BREAKING NEWS
Nothing is happening that is worth reporting!
Just what the fuck just happened?
So I had decided this week to visit the Kiyumizu-dera Temple on saturday despite how hungover I was. So I went there just to take a few pictures of it with my new cameraphone wich can actually take pretty decent pictures. Well there I walked around and shot a few, got stopped by random strangers who wanted me to take a picture of them or wanted to be in a picture with me. If I were a bit more genki I might have enjoyed it some more but that is the price for an awesome night out.
But my story for you today had almost nothing to do with the temple except for the fact that it was the place where it all happened. Minding my own business I felt someone grab ahold of my pants. Looking down I saw a boy, maby 6 years old, almost at the verge of crying. As I'm somewhat of an expert in japanese I asked him what was wrong. His answer... Well.. I managed to hear "Oneesan" so I asked if he could see her anywhere (since I have no idea how to say "are you lost" or anything that is actually usefull). He said he couldn't and alot more that I could barely understand or even hear. I proceeded to question him in how she looked and yet again I could not understand anything but "brown hair". Well awesome, search for a girl at the most visited temple in kyoto that has brown hair. This will be easy. But like a gift from God a girl came down some stairs and shouted the little boys name (I assume). His little face lit up with happiness when they saw each other and I was happy I didn't have to search for her myself.
Why this boy chose me who don't even look like I might know japanese I have no idea but I'm glad he found his sister and she was happy to find him aswell. She even gave me a hug!
Crazy stuff is happening everytime I leave my appartment... Well almost anyway.
But my story for you today had almost nothing to do with the temple except for the fact that it was the place where it all happened. Minding my own business I felt someone grab ahold of my pants. Looking down I saw a boy, maby 6 years old, almost at the verge of crying. As I'm somewhat of an expert in japanese I asked him what was wrong. His answer... Well.. I managed to hear "Oneesan" so I asked if he could see her anywhere (since I have no idea how to say "are you lost" or anything that is actually usefull). He said he couldn't and alot more that I could barely understand or even hear. I proceeded to question him in how she looked and yet again I could not understand anything but "brown hair". Well awesome, search for a girl at the most visited temple in kyoto that has brown hair. This will be easy. But like a gift from God a girl came down some stairs and shouted the little boys name (I assume). His little face lit up with happiness when they saw each other and I was happy I didn't have to search for her myself.
Why this boy chose me who don't even look like I might know japanese I have no idea but I'm glad he found his sister and she was happy to find him aswell. She even gave me a hug!
Crazy stuff is happening everytime I leave my appartment... Well almost anyway.
Hisashiburi
Long time since any update. But that's cool since I am updating it now! Regular days are not fit to be written about but yesterday was made of pure win and awesome. Grease bar was the place where this took place. A bar wich had ￥3000 entrance fee. Pretty god damn high am I right?
Then what do you know... Awesome live music in the form of asians singing Elvis and they were dressed like him aswell. Awesome free drinks that were free for anyone. I, of course, drank around 10 of those in addition of a couple of beers so I will have to say that I might have earned back my entrance fee. I learned from Anders girlfriend and her sister that green apple sometimes translates into japanese as blue apple wich confused me greatly, I mean... Thats not even remotely logical. Awell they were free and delicious so who am I to question them. They can call them whatever they feel like as long as they are tasty. And free.
After the bar we went of course to karaoke where we met the team from the westerncoast. At this point we had lost some people on the way such as both of the Anders' and all of the girls but Hanna. But that did not matter beacuse that night, we were gonna have ourselves a real good time. We felt ali-i-ive and the world we turned it inside out yeah. Floted araound in ecstasy.
Anywho in conclusion. An epic hangover is the indication of an epic evening the previous night.
Due to crappy person behind the camera I have no pictures of the night to post. Too bad for you! But I do have a picute of my bracelets of awesome
Then what do you know... Awesome live music in the form of asians singing Elvis and they were dressed like him aswell. Awesome free drinks that were free for anyone. I, of course, drank around 10 of those in addition of a couple of beers so I will have to say that I might have earned back my entrance fee. I learned from Anders girlfriend and her sister that green apple sometimes translates into japanese as blue apple wich confused me greatly, I mean... Thats not even remotely logical. Awell they were free and delicious so who am I to question them. They can call them whatever they feel like as long as they are tasty. And free.
After the bar we went of course to karaoke where we met the team from the westerncoast. At this point we had lost some people on the way such as both of the Anders' and all of the girls but Hanna. But that did not matter beacuse that night, we were gonna have ourselves a real good time. We felt ali-i-ive and the world we turned it inside out yeah. Floted araound in ecstasy.
Anywho in conclusion. An epic hangover is the indication of an epic evening the previous night.
Due to crappy person behind the camera I have no pictures of the night to post. Too bad for you! But I do have a picute of my bracelets of awesome
Lazy saturday
From time to time it's nice to just take a slow day. Snoozed off most of the morning and sat by the computer with minimal movement until about 1 o'clock. By that time I decided I had to do atleast something so I decided to go down to Teramachi and do a little windowshopping. I am however going back there tomorrow beacuse alot of stores have crazy discounts on sundays. On my way there I took the way by the river and I saw some sort of otter along with the usual hundreds of birds. And quite few of the eagle/falcon like predatory birds. But the elusive bastards are to hard for me to take a decent picture...
At the store I fell in love with a sweater but it might have been a bit expensive so I'm going to have to think about it until tomorrow. However my weak mind did not let me leave without buying anything so I got a tshirt and sweater combo for 3000yen. A reasonable price.
Now I have just eaten (ramen noodles, chicken, carrots, babycorn all in a garlic/chili sauce) and I am seriously thinking of a powernap. We'll see about that.
At the store I fell in love with a sweater but it might have been a bit expensive so I'm going to have to think about it until tomorrow. However my weak mind did not let me leave without buying anything so I got a tshirt and sweater combo for 3000yen. A reasonable price.
Now I have just eaten (ramen noodles, chicken, carrots, babycorn all in a garlic/chili sauce) and I am seriously thinking of a powernap. We'll see about that.
Watashi no Sensei wa
My teachers rocks. All of them must think that we swedes are a bunch of alcoholics since every morning they ask what we did last night and more often than not we say that we went to a bar or karaoke and drank alot of beer. (Due to major confusion I must point out that we just say we go to these places, not that we actually do... Well mostly)With that being said I will say a few words about everybody, beginning with Kurita Sensei.
Kurita sensei, 栗田, is pretty much the average teacher with just a dash of malice. He is tough but fair and tries to set traps for us when he asks something. He has a quite unique method of teaching wich involves us having wrong and then correcting us. We sure as hell learn to say right from it since nobody likes being wrong infront of the class. He is the teacher I like the least but that does not mean I dislike him. He is awesome. He is also the teacher who can speak the most english so he is the one we ask when we have questions about grammar and particle bits in how to build sentences.
Saito sensei, has a too complicated kanji for this computer... She is like the "kind mother teacher"-type. Makes sure that everybody understands and if they don't she tries in broken english to explain. She is the teacher who teaches us hiragana and katakana so naturally she is the one we have the most quizes with. But that is nothing negative as we all like her anyway. She is also the teacher who has thought me the most kanji and that is something I value since kanji is made of win and awesome. I can even spell my own name now thanks to her and it means "Break bird forever". Quite awesome indeed.
Ookawachi sensei, 大河内. The cute student who is our teacher on mondays and thursdays. She knows almost no english so if anyone is lost we have to help him or her the best we can since Ookawachi does not quite understand what we mean. This migh be beacuse of inexperience or just beacuse of her inability to understand english but that does not stop her from teaching us truckloads of japanese every time we have her. She has quite uniqe methods of teaching such as we draw a picture and describe it and so on. It might seem a bit weird but you sure learn what you are supposed to be learning.
Last but certanly not least we have Kubota sensei, 久保田. "Genki som fan" is a very nice description of her since she is always really happy. And by really happy I mean really happy. She comes in like a ray of light and fills our day with sunshine. She is the teacher I like the most and the "well it's okay if you don't understand the first time"-kind of teacher. We have her and Ookawachi on thursdays making them the best weekday for me since they are the funniest and of course the cutest teachers. Kubota can also take a joke and her method of teaching in the beginning was taking our books and pens just to make us ask for them. She got the nickname "dorobo" sensei, meaning thief teacher, and everytime someone mentions it she smiles and says "dorobo ja arimasen", I'm not a thief. We share our laughs and today when I said I was the best cook in japan she jokingly invited herself over for dinner. She also says that she is 20 years old (but she is like 34) and to be honest, she almost looks like she could be that young.
Sorry about crappy pictures but there was some junk behind the camera when they were taken (me that is)
Cheers
Kurita sensei, 栗田, is pretty much the average teacher with just a dash of malice. He is tough but fair and tries to set traps for us when he asks something. He has a quite unique method of teaching wich involves us having wrong and then correcting us. We sure as hell learn to say right from it since nobody likes being wrong infront of the class. He is the teacher I like the least but that does not mean I dislike him. He is awesome. He is also the teacher who can speak the most english so he is the one we ask when we have questions about grammar and particle bits in how to build sentences.
Saito sensei, has a too complicated kanji for this computer... She is like the "kind mother teacher"-type. Makes sure that everybody understands and if they don't she tries in broken english to explain. She is the teacher who teaches us hiragana and katakana so naturally she is the one we have the most quizes with. But that is nothing negative as we all like her anyway. She is also the teacher who has thought me the most kanji and that is something I value since kanji is made of win and awesome. I can even spell my own name now thanks to her and it means "Break bird forever". Quite awesome indeed.
Ookawachi sensei, 大河内. The cute student who is our teacher on mondays and thursdays. She knows almost no english so if anyone is lost we have to help him or her the best we can since Ookawachi does not quite understand what we mean. This migh be beacuse of inexperience or just beacuse of her inability to understand english but that does not stop her from teaching us truckloads of japanese every time we have her. She has quite uniqe methods of teaching such as we draw a picture and describe it and so on. It might seem a bit weird but you sure learn what you are supposed to be learning.
Last but certanly not least we have Kubota sensei, 久保田. "Genki som fan" is a very nice description of her since she is always really happy. And by really happy I mean really happy. She comes in like a ray of light and fills our day with sunshine. She is the teacher I like the most and the "well it's okay if you don't understand the first time"-kind of teacher. We have her and Ookawachi on thursdays making them the best weekday for me since they are the funniest and of course the cutest teachers. Kubota can also take a joke and her method of teaching in the beginning was taking our books and pens just to make us ask for them. She got the nickname "dorobo" sensei, meaning thief teacher, and everytime someone mentions it she smiles and says "dorobo ja arimasen", I'm not a thief. We share our laughs and today when I said I was the best cook in japan she jokingly invited herself over for dinner. She also says that she is 20 years old (but she is like 34) and to be honest, she almost looks like she could be that young.
Sorry about crappy pictures but there was some junk behind the camera when they were taken (me that is)
Cheers
Hiking
In the woods! Run to the hills and all that. It was a sight to remember and thank god I got a new camera so I could share at least some of the fantastic scenery of the japanese autumn. But the real beauty could never be caught on a simple camera, you have to experience it by yourself. We went out early on our day off (thank god for japanese holidays) with our teachers Kubota sensei and Kurita sensei. A very cold morning, and by cold I mean freeze your ass off. But as soon as we started climbing to the summit we forgot about the biting cold and were just awed by the magnificent wilds and temple buildings. Kubota sensei was our tour guide and tried to explain how stuff worked but only the seniors could understand since she (like almost everybody else) is quite bad at english. Thank god for Anders or "Ank-pappan" for his translation work, now and in the future.
I have posted all of the pictures from the trip on facebook so if you want more then there's the place to go.
I have posted all of the pictures from the trip on facebook so if you want more then there's the place to go.
Halloween
Yesterday was halloween. The time of the year when you dress up, drink absurd quantities of alcohol and "scare people". It was epic. I will give the night 5/5 as every sense was pleased with the experience. Why? Well let me tell you that my friend.
Grade 1: Friends. Friends always makes everything better. Even if I lost track of them when we hit the bar they still enhanced the experience. We were 21 all in all when we gathered up. All in freshly bought costumes and quite a few beers in our systems. We had quite the party aswell. Death, panda-kun, like 7 power rangers, mickey mouse, pikachu, a dinosaur, cat, a genie, a guy dressed as a girl to match another member of our group and many more. With this many awesome people you know the night will be epic in every aspect.
Grade 2: Karaoke. This is the standard here and if you have read any previous post then you might know that we are there like every week. Today we tried to find themesongs to everyone. I, death, wanted to sing (don't) fear the reaper by Blue Oyster Cult but they did not have it. Still awesome however. You could almost not even leave the rooms without someone yelling "shinigami sama, shashin onegaishimasu" (death, can I take a picture please). Being the center of attention? Feels good man.
As we were quite a big party we divided up in 3 rooms with 7 in each. My room were of course the best and we sang our hearts out! If you ever visit Japan then karaoke is mandatory.
Grade 3. Crazy japs. We could not walk 10 metres without anyone saying "sugoi, kawaii, kakoi" or anything in that order. We were also stopped several times beacuse people wanted to take our pictures. And then take another picture in another pose. And then take another picture with another camera. But I can't say that I didn't enjoy it. Also the guy in yellow is a tiger but everybody though he was pikachu and yelled it after him the whole evening. Thinking back at it now we must have looked like quite a team when we came walking down the streets in our outfits. The closer the bar we got however the more people had costumes but in the outskirts of downtown people were amazed to see us.
Grade 4. The bar. It was a magical place called "World". Where the women were drunk and the outfits were skimpy. And of course, where the shit was happening. Three floors and several bars and people in costumes as far as the eye could see. You had a choice between the chill bar at the top, the dance floor at the bottom and anything in between. I myself stayed most of my time in the "Red Bar" wich was quite awesome despite being quite loud. I also got the chance to talk to alot of japanese there and when you are drunk you are a master in any language you attempt. Well... They sometimes understood me at least. I also met several who could speak english fairly well so that was a plus. I even lost all of my friends but that's fine beacuse the frriendly people there kept me company.
Grade 5, the sign of sheer awesome. Girls girls girls. Everywhere. I have nothing more to say than that. I will let the pictures to the talking (will probobly upload more on facebook)
Grade 1: Friends. Friends always makes everything better. Even if I lost track of them when we hit the bar they still enhanced the experience. We were 21 all in all when we gathered up. All in freshly bought costumes and quite a few beers in our systems. We had quite the party aswell. Death, panda-kun, like 7 power rangers, mickey mouse, pikachu, a dinosaur, cat, a genie, a guy dressed as a girl to match another member of our group and many more. With this many awesome people you know the night will be epic in every aspect.
Grade 2: Karaoke. This is the standard here and if you have read any previous post then you might know that we are there like every week. Today we tried to find themesongs to everyone. I, death, wanted to sing (don't) fear the reaper by Blue Oyster Cult but they did not have it. Still awesome however. You could almost not even leave the rooms without someone yelling "shinigami sama, shashin onegaishimasu" (death, can I take a picture please). Being the center of attention? Feels good man.
As we were quite a big party we divided up in 3 rooms with 7 in each. My room were of course the best and we sang our hearts out! If you ever visit Japan then karaoke is mandatory.
Grade 3. Crazy japs. We could not walk 10 metres without anyone saying "sugoi, kawaii, kakoi" or anything in that order. We were also stopped several times beacuse people wanted to take our pictures. And then take another picture in another pose. And then take another picture with another camera. But I can't say that I didn't enjoy it. Also the guy in yellow is a tiger but everybody though he was pikachu and yelled it after him the whole evening. Thinking back at it now we must have looked like quite a team when we came walking down the streets in our outfits. The closer the bar we got however the more people had costumes but in the outskirts of downtown people were amazed to see us.
Grade 4. The bar. It was a magical place called "World". Where the women were drunk and the outfits were skimpy. And of course, where the shit was happening. Three floors and several bars and people in costumes as far as the eye could see. You had a choice between the chill bar at the top, the dance floor at the bottom and anything in between. I myself stayed most of my time in the "Red Bar" wich was quite awesome despite being quite loud. I also got the chance to talk to alot of japanese there and when you are drunk you are a master in any language you attempt. Well... They sometimes understood me at least. I also met several who could speak english fairly well so that was a plus. I even lost all of my friends but that's fine beacuse the frriendly people there kept me company.
Grade 5, the sign of sheer awesome. Girls girls girls. Everywhere. I have nothing more to say than that. I will let the pictures to the talking (will probobly upload more on facebook)
