10:54pm セミナーハウス
天気：曇り
And again, it's a rush in the morning. I did wake up early, but when it came to having lunch, I decided that instead of packing it for later, I would eat it just before I left, which meant that I was eating at 10:30, when I should have been leaving. I made it to uni in time though, as I always do; bless long legs and power walking. We've started the final chapter in Genki II. Today we learnt the causitive-passive verb conjugation taberu (to eat) becomes tabesaserareru (forced to eat)!!! Yes, it's crazy and long, but it's not that hard really. We spent most of the class trying to wrap our heads around it. My other classes went smoothly. After classes, I tried to book my return flight with the travel agency on campus. While waiting in line, I spoke with some follow Aussies. That was nice, and I found myself sounding more Australian just being around them. When I did finally get to talk with the travel agent I was out of luck. It seems that, even though the ticket prices are out online, they won't be issued to the travel agency until March, so if I want tickets at this early stage, I have to book online; bummer. I'm most likely going to do that tomorrow with Dad.
So a little disgruntled, I had some McDonalds (so healthy); it was really good though. At 5, with nothing else to do, I went to the room of our meeting. Many of the booth members were already there. I talked a bit with Naomi, and then with Niky. She told me about a photo shoot she would be having next Saturday after INFES with her host sister and grandmother, to mark her host sisters 12th birthday in the New Year - one's 12th birthday is significant to the Japanese as it marks the first full rotation of the Chinese zodiac. What makes it more significant is the fact that the sister and grandmother share the same sign; the tiger. They will be dressed in Kimono. Niky said while it will be an amazing experience, she doesn't feel worthy of it; I would feel the same way. In the meeting we wrote our names down for name tags, made sure our songs were correct, and I found out that I would be singing last on both days!!! This really puts the pressure on. However, I am somewhat relieved by the fact that, because of time constraints, we'd all have to cut our songs. This is great for me; less Japanese lyrics to learn!
The meeting didn't finish till 7, then I was out and about going to every super market along the way; literally. I went to Kirindo, Fresco, the 99円 shop, Top World, and bought something at every one; got some good bargains too. Finally got home at about 8:30. After buying all that food, all I had for dinner was scrambled eggs (I did use one of the tomatoes that I bought in a pack of three for 100円). I bought a knife at Top World cause I lost the original one, came home and found the exact same knife taped to my cupboard; Carly had bought it fo me. So, she's going to give it to her friend. I still have three bananas left, and they're getting old, so I'm going to make banana pancakes tomorrow. We have a blender, so I'll blend them first I think; that'll be fun! Today, I realised just how long we have left till the end of the semester; 5 weeks! I pointed this out to Deigo and made him sad. Aww... I will miss him; it's been a lot of fun. I'm really grateful that my first experience with a room mate has been such a pleasant one. This weekend I'm going to try to knock over this essay, so then I can start to work on my mini project for CEL; I'm a lot more worried about that one.
Showing posts with label shops. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shops. Show all posts
Thursday, 12 November 2009
Saturday, 12 September 2009
Day 14 - 12th of September
10:38am 急行電車
天気：雨天
We're on the sub-exp bound for 京橋 (Kyobashi). It's raining!!! So we decided (spur of the moment) to go to the 大阪 海遊館 (Osaka Kaiyukan - Aquarium), and keep the Hirakata Park trip for another day when it's sunny. Wow, the bus today, to get to Hirakata station, was absolutely packed. The traffic was chaotic, lots of ambulance and police cars; never in my wildest dreams would I want to drive around here! So yeah, here on the train with me are Diego and Jessica. It's going to be an awesome day. The aquarium's supposed to be one of the best in the world. I'm taking the video camera, so should get some great footage if I can get it to work, xD...
11:07am 京橋駅
We're waiting for the JR Loop train bound for 森ノ宮 (Mori no Miya). Then from there we're going to take the 中央 (chuou - central) subway to aquarium...
11:12am 電車
On the train...
11:24am 森ノ宮
Now we're waiting for the train in the subway. We met with a girl, Brittney, whose also going to the aquarium, so we're helping her get there. Overall it's been pretty easy to get here, the signs, for the most part, have had English on them. So now we're bound for 大阪港 (Osaka port).
11:30am 地下鉄電車
On the train. We still have 8 stops until we get there. Money-wise, I think it's been pretty cheap. About $10 to get all the way.
11:48am 大阪港
Off the train walking towards the aquarium. There are signs everywhere, which is really helpful.
1:41pm 海遊館
Sitting here in the aquarium's "Cafe de Clever". Just finished my Mexican sand (I love Japanese-English). Lol, it's a weird looking pocket bread thing with a sausage and mince in it. Spicy too. So far the aquarium has been amazing! It's massive; 7 floors. Otters, penguins, dolphins, seals... They even have two whale sharks!!! It's incredible. Brittney went off on her own; i guess she likes doing things on her own? We've still got 4 floors left. Where we are sitting in the cafe, we can see out over the port. The skies are as grey as the sea.
2:42pm 天保山
We're at the top of the 天保山観覧車 (Tenpozan kanransha - Ferris Wheel), which is apparently the largest in the world? It's pouring, but the view is still pretty spectacular. Ride time is approximately 15 minutes, so you can imagine, it's huge.
3:47pm 大阪港
We're in the waiting room in the subway. The next train is coming at 3:53. My feet are aching a little. After riding the Ferris wheel, we walked around the shops. There were some really cool shops, including a Studio Ghibli shop, and ninja shop. Getting on the train...
There was a really cool stall where you could get your face (photo) grafted into crystal, and another that did anime caricature. There were also lots of clothes shops. One in particular had some really cool shirts and jeans, but a little too expensive at this point in time. I hope Brittney gets back okay. I might see her around Kansai Gaidai. It's been a great day, though silly me forgot to check if there was a tape in the video camera!!! Fortunately, I could get some footage on the memory card, and I ended up taking some more video on my regular camera.
4:58pm 特急
We're on the limited express back to Hirakata; it goes direct to Hirakata without any stops. This is a really cool train; it has two storey seating carriages. After getting off at Mori no Miya, we walked around the edge of 大阪城公園 (Osakajou Koen - Osaka Castle Park). There was a band playing in the park, but you had to have a ticket to get in to see it; we could still hear it though. We could see Osaka castle from where we were and decided that that would be our next adventure. Wow, Brittney caught up with us again. I'm pretty tired now but looking forward to the takoyaki party tonight.
9:35pm セミナーハウス
Well my legs are aching now, but it's a good ache I guess. After we got back to Hirakata station we said goodbye to Jessica; going back to her host family by train. The lines for the buses in the station were huge. We met Seimu and he said it was because of the opening of a new electronics store. We eventually got on a bus, and the traffic was again hectic. We found out why there were so many ambulance and police cars around this morning. There had been a robbery at the 99円 store. Indeed, we had seen police cars out the front of it this morning.
Getting back, the takoyaki was already cooking. It was really yummy; I had about 7. Then someone decided to make them with oreo's, calling them cookie-yaki. It was actually pretty nice. We danced a little, and got told off by Otosan for jumping around. Well not told off; he just came in and asked that we don't do it. He's really cool. I'd better get some sleep. I really hope it doesn't rain again, because I want to go to the Eisaa Festival, *fingers crossed*. Oh, and we found out that Tenpozan was formerly the biggest Ferris wheel; it's now the 14th largest. They need to update their signage...
天気：雨天
We're on the sub-exp bound for 京橋 (Kyobashi). It's raining!!! So we decided (spur of the moment) to go to the 大阪 海遊館 (Osaka Kaiyukan - Aquarium), and keep the Hirakata Park trip for another day when it's sunny. Wow, the bus today, to get to Hirakata station, was absolutely packed. The traffic was chaotic, lots of ambulance and police cars; never in my wildest dreams would I want to drive around here! So yeah, here on the train with me are Diego and Jessica. It's going to be an awesome day. The aquarium's supposed to be one of the best in the world. I'm taking the video camera, so should get some great footage if I can get it to work, xD...
11:07am 京橋駅
We're waiting for the JR Loop train bound for 森ノ宮 (Mori no Miya). Then from there we're going to take the 中央 (chuou - central) subway to aquarium...
11:12am 電車
On the train...
11:24am 森ノ宮
Now we're waiting for the train in the subway. We met with a girl, Brittney, whose also going to the aquarium, so we're helping her get there. Overall it's been pretty easy to get here, the signs, for the most part, have had English on them. So now we're bound for 大阪港 (Osaka port).
11:30am 地下鉄電車
On the train. We still have 8 stops until we get there. Money-wise, I think it's been pretty cheap. About $10 to get all the way.
11:48am 大阪港Off the train walking towards the aquarium. There are signs everywhere, which is really helpful.
1:41pm 海遊館
Sitting here in the aquarium's "Cafe de Clever". Just finished my Mexican sand (I love Japanese-English). Lol, it's a weird looking pocket bread thing with a sausage and mince in it. Spicy too. So far the aquarium has been amazing! It's massive; 7 floors. Otters, penguins, dolphins, seals... They even have two whale sharks!!! It's incredible. Brittney went off on her own; i guess she likes doing things on her own? We've still got 4 floors left. Where we are sitting in the cafe, we can see out over the port. The skies are as grey as the sea.
2:42pm 天保山We're at the top of the 天保山観覧車 (Tenpozan kanransha - Ferris Wheel), which is apparently the largest in the world? It's pouring, but the view is still pretty spectacular. Ride time is approximately 15 minutes, so you can imagine, it's huge.
3:47pm 大阪港
We're in the waiting room in the subway. The next train is coming at 3:53. My feet are aching a little. After riding the Ferris wheel, we walked around the shops. There were some really cool shops, including a Studio Ghibli shop, and ninja shop. Getting on the train...
There was a really cool stall where you could get your face (photo) grafted into crystal, and another that did anime caricature. There were also lots of clothes shops. One in particular had some really cool shirts and jeans, but a little too expensive at this point in time. I hope Brittney gets back okay. I might see her around Kansai Gaidai. It's been a great day, though silly me forgot to check if there was a tape in the video camera!!! Fortunately, I could get some footage on the memory card, and I ended up taking some more video on my regular camera.
4:58pm 特急We're on the limited express back to Hirakata; it goes direct to Hirakata without any stops. This is a really cool train; it has two storey seating carriages. After getting off at Mori no Miya, we walked around the edge of 大阪城公園 (Osakajou Koen - Osaka Castle Park). There was a band playing in the park, but you had to have a ticket to get in to see it; we could still hear it though. We could see Osaka castle from where we were and decided that that would be our next adventure. Wow, Brittney caught up with us again. I'm pretty tired now but looking forward to the takoyaki party tonight.
9:35pm セミナーハウス
Well my legs are aching now, but it's a good ache I guess. After we got back to Hirakata station we said goodbye to Jessica; going back to her host family by train. The lines for the buses in the station were huge. We met Seimu and he said it was because of the opening of a new electronics store. We eventually got on a bus, and the traffic was again hectic. We found out why there were so many ambulance and police cars around this morning. There had been a robbery at the 99円 store. Indeed, we had seen police cars out the front of it this morning.
Getting back, the takoyaki was already cooking. It was really yummy; I had about 7. Then someone decided to make them with oreo's, calling them cookie-yaki. It was actually pretty nice. We danced a little, and got told off by Otosan for jumping around. Well not told off; he just came in and asked that we don't do it. He's really cool. I'd better get some sleep. I really hope it doesn't rain again, because I want to go to the Eisaa Festival, *fingers crossed*. Oh, and we found out that Tenpozan was formerly the biggest Ferris wheel; it's now the 14th largest. They need to update their signage...
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