So yesterday my efforts were finally rewarded! (And all it took was 2 weeks and multiple visits to NASIC and then a visit to the doctor where I waited HOURS and then a translator from SILS and then a doc's note worth 30$ CDN and then ANOTHER visit to SILS...)
I switched rooms in the dorm for a single... well, technically its a single. Really its a double that I get all for my onsies (seriously still stuck with the stupid bunk bed over desk thing SUCKS) but at least its mine. And have properly taken over the other half of the room also, although I'm not supposed to for some reason? haha no. I'm paying for the whole thing, so I'mma use it! This DOES mean my room is a lot bigger than the actual single rooms are though. I think I will turn the small area by the fridge into a tiny little lounge.
And also- there are flowers blooming. outside. in december. WTF. Apparently I have no ______ (insert word from morphology class that means appropriate objects/feelings for the seasons) here. But seriously, its december WHY ARE THE PLANTS STILL GREEN AND SOME HAVE FLOWERS.
Is disturbed.
-J
Thursday 9 December 2010
Friday 3 December 2010
The earth rumbles... when we make it
Today I went to the NASIC office finally! I have another appointment monday, which will hopefully sort everything out.
TODAY THERE WAS A TRUCK ON CAMPUS. AND IN THIS TRUCK THERE WAS AN EARTHQUAKE WAITING TO HAPPEN :)
Seriously, the Shinjuku safety people set up an earthquake simulator in a truck in the courtyard by building 10 today. I went in it with Leanna and some girl who we didn't know but who had no one else to go with (except Mikey Melo offered, but we were nice enough to save her) and experienced a fairly strong "earthquake." It was lots of fun, they have a screen beside you which shows what's going on in the "room" you're in, and a table to hold onto and hide under and stuff. I wanted to ask for a big one, but chickened out at the last minute. It made up for my disappointing visit to the Disaster Prevention Center in Ikebukuro though!
There was also a canvas tunnel set up with some fire simulation stuff in it, but because of the typhoon this morning we still had strong winds and it got knocked over (onto an older lady, kawaisoni obasan!) before I got to try it.
I ALSO went to the Chichibu night festival today with Jamie! It was lots of fun, we wandered around for a few hours and ate a lot of festival food, as per usual. And I got to help pound some mochi (but everyone took pictures of me when I did it, which was kinda awkward...) and also we got bought some sake and beer by a group of middle aged people near a dried fish snacks booth. They were pretty cool. And the fireworks were AMAZING. They light up the entire sky pretty much. Apparently they have thousands of fireworks set off at this festival every year. The Mikoshi wasnt all that, and I didn't get any good photos. But they had horses dressed up in shrine gear too, which looked neat. Good thing the horses were trained not to spook at flashes though! We left a bit early so that we didn't have to worry about getting stranded out there, although everyone was both friendly and drunk, so I'm sure someone would have put us up in their home overnight had that happened.
TNT,
J
Thursday 2 December 2010
Do what with the what???
So today I managed to laze away most of, as Haru did not come home and thus the room was at a bearable temperature. Sooo wrong that I feel I need to savour the moments I have control of the temperature in my room by NOT LEAVING TO GO DO MORE INTERESTING AND IMPORTANT THINGS... like go talk to the NASIC office. sigh.
Went over to the Seibu ticket counter at Baba to try and reserve a train back from the festival tomorrow, couldn't do it bc all the seats were already booked. Big surprise. So we will be taking our chances with the regular train. Yay!
And I've somehow become one of those ppl that goes to starbucks for hours and hours here. I know, I shock myself, as usually I want real coffee/espresso but the other places are worse here... Hard to imagine but true. And one of the employees came down and "cleaned" the lounge chairs with what was essentially a laaaarge piece of packing tape. To get hair and crumbs off I guess???
Worried about how my aunt is doing, and my mom. I really need to call her. But I keep forgetting to get a calling card. Maybe I should do that after we get back tmrw night. Stupid time difference... If I call earlyafternoon from here its evening there which would work well, but then ppl are around the entrance all the time. If I call late late night here, its daytime there which is less conv. for them.... :(
CFN,
J
So today I managed to laze away most of, as Haru did not come home and thus the room was at a bearable temperature. Sooo wrong that I feel I need to savour the moments I have control of the temperature in my room by NOT LEAVING TO GO DO MORE INTERESTING AND IMPORTANT THINGS... like go talk to the NASIC office. sigh.
Went over to the Seibu ticket counter at Baba to try and reserve a train back from the festival tomorrow, couldn't do it bc all the seats were already booked. Big surprise. So we will be taking our chances with the regular train. Yay!
And I've somehow become one of those ppl that goes to starbucks for hours and hours here. I know, I shock myself, as usually I want real coffee/espresso but the other places are worse here... Hard to imagine but true. And one of the employees came down and "cleaned" the lounge chairs with what was essentially a laaaarge piece of packing tape. To get hair and crumbs off I guess???
Worried about how my aunt is doing, and my mom. I really need to call her. But I keep forgetting to get a calling card. Maybe I should do that after we get back tmrw night. Stupid time difference... If I call earlyafternoon from here its evening there which would work well, but then ppl are around the entrance all the time. If I call late late night here, its daytime there which is less conv. for them.... :(
CFN,
J
Tuesday 30 November 2010
on the road again...
TODAY: First earthquake that I was like, OK this is for sure an earthquake! Ha ha, I was eating lunch in a newer building but definately felt the shaking! Pete said it woke him up and shook him hard. So Either he lives much closer to the epicenter than Waseda, or the building I have Ainu in is more structurally designed for earthquakes. (Which, lol, "earthquake" and "confidence" are homophones, they're both said 'jishin' although maybe intonation is different?)
YESTERDAY: Got the Xmas presents for the family sent off! Now to start on Xmas cards/letters!
EARLIER:
So I actually managed to take myself out and about the past little while! 2 gold stars for me :)
I went to Kamakura and Enoshima last Thursday. Started the day early, and bought a return ticket (Kamakura Free Pass from JR East) from 'Baba eki, and got on the Yamanote to Shinjuku, where I was supposed to transfer to the direct line out to Kamakura.... but it wasn't running that morning for some reason. So I had to hop BACK on the Yamanote, and get to Shinagawa, where I then transfered to the local train to Yokosuka, which has a stop at Kamakura. So instead of it taking less than an hour to get there, It took almost 2 and a half :(. But I got there by 11-ish and had a wonderful time just wandering around various temples and shrines. I like shrines better I think. I WAS disappointed that I couldn't take pictures at my favourite place. Its got a bunch of statues that have "ferocious" faces on that are supposed to be the judges at the gates of hell or something. But mostly they just looked pretty funny. I did pay to go inside the big buddha again, but I forgot you can't go up to his head and look out from his eyes, you just walk into his belly. Which sounds cool when I phrase it that way, so I guess it coulda been worse. By no means did I see every temple and shrine there, I think I could've easily spent another day there (I didn't get to the beach either!) but I wanted to take the trolley to Enoshima and watch the sunset there, which is supposed to be fantastic. And Ezster had highly reccommended Enoshima too... which means I will have to go back. Because of clouds, by the time I got there the sunset was blocked. And everything was already shut down more or less at 5pm when I got there. Sort of disappointing. But I had gotten most of my Xmas shopping done!
And Saturday (i think) I went to Rikugien Korakuen, which is a famous garden in tokyo, to see some fall colours. And an illumination (so I was there a loooong time OMG like 6 hours???) But my camera still wasn't charged after Kamakura, so I need to figure out how to get those pics off my cell phone at some point. BTW, tokyo is STILL MOSTLY GREEN and I dont think it's dropped below 10C yet. :D This is CRAZY and AWESOME! And everyone looks at me funny bc I'm still in early fall clothes and they are in like 3 layers and scarves and toques! And Haru keeps our room at like 24-26C at all times, so I'm in tanks and shorts in the dorm... next winter will be painful if I get too used to this.
Miss you (you know who you are)
-J
YESTERDAY: Got the Xmas presents for the family sent off! Now to start on Xmas cards/letters!
EARLIER:
So I actually managed to take myself out and about the past little while! 2 gold stars for me :)
I went to Kamakura and Enoshima last Thursday. Started the day early, and bought a return ticket (Kamakura Free Pass from JR East) from 'Baba eki, and got on the Yamanote to Shinjuku, where I was supposed to transfer to the direct line out to Kamakura.... but it wasn't running that morning for some reason. So I had to hop BACK on the Yamanote, and get to Shinagawa, where I then transfered to the local train to Yokosuka, which has a stop at Kamakura. So instead of it taking less than an hour to get there, It took almost 2 and a half :(. But I got there by 11-ish and had a wonderful time just wandering around various temples and shrines. I like shrines better I think. I WAS disappointed that I couldn't take pictures at my favourite place. Its got a bunch of statues that have "ferocious" faces on that are supposed to be the judges at the gates of hell or something. But mostly they just looked pretty funny. I did pay to go inside the big buddha again, but I forgot you can't go up to his head and look out from his eyes, you just walk into his belly. Which sounds cool when I phrase it that way, so I guess it coulda been worse. By no means did I see every temple and shrine there, I think I could've easily spent another day there (I didn't get to the beach either!) but I wanted to take the trolley to Enoshima and watch the sunset there, which is supposed to be fantastic. And Ezster had highly reccommended Enoshima too... which means I will have to go back. Because of clouds, by the time I got there the sunset was blocked. And everything was already shut down more or less at 5pm when I got there. Sort of disappointing. But I had gotten most of my Xmas shopping done!
And Saturday (i think) I went to Rikugien Korakuen, which is a famous garden in tokyo, to see some fall colours. And an illumination (so I was there a loooong time OMG like 6 hours???) But my camera still wasn't charged after Kamakura, so I need to figure out how to get those pics off my cell phone at some point. BTW, tokyo is STILL MOSTLY GREEN and I dont think it's dropped below 10C yet. :D This is CRAZY and AWESOME! And everyone looks at me funny bc I'm still in early fall clothes and they are in like 3 layers and scarves and toques! And Haru keeps our room at like 24-26C at all times, so I'm in tanks and shorts in the dorm... next winter will be painful if I get too used to this.
Starting to research alternate housing options over the last few days. Hopefully I'll have some luck soon!
Miss you (you know who you are)
-J
Sunday 21 November 2010
2010.09.26.gate
 | ||
| Gates of the Imperial Palace with Raymond, Yumi, and Yasu. I've lost my favourite picture of this day | actually :( |
2010.09.26.imperial.palace1
 |
| The Palace! Hopefully I remember to go see it again on one of the 2 days a year it is open! |
Saturday 20 November 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)