Tue 7 Dec
KOBE ILLUMINATION
went with some friends to the Kobe illumination in Sannomiya which started after the Hanshin earthquake i heard. it`s apparently a really big event here and lotsa people come crowding up near LV and camwhore at all the pretty lights.
then we had some italian for dinner before going home.
Wed 8 Dec
jigged Coffee Hour (which nobody knew about until late yesterday arvo) and went to Harbourland with Erica for some shoes for the party on Friday =]
Fri 10 Dec
INTERNATIONAL STUDENT PARTY
went to Takarazuka hotel with host family for the KGU international student party. it was fun to go out dressed up nicely for once and to see everyone else dressed up.
pigged out on the food (where you had to be quick otherwise there`d be none left) and camwhored.
then some of us went for allnighter k for an afterparty. we k-ed in our beloved (it seems) shidax cos it was much cheaper than the jankare in tsukaguchi and k-ed till 5am. then we went to nishikita hoping to bum in maccas for a bit to learn that it was still closed. so we went to the maccas in kotoen and sat there eating and chatting for a couple hours till bout 9 something AM.
Sat 11 Dec
slept through the whole day till 9PM something. so in order to fix up the body clock i decided to just stay up all night studying before going out the next day
Sun 12 Dec
USJ!!!
slept in from a power nap from the day/night switch day and got to USJ an hour later than everyone else. kudos to Hiroki for the USJ ticket!
the day was spent predominantly in lines waiting to go on the rides but BOY were some of those rides worth it. we went on the:
- spiderman ride (thumbs up!)
- jurassic park ride (thumbs up!)
- terminator show (thumbs up!)
- hollywood dream (thumbs up!)
- jaws ride at night (thumbs up!)
- and the backdraft show
and then we went to the shounen jump shop and i just had to get this
=D
and then for dinner we went to the takoyaki museum and ate some takoyaki before heading home
note: photos to be uploaded later...
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
week 11
Thu 2 Dec
HOLY CRAP I CANNOT BELIEVE IT DECEMBER ALREADY!
it`s been exactly 3 months since I started this adventure and it continues....
today we had to go visit the KGU primary school and talk with little kids. surprisingly it was fun and i kinda wished i got to stay back for lunch with them but i had political economy class (which i ended up sleeping through it again).
Sat 4 Dec
volunteered to go to the exchange information session to help the japanese student(s) coming to Sydney next year to help them out life in Sydney. it was fun and got to make another japanese friend but sooo friggin early at 9.30am on a Saturday....
and then....
HEIDI CONCERT
..... WAS SOOOOOOOOOOOO GOOD!!!!!!
SOOOO much better than the Scandal concert i went to earlier in the semester, but then i might be biased cos at least with this band it was not only good music, good performers but lotsa eyecandy as well, compared to seeing a bunch of girls around my age in school uniform on stage.
Sun 5 Dec
went to Osaka Castle with the good ole fellow SGs who were in Japan for holidays. kinda felt like a mini reunion hehe. THANK YOU GIRLS FOR MEETING UP!!! it was really nice to see some familiar faces =]
then we went to Shinsaibashi where they shopped, and then i had to go home for dinner and do some homework that was due the next day.
HOLY CRAP I CANNOT BELIEVE IT DECEMBER ALREADY!
it`s been exactly 3 months since I started this adventure and it continues....
today we had to go visit the KGU primary school and talk with little kids. surprisingly it was fun and i kinda wished i got to stay back for lunch with them but i had political economy class (which i ended up sleeping through it again).
Sat 4 Dec
volunteered to go to the exchange information session to help the japanese student(s) coming to Sydney next year to help them out life in Sydney. it was fun and got to make another japanese friend but sooo friggin early at 9.30am on a Saturday....
and then....
HEIDI CONCERT
..... WAS SOOOOOOOOOOOO GOOD!!!!!!
SOOOO much better than the Scandal concert i went to earlier in the semester, but then i might be biased cos at least with this band it was not only good music, good performers but lotsa eyecandy as well, compared to seeing a bunch of girls around my age in school uniform on stage.
Sun 5 Dec
went to Osaka Castle with the good ole fellow SGs who were in Japan for holidays. kinda felt like a mini reunion hehe. THANK YOU GIRLS FOR MEETING UP!!! it was really nice to see some familiar faces =]
then we went to Shinsaibashi where they shopped, and then i had to go home for dinner and do some homework that was due the next day.
week 10
okay now this is just grossly late but anyways...
Tue 23 Nov
PUBLIC HOLIDAY!!!
went to the Mitsui Outlet Park near Tarumi (which is another 20mins west of Sannomiya on the JR), which is like a DFO much 50 times better. there were 3 shopping centres full of clothing, shoes, bag stores ==> shopping heaven
i bought a nice navy overcoat for half price =]
and the place is quite nice by the water. you can see awaji bridge and awaji island and a bit of shikoku int he horizon.
Fri 26 Nov
HIROSHIMA TRIP!!!
caught the midnight bus from Osaka to HIROSHIMA!!! =D
Sat 27 Nov
arrived in Hiroshima at about 6.30am and had maccas for brekkie (since it was the only place open with food until 7.30am). then somehow found our way to the K`s House (since we left through the wrong exit). then we trekked it to Hiroshima Castle. instantly felt the memory of the atomic bomb with the marked out patches of where things used to be and remnants of trees that survived the bomb. we also went into the castle tower (nb: FREE entry for foreign exchange students!) and checked out some old stuff and tried on some old traditional Japanese garments for FREE =]
then we bought some bread and iced latte along to the way to Peace Park. AGAIN you instantly feel overwhelmed by the damage the bomb had caused upon the city. it`s just simply amazing how the A-bomb dome managed to survive it as well as the shinto gate (which has been moved to hiroshima castle). we bumped into some guy from Sydney as we were listening to some Japanese survivor guy talk about the atomic bomb and the consequences of it. then we went into Peace Park Museum (only ￥５０ entry peepz!). again felt all depressed and shocked at the amount of ruin the bomb had caused, especially the juxtaposition of the two dioramas of the before/after models of hiroshima city. the life-sized diorama of children with singed hair, melting skin drooping off of them and ragged clothes made an impression, as well as the spooky shadow of the guy on the Sumitomo bank staircase that remained from the time of bombing.
afterwards, we parted ways with guy from Sydney and went into the local shopping centre for some gloves or whatever people people wanted. then finally at bout 9.30pm we went to eat dinner. really wanted to eat hiroshima-style okonomiyaki but we were too hungry and ended up in this really cheap teishoku ramen restaurant.
Sun 28 Nov
slept in till 8.30, 9am packed up and checked out from the room but we left our luggage with the reception to go to miyajima. we took the more expensive but faster route by taking the JR train to miyajimaguchi station, then got on the JR ferry to miyajima. once we got there, we saw wild deer again (this time they dun have spots on their bodies). camwhored a bit throughout the day. checked out the red torii in the water, and tried to make it to momijidani park. spent most of our time in the omotesando (main shopping street), which can be summarised by rice scoops, momiji manju and KAKI (oysters)! dunno why but the kaki in miyajima is just soooooo friggin GOOOOOOOOOOOD
then we went back to the red shinto gate to take sunset photos then made it back to hiroshima and finally got to eat the famous hiroshima-style okonomiyaki. it was GOOOOOD. highly recommended =]
then we got on the 10.30pm bus back to osaka, arriving at 5 something AM. went home, showered, dumped my crap made my way out again to school for 9am class
Tue 23 Nov
PUBLIC HOLIDAY!!!
went to the Mitsui Outlet Park near Tarumi (which is another 20mins west of Sannomiya on the JR), which is like a DFO much 50 times better. there were 3 shopping centres full of clothing, shoes, bag stores ==> shopping heaven
i bought a nice navy overcoat for half price =]
and the place is quite nice by the water. you can see awaji bridge and awaji island and a bit of shikoku int he horizon.
Fri 26 Nov
HIROSHIMA TRIP!!!
caught the midnight bus from Osaka to HIROSHIMA!!! =D
Sat 27 Nov
arrived in Hiroshima at about 6.30am and had maccas for brekkie (since it was the only place open with food until 7.30am). then somehow found our way to the K`s House (since we left through the wrong exit). then we trekked it to Hiroshima Castle. instantly felt the memory of the atomic bomb with the marked out patches of where things used to be and remnants of trees that survived the bomb. we also went into the castle tower (nb: FREE entry for foreign exchange students!) and checked out some old stuff and tried on some old traditional Japanese garments for FREE =]
then we bought some bread and iced latte along to the way to Peace Park. AGAIN you instantly feel overwhelmed by the damage the bomb had caused upon the city. it`s just simply amazing how the A-bomb dome managed to survive it as well as the shinto gate (which has been moved to hiroshima castle). we bumped into some guy from Sydney as we were listening to some Japanese survivor guy talk about the atomic bomb and the consequences of it. then we went into Peace Park Museum (only ￥５０ entry peepz!). again felt all depressed and shocked at the amount of ruin the bomb had caused, especially the juxtaposition of the two dioramas of the before/after models of hiroshima city. the life-sized diorama of children with singed hair, melting skin drooping off of them and ragged clothes made an impression, as well as the spooky shadow of the guy on the Sumitomo bank staircase that remained from the time of bombing.
afterwards, we parted ways with guy from Sydney and went into the local shopping centre for some gloves or whatever people people wanted. then finally at bout 9.30pm we went to eat dinner. really wanted to eat hiroshima-style okonomiyaki but we were too hungry and ended up in this really cheap teishoku ramen restaurant.
Sun 28 Nov
slept in till 8.30, 9am packed up and checked out from the room but we left our luggage with the reception to go to miyajima. we took the more expensive but faster route by taking the JR train to miyajimaguchi station, then got on the JR ferry to miyajima. once we got there, we saw wild deer again (this time they dun have spots on their bodies). camwhored a bit throughout the day. checked out the red torii in the water, and tried to make it to momijidani park. spent most of our time in the omotesando (main shopping street), which can be summarised by rice scoops, momiji manju and KAKI (oysters)! dunno why but the kaki in miyajima is just soooooo friggin GOOOOOOOOOOOD
then we went back to the red shinto gate to take sunset photos then made it back to hiroshima and finally got to eat the famous hiroshima-style okonomiyaki. it was GOOOOOD. highly recommended =]
then we got on the 10.30pm bus back to osaka, arriving at 5 something AM. went home, showered, dumped my crap made my way out again to school for 9am class
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Week 9
MIDSEM WEEK CONTINUES
Midsems this week:
- Political economy midterm essay due (handed in 3 days late （ _ _ ）..........o )
- Japanese grammar midsem
- usual Kanji quiz
Wed 17 Nov Coffee Hour
Went to the Kobe Sanda campus for Coffee Hour. Coffee Hour's supposed to be this event were it allows the international students to socialise with the Japanese students, however there were very few Japanese students who turned up on the day. Also, the Sanda campus is FARRRRRRRRRRRRR. it was like a one-hour bus ride to get there (direct) and although it's in kobe it is NOT close to Sannomiya AT ALL. However, I thought the campus looked pretty being on the top of a mountain [even though the buildings all look the same as the Uegahara campus ( the one where we usually go for classes everyday)]
Fri 19 Nov
Karaoke party to celebrate the end of midsems 〜(￣▽￣〜)(〜￣▽￣)〜
Sun 21 Nov
Went to eat Chinese food (was supposed to be dim sum until we learnt that the restaurant was closed that day （ー△ー；）ｴｯ､ﾏｼﾞ？！！！ ) and did a bit of shopping in Harbourland
Midsems this week:
- Political economy midterm essay due (handed in 3 days late （ _ _ ）..........o )
- Japanese grammar midsem
- usual Kanji quiz
Wed 17 Nov Coffee Hour
Went to the Kobe Sanda campus for Coffee Hour. Coffee Hour's supposed to be this event were it allows the international students to socialise with the Japanese students, however there were very few Japanese students who turned up on the day. Also, the Sanda campus is FARRRRRRRRRRRRR. it was like a one-hour bus ride to get there (direct) and although it's in kobe it is NOT close to Sannomiya AT ALL. However, I thought the campus looked pretty being on the top of a mountain [even though the buildings all look the same as the Uegahara campus ( the one where we usually go for classes everyday)]
Fri 19 Nov
Karaoke party to celebrate the end of midsems 〜(￣▽￣〜)(〜￣▽￣)〜
Sun 21 Nov
Went to eat Chinese food (was supposed to be dim sum until we learnt that the restaurant was closed that day （ー△ー；）ｴｯ､ﾏｼﾞ？！！！ ) and did a bit of shopping in Harbourland
Week 8
MIDSEM WEEK
Midsems this week:
- Japanese Listening midsem
- Religious and Traditional Rites midsem
- Kanji midsem
- usual Japanese grammar quiz
Sun 14th Nov KYOTO DAY TRIP
Went to Kyoto to see the autumn leaves.
We visited some shrine near the downtown Kyoto area, Nanzen-ji, had okonomiyaki and green tea twist soft serve, walked to Ginkakuji (to learn that it was closing time by the time we reached it) and had some sushi tasting whale for the first time
my sushi with whale meat on it
Midsems this week:
- Japanese Listening midsem
- Religious and Traditional Rites midsem
- Kanji midsem
- usual Japanese grammar quiz
Sun 14th Nov KYOTO DAY TRIP
Went to Kyoto to see the autumn leaves.
We visited some shrine near the downtown Kyoto area, Nanzen-ji, had okonomiyaki and green tea twist soft serve, walked to Ginkakuji (to learn that it was closing time by the time we reached it) and had some sushi tasting whale for the first time
my sushi with whale meat on it
Week 7
Mon 1 Nov
INSTANT RAMEN MUSEUM!!!
Went to Ikeda (in Osaka prefecture) to visit the Instant Ramen Museum, since the guy who invented it came from Ikeda. Got to see A LOT of cup ramen, like the very first instant noodles, and the various instant noodles from the last 5 decades, how they put the noodles in the cup, etc. Then we got to make our own variation of cup noodles where we got a cup, decorated it and chose our own soup base and toppings.
then we went to the tasting room and ate instant noodles from different prefectures o(>▽<)o
Afterwards, we walked to big park nearby (satsukiyama park, i think it was called). and along the route to get there we noticed a recurring theme happening....
yes.... wombats.... everywhere!
then when we got to the foot of Satsuki Mountain, we found a park and had fun going on the slides and swings
and wandered around the park till we found the free zoo somewhere in it (as well as discovering the autumn foliage beginning to come out) and got to reminisce in some familiar animals from back home...
unfortunately, i was underwhelmed by the number of wombats that they had there (Wombat population in Satsukiyama zoo : 1).
Then we went to the shrine nearby and some random statues in the area (apologies to the sculptor if i offended ya...)
Wed 3rd Nov Culture Day
Went to the Gakuensai (school festival) as it was the last day and also for the free Yuna Ito concert. There was a lot of food stalls, performances and displays by the students. Couldn't take any photos or videos during the concert since there was one of the staff members standing right in front of me.... =___=
After the concert, had Japanese-style yakiniku with a couple of the 3A girls =] 焼肉は美味しかった。
Thanks to the Gakuensai we had school for 3.5 days *thumbs up*
INSTANT RAMEN MUSEUM!!!
Went to Ikeda (in Osaka prefecture) to visit the Instant Ramen Museum, since the guy who invented it came from Ikeda. Got to see A LOT of cup ramen, like the very first instant noodles, and the various instant noodles from the last 5 decades, how they put the noodles in the cup, etc. Then we got to make our own variation of cup noodles where we got a cup, decorated it and chose our own soup base and toppings.
then we went to the tasting room and ate instant noodles from different prefectures o(>▽<)o
Afterwards, we walked to big park nearby (satsukiyama park, i think it was called). and along the route to get there we noticed a recurring theme happening....
yes.... wombats.... everywhere!
then when we got to the foot of Satsuki Mountain, we found a park and had fun going on the slides and swings
and wandered around the park till we found the free zoo somewhere in it (as well as discovering the autumn foliage beginning to come out) and got to reminisce in some familiar animals from back home...
unfortunately, i was underwhelmed by the number of wombats that they had there (Wombat population in Satsukiyama zoo : 1).
Then we went to the shrine nearby and some random statues in the area (apologies to the sculptor if i offended ya...)
Wed 3rd Nov Culture Day
Went to the Gakuensai (school festival) as it was the last day and also for the free Yuna Ito concert. There was a lot of food stalls, performances and displays by the students. Couldn't take any photos or videos during the concert since there was one of the staff members standing right in front of me.... =___=
After the concert, had Japanese-style yakiniku with a couple of the 3A girls =] 焼肉は美味しかった。
Thanks to the Gakuensai we had school for 3.5 days *thumbs up*
Week 6
wow... it really has been a while since I've last posted anything...
the only memorable events that happened this week were...
my multiple assessments on Thursday 28th Oct (speech presentation, then grammar quiz and then political economy presentation)
Fri 29th Oct
went along to izakaya to celebrate Tofu's birthday
Sat 30th Oct
visited Yodobashi in Umeda and checked out electronic dictionaries and MP3 players. Then went to Tsuruashi to eat korean food, which ended up being eating kobe beef and overpriced kimchi. since we were all still hungry afterwards we went to an izakaya in umeda and chilled out there
Sun 31st Oct
School festival at Kangaku begins! (but i didn't go （ー○ー）)
the only memorable events that happened this week were...
my multiple assessments on Thursday 28th Oct (speech presentation, then grammar quiz and then political economy presentation)
Fri 29th Oct
went along to izakaya to celebrate Tofu's birthday
Sat 30th Oct
visited Yodobashi in Umeda and checked out electronic dictionaries and MP3 players. Then went to Tsuruashi to eat korean food, which ended up being eating kobe beef and overpriced kimchi. since we were all still hungry afterwards we went to an izakaya in umeda and chilled out there
Sun 31st Oct
School festival at Kangaku begins! (but i didn't go （ー○ー）)
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Week 5
Monday 18 Oct
I got my hair done!!! i felt like a total princess. the guy that washed my hair was so gentle that i fell asleep in that chair with the sink ><. they also served us tea. and i had two people applying dye and blow-drying my hair at the same time. they also gave us a small bag with a tube of treatment, coupons and bowed us out of the place till we were out of sight. gosh i love customer service in japan....
and then we went to a cafe nearby and had cake =] yum yum
Wednesday 20 Oct
we went to sweets paradise after school at the Gardens and had all-you-can-eat sweets! but there was a 70min time limit.... =[
my tea.... with a whole heap of different flavoured tea bags
Fri 22 Oct JIDAI MATSURI
jigged Friday arvo class to go to kyoto for the jidai matsuri (festival of the ages), which is apparently one of the three big festivals in kyoto (the others being Gion and Aoi Matsuri). It turned out to be one long quiet parade of volunteers dressed in the garments of the old days.
then we went to heian jingu which was nearby and camwhored a bit there.
kyoto's a really beautiful city. MUST go there again soon! then i was feeling pretty sick so went home
I got my hair done!!! i felt like a total princess. the guy that washed my hair was so gentle that i fell asleep in that chair with the sink ><. they also served us tea. and i had two people applying dye and blow-drying my hair at the same time. they also gave us a small bag with a tube of treatment, coupons and bowed us out of the place till we were out of sight. gosh i love customer service in japan....
and then we went to a cafe nearby and had cake =] yum yum
Wednesday 20 Oct
we went to sweets paradise after school at the Gardens and had all-you-can-eat sweets! but there was a 70min time limit.... =[
my tea.... with a whole heap of different flavoured tea bagsFri 22 Oct JIDAI MATSURI
jigged Friday arvo class to go to kyoto for the jidai matsuri (festival of the ages), which is apparently one of the three big festivals in kyoto (the others being Gion and Aoi Matsuri). It turned out to be one long quiet parade of volunteers dressed in the garments of the old days.
then we went to heian jingu which was nearby and camwhored a bit there.
kyoto's a really beautiful city. MUST go there again soon! then i was feeling pretty sick so went home
Week 4 Pt 2
SHINSAIBASHI!!!
Went to Shinsaibashi on Saturday 16th Oct. Shinsaibashi's the downtown area in Namba (the southern part of Osaka city) and boy is it a dangerous place to go. it can be summarised in 3 words: people, shops and food EVERYWHERE. so ping + shopping + food = soon-to-be-broke person.
we just basically walked around. camwhored in front of the glico man, found used undies, and those life-sized dolls. then we found some korean restaurant and had some real kimchi and spicy food, then i got a bit tipsy on the soju and then we went k.
afterwards, we went to take purikura, where we lost track of time and missed the last train. so we strolled from namba to umeda (took about 3 hrs), then wandered around the shoutengai (which was a bit seedy in some areas) in umeda for an net cafe and bummed there for a couple of hours until the trains start running again.
the net cafe was interesting. the place is split up into different sections. we paid for the cheapest that was an open seat, which is like your regular net cafes back home. but just behind us were private booths, which kinda acted like a private small room for you to chill. and there's a heap of manga available for you to read, and there's snack and drink vending machines. too bad the one we went to didn't have showers cos i've heard that some internet cafes have showers as well.
anyways, here's a couple of photos from the day
the doll....
didn't take a photo of the used undies cos the shop clerks were staring at us and i felt so disgusted at it
in front of the glico man
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Week 4
Week 4
Tuesday 12 Oct
Picked up my alien registration card today ! =D
and also renewed my commuter pass. Kind of annoyed about my commuter pass though. I tried to get it extended to Sannomiya station so that I'd be able to catch the express trains since its only a 15min walk. But since i live on the other side of the river (the cut point between the two stations) my closest station is Kasunogamichi station (which is one stop before Sannomiya), which still takes a 10min walk to reach it. So what's happening now is that I renewed my commuter pass to Kasunogamichi for another month while waiting for permission from the uni and Hankyu to allow me to extend my commuter pass to Sannomiya =___=
the "River"
i live like 8 steps away from the right side of this... =___=
more to come...
Tuesday 12 Oct
Picked up my alien registration card today ! =D
and also renewed my commuter pass. Kind of annoyed about my commuter pass though. I tried to get it extended to Sannomiya station so that I'd be able to catch the express trains since its only a 15min walk. But since i live on the other side of the river (the cut point between the two stations) my closest station is Kasunogamichi station (which is one stop before Sannomiya), which still takes a 10min walk to reach it. So what's happening now is that I renewed my commuter pass to Kasunogamichi for another month while waiting for permission from the uni and Hankyu to allow me to extend my commuter pass to Sannomiya =___=
the "River"
i live like 8 steps away from the right side of this... =___=
more to come...
Week 3
A mostly uneventful week...
besides....
Seeing Heidi (pronounced hai-ji =S i also dunno why...) at Nishinomiya Gardens!!!
my high school fangirlism was instantly reignited teeheehee XD
His name is Kiri and he's the drummer of the band. he's ちょうかわいい！ without makeup he's so kewt XD and done up he's so pretty!!!
Heidi gave a short performance and promoted their new album and upcoming tour. I'm SO GONNA GO!!! (and it's not that expensive at all *thumbs up* only 4000yen i think...)
besides....
Seeing Heidi (pronounced hai-ji =S i also dunno why...) at Nishinomiya Gardens!!!
my high school fangirlism was instantly reignited teeheehee XD
His name is Kiri and he's the drummer of the band. he's ちょうかわいい！ without makeup he's so kewt XD and done up he's so pretty!!!
Heidi gave a short performance and promoted their new album and upcoming tour. I'm SO GONNA GO!!! (and it's not that expensive at all *thumbs up* only 4000yen i think...)
Week 2
Okay I've been a bit lazy these days but here's a recap of what's been happening these days...
Sunday 26th Sept
Walked to Sannomiya and hung out with friends. We didn't do that much besides walking around Centre Street and checking out Namcoland here.
Monday 27th - 29th Sept
I don't think much happened besides classes.
UPDATE: oh yeah I remember now. On Tuesday night my host family took me to an izakaya and we drank a lot. Can't remember much besides drinking, and puking in the toilet back home. But it was fun =D *thumbs up*
Thursday 30th Sept
Had a full day of classes today. Then we rushed it to Cosmo Square Station to go to the Scandal concert at Zepp Osaka after class. We had to catch 3 trains to get there (first, Hankyu to Umeda, then switched to the JR Osaka Loop, and then change to some small subway line to Zepp Osaka). It took about an hour to get there, but it was all good.
I've never heard of Scandal before, but they're an all-female jrock/jpop band. The concert wasn't that bad and it didn't cost that much (only 4500yen at the door). But what was more surprising was how mellow the crowd is. There's no sticky floor, fighting to get to the front, or ppl on a high. All the crowd seemed to do was wave their arms to the beat, stand still, or nod to the beat. You certainly wouldn't really need all the security guards that you usually see at one of these events back home. Also, there was no pre-band performance that you usually get back home. It was only Scandal performing from 7pm as stated on the posters.
They gave 2 encore performances and it ended at 9.30ish. Had 10mins to each curry flavoured instant ramen at the nearby 7eleven before making the long trip back home. Got home at about 11.40pm. It was the first time I actually tested out the enforcement of the '10pm curfew', but they totally didn't seem to care the next day. =S COOL! =D
Friday 1st Oct
just the usual boring classes.... =__=
Saturday 2nd Oct
Went to Sannomiya again. But this time I met up with my Nihongo partners to take me shopping =]
We went to Centre Street (got a suitable sized backpack for school now X]), Motomachi, and Harbourland. Went on a bit of a shopping spree. Oh and I learned how awesome Uniqlo is. I totally did not know that they sell shoes as well. It's like Cotton On back home but a fajillion times better -quality and price-wise.
Sunday 3rd Oct
Went to Beerfest in Itami and checked out Diamond City shopping centre there as well. The beer festival wasn't that great (perhaps the mood was ruined by the rain), so after a couple of fruity beers we went to Nipponbashi in Osaka to meet up with the others. While waiting for them in Denden Town (Osaka's equivalent to Tokyo's Akihabara) , we checked out a couple of manga porn. The intricate details of the drawings was amazing. you've even got the public hairs drawn on these characters, and the censorship was just thumbs up (12 pixel censorship covers a lot! lol). The porn that we checked out consisted of cute girls getting raped by some nerd, a busty teacher "teaching" her 13yr old male student about older women, and ....you get my gist. The stand out chapter we read consisted of a hermaphrodite dressed as a girl three-waying with young boys... i'll let you picture the rest haha
Then we tried to find a maid cafe but we didn't go into any... And the rain came down harder and we just went home.
more to come!
Sunday 26th Sept
Walked to Sannomiya and hung out with friends. We didn't do that much besides walking around Centre Street and checking out Namcoland here.
Monday 27th - 29th Sept
I don't think much happened besides classes.
UPDATE: oh yeah I remember now. On Tuesday night my host family took me to an izakaya and we drank a lot. Can't remember much besides drinking, and puking in the toilet back home. But it was fun =D *thumbs up*
Thursday 30th Sept
Had a full day of classes today. Then we rushed it to Cosmo Square Station to go to the Scandal concert at Zepp Osaka after class. We had to catch 3 trains to get there (first, Hankyu to Umeda, then switched to the JR Osaka Loop, and then change to some small subway line to Zepp Osaka). It took about an hour to get there, but it was all good.
I've never heard of Scandal before, but they're an all-female jrock/jpop band. The concert wasn't that bad and it didn't cost that much (only 4500yen at the door). But what was more surprising was how mellow the crowd is. There's no sticky floor, fighting to get to the front, or ppl on a high. All the crowd seemed to do was wave their arms to the beat, stand still, or nod to the beat. You certainly wouldn't really need all the security guards that you usually see at one of these events back home. Also, there was no pre-band performance that you usually get back home. It was only Scandal performing from 7pm as stated on the posters.
They gave 2 encore performances and it ended at 9.30ish. Had 10mins to each curry flavoured instant ramen at the nearby 7eleven before making the long trip back home. Got home at about 11.40pm. It was the first time I actually tested out the enforcement of the '10pm curfew', but they totally didn't seem to care the next day. =S COOL! =DFriday 1st Oct
just the usual boring classes.... =__=
Saturday 2nd Oct
Went to Sannomiya again. But this time I met up with my Nihongo partners to take me shopping =]
We went to Centre Street (got a suitable sized backpack for school now X]), Motomachi, and Harbourland. Went on a bit of a shopping spree. Oh and I learned how awesome Uniqlo is. I totally did not know that they sell shoes as well. It's like Cotton On back home but a fajillion times better -quality and price-wise.
Sunday 3rd Oct
Went to Beerfest in Itami and checked out Diamond City shopping centre there as well. The beer festival wasn't that great (perhaps the mood was ruined by the rain), so after a couple of fruity beers we went to Nipponbashi in Osaka to meet up with the others. While waiting for them in Denden Town (Osaka's equivalent to Tokyo's Akihabara) , we checked out a couple of manga porn. The intricate details of the drawings was amazing. you've even got the public hairs drawn on these characters, and the censorship was just thumbs up (12 pixel censorship covers a lot! lol). The porn that we checked out consisted of cute girls getting raped by some nerd, a busty teacher "teaching" her 13yr old male student about older women, and ....you get my gist. The stand out chapter we read consisted of a hermaphrodite dressed as a girl three-waying with young boys... i'll let you picture the rest haha
Then we tried to find a maid cafe but we didn't go into any... And the rain came down harder and we just went home.
more to come!
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Week 1
So continuing on from the last post...
Saturday 18th September
The next day (Saturday before classes started) we went to hang out in Osaka. We stayed in Umeda area. It was surprisingly quick to get there. It took about 15mins on the Hankyu express train from Nishikita (Nishinomiya-kitaguchi station). I really gotta get used to the fact of how close Kobe and Osaka are => 30mins on the express train! Geez, if only Melbourne and Sydney were that close eh?
We did a whole bunch of things that day. We first went to the big Yodobashi store opposite Umeda station. Yodobashi is an electronics chain store, but this particular store was like 7-9 floors or something of electronic goods. O___o!!! Friends bought the newly released Pokemon black and white versions and we had some fun in the Gachagacha corner (the little toy dispenser machines), before going to the Pokemon Centre. This ended up being a store full of Pokemon merchandise. (Pokemon is still pretty big here in Japan, and in the US and Canada apparently =S)
Then we went to the Hep5 building and rode the big red ferris wheel before going into Namcoland and played taiko and took stickies with the machine that gives you creepy eyes. Then we went to the nearby shopping mall street and had some ramen, where we bumped into a couple other KGU exchange students, so basically the whole ramen place was bombarded with KGU exchange students =]. Then karaoke! Then we caught the train back home.
Sunday 19th Sept
ME DAY! Was feeling bored at home so took a stroll to Sannomiya and explored Centre Street again.
Monday 20th - Wed 22rd Sept
First week of classes
Monday was a public holiday (Day for the Respecting the Old or something) but us exchange students still had classes. Nothing too exciting happening besides classes.
Thursday 23rd Sept
This day was also another public holiday (Autumn Equinox Day). I asked my host family what do Japanese people do on this day every year and they said that nobody does anything and the reason why this was special was because the day was gonna be exactly 12hrs of day and 12hrs of night. [I wish Australia had as many public holidays as over here....]
So on this day, we went to Takarazuka and checked out the Tezuka Osamu museum. For those of you who dunno, Tezuka Osamu was the creator of Astroboy. *thumbs up* Had a bunch of fun there, camwhored, became amused with the halograms, and watched a biopic of Tezuka Osamu where we all felt sleepy afterwards. Afterwards, we had lunch at Lotteria (ebi-mayo burger is *thumbs up*)and then went bowling at Round 1 =]
Friday 24th Sept
Back to uni again. Nothing too special besides how unfamiliar this Japanese tertiary schooling system is to me..... It seems a lot less stressful and disorganised....
Saturday 25th Sept
Sports Day
Went to Nigawa and checked out friends' host siblings' sports day (undoukai) at their primary school. It was quite the experience. Very very different to the Athletics carnivals we have back home. Got to see some events, such as the one where the kids have to throw as many of their coloured balls into the basket above. Another was some sprints. It looked kind of like a production line the way they went through all the races. All the relevant kids were lined up near the starting area, and one after another they went through all the sprints. It was done very methodically and efficiently. And then we tried to explore a bit of the school before checking out the finale, which was a whole bunch of human pyramids made by the students and even some of the teachers participated in them too. You could really feel the mentality of working in a group is so strong here. The coolest one was perhaps the 6 storey one. And the way they set it up and went back to the ground... wow...
Afterwards, we met up with Evelyn who was also at the undoukai (Turns out she was in my Japanese class last year.... and totally did not know that... >____>) and we went k and had dinner at Denny's, which turned to be not the Denny's the north american kids were used to.
Saturday 18th September
The next day (Saturday before classes started) we went to hang out in Osaka. We stayed in Umeda area. It was surprisingly quick to get there. It took about 15mins on the Hankyu express train from Nishikita (Nishinomiya-kitaguchi station). I really gotta get used to the fact of how close Kobe and Osaka are => 30mins on the express train! Geez, if only Melbourne and Sydney were that close eh?
We did a whole bunch of things that day. We first went to the big Yodobashi store opposite Umeda station. Yodobashi is an electronics chain store, but this particular store was like 7-9 floors or something of electronic goods. O___o!!! Friends bought the newly released Pokemon black and white versions and we had some fun in the Gachagacha corner (the little toy dispenser machines), before going to the Pokemon Centre. This ended up being a store full of Pokemon merchandise. (Pokemon is still pretty big here in Japan, and in the US and Canada apparently =S)
Then we went to the Hep5 building and rode the big red ferris wheel before going into Namcoland and played taiko and took stickies with the machine that gives you creepy eyes. Then we went to the nearby shopping mall street and had some ramen, where we bumped into a couple other KGU exchange students, so basically the whole ramen place was bombarded with KGU exchange students =]. Then karaoke! Then we caught the train back home.
Sunday 19th Sept
ME DAY! Was feeling bored at home so took a stroll to Sannomiya and explored Centre Street again.
Monday 20th - Wed 22rd Sept
First week of classes
Monday was a public holiday (Day for the Respecting the Old or something) but us exchange students still had classes. Nothing too exciting happening besides classes.
Thursday 23rd Sept
This day was also another public holiday (Autumn Equinox Day). I asked my host family what do Japanese people do on this day every year and they said that nobody does anything and the reason why this was special was because the day was gonna be exactly 12hrs of day and 12hrs of night. [I wish Australia had as many public holidays as over here....]
So on this day, we went to Takarazuka and checked out the Tezuka Osamu museum. For those of you who dunno, Tezuka Osamu was the creator of Astroboy. *thumbs up* Had a bunch of fun there, camwhored, became amused with the halograms, and watched a biopic of Tezuka Osamu where we all felt sleepy afterwards. Afterwards, we had lunch at Lotteria (ebi-mayo burger is *thumbs up*)and then went bowling at Round 1 =]
Friday 24th Sept
Back to uni again. Nothing too special besides how unfamiliar this Japanese tertiary schooling system is to me..... It seems a lot less stressful and disorganised....
Saturday 25th Sept
Sports Day
Went to Nigawa and checked out friends' host siblings' sports day (undoukai) at their primary school. It was quite the experience. Very very different to the Athletics carnivals we have back home. Got to see some events, such as the one where the kids have to throw as many of their coloured balls into the basket above. Another was some sprints. It looked kind of like a production line the way they went through all the races. All the relevant kids were lined up near the starting area, and one after another they went through all the sprints. It was done very methodically and efficiently. And then we tried to explore a bit of the school before checking out the finale, which was a whole bunch of human pyramids made by the students and even some of the teachers participated in them too. You could really feel the mentality of working in a group is so strong here. The coolest one was perhaps the 6 storey one. And the way they set it up and went back to the ground... wow...
Afterwards, we met up with Evelyn who was also at the undoukai (Turns out she was in my Japanese class last year.... and totally did not know that... >____>) and we went k and had dinner at Denny's, which turned to be not the Denny's the north american kids were used to.
Orientation Week
Okay I know this entry is a tad overdue but oh wells. So much has been happening these days... Firstly recount of orientation week which was 3 weeks ago.
So moved into my host family's house on the 11th Sept. It was a bit awkward at first... meeting a middle aged Japanese man who was struggling with helping me carry my large suitcase... but yeah... that awkwardness has eroded somewhat and I'm feeling a lot more comfortable staying with them now.
So recap of orientation week...
Day 1 (13/09/2010)
Placement test day!
Had to attempt 3 exams in the morning. First was the grammar and reading paper, then listening. Afterwards it was speaking exam in the form of an interview, and while people were waiting to go for their interview, we had the writing paper to complete. Then afterwards, we went to the Fujita Lounge room and had lunch and some introductions. And then we met our nihongo partners.
Day 2 - 4
yeah... mind's a bit fuzzy atm. I think we had a bunch of orientation talks about life in Japan and such. Perhaps a campus tour to the library and computer room... We also received our placement exam results. I got placed into Level 3 with a side note that my grammar level is lower than required (><') So yeah had to e-mail Iida-sensei and get my subjects sorted again. The one part of orientation I remembered distinctly was the one on what do to in the situation of an earthquake. During this segment you could really feel that they've never forgotten the Hanshin Earthquake in 1995 whereupon Nishinomiya, where the uni campus is, all the way to Sannomiya went down. My host mum told me that the Sogo in Sannomiya used to be much taller before the earthquake and how unexpected it was. But looking at the Hanshin area and Kobe, it's been rebuilt so well that it looks like it never happened though.
Day 5
Field Trip!
... to NARA!!!! Even though I just went to Nara to see the Daibutsu like just a week before it was still heaps of fun. Had to get to KGU at 8.30am (eurgh +__+... soo early!) and caught the bus to Nara. We saw the Daibutsu, then we went to some Japanese restaurant and had lunch there (超うまかた！） and then to Kasuga Taisho, which was some famous shrine of love or something =S.
So moved into my host family's house on the 11th Sept. It was a bit awkward at first... meeting a middle aged Japanese man who was struggling with helping me carry my large suitcase... but yeah... that awkwardness has eroded somewhat and I'm feeling a lot more comfortable staying with them now.
So recap of orientation week...
Day 1 (13/09/2010)
Placement test day!
Had to attempt 3 exams in the morning. First was the grammar and reading paper, then listening. Afterwards it was speaking exam in the form of an interview, and while people were waiting to go for their interview, we had the writing paper to complete. Then afterwards, we went to the Fujita Lounge room and had lunch and some introductions. And then we met our nihongo partners.
Day 2 - 4
yeah... mind's a bit fuzzy atm. I think we had a bunch of orientation talks about life in Japan and such. Perhaps a campus tour to the library and computer room... We also received our placement exam results. I got placed into Level 3 with a side note that my grammar level is lower than required (><') So yeah had to e-mail Iida-sensei and get my subjects sorted again. The one part of orientation I remembered distinctly was the one on what do to in the situation of an earthquake. During this segment you could really feel that they've never forgotten the Hanshin Earthquake in 1995 whereupon Nishinomiya, where the uni campus is, all the way to Sannomiya went down. My host mum told me that the Sogo in Sannomiya used to be much taller before the earthquake and how unexpected it was. But looking at the Hanshin area and Kobe, it's been rebuilt so well that it looks like it never happened though.
Day 5
Field Trip!
... to NARA!!!! Even though I just went to Nara to see the Daibutsu like just a week before it was still heaps of fun. Had to get to KGU at 8.30am (eurgh +__+... soo early!) and caught the bus to Nara. We saw the Daibutsu, then we went to some Japanese restaurant and had lunch there (超うまかた！） and then to Kasuga Taisho, which was some famous shrine of love or something =S.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
日本にいるよ！
So it’s been almost 3 weeks since I first arrived in Japan. There’s already been some downs but mostly it’s been going uphill so far. Probably the most bummer things at the moment is not being able to get a mobile phone and not having a bank account set up yet. For a gaijin to get a mobile phone, you are required to present your alien registration card. However, you don’t get this card until a month after you’ve applied. So what do you do during this time when you need this card for pretty much anything related to signing a contract for something (bank accounts, mobile phones, etc)? Ans: you purchase this green paper document for 300yen from the immigration office, where I hear it’s like a temporary alien registration card. So why didn’t I get this paper when I applied for alien registration? Cos I got screwed over by the ridiculously short trading hours of the Kobe Immigration office, so they refused to give one to me on the spot and told me to come back the next day (when there was still like 30min before closing), whereupon I pretty much wouldn’t be able to get there in time since it takes a little more than an hour from school and the orientation week schedule was pretty full on on information overload. It seems that’s what it’s like here in Japan. If the trading hours state that it closes at a certain time, they will ensure that it actually happens and stop doing services to leave the office at the precise time. So unlike home where you’ve got people running in in the last 10mins and keeping the office/shop/etc open until whenever that case is over. So, now I’m feeling bad for my host mum changing her plans making time for me to come with me to the city ward just to get this piece of paper.
I’ll write up more later when it’s not at such a ridiculous time (currently 4.47am after a 6 hr nap)
UPDATE: i've got the 300yen paper now! but still no phone cos none of the 4 softbank stores we visited yesterday sold the prepaid ones. =[ you'd think that since they sell prepaid ones in a local branch store like Kotoen, you would expect a big shopping district like Sannomiya would have them as well, eh?
I’ll write up more later when it’s not at such a ridiculous time (currently 4.47am after a 6 hr nap)
UPDATE: i've got the 300yen paper now! but still no phone cos none of the 4 softbank stores we visited yesterday sold the prepaid ones. =[ you'd think that since they sell prepaid ones in a local branch store like Kotoen, you would expect a big shopping district like Sannomiya would have them as well, eh?
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
only 2 weeks left XD
holy crap! I can't believe that there's only 2 weeks till I leave for Nippon and it just feels like there's still heaps of crap to do before leaving. Most things for the japan trip are organised (i think) except deciding on the method of getting to Sydney airport and getting to the hotel in Osaka (fingers crossed Jetstar won't have a bloody flight delay and screw up our plans on somehow getting to the hotel via public transport before midnight ><). had to go to STA and get my ISIC reissued because they printed my date of birth incorrectly. it wasn't the fact that they couldn't input 10 correctly into the computer that annoyed me, it was the way they decided to fix it up when I visited them. the STA girl seemed really clueless about what to do with ISICs if there was something wrong with it. she asked her colleague what to do, i didn't hear what that other girl said, but apparently the solution was to change the 01 to a 10 with a black marker. are you kidding me??? what kind of ID card would be acceptable if there was an obvious texta mark to modify the details on the card? and this card is supposed to be internationally recognised... such a dodgy solution.... so after a session of annoyance and outrage over this solution, the girl told us to come back in 20 minutes. we came back and the new solution was to reissue me a new card, but it'll take a week to process. jeez... why couldn't they have told me that when I first walked in instead of wasting another hour of my day.... *shakes head* it's just simply incompetence and the failure of double checking data entry of STA staff which has resulted in wasting my time.... which I don't have much of left.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Message received....Destination: KOBE!!!
omohwkjfohefefejf!!! I've finally received some news on where I'm going to be living for (at least) the next 5 months, and as the title summarises this piece of news in a nutshell, yes, I'll be staying in Kobe this semester. Hello Kobe beef, nadagogo*, Iron man no.28 and many more things to explore and experience in this culturally rich city! It seems that I'll be staying with an elderly couple, so hopefully they'll like me and won't be too strict on me with curfews that I've heard some people have received with host families in the past.
I'm writing this up at 2.30 in the morning just because I am simply too excited at the moment. It is such a contrast to how I was feeling this morning when I had just realised that I couldn't completely fill up my VISA application since I still had no idea this morning where or who I was gonna be living with. This has just totally made my day.
So update on the progress of my pre-departure preparation:
*some sort of sake specialty from Kobe
I'm writing this up at 2.30 in the morning just because I am simply too excited at the moment. It is such a contrast to how I was feeling this morning when I had just realised that I couldn't completely fill up my VISA application since I still had no idea this morning where or who I was gonna be living with. This has just totally made my day.
So update on the progress of my pre-departure preparation:
- KGU fall semester fees TICK
- KGU arrival info form submission TICK
- pick up ISIC TICK
- apply for VISA
- book flight TICK
- change flight itinerary
- book accommodation HALF TICK
- dental check up
- update on wisdom teeth situation
- get remaining three vaccination shots
- revise Japanese
- clean up room
- learn to cook some meals
- organise 21st
- fix up sleeping pattern
- continue compiling "To do" list in Japan
*some sort of sake specialty from Kobe
Friday, July 2, 2010
Time to start preparing...
FINALS ARE FINALLY OVER!!!
The one thing that stood between me and Nippon was sitting for that project mgmt exam.
Now that that’s over, it had finally hit me how much stuff there is to worry about before leaving: visa, accommodation, travel insurance, airfare, travel itinerary, money issues, school fees, enrolment etc but anyway, only less than 2 months to go till I can meet the glico man ... =]
Monday, June 7, 2010
Officially accepted!!
YATTA! I am officially accepted as an exchange student at Kwansei Gakuin =] =] =]
Last Friday was the pre-departure briefing that all exchange students for S2 had to attend. Didn't realise that there were sooooo many people going next sem. There's like over 400 UNSW students that are gonna be studying abroad, most of them going to US, UK and Canada. The briefing wasn't anything out of the ordinary I think. It covered the typical talk about the travel insurance cover we've got, enrollment for next sem, and a heads up on coping with settling into the foreign country and settling back when we return. Some interesting questions were raised amongst the students during the insurance talk. Stuff like what if you get pregnant, have a car crash and kill somebody, get HIV, accident from bungee jumping, skydiving or any other extreme sport, etc. But I think the absolute worst part of the day was the crappiness of the heavy downpour. Walking on the main walkway was like going through a carwash tunnel, with the wind and heavy rain. My socks, shoes, jeans up to the knee were just drenched. Also felt a little worried since I hadn't received my acceptance letter then after learning that most people had already gotten theirs.
BUT all that's fine now because I received this in my lovely inbox today =]
I am pleased to tell you that the Kwansei Gakuin University has accepted you as an exchange student. Please come to the Exchange Office to pick up your acceptance material.
Congratulations!
Only bummer is that I have to make the long trip back to uni during stuvac just to pick it up (=___=) why couldn't they have just mailed it to my house and save me the time and money to get it....
Only bummer is that I have to make the long trip back to uni during stuvac just to pick it up (=___=) why couldn't they have just mailed it to my house and save me the time and money to get it....
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