November the 13th Obama started his trip to Asia in Japan, giving his speech in Tokyo´s Suntory Hall.
Here´s one optimist who believes we might actually start changing the way we communicate, do business and I really do see better times up ahead. About time, as well, after these last few years. It won´t come easy or quickly but in 2-3 years... at least I realize that being pessimistic won´t help anyone. So here´s to hoping and believing in a better future!
Went to some shrines yesterday with exchange students and tutors to see the leaves, as they have ceased to be green in honor of autumn. Such lovely colors, red, green, orange, brown... and during the night when they had lit up the temples and various parts of the rich foliage, it was quite breathtaking. I could only stare, point and give various exclamations of wonder and awe. It rained all throughout the day, from morning ´till around eleven p.m., which only helped to make the day more magical as the colors were more prominent, the night even darker and the sound of the rain hitting the roof, trees and ground was a very delicious cherry on top of a very good day.
Have put pictures on facebook, but in no way did they manage to capture the splendor of the day. Have a look anyway, why don´t you... :)
Today is a day of rest, I think it´s labor day, so I´m taking it easy and have a lot of studying to do for this week and the next.
Be good,
-Hildur
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Friday, November 20, 2009
I woke up this morning to the 20th of November. This was a very auspicious beginning to the day so I decided to have a good one. After skipping to class and trying to pay attention through sleep deprived eyelids I made my way slowly to the tutor lunch and watched in horror as my tutor did math in Japanese. As she fought a bitter war with the letters and numbers on her home assignment she told me about the plans the tutors have coming up the next weeks. This Sunday we will gather to watch the magnificent foliage of Kyoto´s temples, lit up and shining red, yellow, orange, green and several other variation of these colors. I think I feel a bit jealous of myself even...
Next weekend as a sign of peace between tutors and exchange students we will gather in the countryside and stay the night, playing sports, perhaps going to an onsen and just generally creating havoc.
Stepping out of the classroom into a three day weekend (yatta!), I went to greet Megumi who came to visit to see my campus but mostly getting help with a letter she wanted to send to Iceland. Me being very fluent in the language I think I was a tremendous help in this process. We spent a few good hours touring the campus and chatting at the school´s cafeteria. Today I found out she knows more about Scandinavia than I do, I don´t know what to think about that so I won´t.
The past few weeks passed with frightening speed. Every day is a new adventure and I, in my senility, am still remembering every so often that I´m now a proud inhabitant of Kyoto, Japan. I don´t think my brain will accept this for a fact until, oh say around the time I go back home. So much to do, so many things to explore, so little time.
School is going well, I´m still not fluent - going to give it a few more weeks - and have yet to put my plan to take over the main island into action, I´ve just been to busy. What is an evil overlord-to-be to do! Much to my personal dismay I haven´t joined .. well, anything yet but I have big plans!
It´s getting colder by the minute in Kyoto, and I swear the days are becoming increasingly shorter. As father Winter squeezes my bones tighter by the day I am reminded that it is soon time to celebrate the birth of Santa. I´ve always wanted to experience the festivities abroad but found out that they do it quite differently here half the planet away from home. In Japan, you see, Christmas is all about celebrating the coming of Colonel Sanders. On the 24th of December the Japanese gather around Kentucky Fried Chicken to comemorate this event, eating french fries and chicken and generally be merry. Should be interesting to see.
Oh, before I forget, I feel like I should mention one of my teachers at Kyoto Sandai.
I decided to take his class, a new one this semester, which is on Japan´s foreign diplomacy. At first we were psyched to learn that he is a real diplomat as he told us the first class of his work in Russia and years of study in England etc. As the weeks passed we learned that his father was Shigenori Togo, Japan´s foreign minister in the time of world war II, was sentenced as a war criminal for defending the International Military Tribunal for the Far East for 20 years and died shortly after. Originally from Korea, his family was abducted and brought to Japan, where they took the name Togo (formerly had the Korean name of Park). It´s just so surreal to have such an impressive teacher with such a rich family history and direct ties to the inner workings of the government at this time, every class he will say something like "oh, and on this picture you can see former prime minister Nakasone with Margaret Thacther and Reagan, actually I met him just yesterday, so nice to see him again.. "
"And next week the parliament will be calling me in to talk about ... so you might see me on television soon..." or even ".. and I haven´t even told the parliament this but... "
Best class ever.
Hope everything is well at home, I should leave you now to go to bed as I have to wake up around seven tomorrow. We are going to visit a school somewhere in Kyoto and introduce ourselves, our country and culture and receive introductions from the Japanese students in turn. Should be good fun. Early, but fun.
Bisoux,
-Hildur
Next weekend as a sign of peace between tutors and exchange students we will gather in the countryside and stay the night, playing sports, perhaps going to an onsen and just generally creating havoc.
Stepping out of the classroom into a three day weekend (yatta!), I went to greet Megumi who came to visit to see my campus but mostly getting help with a letter she wanted to send to Iceland. Me being very fluent in the language I think I was a tremendous help in this process. We spent a few good hours touring the campus and chatting at the school´s cafeteria. Today I found out she knows more about Scandinavia than I do, I don´t know what to think about that so I won´t.
The past few weeks passed with frightening speed. Every day is a new adventure and I, in my senility, am still remembering every so often that I´m now a proud inhabitant of Kyoto, Japan. I don´t think my brain will accept this for a fact until, oh say around the time I go back home. So much to do, so many things to explore, so little time.
School is going well, I´m still not fluent - going to give it a few more weeks - and have yet to put my plan to take over the main island into action, I´ve just been to busy. What is an evil overlord-to-be to do! Much to my personal dismay I haven´t joined .. well, anything yet but I have big plans!
It´s getting colder by the minute in Kyoto, and I swear the days are becoming increasingly shorter. As father Winter squeezes my bones tighter by the day I am reminded that it is soon time to celebrate the birth of Santa. I´ve always wanted to experience the festivities abroad but found out that they do it quite differently here half the planet away from home. In Japan, you see, Christmas is all about celebrating the coming of Colonel Sanders. On the 24th of December the Japanese gather around Kentucky Fried Chicken to comemorate this event, eating french fries and chicken and generally be merry. Should be interesting to see.
Oh, before I forget, I feel like I should mention one of my teachers at Kyoto Sandai.
I decided to take his class, a new one this semester, which is on Japan´s foreign diplomacy. At first we were psyched to learn that he is a real diplomat as he told us the first class of his work in Russia and years of study in England etc. As the weeks passed we learned that his father was Shigenori Togo, Japan´s foreign minister in the time of world war II, was sentenced as a war criminal for defending the International Military Tribunal for the Far East for 20 years and died shortly after. Originally from Korea, his family was abducted and brought to Japan, where they took the name Togo (formerly had the Korean name of Park). It´s just so surreal to have such an impressive teacher with such a rich family history and direct ties to the inner workings of the government at this time, every class he will say something like "oh, and on this picture you can see former prime minister Nakasone with Margaret Thacther and Reagan, actually I met him just yesterday, so nice to see him again.. "
"And next week the parliament will be calling me in to talk about ... so you might see me on television soon..." or even ".. and I haven´t even told the parliament this but... "
Best class ever.
Hope everything is well at home, I should leave you now to go to bed as I have to wake up around seven tomorrow. We are going to visit a school somewhere in Kyoto and introduce ourselves, our country and culture and receive introductions from the Japanese students in turn. Should be good fun. Early, but fun.
Bisoux,
-Hildur
Monday, November 9, 2009
Ahh, another beautiful day in sunny cloudy Kyoto. I have found my calling again in morning jogging, there is simply no greater feeling than waking up early to run down to kokusaikaikan (about 30 min) and up the subtle slope all the way back. Few exercises and stretches and I´m ready to take on the day!
Strolled over to the konbini (convenient store) and bought some breakfast before claiming my morning relaxation time which I use to connect with the world.
Last weekend was really nice, I did some shopping with Hanne (from Germany) and then we met up with Megumi (exchange student from Japan who was studying in Iceland last year) for dinner and karaoke! Am missing my special peeps to do FOB and P!at the disco with, you know who you are! Not to mention the classics such as Candy (yes, mandy moore :P) and Britney medleys. Ohh the good times :)
Sunday we went down to Sanjo to eat and met this crazy ojiisan (old man) coming out of the subway. He ambushed our unprepared selves and started asking where we came from and tell tales of the time he lived there. Seriously, I was pretty impressed when he said he´d lived in England and even more so when he started talking about his years in Germany and various other nearby countries but when my turn came to say where I was from I said "I bet you haven´t been to my home country". But when I told him I come from Iceland he immediately shouted "Reykjavík!" and my head nearly fell off!
This insanely well traveled man continued to talk about the English railway, Roman invasion and various other facts about Europe all the way to the restaurant where he said he had to hurry to get to church, as he was catholic. He seemed like the enigmatic white bunny of Alice in Wonderland as he ran off to get on with his life. Never cease to amaze me, the Japanese.
Yesterday I went over to Kansai Gaidai University to see Megumi again and "help" her with her presentation of Iceland, as they had an event at her school to try and encourage the students to study abroad. There were people there from Scandinavia, Morocco, somewhere in Africa, France, Spain, Mexico and more. I got to do a self introduction in Icelandic for the people there and help with some facts and icelandic words but Megumi really did an excellent job! She obviously took a lot from her time in Iceland and completely owned the stage, I just hope we will get some people from her school over to Háskóli Íslands, the program must go on! After the whole thing was over I scored 500 yen deposit in any bookstore in Japan, which is very cool.
Since I´ve been here I feel like I´ve started a completely different life so it´s very strange and extremely nice at the same time to be able to travel around and keep in touch with people from last year, really charges my batteries.
Oh gosh! Not to forget, spring vacation is nigh and what better way to spend in than traveling ´round Asia! We get two months off school sometime in February and every day I think of a new country I want to explore. At the top of my list so far is the trans-Siberian railway - can you imagine? I get a kind of life high just reading about it... starting in Moscow with tours of the city before heading off through Russia, stopping for hikes/rafting/horse riding/home-stay in a soviet style apartment/camping etc. The wonders on the way! Russia, Mongolia, China - complete with the chance to stay the night at a nomadic ger tent with the herdsmen of Bayangobi, ancient Mongolian settlements and epic! buddhist monasteries - just to name a few events. If anyone is interested in joining (not that I am expecting anyone to be free at the time... ) by all means be in touch! I will use the next months to mull it over, hopefully will have a travel plan soon.
That is it for today, walk slowly through the doors of joy and don´t stand on the duck if you can help it.
Will be back soon with another update of life in Japan, if you have any questions/comments/whatever just post it on my facebook and I will answer them here on the blog if they are reasonable enough.
Ta ta,
-Hirudouru
Strolled over to the konbini (convenient store) and bought some breakfast before claiming my morning relaxation time which I use to connect with the world.
Last weekend was really nice, I did some shopping with Hanne (from Germany) and then we met up with Megumi (exchange student from Japan who was studying in Iceland last year) for dinner and karaoke! Am missing my special peeps to do FOB and P!at the disco with, you know who you are! Not to mention the classics such as Candy (yes, mandy moore :P) and Britney medleys. Ohh the good times :)
Sunday we went down to Sanjo to eat and met this crazy ojiisan (old man) coming out of the subway. He ambushed our unprepared selves and started asking where we came from and tell tales of the time he lived there. Seriously, I was pretty impressed when he said he´d lived in England and even more so when he started talking about his years in Germany and various other nearby countries but when my turn came to say where I was from I said "I bet you haven´t been to my home country". But when I told him I come from Iceland he immediately shouted "Reykjavík!" and my head nearly fell off!
This insanely well traveled man continued to talk about the English railway, Roman invasion and various other facts about Europe all the way to the restaurant where he said he had to hurry to get to church, as he was catholic. He seemed like the enigmatic white bunny of Alice in Wonderland as he ran off to get on with his life. Never cease to amaze me, the Japanese.
Yesterday I went over to Kansai Gaidai University to see Megumi again and "help" her with her presentation of Iceland, as they had an event at her school to try and encourage the students to study abroad. There were people there from Scandinavia, Morocco, somewhere in Africa, France, Spain, Mexico and more. I got to do a self introduction in Icelandic for the people there and help with some facts and icelandic words but Megumi really did an excellent job! She obviously took a lot from her time in Iceland and completely owned the stage, I just hope we will get some people from her school over to Háskóli Íslands, the program must go on! After the whole thing was over I scored 500 yen deposit in any bookstore in Japan, which is very cool.
Since I´ve been here I feel like I´ve started a completely different life so it´s very strange and extremely nice at the same time to be able to travel around and keep in touch with people from last year, really charges my batteries.
Oh gosh! Not to forget, spring vacation is nigh and what better way to spend in than traveling ´round Asia! We get two months off school sometime in February and every day I think of a new country I want to explore. At the top of my list so far is the trans-Siberian railway - can you imagine? I get a kind of life high just reading about it... starting in Moscow with tours of the city before heading off through Russia, stopping for hikes/rafting/horse riding/home-stay in a soviet style apartment/camping etc. The wonders on the way! Russia, Mongolia, China - complete with the chance to stay the night at a nomadic ger tent with the herdsmen of Bayangobi, ancient Mongolian settlements and epic! buddhist monasteries - just to name a few events. If anyone is interested in joining (not that I am expecting anyone to be free at the time... ) by all means be in touch! I will use the next months to mull it over, hopefully will have a travel plan soon.
That is it for today, walk slowly through the doors of joy and don´t stand on the duck if you can help it.
Will be back soon with another update of life in Japan, if you have any questions/comments/whatever just post it on my facebook and I will answer them here on the blog if they are reasonable enough.
Ta ta,
-Hirudouru
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