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

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

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

I don´t think I have ever seen such a spectacular sight of multicolored leaves floating as gracefully to the ground as when I went to Kamigamo jinja today. Whenever the wind would blow ever so slightly stronger, the leaves let go of the branches and sailed down towards the already large heap of their friends on the ground. This reminded me that autumn will soon be upon us, but I guess I can´t complain since the weather here is still a million times better than the bitter cold and endless different types of snow that seems to be going on back home. I will finally get to experience four full seasons and am looking forward to witnessing the trees changing their wardrobe and Christmas halfway around the globe away from home.  ^^

In other news, life is good in Kyoto. I still haven´t fully come to realize that this building, this city, this country is mine for the next year or so (it´s amazing, I know.. ) but even so, I have begun to forget my daily routine back home and am trying to replace it with a good one here in the land of far far away.
My skin is the darkest it has been for ... well forever I think, and I am getting more and more Japanese by the minute, even though I still can´t remember when to say ohayou (good morning), konnichiwa (good day) or konbanwa (good evening). Went to the Kitagawa sensei´s office today and had a talk about how I am adjusting to life in Kyoto, the classes, the I-House (my dorm), the people, the language etc. I had no idea in what language this would take place but she started speaking Japanese and I just followed suit, not realizing until afterward that I had been speaking Japanese for about thirty minutes, and so I felt very good about my little self as I trotted back home.

I realized after I went in her office that I really had no complaints to speak of regarding life in Kyoto. Sure, I hate how nosy the office at the I-House is and how they make us do these random events (for example mandatory debate contest that I learned from Edda today that is not so mandatory at all!) and keep setting all these rules for us poor residents of the house (yeah, girls are in theory not allowed to enter a boy´s room and vice-versa) but it´s a small price to pay considering the very cheap rent. Also, drama tends to run high in the loony-bin as I affectionately call the dorm but again, nothing all too exciting and usually blows over in a day. Am still waiting for really juicy stuff to happen... maybe I should take matters into my own hands. ^^


Have been thinking about what to do after Japan but decided it was too soon so I took the course to stay blissfully ignorant for a few more months. Would really love to follow some people back home, Italy, South-America.... spend a few months before I have to do my B.A. thesis and find me some more studying to do.

In spite of cold, this evening has been pretty good. Uneventful for a change, but good. Me and Edda made epic dinner consisting of chicken which the lass cooks (that includes spices) to perfection, some vegetables, rice, potatoes and this awesome Japanese sesame dressing... sauce.. thing. And tomorrow we get a visit from Miss Swan ;) which I am looking forward to, so as to not completely become isolated from life back home. Yes, I know, I need to be on skype and msn more...

So, everyone.. miss you lots but am never intending to leave Japan. Sorry. There´s just nothing I can do about that. You´ll have to arrange trips every season to come share the wonders of this amazing country with me. :)
Hope this cold will leave me by tomorrow, I have a four day weekend coming up and am not intending on spending it in bed! Wish me luck!

Lots of love,
besos y abrazos,
-Hildur

Belated news

Hey everyone! Sorry for the late update, things have been crazy the last week or so.

Even now I am rather short on time. Woke up early this morning (7:45!) and went jogging with Katrin, a girl from Germany, for about an hour, had a quick shower and decided to have a wee breakfast before continuing my day. Am thinking of using the morning as best as I can and go to the very small mall nearby called Vivre (the japanese like to butcher languages such as English, Spanish and French) and do some shopping. I have lost four kilos since coming to Japan so I´m starting to need new pants...

Yesterday a big group from the I-House ventured into town to see Noh and Kyogen plays, which are traditional Japanese theater styles. Very different from what we are used to back home, I must say. First we had the Kyogen play, which is a kind of comedy, usually used to break up the Noh plays - because they can go on for hours and hours or even days! It only went on for about 20 minutes, which was a pity as it was very entertaing. The plot was that a man and his servant tried to steal a sword from a samurai but fail. They then decide to attack him and tie him up but while the man holds the samurai the servant has to start tying the rope before he can tie him up. So in the end the samurai gets away. The moral of the story is an old Japanese proverb that says not to wait to tie the rope until the ... well I forget. But anyway, you should always be prepared.

The Noh play was much more dramatic, the actors moved painstakingly slow across the floor (by the way, this is what the stage looked like) and talked in a singing voice, pronouncing every syllable very slowly and clearly. In spite of this, I think it´s hard for even the japanese people to understand what the Noh actors are saying. I understood most of the Kyogen play but completely got lost at the Noh one. The costumes were very beautiful and interesting, two of the characters (I think they were ghosts but you can never be too sure...) had traditional Noh masks which I have never before seen in real life, and the music was something we would never hear back home.
Afterwards we went out for hamburgers and ice cream... every day there is ice cream, those four kilos are gonna come back with a vengence soon enough!

As I had a lecture on Thursday and Friday I was extremely fatigued come Friday evening so I stayed at the I-House instead of going with the tutors to Shabu Shabu.
The Friday lecture was on Iceland, and all I can say is that I really hope what I said won´t appear on a test. :o  I didn´t prepare at all as I thought the teacher would do most of the teaching but he said something to me in japanese which I think I kind of understood and then proceeded to say "douzo!" (go ahead) and sat down at the back. So I was left standing there with 30 Japanese people looking at me expectantly, without a plan. I didn´t even know what language to speak so it was a jumble of English, Japanese and Icelandic with a touch of Danish and Swedish for examples of how similar the languages are. But I got into the spirit of it and ad-lipped some random information about Iceland and in the end I got so excited to teach about my countries strange customs and ways that I really enjoyed myself, especially when they referred to me as sensei (teacher). :)
They even offered me to come to dinner with them afterwards but I had already planned to take the night off so I took five minutes to apologize properly in Japanese and rush out and back home.
There is always so much going on here that I welcomed a quiet evening of eating ice cream (again!), watching a movie and going to bed early. I had to wake up early the next day as we had a class field trip to Mt. Hiei with our religion teacher.

Mt. Hiei came as a spiritual drop of honey for my thirsty soul. For pure accident we stumbled upon a ritual the monks for preforming in honor of the founder of the convent, Saicho. He is credited for creating the Tendai school of Buddhism which he brought with him from China. So we sat there for 15 minutes or so, listening to the chanting and I grabbed the opportunity to do some meditating with live monk music, which was just pure bliss. We walked around the grounds and saw just a few of the over 300 complexed located at the mountain. For example the buildings where the monks have to do rituals to be ordained to the rule. If I remember correctly they have three gruesome rituals to get through, for example walk around and around one of the buildings without sleep, for 90 days. They also must fast for a similar period of time etc. I guess you would have to be pretty darn sure this is what you want to be doing with your life...
At one point we met a monk that our teacher seemed to know and he proceeded to give us a small lecture on the hall we were standing in and offered us free drinks afterward. Such nice people, the Japanese. ^^   

As we only saw the west part I believe, a lot of us want to go back again later and take a better look at the rest of the grounds. It was quite a magical day, just walking in the forests, seeing all those statues, monks, rituals, chanting, rosaries, pagodas .... I´m looking forward to going again already.

That is all for now, I have to get going, carpe diem and all that!
Love, hugs and kisses to everyone, wherever you are! Want to fix the comment section so I can hear from you all, if anyone knows enough html to do that, contact me on facebook.
<3

The Kami are listening...

It´s good to know the Kami (gods) are listening.

Today we went to Kamiagamo jinja (shrine) to check out the Jyoba Matsuri, a kind of horse festival where these extremely talented riders rode their horses, shooting arrows at targets as they went. The sun was in a particularly good mood today, it felt so good sitting watching the performance, eating mochi and feeling the sun on my skin.

Before the event started we (me, Michael, his tutor Toshi and my tutor Nana) wandered into the shrine inself and bought some fortune slips. Having been quite lost recently, life-wise, I hardly dared pick out a fortune but decided to do so anyway. You would pay 200 yen, pick up this cylinder, shake it before turning it around and catching the first one to fall through a small hole on the bottom.
I collected my fortune and had Michael´s tutor translate it for me. Basically it kept repeating one of my favorite Japanese expression over and over again - gaman suru, which means to overbear things. So to speak, everything is really bad right now but I would just have to grit my teeth and get through it.

Feeling quite depressed about this outcome I quickly walked over to a nearby fence covered in papers neatly tied to the ropes and tied my prediction to it. This is commonly done in order for the Kami to either help you get rid of bad predictions or to make the good ones come true. After tying it tightly to the fence I turned around and walked up the steps to the shrine. The number five is considered lucky here so I threw in a five yen coin, bowed, clapped twice and said a prayer for a better fortune.

After the show was over I found a small stall where they were selling these small blue and red horses with fortunes in their mouths, usually bought during new years. I handed it again to Toshi, fingers crossed. This time though, he and another tutor who had joined us both gasped and shouted that this was the best one to get. Bright future, good circumstances, everything would work itself out.

Now, these are just pieces of words on a paper but they do give you the energy and optimism to take on the world, which it what I feel ready to do once again!


In other news, we went to Nijo castle yesterday, as the city of Kyoto invited us to an international student day located in the old castle´s garden. We met a lot of Japanese students as well as people from all over the world. Together we enjoyed various Japanese things such as calligraphy, origami, and got to participate in a tea ceremony.
They had also set up a stage where we witnessed some very interesting dancing performed by one of the most enthusiastic people I have seen, a sword dance, and a rather embarrassing rap routine. The thing I enjoyed the most though was when the Maiko too the stage and performed a dance, singing and playing the shamisen.

At twelve o´clock we rushed out of the castle grounds to get to karaoke with our tutors. We had a blast and it all cost the small amount of a thousand yen. I re-discovered my love for songs from Evita - Another suitcase in another hall.. million points to whomever recognizes that song! and I got goosebumps when I sang Suteki da ne with Andrea (from Italy). Ahh I really could live inside a karaoke booth! :P

That´s it for now, I have to go check if I have any homework for tomorrow. There is only one class though, there will be no religion class because next Saturday we´re going on a field trip to a monastery, which I am really looking forward to. More on that later!

Hope all of you are having a wonderful time and enjoying life wherever you are! <3

Autumn is finally upon us. Riding in the bus back home today I noticed the leaves have already started changing color and it has become a bit more chilly.

Speaking of weather and the seasons, I have finally found a good use for my balcony. Sitting outside with a blanket, watching the sky turn pitch black and the stars appear one by one with a cold beer in one hand and my ipod in the other... it hardly gets any better.

Now, on to school. I have Japanese classes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings, which is really nice because it means I can sleep in every other day. The classes are really fun as well, we get a lot of practice speaking the language and just like home we have fun making lots of mistakes.

My other classes are good fun as well, Mondays I have religion which I enjoy very much, Tuesdays I have literature and Thursdays I have Politics in the third period and Diplomacy in the fourth. It´s all very interesting and homework is not that bad so this semester is looking good so far.
As for other activities, I tried joining the Kyodo club at school but they (like many other clubs) won´t allow first year students to actually participate, they just get to clean up etc. Archery costs 20.000 yen a month which is insane and I haven´t tried any others yet.
I just might try the horse riding club, if I can get over the fear of freakishly tall foreign horses.

Now that I have finally gotten into the routine of things and received my sports shoes I can start to put my feelers out for jobs and circles (like clubs but are organized by the students, not the school), I´m also thinking of finding clubs or courses in downtown Kyoto, whatever I can get my hands on, I just want to learn something new and enjoy a hobby while I´m out here.

Not that it´s easy to get bored around here, my weekends are already booked a few weeks ahead, we have bowling coming up next weekend and a trip to Nijo castle, which should be interesting. The 26th., I think, a few of us are going to see Noh and Kyougen plays, something I am very excited about. Friday after that there is a tutor meeting where we´ll be having shabu shabu (sooo delicious!) and the weekend after that we´re going on a field trip with religion class. We´ll be going to see a monastery inhabited by the "marathon monks" of Kyoto. Click here for more information. :)

Now I have to go prepare dinner, as an exception to most nights I won´t be having cup noodles. I think I´ll heat some frozen chinese ... rolls and boil some baby corn and even heat some rice. Ahh the joys of living on your own.

Best regards to everyone back home, I miss you all and wish you could come soon to visit.
Again, I will try to send out packages as soon as I am able and find proper gifts.

Till next time,
-H