sorry, I think I've become hyper-sensitive to the quakes... they say that this one was only a 1... which technically means I shouldn't be able to feel it, let alone have it wake me up... so why? just why... that's all I want to know.
Oh, well, I'll quit griping about being sleepy, and go back to memorizing my kanji.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Rain!
Yay! Rain! I was really starting to miss the rain... But it did! It rained today! I'm so happy! Anyway, It's that time of year when I would normally start to think of a Halloween costume... bu I'm in Japan. *sighs* No Halloween for me this year. So! That means that you guys should all make amazing costumes! and take pictures of them, and send them to me! I'll find something cool and Halloween-ish to bring home to those who do ^_^
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Summer break! (I think they lied)
AAAAAHHHHH!!!!! Go away! You pesky little helicopters!!! There must be about 20 of them... and they're flying big circles around my dorm! And worst of all, I don't know why.... O.o
Anyway, aside from the things that are making it hard for me to study (A flock of helicopters is much much worse than one would imagine....) It's summer break!! Well, it was summer break. They gave us enough homework to make up for not having class though... So, this week, I've been studying, and taking my last chances to hang out with Robot and Monique (one of my classmates and his girlfriend... who's amazingly nice ^_^ ) they left on Thursday, so before they did, I had dinner with them and their landlord, who's really nice. His name is Kodama, and he speaks more english than most, and is ready and willing to correct you on bad Japanese! ^_^ yay! someone who's not afraid that you'll be mad if they tell you you're doing it wrong!
We went to the Sky aquarium in Roppongi tower (it's on the 52nd floor) my camera battery died so I don't have any pics from the outing, but Monique took some, so I'm trying to get her to email them to me... There were puffer fish, and sea horses (which are umi no uma in Japanese... literally sea horses... well I thought it was cool, at least) and turtles, and lots of jellyfish with lasers being projected through them for an awesome, psychedelic, rainbow, jellyfishy party!!
Anyway, there was a festival in Roppongi that day too... And we had to walk straight through it to get to the tower ^_^ Think of all the goodies of a carnival without any of the annoying rides or the funny smells... There were miniature ponies there, and goldfish games (one girl had a turtle that she won from the goldfish game) I really wanted to play, but I don't think my dorm manager would be too happy if I brought a goldfish home with me... They were so cute! As we walked through the crowd, there were two people in demon costumes! They looked really scary! And not like "boo! haha!" scary... more like "I will rip you to shreds!" scary!
Anyway, while I've been having fun, I really do need to get back to studying for my test on Monday... bai bai!
Anyway, aside from the things that are making it hard for me to study (A flock of helicopters is much much worse than one would imagine....) It's summer break!! Well, it was summer break. They gave us enough homework to make up for not having class though... So, this week, I've been studying, and taking my last chances to hang out with Robot and Monique (one of my classmates and his girlfriend... who's amazingly nice ^_^ ) they left on Thursday, so before they did, I had dinner with them and their landlord, who's really nice. His name is Kodama, and he speaks more english than most, and is ready and willing to correct you on bad Japanese! ^_^ yay! someone who's not afraid that you'll be mad if they tell you you're doing it wrong!
We went to the Sky aquarium in Roppongi tower (it's on the 52nd floor) my camera battery died so I don't have any pics from the outing, but Monique took some, so I'm trying to get her to email them to me... There were puffer fish, and sea horses (which are umi no uma in Japanese... literally sea horses... well I thought it was cool, at least) and turtles, and lots of jellyfish with lasers being projected through them for an awesome, psychedelic, rainbow, jellyfishy party!!
Anyway, there was a festival in Roppongi that day too... And we had to walk straight through it to get to the tower ^_^ Think of all the goodies of a carnival without any of the annoying rides or the funny smells... There were miniature ponies there, and goldfish games (one girl had a turtle that she won from the goldfish game) I really wanted to play, but I don't think my dorm manager would be too happy if I brought a goldfish home with me... They were so cute! As we walked through the crowd, there were two people in demon costumes! They looked really scary! And not like "boo! haha!" scary... more like "I will rip you to shreds!" scary!
Anyway, while I've been having fun, I really do need to get back to studying for my test on Monday... bai bai!
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Kamakura Trip... I am VERY tired
So, this weekend we went on a class trip to Kamakura, and boy am I tired. Saturday (I guess that was yesterday... man that seems so long ago), we went to school for a lecture about the historical and religious significance of the places we were going to visit on our trip. In order to get all of that info stuffed into our brains, we had to be there at 8:30 in the morning... a good 2-3 hours before I even think about going on a normal day. That was an early morning. We finally got to get on the trains at 12:30 I felt like part of a herd of wilda-americans.
Enoshima was our first stop. It's an island off the coast of Kamakura (which used to be the capital of Japan before Kyoto... something about 1192... something about the begining of the shogunate government... the assassination of the Minamoto line?? something.... anyway, back to the story). On Enoshima, there are 3 main shrines and a couple of caves with religious significance (something about 3 goddesses and a dragon??). 
The following pics are from the main shrine on Enoshima (Nakatsu no miya):
This was the tori gate at the enterance to this shrine. There were a lot of stairs. (so many in fact that the school bought us escalator tickets for the way up) 
This is a pic of Becca and me... I'm no good at taking pics of myself...
This is were you hang your wishes on wood plates that you can buy at the shrine. They traditionally have horses on them because in order to make a very powerful wish you donate a horse to the shrine... but that's not very practical anymore, so they do paintings instead. But most of these had cows, because this year is the year of the bull.
So, interesting fact: at temples, they often have fortune telling services. It generally works on an honor system where you drop your money into a box, and then pick out your folded strip of paper, on which your fortune is written. But more often than not, the fortunes are bad. Which is kinda cool, I mean, at least they're trying to be realistic. But many people don't like their fortune, so they used to tie them to the nearby trees to get rid of their bad luck. Eventually the shrines got tired of this practice and put up these lines to tie the fortunes to. Kinda cool, huh.
After the shrines and temples, we went to the Samuel Cocking botanical garden. It was destroyed in a major earthquake a while ago (like maybe in the 60's or so??), but they've replanted some of the plants. They reminded me of home.
This one reminded me of my friend Elisabeth. She absolutely loves violets. (here's a link to her mostly crafty blog ^_^ http://lindenflower.wordpress.com/ )
This sign says beware of hawks!! And it's true! I think I saw more hawks that day than I've ever seen before in my whole life! there were dozens of them... all at once! Cool, and creepy, all at the same time.
We saw most of them from the tower in the middle of the gardens. It provided a really pretty view of Enoshima island!
In the center here, is picture of the giant aloe-vera-esque plants that only bloom once every 50 years. And sadness... these ones bloomed last year, so I can't see these bloom until I'm 70 o.O
Looking back towards the mainland...
These little octopi were being sold on sticks. 4 critters for 100 yen... it made me sad. But then, one of my classmates bought a stick D: anyway, he said that they were yummy until the last one, which was apparently bad. Serves him right for eating things that were so cute!!!
Anyway, after that, we went to the Ryokkan (japanese style hotel) for dinner. Yum!
Monday, August 10, 2009
EARthquake... ? O.o
So, for the record, it's kinda hard to sleep through earthquakes :( 5:02 in the morning, and I can't fall back asleep... ok, earthquakes aren't quite so cool anymore... and I don't think the typhoon's gonna hit either... so sad :( goodbye Tropical Storm Etau... guess I still have to go to school today. Oh, and if anyone's curious, here's a pretty cool little site about Japanese earthquakes: http://www.jma.go.jp/en/quake/00000000091.html they seem to put up the information within 15 minutes or so.
TYPHOON!!!!
Well, not yet, anyway, it's supposed to hit either tonight or tomorrow morning ^_^ I love natural disasters! This morning, it was very, very wet. Supposedly, we might not have school tomorrow... The subways could flood! I think the only reason to be grumpy is that I really need to do laundry, and we don't have a dryer, which means, that if it rains, I can't dry my clothes. Oh, well... I really hope it hits, though! It sounds like fun!
Sunday, August 9, 2009
EARTHQUAKE!!!!
Ok, that was cool! We just had the first big earthquake since I got here. Most everything on my desk fell over, and my cup of water spilled all over the floor. As it was dwindling, everyone peeked their heads out of their doors, and we exploded into a giggling fit ^_^ The people on the 4th floor say that they could see the tops of the other buildings just swaying back and fourth. So cool! ^_^ ok, back to studying... If I have time, there will be another post tonight.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Oh, dear, it's August already?!?! My, time flies.
Ok, so, two things in one post... I'm allowed to do that, right? Well, even if I'm not, I'll do it anyway. No one's here to stop me >D buahahahaha! Well, here we go. Thing one (I feel slightly Dr. Seuss-ish right now): Supiichi kontesuto (speech contest) so, every year, KCP puts on a speech contest where all of the students have to write speeches, and then the class picks the best one, and then, one person from each class has to give a speech. This year, there were 48 speeches. It took for ever. The stupid assembly thing started at 9 in the morning this Thursday, and didn't finish until 3:30. Well, somewhere in there, there was a 20 minute lunch break, but that was about it.
As for the speeches themselves, there weren't very many that I understood. I guess the level 1 ones were easy enough, but the only other good one (that I could understand) was done by a level 3 student. The title was "BMW と女の人" aka BMWs and women. It was all about how BMWs are such wonderful cars to impress the ladies with, but in Japan, the fastest speed limit is 80km/hour (about 45 mph) that's on the highways too... so there's no way that you could impress a foreign girl with a BMW here... it was a funny speech anyway.
During this assembly thing, I learned a few things about Japanese culture, those being: if someone fumbles with their speech, you need to clap in order to give them the courage to go on, and the Japanese are very punctual, our teachers stalled for 5 minutes in order to make the assembly go until 3:30, instead of just letting us out at 3:25, heaven forbid we have 5 minutes of extra time, and lastly, the Japanese enjoy karaoke far too much, we all sung a very popular Japanese song together... all 950 of us... It's called Robinson.
Anyway, thing two: on Wednesday (the day before the speech contest) I went to Sunshine city with a few friends. Let me just give you an idea of what it's like... think of the biggest mall you've been in... ever... now, give it 62 floors, and people enough to fill all those floors... and make it so you have to take 3 elevators to get to the top floor... that's Sunshine City. I was like "wow, that's a tall building... I wonder what's inside... I think I'll take a picture" and then, it came to me that that was our shopping mall... very interesting.
Needless to say, I didn't buy anything, because it was too expensive, and we didn't get to the top either, so I'll definitely go back. I want pictures from the top floor if nothing else.
Ok, thing three ( I've broken the Seuss reference I had going :( oh well ) anyway, I've been watching a few animes lately (k-on, toradora, and eden of the east) and it scares me a little when I see a place that I recognise. I'll just be sitting there, minding my own business, trying to tune out, when my brain goes and pokes me to tell me that the characters are currently at Meiji-Jingumae station, because, hey look, you know those kanji... which means that what? oh, right they're gonna be right next to yoyogi park and harajuku... that was an awkward episode, because I was sitting there, wondering to myself if all the Japanese get this while they're watching anime, and wondering when I first was able to read those kanji, because, honestly, I don't really know any of them by themselves. Anyway, enough rambling... I want my sleep now, because tomorrow, I need to tell you about the edo museum that I went to today and about culture class for the past couple of weeks. I think I should quit doing so much, cause I'm spending more money than I should... (speaking of which, it's Becca's birthday on the 4th, and Robot's birthday on the 15th... and I need to buy presents... I guess I'll figure those out tomorrow). Sleepy panda's really going to bed now, g'night everyone! (pics later... i think i've got a trojan to purge >.< )
Ok, so, two things in one post... I'm allowed to do that, right? Well, even if I'm not, I'll do it anyway. No one's here to stop me >D buahahahaha! Well, here we go. Thing one (I feel slightly Dr. Seuss-ish right now): Supiichi kontesuto (speech contest) so, every year, KCP puts on a speech contest where all of the students have to write speeches, and then the class picks the best one, and then, one person from each class has to give a speech. This year, there were 48 speeches. It took for ever. The stupid assembly thing started at 9 in the morning this Thursday, and didn't finish until 3:30. Well, somewhere in there, there was a 20 minute lunch break, but that was about it.
As for the speeches themselves, there weren't very many that I understood. I guess the level 1 ones were easy enough, but the only other good one (that I could understand) was done by a level 3 student. The title was "BMW と女の人" aka BMWs and women. It was all about how BMWs are such wonderful cars to impress the ladies with, but in Japan, the fastest speed limit is 80km/hour (about 45 mph) that's on the highways too... so there's no way that you could impress a foreign girl with a BMW here... it was a funny speech anyway.
During this assembly thing, I learned a few things about Japanese culture, those being: if someone fumbles with their speech, you need to clap in order to give them the courage to go on, and the Japanese are very punctual, our teachers stalled for 5 minutes in order to make the assembly go until 3:30, instead of just letting us out at 3:25, heaven forbid we have 5 minutes of extra time, and lastly, the Japanese enjoy karaoke far too much, we all sung a very popular Japanese song together... all 950 of us... It's called Robinson.
Anyway, thing two: on Wednesday (the day before the speech contest) I went to Sunshine city with a few friends. Let me just give you an idea of what it's like... think of the biggest mall you've been in... ever... now, give it 62 floors, and people enough to fill all those floors... and make it so you have to take 3 elevators to get to the top floor... that's Sunshine City. I was like "wow, that's a tall building... I wonder what's inside... I think I'll take a picture" and then, it came to me that that was our shopping mall... very interesting.
Needless to say, I didn't buy anything, because it was too expensive, and we didn't get to the top either, so I'll definitely go back. I want pictures from the top floor if nothing else.
Ok, thing three ( I've broken the Seuss reference I had going :( oh well ) anyway, I've been watching a few animes lately (k-on, toradora, and eden of the east) and it scares me a little when I see a place that I recognise. I'll just be sitting there, minding my own business, trying to tune out, when my brain goes and pokes me to tell me that the characters are currently at Meiji-Jingumae station, because, hey look, you know those kanji... which means that what? oh, right they're gonna be right next to yoyogi park and harajuku... that was an awkward episode, because I was sitting there, wondering to myself if all the Japanese get this while they're watching anime, and wondering when I first was able to read those kanji, because, honestly, I don't really know any of them by themselves. Anyway, enough rambling... I want my sleep now, because tomorrow, I need to tell you about the edo museum that I went to today and about culture class for the past couple of weeks. I think I should quit doing so much, cause I'm spending more money than I should... (speaking of which, it's Becca's birthday on the 4th, and Robot's birthday on the 15th... and I need to buy presents... I guess I'll figure those out tomorrow). Sleepy panda's really going to bed now, g'night everyone! (pics later... i think i've got a trojan to purge >.< )
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