back in the u.s.s.r.

someone has stolen the umbrella i bought last friday at the university's convini. it was only 400yen but i'm still pissed off. i also stumbled over my own feet today, fell on the stairs and hit my toe. it hurts like hell and even bleeded. kinda like charlotte in lost in translation, now where's my bill murray bringing me an owl?!

this week's teacher is a lot more bearable than last week's! also, the lessons are quite demanding, i really need to sit down and read about all this 丁寧語 teineigo (polite language), 尊敬語 sonkeigo (respectful language) and 謙譲語 kenjōgo (humble language) stuff over again.

after classes we bought chûhai and snacks at saty, went to the us-mart karaoke bar and spent the afternoon singing radiohead, the beatles and captain jack.

university life

red pandas.

i ate a cherry blossom today, it was inside some fancy sweets and tasted awful, quite shoppai (salty) in fact!

after class, we all went to an archeological excavation. i usually like archeology but this afternoon was really boring. also, it rained and we all got muddy. before i went home i went to uniqlo with anastasia and bought another bunch of clothes (i.e. a skirt for apporox. €3!). my life at the host family is getting better, this evening we went out after dinner and did hana-bi in the back yard. also, my host brother gave me one of his pandas because they think i love animals so much. apropos, i saw a beautiful white cat at university today. i squealed and tried to catch it but alas, it was pretty shy and ran away. i really really need to cuddle some cat soon!!

i can't find my damn cutter.

university life, tsu, food
(fyi, this camera icon means that the following albums at my picasa webalbums has been updated. i will use this in future, mkay?)

雷 - kaminari.

yeah, weather icon!! i woke up to thunder and the rain against my window at 5am this morning. i really like storms and as i know that they usually calm down in the morning, i told my worried host mother that it's ok if i'll go by bike but as it was still raining during breakfast she intended on going by car. when julian's host mother fetched me up to drive us to the university, the rain stopped (of course) and i felt quite helpless without a bike the whole day long. especially when we went shopping after university and had to walk the whole way over to the "saty" mall because unfortunately, the rain in the morning didn't bring any coolness but more humidity. well, i'm at least happy that the average temperature here is now around 30°C and not 40°C like our first two weeks here in japan.

i really need to stop buying tiny whacky stuff and food all the time! i bought socks&tights today, treated myself with dark chocolate and pink grapefruit juice because it was suppai and bought an epilator by braun (since mine isn't working in japan) at the reduced priced of approx. €20 which is quite cheap for such a thing. smooth skin again! aah, the little pleasures in a girl's life!

this evening i did 留守番 rusuban (house-sitting) with my host brother. when we had dinner earlier (btw we had sukiyaki, a yummy nabe dish), the kids told me that they wanna play (board) games with me later so when okâsan and my host sister returned from her ballet class, we had a fun game night. i always lost but i'm happy to see that they're losing their shyness little by little. also yesterday i was sitting in my room doing homework when they both appeared at my doorstep, grinning like cheshire cats. they gave me a bowl of matcha icecream and ran away giggling cheerfully. so cute. the one thing that always makes them happy is the fact that i'm a sucker for green tea like themselves.

i'm resigning to the fact that they often still ignore me because they're too busy watching tv or something. speaking of which, japanese tv is crazy. &who would have thought that a tv show about a couple of men dressed up as women standing in front of a table with miscellaneous items who have to guess if an item is worth 100¥ or more could be that entertaining!?

my hands are bananas!

another lousy day at university. our teacher's shrill voice gave me a severe headache again (julian's "scale of sonic death" gives you an idea of how much her voice actually hurts) and i don't even wanna start ranting about those chinese students. i just hate that language and communication's not really going too well between germans and chinese. at least the things we are learning in class (set phrases for example) are quite useful methinks.

we had classes till noon. anastasia and me ate "kitsune udon" at the university's cafeteria and got some sweets at the convini afterwards. i really really like the food here, especially udon and soba but also the chocolate and everything with green tea in it. it's strange because the last time i was in japan, i really had a problem with the food here. only after a few days everything tasted like algae to me which is why i brought half a bag full of german food with me this time but until now, i'm fine and enjoy the food. i just miss "suppai" (sour) stuff like lemons and the first week i really graved for haribo gummi bears. it's also a bit annoying that most of those 飲物自動販売機 nomimonojidôhanbaiki (soft drink vending machines) don't have clear water but all that sticky sugary drinks.

after lunch we all went to the cultural center of Tsu and attended a tea ceremony. afterwards we visited the library there. i went to the children's corner and found some english beatrix potter books and read the adventures of peter the rabbit and his friends.

the man in the wilderness said to me,
how many strawberries grow in the sea?
i answered him as i thought good:
as many red herrings as grow in the wood.

- the tale of squirrel nutkin

chûhai & burgers.

the day started off awkwardly with my host family. our relationsship is getting better but i still don't feel really comfortable around them, especially the kids can be very repellent. like this morning, when i loudly chanted "ohayô gozaimassssu" ("good morning") but they just ignored me. things like that often upset me.

since language classes started today, we first had a reception in the morning and had to introduce ourselves in front of everybody. unfortunately, they obviously only told the chinese students about it so most of them had prepared some fancy self-introduction and we german students just mumbled "yoroshiku onegaishimasu" and sat back on our chairs. we then had this placement test and i really screwed up, especially the listening comprehension, and ended up in the loser's class. well see, it isn't as bad as it sounds.

after the test there was a delicious buffet und we were put together in groups each with a german and a chinese student plus a japanese student as their adviser. my adviser is a very lively girl called naoko. she is the first japanese person here i could really get along well with. of course i really liked our tandem partners but naoko is always happy, always chattering and thus encouraging me to speak as much as possible in japanese as well. i didn't feel awkward around her when i talked in japanese like i do feel around everyone else...

after the buffet, we already had our first lesson. unfortunately, our teacher has such a shrill voice and annoying intonation, that i actually got a headache. then, just when i was sulking and distracted for a second, she asked me to stand in front of the class and let me introduce myself in japanese. i was completely caught off guard and could barely utter a word. that really sucked.

after university i was so frustrated i went shopping at uniqlo and saty, then bought some chûhai and a grilled chicken burger from mcdo, sat down at the river on my way home and just sat there till i had to go home.

lucanus cervus.

just a quick update. we're on a tight schedule and i almost can't find the time to write here. at least i've finally uploaded some pictures over at my picasa webalbum. so far it's only the pictures from osaka but i'll add the ones from tsu maybe this weekend.

the lessons at university are ok, the weather's still unbearable though and the permanent change between the hot/sticky outside and freezing cold inside of buildings/stores/restaurants is quite exhausting and i feel like i'm finally coming down with a sore throat.

the relationship to my host family is getting better day after day. yesterday we went to eat ramen at a restaurant (i had never eaten ramen and i didn't really like it either). on the way to the restaurant i made my first little joke everyone laughed about and also, the boy talked to my directly for the first time. also, i had quite a chat with my okâsan this morning at breakfast and this evening, her, the kids and me played some cute game on nintendo ds together. it sounds strange but it's those little things that make me feel better. i'm not much of a chatty person anyway and i still have to get used to the fact that they're so much different from my other host family.

in japan, they eat a LOT. i'm just happy that i started eating again properly a few weeks ago otherwise i couldn't keep up with all the food at all! all those side dishes and the sugar-filled drinks you get every few hours for 100¥ because of the heat and those tasty green tea chocolates and pocky they all already made me gain a few pounds! and i've only been here for a week!!!

which is why i especially like the fact that i'm going to university by bike. julian and me (since he is practically my neighbour we go there together) have to ride for about 20 minutes through rice fields every morning. tsu is quite a grim place, all grey and bleak, but those residential areas we ride through every morning are quite beautiful with old houses and those typical japanese blue roofs and pines in their gardens.

tomorrow we're going camping for three days in..."green park"?...or...whatever, where we have lessons and have to cook german dishes for our tandem partners amongst other things. we decided to make "schwäbischer kartoffelsalat&würstchen" and chocolate cake. i'm all on edge because i never made kartoffelsalat and cooking for over 20 people is difficult anyway. at least we're doing karaoke again in the evening.

yesterday i had my first real karaoke experience and it was so much fun. first i didn't dare singing alone and sang fun stuff like "barbie girl" by aqua with saskia but then i dared to got for it alone. they didn't have songs by tori amos so i mostly sang weird stuff like "it's oh so quiet" by björk, "wuthering heights" by kate bush (omg! ^^) but also "don't speak" by no doubt for example. also, isabella sang "supermassive black hole" by muse which was pretty cool! i can't get that song out of my head since.

by the way, hobbes found some new friends: belle & genie. i'll post a picture soon. well, that was more than just a quick update but now i've gotta go get some sleep.


ps: what's the deal with all those stag beetles here in japan? like they wanna piss me off on purpose or something, y'know? like it wasn't hard enough already...stupid.

realization.

this morning i had the last exam for this term. i still got papers to write but i'll deal with those after my trip. anyway, i'm relieved the learning stress is over for now and i'm gradually starting to realize that i'm going to japan for almost 2 months!

i've never been away from home for that long and my longest stay at a guest family was 3 weeks. i got a letter from my host family in tsu today which lifted my spirits because they have two little children (you gotta love japanese kids!) and sound very nice and i'm looking forward to meet them.

nevertheless i must say, the whole thing's frightening me a bit but i'm also excited. i really need some time off of germany and especially tübingen anyway. i'm sure there'll be plenty stuff to take pictures of and maybe i'll even start drawing again!? i wish i already had some kind of crazy art project in my mind for japan. i really miss the art in my life.