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

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

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

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*

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）)

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

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