Day 245 - 2nd of May

11:55pm　セミナーハウス

天気：晴れ

Well sadly, karaoke was atrociously anticlimactic tonight. Because it is Golden Week, Makino Karaoke is not offering free time; we only found this out after getting to the counter. So, we ended up just doing two hours, which was over before it had begun. At least Ash got to spend a bit of time with her friend Roisin, who is staying in Osaka for a while; she studies at NUFS with Alex. Maureen, Tori and another girl from NUFS also joined Ash, Rachel and I. Anyway, back to today… I got up at 9:30, and after breakfast (which was porridge with water), I put some washing on, and then showered and shaved; I had certainly been neglecting that. After putting out the washing, it was time to get into my blog. I worked on that until about 12:30, and then talked with Carly; 6 days until she comes! We really have to start planning Tokyo, but first of all I have to buy the tickets for the Ghibli Museum; get onto that this week. After talking, I went grocery shopping at Kirindo and Fresco, and came home so much food; I was very low on supplies. After lunch, I relaxed for a while (it’s still a holiday), playing some of KH: 358/2 Days; it’s looking really good so far, and I ‘m having fun reading the Japanese.

I worked on me blog until dinner, and managed to get up to Friday done. It was a bit after 7 when I was sitting down with my yakisoba, and soon after I was rushing to get ready for karaoke; we left at 8. After getting to Makino, we waited a bit, and then the others found us; they had been waiting a little further up the road. After another purikura session (I just love it), we made our way in to Karaoke, sharing one room; it was fun, but too short. And I think that’s about it, after getting out we took Roishin back to the station and walked home… oh, the moon tonight was really beautiful; it was glowing yellow. Ash and Rachel have decided to walk to Fresco since they’re not tired, but I want to try to get up early tomorrow, so I opted not to join them; gotta get started on my presentation…

Day 216 - 3rd of April

10:03pm　特急

天気：晴れ

It’s a beautiful, sunny day and Julie and I are on our way to Nara, to do some sightseeing; it’s going to be amazing. Although we’re standing up, at least we’re not squished up against the doors like we we’re on the way to Tambabashi earlier this morning. After walking around for a while in Nara Park, we’re going to get back on the train to go to Tenri, to meet with the class for the field trip.

5:09pm　天理

We’re on the train, in the station, just about to make our way back to Tambabashi; have to change over at Hirakata. Today was wonderful… After getting to Nara, Julie and I slowly made our way over to Todaiji; we went a very roundabout way. We walked past the ward office, under the road, and through a suburban area, to 吉城公園 (Yoshishiro Koen); I had been there before with Diego, Jessica and Carly. After walking around the garden, we continued on, past houses and temples. On the train, we had seen so many sakura in the distance, flying by…

5:24pm　特急

We just changed over at 平端 (Hirahata – not to be confused with Hirakata)… but now, we were up close and personal with hundreds of sakura trees, most in full bloom; overload of beauty. We were also able to get up close and personal with the deer; Julie was so happy. They were all looking a bit stuffy, but I put that down to the fact that they were losing their winter coats. We made our way around the back of Todaiji, and went up into the hills, passing groups of painters and sketchers; they were all amazingly talented. Julie described the area as heavenly, and I had to agree; Nara is breathtaking! We walked back down the hill, which was covered in sakura, and there was this beautiful big old tree green on one side with moss. As we were making our way over to Todaiji, a foreign woman come up to us and asked if I could take her picture; turns out she was from Sydney. I was of course happy to oblige, and in return, she took a photo of us, and then wished as a happy trip; little did she know we were actually studying here. After that, we marvelled at Todaiji (I’m always amazed at the sheer size of it), and then continued back out of the complex to enter the deer park. There was a huge open space skirted be sakura, and many people were picnicking, kicking around soccer balls, or just enjoying the fine weather; although, it was starting to get a little cloudy.

We sat down in the park, and I enjoyed my apple after spraying myself with a nearby bubbler; it shot so high. A deer came up to us, and I fed it my apple core, before it proceeded to slobber on my bag. We rested for a bit longer, and then made our way back to the station; again taking a very roundabout route. We walked to the pagoda, past Nanendo and down to the lake I had been to before; the one with all the sunbathing turtles. There was a guy nearby playing the shamisen; I really want to try playing it one day. We decided to go back to the station via the shopping district, which was bustling. I bought a butaman (pork dumpling) from a convenience store and it’s seen me through till now; I’m really not that hungry. We walked past a shop where two guys were pounding mochi in a big barrel with wooden mallets; I was so glad to finally see the process. One thing that wasn’t very heavenly about Nara was the lack of ATM’s that would accept our cards; we were both low on funds. Seeing us in one of the cash corners in the shopping arcade, a young woman kindly gave us directions to another ATM (one that “might” work), knowing that these one’s wouldn’t.

So we decided to try it. Funny thing was, when we exited the arcade, the woman suddenly reappeared and redirected us to a different building which was just across the street; I wondered if she had followed us. Unfortunately when we got there, we found nothing resembling an ATM. So, still unperturbed, we tried two other ATMs nearby, and even these wouldn’t accept our cards; there was one that was exactly the same as the one at uni too! Finally, we resigned to the fact that we’d just have to go without; we had enough for transport, so that was the main thing. We went back to the station, and took the train to 大和西大寺 (Yamato Saidaiji). There, we had to wait quite a while for the train to Tenri; we looked around the shops and munched on a few free samples. By the time we got to Tenri, we were about half an hour late. There was a very helpful map right outside the station, and it proved to be really easy to get to the Tenrikyo headquarters; directly east through a shopping arcade. This arcade greatly contrasted with that of Nara’s; it was quite dead, and it just had an old fashioned feel about it. And when I say old fashioned, I don’t mean ancient, I mean about 30 years ago. Emerging from the arcade, an immense Buddhist-looking building came into sight…

6:13pm　特急

We’re on the train back to Makino now. So, where was I? Oh yeah… big, impressive, Buddhist-looking building; one to rival Todaiji in fact. This was the Tenrikyo Sanctuary!!! We were both awestruck as we marvelled at its size and beauty, before coming back down to earth and realising we still had the task of finding the class. Having no idea where they could be, we decided to just enter the building, taking our shoes off at the bottom of the steps. The interior was equally impressive, tatami mats spanning out before us. Miraculously, we soon spotted the class on the other side of the hall. We found our way around to them, and sat down on the tatami; the class was asking Hiroshi, our guide, questions. We’ve made it to Kuzuha…

9:18pm　セミナーハウス

I’m just about to go to karaoke with Rachel and Ash. We’ve been playing an awesome card game in the kitchen with Julie, Brett, Sam, Chelsea, Jeremy and Liz, called “Mad Scientist University”. Basically, each round someone is the teacher, and they draw a card from the “assignment” pile, and dictate that to the “class”. Then it’s everyone else’s job to come up with ideas about how to best complete this assignment using the “unstable element” they are dealt; the more outlandishly demented the idea the better. I felt a really silly at first, but after a while you just get into it and say the stupidest things, and as long as you come across as confident, you’re sweet; it was an absolute cack…

10:04pm　カラオケ　－　牧野

We just got to karaoke; Rachel and Ash generously payed for me. Well, I guess I should finish off telling my day… After the questions, we prayed (clap 4 times bow – long, clap 4 times bow – short) and then continued the tour through the sanctuary. We had another session in front of the “residence” of the founderess, a focal point for prayer. Hiroshi explained that the founderess basically withdrew from her physical form, after realising her being alive was causing too much trouble for her followers; there was a huge crack down on religions other than Shinto during the Meiji restoration. However, her spiritual form continues to reside in Tenri. She has a house, and every day they draw a bath and serve her food, and they even change the linen; I find it fascinating. After another round of questions, we prayed again, and then went on to yet another room of worship. Here, Hiroshi explained Tenrikyo follower’s beliefs about death. They believe in Reincarnation but, unlike Buddhism, which is pretty much all about pain and suffering, Tenrikyo promotes the pursuit of happiness; you are continuously reborn in hopes that you will achieve lasting happiness. Also there is no heaven or hell; earth itself can be heaven if you obtain true happiness. In this room, there were three mirrors – the central one dedicated to the leaders proceeding the founderess (after her, there haven’t been any other female leaders); the one on the right, to the high ranking ministers and; the one on the left to all the followers of Tenrikyo. We prayed to each respectively, and then made our way back around to the front of the complex.

After getting our shoes on, Hiroshi showed those of us who were interested how to do the 手踊り (te odori – “hand dance”), which is accompainied by a song, as part of praying and other services; it was actually pretty cool. Then rest of the class went off to the sakura, but was soon caught up with them anyway. The professor knew where there was a huge tree, but unfortunately we found it to have already lost most of its flowers. It was such a shame, because it was absolutely massive and would have looking incredible in full bloom; to others of similar size nearby were in the same state. All the branches were supported by an intricate arrangement of poles and brackets. Finally, we made our way back to the main building and got a group photo in front of it, before parting with Hiroshi, and making our way back to the station. On the way, Julie noticed there were banners that were wishing “oyasama” (the affectionate name for the founderess) a happy birthday, and I remembered Hiroshi was just telling us about the fact that they celebrated her birthday, and it was coming up soon; it’s actually the 18^th of this month. It supposed to be a really huge event, and there is heaps of preparation going into it.

Getting back to Makino, Julie and I got our bikes out of the gutter; we had parked them there on purpose to escape receiving a ticket for not paying for parking. Unfortunately that didn’t end up working out so well, and we found the warning tickets on both of our bikes; I guess it really just depends on how anal the particular security guard that’s on duty at the time is. Indeed, I’ve got away with parking there at least twice; oh well. Anyway, we rode back and Julie went straight up to the kitchen feeling starved; she hadn’t eaten much all day. I soon joined her after dumping my stuff in my room. I put on a pizza (margarita) and was soon enjoying that; so cheap and tasty. Not sure whether or not we would be going to karaoke tonight, I waited in the kitchen, hoping Ash or Rachel would turn up; and they did, Ash just as we started playing Mad Scientist University, and Rachel about 3 rounds in…

11:21pm

Well that was my day. Now it’s time to enjoy the rest of the night singing…

Day 190 - 8th of March

天気：曇り

I got a good night’s sleep, and was able to get out of bed at 7:30 this morning. This meant that I had a good hour and an half more to study for my lesson test, and it certainly payed off. I actually found this test much easier than the first one we had (even the listening was easier to understand), and was finished just after the half an hour point. I went over to the convenience store, and picked up a snack, before going back to the lounge, and hanging out with Katie, Sarah, and Cate, getting some more kanji practice in. Reading and Writing came round, and we made a start on the story in the book, and covered some more grammar patterns; all one’s we’ve come across before thankfully. After that, I was free. I did some grocery shopping, and then I went home, had a quick lunch, and talked with Rachael for a while in the computer room, before making my way out again. I was going to meet Ash in the CIE lounge, since she was going to Joshin to buy a new MP3 player. Since I had never been, I was interested in joining her; on my way back to uni, I took some photos of this beautiful tree in full bloom now (I don’t think it’s a plum blossom), in front of Komatsu.

Unfortunately, it was a bit past our meeting time (2:30) when I got there, and not finding her, I immediately went back to my bike, to see if I could be clever and catch up with her on it. Well, I didn’t see her the whole way there; I must have been too far in front. When I got to Joshin, which is basically just across from Midori, I waited there for a little while. There wasn’t much to look at in all honesty; it mirrored Midori in many respects. Still no sign of Ash, I contemplated just going home, before deciding that I might as well look around some more shops since I was out there. So, I continued up the highway (in the direction of Kappazushi and the Lake), and went in a few of the places Ash had told me about. The first was called FAN 倶楽部 (Fan kurabu – Fan club ~ this is an example of "ateji" - kanji used phonetically to represent native or borrowed words. The kanji may or may not have anything to do with the original meaning of the word, and be chosen solely for phonetic value. In this case though, the kanji roughly translate as "together, fun, place", so you could argue whether that was a meaningful interpretation or not), and I had a field day inside. It sells second-hand clothes, books, guitars, CD’s, DVD’s, records, comics, games, and trading cards. The sheer amount of stuff they had was incredible.

I slowly made my way through the maze, looking for anything of interest to me. They had a corner filled with old poker machines, and a huge section with games from the Fami-Con (a.k.a the NES). There were thousands upon thousands, of Yugioh trading cards, some baseball cards, and I even spotted some Magic cards; that brought back memories. There were rows and rows of figures from every anime imaginable, all hanging up in little plastic bags, or displayed behind glass. In a cardboard box on the floor, I spotted some Final Fantasy books (my internal homing device doing its job), and found Final Fantasy VII: Official Establishment File, in relatively good condition. I contained images and information of the characters, and I thought it was a really good find; a collector’s item. Looking on the shelf above, I found some more Final Fantasy related books (mostly walkthroughs), and decided to pick up the one for FFX-2, since it was really cheap and compact. I browsed the rest of the store for a while, having a quick look at the CDs, and bypassing the rows and rows of manga, before making my purchases; I was very satisfied. The guy even gave me a discount on the FFVII book; score.

The next place I went to looked, from the outside, looked like a regular shop, but the inside was of… devious intent. The front quarter of the store was just like any other typical DVD/comic book store, but behind the big black curtains with the 18+ logo in red was a world of naughty pleasures. Ash had told me this, so I decided to check it out just for curiosities sake, and it was indeed very enlightening. I just thought the whole concept was bizarre; why have a tiny portion of your store dedicated to non-adult goods (there was no one in that section), when clearly the whole purpose of it is to go to the adult section. It seemed almost like a façade to me; you really wouldn’t know what they were actually selling from just looking at the exterior. Anyway, I came out empty-hand, but full-minded (well…) and made my way back home. I decided to stop by Top World to see if I could find the Old El Paso Taco Kit, I’d seen some girls using at the dorm; they told me they’d found it there. And sure enough, it was there; along with all the other hot sauces. I was over the moon actually; they had Nachos sauce too. However, it was wickedly expensive, so I held out on that, and just bought one of the kits; tacos this week!

Getting back, I had a good look at my purchases, before it was time for dinner; chicken parmigiana. I noticed that Yuji had left his cookies out, and let him know as soon as I saw him. He was making them around lunch time, and let me try one; they were… interesting. I stayed up in the kitchen until just before 8, and then went down to the lounge for Hugo’s movie night. Since he has so many movies on his portable hard drive, he has decided to have a viewing night once a week; he rigged up his laptop to connect with the TV. This week we watched Leon: The Professional, a French directed movie starring Jean Reno, Gary Oldman and a very young Natalie Portman; this was her debut film. I found it really enjoyable, and moving. It finished just after 10, and had attracted a number of viewers including Simon, Yuji, and Alvaro; a success. After an orange in the kitchen, I came back down, and got my blog as up-to-date as possible, until it was time for sleep.

Day 156 - 2nd of February

10:11pm　セミナーハウス
天気：雨天
Another rainy day; with the cold and wind added in just for fun. Actually, it was quite mild this morning, especially since I was rushing to class; I was stripping off layers. For some reason I was just really slow getting ready this morning, but I managed to get to class on time anyway. It didn’t notice it yesterday, but our Speaking teacher speaks entirely in Japanese too. I guess that means Japanese is becoming so natural to my ears, that I’m just taking it in; so happy. So yeah, my listening is getting really good, but I’m still struggling with my speaking. I think this semester, in this class, I’m going to get much better though; here’s hoping. It was a very fast paced class, but I do enjoy Saigo sensie’s teaching style. We were doing revision, and he would make the class come up with sentences on the spot, using the grammar points we’ve learnt. I felt I bit sluggish, having not done enough during the holidays; I think a lot of people felt that. After class I went and had lunch in cafeteria 3, with Jo and Kim (from my class), and Rachel, Liz, and Sarah.

We chatted and had a good laugh, until it was time for my 1:15 class; Religion in Japan. Already, I like the Professor. She really engaging, and seems down to earth. We have three field trips, and a few papers to write, and we’re covering Shinto, Buddhism, and Japan’s contemporary religions like Happy Science; it’s going to be really interesting. After class (which today’s wasn’t a full 1 and a half), I went down and checked my mail box to find a letter from Nanny and Poppy. I saw Hugo in the lounge, and talked with him for a while, before Biancha bullied me to go home. I made my way over to the convenience store first, to pick up a folder and something to nibble on, and ended up bumping into Jacinthe on the way. I talked to her in Makkas for a while as she was enjoying her coffee from Seattle’s Best. She had a class to go to at three, so we separated and I left for home.

Soon after getting back, I caught up with Simon, and he wanted to go into to Hirakatashi to see if he could get his watch fixed. I decided to join him, and we made our way part way down the east gate, before it started to rain, at which point Simon suggested we turn back. We did, but it didn’t feel like going home, so I suggested we go to Midori; we saw Luke along the way. In Midori, we had a quick browse, and I was able to find a kanji game for the DS; 200万人の漢検 (200mannin no kanken – 2 million people’s kanji test). I also had a much needed play on one of the pianos. We went into Life (grocery store) below, and I found my beloved mochi, that I’ve only ever found here. I also picked up some more あんこパン (ankopan – red bean paste bun). We crossed over to “The Shoes” (that’s what the shop’s called), and actually found some in our size. There wasn’t anything I really liked, but I might go back.

Getting back, I got straight into playing my new game, and found it addicting. It’s going to be so helpful. Some of the games include having to write (with the stylus) the correct kanji, or hiragana, and choose the correct okurigana for a word. I’ve already pasted level 10 (the easiest) kanji quiz, and now it’s suddenly got a lot harder. You have to think really fast since there’s a 30 second time limit, and the fact that in don’t know some of the compounds makes it difficult. Also, it is sensitive to stroke order, especially with the hiragana, so it will improve my writing to no end; a great purchase. I went up and had dinner around 7, and then chatted with Ash and Katie for a few hours. Finally I got back down here, and played some more before the batteries got low, forcing me to stop and let it recharge. I’ve already finished the revision for Reading and Writing, and I’ll go over all the kanji again from Genki II, then I’ll get started on the revision for Speaking. Tomorrow’s a 10 o’clock start, so better get ready for bed. Hugo’s doing his Japanese homework, asking questions periodically; it’s great to help out, just like with Diego…

Day 32 - 30th of September

10:21pm　セミナーハウス
天気：雨天
Another rainy day... I didn't do much today, which was actually a nice change. Went to uni, hung out with people and went to classes, got back, had lunch, did some homework, had a nap... I woke up at about 3:30 and spent the rest of the afternoon uploading photos on deviant art, and my Japanese homework. I made dinner pretty early 6:30; spaghetti bolognese, with chicken mince. I was soooo full afterwards; I actually felt a bit sick. But I feel fine now. After dinner I chatted with people, and got into playing a card game called spoons.

Basically, you get 4 cards, and you have to get four of a kind, by picking up and discarding cards as they move around the table. There are a number of spoons in the centre; one less than the number of people playing. Once you get four of a kind you have to grab a spoon, then the other players must scramble for the remaining spoons. Whoever doesn't get the spoon, gets a letter; S-P-O-O-N. The first person to spell spoon loses. It's actually a really fast paced game, and you have to be constantly watching the spoons while keeping an eye on your cards. We ended up playing for a couple of hours. More people joined in as the time went by and we ended up with 7 players. It was a lot of fun!

It was actually really nice to have an easy day for a change, especially when Thursday's tomorrow!! Well, this is probably the shortest entry I've written so far. Amazing O.O
Anyway, I'm gonna do some reading. Yay, tomorrow's the first day of October, then only 5 more days till I get my scholarship money!!!