A pinch of Cecily

Hiatus

2010-10-01T22:30:00.000+02:00

This blog has fallen into disuse due to my busy daily life and few travel-related blog post ideas... My life has changed quite a bit since I started writing this blog, and I realized it doesn't cover my (writing)needs any more. I've revised my blog ideas and writing concepts and I'll start writing again, but not here. I'm keeping this blog in case I feel like using it at a later point though..

Interested in my writings? If you know me personally you know where to go, if not leave me a comment and I'll get back to you.

Blog post #2 - 2010: Time Leap - skipped past February to Mach

2010-03-08T16:08:00.000+01:00

A new era, a new outlook, new plans, new projects, new procrastinations, new problems - or perhaps the same old story in a new guise.

February's blogpost was duly ignored due to exams, but now I've finally finished what feels like the 2 most important exams of my bachelor's degree. The outcome? Haven't got the results back yet, but I feel good about the exams. Part of me says "I'm not failing, so it's all good", while another part of me says "Well, I'm not happy unless it's atleast a ...!" I think it's fair to guess that the outcome will be somewhere in between those to extremes... I still have one more exam before the summer, but mostly to fill out the rest of the semester.

So... the most important exams done, now I have to find a job. The dreaded, scary jobhunting era has finally begun. I still have some courses I'd like to take at my university, so it looks like I'm staying in town for another year or so - unless I get a steady job somewhere else. A steady job trumps everything else.

My activities nowadays will be jobhunting; research businesses and companies, looking up internships, requirements and application deadlines, writing applications, updating my online profiles and applications.

On the leisure front I'll be sewing a pair of curtains, making a commissioned painting or two, reading japanese litterature, rewieving japanese grammar and vocabulary, and hopefully blog the occasional blog post.

February, though exam preparation hell:
We had the best party ever! Coctail & Tapas, Triple Birthday and House Warming Party! We had about 40 guests, no fights, only 1 broken glass, and no neighbour complaints! :)

Nytt år, nye utfordringer. Bloggpost nr.1 - 2010

2010-01-15T19:17:00.001+01:00

Det høres jo veldig nyttårsforsettelig ut, men jeg har stort sett byttet ut nyttårsforsetter med års-nøytrale ambisjoner. Istedet for tanken om at dette skal jeg forbedre i [år X] er ambisjonene ting jeg ønsker å forbedre kontinuerlig, uavhengig av år og årstider. Alle nyttårsforsettene fra 2009 har jeg beholdt og omdøpt til ambisjoner, og de to nyttårsforsettene jeg har for 2010 er 1) å bli flinkere til å holde kontakten med venner og bekjente fjern og nær, og 2) besøke Inghild oftere enn jeg klarte H09. Jeg legger ikke lista så høyt, men det er jo to ting som er viktig for meg, og det kan fremdeles være en utfordring midt oppi tidsklemma av en tid jeg lever i.

Blant de mer åpenbare utfordringene mine, (som jeg ikke har noe imot å dele med det O Store Internettet) kan jeg nevne "Oppdatere bloggen min oftere/mer regelmessig", og "Fullføre påbegynte prosjekter" - f.eks. julekalenderprosjektet mitt (kanskje jeg rekker det innen 24/1?)... Den største utfordringen er vel fremdeles å få tid til alt jeg har lyst til i tillegg til alt nødvendig rusk.

Jeg, som de fleste andre, har plenty av utfordringer: interne, eksterne, familiære, fremmede, fremtidige og samtidige, lekne og useriøse såvel som akademiske, ambisiøse, alvorlige og nødvendige. Utfordringer har jeg vel egentlig nok av, men denne utfordringen (kategori leken og useriøs) fra Karin kunne jeg da heller ikke motstå.

Utfordringen går på å liste "topp 3", og så sende utfordringen videre.

3 ting jeg misliker:

Idioter
Besservissere
Stabeist med skylapper (folk som nekter å se/innse at det er mer enn én side ved en sak)

3 ting jeg liker veldig godt:

Mocca Mint m/krem
Amarula
Smash

3 blogger jeg besøker daglig
Vel, jeg besøker vel ikke så mange blogger daglig i det hele tatt, men de 3 jeg besøker oftest er:

3 sanger jeg hører på for tiden:

Ratatat - Wildcat
Second Reality - Fail to See
Ratatat - Falcon Jab

3 tv-programmer jeg følger med på (les laster ned/streamer):

Heroes
Criminal Minds
The Big Bang Theory

3 bloggere jeg vil gi denne videre til:

Lina
Tone
og.... hvemsomhelst ellers som oppdaterer bloggen sin tidvis... Jeg har visst ikke så mange av dem på listen min.

Og: Godt Nyttår da, dere!

Oops...

2009-12-24T13:54:00.001+01:00

Sorry about the lack of updates! Mostly I haven't been able to update because life got in the way, but that's not really a bad thing...;) I've still taken mos of the photos I planned to, but as I forgot to bring my laptop for the holidays the updating and uploading of pictures got a little more difficult... I'll try to upload before new years - but seeing that it's mostly my social life that keeps me away from my daily blog project, and it's the season for crazy amounts of socializing, I can't make any promises. Any updates will be backdated to the originally intended day of uploading.

It's Christmas Eve already! Only 7 days left of 2009! Merry Christmas!

Status Update

2009-12-13T21:32:00.000+01:00

Sorry for the lack of updates, the Christmas Calendar Project is still on, even though I haven't been able to upload my posts at the promised rate. When they do come they will all be backdated to the day they represent.

New update when the calendar project is up to date. Cheers!

Christmas Calendar: December 11th

2009-12-11T12:00:00.002+01:00

December 11th, 2009. Sunlight! At least the last remains of it for the day. And Christmas decorations at the town square. Moose in Sunset < Christmas Tree in Sunset.

Christmas Calendar: December 10th

2009-12-10T12:00:00.001+01:00

December 10th, 2009. The main "Christmas Street" in town.

Christmas Calendar: December 9th

2009-12-09T12:00:00.001+01:00

December 9th, 2009. The macabre angels at the mall. Scary and (seemingly) headless. I wonder if the artist/decoration director was aware of this or not...

Christmas Calendar: December 8th

2009-12-08T12:00:00.001+01:00

December 8th, 2009. Christmas Workshop - Norwegin style! Norwegian and Japanese friends gathered toghether with crafting gear, Christmas music, hot chocolate and gingerbread cookies. Process, results, and good memories:)

Christmas Calendar: December 7th

2009-12-07T12:00:00.000+01:00

December 7th, 2009: Christmas Decorations at the Student Centre. Not Impressed.

Christmas Calendar: December 6th

2009-12-06T23:54:00.000+01:00

Temporarily Photo-Free Blog Post.

- because I forgot to bring my camera with me when I ran out the door this morning.

I know what picture I want in this post though.
I'm planning on taking a photo of a friend's christmas tree, and then write a short note about it. But writing the note, and not posting the picture at the same time, will be too much of a spoiler so you'll all just have to wait. ;)

Christmas Calendar: December 5th

2009-12-05T12:00:00.001+01:00

December 5th, 2009. Julebord/Christmas Parties/Year-End-Parties. A friend and I were hanging out at my place and decided to go out for a drink (yes, one/1 drink... at first..). Since it turned out to be Saturday (a complete surprise to us both) and full of fun people from a Christmas Party we ended up spending the whole evening in the merry company of random fun people. It was almost like having a Christmas Party of our own;)

乾杯！

Christmas Calendar: December 4th

2009-12-04T12:00:00.003+01:00

December 4th, 2009. Work / バイト. Christmas decorations at my part-time job. Not much more to say, it was supposedly a quiet evening, but because of the Christmas Party-season I still ran until my feet hurt, and then a little more.

I'll replace this phone-photo with a proper one when I remember to bring my camera to work.

バイトは楽しいけど、帰るまですごく疲れた。

Christmas Calendar: December 3rd

2009-12-03T20:00:00.001+01:00

December 3rd, 2009. Christmas lights spotted on the way to a favourite café/coffee shop/kissaten. My classmates and I celebrated the end of the semester with hot chocolate and improvised a haiku for the occasion that we wrote in the café guest book:

三人が
試験を受けた
気持ち良い。

The three,
Having finished with their exams,
Feel good.

(by: AA, ABH & CK)

...and other random scribbles for future customers' reading ~~pleasure~~ puzzlement. :)

Christmas Calendar: December 2nd

2009-12-03T12:00:00.004+01:00

December 2nd, 2009. A Christmas decorated pedestrian street where I live. It even has it's own Christmas tree. ♥

Today I'm adding a Japanese proverb:

猿も木からおちる。
Even monkeys fall from trees.

Mata ne!

Christmas Calendar: December 1st

2009-12-02T12:00:00.002+01:00

December 1st, 2009.
Christmas star at my friends' place where we had a Christmas Party / Pinnekjøttkveld. Best evening in a looooooong time. Cheers!

朝四時半に一人で歩いて帰る。
イルミネション照らす道は捨てる。
ちょっとだけだけど、
今、私は照らす道がありそう。
気持ちいい。

Walking home by myself at 4:30 am.
The decorated streets are deserted.
It's just for a moment, but,
Right now it feels like the illuminated streets are just mine.
It feels nice.

Christmas is approaching, December is here

2009-12-01T12:00:00.000+01:00

A little about my Christmas Calendar Project

Background:
In Norway it is common tradition for families to have Christmas/Advent Calendar for the children (or tweens, teens, twenty-somethings, etc.) to count down to Christmas eve. Some families make a 'gift calendar' with 24 small items (of whatever, pencils, erasers, candy, chocolate, home made cookies, figurines, etc.) that someone, usually a parent, has collected and wrapped up, given the numbers 1-24 and arranged as a calendar in one way or another (I'm not going into detail here, comment if you're interested in examples, and I'll elaborate).

The most common Christmas Calendar, however, is the chocolate calendar, with 24 doors hiding each their piece of chocolate, one for each day of December until Christmas Eve. Chocolate calendars sometimes has a piece of a story (usually the Christmas story/stories) behind the doors. Jostein Gaarder's book Julemysteriet (The Christmas Mystery) is a good example of a Christmas story calendar. More wonderful calendar ideas over at Janne's blog (Thank you Janne! ♥).

The beginning of my project:
During my exchange studies in Japan I decided to make my own Christmas calendar project since I couldn't find any Christmas calendars there. I decided to make a photo project for my blog, taking one picture each day of something that made me happy that day. Within that framework anything was allowed - as long as I deemed it suitable for viewing on a public blog and safely show my family. ;)

The first Christmas Calendar Project came out like this:

(click for larger view)

In 2008 I didn't make a Christmas Calendar Project, so my 2009 X-mas project will be my second. I'm
thinking of doing it approximately the same way, i.e. deciding on a concept and then try to take a concept-related picture each day until Christmas.

The 2009 X-mas Calendar Project:
I've asked several of my friends for ideas to my calendar concept, and in the end I decided to aim for "Christmas Ambience", take 24 photos and make a blog post for each of them here on my blog along with a short comment on the picture. After Christmas I'll make a collage.

It's already December 2nd, so the first two pictures will soon be posted.

Hope you'll enjoy my X-mas Calendar Project! Comments are appreciated, especially if you identify yourself with a name or nickname:)

-Cecily

Raindrops on a sunny day

2009-09-06T16:31:00.001+02:00

Coffee tastes a little too good recently. It seems like I'm closing in on addiction again. Perhaps I should experiment and try decaf to see if it is the taste or the caffein I'm addicting to.

Life is good nowadays (though it turned a shade of blue just now, but more about that later), I'm back in my beloved uni-town and I study fun stuff with nice people, I've got a bi-weekly part time job where it seems likely I'll get even more hours/shifts soon, and the work environment is really good. People said I did a good job on my first shift and that they liked me because I smile a lot too. (Yay!)

Also, yesterday we celebrated my friend's 25th birthday! We started out with sushi at my favourite japanese restaurant, and then moved on to another favourite spot where we stayed until closing time. We'd hired the pub's lower floor for the party (smallish pub so it was nice and cozy, not as big as it might sound otherwise), and friends and coworkers of the birthday girl came and went throughout the evening, it was great. There was an surprising amount of people I knew from some time back as well, making this evening a journey in elder and more recent social history (other possible translations: "catching up" and "gossip" ;} ), and playing with old friends and new(ish?) people. Funfun! When our pub closed we continued on to our afterpartyplace, where my main group of friends, and me and the birthday girl, stayed until 7am. Our beloved princess was quite drunk at this point and we had to convince her for about. half an hour to walk home with us, even though 85% of the party had already left, with just the creepy weirdos* remaining (Yes I dare call them 'creepy weirdos" as I severely doubt any of them read this blog. And if they do I'm not particularly bothered anyway). As we walked home to the sound of our princess rambling on about how much she loves us for loving her despite her drunken state, the morning skies were gradually lightening to a soft light blue, the streets were deserted but for us.

Life is good.
I was home and went to blissful sleep at 8am, but woke up at 10am and couldn't fall asleep again, and while surfing the net (for lack of ability to occupy myself with other activities) I found this video: ♥

♥

Thanks to Knut who posted this (or possibly their other video) on facebook! Kawaii deshou!

...

As for the aforementioned shade of blue (the first one mentioned. I accidentlly used it as a poetic expression as well but found it too nice to delete it): I got the message that one of my grandparents died this morning. By a lucky turn I was already planning on heading for my home town tomorrow anyway, but the trip lost its recreational appeal as I got the death news.

It will be nice to be with my family for a couuple of days.

Oh dear... That was longer than expected..

2009-08-30T21:28:00.005+02:00

The hiatus I mean...

As my previous post states, I intended to blog some more in June, but as you plainly can see I never got around to it. There are several reasons for this, even though there are things to do there isn't necessarily anything one feels worthy of reporting on. Like June for example, I hd work, but didn't do much apart from work, and blogging never felt natural and thus became forgotten. July, more of the same, but a different job and more of it, generally a standard summer back home: same job as earlier years and the same friends home briefly and then gone away again.

What has been happening, is the ensuing chaos regarding my education. I was expecting to get my bachelors' degree last summer, but a string of unforeseen complications came a long and after a pretty comfusing 8 months here I am, at a change of scenery, back to my "old" environment at my university again trying to sort out the chaos as best I can. I'm back in Bergen, at a new flat with new flatmates, back at university and back at Japanese, but with new classes and new classmates.

Being back in Bergen feels right. Although a lot of things have changed, and still it is the same. I have some peripheral friends all over town, but as I returned here I realised that only members from the core of my former social circles remain actual friends. Sad, but true. However, I'm confident I'll meet new interesting people to compensate for those that have moved on, and my new flat mates and their friends seem like a promising start. Through one of these connections I might have landed myself a bi-weekend job as well, where I can meet even more people. Fist shift next weekend, and I'll se what happens after that.

And there is still plenty of time for school, if I could just sort out my concentration and motivation issues. I plan on reviewing a lot of material this semester, + retaking my history exam from last semester. Luckily my class is small and gives our sensei more time to adapt the classes to each of us if necessary. And, on a more personal level it is also an extra motivational factor: since my participation is 25% of the class contribution, it actually matter. The new courses bring new aspirations to meet, and althought the school situation/status is still unresolved I'm at least able to deal with it now.

There are expectations and exasperations aplenty. I've got room to move, room to think, but I'll be glad when I get some furniture and an additional lamp or two.. I won't make any promises for the next blogposts as there is enough stuff to do these days, but what happens might/might not, be worth reporting upon.

~Cecily

warning: text under construction

2009-06-06T00:16:00.002+02:00

Well, not this one is not the text under construction, but rather the ones I should've written alreadry for April, May and now also June... There's a lot of stuff going on in my head at the moment so I will take a little while to sort it all out, but at least I've started the process:p

Satus summary: Next texts are in progress, life is mostly good, love is not absent (e.g. family and feriends) but romance is elsewhere (and I wouldn't have time for it anyway).

well, until later..

Weather update

2009-03-27T23:30:00.004+01:00

We've had almost two weeks of nice weather, brilliant shining sun, warm temperatures (around and up to 5 Celcius), melting snow, clear roads, singing birds, pollenating trees etc. And then, this morning I woke up to fog, strong wind, and 5 centimeter of new, wet and heavy snow. Felt kind of bad for my cats I locked out last night... They were more than happy to come in again this morning. My brother left at 7 am to get the school bus, and when I got out to get the newspaper an hour later his footprints were almost covered again. Wellingtons were doubtlessly the right choice of shoewear.

No pictures today, I had no time to take any, and they would be grey, flat and boring anyway.

A Sense of Spring

2009-03-11T21:37:00.003+01:00

It's still a lot of snow here, and a slight risk of more of the stuff falling on our heads the next month or two, but toady there was a sense of spring (or just optimism?) in the air. The sun shone brightly, the snow was melting, most of the roads are bare of snow even if the ditches still seem to have inverted themselves lying belly-up and reflecting their white bellies of snow. It was a joy to be outdoors today. Beautiful light when I went home from work today. Took many nice pictures on my way home.

Other stuff: an update since last post seems to be in order...

I'm still job-hunting, but not as intensely as I did earlier now that schoolwork has caught up to me. 1-2 months until my final deadlines and then exams, and I have about 15-20 pages of Japanese writings to do (of various smaller stuff that is, a 15 page japanese sakubun would be a real nightmare!), a 10 page semesterassignment discussing the debate around R. Benedict's the Chrysanthemum and the Sword, and then 1500 pages of history curriculum to read, + general repetition of Japanese grammar, kanji and glossary which should be done ~~continuously~~ regularly...

In addition I've got a job; I'm temporarily working as an assistant (substituting a woman on extended sick leave) on a local shcool's after-class-club (or something, I have no idea how to say it in English really...). It's not a full time position, but I having somehing to do outside the house, income, and still have time to study, it's almost perfect. I never thought I'd ever work with kids, but now I do.. And it is fun -most of the time. :)

Last week I even tried being a teacher! It's really nice to receive phone calls which go along the line of "Can you come tomorrow? We need you!" It was a different school that called me when one of their teachers was going away on a seminar, and they wanted me to fill in for him for a day. So now I've tried teaching Math, Norwegian, Religion (Buddhism) and elementary school biology to 12 year olds. I was given a prepared program for the day so I did OK even though I had no experience and I'm not majored in any of those subjects.

Now I'm off to bed, I've plenty of curriculum and fresh air waiting for me on the other side of sleep, so I'd rather get my share of it by then.;)

---

I'll add pictures tomorrow if I have time.

Cecily's February Winter Wonderland

2009-02-07T14:04:00.006+01:00

When you put on wellingtons in order to reach the mail box nice and dry and you still get snow in your boots, then you know it's a lot of snow...

Snow vs. Wellingtons

It started snowing before I went to Bergen for a couple of days, and it started snowing in Bergen before I returned home as well. Along the railway to Bergen there was one beautiful snowscape after another, and although it is quite a challenge to take nice pictures from a moving train with a lot of trees close along the railway, I got quite a collection of nice pictures.

Prepared for travel

View: Snowscape 1

View: Snowscape 2

In Bergen I was lucky enough to only get snow during my last day, the first days being nice and dry. I enjoy seeing the gradual tranformation of 'Bustling Bubbling City' into 'Busy Snow-Clean City', but I don't like the opposite transformation of 'clean snow city' into 'grey sludge city', and I'm glad I left before the reversed transformation kicked in. (I had a blast in Bergen, loved being back, and for social reasons not that happy to leave so soon...)

I like snow, I really do, but it can be... inconvenient... at times...

Here at home again I find myself partially snowed in; there's a lot of snow making it difficult (though not impossible) to get out of the house, the household's car is out of town with my mother this weekend, and since it is weekend public transport is only accessible enough to make people exercice extreme patience in extremely boring places or cause immense frustration, or both, due to the extreme lack of correspondance between the different bus lines etc (it's so bad it feels like it has to be planned by somebody). Just as well I don't have any reason to leave the house until tomorrow.

"Snowed in"

For the record, it's four steps in the stairs to our front door, and the footprints/tracks to the mail box was largely snowed away 10 minutes after I took the picture.

Long time, few words.. first words of 2009

2009-01-30T15:36:00.004+01:00

Belated welcome to 2009, Happy New Year, Happy Celebrations, and all that jazz!

I see I haven't posted a word since late October '08, but I will try to remedy that by giving a brief update on happenings since then, and then try to update on a regular basis throughout 2009...

2008:

My stay in India ended a week and a half after our group assignment was due. I had 4 days in Pondi before me and Lina travelled to Pune to visit a fried of Lina's. I stayed in Pune with Lina and her friends in Pune for a week before returning home to cold and snowy Norway to write my final assignment and celebrate Christmas and New Year with family and friends.

Writing the assignment at home turned out to be quite a challenge as I had no proper workplace at home where I could concentrate. I still have to work with that, but now, 3 months later, I have adapted and adjusted potential workspaces to fit my needs a little better than they were back in November.

In mid-December people started coming home for the holidays, Christmas and New Year came and went in a flurry of social arrangements and festivities, and then everyone left town again.

2009:

I stayed behind after the holidays, starting my jobhunting activities when everyday normalcy returned in the beginning of January. It also turned out that I lacked a course at the university to fill the requisites for my Bachelors' degree, so after some amount of bureaucracy I've acuired student status until the end of the spring semester. Hopefully I've finished required amount of courses by the end of this semester's exams.

And this is basically where I am now, in the middle of jobhunting and studies. As I expect the next months to be basically the same I expect to change some things in my blogging topics, rants, the nature of my writing, etc.

No way of knowing what it will turn out to become until it has become what it will be.

Still wishing everyone a happy and prosperous 2009!

Week 7 & 8: Cancelled/rescheduled

2008-10-15T14:21:00.002+02:00

Last week's blogpost is (largely) cancelled due to sickness and dehydration, and this week's post will disappear in the amassed workload; the groupwork assignment took a new twist while I was sick so now I have to start all over on something I wasn't really prepared to write (that much) about.

Um, yeah, to briefly explain last week:

I just had the time to be "well" again for about 2 days, and then I ate something that didn't agree with me. After a heavy nausea on Wednesday I've been dehydrated and feverish throughout the weekend, slowly rehydrating and getting gradually better closer to Monday (food helped a lot), and I was back at school today Tuesday...

But on a nicer note, the Monsoon is here and temperatures are getting comfortable! I love the heavy rains and thunderstorms, it gives me a good autumn feeling. I've started reading stories with a friend at the rooftop in the evenings to hold onto this atmosphere.

People are getting restless here. It's the ten-week-crisis looming I think, assignment stress, and travel giddity. A lot of people have started talking (increasingly) about their after-Pondi-travels or about the return home. My plans are still not fixed, I'm still checking out the options as they appear, I've had about 6-7 ideas I've decided and then decided against. This time I've started asking for possible dates and price options etc. Looks like it'll turn out nice in the end...:)

Week 6; behind on blogging again...

2008-10-05T16:43:00.006+02:00

(Warning: Long post!)

Yeah, another 2-in-1 update, the post for week 5 is here.

The last post weren't posted earlier due to illness; I haven't felt too good/borderline sick, and then finally giving in I redefined my 'cold' to 'having a small flu'. I missed out on a great workshop on the topic of the Kashmir issue because I didn't have the energy to benefit from being present. The workshop was held in Auroville, and though I tried to go the first day I decided not to go the second day. I felt dizzy and tired by lunchtime and decided to go home, and instead of going to Auroville the second day, a friend and I went out to the study center, ate proper food, relaxed, and talked to the staff.

Towards the end of the week I felt better, stating that I'm getting better but still not 100% back to normal. I decided not to join in on the Children's Day (taking a bunch of village children to an amusement park for a day) even though it sounded fun; I knew it would've drained me for all remaining energy leaving me reduced for another week or so. Not worth it. I did go to the costume party Saturday night, dressed as a Colonial times British lady. (I'll try to see if anyone got a picture of me...)

Sunday, went out for brunch with a friend and afterwards we roamed the warm streets of Pondi, enjoying the bright sunshine and the nice temperatures (which has dropped to a mere +30 Celsius), and the sounds and life in the streets occupied by the Sunday market.

Despite illnesses (not just me) our group assignment was in on time. I felt quite accomplished when I had sent it. Friday became much better after 5 pm (the deadline), and in the evening me and Lina went to Banana Café - one of our alternative regular spots, where we sat talking with the chef (whom is also working at our study center) for almost an hour after eating.

As for regular spots/hang-outs; we're up to 4 regular spots now;
* Surguru - the best restaurant in town, both for food and prices
* Banana Café - the best western food in town, and the cleanest (or: only clean) kitchen in town
* Rick's Café - the best ice coffee and chicken baguette
* Coffee.com - internet cafe with nice atmosphere, tasty food, and wonderful tea.

In the beginning I lamented my friend's lack of interest in trying out new places, but by now I've accepted that these are the places to go, and attempts at going other places has resulted in bad restaurant experiences, leading me to believe we're not going to find better places than we already have found.

Me & Lina has been talking increasingly with the staff at the study center, always exchanging greetings with the chef, talking with the manager's assistant and always greeting the other staff members with a smile when we meet them. Apparently we're more sociable than earlier batches of students. Makes me wonder what kind of people that must have been... But looking around at school, there's not many of the students that actually talk with the staff, although there are a few more than Lina and I.

Point of pride, come Monday morning; make sure to talk to the staff I danced with on Saturday to prove I'm different from the earlier batches - that apparently became (stereotypically) social when drinking, and then reverting to Scandinavian arrogance the following monday... Heard it before? (I have at least; same, but different.) Lina also voiced her relief that the Indians we danced with danced at a comfortable distance - in contrast to previous experiences.

So, in a week where I didn't do much, even skipping significant event like the P&C workshop and the Children's Day, I ended up having quite a lot to say anyway... even after 5 weeks in little Pondi!

ADDITION:

I forgot to mention the trip to the Cinema!

We had spent a day talking to Kavitha at the study center, and Thursday she brought me and Lina along to the cinema when se was taking a group of school children! Watching a flim (yes, that is how they say it here...!) in an Indian theatre was Absolutely, Fabulously, Fantastic Fun!

We had a small "box" in the theatre to ourselves in the back of the theatre hall itself, and it was me, Lina and Deborah, Kavitha and her daughter, and her 15-20 school kids (all girls, in the age range of 10-14 I guess) in the box. The music was loud, the hero was popular and the heroine was beautiful, the romantic scenes was vividly graphic for being that decent (I don't know if I managed to get the correct impression into words here...), the girls sang along to the love songs, *squealed* when there was a scene with the hero and heroine together, and a fountain of confetti flew around our ears after an especially climatic (romantic but not sexual) scene. Definitely an experience in it's own right...

Week 5: Change of plans (backdated)

2008-09-25T13:08:00.003+02:00

Power cut. And I feel small streams of sweat form up as soon as the ceiling fan stop working. Yes, ceiling fan, not air condition. No air condition in this apartment, no-no. Aircon makes you sick. I’ve had a cold for a week now, just because of an encounter with mild air conditioning.

The power returned quickly today, after just a couple of minutes. Lucky, lucky. But it can also mean that the systems are instable and the power may be cut again at some point today. But we’re lucky here; I think it’s more than a week since we last had a power cut.

My plans keep being changed. (Usually by me, fortunately.) This weekend I had planned to go to Kerala, but as I still have a cold I decided it would be too intensive for me to travel that far and that much with that many people at once at such a limited time. And thus, the first change of plans. So Lina and I were thinking of going to Ooty – until we learned we would need at least 4 days for any Ooty-trip frm Pondi. Second change of plans. We decided to stay home in Pondi for the weekend, perhaps take a daytrip somewhere, but mostly study.

We’ve had an intensive week at school this week, up until Wednesday which was the last day before our long weekend.

Monday – lecture and then field trip to a Dalit village (village of people from the "caste-less" caste in India; the “untouchables”).

Dalit woman and her grandchild dressed up for having their picture taken:

Tuesday – seminar for the whole class (usually we’re split in groups), then double lecture. Plus a lot of readings weighing on a student’s conscience. And errands in the evening, and a dance class I didn’t go to because of 1) errands making me late, and 2) still not well from the cold.

Wednesday – Another day on double lectures, and lots of people leaving for Kerala. I wore khaki shorts and a casual t-shirt to school, and received the comment “Oh, how unusual to see you in Western clothes!” … has my wardrobe turned that much Indian? I hadn’t realized…

Thursday – Went out for a morning walk with Lina at 5:45, we snuck out early to avoid the yoga instructor in case she came and admonished Lina for not going to the yoga class at 6:00. We walked to the beach promenade, had chai and watched all the people, including a weird French guy walking his marionette (“Ernesto” we were told) at the beach before he began his yoga exercise. We weren’t the only ones taking pictures of him, a crowd of locals had also gathered around. After returning home we meant to go to school and study, but lack of proper sleep brought about a slight change of plans, so we ended up staying home.

Ernesto out for a morning walk at the beach:

Friday – Actually went to school to study, and studied! In the evening there was a movie night at Kamachi, but I ended up changing my plans again, and chilled back home– surfed the net ‘til I slept.

Saturday – slept long – café – blog/study evening – in my own company.

Sunday - ..studying!!! Let’s hope this plan won’t change…

Missing Japan, listening to Jp. goodfeel music – genres changing with my mood.

To Bangalore and back again

2008-09-19T13:30:00.005+02:00

I haven't blogged (properly) for 2 weeks now. Why? First week I was too busy, so I assembled a picture-post in order to have something to post (see back-dated blog post here)

The next week I spontaneously joined a group going to Bangalore - forgetting to finish and post my blog post in the packing process as we left on my "blogging day".

Bangalore

Journey & Accommodation
I spontaneously joined a group going to Bangalore one evening before departure, ending up hurrying through necessary packing ad wrapping up stuff that needed to be done before departure. We travelled by night bus, a nice one, and arrived early at the guesthouse – 05:00… There had been a slight misunderstanding of when we were to arrive, so when we showed up at 5am our rooms were unprepared and quite dirty… We managed to arrange some mattresses and clean sheets and slept a couple of hours, and then we went into the centre of Bangalore for the day.

When we returned to the guesthouse in the afternoon the moods was much lighter and the experience was considerably better. We got the rooms cleaned, talked some more with the manager (whom turns out to be really nice), and the wonderful staff unexpectedly offered chai (tea) brought up to the room – free of charge!

Happy people!

Downtown Bangalore
Shopping started in a mall, and then we walked up and down the main streets checking out the stores, ending up in a bookstore searching for useful literature to our group assignments in Pondi. I even managed to find an adapter/converter for my camera recharger (– which has Japanese prongs, and a suitable adapter; back home in Norway…), so now I’m finally able to take pictures again! (Happyhappyhappy!)

We had various experiences with the autos (remember the auto-rickshaws?); teaching us that over-eager drivers accepting low prices right away is not to be trusted. They take detours to stores they are affiliated with (tourist traps) to earn more money. At the shop they tried to sell me a nice pashmina shawl – incidentally an identical one to one I already had – and a quick question of the price revealed it to be 5 times the price of what I bought it for in Pondi.

Other experiences, always agree on the price first, and ask some locals to arrange the auto and the price for you if possible; they get much better prices than us obvious and oblivious tourists are able to arrange for ourselves. It might have a background in the poverty and high levels of competition in all areas in India, most Indians we come across in everyday activities (outside of the Study Center in Pondi) are opportunistic to various degrees. (Yes, this is a generalization and a very broad one at that…)

Safari
The second day in Bangalore we decided to go to a nearby Safari. Our guesthouse staff arranged two autos for us (and haggled the price for us), and off we went. It was almost an hour driving to the Safari (can’t remember the name of it, sorry), and then we arranged with the auto drivers that they would wait for us and take us home after a couple of hours –for the same price. Inside the safari we chose to take the Grand Safari bus ride (1hr) and climbed into the safari bus (not as exciting – nor as cute – as the safari buses in Beppu (Japan)). When we entered the bus the driver’s assistant placed us in the front seats, and while driving he took our cameras and took pictures (good ones) for us – for an expected tipping, of course. (We felt a little uncomfortable with the obvious difference in treatment, but as we –the girls in my group and I– believe everyone else in the bus (all Indian) assumed the assistant to do this for extra profit, the discomfort changed to a feeling of …apathy?) Anyway, the safari was really nice, and we were all relieved to see that the animals in the Zoo/Safari looked hale and healthy.

Bangalore (left) vs. Beppu (right)

Safari pictures, mine (left) and the driver assistant's (right)

New friends
Later the last night in Bangalore Lina and I went out to dinner with Lina’s friend Rohini and Rohini’s mother. They are the sweetest people on earth!! I fell so in love with the two of them. Even though it was the first time we met they asked if I would come along and visit their family in (some place I can’t pronounce) when Lina is going to, and when we said I would not be coming they asked us why! I hope I will get the opportunity to meet them again some time, they were absolutely lovely.

Return
Even though we didn’t want to leave after meeting with Rohini and her mother, after only such a brief time, it felt good to be on the night bus back to Pondi when we finally settled in our bunks. We arrived home at 5am, good and tired, and slept away most of the day.

3rd Week in Pondi

2008-09-11T13:25:00.001+02:00

(back-dated due to late posting and multiple posts)

3rd week in Pondi. Noticeable in several ways; I'm starting to feel at home in Pondi, and at the same time I miss home, and I miss Japan (and terribly so!).

I received a question of why I didn't write last week. Several reasons I guess. I missed having some photos on my blog (1), and was too tired to write anything coherent (2), and when thinking of what to write I had no idea where to start (3).

Last week & weekend I was busy reading up on the readings for this week’s lectures, being social, research group work and finding group members for the group assignment. I spent mot of the Sunday reading, but in the evening Amali, Odilia and I went to the beach promenade to see the Ganesh Puja; a festival to the god Ganesh, where they throw the Ganesh figures in the sea on the festival’s last day.

3-week’s crisis, exhaustion, more pictures, travel desires, extracurricular courses, still haven’t fixed my saree, or bought Punjabi. Slow. Discoveries in town – everyone discover things close to each other’s houses. Daydreaming, missing Japan, feeling gradually more academic – feels wonderful, still no idea of what I want to do when I get home (for a job, that is), Mr. Gecko –our pet lizard that eat flies (flies that bites us!). We love him.

I'm still overwhelmed by all the impressions we get all day everyday here.

Just riding the bus to school every morning is an adventure in itself, all the sounds, all the images that flies by as we fly by them, the different routes are getting a little familiar, but still challenges every sense of direction you (I) had to begin with. Children going to school, groups of teenage girls bicycling, auto-rickshaws full of 6 year old school boys, long lanes of children of all ages walking to their school bus, in the narrow zone between parked motorbikes and the rushing traffic. Safety in numbers applies even here. Wandering buffaloes seem to mind the traffic even less than the school kids and wander about ignoring the honking cars and autos. (Auto = auto-rickshaw, which is not the same as a rickshaw – the manual bicycle with extra seats)

One of the streets today was covered in posters and banners and ribbons in the colour of one of the local political parties today. We could hardly see the sky through all the decorations.

Bollywood dancing – sooo much fun! Not so much bollywood yet, but we have started learning some basic steps used for opening any dance performance. I think we did well the first class for being 100% beginners.

---

I left my blog post here and forgot it in the middle of packing my bag for a spontaneous weekend-trip to Bangalore. That story continues in the next blog post. :)

Picture post!

2008-09-04T15:32:00.007+02:00

the study center & scenes from the study centre:

queueing up for breakfast nice lunch at school

Ganesh on "Ganesh Day" (Ganesh Puja?)

People preparing for the Ganesh festival

group sightseeing & guide

beautiful settings

back in the quiet street outside my building

was overjoyed to find this at out local store:)

another happy moment for a Japan-starved mind:

Peace

Blogging på overtid… / Wohoo India!!

2008-08-26T20:35:00.004+02:00

(Note 1: Warning! Long post.

Note 2: writings from my short stay in Norway will be announced when posted. )

I dag er det fjerde dagen min i India – et land jeg endelig har kommet meg til! Dette høres vel ut som jeg har slitt med å få til å komme hit, men slik er det altså ikke.

I’d better write in English I realize… After a year in Japan speaking English almost everyday I thought I would automatically start again in English here in India, but that is not the case. I don’t have the exact numbers, but we’re about 80% Norwegians, a handful of Swedes, a Dane, a German, an Indian and a Sri Lanka. (And I think about 90% of the students are female…) Among the staff there are many Indians, a Swede, and a Briton. …So, I guess my point is that since we’re sooooooooo incredibly many Norwegians together, it’s almost impossible not to speak or think Norwegian. (We’re getting better at speaking English together whenever any non-Scandinavian is present, but I’m embarrassed that we actually had to *think* about it the first two days…)

I can’t tell you much about India, and probably never will; “We Indians are still trying to figure out India” my first guest lecturer tells us in our first class. Our guest lecturer for these introduction lectures is Dr. Sudha (Ph.D), a very nice and highly intelligent woman from Bangalore. We’re having introductory lectures about India this first week here in Pondicherry, preparing us for our next 2 months here.

There has been some culture shocks already, but none too big as of yet, seeing as we all expected them from the beginning since everything seems slightly alien or dreamlike to us. I’m guessing that the culture shocks are smaller (read: less severe) here than in Japan, because in Japan everything was more similar to home and culture shocks thus became less anticipated.

Our first major culture shock came as soon as we left the airport in Chennai. There were people everywhere, even at 4am, and the traffic…. The traffic. The traffic is a chapter in itself, and due some deeper analysis in its own right at some later point. But I conclude from the traffic – the amount of it, the traffic behaviour, etc. – that Indians are brave people, just by daring to cross the road.

Due to its extreme complexity of cultural/social/ethnic systems within democracy Dr. Sudha described India as a “functioning anarchy”, and today we concluded this applies to India’s traffic as well.

Incidentally, today I took my first ride in a rickshaw. Originally the rickshaw was a bicycle with a comfortable (?) passenger seat, now most of Pondi’s rickshaws are small, yellow-painted, built-in mopeds with space for 3 people (or an Indian family of 5*).There are small margins in the Indian traffic, the rickshaws constantly, narrowly avoids pedestrians, cars, bikes of all kinds, other rickshaws, cows, etc. I read in a book before going to India that you need to be confident, and I believe that is 100% true –especially in the traffic. You have to be confident, or project (prosjektere?) confidence to be able to cross streets.

(* I would have loved to say “Indian family of 8” but I decided the exaggeration of the rickshaw’s size, and/or an Indian family’s ability to invent space, would be too big…)
(*EDIT: apparently the limit is 7 Norwegian girls + the driver....)

You also need confidence in bargaining with the locals when shopping. In some stores there are set prices and that is no problem, but in the street shops and market places the traders and peddlers and salespeople raise their prices tenfold whenever they see a foreign (usually Western and/or white) face. The most extreme case of bargaining I’ve heard of from my group so far (i.e. after just 4 days) was a girl that was shopping for necklaces and bargained down the price 70% (from 1000Rps to 300Rps) and still the saleswoman was happy when she left.

300 Rps is not much by Norwegian standards nowadays; it is 8 Rps to 1nok I’ve been told, and by comparison a pair of trousers (loose, baggy trousers fitting for the local climate) cost me 220 Rps (tourist price, of course), while they would have been cheap in Norway for 200 NOK. Here, a 1 litre bottle of water costs 15 Rps, and ½ litre bottle of water in Norway costs 16 NOK (Imsdal, last time I checked at least). Dinner at a nice restaurant, 100-200 Rps here in Pondi, a cheap meal at a restaurant in Norway would be 180-250 NOK. It’s not a problem for us to pay without bargaining, but it is proportionally ridiculous compared to other local prices and the products’ actual price etc. We have to bargain down, and since they’re much better at bargaining they’ll still get a good profit compared to the local price levels. I’m just fine with not being good at bargaining just yet, but I’m going to practice with clear conscience knowing that I won’t have out-bargained anyone until the day a salesman does not smile as he shows me the door.

I’ve been writing about an hour now, I think it’s about time to sleep. I’m one hour late according to my new day-rhythm the last couple of days, but that’s another description for another time.

Good night!

In Transit

2008-08-05T13:57:00.003+02:00

Or so to speak. I'm in Osaka now, waiting for the final day of departure. I've had 2 already; 1 from the dormitories in Beppu, and 1 more from Beppu itself. The extra days in Beppu were spent in the company of various friends, and the days in Osaka has been spent spending the last of my money (don't worry parents; it's not as bad as it sounds! :p), re-pacing the suitcase, go sightseeing, wrap up various things in Japan, and then do some more re-packing.

The days home will probably be as busy as the last few weeks, but I promise to *try* to post an update before I leave for India. I will write more coherently about the experiences of the last few weeks - as soon as I have the time to sit down with it for at least half an hour.

Yes, India.. I don't think I've mentioned it before on this blog, but I'm coming home briefly enough to empty my suitcase, wash my clothes and then fill my suitcase again. Then I'm headed for India from the end opf August until November. New adventure stories to come!

See you around!

An update!

2008-07-09T11:47:00.003+02:00

Wow... more than a month since I blogged last... Seems the blog went on hiatus in June and the beginning of July; sorry 'about that.

At least I'm a little better than a friend of mine whose last blog posts were named "Long time no Blogging", "Innlegg schinnlegg" and "Hisashiburi" (japanese equivalent of "long time no see!") before the long silence... When I no longer intend to keep this blog I will announce it, I promise.

Since last post I've been in Okinawa for a week (which was great!), occupied with new classes, and then hit by an apathy-spell lasting the rest of the rain-season (which is June). First of July came and went, and the sunshine returned about the same time, hopefully to help me I kicking the apathy away now that it's just 3 weeks until the final exams (eeeeek!).

I guess I could write some words about Okinawa and my first Karaoke-experience (after living 9 months in Japan...), but apart from that June/rain season was nothing but curtains of rain and fog. You didn't miss much.

July so far has been lovely, but is now turning into living he**. The sun is shining, temperatures usually lies around 28-30 degrees, and the humidity from 50% to 80%; making everyday life a list of priorities revolving around finding shade, getting enough fluids, air condition, etc. Temperatures and high humidity makes it hard to focus on the upcoming exams, even though, or perhaps just because it's only 3 weeks left. The end is near.

This sounds very ominous, but it's true; It's just a month until I'm back in the mother country. My mind is (unfortunately) more preoccupied with what has to be done (packing, traveling, socializing, etc.) before departure rather than cramming for exams...

I foresee few (if any) blog posts the next month; I will try to post once more before I'm heading home, but I cannot promise anything. When things start to happen here everything happens at once...

Djaa ne!

From the Forum of High Entertainment Value

2008-05-27T15:50:00.005+02:00

Topic: Brand names (& economy):

1) "These days, a number of Japanese tend to buy brand name staffs including me."
This surprising fascination with staffs...
(English is difficult; staff, staff, stuff...all the homonyms and apparent homonyms...)

2) "Subject: There Will Be Blood.
Baffled by the title? No worries, it is just a movie,(...)"

3) "We prolly can make difference in our life style and every one will be happy too."
A real live person using "prolly" in a serious discussion!

Topic: Disney (& cultural hegemony):

4) "Mulan, A brave girl from china who is willing to sacrifice for her father Aladin, A thief in Arab who in the end becomes the hero who saved the kingdom Toys story which describes how a person values his toys,(...) "

Whoa.. Comma mistakes make new interesting interpretations...; Mulan, daughter of Aladdin the hero of the kingdom that describes, the kingdom called Toy Story....

5) " when have you ever seen a disney character wearing an eg. chinese / indian costume." Mulan? Pochahontas?

6) " so my essay is disorgainzed, but it`s up to our choice and our action."
who writes essays on a discussion forum???

7) "oops~sorry for reply at wrong topic"

8)
"I am probably one of people who didn't grow up with Disney. Of course, my parents showed me almost all disney films."
(...)
"That was why I stopped watching Disney although I still keep watching some films like Mulan, Pocahontus, Toy Stories and Nimo."
I think this person is deceiving him/herself...

9) "One more obvious example, Aladin, did anyone find something about American in his film? It mostly show Indian society and culture, is not it?"
Disney knowledge revealed! (I hope people know I'm still being sarcastic...)

10) "It yearned for Snow White after all as Mickey liked it. "
...some sentences just don't make sense, even when they're clearly on the topic...

11) "Ariel is the hottest disney character ever, period. (...) Wish she was for real, oops!"
...We did *not* want to know that.

12) "hakuna matata, what a wonderful phrase, hakuna matata,
ain't no passing craze...

It means no worries for the rest of your days It's our
problem free.. philosophy...

hakuna matata...."

this is the entire post....!

13)
"Oh!

I am so sorry for some misspelling.

T____T "

this is the entire post....!

---

I might still have missed some golden ones, I haven't read trough all of the forum yet, so theres a chance there might come some updates at a later point.

New quotes!

2008-05-21T17:10:00.004+02:00

All quotes from the Sociology class forum again. The first part from a discussion board about Art.

1)
"Just like some western people is thinking why Japanese can't wait till the fishes to get cook and eats it straight after cutting, and Japanese are willing to splash their cash on those raw things. This so maybe eating raw fish is a kind of art, is just that some people in this world don't appreciate it."

My favourite part: "...and Japanese is willing to splash their cash on those raw things." Hahaha! This certainly reveals the writer's opinion of sushi!

2)
"As we know, in ancient time, there was Edvard Munch. One of his works, there is "The Scream". "

3)
"But still I’m a Traditional Art Maniac. I love PICASSO!!"
Dear Traditional Art Maniac, Picasso is Cubist, not traditional...

4)
"Make up, graceful movements, fashion styles, coke can bottles, flyers, and even the squash-up papers we throw in the rubbish bins...these are all forms of art."
So I'm accidentally an artist every time I throw away one of those annoying flyers...?

And the last part is on the topic of music, discussions about downloading etc.

5)
(...)"But i have to say i would rather spare my time and easily download my music off line :)"
...Download offline?!?

6)
"(arguments). On the other way, (... more arguments.)"
um... on the other hand...?

"I think downloading is an inevitable future for film and music industry, it is like a mission impossible which would take more than 10 Tom Cruises to solve."
That's at least 9 Tom Cruises too much for the world...

8)
"In my country if you walk through the pedestrian of the capital or the big city (...)"
Poor urban pedestrian!

ADDITIONS!
(topic: 'Internet restrictions' & 'cellphone use on the train')
9)
"In rash hour, salary man is reading newspaper or sleeping actually."
I certainly don't want to take the train in rash hour...

10)
"I have been residing in many online communities since I was 10 (...)"
...

11)
"It's like ridiculous the people who are controled by High-tech staffs."
Yes, hilarious!

12)
"By reading with a mobile in the train is not a problem. It makes to become quite and relexed to people in the train and any disturbance on someone."

13)
"However, it is difficult for people to restrict the use of cell phone, as well as me."
Some people can be quite unruly.

14)
"Don't you feel that the world is flat now? the border itself doesn't seem real."

post-17th celebration update

2008-05-19T17:42:00.006+02:00

The Norwegian Constitutions Day was May 17th, properly celebrated an' all - blog post coming.
Plastic Tree Concert Review is still being postponed, due to ... well... life.

At the moment I have 2 reports, a Final Exam and a Japanese Midterm Exam looming ~~on the horizon~~ over my head, of course in addition to regular classes (luckily not more than 2 per day) and their homework (not so lucky) and my non-APU readings and writing projects...

+ what social life I can manage to squeeze in between it all!

たいへんだよ・・・・・

But, on a brighter note, there are nice things here too; tea & chat time with the girls, going to ofuro, the occasional dinner with various people, etc.

And in the QuarterBreak I'm going to Okinawa with a small group of friends
(but unfortunately at the same time as a horde of other APU students..)

Yay!

short update

2008-05-11T17:19:00.013+02:00

I'm mostly repeating the same old routine up here on the mountain, so there's not that much to say. A few changes though; I've joined a circle (a student group or club or association or whatever) for practicing Japanese, and I've gotten involved in a collaborations for designing a t-shirt for my floor for a "World Festival" we're going to perform at in June. I did say "we", but I'm only contributing to the performance in off-stage activities, like (helping) designing the floor's t-shirt. The artistic challenges that this t-shirt project will let me play with will be a nice break from my other school work.

I've picked up again my Plastic Tree Concert review project, and I will finish and post it at some point. This is as much a promise to myself as to any of you out there, because you've probably lost interest already since I haven't gotten around to it yet, but I really want to write it. It's become my favourite procrastination activity - but I can't afford to procrastinate that much nowadays unfortunately...

other things;
The weather is shifting, awful, windy and rainy yesterday, and today the most beautiful sunshine and pleasant temperatures around 19-22 degrees (a bit cool, almost chilly actually, compared to last week). The view was clear enough that we could see to Shikoku - a fact I find very romantic. The view is one of the major things I'm going to miss from APU.

Middle left: The Kunisaki Peninsula,
Center Background: the tip of Sadamisaki Peninsula, Shikoku

And here are some more or less random pictures from Campus - taken with my phone so please excuse the quality...

1-2: Daffy and Donald (Look Aunt B! Donald in Japan!)
3-4: The invisible man, and alternative vases at the Osaka Ferry
5-6: Cake, and how to make animal figures out of sausages
7: Another proof there are fancy things in Japanese supermarkets
8: The Exoticness of APU - an Asian performance the amphitheater, lacrosse practice in the sports field in the middle background, and then view of Beppu and Oita
9-10: Random cool car in Beppu, and how APU teach hirgana to new students
11-12: Fantastic flowers blooming outside AP House
13-14: Sunset view from the APH bridge, and Christina noticing the price of pasta screws.
(100 yen ≈ 1 USD or 5NOK, you do the math...)

Majimena-mode strikes back

2008-05-03T08:41:00.006+02:00

I'm cancelling all non-homework activities this weekend, even tonights' party plans that I confirmed yesterday. I feel bad for doing this again, but I have to prioritize what is important. Socializing is important too, and might be just as, or even more, important than mere tests; the social life here is the foundation of close friendships and future international contacts.

But: I have 2 tests, a presentation and a mid-term next week... And when I got back my last Japanese test, my teacher commented "this is not so good..."; Implied meaning; this is bad (≈ you suck). Good results for the next test (kanji, kanji, and more kanji) will be the foundation of good results of the 2nd test (text with a lot of kanji), and studying for both will aid my preparations for my presentation. And then there's the mid-term exam...

The presentation is an interesting piece in itself; "Present a product your hometown is famous for!"
Cecily - "Can I make my presentation about the Vikings?"
Sensei - "No, it has to be about a product."
Cecily - "But, how about the boats the Vikings produced?"
Sensei - "No, that's still history."
Cecily - "... There's a silverware factory...?"
Sensei - "Good! Present how they are famous, and why they're in your hometown!"
Cecily - "...There's really no reason why they chose my hometown..."
Sensei - "Please look it up."
Cecily - "..."

I really have to study for my Japanese tests, and for that I'll have to cancel (my appearance at) tonights party plans. If I went to the party I'd only be thinking of the lost study hours (and there are enough of them already!) and not have fun; resulting in no point in going to the party at all, but spend the time constructively and be happier tomorrow (or possibly next week when I get my tests back).

I have a complete set of arguments and reasons for this, but I still hate cancelling again.. I've been doing this too much lately, but I can't really help it. I hate letting people down.

Do anyone have a cure for the "Good-Girl Syndrome" ? Please call me if you do.

I'm way too serious about school these days, but I am going to deal with it - after I've finished my homework. Then I have quite a project ahead; learning how to find and maintain a good balance of schoolwork, motivation, restitution and social life.

Wish me luck.

---
Majimena (Jap. adjective) = serious, earnest, sincere, honest, sober, solemn, but in everyday use it has slightly negative connotations to people being (a little) too serious as opposed to fun-loving.

Random recent quotes (restructured)

2008-04-29T17:38:00.005+02:00

"It's yon-ji o'clock"
- 'Yon-ji' means '4 o'clock'. It's four o'clock o'clock then...

"I’m interested in this class, and especially, I’d like to learn how to create HIPHOP music. "
- this quote is taken from the forums of a Sociology class

More from the Sociology class' forum:
Posted by X on -day, at 5:00pm : "Dear sir and everybody, (...)"
Posted by X on -day, at 5:28pm :"Hey! How strange! I found myself answering my own question huh?"

And my favourite so far:
"I don't think it's dangerous, it's just pesticide"
- after spraying down the whole kitchen and half of her neighbour's dinner with said stuff...

"Tourism is a knife which is sharp at both end." - ... ... ... yep... the Sociology class' forum again.

...will be updated as new quotes appear!

Concert review and related stories – Part 1: Prologue

2008-04-28T04:45:00.002+02:00

Alternative title: “2 obvious aliens, a circus worth of Goth Rocker fangirls, Jelly Fishes – and Plastic Tree”; a concert review of Plastic Tree’s “Alone Again – Wonderful World” tour concert in Osaka Namba Hatch, April 10th 2008, and related stories.

The decision of going to Osaka was made on impulse upon learning about Plastic Tree’s concert 3 days later.

Wednesday, arrival in Osaka, the day before the concert. Main Activity; Handshaking Event.

Tickets for the handshaking event were sold at a record store morning the same day as the event.

We were early and the store hadn’t opened (calculated, on our part), so we decided it would be more comfortable to wait in the nearby park.

Rounding the corner we saw, not a group, but a row, of people in unordinary clothes standing side by side. This neat, but apparently unorganized (and perhaps spontaneous?) line was to us a very puzzling phenomenon. There were no signs or markings and no apparent people “in charge” to organize the line, and the people waiting were all an interesting contrast to the regular park visitors. They were just hanging about, either reading, staring into the air, talking in small groups of two or three – but still clearly in line, even within their small groups – and they were all girls. (Ok, perhaps some guys too, they’re not that visible (or discernible) among the girls here, but the guys were certainly underrepresented.)

Since we weren’t 100% sure if it was an actual (or official) line for the ticket sale, we sat down on a bench a little distance away and observed the whole phenomenon. At 11 (when the store opened) the line started moving so we got up too, and timed so we “accidentally” fell into pace behind the back of the line.

CD singles and tickets were bought, and then we just had to fill time until the actual event 7 hours later.

---

The handshaking event itself

The queue was back in the park again, but bigger and flashier. There were girls of all kinds of (at least slightly gothic or rocked up) styles; Punk girls (modern & moderate ones), Rocker girls, Goth, and a surprising number of Lolitas of different kinds (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolita_Fashion). We felt really out of place – even with heavy make-up.

We had early numbers on our tickets so we got in with the first batch of people even though we came only just in time for the opening.

We were ushered into a room about half the size of an average classroom, into a new queue waiting for the band. Surrounded by nervous whisperings high expectations and giddiness from the crowd in general, I got caught in the mood too. I didn’t really care if I met them or not; I was there for the music, and to them I’d only become a fleeting impression at best – one of hundreds of fans they’ve met. (Nika cared though.) Still, since we were there and all, it was kind of fun being the only westerners/white people there. Especially when it was out turn to greet the band (well, the vocalist and the bandleader); to most of the fans they shook their hands and thanked them (for their support I assume – they said mostly just “arigatou gozaimasu” - meaning "thank you"), but Nika and I received longer handshakes and a “thank you very much, please continue to listen to our music”. I have to rely on Nika for the translation; because I didn’t expect them to say more than “thank you” I was quite baffled when the vocalist kept holding my hand while saying stuff in Japanese…

And then it was finished. The girls were so happy, one couldn’t stop smiling, and the other had to dry away a few tears. Segments of the line was still waiting in the park, waiting for their turn, new people were ushered inside in small groups, and the people coming out from the event was asked to move away to avoid crowds (everything was nicely organized, very Japanese).

Afterwards we went to the Dotonburi in Namba and ate Okomiyaki, and talked and talked and talked about the evening’s experiences, and how they were perceived, or possibly perceived, by us and all other people possibly present, etc. before heading back to our hotels.

Part 2 coming soon (hopefully).

Status report

2008-04-25T17:54:00.003+02:00

Writings:
Concert review and related stories - part 1 - is now in a process of editing. Will be posted by Monday.

School:
So-so. I was a really, really, good student last week, but not so much this week. Hope to remedy this next week. My courses are still interesting (even the seemingly boring one), but I have to study better for my next kanji quiz.

Social life:
I'm way too social, and yet not social enough.

Other:
I still have many half-finished (or half-started) projects. I still want to do everything - including sleeping in on Sundays.

I'm making Norwegian rice porridge on Sunday, partly for my Norwegian classmate's birthday, partly because I want it myself, and partly because I cooked way too much rice here the other day and need/want to get rid of it...

Comments still appreciated yo!
("yo" here: Japanese sentence suffix indicating a sense of imperativity in the general meaning of " (...) I tell you!" def./expln. by Cecily)

A little Plastic Tree, and how I decided to go to Osaka

2008-04-12T17:12:00.008+02:00

I have several windows of YouTube open now, acting as improvisory music station, enabling me to listen to all the Plastic Tree songs I didn’t know about until last Thursday. I have to buy all their CDs so I can listen to all their songs… It’s "only" twelve albums… Oh, where to start…

We were sitting in my room, me and my friend. We were trying to choose a CD to listen to, when my friend said he had a burnt CD with some J-Rock band he’d found on the ‘net. Maybe I’d like it, Japan fan & rock music fan as I am. As I liked the band, and my CD collection at the time was rather limited, he told me to keep the CD; Plastic Tree, unknown album name, all tracks named “track 01”, “track 02” etc.

4 years later, still, none of my Japanese friends have ever heard of Plastic Tree, at least until I mentioned them.

Last weekend I passed on my minimal collection of PT songs to a friend in the dormitory (Goji), in order to give him an alternative band to listen to other than just Asian Kung Fu Generation (which I also like, but… not *every* day…and not *only* AKFG).

Later the same evening, Goji, and another friend of mine (Nika), had a conversation along these lines:

Nika: I’m going to Osaka to see a band called Plastic Tree
Goji: Yes, I’ve heard of them
Nika: Yes, I gave you some of their song earlier on a mixed CD.
Goji: No, Cecily gave it to me today…
Nika: Whuh?!? Another Plastic Tree fan? Here in the dorms? Are you serious?!?

The evening after I met Nika by accident and Nika revealed that she too is a fan of PT, and during our conversation about the rarity of PT fans (or apparent PT fans), she mentioned that she was going to their concert in Osaka on the coming Thursday. I immediately decided that if there was concert tickets left I would go too –a decision I do not regret.

I got my ticket Monday, and took the night ferry from Beppu to Osaka Tuesday, arriving I Osaka 6:30 Wednesday morning. And returned home to the dorms this morning -tired, but too happy to stop smiling.

Coming soon:
Review: Plastic Tree, Osaka Namba Hatch April 10^th 2008
Other Stories from Osaka

Back in Beppu

2008-03-27T08:36:00.003+01:00

Back in Beppu, back on campus, 45 days after start.

Writing this blogpost took me longer than I expected. It was harder than I thought it would be too. The last week has featured exhaustion, emotional turbulence, strong impressions, stress, and then I caught a cold – which escalated when I finally had time to sit down to breathe. I guess I'm lucky I mostly get sick at times when it's most convenient (or least inconvenient)... I think I’ll be able to throw it off quite soon though, thanks to Shannon's cough syrup – it was a relief to realize I could breathe normally again this afternoon.

Since Kyoto, the Family and I had 2 half days and a night in Hiroshima & Miyajima. We stayed at a really nice Ryokan on Miyjima, which wonderful cedar tree bath. Shame I was the only one that actually used it. We had ordered the stay at this Ryokan to experience a traditional Japanese accommodation, but the only Japanese thing we did was eat... But the food was just as wonderful as the cedar bath. Oh, and we slept on futons in tatami rooms, but... I'm kind of used to futons by now, so that experience wasn’t that big a deal for me…

In our 2 half days (one half day on either side of our stay at the Ryokan) we split up and did our preferred activities. The first day I took Mom & M to what I think is the most important sight in Hiroshima; the A-bomb Dome and the Peace Memorial Museum. The 2^nd day we had planed to take a stroll around the nearby sights of Miyajima before we left, but that morning it was raining so hard that we decided against it. We headed directly for the station where we hung out at Starbucks until it was time to get our luggage and get onto the train.

Arriving in Beppu with my family was the most tiring part of my whole journey. I had mixed feelings about going home at all in the first place. I had a good time travelling, and would have liked Beppu to just another stop on the way to somewhere else, and at the same time it would be nice to be back with my friends again (and to study again, to actually look up and re-learn all the Japanese I’ve noted I lacked along the way). And then, upon arriving in Beppu I was "home", but not "home enough" to be allowed to relax. Add the general tiredness & impatience in the group and you get a good portion of emotional turbulence, but in the end we had a nice last day together in Beppu when I took them to the Jigoku Meguri (or in English "The Hells' Tour").

Accepting the fact that I was going home; it was really nice to come back to campus, to all the people that had begun to drift back into the dorms from where ever they have spent their break.

Since coming back to campus I've intensely socialized with a lot of people, got up at 5:45 to help Shan with her luggage down to the waiting car and to see her off, done my course reg., paid my bills and arranged my post re-delivered, eaten at a tabehoudai (all you can eat) with new and semi-new people, and spent a day and a half in bed after fixing everything important that had to be done. *phew*

Projects for the next week or so is to e-mail all the wonderful people I won't be seeing for a while (regardless of where I know them from), updating the blog (post pictures to previous posts etc.), start reading Peace & Conflict Studies and sort through misc. related administrative info (autumn sem. prep.), review kanji (spring sem. prep.), write my travel report to my sponsor foundation, etc. etc.

There are plenty of things to do, but foremost of them all is recuperation.

Kyoto in the Rain

2008-03-19T12:20:00.003+01:00

I’m at our hotel room in Kyoto, airing feet and drying socks and trousers and jackets etc. I’m looking forward to posting a bigger update and post a direct blog-post for once, since there’s free internet connection on my own pc with the hotel room’s LAN cord. Yay! The only downside is that I’m exhausted after today’s excursions; we’ve been on a one-day bus tour of Kyoto, having about 40 minutes at each stop – most of them places where I could’ve spend hours on my own.

It’s nice to travel with my family, even though there are some challenges. Having spent a month practicing independency and travelling in my own pace it’s a big change to suddenly travel with 4 companions with different needs, wishes, desires, ways of thinking and different ways of communicating.

We arrived in Kyoto yesterday afternoon, but didn’t do much except relax at the hotel, and then go out to eat in the evening. Aunt and Uncle went out to dinner earlier, so Mom, M and I grabbed the opportunity to go to a sushi restaurant (A&U can’t/won’t eat raw food), and explored the local area around the hotel on our way home.

Today we had vouchers for a tour bus tour of Kyoto, like the one we had in Tokyo on Sunday. We’ve seen a lot, but we have no understanding of half of it or less because we had to rush through each stop and then from one stop to the next, rinse and repeat. I have no real sense of where the places where we went are, I’m not used to navigate from a bus seat, especially when I didn’t need to research ‘where from, where to, and where to stop’. Everything came sort of out of sequence since I just followed the flow of the tour bus program without knowing anything of it in advance. We saw Nijo Samurai Quarters (or something), the Golden Pavilion, the Imperial Palace (disappointing, so much stress & security for such a desolate place), had lunch at Kyoto Handy Crafts Centre, and then continued to Heian jingu, Sanjusangendou (with a 1001 kannon statues), and Kiyomizu-dera where Mom, M (my brother) and I dodged umbrellas while jogging through the temple area’s paths – three people, one umbrella and one very wet jacket.

It still ended up being a nice day, despite the rain. The rain (and following wet shoes, jackets, trousers etc.) wasn’t nice, but it definitely gave the tour a different character.

I won’t write that much more now, we’re soon heading out for dinner/supper, and then I’m updating some missing blogposts, and pictures will come later.

Tokyo Summary (backlogged)

2008-03-17T14:09:00.000+01:00

I never got so far as to write about Nikko, and I guess I won’t be able to do so either, until I return to Beppu.

This is my 5^th day in Tokyo, and my first with time/energy to write. I had an entire evening to myself in Shiho’s apartment before my family came, but I was too tired to collect my thoughts long enough to even get out my pc.

Tokyo Day 1, March 12^th.

I arrived earlier than I bothered to tell the girls (Shiho, my hostess, and her friend Yuko – as not to worry them with my early arrival etc.), found my way to Shinjuku and then to Eifukuchou, stashed my luggage in a coin locker and returned to Shinjuku to meet Hans, a classmate from UiB. We walked around Shinjuku for a while, had lunch, took a train to Shimokitazawa where we walked around a little more, taking our time looking at all the fun little shops and all the people. After Shimokitazawa Hans took me to a big book store in Shinjuku to show me the international section before heading off, but we met another Norwegian there and ended up chatting. Hans finally had to go, but Mathias (the random Norwegian) and I took a coffee at Starbucks before I had to go.

I met up with Yuko at Eifukuchou station at 6 o’clock, and from there we walked to Shiho’s apartment, where I was to camp until my family came on the 15^th. I noticed Yuko was nervous of how to entertain me (and/or how to communicate with me) until Shiho came home from work (some 4 hours later), but communicating in (halting) Japanese helped a lot, and I managed to take the initiative on the entertainment bit by asking if she was interested in seeing some of my travel pictures. We ended up looking at pictures until 9:30 pm, and then realised that we should get out getting some food before everything closed. We were at the restaurant when Shiho joined us. It was a bit awkward at first, but it eased up easily enough. After eating Shiho convinced Yuko that she should camp for the night too since it was getting so late, so the three of us occupied the entire floor of Shiho’s 1 room, Japanese style apartment.

Tokyo Day 2, March 13^th.

After sleeping in, and socializing with Shiho before heading out at around noon, I walked around Shinjuku and Shibuya on my own, enjoying a window seat at Shibuya’s most famous Starbucks in the afternoon, eating a Banana Caramel Crepe on a street bench in the dusk-fall and then returned to Shiho’s apartment in the a little after dark.

Shiho gave me a spare key to her apartment since she had a night shift at work (she’s a nurse) and would be staying there for the night, so I was all alone. I had been given free access to everything in her fridge and cupboard, so I made my first home made meal in a month. I was a little hesitant at first, but it would be just as impolite to not take anything as to eat everything, so I went for the middle ground; make a meal of what I found, and replace the expensive stuff. (good food, sleepy, not managing to do anything of what I planned, etc.)

Tokyo Day 3, March 14^th

Planned to go to Kamakura, ended up staying in the apartment all day, until Shiho returned from work, we socialized until Yuko came over after work and then went out to dinner, out into the pouring rain.

Tokyo Day 4, March 15^th – Family arrival

Breakfast w/girls, train w/girls to Shinagawa, good timing at the hotel, Lunch w/fam, Shibuya w/fam, nighty-night.

Tokyo Day 4, March 16^th

Tokyo by tour bus tour, Asakusa in the evening, then returned to hotel.

Tokyo Day 5, March 17^th

Mom, M & me -day. Shinjuku; book store & shopping mall, lunch at One Half Café, then to Akihabara, hunt for a bookstore near Tokyo station, then return to hotel; joined Uncle & Aunt for a drink in the 39^th floor bar. Packing & stuff…

Closing in on Tokyo

2008-03-11T14:25:00.002+01:00

Since I wrote last, from Sendai, I’ve travelled a day, from Sendai to Nikko, gone sightseeing in Nikko with C.G., and travelled yet another day. (I should write about Nikko too, sightseeing with C.G. for a day, and describing the YH I stayed at, but tonight Saitama was closer to the surface.)

I make a lot of plans, and I change some of them myself, others, like this one, was changed for me. I had planned to stay in Nikko two full days in order to get rested before entering the metropolis. Unfortunately for me, the youth hostel I stayed at in Nikko could only house me 2 nights, forcing me to change my plans. Since I had to find new accommodation I felt I could just as well move on, even though I’d love to stay another day or two in Nikko’s fresh air and peaceful scenery, though the town is a tad too touristy (wow, lots of T’s!).

Waking up this morning, I had no idea what so ever where I would be heading, so the only plan I had was to head down to the tourist information centre, buy some internet time and research what options I had. I wanted to go closer to Tokyo, but not all the way in to the city itself. Since I’m staying with Tommi’s sister its no good appearing a day too early, and if I went all the way into Tokyo I could just as well stay, find accommodation, and then it would have been much easier to book accommodation for all of the days until my family comes, but I can’t really cancel my arrangements with Tommi’s sister either, because both she and Tommi has gone through some trouble (fixed this whole arrangement) for me. And it would be *really* short notice if I cancelled now too.

So, having researched miscellaneous train schedules and other tourist information on the net, I decided to go to Saitama, even though my Lonely Planet says absolutely nothing about the ‘ken* at all. (*-ken = Prefecture)

(Another option I considered was to go out to the coast to Mito, in Ibaraki-ken, and see the famous garden and the plum trees (which are blooming at the moment) but I decided it would be too long to travel out there since I wouldn’t be able to spend any time there to go sightseeing since I have to be in Tokyo tomorrow; Mito was too far to travel to, just to return without seeing anything. Zannen desu ne…)

Not having a real map of Saitama, and only a slightly misleading ‘YH of Japan Map’ and no guiding from Lonely Planet I decided to go to Saitama City –which is on my YH-Japan map, but I realised after a while that Saitama City isn’t really a place, but rather an area consisting of several small/medium sized cities. Tokyo is the same (I’ve been told) but at least you can go to a station ticket office and buy a ticket just to “Tokyo station”.

When I tried to tell people I was going to Saitama they looked at me sideways, over the brims of their glasses, etc, and asked me; “where in Saitama are you going?” Me being clueless answered “Saitama-shi” –whereupon they kept their gaze level and asked “Saitama-Shintoshi?” …“Yes? ... (I assume so since it’s called Saitama-something)”. And when I got there and asked the tourist info for a cheap hotel; they sent me to Omiya-koen –which took me back exactly the way I came from, and then onto a sideline into the suburbs.

I got to my tiny hotel, where the staff asked me to forgive the “oldness” of the building and it’s facilities, but coming from a rather interesting YH in Nikko, tatami rooms and spacious (shared) baths and toilets seemed a luxury (still does 8hrs later). I was able to check in early, stash my luggage in my room and walk to the park where I spent the rest of the afternoon, walking around the various paths, teasing the ducks (by hanging about their regular feeding area without feeding them), smelling the plum flowers, playing with photographic challenges (light, noisy backgrounds etc.), watching the other park visitors (and their dogs or families or both).

Now I should re-pack my backpack again, leaving possibly useful changes of clothes on top… 22:47… I’d better get going if I want to get any decent amount of sleep…

(Anyway, even if Saitama-ken is not even mentioned in Lonely Planet, there is touristy stuff here too. I concluded that Saitama and surrounding areas fall in the shadow of Tokyo in areas like tourism, and but they try to keep up with the competition, at least on a local scale. Saitama-ken is known in

Japan

for making the most traditional Hina-dolls, and there’s a Cartoon museum and a Bonsai garden among other sights. Saitama-Shintoshi (lit. Saitama New-City) is marketed as “the new modern face of Saitama”, with bold modern cityscapes and architecture. There are pretty places and museums of new or old things like most places have. In Saitama-Shintoshi they even have a “John Lennon Museum”, isn’t at least that worth a mention in Lonely Planet? )

Yo!

2008-03-08T11:43:00.002+01:00

4 new blogposts, including this one!

I'm in Sendai at the moment, cheap internet at the YH; 200 yen per hour. I'm leaving for Nikko tomorrow morning, staying three nights, meeting a friend while I'm there, and then Tokyo next...! Just about a week until the family gets here! Tanoshimi!

Looks like I'm staying with Tommi's sisteer in Tokyo, but I'm so nervous about writing her!
I should have done so a long time ago, even with Tommi e-mailing her for me too, so now I just have to. And it's so difficult! How to phrase oneself correctly, and to do so in Japanese! ohmgh! The pressure...I'm sure it's not that important, but I still can't help caring about it....

Anyway (2), I'm looking forrward to arrive in Nikko, if not so much to the journey there...

Sendai & Matsushima

2008-03-07T11:25:00.001+01:00

(Wohooo! I’ve reached the opposite side! Well, I’m not all the way north, but at least I’m on the east coast now! Yay! )

A traveller’s work is never done. You have to get early up for the breakfast you’ve paid for, and be early out in order to get time enough to cover all the sightseeing, and then there are restaurants to be found and food to be eaten, and they you go out and see whatever you haven’t seen already or research the next stop; how and when to get there, what to see, contact friends in the area, find maps, find accommodation, actually get there, unpack necessities, update maps and sightseeing/travel plans, get to sleep, get early up for breakfast – rinse and repeat. Phew. And then there is the problem of finding time to describe everything; all the impressions, all the interesting and otherwise remarkable people, the funny food, what sights were seen and which weird areas was visited. And so on and so forth.

I have developed a lot of small projects while travelling; I’m marking my travel routes on the maps in my Lonely Planet and on my small (youth hostels in -) Japan map, and I’m drawing in my walking routes on the tourist maps I get (if they are suitable at least) after each day, I’m keeping track of my daily expenses (I’m cutting a little slack on my temple offerings since I don’t bother keeping track of every 1-yen I’m using) in a little book and making regular summaries and average use pr/ (day, week, month, total). And of course I’m trying to write about my travel experiences regularly too, but it is a bit more difficult to manage because it takes a little more preparations to get started, and when I first start I usually keep on writing for a while. It would be ideal to type while I’m on the train – if my pc wasn’t buried in my backpack. It’s easy enough to get it out, but to put it back in without re-packing the whole backpack is quite impossible. Imagine trying to do that while you’re on a train announcing that next stop is your stop, and you have to get off here and catch the train leaving on an unknown platform 5 minutes after your arrival. Sounds like a nightmare to me.

Another ideal “spending train time” –activity would be to study. Except that the studying I need to do is writing kanji, but writing is not easy on trains in motion, and practicing (i.e. writing) kanji is more or less impossible. Zannen desu ne.

I don’t know how many times I’ve written “today (or yesterday) I was planning to get early back and write…”, but it proves that there’s never time enough for everything. And although I want to write about as much as possible, I’ll gladly admit there’s times when I’ve prioritized not writing. At those times I’ve usually spent the time being with other people, like playing Chinese checkers with the girls in my dormitory room in Nagoya, or I’ve stayed out longer to socialize or just go People Watching. Usually the time has been spent on more experiences, rather than ignoring life in just to describe places that I just as well can show you my pictures of.

Today has been such a day. The plan was to go sightseeing in Matsushima, and then return to the YH to relax, write and go early to bed.

I LOVED Matsushima (well, Matsushima-Kaigan anyway, I wasn’t in Matsushima proper). I’ve explored two small, but extremely beautiful, islands in Matsushima Bay; Oshima and Fukuurashima. I had a great time walking in the sunlight and perfect temperatures; around 5-8 degrees, warm in the sunlight and a bit chilly in the shadows, but for walking around it was perfect. (I would love to describe these places, but I think I would spend too much time and would do a much better job of it showing pictures simultaneously, so I’ll move on.)

I walked around these two wonderful nature spots for about three hours (choosing al the small paths, taking me through brambles or pools of dry leaves to interesting views that only the most interested will be able see) before deciding to move on to the other sights, and then walked around Matsushima-Kaigan. I walked to all the other sights but decided they were too expensive this time around. My map obviously wanted me to enter into the Zuiganji temple; flying out of my hand and whirling playfully in the air just outside human reach, for a long time and to many people’s amusement (my own included, it was pretty AND hilarious even though I was in the centre of it…), before it finally landed just inside of the entrance/exit area – and still out of reach. Divine intervention as good as I’ve ever seen, but I decided that paying 700yen to see a temple is something I’ll have to save for next time I’m in the area. Some youths retrieved the map for me on their way out.

I decided I was finished for today and headed for the station even though I had half an hour before the next train. I ordered Oyster soup at a small street-side …kitchen/shop and was sat down on a bench on the sidewalk (yes the girl told me to sit there) where I ate my soup. How many places can you find Oyster soup for 200 yen? (200 yen = 2 USD / 10 NOK) It wasn’t big, but it was oysters in it. Oishiiiii!

While eating the other people on the bench moved on and was replaced by a guy chatting with the shop girl for a sec before cautiously starting a conversation with me. Turned out that the guy had sat next to me while waiting for the Matsushima train at Sendai Station, him noticing the obvious Westerner, and me being not noticing him at all – him being Japanese looking, but Korean. We didn’t talk at the station in Sendai, but he, upon recognising me in Matsushima, decided to make contact. Being able to answer in Japanese led to conversation on the train, and then we went to dinner; which he treated me to since Korean guys are supposed pay for girls. That would never happen to me in Norway.

Youngho (youn-gho) laughed a lot, and laughed hard, at a lot of things I said, but I have no idea what was so funny about it… I can’t remember exactly what I said, but I’ve said similar things to other people before, and none of them laughed…Nor was it meant to be funny. Now I wonder if that’s because they were too polite to laugh, or if it just wasn’t funny.

He laughed really hard when he asked me to read kanji, and I demonstrated exactly how much I could read of the kanji combinations he chose. Mostly I went like this; “sound/reading, meaning, no idea, no idea, meaning, no idea, no idea, still no idea, sound”, resulting in a guessed meaning, that may or may not be close to the correct answer.

Youngho chose kanji from warning signs and other official looking things too, which are always difficult to read. Usually I don’t even try to read them; I know the kanji are too difficult for me. Perhaps I should be able to recognise one or two, but… I suck at kanji (I know this and I admit it readily), and I haven’t been studying the last 4 weeks.

I played along with this game of his although it was annoying. It grated on me later though. It wasn’t really embarrassing, because I know approximately what kanji I should be able to know, and I know I can’t read all those I should be able to read etc., but the way he chose difficult kanji without regard for what Japanese level I might have learned, and how he laughed… It became humiliating, and it grated on me as I made my way back to the YH. Being able to have short basic conversations doesn’t automatically enable me to read difficult kanji. (Reading this again I realise it seems like my pride got a punch, but that's not the case. My pride would have been hurt if I thought I was better than I really am. I felt more ridiculed, really.)

After dinner we exchanged e-mails (although a bit annoying with the whole kanji thing, he was otherwise nice and seemingly harmless), and then I made my excuses being tired, returning to the YH glad to have wriggled my way out of his invitation to go sightseeing together tomorrow.

….And then there was time to get to the showers before they close them for the night….
Oyasumi!

At arrival in Kanazawa

2008-03-03T11:19:00.002+01:00

At arrival in Kanazawa – Seishun 18 (juuhachi) kippu day 1

I’m bone tired. I’ve spent about 9 hours on stations, trains, changing trains, waiting for trains, and at the end; waiting for bus and taking the bus the final stretch (read: “hill”; roads Norwegian-style – small and winding!) up to Kanazawa YH.

I got up at 7 am, checked out from Nagoya YH a little before 8, and walked 10 min to the nearest subway station. I took the subway 1 stop to Nagoya Eki, where I took an earlier train than I’d planned – which only bought me an extra change-over before my original plan caught up to me with the 11:03 train from Maibara to Omishiotsu. I’ve been on 8 different trains today (including the subway), had 7 transfers, taken 6 trains to their “end station”, and waited about 4 hours (239 min or 3.98 hrs) in total – spread over different places.

I wish I could say I had seen a lot of the Japanese countryside, or many interesting locals travelling on their own schedules, but for some reason I wasn’t really interested today. I spent most of the time letting my mind wander and/or dozing off. Having mostly 30 minute intervals I didn’t bother to get out my mp3 player; I’d rather be sure I got the right message from the station speakers, and they are difficult enough to understand at times.

Ofuro. More later. (…)

I’m in a Western-style dormitory room, with my laptop at the small floor table in its Japanese-style “corner”. I haven’t seen any rooms like this before, combined Western and Japanese in this fashion. This must have been a Japanese style room originally, refurnished with western bunk beds to add to the YH’s accommodation capacity. Most of the YH seems to be Japanese style, and I must say I absolutely LOVED the ofuro.

There are ofuros and ofuros, not all the same. They all have the same basics, many (ok, some) variants and varying degrees of quality and cleanness. This one was big, easily adjustable shower (engelsk for kran flertall?), and the bath itself was big, nicely temperatured (meaning HOT but not scalding), and last but not least; it had a massage current (or what else you may call it) placed to hit the middle of your back if you sit directly in front of it - which I found absolutely wonderful after 9 hours on (mostly) hard seats.

Feeling refreshed and listening to western music (daft punk & smashing pumpkins at the moment) I feel a lot better. Bathing in the evening is one of the Japanese things I’ve gotten used to while travelling. Many places (Ryokans & YHs etc.) only have bathing & shower hours in the afternoon and/or evening. This turned out to suit me perfectly, while travelling at least; you can take your time washing off after travelling, and feel a lot better and a lot more relaxed when going to bed, and in the morning you can sleep half an hour longer ‘cos you don’t have to jump through the shower before trotting off sightseeing.

I’ve tried to turn my day rhythm around, and to some degree succeeding, but I’m still an obvious evening person. It’s only 21:02 now, but it feels like I’m staying up late because my elderly Japanese roommate has gone to sleep already.

Last night I stayed up to 1 am, partly because I was packing my space challenged backpack, and partly because I’d spent parts of the evening playing Chinese checkers (with Chinese rules, which turns out to be a little different, but more challenging) with my 3 roommates. We were the same 4 girls for two consecutive nights, and being curious and about the same age we slowly tried to get to know each other, communicating with our very varying levels of English and Japanese skills. Skills ranging from Maggie (native Briton) who just started learning “hajimemashite – yoroshiku onegeishimasu” (VERY basic Japanese), to me (Norwegian) who tried as best I could to translate between English and Japanese (I was in an Intermediate class last semester), to Boa (Korean) who understood only a few words in English but is almost fluent in Japanese, to Tommi who is native Japanese and understands a few words but not longer sentences. We had a lot of fun learning Chinese checkers anew, this time with language barriers and hand gestures. (Maggie! I'll send you the pictures when I get to a stable internet connection!)

I don’t have much more to add at the moment.

Dewa, mata.
-Seshirie

--
Back to Kanazawa recountations:
My roomate, an elderly japanese lady, keeps calling me Neesan (big sister), which, I have come to understand, is usually used by younger people to address older (but still young) people. It sounds different when it is coming from her, more like the grandmother recognising that I am someone else’s big sister (I did tell her that my brother – who is younger than me – is coming to visit).

I find her a bit weird. She is a sweet elderly woman, chatting with me etc, but she’s a little odd too… She mumbles and talks to herself, and has a horrible cough that I don’t want to catch. She talks about random stuff too, at least to me –what she says when talking to herself I have no clue – I don’t know exactly what to make of it, it can be just random, or it can be…weird… So far I’ve decided she’s harmless, if a bit bothersome. (Edit: the weirdness of that woman started to get to me, in the end she was just majorly creepy!)

Writings from Nagoya

2008-03-02T11:08:00.003+01:00

Planen har lenge vært å oppdatere på skrivefronten, men det har bare ikke skjedd..

I’ve been too busy! Last I updated I took a huge bulk update, and it looks like I’m about to do the same once again, but this time I have to write everything at once too.

The plan yesterday was to walk around in random areas of Nagoya (which I still keep calling Nara without meaning to), spending time and not money, and return early to the hostel in order to relax and update my writings.

I don’t really know how to best get up to date on the writing, so I’ll write it from the beginning I think. It feels like I’m supposed to start with Nara, but looking at my previous texts I see I haven’t written much since Tottori – meaning I have to start with Okayama.

Writings:
*Okayama – Feb. 24th & 25th
During my first day in Okayama I went for a daytrip to Kurashiki and tried to go to as many museums as possible. I didn’t find the cool ones though…. Like the toy museum and the piggy bank museum that Lonely Planet mentions.

My second day in Okayama I walked around the Korakuen (big famous garden in Okayama) and the Castle area. I wanted to go to the museums, but they were all closed since it was either Monday or outside the tourist season.

Himeji-jo – Nara – Feb. 26th
I decided to stop in Himeji, on my way to Nara, and see the famous Himeji-jo (Himeji Castle). It was cold and raining, and I was tired, hungry and had a 3hr time limit for sightseeing, so I kind of rushed it all. I spent only 1 hr on the entire castle and its gardens, which was way too short, but I didn’t feel like lingering. Beautiful place, but I’d rather return on a warm, sunny day. Preferably with company.

Not really anything to add to this. I spent more time at Starbucks than at the main goal of sightseeing – at a place I had stopped at specifically to go sightseeing. Sad, isn’t it?

*Arriving in Nara– Feb. 26th
Shared a room with a jap girl called Tomomi, Tommi for short. We walked to the supermarket and then had dinner (obento-) together at the YH, and ended up chatting through the evening.

Nara Day one – Feb. 27th
Nara-koen (Nara Park), adopted by elderly volunteer guide (man in his 60’s, mumbled a lot – my most used reply became “ah, soudesu ka?”), trudged around Nara-koen through mysterious shortcuts – I think I saw most of the sights, but I have no idea where we actually went, but he left me outside the Daibutsuden (big Buddha hall) where there was a 500yen entrance fee. Right inside, however, I ran into Tommi, roommate from the night before, and ended up walking together a while in the Daibutsuden. Walking out from the Daibutsuden I was telling her about how I’d come to recognise more and more of the other tourists, when someone yells “CECILIE!” Turns out that 4 of my friends from APU (Bart, Nikka, Even and Julia) had decided to go sightseeing Nara-koen the same day I had. We chatted for a short while, I introduced them to Tommi and we took some pictures, and then their guide (that had adopted them) urged them to continue their on their tour, so we split up again. Tommi and I split company a short while after that again, heading separate ways. I was at the Nara Prefectural Art Museum when Bart called me, and met them at the Nara National Museum 30 min later. We toured the museum and then went out for dinner and Starbucks before going back “home” – Me to my YH, and they back to Osaka.

*Nara Day two – Feb. 28th
Former site of castle, lots of walking, free museums, lunch in the green, more walking, ticket research and Starbucks, back to YH, hanging out with Adam from England.

*Ise Jingu – Feb. 29th
Shrine-hopping on the way “from” Nara to Nagoya. Info-lady in Nara said sth about not having time for both shrines, but I made it in good time… Or maybe I misunderstood her and she was saying I could do both and then still would have time… Not sure, but thinking of what she said, I think the first option is more plausible.

Nagoya – Feb. 29th
I arrived at Nagoya YH just in time before check-in closed. I walked longer than I needed to, due to not having a decent map.

I only had a print put map of the way from Nagoya station to the YH, but the map only showed the BIG streets, so what looked like 3 blocks “and then turn right”, turned out to be 3x 3-4 blocks, and THEN turn right, for another 6-7 blocks or so. Arriving in Nagoya around 19:00 I thought I had plenty of time before check-in closed at 20:00, but realising the map’s dimensions did not represent the reality; straight lines being slightly curved roads, and not showing smaller (but still “both-direction-”) roads I had to hurry on. In general, it turned out to be “1 block = 1 major light crossing”. But never trust internet maps; they are inconsistent. When I figured that “1 block = 1 light crossing” I ended up going too far, and passed the YH on the opposite side of the block it is on, and continuing 3 blocks down before getting directions sending me another 4 blocks back – but to the right place (believe it or not, I’ve drawn the route on my Nagoya city map). It took me about 45 min to walk from the station to the YH, so was good and tired by the time I got to my room.

*Nagoya – March 1st
Walked around the Osu and Sakae areas most of the day, spent some time at the Design Centre (cool Trident Design Academy graduate exhibition), then spent some more time at Starbucks, and then 1hr at an internet café before spending 1hr walking back home enjoying the nightlife cityscape and atmosphere even though it was only 6-7 o’clock.

I managed to get back to the YH by 7pm, and had planed to spend the evening writing, but the dormitory room was getting crowded and social so I ended up turning on my pc, but not using it. When Boa (Korean, Boa utt.: Båa,) entered and didn’t speak English of course it sparked the usual conversations in Japanese. Perhaps speaking Japanese is more of a conversation starter than English…Conversations in English are usually done and over with in just a few minutes, while conversations in Japanese lasts for entire evenings –perhaps due to language barriers & communication trouble, but they still last if you show yourself wiling to try finding a way to communicate your message –whatever that may be.

I was chatting with Maggie (came night before me and is staying here for 2 weeks), and Boa (from Korea, speaks Jap not English, left this morning) was in the showers, when the door opened and Tommi (my friend from Nara YH!) came in.

More to be written, I think, but what I have now is mostly fragments to be digested a little more first. Conversations, eating and sharing candy together, travel planning, internet on Tommi’s pc, info-exchange with Boa, possibly staying with Tommi’s sister in Tokyo (if it’s not trouble for her…?) and then Sleep.

*Nagoya today (march 2nd)
Planning on walking to the castle and surrounding area, and if time & energy exploring the Nagoya Eki (which is HUGE!), and perhaps finding another Starbucks, return in decent time, re-pack my bags, write a little (?) and get sleep. Early up tomorrow; leaving for Kanazawa.

Finally, UPDATES!

2008-02-23T10:03:00.006+01:00

And a lot of them too! Feed back and comments are appreciated on everyone of them, not just the last one. Be sure to browse backwards a little to see if you missed anything, because I put the past dates on the updates to keep them in the right order. Pictures are coming too, also for the blogposts from Kumamoto and Fukuoka! Also new: I've added tags to my posts, so if you're looking for posts in English they are now all tagged with "English". Yay!

At the moment I'm in Okayama, my 15th stop along the road towards Tokyo. I'll see if I can find a map and plot in my journey and then post it. From Okayama I'm thinking of taking a daytrip to Kurashiki, spend a day in Okayama City proper, and then head for Himeiji, Osaka and Nara -and further than that I have no idea as of yet. I want to go to Mt.Koya, but I think it might be a little too cold... We'll see.

Now I'm going to check in on Facebook, and then post pictures to the blog! Enjoy!

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Edit：Pictures from Matsue, Izumo Taisha and Tottori will come later; I've spent too much time (and therefore too much money) at the Internet Cafe and now it is time for foooood. Mata ne!

Omataseshimashita!

2008-02-21T10:01:00.001+01:00

I’ve reached Tottori. It’s been 14 days on the road already, and I’ve hardly noticed. The hardest part of travelling was back in Kumamoto and Fukuoka, when I knew it would be oh so easy to return to Beppu and known safety. After Fukuoka I had a goal to motivate me for a while; to visit Kate in Hagi. After Hagi all I had to do was keep moving on, and so have I done, a small step at a time.

Getting to Tottori was great. Not that it’s all that fantastic in itself, but there is life here, open stores, people in the restaurants, other people hurrying about their business. Life bustling all around. I liked Matsue, my last stop before Tottori, but coming here I realize that Matsue too had the “Ghost Town feeling” I met wherever I stopped along my way since Shimonoseki. In most of the cases I could sense the dormant charm of the place, but being there in winter it was obvious to me that I was there outside of the seasons as well. Many of these places were quiet and desolate, no people in the streets, few (if any) open shops and restaurants, and those only around the obvious spots of activity; main streets and tourist attractions –or tourist attractions’ bus parking lots in the case of Tsuwano (the only lively spot was a noodle place, situated opposite the bus parking lot and catering mainly to bus-tourists). Most of the town may be closed, but the gift shop by the tourist bus’ parking lot is always open (in my experience anyway).

The weather may have helped to chase away the Ghost Town feeling, but the sun was shining in Matsue too, and here in Tottori it seemed to have been bustling before the weather changed as well. The sun was shining and there was a non-freezing breeze in the air; I could walk around without gloves and earmuffs and still be comfortable. Of course, having had a warm day (first day of spring?) don’t stop my hotel room from being freezing cold –despite the gas heater.

I took advantage of the weather and took the bus out to the Sakyu – the great sand dunes of Tottori – and had fun walking in the dunes and along the beach, taking pictures of the dunes, footprints in the sand, the waves and odd objects that had drifted in to the beach; garbage that, to me, had a certain beauty in the sand and sunlight.

After returning to the hotel I’ve been relaxing in my room, catching up on my writing and accounting. I even forgot to go to the Internet Café, but at least I’ll be prepared when I finally get to one.

Art Museum Day

2008-02-20T10:00:00.000+01:00

Today’s plan was to do the Adachi Art Museum in Yasugi, and then return to Matsue and do the Shimane Prefectural Art Museum, see the sun set over the lake and then return to the Ryokan before 19:00 so the Terazuyas could enjoy an evening in the onsen. I’m not sure if they invited me or not, but I’m too tired to go, even though it’s not even 4 o’clock yet.

I managed to do both the museums at super speed, although it was not intended. Getting to the Adachi museum from Matsue I had to take the train 40 minutes, and then 20 minutes with the museum’s shuttle bus from Yasugi station to the museum. It doesn’t sound so bad, until I add that train and bus doesn’t always correspond. Getting to the museum I had to wait at Yasugi station for 45 minutes, so I decided that I didn’t want to do that on my way back. I was almost through the whole Adachi museum when I saw there would be a perfect correspondence with a return train to Matsue –in 20 minutes. This was abut 2 hours earlier than I had planned to leave, but my options were; hanging about the museum which I had already seen, buying a 1000yen coffee at the museum café, finishing the museum at a slower pace and taking a later bus to Yasugi just to wait at the station once more. Neither appealed to me, so I walked through the rest of the exhibition, skimmed the souvenir shop and jumped on the bus –just in time.

The museum itself was wonderful, and I would have liked to spend a day there, perhaps in the company of another western “Art and Orient” lover, and if my budget would allow me to stop in the museum café. The Adachi Museum is a combined museum and Japanese garden, top ranked among the best gardens in Japan (“…and perhaps the World!” they boast).

The Shimane Prefectural Art Museum was a bit of a disappointment, mostly because there was only one exhibition open, and it was quite small. I spent perhaps half an hour at the museum before heading back to the Ryokan around 3 – 3:30, and I’ve spent the rest of the day in my room relaxing, sorting through my growing collection of tourist information, throwing out what I no longer need, and then preparing packing my backpack once more. It was too cold and cloudy today so I skipped watching the sun set; I think it is an activity better left for more summery days. So, next time around – I hope.

Catching up on writing!

2008-02-18T09:59:00.001+01:00

Way to long too long without writing; it’s getting hard to catch up. I decided to leave the last parts, of the stories from Hagi and Yamaguchi with Obaasan, just as the keywords I wrote down. Writing all that would take too much time when I have newer memories to write down while they are, at least seemingly, fresh.

Since I wrote last I’ve had a daytrip from Yamaguchi to Akiyashi-dai, left Yamaguchi, visited Tsuwano, spent a night in Masuda, travelled to Ooda and seen the sights of Iwami-Ginza and Nima before picking up my luggage back in Ooda and then continued on to Matsue; from where I had a daytrip to Izumo-taishi today. There are plenty of reasons for not having time or energy to write, but they can be summed up to “I’ve been busy”.

2008-02-15: Akiyoshi-do
Getting to Akiyoshi-dai from Yamaguchi was no problem, there’s a direct bus from Yamaguchi station to Akiyoshi-do – the great limestone cave at the plateau Akiyoshi-dai. (To avoid confusion: I visited the cave Akiyoshi-do, which is at the Akiyashi-dai plateau.) Going up the hills and into the mountains seemed like a bad idea considering the cold and my not-so-warm clothes, but I’d made up my mind, and had nothing better to do.

The bus-ride up to Akiyoshi-dai showed me a hilly Japanese countryside with scattered hamlets here and there in the valleys. As the bus-ride took us higher up there were snow-clad villages and rice-terraces, but up on the plateau by Akiyoshi-do the snow was gone, and it was slightly warmer than down in Yamaguchi.

Akiyoshi-do is obviously a season attraction. The cave is open year-round, but the town around it had gone into hibernation, and was little more than a ghost-town. There were some souvenir shops and restaurants open; but only some of the small places along the road leading to the cave.

There’s not really any point in describing the cave itself, it’s a cave with interesting colours and stone formations, but describing it won’t count for much unless you can see it, so I’ll post some pictures from the cave at some later point. I had a blast walking through the cave and play with camera angles and light challenges. Being in a cave it was (of course) dimly lit, so I had quite a challenge figuring out how to take the best possible pictures. I also made a game out of trying to see figures in the stone formations, and then photograph them. The question I whether I will be able to recognise the same shapes and figures when I see just the picture of them…

2008-02-16 Tsuwano
Scribbles in Traveller's Notebook, and pictures online.

2008-02-17 Oda, Iwami-Ginzan (Omori), Nima, Arriving in Matsue
(Scribbles in the Traveller's Notebook too -I might post some excerpts later, I might forget it

completely.)

I was on my way from Masuda to Matsue, but stopped underway in Oda, Iwami-Ginzan and Nima to see the sights while I was in the area. Oda was nothing to me but a helpful tourist information clerk, a useful coin locker, and a bus stop.

Bus ride to Iwami-Ginzan; me worrying about having taken the wrong bus and what to do if I did etc, and calming myself down; nothing special.

I couldn’t go to the Iwami-Ginzan silver mine itself, so I wandered around Oomori and saw the sights there. There was no snow there when I came, but 15 min after I came snow fell heavily.

(Scribbles in the Traveller’s Notebook from the café).

After enjoying the café I had to hurry through the rest of my itinerary to be sure to reach my bus in time, but in the cold I was glad to keep moving. I had a wonderful time even though I was “surprised” by the snow; it was a beautiful sight, and it reminded me of winters back home (well, the good ones at least). I put ten-ten on the “surprised” because I didn’t see it coming, but it was cold and snowy further south as well, so I was dressed to stand the cold.

From Iwami-Ginzan (Omori) I took the bus to Nima where I wanted to see the sand museum. That’s right people; it is a museum for sand. I reached the museum just in time for the last admission, and walked around the exhibitions twice before closing time 30 min later. Not the biggest museum I’ve seen. Perhaps not so surprising that they had a lot of hour-glasses, and sand-art “paintings”, but there were some other paintings as well, some photographs from famous places in the prefecture, a video room and 2 educational rooms for the geology of Japan for those that are good enough in Japanese to understand it all. I wasn’t interested in the last parts. One of the interesting things they do have is the world’s largest hour-glass, which is turned at midnight every New Year’s Eve, and has enough grains of sand to last until the exact same time the next year.

Outside the museum, waiting for trains, and finally, finally arriving in Matsue – picked up by the ryokan-family, and treated to an obento while chattering with the family for a while before retreating to my room. (Freezing night, I tried sleeping without the heater (bad idea!); had to turn it on at 4:30 because my legs were cramped.)

2008-02-18 Izumo-taisha
I’ve walked at least 4km today, just in Izuma-taisha. More later. Oyasumi.

Yamaguchi - Obaasan and Me

2008-02-14T09:57:00.001+01:00

A wonderful eventful day in Yamaguchi

Wow, I’m so tired I don’t know where to start writing. Well, top of the document, obviously, but… this has been my most eventful day so far, it even tops yesterday.

I planned to take the main sights of Yamaguchi by foot (or bus if necessary), so the first stop was the tourist office at Yamaguchi Station. I wasn’t able to figure out the bus routes from the nearby bust stop so I decided to walk from the hostel. It took me about 50 minutes. I was glad the weather was nice, though it was a bit on the cold side. (I’ve been told by several people that his is the coldest week, or the coldest part of winter. Not too happy about travelling towards the colder areas at this time… Think I’ll have to buy a new sweater at this pace.)

At the tourist office I had a nice conversation with the lady at the information desk and I got a big collection of tourist brochures and helpful info, and, to my surprise, a souvenir from the people at the office! They gave me a small Hagiyaki ceramic cup, a special Japanese ceramic style that Hagi is famous for. I don’t know exactly why they decided to give it to me, but I guess I was different from the usual tourists, and spoke a higher level of Japanese (or any Japanese at all) than they expected me to. I must have given a positive impression at least. :)

After sorting through all the brochures I decided to go to the nearest tourist attraction and start there, walking from one tourist attraction to the next until I’d have enough. I never got that far; as I walked up the Ekidori (Yamaguchi main street from the station) I accidentally fell into pace with an elderly lady walking beside her bicycle. She asked me (in Japanese, of course) if I was sightseeing, and when I replied yes (going to sightsee anyway) we soon had a (halting) conversation.

After a couple of blocks the Obaasan (nickname for elderly women, meaning “Grandma”) asked if I wanted to join her for a cup of coffee at a nearby café. Seeing this unique opportunity to practice Japanese, and socializing with the locals at the same time, I was glad to accept; and ended up being treated to coffee and a piece of cake. Our conversation somehow absorbed the lady at the table next to us for a while, and a little later Obaasan’s friend came along too, an elderly lady named Nakamura-san. The original Lady-at-the-next-table changed to a younger woman, but she too was included momentarily before we left. “We” were: me, Obaasan and Nakamura-san.

They joined me for sightseeing, and then it gradually became them showing me the sights and paying all my entrance fees etc. I tried to protest, but Obaasan just smiled and pushed my hand away. When the ladies became tired Nakamura-san’s car magically appeared from somewhere and they drove me around to 2-3 other sights, treated me to Akizaki (or Akisaki) – a traditional Japanese winter drink; a hot, white, thick, sweet drink, complete with a dash of alcohol. And afterwards they insisted upon driving me back to the hostel.

Wow, and I haven’t even started on the sights! It was so amazing to experience the local attractions in the company of these local old women. Obaasan had adopted me quite quick, although I didn’t realise it until a long while afterwards. She kept saying I was like “mago”, but I didn’t know it meant “grandchild” until I looked it up. By that time Obaasan had used it several times. The ladies including the first “table-next-to-ours-lady” and the lady serving the Akasaki, kept saying I was beautiful. I do believe most of it is because I’m tall (compared to Japanese), blond (all the black-haired Asians want lighter hair), fair-skinned (which is the ideal) and blue-eyed (unusual & exotic). I think I halfway embarrassed the Akasaki-lady by saying “thank you”, she obviously didn’t expect me to understand a word. And then suddenly we had another conversation going (or perhaps the same one, just once more…).

Outside the Akasaki-shop (or shed with benches) we passed a small group of teenagers, and when one of the boys tripped while staring at me Obaasan snickered and said “He’s staring because you’re beautiful!” I had to contradict her; I think he stared because I’m a foreigner. It isn’t unusual that people stare at me, ant not that weird either, given that I’m tall and blond and wearing my strikingly bright red jacket –which is very at odds with the Japanese fashion.

I still haven’t described the sights, but if I don’t ever get to it I hope the pictures will say it all.

Now it’s time for bed, I’ve got a long day tomorrow as well, going to Akiyoshi, sightseeing and returning to Yamaguchi. Hope I’ll be able to realise this plan though. I have to get better at following my plans thorough to the end. Or in many cases; at least start them!

Oyasumi. Obaasan, arigatou!
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*omiyage postkort, Nakamura-san’s bil med barnesikring, vandring etter retur til hostellet.
Xavier Memorial Church, 5-etasjes Pagoda, Gammel restaurant nå museum (se etter utklipp blant brosjyrene),

The rail from Shimonoseki, with Kate in Hagi, and arrival Yamaguchi.

2008-02-13T09:54:00.001+01:00

First when I checked out from my hotel this morning I looked out the window. Snow, not falling, but thrown violently around in the wind. I appreciated the short walk to the station, but not having to wait for my train in the cold. There were people shoving snow off the platforms as I got up there. (yes up! For those that haven’t seen a Japanese railway station I can tell you that most of them have ticket offices and ticket machines and timetables etc. on ground floor, and then the platforms and the rails themselves one floor up, or more, from there.)

I had decided to take the longer train ride to Hagi in favour of the view, rather than taking the (possibly) fastest route inland. After a while I managed to get a seat in the right direction to fully enjoy the view that was not completely obscured by heavy snow or sleet clouds and the amounts of such stuff in free falling towards the ground. It was cloudy ad snowy most of the way along the coast, with the occasional surprise of sun and blue sky shining through the clouds for a short while.

It was a very nice ride along a very, very, local line. When there was people on the train I was people-watching. I was able to observe the locals commuting; mostly high school kids half sleeping on the train on their way to school, and less sleepy-looking middle aged men going to work. The flow of people came and went like tidal waves, leaving the two carriages almost deserted in between the busier stations. I was the only one travelling as far as Hagi, but I was never completely alone in the train. ((picture!))

When there weren’t any people on board I observed (what was visible of) the view. I saw the smallest train station I’ve ever seen; it had a short stretch of cement platform, a unisex toilet with 3 walls and no door, and a 3-walled waiting hall big enough only to squeeze in 3 people, with one of them standing in the doorway –which made out the 4th wall. There were miniature shrines accessible from no visible path, roadside Kannon (statue / goddess of mercy) and a surprising number of cemeteries in remote and inaccessible places. (In many cases I can see why they chose the place, but not how they use it; how do they get the heavy gravestones up there?)

I enjoyed most of the journey, with the exception of the 1hr 42 min waiting time at Nagatoshi station, where I had to change trains. The first thing I did was digging out a warmer sweater from my backpack, put on my beanie (hat/cap/lue/whatever) and gloves. This waiting hall had more than 3 walls, but one of them was still open directly to the platform area. At 11:11 I was glad to finally settle down in the warm and cosy 1-car train to Hagi.

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Hagi with Kate
Waiting, Kate’s apartment, food, wandering around Hagi, Hina doll exhibition, Hagiyaki (also mentioned in the Yamaguchi text), Hagi-latte w/mikan, purikura, bus terminal and bus ride to Yamaguchi.

Kate @ the 1# place to B!

Arrival Yamaguchi
Taxi-Youth hostel

Arriving in Shimonoseki

2008-02-11T09:49:00.002+01:00

Backpaking day 4 – Arriving in Shimonoseki
+ Reflections on addiction to Internet (in Norwegian)

Travel day today, got up reasonably early, checked out from the Fukuryu Business Ryokan and took the 100yen-bus loop to Hakata station. I bought my ticket, and then ate my onigiri breakfast at the platform waiting for my train. My train was a ‘futsu’ train (local train) headed to Kokura where I had to change train to get to Shimonoseki. At Shimonoseki station I stopped to get the local tourist guide, and then I walked the 50 metres to my hotel, left my luggage and headed for the closest Internet Café while waiting for check in. After checking in at the hotel I decided to take a bath to wash of the travel dust – or train sweat* as I hereby rename it in the spirit of the modern age. (These words sound better in Norwegian; “reisestøv” & “togsvette”…)

Clean and clothed, planned what to do while in Shimonoseki, and where to go the next couple of days. I e-mailed with Kate and established that I’ll come and visit her in Hagi on Wednesday, and from there I’m taking the bus to Yamaguchi where I’d like to stay a couple of days –if there’s any available accommodation. From Yamaguchi I’d like to go back up to the north-western coast to the area around Oda (pronounced O-da / Åda) and then east to Matsue and Tottori before heading south to Okoyama. Hopefully I’ll be able to do this, and hopefully I’ll be able to do this at a more leisurely pace than I’ve had up to now.

Anyway, so far I have no idea if anything after Hagi will become more than thought, but I managed to decide how to spend my day in Shimonoseki. Tomorrow morning I’m getting up early and taking the first bus to Karato to see, explore and experience the famous (big, anyway) morning fish market, and then I’ll spend the day in Karato and Chofu to see all the touristy stuff.

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Edit: plans in Shimonoseki did not go as planned. Today (Tuesday) I didn’t manage to get up as planned due to exhaustion. The time is now 14:20, and I’ve yet to get out of the room. I needed a day to just let my body catch up, especially since I’ve planned a long day tomorrow. I’m a bit sad that I’ve been unable to do any of the Shimonoseki touristy stuff, but it might be a nice weekend trip saved for later, now that I know how to get here etc. My revised plans for today; buy train ticket for tomorrow, get food (also for tomorrow’s breakfast), and go to the post office to send the 2nd Traveller’s Notebook I’ve been carrying since Fukuoka. And after that, perhaps more food, and then I’ll return to the hotel to sleep.

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Åh, avhengigheten av internett! Det merkes ekstra godt når en reiser utenfor en daglig tilgangs avstand. Det hjelper til en viss grad å ha med seg pc’n, selv om den ikke har internettilgang, så kan man ”blogge” i Word, mens man av en eller annen merkelig grunn lengter etter å taste kombinasjonene Ctrl+C og Ctrl+V til et nytt vindu. Og mens man først er i gang kan man jo laste opp noen bilder til bloggen – og så husker en at man er visst ikke online likevel… PC uten nettilgang er i bunn og grunn er det bare selvbedrag (men som til en viss grad tilfredsstiller skrivekløen). Man er like avhengig, man bare utsetter neste dose litt lenger, mens man venter på neste internettkafe.

Det er ikke lett å bære tanken på en viktig e-post i innboksen – som man ikke får sjekket før man kommer til neste by – hvis man i det hele tatt finner et sted med tilgjengelig internettilgang der. Det er heller ikke lett å vite at folk faktisk er aktive på Facebook igjen, og ikke bare spammer hverandre med diverse applikasjoner. Jeg blir sittende igjen med ett ubesvart spørsmål. Hva tenker man mest på? E-posten, bloggen, eller kommentarene på Facebook?

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Backpakcing day 3, Fukuoka day 2

2008-02-10T13:57:00.001+01:00

Haven’t done much today, no nothing much happened either. Woke up early to check if I could stay at the Ryokan one more night, and then went back to sleep another few hours. I needed it, apparently. Going out I headed for Tenjin and the same shop as I had tried last night. Searched a long time for the Traveller’s Notebook, and found it eventually. Then I went for (a late) lunch, before walking from Tenjin to Hakata while people-watching. The goal at Hakata was Starbucks in front of the station. There I spent about 2hrs sorting my bag, wrapping up the Traveller’s Notebook I’m sending to Bergen, and planning what to do tomorrow; stay (and do what?) or move on (where and how?).

I decided to move on to Shinomoseki tomorrow morning, so I stopped by Hakata station to figure out how to get there. Now I’m briefly back at the Ryokan, updating my documents, copy & past to USB and then over to an Internet Café to check my e-mail, to update my blog, and to see if I can book accommodation in Shinomoseki online. I hope it will prove easier than it was here. Off I go, I want to be back in decent time. じゃあね！

Today's Engrish:

Backpacking day 2 - Kumamoto & Fukuoka

2008-02-09T13:53:00.001+01:00

Wow. Er så sliten at jeg har tilbragt en hel time uten å gjøre en døyt. Grov fram pc’n, åpnet Word, og glemte tid og rom.

Veien hit:
I dag morges stod jeg opp, tok trikken til Kumamoto Castle Mae, gikk til busstasjonen, låste inn ryggsekken min, og satte meg på en benk under tak og spiste frokost. (pølse og potet obento fra dagen før). Deretter trosset jeg småregnet og vandret Kumamoto Castle rundt, ruslet bort til kunstmuseet og så gjennom fugleparken (ikke det minste spennende, men en fin grønn flekk med masse fuglekvitter) på vei tilbake til busstasjonen.

En totimers busstur senere var jeg i Fukuoka, og på jakt etter et hotell/herberge/ryokan/hvasomhelst.. Jeg hadde tenkt meg til Khaosan International Youth Hostel, samme sted som jeg bodde i juleferien, da jeg forhørte meg i informasjonskranken (på Hakata Stasjon) om veibeskrivelser til alternative steder ble jeg fortalt at alt var fullt.

Heldigvis var damen i skranken var snill nok og ringte et Ryokan (Japansk tradisjonelt gjestehus) for meg, og gav meg veibeskrivelser. Det så greit nok ut; ta 100-yen bussen fra stoppet utenfor stasjonen til stopp nr 5, ett stopp etter Canal City (et stort kjøpesenter jeg kjenner ganske godt nå), og gå siste biten derfra. Hun skrev opp navnene på stoppet og på Ryokan’et og tegnet inn bussruten, og satte en rød prikk ca der Ryokan’et skulle befinne seg.

Finne riktig buss og holdeplass var null problem. Jeg fikk til og med sitteplass. Det ble derimot problematisk da bussen ble STAPPFULL på holdeplassen før den jeg skulle av på, så jeg måtte presse meg gjennom en fullstappet buss, i full oppakning. Jeg var for øvrig den eneste som skulle av på akkurat det stoppet også. Tjohei.

Veien fra holdeplassen så grei nok ut. Jeg skulle gå over en bro, og ned til venstre, og se etter et stort hotell, og den røde prikken var på motsatt side av veien for dette hotellet. Det var derimot ikke Ryokan’et, så jeg gikk fram og tilbake noen kvartal og spurte 5 forskjellige mennesker om de visste hvor dette Ryokan’et var hen. Ingen kjente til det, og der den røde prikken var på kartet var det noe helt annet i virkeligheten, og navnet på Ryokan’et hadde blitt delvis uleselig. Til sist gikk jeg til hotellresepsjonen for hjelp og de tok 2 telefoner, tegnet et bedre kart, og sendte meg av gårde ”3 kvartal ned og så på høyre side”, og vertinnen fra Ryokan’et kom og møtte meg.

Ingenting er som et vennlig fjes og et ventende rom for en sliten reisende.

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Vell, ikke helt sant at jeg ikke har gjort noe siden jeg kom inn døra; jeg sjekket inn, fikk en forklaring av fasilitetene og kikket meg rundt før jeg trakk meg tilbake til rommet mitt og plugget i pc’n. Så gjorde jeg ingenting for en hel time (ok, 50 min) utenom å bla litt i Fukuoka Now og la tankene fly fritt omkring.

Jeg tror for det meste tankene fløy i retning av ”Hva i alle dager gjør jeg nå?”. Det var fullt på herberget jeg hadde lyst til å bo på (Khaosan, som nevnt), så jeg endte på dette Ryokan’et. Jeg spurte om 2 netter, men da jeg betalte, betalte jeg visst bare for 1 natt, så jeg aner ikke hva som skjer i morgen. Jeg skal spørre om jeg kan være her en natt til i alle fall, men det er ikke sikkert at de har plass. Syns det er litt merkelig, for jeg har ikke hørt noen andre her, andre enn meg, husvertinnen og hennes mor. (Edit, 4 timer senere: har hørt flere msk nå, har t.o.m. møtt noen av dem i trappen.)

(...)

Men det er på tide at jeg planlegger litt, så jeg kan booke overnatting så fort jeg vet når jeg kommer til et nytt sted. Å lete etter overnatting etter en hel dags reising er virkelig ikke tingen – spesielt ikke når alt er fullt.

Etter skriverier gikk jeg til Canal City for middag og spiste på Ichiran, en nuddelrestaurant med 1 standardrett, men den er tilgjengjeld også særdeles god. Da jeg hadde spist var klokken bare halv åtte, så jeg bestemte meg for å gå til Tenjin for å finne en bokhandel som selger ”Traveller’s Notebook”, en notatbok man kun kan få kjøpt i Japan og Thailand. Jeg fikk en bestilling fra en venninne i Bergen, og bestemte meg for at jeg må og ha en slik. Prioritert oppgave mens jeg er i Fukuoka for her vet jeg hvor butikken er! Dessverre kom jeg til butikken 5 minutter etter at den stengte, så jeg får ta turen i morgen igjen. I stedet tilbrakte jeg en times tid på Starbucks med en Café Mocha, skrev et postkort og en fon-post* før jeg gikk tilbake til Ryokan’et.

Og her er jeg, straks klar for futon’en; jeg må bare sy i en bukseknapp, pusse tenner og rydde vekk pc’n først. Oyasuminasai!

Dagens spesielle hendelse: Å støtte en middelaldrende japansk dame da hun skulle klatre over et midjehøyt gjerde litt utenfor Kumamoto Castle.

* fon-post er forkortelsen av telefon-E-post, så de ikke forveksles med e-post skrevet på data.

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Jeg skriver altformye gjør jeg ikke...?

Backpacking, Day 1 – Kumamoto

2008-02-08T13:52:00.003+01:00

After a week of unstable sleeping patterns, getting up at 7 wasn’t easy. I still managed to get up after 4 hrs of sleep (unstable sleeping patterns etc.), eat breakfast, and clean up the last remaining mess in my room, “checked out” from APH and asked them to fix my broken light while I was away. I was 10 min early for the bus and just in time for the train to Oita, and having planned enough time to be certain to reach the bus to Kumamoto I had to wait 45 min for it. Weather was nice so I sat waiting outdoors – became a bit cold after 40 min… The bus to Kumamoto took about 4 hrs so I caught up on some sleep, waking up at random moment during the bus ride trying to figure out what place we were at or had just passed. Got shocked when I woke up and there was snow outside the bus, but then I remembered that we were crossing a mountain…

In Kumamoto I walked around, trying to orient myself and get a feel of the place, and finally decided to go to a youth hostel some way outside the city centre. Finding the right tram stop was easy, but finding the hostel from there would have been a major pain if I hadn’t looked foreign and confused. Me being tall (in Japan at least), blond and fair-skinned, dressed in a bright red all-weather-jacket, carrying a big backpack and a copy of Lonely Planet Japan; makes me easily recognised as a tourist. A lady came up to me and said “yuusu hosuteru?” and kindly pointed me in a direction I’d never choose on my own. When I finally reached the hostel I came from the back side of it, passing it without realising until a purple haired lady came after med and asked “yuusu hosuteru?” She turned out to be the owner of the youth hostel, and seeing the obvious confused tourist from the window she came out to fetch me.

The hostel is nice, tatami rooms 2nd floor, and a recreation room right inside the entrance, next to the front desk. It’s nothing special, but there is a dining table and a small TV, and a water heater with tea and coffee. Had I planned to stay here longer I would have used it, but I was so tired today that I slept for two hours after checking in, and only went out to get dinner. Found a small local place just 2 blocks from the hostel and had Unagi Donburi – Eel and rice.

I’m staying here for a night, doing the touristy things tomorrow before moving on to Fukuoka. I was thinking of spending two nights here, but I understood that the youth hostel couldn’t house me tomorrow, so I decided to move on tomorrow after seeing the sights. Hopefully I can stay in Fukuoka for a couple of days or more.

Today’s received comments:
Youth Hostel Lady:
1) “You look very much like a tourist” (Freely translated from the memory of a half-understood sentence)
2) “You are good at speaking Japanese; I was surprised that you understood so much!” (But they don’t expect much of us westerners though..)
At the Unagi restaurant:
“You are very good at using chop sticks.” (But again, they don’t expect much of Westerners…)

Now it’s time for bed. Perhaps I’ll be able to turn my sleeping pattern around to normal. Oyasumi.

Wednesday, February 6th 2008

2008-02-06T05:32:00.001+01:00

There’s a faint drizzle of snow in the air, but no snow on the ground. Downtown it was raining. the dormitories are empty, except for the scarce few that will be leaving soon – me among them. Many are travelling, more are moving out before the new batch of students arrives in March, and some are leaving for good. I have said goodbye to friends I might never see again, I’ve said goodbye to friends I’m going to miss sorely for two months before I’ll see them again, and I’ve introduced, and been introduced to, people only days before they left this place. I helped a friend moving her things to her new place downtown. “I can’t believe I’m moving downtown!” she said. “I can’t wait to get off this mountain!” said another. “I can’t wait to get home!” said someone else.

The wind is picking up again, hurling the frail snow crystals around in the air. I can’t wait to get off this mountain. I’m stuck here on campus another semester, but during the vacation I’m taking the opportunity to get off this mountain. I’m backpacking, through Japan, alone. I’m not too worried. I’m a quiet, but sociable girl with touristy interests, and my expected behaviour is not likely to attract trouble. The scariest part is walking out the door.

The plan is to travel in my own pace, and go where I feel like, when it suits my pace and my mood. I haven’t planned a thing. Not quite true, but close enough. This is an exercise in traversing the unknown, me allowing myself to be spontaneous, figuring out how to get around and how to find what I need and improvising when necessary. Improvising isn’t a new thing for me, but I’ve usually had a framework around it all. Now I don’t have that framework. My journey has a beginning and an end, but I have to fill in the blanks in between. That’s about a months worth of blanks.

I’m starting from Beppu early morning the day after tomorrow, taking the train to Oita to get my bus to Kumamoto. I plan to stay there a day or two, and then move on to Fukuoka, probably by bus again. From Fukuoka I want to go to Yamaguchi, making my way north-east from Kyushu to Honshu. After Yamaguchi I’m going by random until I have to be in Tokyo in the middle of March, meeting up with my family before travelling around Japan with them. They already have a set plan, so to avoid seeing the same places twice I’m seeing them with my family.

Doing all this, on my own and as much as possible in Japanese, will be fun, tiring, embarrassing and scary, perhaps alternating, perhaps all at once. But I’m looking forward to it. Japan has changed me a little already, but maybe this will change me even more. I don’t think I’ll be much different when I come back, but perhaps there will be more “me” in the person you thought you knew. Or maybe I’m deceiving myself and you’re the ones that knew me all along while I was wandering in the unknown.

It’s time to get out in the wind again, and through the whirling snowflakes and pick up the first ticket. The journey starts today, here and now. Perhaps I should start packing…

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We're celebrating Chinese New Year tonight. I hope this will be a merrier goodbye than most.

Happy Birthday to Me! + generell update

2008-01-31T15:54:00.000+01:00

På overtid med en liten oppdatering igjen ser jeg. Utenom eksamenstresset har det ikke skjedd så mye er på fjellet siden siste oppdatering, men nå har jeg endelig fått eksamensukene overstått. 5 eksamener og 2 Final Reports. + Lekser ETTER siste eksamen.

My desk, on the day of my last exams.

Jeg skulle ønske jeg kunne si at jeg har jobbet meg gjennom det, men siden nyttår har jeg slitt med særdeles dårlig motivasjon, så skolearbeid har det blitt heller lite av. (Noe selvfølgelig, men ikke mer enn høyst nødvendig.) Regner med å stå i de fleste fagene, og utover det så går det som det går, noe jeg forberedt på å ta konsekvensene av neste semester. Ironisk nok er jeg veldig motivert for å lære japansk, men ikke det minste motivert for skoletimene.

Siden nyttår har jeg jobbet mer med å finne den manglende motivasjonen, og med kunstneriske utfoldelser og eksperimentering. Jeg ble inspirert til å begynne en (manuell) Art Journal, og humøret ble betydelig bedre etter at jeg kjøpte art supplies.

Art supplies & (improvisert) Art Journal

Complete with cute Engrish:
"Keep your treasure with carefully"

Selvom det ikke har skjedd noe utenom eksamenstress og manglende motivasjon har det vært travelt nok. Dagene etter eksamen har jeg brukt til å ta igjen søvn og være sosial med alle de fantastiske menneskene som reiser sin vei, enten det er for 2 mnd eller for alltid. Onsdag kveld var det (en sårt etterlengtet) fest på pub'en; 90+ % internasjonale studenter og fantastisk morro fra ende til annen. Eneste nedturen var å komme hjem nedstinket av sigarettrøyk. Savner den gode norske røykeloven ja...

Bye-bye Party Crowd at Roots
(I know at least 7 people in this picture!)

Etter gårsdagens fest har jeg forsøkt å få orden på det kaoset som utgjør rommet mitt, som kort oppsummert ser rimelig bombet ut (fullstendig urelatert til festen, men heller meg generelt), vært "i-siste-liten-sosial" med folk som reiser sin vei, sagt hadde til folk for travle til sosialisering, og sett det ene rommet etter det andre tømmes og forlates.

On a much nicer note:
Jeg har allerede fått 2 kjempefine bursdagsgaver og en lang hyggelig bursdagsmail, og noen mindre bursdagshilsener til mobilen min:) Shannon gav meg en boks med fargestifter, og Tooch gav meg et nydelig sjal fra Kambodsja! Gleder meg til delvis improvisert bursdagsfeiring imorgen kveld, med alle de fantastiske menneskene -som i det minste skal være her et par dager til.

Nå som jeg har bedre tid kommer det nok flere oppdateringer litt oftere, men inntil videre får dere kose dere med disse bildene. :)

Random nice things about living on a mountain:

Sunset view from my room window

Foggy day in Beppu; fantastic cloud formations seen from APU

hvordan kommentere på bloggposter

2008-01-08T15:07:00.001+01:00

"How to comment", instructions in Norwegian.

Her er en liten guide til hvordan man kommenterer på bloggen min. Det virker som deler av publikummet mitt kan være interessert i dette.

1. Les bloggposten.

2. Nederst, under bloggposten ser du teksten
" Lagt inn av Cecilie/Cecily på 20:04, 0 kommentarer,
Etiketter: folk, foto, Japan, " etc.
Klikk på "0 kommentarer" (eller "1 kommentar" el. "2 kommentarer" osv.)

3. Du kommer til en ny side med overskriften " Legg inn en kommentar på: A pinch of Cecily".
Til høyre på siden er det en boks med tittelen "Skriv en kommentar". Skriv i boksen.

4. Deretter går du til "Velg en identitet" og velger "kallenavn".
Skriv navn eller kallenavn alt etter hva du føler for å identifisere deg som, men velg gjerne noe slik at jeg lett kan kjenne deg igjen. (Onegaishimasu.)

5. Trykk på "publiser kommentaren din".
NB. Alle kan lese kommentarene jeg får, hele bloggen min er åpen for allmennheten, så det skader ikke å være bevisst på hva du skriver.

6. Kommentaren er publisert, og dukker opp på samme side.

For å lese en bloggposter med tilhørende kommentarer trykker du på den enkelte bloggpostens tittel (i oransj) og du får opp bloggposten på en egen side sammen med kommentarene til den valgte bloggposten.

Håper dette var informativt, og at jeg får se fler kommentarer i fremtiden;)

Welcome to 2008

2008-01-08T12:04:00.001+01:00

Happy New Year!
I might be a little late, but it's still my first blog post of the new year. It seems I might have more English speaking (reading) audience so I'll try to write more in English to reach everyone. The occasional Norwegian post will occur, of course.

Last post left of evening December 30th, so I'll recount the rest of my New Year trip from New Years Eve, hopefully in shorter terms.

December 31st
Went shopping as planned, explored the popular shopping area Tenjin all day. No time or energy for touristy activities in between. In the evening we were hanging out at McD's (since everything else closed at 6pm), passing time until we thought it would be a good time to find a restaurant. We turned out to be wrong, the few restaurants that weren't closed already were full. So we ended up at another McD's.

Back at the hostel V* disappeared off to Skype* with her BF* and I was left alone for the saddest New Years Eve ever; Feeling a little lonely at midnight I logged onto MSN to say Happy New Year to whomever was online. Welcome to 2008.
(* V = Vanessa, Skype = Internet chat and/or telephone, BF = Boyfriend)

January 1st
Rose early to go shopping with V and her friend Tammy -both eager to get the popular New Year -surprise bags from the mall. I was mainly tagging along with them, observing the shopping frenzy of the New Year Sales, while the girls were shopping more seriously. Tammy even bought another suitcase for her shoppings. Throughout the day the girls started talking more and more in Chinese (they are both Chinese-Australian). I didn't mind at first, until they started making decisions, of where to go and what to do and such, in Chinese and then announce it to me in English, then continue in Chinese and changing their minds -not announcing the change of heart to me. When we split up that afternoon I was relieved to be on my own, not needing to guess what our next actions might be. (V had to return earlier than planned due to an unexpected HW*-deadline.) I returned to the hostel, slept, went out to get food, and then sat in the common room and chatted with random people (= random American, David or Adam...) before heading back to bed. (*HW = homework)

January 2nd
Slept in, slept off 3 days' worth of travel & shopping exhaustion. Finally managed to get out of the hostel at noon, heading for Dazaifu, not really knowing where it was, how to get there or how long it would take. A small map in my Lonely Planet revealed that I could get there via Tenjin station, so I went there first, and then followed the signs that took me to the right ticket counter and train platform. I had to transfer trains once, but the stations were clearly marked an announced. Met a lovely family on the packed trains, spent 10 min talking to the wife (in Japanese!) before we arrived in Dazaifu. Lost the nice family less than 30 sec after the train stopped because of the crowds -which were massive! People everywhere.

I decided to only take a short route through a small part of Dazaifu, seeing the closest temples/shrines and the Kyushu National Museum. At one point the crowd slowed to a syrupy pace, and when it slowly moved through the torii (temple/shrine gate) I realized that the crowd had become the queue to enter the shrine. I don't know if it really was to enter the shrine, because I left the queue as soon as I was able to and took a detour to the less crowded museum. Really good museum, spent a couple of hours there before heading back to the station and to Fukuoka. Passing the temple again (from the other side) on my way to the station I snapped a few pictures of the queue, which was still as long as when I'd passed there earlier.

Back in Hakata I decided to chill out at Starbucks with a coffee and writing travel notes for a few hours before returning to the hostel. In the common room I sat down in the couch to write, but ended up chatting with Kate from Australia for 2 1/2 hrs instead. I love meeting people this way.

January 3rd
Walked around Hakata and Canal City exploring the side streets (i.e. not the shopping malls)
and minor tourist spots. Ended up in an almost secret Japanese style garden and then in a Tea Ceremony house. I totally loved the garden and the tea ceremony-people, they were lovely, and apparently they adored me for stuttering as best I could in Japanese. Moving on, I passed by Canal City (the mall) again, walked by and through a temple area (and got a new calligraphy for my jinja-book! Ureshii!) and then I found Fukuoka Museum of Modern Asian art. Lucky for me they had huge posters, or I would never have found it; it's located on the 7th floor of a (random?) building. Having satisfied my culture-quota I returned to Hakata to find my bus back to Beppu.

It was nice and interesting to travel with Vanessa, and I had a few wonderful days on my own, but finally back at campus, I entered my room thinking "I can't remember it being this nice!".

...and then I'm almost up to date on my blogging. (^_^)v

(Pictures will be up shortly, both for this post and the previous one!)

Reisefot og Nyttaarsfeiringer

2007-12-30T14:55:00.002+01:00

Juleferie. Saa istedet for aa sitte paa campus 2 livloese uker bestemte jeg jeg meg for aa reise igjen. Det er jo delvis derfor jeg er her. Forrige ferie/break reiste jeg til Hiroshima 5 dager, denne gangen ble det Nagasaki 1 1/2, og Fukuoka 3 1/2 dag. Nagasaki var ikke spes spennende. Ikke har vi vaert heldige med vaeret saalangt heller.

Ankomst Nagasaki. Etter aa ha rotet oss bort (jeg og venninnen min) i forsoeket paa aa finne minshuku'et (pensjonatet) vi bodde paa fant vi omsider frem etter 50 min trasking. Det lengste vi gikk den kveldebn var fra minshuku'et og til Mos Burger og tilbake til rommet vart. Dagen etter paa moette vi en kamerat fra campus (en native Nagasakier) og dro han med rundt til alle turiststedene bare for aa snu ved inngangen da de 1 saa kjedelige ut, og 2 var dyre. "Is it worth it (the entrance fee)?" var et meget repetert spm etter 10~15 min traving gjennom Nagasakis gater fra det ene turistmaalet til det neste. Da vi mente vi hadde sett nok ruslet vi rundt kjoepesentrene og chattet om loest og fast. Vi ble sittende paa Starbucks nesten 4 timer, og deretter gikk vi til middag. Vi hadde nok blitt sittende og skravle der ogsaa hadde vi ikke blitt kastet ut da de stengte kl. 22. Klarte aa finne hjem paa foerste forsoek. Yokatta (heldigvis).

Fukuoka, ankomst/dag 1:Reiste tidlig fra Nagasaki, fikk sitteplass paa toget og greier (hvilket vi ikke fikk pa vei *til* Nagasaki). Kom tidligere enn vi kunne sjekke inn paa ungdomsherberget vaart, saa vi trasket rundt stasjonskjoepesenteret for aa finne lunsj, og etterpaa gikk vi for aa finne templer ~i kulde, bitende vind og tidvis hagl. Venninnen min var glad hun kunne bruke meg som "vestlig / gaijin alibi" da vi tok bilder i et tempel uten aa ha lagt merke til "foto forbudt" skiltet.. Venninnen min har kinesisk familie saa alle tror hun snakker japansk siden hun ser asiatisk ut. Fordommene mot meg derimot er at jeg er en intetanende "Westerner", uansett hvor jeg opprinnelig kommer fra. Jeg mistenker de fleste her tror jeg er amerikansk.

Etter tempelvandringen gikk vi for aa finne ungdomsherberget, og etter en liten hvil gikk vi for aa spise middag. Daarligste middagen jeg noensinne har betalt saa mye for. Vi oppdaget da vi skulle betale at de tok betalt for en "seteavgift", bare for aa sitte der, i tillegg til at de tok betalt for riskjeks vi ikke hadde bestilt, pluss en egen serviceavgift -for en service vi absolutt ikke mener vi fikk. Maten kom sent, maten kom paa forskjellige tidspunkt saa vi hadde klald ris til resten av maaltidet, som foroevrig var knoettlite. I tillegg ryddet de selektivt; de tok noen av tallerknene vaare, men ikke alt, osv. Vi gaar ikke tilbake til den kjeden noengan iaf. Det er jeg rimelig sikker paa.

Etter middag har vi bare hengt her paa ungdomsherberget, de har kjoekken for aapen bruk og fri internettilgang. Imorgen tenker jeg det blir shopping/vindushopping, mulig det blir tid til noen turistaktiviteter innimellom. Vi tar det litt som detkommer, og det er igrunnen veldig aalreit. Haaper paa aa faa med meg hvordan japanerene feirer Nyttaar, men venninnen min er ikke saa glad i templer saa jeg maa nok moderere interessen min noen hakk. Noe haaper jeg da vi faar til likevel. :)

Naa har jeg skrevet altfor lenge!　Haaper alle har hatt en fin jul og faar et riktig godt 2008!

(Crossposted on LJ)

Advent i Japan 2007

2007-12-26T16:12:00.001+01:00

Årets Julekalender, fra 1. til 24. desember. Yoroshiku!

1. Desember: Homemade Holiday Cards (Japanese Style)

2. Desember: Ladybug Visiting

3. Desember: Memories

4. Desember: Random Chocolate

5. Desember: Artistic Intentions

6. Desember: Lasting Light (bambuslyktutstilling på campus)

7. Desember: Performance

8. Desember: Letter from Home

9. Desember: New Flowers

10. Desember: Random Candy

11. Desember: Wachifield - New Toy/Decoration

12. Desember: The Love of New Boots

13. Desember: HW Procrastination

14. Desember: Dancers on Stage

15. Desember: Sunny Weather (although it doesn't feel like December)

16. Desember: Random Gift

17. Desember: A Faithful Friend in HW

18. Desember: The Joy of TV

19. Desember: The Best Bus Rides

20. Desember: The Benriness of Pre-portioned Food

21. Desember: Energetic Dancer

22. Desember: A False Sensation of Snow

23. Desember: Christmas Decorations

24. Desember: Christmas Dinner

Comments are appreciated.

Jakten på Julefølelsen

2007-12-23T09:26:00.001+01:00

Søndag 23. desember, 2007. Lille Julaften. Lettskyet oppholdsvær, 14 grader. Ikke så mye julefølelse å hente fra de nærmeste omgivelsene med andre ord.

Utsikt fra rommet mitt, 23.desember 2007, kl. 07:43.

Likevel, et snev av julefølelse er å finne. På fredag (21.) spiste jeg middag med en gjeng i et julepyntet L4K (kjøkkenet i etasjen under der jeg bor), og matlaging i samlet flokk kan være minst like slitsomt og støyende som en gjennomsnittlig familesammenkomst. Det var nok av hypre "småsøsken", lekne "fettere" og "kusiner", masete foreldre ("ikke lek med maten!" "neinei! den må stekes mer!" "spis! lever er sunt!") og sta barn ("jeg spiser ikke innvoller!"). Stemningen ble selvfølgelig forsterket av musikkduringen fra tv'n i bakgrunnen (julespesial av et ukentlig musikkprogram, riktig nok kun med normal japansk popmusikk, men i en julepreget kontekst for anledningen), jevnlig avbrutt av de obligatoriske julereklamene. Coca Cola inkludert, så da ble det jul for meg og.

Julefølelsen forsvant nesten dagen etter, kun reddet av tåken som (med et visst snev av fantasi) gav en illusjon av snø.

På vei til skolen lørdag 22. desember 2007.

Lørdag 22. var en "make up-day" for en tapt skoledag som kommer i januar, så jeg lørdagen ble plutselig en mandag. Ikke spesielt gøy a ha skole på en lørdag, og enda mindre gøy er det når man ikke slutter før 17:40, og avslutter hele kalaset med en japanskprøve.

Tåken hadde forsvunnet i løpet av dagen, men da jeg (endelig!) var ferdig på skolen var det blitt mørkt og lysene rundt omkring på campus og lysene fra Beppu og Oita gav en fin mørk høstkveld- vinternattstemning.

Utsikt over APU Main Ground mot Beppu i bakgrunnen.

Juleferien ble innledet av en halvspontan fotovandring i høstmørket, etterfulgt av filmkveld (Flushed away) og "Moko Moko Pan" (moko moko brød) sammen med Shannon.

Moko Moko Pan; 1 pose, 1 egg,
visp sammen, 1:30 min i microen, ferdig!

Enkelte andre småting har også hjulpet på julefølelsen; myk pakke fra Minnesund, julemail, julemail med julemusikk (God timing Line! Jeg hadde nettopp gjennomsøkt musikkmappene mine for det jeg måtte ha av julemusikk (og det var ikke mye) da jeg fikk mailen din.^-^), julekort og juletre på rommet.

Julekortet fra Onkel og Tante B, og juletreet mitt.

Familiens mest solide førjulstradisjon holdes i hevd selv en klode hjemmefra; julerengjøring Lille Julaften. Idag har jeg kun gått en tur på butikken, lest bok, ryddet og vasket det som ryddes og vaskes kan. Støvsugeren får jeg låne imorgen.

Julaften er fremdeles under planlegging, men jeg skal spise lunsj "downtown" sammen med Muti (fra Indonesia), og utover kvelden regner med det blir en ny middagssamling av et eller annet slag (kanskje pyntet, kanskje ikke), og så en utflukt opp til campus for å se fyrverkeri. Vi får se. Que sera sera.

Etter julaften har jeg noen blanke dager, og så skal jeg reise bort en ukes tid, først noen dager til Nagasaki, og så er jeg i Fukuoka til rett over nyttår.

Det som gjenstår nå er å ønske alle en God Jul, og et God Nytt År!

Klem fra Cecilie

Quarter Break part 2: Miyajima

2007-12-18T09:34:00.000+01:00

I give up trying to post any blogpost about Miyajima. It has been too long, and every time I thought I would have time to write it more homework piled up. But here's some pictures:

Oi, desember alt jo...

2007-12-02T14:14:00.001+01:00

Tida flyr, og jeg oppdager det først etter at verden har gått meg hus forbi - med syvmilsstøvler på.

Været er varmt i sola, kaldt i skyggen og det blåser masse, men siden det (foreløpig) ikke regner i tillegg skal jeg ikke klage. Vanter og skjerf har kommet ut og har fast plass sammen med jakken, men det er fremdeles fløyelsjakken jeg bruker. Pologenserne er ute og, men de varmeste genserne ligger fremdeles urørt bakerst i skapet. Det er absurd å innbille seg at det er desember, tidligere i dag var det strålende solskinn og 15 grader ute. Kalenderen tar feil!

Her i Japan har de ikke tradisjon for julekalendere, så jeg bestemte meg for å lage min egen. Kun for min egen del og utav egen interesse (og evt. egeninteresse). "Kalenderen" er et lite fotoprosjekt; jeg fotograferer positive ting, ting jeg liker, ting som gjør meg glad, motiverer meg, underholder meg eller får meg til å smile, og for hver dag skal jeg velge 1 bilde som jeg setter sammen med de 23 andre til et slide show eller en kollage etter Julaften. Jeg lager ingen løfter om å publisere det eller poste det i bloggen min, det er ikke sikkert jeg får tid til å sette det sammen før utpå nyåret en gang. Uansett, jeg tror det blir et fint prosjekt, 100% positivt ladet, og definitivt en annerledes kalender enn jeg er vant med. I tillegg blir det noe konkret jeg kan se tilbake på senere; "hvordan desember ble i Japan".

"Quarter break del 2: Miyajima" kommer i morgen, etter japanskprøven min!

*stududystudystudy*

PS: Gratulerer med dagen på etterskudd til alle jeg har glemt! Jeg vet det er en hel gjeng av dere der ute...

Quarter Break in Hiroshima

2007-11-25T11:16:00.001+01:00

At APU the school year is separated in both semesters and quarters, quarters marking the middle of a semester. After discussing different destinations, among them Okinawa (scrapped for multiple reasons) Shannon (US) and I finally decided to spend 4 days of our first Quarter Break in Hiroshima.

Hiroshima, Day 1: November 20^th

Departure Beppu at 10:50 on a Sonic train to Kokura, change at Kokura at 12:15 to Shinkansen (the Japanese Bullet Train) between Kokura and Hiroshima (arrival Hiroshima 13:10). The train ride from Beppu to Kokura was the most interesting part; it took us through various kinds of Japanese landscape. The car we sat in was sparingly but tastefully furnished, with comfortable seats in a deep green, and occasionally a snack-trolley would be pushed past us by a uniformed woman. We drove through tunnels and valleys crowned with green hills, past tiny villages and remote farmlands, through vast farm fields and finally cities before we came to Kokura. Finding the Shinkansen platform was quite easy once we saw the big signs clearly displaying "Shinkansen" and a big arrow to indicate the direction. The Shinkansen wasn't that exciting; it was (logically enough) mostly tunnels. The interesting parts on board the Shinkansen were the obvious difference between us and the travelling businessmen, and to feel the speed of the train even underground.

When we arrived in Hiroshima we took streetcar (tram) 2 or 6 from Hiroshima Station to Dobashi; the tram stop closest to our hostel J-Hoppers Hiroshima, app. 20 min. The J-Hoppers was really nice, nothing fancy but clean and comfortable. We had reservations in Japanese style (with futons and tatami mats) shared rooms. The area around Dobashi seemed a little run-down, some closed down shops, restaurants and dirty houses, but otherwise OK. We got to our room, stashed our things and went to explore Hiroshima and find somewhere to eat. We jumped on board the first tram that came without reading its signs and getting “lost” on the tram lines we ended up at Hiroshima’s Yokogawa station. After exploring the area around Yokogawa station we took the tram to the Kamiyacho and Hatchobori area where we found an underground shopping area/mall. We ate, explored and shopped a little before we returned to the hostel around 19:00, chatted and exchanged stories and misc. info with our roommates (Anna from Sydney and Putney? from Virginia) until bedtime.

Our delicious breakfast.

Day 2: November 21^st
Breakfast later than planned (hostel dorm damn comfy), found a nice breakfast café right by the Dobashi tram stop. They had perfect toast and wonderful coffee. After breakfast we went to the A-dome and the Peace Park. The A-dome and Peace Park is a peaceful bubble in the very heart of Hiroshima, right in the busiest stretch of the city. In the Peace Park there is a collection of memorials, most noteworthy the Peace Bell, the Paper Crane Memorial and the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum (HPMM). Shannon and I wandered around the Dome and the memorials in the park until we met up with Maki around 13:00. After putting Maki’s luggage in the hostel we went to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum(s).

The A-dome, and the A-dome before and after.

1) The Paper Crane Memorial, in memory of the children that died because of the bomb.
2) Thousands of paper cranes are donated to the memorial by school classes from all over Japan.
Each school class visiting this memorial hold a small ceremony where they sing, read aloud text or letters, or just keep 1 minute silence in front of the statue, and then present their paper cranes to the memorial.

A wonderful piece of architecture and architectural planning; from the Peace Memorial in front of the HPMM there's a straight line to the Peace Flame and then to the A-dome in the far background; crowned and emphasized by the arch of the Peace Memorial.

In the HPMM Maki asked med “Do you like the museum?” That’s a difficult question to answer.

The museum is great. It is a magnificent compilation of educational info and historical recollections, facts of actions and their consequences and so on. But I didn’t enjoy being there. Just seeing the Dome was touching, and watching the visiting school classes pay their respect, to the children that died prematurely due to radiation, in front of the Paper Crane Memorial Statue was emotional. Inside the museum I got more and more depressed and uncomfortable as the exhibition progressed to the effects of the bomb. But getting depressed after seeing that is a good sign I believe. People should be depressed after seeing that. It’s a good thing that this issue remains this emotionally effective on us, even from two generations and half a world away. A second (and newer) museum focused on the survivor’s stories from when they fled from the post-bomb inferno to safety. It didn’t help my depressions. I hope future generations will keep these memorials in regard and work to destroy the atomic bombs to never be used again. No one should have to live through the nightmares these people did 52 years ago. To continue using nuclear weapons, especially after seeing the effects of the first ones, is an unforgivable abomination.

After eating Hiroshima-yaki (a form of Okonomiyaki – also explained as a kind of Japanese “pancake”) for dinner we shopped again (managing to lose (and find!) my wallet twice) before returning to the hostel. Shared room with Ingrid from Canada.

---

I was halfway through this text when I realized it was in English, so I decided to just keep it that way.

I'll post pictures when I'm able to steal bandwidth enough to post them... and Hiroshima part 2 comes when I have bandwidth to post it with pictures.

Mens vi venter på blogg....

2007-11-19T15:44:00.001+01:00

...kan vi alltids skrive et postkort og sende til Japan!

(My Name)
AP House, (room number)
1-2 Jumonjibaru,
Beppu City, Oita Prefecture
JAPAN 874-0011

Andre oppdateringer:
Fortellingene om "Reisen bland de ville dyr", "Gjennom de 8 Hellvetene", "Mitt liv - på toppen av et fjell", "Et klasserom fullt av prøvelser" og mange mange fler kommer om ikke så lenge!

Men først skal jeg 4 dager til Hiroshima!

"Cecilie is not home at the moment, please leave a message"
*beeeeep*

yes, still alive...and kickin'!

2007-11-10T05:41:00.001+01:00

Beklager at det har gått nesten en måned siden sist jeg blogget, men skole og skolearbeid tar MYE tid her. Og når leksene er gjort sitter man igjen med valget mellom 1) komme seg ut av rommet og få litt forandring, 2) sosialisere med folk så de ikke tror du er død, 3) sove; så man kan gjøre alternativ 1) og/eller 2) dagen etterpå.

Jeg har masse jeg kan skrive om, men siden jeg har 3 rapporter, en "liten" prøve i japansk, og en japansk Midterm Exam denne uken, legger jeg det på vent ennå litt til, og skriver heller mer når jeg har samvittighet til det.

Kanskje kommer det en fellesmail i tillegg hvis jeg er flink. Og til folk som har sendt meg mail som jeg ennå ikke har klart å svare på: Beklager! Men det er akkurat det samme her og; null tid... Personlige svar kommer selvfølgelig også når jeg får tid.

I tillegg håper jeg at jeg da får tid til å skrive innlegg med litt mer innhold. Sålangt er det stort sett bare oppramsinger av hva jeg har sett og gjort, men ingen ordentlige refleksjoner rundt det jeg har opplevd og observert.

Anyway, jeg har bloggmaterialet, bloggposts kommer så fort jeg får tid /får unna nok skolearbeid.

-Cecilie

Turist i Beppu: Mt. Takasaki

2007-10-14T14:46:00.001+02:00

Bakgrunnen for hvorfor akvariet ble kalt "Sjøegget" kjenner jeg ikke, men Mt. Takasakis kallenavn "Monkey Mountain" kommer fra de ville apestammene som lever i fjellsidene på Mt. Takasaki. Hele fjellet er tilholdssted for de ville apene, men det er laget til et "observasjonspunkt" ved et lite tempel i fjellsiden vendt mot sjøen. Der mater de apene en gang om dagen, og man kan rusle rundt blant apene som vandrer fritt over hele området.

Siden er er snakk om ville dyr har de noen sikkerhetsregler for oppførsel slik at man ikke skal terge på seg apene:

1. Ikke ta på dem.
2. Ikke se dem i øynene
3. Ikke jag dem
4. Ikke ert dem
5. Ikke mat dem

Vi overlevde turen uten apeangrep, og her er bildene:

1) og 2) De første apene vi så var på broen fra Umitamago

3) Gutta ivrig på vei over broa

4) og 5) Apestatuer

6) Ape med baby
7) Ape som hviler i skyggen

Mennesker som poserer ved siden av apene.
8) Meg og aper
9) Jeg, Lo, en tilfeldig japansk unge og en ape

10) Ape som løp over foten min

Umitamago og Mt. Takasaki var en passe avslappende heldagsutflukt, med litt tid til overs. Vi tok bussen til Oita og kikket på noen av kjøpesentrene der til de stengte kort tid etterpå, og så gikk vi og spiste på en Izakaya -en særgenen japansk restauranttype. Da vi kom tilbake til Beppu rakk vi akkurat siste bussen opp til campus. Flaks, siden ingen av oss hadde lært oss busstabellen på det tidspunktet...

Turist i Beppu: Umitamago

2007-10-12T08:54:00.001+02:00

Beppu har en rekke små turistattraksjoner i nærområdet. (Nærområdet defineres herved til maks 1 times reise - i denne sammenhengen.) Blant disse er Umitamago ("Sjøegget"; umi = sjø, tamago = egg) .

En søndag før skolestart samlet vi oss en gjeng på 12 og tok bussen ut til Umitamago, et lite akvarium ca. midt mellom Beppu og Oita. Der ble vi underholdt av et mangfold forskjellige fisk og sjødyr, og ikke minst de fantastiske suvenirene man finner i suvenirbutikkene overalt.
Som sist akvarium, så er det ikke så mye å si om dette heller, men jeg legger inn noen bilder og kommentarer på dem til felles underholdning.

1) Merkelig japansk skulptur utenfor entreen til Umitamago:

2) Nærbilde Hageål

3) Garden Eels / Hageål

4) Zebraens opphav; Zebrafisk!

5) Hvalskulptur eller dekorasjon fra Umitamago-entreen

6) Verdens kuleste fisk!

7) Hvalross i sitt rette element.

Jeg hadde aldri forestilt meg at de kunne være så grasiøse,
smidige og majestetiske som de viste seg å være.

8) Delfiner som leker seg

9) Tilfeldig blå fisk som poserte for kamera.

10) Enda en kul nesefisk!

Og til slutt noen få utvalgte eksempler på japanske suveninrer:

11) Kodawari (?) no shio (salt) ame (sweetened-starch candy).
= "Kodawari sine salte sweetened-starch candy"

12) Og Oterens Sesam og mandel "Stick-Pie"...

Mye moro med mat; mange forskjellige matrelaterte suvenirer i suvenirbutikkene.

Etter at vi hadde ruslet gjennom Umitamago i forskjellig tempo og så samlet oss til lunsj fortsatte vi dagen med å rusle over til Mt. Takasaki.

Møtet med APU og AP House – Del 2

2007-10-07T12:50:00.001+02:00

Ser ut til at søndager blir den store bloggdagen… Det er akkurat en uke siden sist jeg hadde tid til å blogge. Den siste uka har vært skikkelig travel, men mer om det når jeg får det litt på avstand og får sett på det med litt perspektiv. Flere blogposter er under planlegging, men jeg må finne tid til å faktisk få skrevet dem. Anyway, her er denne ukens:

Del 2: Det sosiale i og utenfor campus

I forrige post beskrev jeg en del av programmet APU hadde laget for oss i våre to uker før semesterstart. En del av dette programmet var byråkratisk, en annen del var praktisk rettet, og en tredje del var sosial. Innimellom dette programmet hadde vi også en del ”dødtid” som vi fylte etter beste evne, og når man er 50++ nye, fremmede og nysgjerrige studenter på ett sted er det ikke så vanskelig å finne på ting.

Nye venner i hopetall, her representert ved noen få:

Den første uken på APU var mest ”flytt inn og bli kjent”. Mye av fritiden gikk med på bli kjent med mennesker man traff i tilfeldige sammenhenger i APU-programmet. Etter hvert ble vi en gjeng på ca 20 som hang en del sammen, enten alle på en gang eller i mindre grupper. Tiden ble brukt til mangt, shopping i Beppu, sosialisering med nye og forskjellige mennesker i kantina mellom postene i APU-programmet, generell sosialisering i AP2-lobbyen*, vandringer og utforsking av campusområdet og de nærliggende utsiktpunktene, og mer shopping i Beppu. Innimellom ble det så mange hektiske dager og så mye folk og inntrykk at jeg la inn hjemmedager i kalenderen min.

* (AP House lobbyene har pingpongbord, biljard, piano m/headset, og et ”tatami room” til generell sosialisering i tillegg til noen lett tilgjengelige sittegrupper. Rett på baksiden av AP2 er det også en liten basketbane. AP2-bilde kommer så snart jeg får tatt et!)

APU og Beppu og Mt. Takasaki sett fra utsiktspunktet over skolen:

Matlagning er også en populær aktivitet, for noen et avbrekk fra kantinematen de spiser hver dag, for andre en anledning til å vise litt av sin hjemkultur, og for andre igjen en nødvendig (men sosial) aktivitet. (Mat er i grunnen et interessant tema som kan omtales i det vide og det brede, så jeg forholder meg til det sosiale nå, og tar en egen blogpost til mat, og andre spiselige ting, ved en senere anledning.)

Hvert rom er utstyrt med skap og kjøleskap, og hver etasje er utstyrt med et felleskjøkken der folk kan lage mat. Det er åpent for alle, men har kun stekeplater (vanligvis 4 doble ”komfyrer”), en brødrister, en micro-ovn og en vannkoker. Alt annet nødvendig utstyr må enhver anskaffe selv og oppbevare på rommet sitt. Og selvfølgelig skal man rydde og vaske kjøkkenet etter seg når en er ferdig.

Det hender jeg lager mat i L5-kjøkkenet (heretter L5K), men ikke så ofte. For meg er det billig å spise i kantina, men jeg liker å lage mat selv innimellom også. De hender jeg inviterer andre til å lage mat sammen med meg, men hvis jeg ikke spiser i kantina lager jeg som oftest noe enkelt og spiser alene.

Jeg laget pannekaker!

For andre, for eksempel Thai-jentene, vietnameserne og myanmarerne (burmeserne) m.fl., er det dyrt å spise i kantina, så de lager nesten alltid mat på kjøkkenene sine. I alle fall de jeg bor med i L5. De samles gjerne i store grupper og lager mat sammen.

Jeg gjør for øvrig et poeng utav at jeg spiser ute i kjøkkenet når jeg lager mat der, slik at jeg er synlig, og hvis folk er nysgjerrige på meg så er det enklere å ta kontakt hvis de har noe å spørre om eller kommentere. (Men fordi de store gruppene som lager mat i L5K snakker på sine egne morsmål er det lettere for meg å la dem ta kontakt enn å ta kontakt selv.) Mat er en fin brobygger. Jeg benytter også enhver anledning til å distribuere og dele det norske godteriet jeg fikk tilsendt hjemmefra, så har vi enda mer å snakke om:)

Vi hadde en litt større samling i en av de andre etasjene forrige uke, Rina (Japan) inviterte oss på besøk og laget japansk mat til oss. Det begynte som en liten greie mellom meg, Rina og Jenna (US), men så vokste det enormt fort til et middagsparty. Vi endte opp ca 10-12 stk., og masse god mat.

Matparty hos Rina:

1) Matlaging

2) Folk og mat

Ved andre anledninger har jeg laget norske pannekaker (se bilde tidligere i teksten) i selskap med Fiona (Hong Kong), spist nevnte pannekaker med Shannon (US) og laget pasta med Shannon og Vanessa (Australia). I Khyas (US) bursdagsselskap spiste vi pizza – hentet i Beppu siden de ikke kjører pizza helt opp til APU…

Vi har gjort mye annet gøy også, men spesifikke utflukter får sin egen post siden jeg har allerede har skrevet masse for i dag....

Until next time; matta ne!

Møtet med APU - Del 1: AP House

2007-09-30T13:57:00.002+02:00

Reisen fra Osaka til APU gikk så smertefritt en reise kan gå. Vi kom oss på rett buss fra flyplassen til en ventende taxi ved Kamegawa Furuichi, og taxien tok oss rett opp til APU. Taxien kjørte riktig nok til hovedinngangen til APU, så vi måtte gå over hele campus-området til AP House der vi ble innlosjert. (AP House er egentlig AP1, West, East og East2 building, og AP2, Left, Right og Right2 building.)

[Bilde av AP House kommer når jeg får tatt et godt bilde.]

Da vi kom til AP House ble vi møtt av en haug mennesker og kofferter i AP1 lobbyen, og noen som spurte etter pass og papirer. Etter litt styr fant de oss i systemet, og en RA (Resident Assistant) fra etasjen min hentet meg. RA’en min Kumi (Japan) viste meg veien opp til rommet mitt, hva som var på rommet mitt og hvordan ting, systemer og rutiner fungerer i etasjen.

Jeg fikk tildelt et enerom med toalett, vaskeservant m/lys og speil, kjøleskap og aircondition, i tillegg til seng og skrivepult osv. (”Basic hybel-stuff”). Kjøkken, dusjer og vaskerom er felles og befinner seg midt i etasjen, som for øvrig er i 5. etasje og kun jenter. (det er to etasjer i hvert bygg som er kun ett kjønn, 1. etg for gutter, og 5. etg for jenter.)

Rommet mitt, mot vinduet:

Vasken min (døra til venstre) og rommet mitt mot døra

Jeg er fornøyd med størrelsen på rommet og tingene som er her, men rommet var virkelig møkkete og luktet vondt (en blanding av insektmiddel og gammel thai-mat) da jeg kom. En annen faktor jeg har innfunnet meg med er kakerlakkene. Det er visst mer innsekter i etasjen min enn i de andre… Ved første shoppingmulighet kjøpte jeg kluter, vaskemidler og innsektsmidler. Rommet er luftet og vasket og er betydelig bedre nå (selv om det fremdeles lukter rart inne i skuffer og skap…).

Utsikten min:

Jeg er for øvrig den eneste europeiske/vestlige jenta i etasjen min. Resten her er stort sett asiatiske, kinesiske, koreanske, thai eller vietnamesiske, men det er også flere asiatiske minorieter her. Tror det er en jente fra Midtøsten også, men henne har jeg bare så vidt sett...

Japan! (med bilder!)

2007-09-24T12:09:00.002+02:00

Nå har jeg vært her 11 dager, og det er innmari mye som skal komprimeres ned til noen få ord. Jeg kunne skrevet milevis om det jeg har opplevd til nå, men på grunn av manglende skrivematerialer har jeg ikke fått skrevet ned så mye av det jeg har sett og opplevd. Det merkes godt at det er mye som må sorteres for å få det ned i ord...

Jeg dro hjemmefra onsdag formiddag, tilbrakte noen timer hos Tante U. som så kjørte reisende og bagasje til flyplassen kl.04 om morgenen. Etter mange, mange timer på fly og flyplasser landet vi på Kansai International Airport, Osaka, fredag morgen kl.08 japansk tid.

Avgangshallen på CDG

Bortsett fra noen timer på Charles De Gaulle gikk reisen overraskende lett og raskt, og vi fant greit ut hvor vi skulle og hvor vi måtte gå for å komme frem til hotellet. Men vi fikk litt av et temperatursjokk. Vi visste det kom til å være varmt, men realiteten av det kom ikke før vi gikk ut av flyet... Aner ikke hva temperaturen var den dagen, men dagene etterpå lå temperaturen på ca. 30 celsius, og kanskje 65-70% luftfuktighet!

I Osaka var jeg og Karsten (med-reisende fra japankklassen i Bergen) tre dager. Første dagen ruslet vi rundt og utforsket området rundt hotellet, og spiste vårt første måltid på Japansk jord på Mister Donut. Lørdagen våget vi oss ut i kollektivtrafikken (tog/t-banenettet), og utforsket Umeda-området i Osaka sentrum. Der fikk vi testet både manga- og internettkafé, og den meget spesielle japanske kuriimu soda (fra "ice cream soda"), som er melonbrus med en kule vaniljeis oppi.

Kuriimusoda, og Mikkusujuusu:

På ettermiddagen møtte vi Erlend og Joachim som kom fra Kyoto for å henge med oss en dag, og så dro vi til Osaka akvarium før de dro tilbake til Kyoto.

Gutta boys:

Joachim, Karsten og Erlend

The fish:

Søndagen dro jeg og Karsten til Osaka Castle. Slottets eksteriør var flott, men innvendig hadde de renovert hele bygningen og gjort det om til et fullstendig moderne museum. Etter museumsrunden spiste vi is; vanilje/grønn te-softis og slush.

Osaka Castle

Osaka Castle, komplett med moderne elementer

Mandag 17.sept var reisedag og ankomst Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (herved APU). Reisen gikk overraskende lett, vi kom tidlig til flyplassen, Osaka Itami, og fikk tilbud om en tidligere flight til Oita. Fremme på Oita-flyplassen fikk vi god hjelp til å finne riktig buss, og de bestilte taxi til oss som tok oss fra busstoppet vårt og opp til APU. Opp ja, vi bor på toppen av et lite fjell!

Utsikt fra APU ned mot Beppu City

Mer om APU kommer senere, det er et kapittel for seg selv.
Og hvis jeg får tid nok, kanskje det kommer en egen post kun om mat.

Matta ne!

Siste kvelden hjemme

2007-09-11T19:00:00.002+02:00

Som tida flyr! Jeg må ty til klisjeene, men så er det en gang slik at det er de slitte skoene som er best, og det funker visst for klisjeer også.

Jeg har nye sko, og jeg har hamstret gnagsårplaster til jeg skal vandre gatelangs, eller traske ned kjente turistmål, i Osaka. Det har blitt litt nytt, og mye gammelt legges igjen. Og det jeg mangler får jeg heller kjøpe der borte.

Jeg har siden sist vært på turné i Oslo, Bergen og Tønsberg for å hilse på venner og bekjente. I Oslo var jeg på to korte venninnebesøk før jeg var på en lengre familiesosialisering, og i Bergen fikk jeg både typisk Bergensvær (vind og regn og guffent -ikke paraplyvennlig), og utepils i strålende sol og frisk høstluft. Mye sosialisering med venner av alle slag på meget kort tid.

Siste administrative ting er også fikset, jeg har nå kontantkort på mobilen så jeg beholder samme nummer når jeg kommer hjem til Norge igjen (må ha japansk mobil i Japan), og returen av flybilletten er fikset etter dagens forutsetninger, dvs forhåpentligvis fungerende, men ikke ideelt. Og så må jeg fysisk inn på hovedkontoret til Kilroy og hente klistremerke til e-billetten min i tillegg. Stress.

Menmen, nå er det snart i boks, tenker jeg tar en generalprøve-oppakning og ser om jeg klarer å holde meg innenfor vektgrensene og får med meg det som er nødvendig. Wish me luck.

"Skal du ikke ta med deg noe personlig?" spurte Mamma.
Men, hvis du skulle tatt med 1 personlig ting, hva ville du valgt?

Avreise hjemmefra om 17 timer!
Neste post er fra Japan!
Reisenerver Deluxe!

Idag har jeg kjøpt koffert!

2007-08-30T18:49:00.001+02:00

Nå er det ikke så lenge igjen! Veldig kort, faktisk. Jeg har for alvor begynt nedtellingen idag; 13 dager til avreise. Det har vært, og er fremdeles, litt styr.

Totalt tror jeg at jeg er oppe i ca 7 søknadsrunder i forbindelse med utvekslingen, og har igjen enda en til. Heldigvis har jeg fått alle skolepapirene i orden, jeg skal bo på studenthybel på campus, og idag fikk jeg passet mitt og visum fra den japansk ambassaden.

Reiseruten går fra Tønsberg, via Minnesund til Oslo Gardermoen, og derfra til Osaka, via Paris. I Osaka skal jeg være tre dager før jeg tar fly videre til Oita, og buss derfra til Beppu og min endestasjon; Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University. Overnatting underveis er, og er (forhåpentligvis) i boks.

Jeg sitter med et kart over Japan ved siden av meg. Jeg tenker på at det er så mye jeg skulle ha gjort før jeg reiser, men jeg klarer ikke å samle meg og se hva de konkrete gjøremålene er.

Det står en flunkende ny koffert i gangen.
Den er diger, og står i gangen som en konstant påminner om gjenstående pakking og planlegging og tilhørende reisenerver.

Reiser og opplevelser, i tanker tid og rom

2007-08-20T22:46:00.001+02:00

trTid for reise, reiseplanlegging, og etterhvert reiseskildringer.

Dette blir min reise- og opplevelsesblogg, med de opplevelser og hverdagserfaringer jeg gjør, og litt annet rusk innimellom. Reiseskildringene kommer ikke før om 3 uker (teller ned til avreise!), og inntil da blir det reiseforberedelser og andre reiserelaterte refleksjoner som faller meg inn.

'till then,
Good Hunting!