Week 2 January 16-22

Monday January 16

The JSLP group had another introduction day. I was in a group with the Finnish kids and two Japanese Nihon Daigaku students who didn't speak much English, which meant that I was doing the translating between Finnish/English/Japanese. It was nice talking to the girls, it was good practice and I actually felt like they understood what I was saying.

We walked around Ichigaya, where our classes take place, and then went to another Nihon Daigaku campus in Shimotakaido, which is a ten minute walk from our apartment building. Which is a bummer, as it takes about an hour to get to Ichigaya in the morning. After our tours we ended the day with "Teatime" at a local restaurant.

Nihon Daigaku Campus in Shimotakaido

Our closest grocery store

Tuesday January 17

Tuesday was our first day of 'Trial Week' aka we had our first real lessons. I was put into class B with 5 Americans and one French guy. Our days are in two parts, in the morning we study Genki II (which I've already studied in high school, but I've forgotten everything!). In the afternoons we either have elective classes or JS classes in which we study Japanese culture and what not in English. The electives were conversation, reading, listening, and grammar. I chose conversation, listening and grammar. The other Finnish kids only chose conversation, so we only have the JS and conversation classes together.

I really like our group, we only have 17 people and it's small enough to get to know everybody.

Lunch at school: Ramen

After school snack: Strawberry shortcake!!

Wednesday January 18

We had more school. The trains in the morning are so crowded!! It's insane. As a short person I was squished between lots of people. And on every station more and more people would get on! Luckily the trip to Shinjuku doesn't take more than 15 minutes, and the next train to Ichigaya is usually a lot calmer and you can actually breath without standing on your toes! After school a bunch of us ended up going out to eat at the same restaurant as on Monday. I had melon soda, which is actually pretty awesome. After eating we went to Seiyuu grocery store, which is apparently a part of the Walmart chain (?). It has three floors! Clearly the largest one that I've been to in Shimotakaido.

Melon soda!

My dinner, very American pizza. Sooo cheesy!

Shrimp puffs

Seiyuu snack aisle. So many snacks!

Our train was 10 minutes late and they were handing these out.

Friday January 20

On Friday we get out at 12:10 pm instead of the normal 4:10 pm, so we went to Shibuya! We ate omurice with Kaisa, Kimmo, Tim and Candy. After lunch we went to Shibuya 109, Forever 21, H&M, and some electronics store (I forget the name). Every store had 7-10 floors and were HUGE. After lots of shopping we ate in a Ramen-ya, which had really nice ramen.

Oh, and it snowed, which was something I wasn't expecting to happen in Tokyo, ever.

Omu rice! With chicken and spinach

Dessert, chocolate brownie parfait (or something). 

Moomin things!

Arashi + Mariokart

  

Ramen-ya

Winter ramen! (It wasn't ramen noodels, but I forget what it was)

Gyoza!

Purikura with Tim and Candy

Saturday January 21

On Saturday we celebrated Moniques birthday with food and Karaoke! It was so much fun!

Yakisoba! So yummy!

Tim giving Monique her cake!

Sunday January 22

After a night of karaoke we didn't do much. Made some curry with Tim and Candy.

Lesson 1: How to make curry

Cut up vegetables/meat etc.

Warm up in pan

Add water and wait for it to boil/cook

Add curry

Mix well

ENJOY! (Kimchi is optional)

The first week went by very fast. And so has the second, but an update on that later!

January 13-15 (Fri-Sun)

The first few days went by fast. On Friday we had our first day of 'school' as we had interviews and a placement test. All the other Finnish students were placed in the beginners class as they've never studied Japanese, but I get to see what class I'm in on Tuesday.

On Saturday I went to vote in the presidential election with Kaisa and Kimmo. This was the first time I went somewhere other than school on this trip. The Finnish embassy was in Minami-Azubu, a place we certainly would have never visited if not for the election.

Finnish Embassy in Tokyo

After we voted at the embassy we decided to walk to Shibuya (the nearest large station, aka skipping one train stop). Right near the embassy was a park so we decided to walk toward that. We ended up at the Tokyo Metropolitan Central Library. We walked in and had to leave our things in a locker. We got passes to wear around our necks at the front desk (we assumed they had something to do with the computers).

Tokyo Metropolitan Central Library

After the library we walked to  Arisugawanomiya Memorial Park. It was strange to see so much space after all the buildings in Tokyo.

Arisugawanomiya Memorial Park.

 We ended up walking for 1.5 hours and using different embassies, such as the Czech and Croatia embassies, to navigate through the area. We also spotted our first shrine.

Random Shrine in Hiro-o

Soon after we ended up at a university (not our own) which had a really nice campus. There were a lot of high school students, checking the place out. They might have been there for entrance exams? Isn't it about that time of the year? After the university we landed at another shrine.

Shrine steps, Torii gate and Kaisa

On Sunday we ventured out to Ueno Park with all the Finnish students. We didn't really know what to expect, but there were a lot of middle school and high school kids around.

Ueno Park

Ema at Ueno Park Shinto shrine

Ema are small wooden plaques bearing prayers or wishes at Shinto shrines.

Shinto shrine alter

Torii gate

They were burning something in the middle of the shrine

Inside of shrine

There wasn't really much to see in Ueno park since we didn't go to any museums or the Zoo. Instead we walked around and looked at shrines. After leaving the park we went to Akihabara, but we went in the wrong direction and didn't really see the electric district much.

School starts on Tuesday with an opening ceremony and tomorrow we go around Ichigaya (where our classes at Nihon Daigaku are) and Shimo-Takaido (another campus near our apartment complex).

So until then, おやすみなさい.

Arrival

Hello all!

My name is Anni and this is my blog about my studies in Tokyo, Japan January-March 2012.

I flew in from Canada yesterday. The trip went quite well, considering I had a two hour delay in Chicago, but otherwise everything went quite smoothly.

In Toronto getting ready to leave.

There was a pick-up service person waiting for me after customs and he took me and another JLSP student, Tim, to get our train tickets to Shinjuku. After getting our train tickets we took the 1.5 hr Narita Express train. Kumagai-san was waiting for us at the West exit (which was harder to find than we thought as we got lost once, thankfully we got out alright). After this we took a taxi to our apartments where I got off at Cherry Court and Tim continued on to Collingland Charriot. The taxi ride was quite interesting, lots of small streets and frankly I have no idea where I am!

The apartment (or flat) is quite nice. It's a single room with its own kitchen, bathroom, shower, etc.

Room

 I got the corner room so I get two window. And there's even a TV! Even though Kumagai-san said it doesn't work, haven't tried myself.

 Kitchen

Shower (with Stitch rug :)

Bathroom

 View from balcony

View from balcony

Now it's time to get some breakfast :)