Wandering Bird

Zzzzzzzz

2010-02-21T12:54:00.002+01:00

Wow, it's already been a week since I came back to Norway! I haven't really done much ever since I came back. A quick trip to Oslo on Wednesday to hand over some stuffs I bought for a friend. Otherwise I've been bumming at home doing little to nothing (playing video games, nap, read books etc). Also had to look up on what subjects to study for my autumn/spring semester in Norway. Oh well, still got plenty of time to think about that (aside from the obligatory subjects like Ex. Phil and Ex. Fac, yuck).

My cat (Gråtass) has been fighting again. Got a really bad wound on the left side of his neck, which resulted in a trip to the local vet and 3000 kroner from my moms wallet (my dad kept whining about how none of us have spent that much on doctor stuffs). Since Gråtass' wound is still healing, the vet told my mom to keep him inside for at least 10 days (this coming Thursday). Which means we'll have to treat him as if he was a little kitty (he keeps whining about food/wanting to go outside). And hopefully he'll get neutered AND a good bath from the next vet trip.

What? Why are you glaring, you smelly lazy fatty cat? YOU MAD?

And I am missing my weekly cheap and good sushi rfom Sushiro. Damn it!

Home sweet home?

2010-02-14T16:19:00.007+01:00

The clock was 7:35 PM when I arrived in Norway, but I had to wait another 2 hours to get back home since my parents were still working. Overall the trip was okay. Took an early train (7:02 am) from Togane to Naruto, swapped train again in Sakura (what the heck is up with all these manga names?) to get my butt to Terminal 1 at Narita airport. The train trip took approximately 2 hours with little to no waiting (just 10~15 minutes in Sakura), and I didn't end up in Tokyo (which is the opposite direction) like someone else did. The security check in Frankfurt was a pain in the butt though, the staffs were demanding me to take all my electronic devices (even though it's only supposed to be laptop) out of my bag after I went through the beep gate (despite the fact that they ignored both my cell phones and some other smaller stuffs). What the heck happened to my favourite airport? And even though it was 5 minutes left till boarding time, the gate for my flight was right next to the security check crap (thank goodness).

What else to say? The snow outside of my backyard is frozen snow rather than powder snow (if that makes sense at all). My parents are traveling to Hong Kong this coming week. So I'll be home alone with my sister and my smelly fatty cat for 2-3 weeks (that's the reason they wanted me to come back home, so I can watch over the house). Other than that, I don't think I am jetlagging anymore. Maybe that's what I get for not sleeping during my entire flight back to Norway (hit the bed at 11:30 pm last night)? Ok, I am getting lazy again. Catch you again later, and thanks for reading this wonderful (and boring) blog! Oh right, the cabin crew on ANA thought I was a Japanese, so they spoke Japanese to me all the time. (and I replied back in Japanese without thinking <_<)

Yeah, I wrote this down on my palm. Just in case I forgot.

Frankfurt
SK 4756
Boarding: 17:05
Gate: B10?

Dot dot dot.

2010-02-05T20:10:00.005+01:00

Hello, just a small update from me. I somehow managed to pass the level 2 Japanese Language Proficiency Test from last December. Am I going to take level 1? HELL NO. I also passed the "exams" in my Japanese class without much trouble, even though I wish the results could've been a little bit better. And with all the exams done, we are having a 2 months winter break (my winter break already began the 25th last month). No idea when the spring/summer semester is going to start, but we'll get an e-mail or something from whichever teacher.

Since my parents kept bugging me, I am taking a "short" trip (leaving next Saturday, staying for 6 weeks) back to Norway. Not that I would be doing anything productive during my winter break in Japan anyway (I actually want to travel around Japan a bit, but my horrible sense of direction is preventing me). Guess I need to find something to do when I am back home. Anyone (if there are people reading this blog entry at all) want to hang out?

Hmm, what else to say? Most of the Norwegian students that were staying here for 5 months returned to Norway last week. Everything feels so quiet (well, there's this freaking baby in the neighbor building but...). It's a weird feeling how the Norwegian brigade in Togane is reduced from 50+ people to less than 10 people. I am missing you guys (you know who you are if you are reading this). Good luck with the studies in Norway!

No pictures this time because I didn't take any interesting pictures. And it's 4:25 AM now. I better sleep! Please comment if you have anything to say. It feels like I am talking to a wall whenever I do these blog entries. See you next time, whenever that is. Thanks for reading (if there are any at all)!

Stuffs this guy did due to crankiness and lack of sleep

2010-01-03T09:42:00.009+01:00

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=10273262&l=f99af0d563&id=760305230

Hello, it's been forever since my last update (again,考えことがいっぱいかもね？). Been having sleeping problems (again) lately. Last night I ended up not sleeping at all even though I spent 2-3 hours at the Shidax karaoke. So in an attempt to make myself get tired and sleepy, I tried to take a quick jogging lesson in the park which is located right outside of our apartment complex (it was like 3 am, rofl <_<).

But even though I wrote "various popular parts", I only visited 2-3 places in total. The first stop on my sightseeing was the Meiji Shrine located in Harajuku, which again is located between Shibuya and Shinjuku. Apparently that place is one of the most popular places for people to visit during the first 3 days of New Year. The day started off pretty nice, with me standing right next to the announcement speaker in the Togane train station without realizing (go and figure the rest). I swear my left ear couldn't hear a thingy for 2 hours. I left Togane at 8:36 am and arrived in Harajuku Station around 10:30 am. And I was really overwhelmed by the amount of people that were already in or heading for the shrine, just for the sake of praying for another good and wealthy New Year. Kids, teenagers, people around my age, grown-ups and old people. All of them went to the temple! (according to some websites, 3.11 million people visited Meiji Shrine in the first 3 days of 2007). If you want know how it looked like, then please take a look at the pictures I uploaded on Facebook! (well, you wouldn't be reading this if not for Facebook anyway)

After the trip to Meiji Shrine (which lasted for 1 hour and 30 mins or something), I took a trip to the famous Tokyo Tower. And wow, it was even taller than I imagined. Aside from getting a panorama view (alot of pictures on Facebook) of Tokyo, there were also several attractions inside the tower. Such as a wax museum, some 3D museum stuffs with the horrible Sonic the Werehog shit (thanks for killing a great franchise, Sega!) and a Guiness World Record Museum as well. While I skipped the Sonic 3D stuff, I didn't really think too much of the other museums. Decided to drop Roppongi and Ginza this time around, since I became tired from all the walking. Funny thing is, right I am not tired at all. Oh the irony. And since it's been ages since last update, I'll do a quick summarization of what've happened.

- School festival (pictures on Facebook)
- Halloween party in Shibuya (pictures on Facebook)
- Nikyuu test (which I most likely failed, hooray! Oh, I am such a pessimist)
- Jump Festa 2010 (pictures on Facebook)
- Hanging around with people during Christmas (thanks for the company, people <3)
- Last minute New Year party thingy in Shibuya (almost got squished)
- NEED TO WRITE DAMN REPORT FOR PROJECT

One picture; Souvenirs I bought from the places I visited.

Ok, that's about it. See you next time! And please comment here or on Facebook. Or else I'll go back to lazy-mode again.

Note: Spelling and grammar errors cause I am hungry.

I am still alive!

2009-10-10T13:37:00.007+02:00

Yes, I am still here. I haven't updated my blog since December last year due to laziness. Sorry about that!

Just to make it short. I am once again back in Japan, since I passed the Japanese exam way back in May. And this time I am staying until August next year (been here since the beginning of September). During this one month period, I've had a trip around the Yamanote Line (I got a little bit lost when I went off at Shinjuku and Tokyo Station).

On also went to Tokyo Game Show, which is held annually in the Makuhari Messe in Chiba.

Nine days ago (the 11th) we went to Disneyland, since it was Ingrid's birthday. Overall it was a really fun trip, even though I felt somewhat dizzy after the Space Mountain Rollercoaster ride.

From left to right: Me, the birthday kid, Ferdinand and Yong. Heidi took the picture.

Since it's getting late (and I am lazy), I'll finish this blog entry with a picture of my desktop (I'll TRY to upload more pictures to my Facebook account later on). Sorry for the mess!

Note: Spelling and grammar errrorsssz.

Kinda bored...

2008-12-07T16:18:00.003+01:00

So here's a short entry for introducing some of my classmates and friends I sometimes or usually chitchat and hang around with.

Ok, this person is not my classmate, but one my teachers, and his family name is Omoto (尾本). Some classmates call him Mario since he is an otaku.

This is Yong. She likes eating burger (or eating in general) and hitting people without warning. And of course I'll hit her back if she decides to hit or stomp me for no reasons. She have also given me plenty of weird nicknames, "Bæsjemannen" (Poo Man) for instance. And for whatever reasons, she also thinks I am adopted.

This is Tor Erling while being in a pinch because he didn't do his homeworks (not really, just writting off from my rengo (連語) paper). By the way, he doesn't like USA and americans in general. Also not quite fond of Apple (not the fruit, the brand). He got a blog about life from Japan as well, most of you should've read the blog already (even though it's in Norwegian). Especially you, oh you know who you are. Person who use my pictures to blackmail me!

This is Ingrid. I "think" she likes having her pictures (most of them, I presume) taken (when based on this picture). From what I've have observed, she mostly eats curry and bread. According to herself, she is a nerd (but what kind...?), but she doesn't really look like one. She thinks I am a nerd/otaku/geek (whatever fits), even though she never explicitely told me what kind of nerd/otaku/geek I am. *shakes fist*

This is Øistein. I think he hates having his pictures taken. 90% of the time, he talks in a sarcastic way. And since I am a little bit dense when it comes to sarcasm, it's not that easy for me to figure whether he is being sarcastic or not (well, I should just assume that he is being sarcastic all the time). And sometimes it's also a little bit hard to grasp his dialect, but uh...that's my own fault, really.

Note: All the comments written above are my own impressions. They don't have to be true!

Well, it's been awhile again...

2008-11-30T14:59:00.000+01:00

But I am tired and too lazy to write anything at all. So I'll just show you new (and old) pictures during my stay in Japan. Feel free ask here (or on Facebook) if there are any interesting pictures you would like to know more about!

Japan 1
Japan 2
Japan 3

Oh, did I ever mention that I get really annoyed if people beats me to something? Now I did!

Disneyland & JIU Festival

2008-11-03T13:56:00.000+01:00

I had a somewhat busy weekend with a 1-day-trip to Disneyland on Friday, while I also took a small trip to the JIU Festival on Sunday.

Friday started off with getting up at 6 am, so we could catch a train that arrived at Togane Station at 6:47 am or something. We (me, Øistein and Tor Erling) arrived at around 6:30 am, Ingrid and Yong was already ahead of us since they were going to meet up with a Chinese girl named Agnes.

Train arrived, and to my surprise, there were already a buttload of people on the train, hell even plenty of students (junior or senior high, I assume). Of course I was so god damn tired that I had to try and sleep while standing in the train. But the train constantly shaking, friends poking me and making fun of me made the task rather hard. We switched train (line) at Soga Station, and met up with another Japanese girl (which I don't remember the name of) and a Chinese girl named AiAi (? help me, I suck with memorizing names!).

I don't remember the name of the station that we went off at...but hey, at least we did arrive at Tokyo Disneyland (which is actually located in Chiba-ken, and not Tokyo). Also, the Japanese Tokyo Disneyland Resort Line is waaaaaay prettier then the one in Hong Kong. Which I find rather funny since Tokyo Disneyland have been going on for 25 years, while the one in Hong Kong have been around for 3 years.

Either way, we arrived outside of Tokyo DisneySea about 15 minutes before the theme park was open. And we were greeted by Yuno and Maki (Ingrid and Yong's conversation partners). Since there were still some times left, we stood outside and had some chitchatting. Meanwhile another Chinese boy (again, which I don't remember the name of) and a Japanese girl named Iku joined us as well.

Park opened, and to my surprise, plenty of people ran off to the various attractions. Of course my group of people did the same, and since I didn't want to lose sight of them, I ran after them as well. After some running, we arrived at the first attraction which was Tower of Terror. Since it looked rather scary and I am not quite fond of such attractions; me, Tor Erling, AiAi and Iku stood outside and waited for the other. We had some small conversations with them so we could know them a little bit better.

After the wait, we headed to the part of the theme park which was somehow related to Indiana Jones. Took 2 different "rollercoaster" rides, which was pretty fun, but I already forgot the name of those 2 attractions. <_<

After the two aforementioned rollercoaster rides, we took a small break at the Arabian part of the theme park to get some food. Afterwards we took some pictures together with Mickey and Minnie, and went to some volcano-like attraction. The rollercoaster ride (which is named "Journey to the Center of the Earth") wasn't too bad, until the very last part of the ride, which made me feel rather unwell afterwards. I guess...it could've been worse.

So, what happened afterwards? Well, most people took some of the same rides over again, and since I wasn't taking any of the rides, I took care of some of the hand baggages while waiting for them. To avoid dragging this entry even further, a short summary of the rest of the day.

- Explored a little bit more of the park.

- Watched Chip 'n Dale playing some catchy songs with kitchen equipments as music instruments.

- I bought a cap, woho! (sorry, no pictures).

- Maki and the other Japanese girl that I don't remember the name of, had to leave a bit earlier.

- We went to eat. Food was neither good or bad, but the pricing was rather meh.

- Took some more relaxing on-rail rides during an one hour periode. Fun? Yes.

- Looooooong day, DisneySea closed at 9 pm. Said "Bai bai" to Yuno and Iku, and took the train back together with the Chinese exchange students. I think we didn't get back to our apartments till 11 pm or so. But hey, fun and memorable day!

My university had a festival from Saturday till Monday. I didn't go on Saturday since I still didn't feel well from the last rollercoaster ride on Friday. Most of the booths on the festival was selling different kind of food. The Norwegian booth was selling mashed potatoes and meat balls. There were also various activities located in the classrooms, but me and Tor Erling were rather lazy with going there. There was also a scene where various events took place. But I didn't stay at the campus long enough to watch the more interesting ones.

I'll finish this blog entry with the remaining pictures from DisneySea, that I took with my cell phone camera.

Stupid economy!

2008-10-26T12:41:00.000+01:00

100 yen = 7.43 NOK

The NOK decreasing in value is annoying the hell out of me. It means my rent per month will cost even more, all the delicious food as well! It's a good thing that I paid the October rent before the value dropped even more. And as usual, not much have happened lately. When I arrived at the local shopping center (Sunpia), some Japanese lady came and asked whether I was interested in some Jesus/God stuffs. And of course she thought I looked like a Japanese...At least I managed to talk my way out of that.

I also think I caught a minor cold, but that should be gone pretty soon. Might be going to Disneyland on Friday together with Tor Erling, Ingrid, Yong (and the conversation partners of the latter two) plus some other people. Since this coming Friday for preparing the school festival. Recieved a "10000 yen cashback" check from au by KDDI for no reasons. I'll make sure to use those money on something good (not). Got a test for tomorrow, so I'll be spending the rest of the day reading.

Long time no see (plus alot of other stuffs)!

2008-10-18T06:58:00.000+02:00

It's been awhile since I updated my blog, not like much have happened since the last update, so I am not even sure where to start. Just to try and sum it up rather shortly.

- School have mostly been the same for the past 2-3 weeks. Not much to say about that. At least the food and drinks are cheap and good!

- We all got our own Japanese conversation partners. I got a 19 year old boy named Yuya Takada who is currently studying English at JIU. And my rather big suprise, he has already been studying English for about 6 years. But despite having studied for such a long time, our Japanese appear to be better then his English. He is really nice, but at the same time rather quiet...So there aren't really much talking unless I am the one who starts a conversation.

- Ingrid and Yong's conversation partners like to call me ハンサムさん (Hansamu-san as in "Handsome"-san) since it sounds like ハンスさん (Hansu-san, as in "Hans"). Ironically it seems like I've met their conversation partners more then I've met my own...And at first they thought I was a Japanese guy, so I guess I really have to get used with people treating me as if I was a native Japanese?!

- Finally got my internet connection, woho! But since torrents aren't working, I'll still be switching back and forth.

- Been to Tokyo Game Show. The amount of people, the time spent on waiting in line to try out various games and plenty of cute looking booth babes was ridiculous! I grabbed quite alot of pictures from both days, but I'll post them later unless some of you really curious how it looked like. And no, I didn't take any pictures of cosplayers, and I only took one picture of two booth babes which were representing the video game developer Level-5.

- One Japanese neighbour have been complaining about how noisy we are during afternoon/night time. We did recieve some heads-up/warnings beforehand, thinking that the complaints didn't come from one single person, but from other people as well. So last night around 8 PM, Hara-sensei paid a visit to our apartment complex and told us that (s)he (?) was the only one who complained.

Apparently she threatened to call the police when some of my classmates were sitting outside and smoking (this was in the very beginning, when some of them arrived in Japan then earlier then me). Another thing is...she haven't bothered to say "Hello" back to my classmates when they tried to communicate with her (at least from what I gathered). We were told from Hara-sensei that the girl thought we looked suspicious, scary and threatening. She also have a "powerful" (in my ass) father which is a politician (in fact, it was her father who called to JIU and complained), so the teachers couldn't just ignore all the ridiculous complaints from her.

I have no idea whether she is a racist or not, or whether it's her "powerful" politician father blowing the minor complaints into unimagineable proportions (oh, that would make HIM a racist). But complaining about us being noisy when we are socializing (some classmates take a drink/smoke, others are chatting) during non-school times is so god damn ridiculous. For all I know, the offended person could be some extremely paranoid person, and at the same time being spoiled by her father.

Either way, as for now we were told it's best to stay inside our apartments for the time being (1 month, that's what I was told by Fredrik). Always nice to have some random prick spoiling the fun for the rest of the crowd.

And oh, please comment on my blog whenever you have time. Otherwise I'll just become even less motivated updating my blog, even though you have to suffer through my horrible English writting skills!

Been too lazy lately!

2008-09-30T14:09:00.000+02:00

So I'll just show some pictures from the trip to Narita-san and the museum we visited!

And nooooooow, it's time to sleep since I am damn tired.

University orientation, first of day school and so on.

2008-09-19T17:23:00.000+02:00

On Wednesday we had our first long day at the campus. First part of the day was mostly spent on a ceremony for the new students and the graduate students (I noticed some cute girls wearing pretty kimono!). It was a pretty boring ceremony, even worse was the fact that we hardly knew anything of what was said during the entire thingl. The rest on the day was orientation stuffs, what we are going to do the rest of the week and semester. All of the international exchange students also had to take a Placement Examination, just to give the teachers an idea regarding our Japanese skills.

We were notified regarding the rest a week before the semester start, so I thought reading from Genki I & II would've helped a little bit. How wrong I was! So much stuffs we didn't know about during that test. Good thing the test itself wasn't important at all, even though we all had to take it. Filling out the test was easy enough, since you are supposed to fill in either "A, B, C or D" as the right answer. We were told to leave fields blank if we didn't know the right answers, but during test I completely forgot about that. So I was randomly guessing and filled out ALL the fields. Well, the test wasn't of any importance, right?!

Either way, we had even more orientation after the test, so in the end we spent our time at the campus from 9:30 am till about 5:00 pm. Phew, so tired from wearing the stupid dress too! After that, I didn't really do much. So I was just chilling outside with other classmates. Went to bed pretty early (12 am!) since a university bus would give us a ride to the uni at 9:15 am the next morning. Well, we had even more orientation yesterday. Presentation of the teachers that are going to teach us even more Japanese and so on, and again...we hardly understood much of what they said. And wow, some of these Japanese teachers are really energetic. And some of them talk like a fast flowing river!

During the time at the campus, we also had lunch for about an hour and thirty minutes. Curry rice and a Coke only costed 20 NOK, which I think is pretty cheap. Good to know that the canteen got plenty of cheap and good stuffs to eat! For the last hour we (students from UiO) had some final orientations together with students from the Philippines. Oh yeah, I mentioned about the placement test which was insignificant, right? Guess what! The teacher who was giving us informations during the last hour, came over to my place and told me that I did it "Really good!" on the test. He was also wondering whether I wanted to take a class with more advanced Japanese or not. Geez, that was quite a shocker...seeing how 95% of my answers were pure guessing. What's the chance of such things to happen? Pigs flying and the sky raining fishes is even more likely. Why didn't I play lotto that day? Hell, I might've been a Japanese trillionaire by now!

At least what the offer he asked was optional, and he told me I could await with replying till today. Of course the initial reaction among the fellow classmates sitting close to me was "Wtf?" and alot of laughing. While the inner me was trying to get myself up from the bottomless pit...or like a salmon trying swim against the river. Yeah, it was that shocking for me! Hell, if we get a similar test for another time, I'll make sure to leave BLANK fields.

So anywayyyyy, after all the orientation and paperwork stuffs were done and explained. We went to get our rental bikes. Having a bike is a necessity (at least for us), since walking to school would take about 40 minutes, while riding a bike will take 10-15 minutes. I'll take a picture of it later picture of it later, since I forgot. The only bad thing with the bike is the lack of adjustable gears, so it's constanly set on the third gear. Luckily the road to campus is mostly flat, except for the bridge. So the riding isn't that bad at all.

We left campus at around 5:30 PM, I went to WonderGoo to get myself a used Wii, three used games, one Classic Controller and Gamecube Controller, everything for less then 40000 yen. That's less then 2100 NOK, which is really good. Since in Norway, a brand new Wii w/ Wii Sports still costs around 2500 NOK. Now I need to figure out how the hell to get it back to Norway... And I am pretty much done with buying games till December (at least I hope so). Since I got the apartment rent, internet/cell phone subscription, and food to pay for the next three months.

Later the same evening; me, Tor Erling and Øistein went to the same okonomiyaki restaurant for dinner. This time we knew what the hell we were supposed to do, so we didn't "screw up" like last time. And as usual, good food and pretty stuffed!

First class was today, introductions with the three teachers we are going to have. They are named Watanabe, Omoto and Fujishiro. Each class lasts one hour and thirty minutes. Went through some basic Japanese from Genki 1 & 2. And learned a some basic things regarding classes. Lack of attendance would affect our grades. No drinking, chewing gum etc etc blabla so much to list. Discipline is important! Omoto-sensei, by the way, is a really really interesting and funny teacher. He described himself as an otaku that likes old and boring music/videos. Now that sounds really weird, right?!

Also, apparently there's a tyfon coming to Japan on Saturday (which is right now). We were told by our teachers to stay in our apartments during this time, and make sure to buy some food just in case. Not quite sure what I'll be doing for tomorrow...probably just play more on my new used Wii and read some Japanese.

Here's some pictures from before and during the ceremony. Click on them, remember!

What to write about?

2008-09-16T15:41:00.001+02:00

Uh, I didn't do anything special today. Managed to fry my mini pizza so it almost turned into a piece of coal, kanji excesice for some sort of test we are supposed to have for tomorrow. We to the local ramen resturant again, this time with Anders, Øistein and Tor Erling. Still feeling rather stuffed from that huge bowl...Now it's time to get back to reading for about an hour before sleep.

We need to get up somewhat early for tomorrow, since the meeting point where the buses will pick us up is pretty far away from this apartment complex. After the opening ceremony, all of us Norwegian students are probably going to take the test.

Also, I added links to my classmates blogs, which you can find on the left side of my blog. And be aware that all of them are written in Norwegian, rather then my broken English!

So much to see, so much to buy!

2008-09-15T16:13:00.000+02:00

Me and Tor Erling went to Akihabara on Saturday. The trip took about 1 hour and 30 minutes, because we took a train which stopped at all the stations. First thing we did was going to the Hey! Taito Arcade Hall which is located a little bit to the right from the Sega Arcade Hall. It was divided into several floors, where each floor had different kind of arcade machines. My obvious target was the one with the upcoming fighter Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. Since the game is still unfinished (location test), there was only one machine playable though (or so I thought!). There was plenty of people waiting in line to play the game, so I was spending my time (about 45 minutes) recording some videos (which can be found on YouTube!) rather then playing. Tor Erling was watching for a little bit as well, before he went off to look around the other floors.

After I was done with my stuff, we spent 2-3 hours looking around the areas and shops we thought were a part of Akihabara. Both of us bought some games and other minor stuffs before heading back to Togane. Later in the evening we together with Øistein went to the local restaurant which mostly served curry dishes. Since none of us understood much ofthe menu, we randomly picked dishes that looked tasty. We also had to pick what size for the dish and what degree of spiciness we wished to have. Me and Øistein choosed level 3, while Tor Erling choosed level 5. It was actually more spicy then we imagined, since all of us were sweating and drinking alot of water while eating the dishes. But hey, it was still good and cheap!

I didn't do much on Sunday. Was mostly walking around a small portion of the nearby area by myself, so I could become a bit more familiar. Bought a Famicom Anniversary Edition of the Game Boy Micro for 300 NOK. Gotta love the prices over here (now I need to find a adapter that works in Norway...)! Later in the evening me and Tor Erling went to another nearby eating place named Johnny's (or something like that). One of the waitresses probably expected that I was a Japanese, and asked both of us (in a very very humble/honorable way) whether we smoke or not. Of course none of us knew what she was trying to ask us, until she made it more simple. The food was pretty ok, but I thought my steak was kind of "thin".

Haven't done much today either, so it was mostly more slacking. All of us were actually planning to do some kanji excersice. But for whatever reasons that never happened. I did some shopping in the local shopping center named Sunpia, where Jusco is also located. I should have enough food that'll last for at least a week, unless I don't go out for dinner in the evening. Anyway, me, Tor Erling and Øistein went to a okonomiyaki restaurant at 9:30 PM. When we arrived, the waiter was asking us about something that none of us understood at all. So the waiter did some gestures and showed us whether we wanted to sit cross-legged or not. After that issue was sorted out, we sat down and ordered the food we wanted to have. The desk being almost a giant frying pan by itself, also meant that we had to make the food by ourself. I thought it was really good, and I still feel rather stuffed from eating it. Another sweet thing with this eating place (and Johnny's for that matter) is the drinking bar. Pay less then 300 yen and you can drink as much as you want.

But before I sleep, one picture from the 3rd or 4th floor of Sega Arcade Hall, and one of Akihabara.

Not much happened yesterday.

2008-09-13T01:02:00.000+02:00

I was mostly slacking yesterday. I am happy there's a Jusco nearby (5 minutes walking or so). Plenty of cheap and good food to buy!

Today I'll be going to Akihabara together with Tor Erling, and maybe try out (and record some gameplay footages) Tatsunoko vs. Capcom in the Taito Arcade Hall.

Pictures!

2008-09-11T18:05:00.000+02:00

I lied, I'll just throw them over to this blog.

Some pictures I took while...walking around.

This is the time table for the trains that stop by Togane station.

Woah, there's something like this in Shibuya!

Horrible attempts at taking pictures of Scramble Crossing in Shibuya. The Nintendo DS game "The World Ends with You" had a pretty accurate design of the 109 building (except it's called 104 in the game!) and the other locations in Shibuya.

Togane Shopping City!

Quack quack swimming in the pond that's located inside the campus.

It's the campus (and its logo).

Random picture of a cool looking car.

Try and guess what this is!

Obvious.

Same shop during night time!

Cell phone, which was also used in the Playstation 3 game, Metal Gear Solid 4

Aaaaaand lastly, my apartment.

That's it!

On the third day of Togane my true love sent to me...

2008-09-11T16:48:00.000+02:00

...well, no french hens, cause that would probably have caused some ruckus around here. Actually, I don't have any "true love", so just ignore what I just wrote.

Either way, not much really happened today. Me and Tor Erling made a quick trip to the university campus along with Tonje, Anne Marie, Hedda and Katinka. They showed us where and how to apply for an internet subcription for our apartments. After that was dealt with, the girls went off to do some shopping (duh), while me and Tor Erling at went back to Togane to take out some money from the ATM (which is located in the local post office).

Then we went back to the apartment complex to meet up with Øistein, who was going to show us where and how to get our Japanese cell phones plus subscriptions. I already had a 3G-phone that works in Japan, but seeing how all the other fellow students were getting their own Japanese cell phones, added to the fact that it would probably be a hassle for them to call me, I decided to get one as well. The phone is free, and all we need to pay is a monthly fee plus calling/messaging fees. Canceling the subscription would cost about 1000 NOK, which I think isn't too bad.

While waiting for our cell phones to be with the charging (yes, the store even helps you with charging the batteries for the cell phone!) batteries, we took a look around the store. Did I mention that the store was pretty huge? Well, now I did. Aside from having cell phones for sale, they also had plenty of manga, DVDs, games and CDs for sale. I was at the Wii/DS section most of the time, since Weekly Shônen Jump seemed to be sold out. Amazingly enough, I only bought one game, two chargers for my DS and the DVD release of the second Bleach movie.

So, what did we do after that? We went back to our apartments and rested for...who knows how long. Around 9 PM I went to the local ramen shop along with Tor Erling and Hedda. All of us ordered châshûmen, which I thought was pretty good. My stomach still feels rather stuffed from that dinner. Afterwards I went to the local convenient store named "Daily Yamasaki", to buy some breakfast for tomorrow. Not quite sure what to do for tomorrow, but we'll eventually figure it out. Sleep after I am done with editing and uploading some pictures on Facebook.

Second day of Togane in Japan

2008-09-10T16:18:00.000+02:00

Hmm, I am not quite sure where to start...Our plane arrived at Narita around 8 am yesterday. We got picked up by a kind girl named Yuko, who told us that we should take out some Japanese Yen from a ATM, since we had to get passport photos for some "gaijin card". After that, the bus drove to the university, where we had to sign some papers in order to get the keys for our apartments. We also recieved some information regarding the campus and so on from the person who is responsible for international exchange students, Kobayashi-san.

When we were done with all the information stuffs, Kobayashi-san showed us around (post office, train station, super market etc)on in Togane-shi. Pass photos were done, then we went to the city hall, where we spent a couple of hours there waiting to recieve our temporary gaijin application stuffs (since we won't get the cards till in 3-4 weeks). When all those stuffs were finally done (phew!), we finally got to enter our apartments.

The apartment is suprising comfortable (compared to alot of student apartments in Norway!). There was already a bed which was ready to sleep on, there were also other useful electronic gadgets like air condition (of course), microwave oven, fridge, gas oven and even a small TV! Maybe I'll buy a Japanese Wii after all? We even got our own bath and toilette, unlike Norway where some of those have to be shared between alot of people. I'll upload some pictures later on.

Since I was pretty damn tired after the long trip with lack of sleep, and the long waiting in Togane city hall, I went to sleep at 8 PM after me and Tor Erling went to a local super market (or what Japanese people calls "convenient store) to buy some dinner/breakfast and drink. The food were basically some onigiris (which actually wasn't too bad).

I think I slept for approximately...11-12 hours? Well, that's for granted due to lack of sleep (as previously mentioned) combined with the jetlag. After getting my much needed food and drink, and checking the internet (stealing wireless from someone who lives nearby). I woke up Tor Erling, who (to my horror and sorrow) was still sleeping (the clock was about 11am or 12pm). Our initial plan was to take a trip to Tokyo along with Lars, but me and Tor Erling forgot some papers which was needed in order to get a cell phone subscription...so we bought some drink and went back to the apartment to get our papers. We tried to wake up Lars, but it seemed like he was still sleeping (plus he forgot to take out his key from the door).

We went to the local bank to take out some money, and went to the train station to check the time for the next train to Tokyo. There is usually two trains (both directions) that stop by per hour. By coincidence we met Lars at the station and also figured that a train to Tokyo just left the station. So we took a quick trip around the part of the city which is named "Togane Shopping City" (or something like that). Most stores were closed because the local population have some sort of tradition where Wednesday is considered "Water's Day" (or something along that line). To be honest...it was a little bit boring, but I did take some pictures!

Ok, too much damn texts, so I'll shorten the last part by alot.

Afterwards; Train to Tokyo where we had to change to another one at Chiba. Arrived at Tokyo Main Station, which was frigging huge. Took a trip around the station just to look around, before we decided to go to Shibuya. At Shibuya we went around a little bit more before we stopped by Starbucks to drink coffee. Then we went to some restaurant (which I don't recall the name of) and had dinner. Dinner done, back to Togane. Which was quite a mess since we were sort of lost we were looking for the correct train line in Tokyo Main Station. After passing by Ôami Station (which was two stations away from Togane), we realized the train didn't stop by Togane, so we had to get off a later station, get back to Ôami and then take the proper train line from there.

We went to a super market to get some more food and drink for breakfast and then went straight back to our apartments. It's actually 1:15 am now, so I better sleep again!

Oh yeah, my English is pretty bad and broken. But I am writting my entries in English since there "might" be people (who are not Norwegian) reading the entires. Most of them should be from Facebook as well!