Ok, so it has been a really long time since my last post. From now on I will try to keep them more regular. Since I went to the sumo match I have done a lot of small things, nothing big. I would say the biggest thing I have done since then is stayed with my host family. Unfortunately the stay was only for 1 night, but my host family has invited me to come back again. My host mom is one of the nicest people I have met in a long time and my host father is really cool and laid back. Their son, though busy with studying for the entrance exams for college, is in a band and he plays the guitar. I will have pictures and stuff up on my FlickR so check them out there.
Oh, yeah, I went to the Kawagoe Matsuri (かわごえ祭り). Kawagoe is a city that is just a few stations from mine, and a matsuri is a festival. There is lots of festival type foods. Everything from grilled squid and takoyaki to cotton candy and chocolate covered bananas. Its really really crowded and they carry a moving shrine that has people dancing and playing instruments, and the different shrines will battle as they meet at intersections. It was a lot of fun and I can’t wait until the next festival. I want to go to Hokkaido for the winter festival, but we will just have to see how that goes.
There are a few more things that I have done which are just sightseeing and hanging out with friends. So, yeah check out the FlickR.
Yeah, so today my roommate and I went to see a sumo match. We got up really early because we wanted to make sure we could get tickets, because they wouldn’t let us reserve them. So, we woke up at 5:30 and headed to a place, I don’t remember, close to Akihabara. We got there and got our tickets thinking it started at 8:30. Well, it didn’t. We went in thinking it was going to be really really packed… we were the only ones there. So, we decided to sit and watch the ones who aren’t really in the big leagues yet. Continue reading “I sumo’d …”
I finally got all the pictures from when I was in Osaka and Fukui uploaded to my photostream. Go take a look, I know some of you have been asking for them. I’ll be having another big post coming up soon.
So, I am now in Japan and I have been here since the 1st of Sept. Well, as soon as I get to Japan I am told that my luggage was elsewhere. Then after the I take the guy at the airport, who spoke little english, to talk to Taka we find out that my luggage is in Amsterdam. Yeah, how that happened I have no idea. So, I now have no clothes, no underwear, not much of anything. Well, we are supposed to go to a ryokan (Japanese style inn), so I had to buy some new clothes and underwear when we got there. That put a little hole in my spending money, which makes me a sad panda. Continue reading “Oh, so much has happened”
Ok, its 11:37pm and I only have 4 and a half hours until we have to leave for the airport. I am way too excited to sleep so I decided to make my last post from America. It seems like today has been one of the longest days of my life. Each hour that passes seems to go by slower. I have waited this long… what is a few more hours, eh?
I do want to say thank you to the International Department at UWF. They gave me a wonderful farewell and I will miss working there even if it was for free. ha ha. Thanks everyone.
As for the traveling part of tomorrow. I leave from Pensacola and have a layover in Memphis. Then I fly from Memphis to Detroit, where I have a 4hr 20min layover. Then from Detroit to Osaka, 13hrs of crying little kids, people getting sick, and not getting any sleep. You know you are jealous now. I am now going to go try to find something else to occupy my time with. The next time I talk to everyone will be from Japan.
Oh, good luck with the storm and stay safe! I’m leaving just in time.
Thats right. Very soon I will be on my voyage to Japan. It is now less than 2 weeks away. I am very prepared for the trip and have everything in order. This week I have a lot of students to pick up from various countries. They are coming to UWF for the semester, or year. It will be very very busy, but it will be fun. Willy and I will be getting the new Kansai Gaidai students on Thursday and doing orentations on Friday and Monday. This will be our last volunteer work before we leave. Willy leaves a little bit before I do, good luck on your class lottery, Willy, and hopefully I will see him during the few days I’m in Osaka. Well, I will see some of you soon and will say bye to the rest of you. lol.
I have a few Blogs that I read regularly. My favorite being Tofugu. Through that Blog I came across Lang-8. I have only been a member Lang-8 for about 4 days now and have already found it very useful. It is a site where you can write in the language that you are studying and people who are native speakers of that language will correct your writing. You, too, can correct other peoples writing to help them out as well. Tofugu has a much better explanation of the site, and it is in video form. I really encourage anyone who is studying a foreign language to try it out. I will soon be using it to correct my Japanese for my upcoming posts in Japanese. Was that confusing? Good luck to everyone. Study hard!
The University of West Florida, who I am doing my exchange through, has added a link to my website on the Study Abroad page. Not only does this mean that I actually have to try and use proper grammar, but it also means that I will get a lot of visits from new people. For those new people visiting my Blog, I hope you get some enjoyment from it. This is, however, a personal Blog and completely under my control. All posts and comments are approved by me. So I guess let me tell you a little about my Blog and even a little about myself.
Continue reading “I have been added to the UWF Study Abroad page.”
Ok, so I have been thinking about all the stuff I still have to do. I need to buy luggage, because I don’t have any, I need to pack all my stuff and move it to my mom’s house, and I need to get my visa. My roommate brought me some boxes from work today, so I started boxing up some stuff, mom get ready. I have only cleaned off the bookshelf and I am already tired of packing. I guess its a good thing I started so early. That part should be done fairly smoothly.
Buying luggage is posing to be a huge problem. I have never had to buy luggage before so I didn’t realize how expensive it is. I want to get something good that wont fall apart when I get to Japan, but I also want something that isn’t too expensive. Is there a happy medium? If anyone knows a place I can get good decently priced luggage please let me know. Just send me an e-mail or comment.
My visa on the other hand, I can do nothing about. I have to wait for my approval letter (if that is what its called) from Japan before I can send in for my visa. Back to waiting!
Those are the only things I have left to do. Besides try to find a job that will let me work for a 2 months. Well, I guess I don’t plan on telling them that I will be leaving in 2 months, but whatever.
Ok, going to try to do some studying. Going to a foreign country is starting to get kinda nerve racking. I mean geeze I need a lot of practice before I go. Time to study!
So, I managed to get the paperwork off in time, but I had to adjust it a little bit. I’m taking a small vacation before school starts. I am flying to Osaka on August 31st and staying there until Sept 7th. I will be staying at Taka’s house, and we are going to go to a ryokan (Japanese style inn) for a few nights. Well, because of this trip I had a little trouble filling out the information for the paper work. It was all arrival information. What time will you arrive in Tokyo? Which airport are you flying in on? What is your flight number? Yeah, so I had to change the first two to fit my trip. Which I was worried they wouldn’t like that I changed, but I got Aki to talk to them and they said it was fine so now I can rest easy. Its 3:14am and I’m trying to fix my sleeping schedule so I’m going to go lay down and try to sleep.
