke. Now, Japanese karaoke is not like tacky Western karaoke, mind. There is no stage, no anonymous crowd watching and it is not carried out in the late hours in a nightclub. This is way classier. Karaoke here is more of a social event, where you go with friends, get your own private room and eat and/or drink and have fun.

 They had a surprisingly large number of Western songs - even Maroon 5's new album that came out a few weeks ago! Plenty of ABBA (guess what I chose...) and pretty much everything you could think of. Of course also lots of Japanese songs which were good, even though I have no fricking idea about what the lyrics were about. Every song had a video accompanying it, but not the real music video, no - an especially made one with Japanese actors. Possibly the cheesiest videos I've seen. How about the girl who spends the evening fantasising about her romantic anniversary the next day with her boyfriend, then wakes up forgets and has to run to the place where they are supposed to meet. When she reached the train station she has forgotten her wallet at home so she has to run back. And all the while this poor guy stands waiting, occasionally glancing at his wristwatch. Why doesn't she just call him, you say? It is Japan after all - plenty of technology. Well, alas, alas as he calls her to ask where she is, she pulls up her phone from her purse and drops it in the very (un)conveniently placed river. Oops! But not to worry - she made it in the end and they lived happily ever after.

Mita Campus

Mita Campus

 Our Keio co-op. Here you'll find food (sort of convenience store) and stationary and on the top floor text books. But the best part is, as I discovered today, all the Keio logo merchandise. Hoodies, tracksuit bottoms, t-shirts, diaries, pens - everything! Man, I'm going to spend so much money there. Such a sucker for anything with a sense of community. Definitely getting a hoodie and tracksuit bottoms. Apparently Keio is one of the top universities in Japan and over here the name of your university is very important, even more important than your course, so I might as well flaunt it while I can.

Mm, what do we get...?

Rice, veggies & pumpkin

Took a little tour of Hiyoshi Campus as well. That big building left is the basketball hall (and volleyball and badminton, but who cares..?). Sadly today there was no training as the hall had been set up for some kind of ceremony. People are graduating from here at the moment so we saw loads of girls in kimonos and pretty pretty make-up.

Below: watched an American Football training + Athletics training on our Hiyoshi arena. Keio has loads of sports - archery, equestrian, football, rugby and on and on. In October there is a huge baseball game between Keio and rivals Waseda. A bit like UCL and Royal Holloway except this game is broadcast on TV, as are all college baseball games! Can't wait for that one!

The stadium

 Now on again to Hiragana. I've learn 30 so far. There are apparently about 100. Hrm.

Jo x

practising

46 characters to learn, and the combinations and pronunciations of them as well. 7 days to complete.

5 down. If I can remember them by the end of the day. I need to learn 14 today. Great.

And this is before classes begin. What do they think: that I'm here to do any actual work?

Then again, it's kind of crucial in order to learn Japanese...

Jo x

yesterday

Something funky has happened to the image uploader on the blog so it takes ages to upload photos. I've put some here, but if you want to see all (especially non-Facebookers) click HERE!

Yesterday was a big Tokyo day. We decided we wanted to go up the Tokyo Tower (which, despite its miniature look, apparently is 30 m higher than the Eiffel Tower - this is proudly announced in the brochure). It is a broadcasting tower and the landmark of Tokyo and by deduction a must for a newcomer in this city, tourist or not. As with every larger city, it looks nicer by night, and after the non-test of Japanese language skills (at least for me) we had many, many hours to kill. And slaughter them we did. As follows.

Back to the pond!

Policeman saving a turtle.

 We visited several temples and smaller shrines. In this 'well' you can wash your hands for both physical and spiritual cleanliness. The water is almost so clean you could drink it and you find one of these outside every temple/shrine. Very nice in the 30-degree stickiness!

Gonggonged a gonggong

 These dolls are apparently part of Japanese mythology. At night they come alive and visit the owner or decorator and bring rice as a gift. They represent dead people and the hats are for protection in the rain (although I must point out that an umbrella would have been more efficient than a loosely knitted hat...).

 In Japan the custom is to stand on the left side when not climbing an escalator. This rule is followed by literally everyone - it's even worse than in London! Disciplined country if anything.

Pokémon center!

Pokémon Center in Tokyo. I'm not really a fan even if I watched the first series when I was 10-ish, but apparently it's very much still alive. Toys, merchandise, stationary, hats (!), figurines - you name it! - all in funny colours and shapes of various pokémons.

 Then we headed to Asakusa (pronounced as-A-ksa) which is a sort of touristy area in Tokyo with a temple, loads of souvenir shops and sweet shops etc.

It had one main street with little boutiques selling everything from Japanse rice balls, waving cat products to bags and wallets.

 Here's an interesting occurrence which apparently can be found outside most temples. It's a square building and lining the outside are loads and loads of small boxes. It is nothing less but a fortune teller. You put 100 yen in the slot, take the metal container and shake it so a stick carrying a number comes out. This number corresponds to a box and you find your box and open it to get your fortune.

If it's a good fortune, you keep the sheet of paper and take it home. Should it be bad, you simply tie it on to the poles which are placed just next to the building and leave it behind.

Me, I got number 87 - the best fortune!
You will meet good luck by chance just like getting a gem from the rocks while you are digging. Even if you are righteous and have a chance to be successful, nothing can be achieved unless you work hard.

Awesome. I'll take that as a guarantee. Anything goes wrong, I come back and return it.

 Incense for wisdom and healing. Hiragana symbols and ACL rehabilitation both got their fair share. You stand close to the smoke and sort of whisk it on you (or, as some did, more or less 'soap' your entire body in it). Might have gassed my eyesight to zero but the smoke will heal that too so it's all good.

 Shaved ice with lemon syrup. Need I say more? The biggest sweet thing I've seen in my entire life and it is literally just ice. Bloody good but brain freeze is a high risk factor and the sweetness of the syrup may cause temporary nausea from sickliness. Just a warning should you ever find yourself with one in hand and be unsure of what to expect.

Asakusa by night.

 Finally time for Tokyo Tower! We only went up in the main observatory (cheap and tired and not in the mood for 30 mins wait), which is 150 metres up, but there was still a pretty good view of the city. I won't bore you with the details because essentially, all the photos I took were like the above - lots of lights, lights and more lights. They're in the album in the link above anyway.

The only thing that would have completed this day would have been the Cat Café. Sadly it was closed. Once I managed to get to one, I'll tell you more about it, but it sounds like the best place on the planet to me.

Now I must go off and learn Hiragana (at least 14 per day!) and go find the sports hall in Hiyoshi. Apparently they play basketball games there (only looking, not touching - pinky promise)...

Jo x