Karaoke, ikebana & yukitsuri

Well, I suppose 3 main things to really sum up the past couple of weeks! Firstly, on Hallowe'en we went to karaoke! It was my friend Nae's birthday & loads of people went so it was really fun ^_^ We even managed to sing Through The Fire & The Flames this time round!
Since then, I've mostly just been doing the same thing i.e. Japanese classes, karate, jodo, taiko so not so bad really! Also, our university had a festival recently & they had some really awesome taiko performances which was cool :) I also got some random gashapon (coin-operated toy vending machines) stuff & I won an Elmo stuffed toy on a UFO catcher hehe.
Last Tuesday in our cultural experiences classes we did ikebana (flower arranging) which was actually quite good as we got to go into the woods & collect all our own stuff & then arranged it "free style" :) You can see mine here though some of the other creations were much cooler but hey...
Hmm, other than that, last Saturday evening I went to Kenrokuen again, but this time with my friends Kym & Petteri & Kym's host mother. It was open especially at night so it was really pretty & there was also an ocarina concert. Plus recently there was something set up called yukitsuri, which is basically where the trees are supported by bamboo poles to help when there's lots of snow which happens a lot in Kanazawa it seems.
Anyway, I'm gonna head off now but will hopefully have something new & exciting to write about soon :P Ooh, just incidentally, it started snowing yesterday though so far it's mostly just been hailing or slushy. Might improve soon, you never know. Bye for now! Charlotte ^_^

Almost A Month In Japan!

Sorry I haven't updated this in ages, have been pretty busy! Ah well. Still haven't found too much Japanese food to eat other than yakiniku but hey it's not so bad to eat Western food some of the time! At any rate, I've discovered at least that I really don't like gyoza, nikuman or sanma & I'm going with the basis of "at least I tried it" for now :P

Food aside, it's quite interesting being here, classes are quite good & my kanji is improving which is great! I've also had a few lessons of karate & jodo now which is great, already getting more flexible! Haven't exactly done regular exercise for the past couple of years other than walking everywhere in Sheffield & whatnot so it's all good!
Have also been out a couple of times at the weekend which has been fun. A couple of weeks ago I went to the beach with some friends. It was quite far away so we had to get a bus to the station & then a train from there! But it was a nice day out & sunny which was great! Then the weekend just gone there was a bus trip to Kamikouchi which is a mountainous highland in Nagano prefecture, and we walked round there for a few hours. It was really pretty but very cold! We also stopped off in Takayama in Gifu prefecture for some dinner though my friends went to a soba restaurant so I didn't really eat much!

So yeah, all's still good though of course I miss talking to people & the time difference makes it pretty difficult! But I have lots of studying to keep me occupied, for example about 10 sides of kanji homework to hand in by Friday! Though Friday evening should be fun as I think we're going to taiko then after that to karaoke for Hallowe'en :)
Hope everyone's ok & hopefully hear from you soon! Charlotte x~x

Kanazawa Week 1

Well, it's been nearly a week since I first arrived in Kanazawa, Japan! So I thought I really ought to update this, seeing as the last time was about a month or so ago... Whoops :S Anyway, yes I'm here & I'm alive & whatnot & I've found something to eat at least! It took some time getting here though, even after getting to Heathrow, it was nearly 7 hours plane journey to Dubai & after the wait there it was about 9 & a half hours to Kansai, then a 5 hour bus journey to Kanazawa! But despite all that it's been quite a good first week :)
There's a small group of us who've been going round together which is nice, even if we are all from the UK & Ireland! But we've only been here a week & there aren't many Japanese people in the international hall...
We've already been to karaoke a couple of times which is quite fun, I've been able to sing Sonata Arctica, Turisas, Iron Maiden & System of a Down for example. They even had Korpiklaani! But I didn't really know how that song went... They have this thing at karaoke bars called "nomihodai" where you pay a set price & get as many drinks as you want for 2 hours, which is quite weird! But actually for me it's more expensive to get it as a couple of Cokes would usually cost much less than the set price.

The other day we went to Kenrokuen which is apparently quite a famous garden in Japan - it was really pretty & had lots of koi & water features :) I think we might try to go with each season as it should change a lot! We've also been into town a couple of times & we went to an okonomiyaki restaurant where you are given uncooked ingredients & you cook your food on the table. A couple of people likened it to a Japanese style pizza, except the toppings are inside the resulting "okonomiyaki". To be honest, it might be better if you google it as I'm not very good at describing things XD

Well, I have my first class tomorrow from 8.45am! Apparently our classes last an hour, where an hour is 90 minutes... So fun start to the day! Nah, hopefully it should be good. We had a placement test on Monday & my grade is C1, where the grades range from A to F but only C has C1 & C2! Anyway I'm really hoping to get moved up to C2 but we'll see how it goes :) I'm going to head off to bed now but I'll try & write some more on here soon. I need to do a Japanese version of this blog too so that might be a bit harder!
Hope you're all ok & please keep in touch! Would be cool to get some e-mails & whatnot, hear how everyone's doing :) Have fun! Charlotte/Koumori/Ryuu :)

T-25 days to Heathrow

Well, here we go. Nagai-sensei, my Japanese teacher, recommended we keep a "blog" whilst we're in Japan so I shall make some effort towards doing so ^_^ I think we may be meant to write in Japanese, so I'll try & confirm that soon, but if that's the case, I'll be posting translations too for the large number of people who, strangely enough, think what I write looks like a lot of squiggles. Often I do too... :P
In so far as packing is concerned, I've made a list of stuff to take, which is better than not having done anything obviously. Yay for progress! I've also attempted to learn or at least write down some kanji in preparation for going back to classes & whatnot, kanji being the pretty looking symbols. I'm not really appreciating the fact that I'll probably have to buy a new suitcase in order to bring back all the random stuff I decide to buy just because it's Japanese but it's fairly inevitable. I thought it would also be a good idea to try & think of some goals. Obviously there are academic ones, for example: Learn Japanese. So far I also have the following random ones:
a) Find a Kisuke Urahara (of Bleach manga fame) costume & dress up as him, possibly to class... We'll see...
b) Document, via photos or purchase of item, some silly Engrish things e.g. T-shirts/signs. See engrish.com if you have no idea what I'm on about :)
Anyways, 25 days to go till Japan, about 20 of which will be spent in the Field of Shef, joyful place that it is, doing TSC-related stuff cos I'm just that cool. [subliminalmessage]Join TSC![/subliminalmessage] If you're not in Sheffield before September 26th I probs won't see you before I go to Japan but please keep in touch O random person reading this. If you don't know my e-mail, then please leave your (name/e-mail/personal information you are willing to give me) by clicking the comment thing. If you can... You may need an account :P
To sum up, in a very bad conclusion as I'm going to include new information (shock horror!):
1. I'm going to Kanazawa University from October 2008 - August 2009.
2. Please keep in touch! I will try & keep this up to date & will probs put photos on Facebook.
3. If you're in Sheffield between September 9th-25th, let's meet up ^_^
4. Packing for a year is proving difficult.
Love Charlotte/Koumori/Ryuu or whatever you want to call me ^_^