Where to start. First two weeks I had to go without an internet connection so things have piled up quite a bit. Still no culture shock, other than how difficult setting up an internet connection can be (these people still use modems??!?). I'm affraid I'll get fat because there are too many yummy breads to eat but finding a good salad is really difficult. The Japanese throw cabbage into every dish though. EVERY SINGLE ONE. And if you go to the supermarket and look for ready-made salads, they looks real nice and all, and then you turn the plastic container upsaid down and you find that under the pretty toppings, there's just loads and loads of cabbage beneath it all. You ordered a soup? Let's throw some shredded cabbage on it. I'm already starting to hate cabbage, though it still manages to amuse me, finding cabbage from more and more surprising places. Maybe it's just a Nagoya area specialty?
School
I was prepared to have super long school days starting from early morning and lasting until evening, but we got it easy. I got to choose whichecer courses I wanted to take without having to worry about the different departments. Well, the language limits it a bit, since most of the teachers don't know any English and I only know the basics of Japanese. So, a normal school day would start at 13:20 and finish at 16:30. I'd usually go early to eat at school before the classes. Mondays and Tuesdays I have Japanese painting, Wednesdays are for animation, Thursdays for oil painting and Fridays for Jewelry design. On top of these I joined a volleyball club, that'll be on Mondays and Thursdays. I got zero talent in ball games whatsoever, but gotta do something or all the eating is bound to start showing somewhere... >_> The Japanese painting course is finishing after the next week, and then I'll be taking manga & illustration classes in its place! ^0^) They'll be all in (advanced level?)Japanese, so gotta brush it up a bit.
Places
The apartment the university had arranged is really nice, altough it did lack some necesities upon my arrival. But I'm bossy enough to demand for stuff, so now I'm living nice and cozy. I think the Japanese are probably not used to someone being so straight-forward and relentless... If next year they're not accepting any Finnish exchange students, you'll know who to blame! The town I'm living in, called Kozoji, is really peaceful and tiny, but it's not difficult getting to the bigger cities thanks to the amazingly convenient local train system. Nagoya is about 30 mins away, and along the way there's multiple cities, each of them bigger than the next one. The prefecture is called Aichi, and Kozoji is a distric of Kasugai, or so I've unerstood. We've got a free private bus that we can take to get to the school in Komaki (also a part of Kasugai). The above photo is from Sakae, a district in Nagoya well known for the Oasis 21 bus terminal & Nagoya TV tower.
People
I had thought that Japanese in general don't like foreigners all that much, but my experiences so far show the exact opposite. It could be that they're just incredibly polite, but wherever I've gone I've felt welcome. Especially at the school, I feel like the techers and other staff are more excited of my being there than I am! :-D If I go to ask where is a certain course held, not do I only get an answer, but someone will walk me to the class, inroduce me to the teacher and, as one of my favorite staff personel did, stay in class to translate the whole lecture for us. Most of the other students can't speak any English, but if I greet them in Japanese, I'm never ignored. I'll have to try improving my Japanese to be able to communicate with them more. The people must be one of the coolest things here. It's amazing that in a place where there's so many people per squre meter, things can run so smoothly. There's no showing or pushing in the lines or the train, no one trying to cut in. It's so peaceful. Kinda like they're all under some medication.
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Anninninni (Sunday, 17 April 2016 17:18)
Kurssivalinnat kuulostaa tosi hyviltä! Et sinä halua mitään muuta tehdä kun olla koulussa x)
Iskä (Saturday, 09 July 2016 10:22)
Juttu loppuu, tuleeko tähän vielä jatkoa?