Whooooooops, been about a month since my last update, and even that wasn't a proper one.. XD So a lot has been happening so I didn't really have time to think about updating my blog, nor did I feel like writing anything. HA! You thought I had forgotten this blog already? Well, you were wroooooooooooooooong! So anyways, I am gonna tell you some basic details of what has happened.
Sooooooo, things started got complicated so I changed families. Well, I was the one who wanted to change the family but I am not going to write any details here, because I want to respect the previous family too. So after struggling I changed families. Well at the moment I am living in a baker family for a temporary time. I guess until my summer vacation starts, and after that I don't know where I am going to. I might be changing areas completely, I don't know. I don't think even YFU knows yet. So my current location at the moment is Matsudo City, Chiba. This is the central place of Matsudo-shi so there are lots of trains passing by (well I live like a 5-minute walk away from Matsudo station), so it's really convenient. There are trains leaving for Ueno quite often (you can get to Ueno station from Matsudo station in 20 minutes!!!), and I have been using that when going to Tokyo. And the price isn't too bad either. Well, to Akihabara it costs 290yen (less than 3€). For comparison, these days it would cost 4€ for me when going to Helsinki... OH AND ONE THING!!! THERE IS A STARBUCKS IN MATSUDO STATION!!!! Haven't been there yet, though... :P
Going back to the 12th (Saturday) of June, I met my friend and her friend (we are friends now!!! :D). They came to my school, because they wanted to see what a Japanese school is all about (well my school is not one of those ordinary Japanese schools :P). So they came to see the lessons, the school grounds etc. We had fun and it was weird to talk in Finnish at the school. :D
After the school went to... *tidididididii* yeah, TOKYO!!!!! :D At first we went to Takeshita-dori to do some shopping and we even came across some Finnish tourists! Scary... D888 Well, anyways, after shopping we went to KARAOKE!! Ahhahahaa, it was hilarious! We were singing about everything: K-pop, J-pop/-rock, Old American songs (for example Village People's Y.M.C.A.) and the main event: Lordi's "Hard Rock Hallelujah"!!!!!!! We just started to shout in full voide and destroy our throats but it was FUN!!!!!!!!!!!! After that we went to an okonomiyaki restaurant on the side streets of Harajuku!! The route felt kind of suspicious (well duh, it was dark and we were somewhere in Harajuku XDD), but we found the restaurant after asking for help a couple of times. :D So, the food. Well, basically, IT WAS SOME REALLY DELICIOUS OKONOMIYAKI!!! We all three liked our okonomiyakis very much~. Ahahahaahaha, Laura said "ROHKEA ROKAN SYÖ!!!" (= "the one who dares, wins." or something like that XDD) all the time to Camilla while we were in the restaurant and I joined her. ::D We had a reason for it... :P After that we said goodbye knowing that the next time we would see would be in Finland after I have returned.
I guess nothing special happened in a while after that, only having things related to YFU, but nothing more about that subject. ;P WELL, I went to karaoke with this one high school 2nd year student (2nd year students are the same age as me) and we sang mostly rock, like X Japan etc. :D It was fun, hope we can go to karaoke once again in the near future~!
And now something a bit fresher (or is it more fresh?!?!?) things. I met with my Finnish friend Risto on the 3rd (Saturday) of July and we hanged around Tokyo. Well, at first we went to his dad's apartment (his dad works in Japan, because of his work, so Risto comes to visit his dad once in a while) in Chiyoda district. The apartment was so cool!!!! Well anyways, we were there for sometime planning a bit, and after that we left. At first we went to Shibuya. We bought maccha frapuccinos (THOSE ARE GODLY!!!!!) from Shibuya's crossing's Starbucks (yup, Starbucks!! :DD). After that we headed for karaoke. We sang for two hours and sang a lot of the same songs as I did with Camilla and Laura. :DD Meaning that we once again destroyed our throats by singing Lordi's "Hard Rock Hallelujah". XDDD BUT THAT SONG IS A MUST!! You just have to sing it, because it is there! And yeah, it is lots of fun to sing it... ;D After that we went to Harajuku, because we were hungry so we headed towards the same okonomiyaki restaurant, where I was with Camilla and Laura. ::D And you know what, Risto too, loved it! Well okonomiyaki is one of the best dishes in Japanese cuisine. *drool* After that we were supposed to go to purikura, but after all, we did not. 8( My curfew was closening so we had to say goodbye and so we left, each to our own homes. We too, will probably meet again in Finland, well he is still in Japan, but I do not think we have time to meet again before he leaves on Thursday. Well anyways, we will meet again in Finland. :D
And one last thing!! I cut my hair!!!!! And I am going to get a new piercing to my ear. Even though, I don't know yet into which ear I want it. :P But Shibuya/Harajuku has just fabulous earrings in its shops!!! Oh btw, we are having a test week at the moment in my school (and other schools too, I guess) so I am only taking three English tests (only two to go anymore~!!) so I went to Akihabara today to search for a digital camera. I was searching for this one shop in Akihabara that is selling Canon's newest digicamera (at least for the "IXYS" or is it "IXUS" -series, well at least over here it is "IXY" -series) for the cheapest price. For comparison I went to another shop to look at its price for it and it was like 10,000 yen higher!!!!! That's almost 100€!!!! :OO Well, I walked a bit in the hellishly hot Akihabara, because I couldn't find the shop and finally when I found it, it said "web sale only"... You can guess my reaction... :D Well at least I ate some Oreos cookies on the side streets of Harajuku. <3
WELL THAT IS ABOUT EVERYTHING I GUESS!!! Phew, this took much more time than I thought it would, but at least I wrote it all!. And, you might be wondering why there are no pictures but it seems like blogspot is having problems or something, because the pictures showed only as codes, not as pictures...... So that's it children, I think I am gonna watch some "新世紀エヴァンゲリオン" (= "Neon Genesis Evangelion") now. I'll try to put some pictures later!
Showing posts with label Tokyo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tokyo. Show all posts
Monday, July 5, 2010
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Shark fin and jellyfish!
Here I am again, writing this post. And yes, it is night over here.
So today I woke up at 9 a.m. (actually I got out of the bed at around 9.30) and with a little bit of nervousness went to the downstairs and said good morning to my otou-san and okaa-san (I'll be using the terms otou-san = host-father, okaa-san = host-mother). Drank some water and found out that we will be eating lunch in a restaurant in central Tokyo (yay!).
Some time later we went to Tokyo by a train to this Chinese restaurant that was right next to Chiyoda ward (or I dunno if it is a ward, but whateveeeer...). So there we were and I was like "yay, food!!". At first we got these appetizers like pork, chicken, something clamlike and *tittitititittititiididididiii* JELLYFISH!!! The jellyfish looked a little bit like noodles and was crunchy and yellowish, I liked it a lot. Then I found out that we were going to eat shark fin as a part of the lunch. I think it was the second dish, well whatever, there it was. Being on that deep plate, just a little bit suspicious looking in that sauce. I was a little bit afraid and slowly but surely I took a piece of it and tasted it... AND it was actually good!!!! I actually became a little bit more of a friend of seafood after those ten plates we ate, because in a lot of them, seafood was included.
After the delicious lunch we decided to walk around in Tokyo a little bit. We walked in Chiyoda and sometimes it was terribly silent, until... UNTIL this car was driving in the streets and shouting something about the democracy of Japan, mocking it and that kind of stuff. It was quite interesting and I have a recording of that in my phone (hopefully I'll put it on Facebook someday).
From Chiyoda we walked to Tokyo Railway Station through all the skyscrapers and shops. The weather was really nice and warm, I think it was about +20 celsius degrees or something like that. So from Tokyo Railway Station we got into an express train to Narita Airport and got out in Ichikawa Station and then went to another train and got out at the next stop. At last, even though it was fun and really nice we arrived home, my legs were killing me.
In the evening we went by a car to a couple of shops to buy... *tidididididii* DOG FOOD!! Yes, we have a dog here, but it's not allowed inside the house. 8( The name of the dog is Chibli, if I remember correctly... And after that we went to eat dinner to a soba restaurant! I ate warm soba and tempura (yummyyyyy!!) and again, I didn't have to pay... I WOULD HAVE PAID IF THEY HAD ALLOWED ME TO!! But no is a no. So after eating we came back to the house and ate some fruits, ice cream (well I was the only one who ate ice cream, because otou-san handed me one XDDD) and something custard/jelly like thingy. After that I found out that on Tuesday I could go to for example Shibuya and Akihabara all by myself when they are working (WOOHOO!!!!!! This is just like a dream to go to Shibuya all by myself and do anything I want to!!!). It was a little bit of a surprise, but definitely a positive one. Oh, one last thing: tomorrow I am going to go play tennis with my otou-san. :D And now I am going to go to bed, and as my okaa-san said, this day was definitely 食べるの日 (eating day). Byeeeee!!!
P.S. We have this clock here that makes sound every 15 or 30 minutes and sometimes I get really scared, because of it... XDDD
So today I woke up at 9 a.m. (actually I got out of the bed at around 9.30) and with a little bit of nervousness went to the downstairs and said good morning to my otou-san and okaa-san (I'll be using the terms otou-san = host-father, okaa-san = host-mother). Drank some water and found out that we will be eating lunch in a restaurant in central Tokyo (yay!).
Some time later we went to Tokyo by a train to this Chinese restaurant that was right next to Chiyoda ward (or I dunno if it is a ward, but whateveeeer...). So there we were and I was like "yay, food!!". At first we got these appetizers like pork, chicken, something clamlike and *tittitititittititiididididiii* JELLYFISH!!! The jellyfish looked a little bit like noodles and was crunchy and yellowish, I liked it a lot. Then I found out that we were going to eat shark fin as a part of the lunch. I think it was the second dish, well whatever, there it was. Being on that deep plate, just a little bit suspicious looking in that sauce. I was a little bit afraid and slowly but surely I took a piece of it and tasted it... AND it was actually good!!!! I actually became a little bit more of a friend of seafood after those ten plates we ate, because in a lot of them, seafood was included.
After the delicious lunch we decided to walk around in Tokyo a little bit. We walked in Chiyoda and sometimes it was terribly silent, until... UNTIL this car was driving in the streets and shouting something about the democracy of Japan, mocking it and that kind of stuff. It was quite interesting and I have a recording of that in my phone (hopefully I'll put it on Facebook someday).
From Chiyoda we walked to Tokyo Railway Station through all the skyscrapers and shops. The weather was really nice and warm, I think it was about +20 celsius degrees or something like that. So from Tokyo Railway Station we got into an express train to Narita Airport and got out in Ichikawa Station and then went to another train and got out at the next stop. At last, even though it was fun and really nice we arrived home, my legs were killing me.
In the evening we went by a car to a couple of shops to buy... *tidididididii* DOG FOOD!! Yes, we have a dog here, but it's not allowed inside the house. 8( The name of the dog is Chibli, if I remember correctly... And after that we went to eat dinner to a soba restaurant! I ate warm soba and tempura (yummyyyyy!!) and again, I didn't have to pay... I WOULD HAVE PAID IF THEY HAD ALLOWED ME TO!! But no is a no. So after eating we came back to the house and ate some fruits, ice cream (well I was the only one who ate ice cream, because otou-san handed me one XDDD) and something custard/jelly like thingy. After that I found out that on Tuesday I could go to for example Shibuya and Akihabara all by myself when they are working (WOOHOO!!!!!! This is just like a dream to go to Shibuya all by myself and do anything I want to!!!). It was a little bit of a surprise, but definitely a positive one. Oh, one last thing: tomorrow I am going to go play tennis with my otou-san. :D And now I am going to go to bed, and as my okaa-san said, this day was definitely 食べるの日 (eating day). Byeeeee!!!
P.S. We have this clock here that makes sound every 15 or 30 minutes and sometimes I get really scared, because of it... XDDD
Saturday, March 20, 2010
In the middle of Ichikawa, Chiba
Sorry, but this is not gonna be such a long post as I am tired as hell. D88
So I left on the 15th of March and arrived to Tokyo with the other exchange students from Finland on the 16th day. After our lovely 17 hour long trip we went by the bus to Tokyo to some Olympic Center in Shibuya (I guess). There we spent five days with the other exchange students, made the bonds stronger between the Finnish people and got new friends from all over the world. The time went actually really quick there and the food was good (during the lunch and dinner we had like 5-7 different choices) AND everytime we had something with RICE (unless you ate noodles D8). I did a little bit of calculating and noticed that I ate 690g of rice every single day over there in the orientation. :: D Back to business = the orientation. So I kinda just noticed that we were probably the craziest ones there... (Bulbasaur vs. Charizard, pics coming possibly later ;D) AND one of the noisiest ones, during the daytime... But yeah, I had a really hard time during the last two nights when I was trying to sleep and the Asian dudes next door we're making too much noise so I really wanted to kick the wall, but I didn't... 8(
Today was the day when we we're introduced to our host families and started to live our normal life over here. It was the time to say goodbye to all the new friends and nervously introduce yourself in front of the room full of host-families. So I went to the front and said everything that was supposed to say and then my area representative came forward and picked me up. After waiting for a while we walked to the nearest train station and went to Shinjuku! At there we were supposed to eat food, but as we didn't have much time to spend we went to this cake/coffee/sandwich cafe. Oh god I love Japanese cafes like that, they are so cool and elegant!! Even the bathroom was gorgeous, playing classical music and stuff... I really love these kinds of things in Japan! ;)
After that we went by a train/metro to this one place (can't remember the name of the place) and the trip took probably like 30-40 minutes and I was SO tired I almost fell asleep there. :P After arriving there I meet my temporary host-mum, who's a doctor and that's why she wasn't able to come over there. Then we went by a car to my school and this one teacher talked about things in Japanese and English (!!!!). After that I had to try my school uniform, which took quite a bit of time in the end.. Seems like I can take it back to Finland as they're getting me my own school uniform, because my exchange organization is paying for it.
After school we went by a car with my host-mum to a super market to buy some food (Oh god, I love Japanese super markets... They are WONDERFUL I don't know why, but they are!!) and there we had these huge peaces of samples, which turned out to be quite good after looking a little bit... dubious. So, after buying the ingredients we head to my host-family's house, which is located in Chiba, Ichikawa City. After driving around Ichikawa we arrive here and then I notice that the house looks like... (wait for the surprise) JUST LIKE A CASTLE!! It really looks like that and from inside this is just like a mansion. I was honestly surprised. So, about the family: Mom (a doctor), dad (a doctor), sister (studying to become a doctor), brother (trying to get into a med. school) and a sister (a fitness instructor). The family seems really really nice and they can speak English, especially my host-dad who was on exchange in U.S about 36 years ago. :D
Umm... I'm getting really tired here (I don't want to fall asleep on my laptop) even though it's not even 11 p.m. yet. But at least this turned out to be a little bit longer than I was thinking of writing. I'll add some pics later, ENJOY!!! <3
P.S. They already have proper strawberries here and yummmmm, those strawberries were really good. And it was about +19 celsius degrees around here today. ;)
So I left on the 15th of March and arrived to Tokyo with the other exchange students from Finland on the 16th day. After our lovely 17 hour long trip we went by the bus to Tokyo to some Olympic Center in Shibuya (I guess). There we spent five days with the other exchange students, made the bonds stronger between the Finnish people and got new friends from all over the world. The time went actually really quick there and the food was good (during the lunch and dinner we had like 5-7 different choices) AND everytime we had something with RICE (unless you ate noodles D8). I did a little bit of calculating and noticed that I ate 690g of rice every single day over there in the orientation. :: D Back to business = the orientation. So I kinda just noticed that we were probably the craziest ones there... (Bulbasaur vs. Charizard, pics coming possibly later ;D) AND one of the noisiest ones, during the daytime... But yeah, I had a really hard time during the last two nights when I was trying to sleep and the Asian dudes next door we're making too much noise so I really wanted to kick the wall, but I didn't... 8(
Today was the day when we we're introduced to our host families and started to live our normal life over here. It was the time to say goodbye to all the new friends and nervously introduce yourself in front of the room full of host-families. So I went to the front and said everything that was supposed to say and then my area representative came forward and picked me up. After waiting for a while we walked to the nearest train station and went to Shinjuku! At there we were supposed to eat food, but as we didn't have much time to spend we went to this cake/coffee/sandwich cafe. Oh god I love Japanese cafes like that, they are so cool and elegant!! Even the bathroom was gorgeous, playing classical music and stuff... I really love these kinds of things in Japan! ;)
After that we went by a train/metro to this one place (can't remember the name of the place) and the trip took probably like 30-40 minutes and I was SO tired I almost fell asleep there. :P After arriving there I meet my temporary host-mum, who's a doctor and that's why she wasn't able to come over there. Then we went by a car to my school and this one teacher talked about things in Japanese and English (!!!!). After that I had to try my school uniform, which took quite a bit of time in the end.. Seems like I can take it back to Finland as they're getting me my own school uniform, because my exchange organization is paying for it.
After school we went by a car with my host-mum to a super market to buy some food (Oh god, I love Japanese super markets... They are WONDERFUL I don't know why, but they are!!) and there we had these huge peaces of samples, which turned out to be quite good after looking a little bit... dubious. So, after buying the ingredients we head to my host-family's house, which is located in Chiba, Ichikawa City. After driving around Ichikawa we arrive here and then I notice that the house looks like... (wait for the surprise) JUST LIKE A CASTLE!! It really looks like that and from inside this is just like a mansion. I was honestly surprised. So, about the family: Mom (a doctor), dad (a doctor), sister (studying to become a doctor), brother (trying to get into a med. school) and a sister (a fitness instructor). The family seems really really nice and they can speak English, especially my host-dad who was on exchange in U.S about 36 years ago. :D
Umm... I'm getting really tired here (I don't want to fall asleep on my laptop) even though it's not even 11 p.m. yet. But at least this turned out to be a little bit longer than I was thinking of writing. I'll add some pics later, ENJOY!!! <3
P.S. They already have proper strawberries here and yummmmm, those strawberries were really good. And it was about +19 celsius degrees around here today. ;)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
