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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