Daar zijn we dan weer, deze keer in het nederlands.
Omdat ik het gevoel heb dat Nederlands, buiten het occasionele 'hééééé duncan, hoe zegt ge da int engels', van de aardbol geveegd werd een maand geleden, moet het toch dringend eens worden van onder het stof gehaald. Sorry my friends, if this blog turns out to be a hit, I might just consider translating.
Dusch, ondertussen zijn we een maand verder en wat hebben we geleerd? Een week geleden zou ik gezegd hebben 'niet bijzonder veel'. Ik weet dat ik kan drinken als een ryuugakusei, dat de keuken de place to be is voor mensen die geen idee hebben wat ze willen uitsteken en daar plannen beramen, dat het buiten ofwel schijtweer is ofwel... schijtweer én dan mijn Japans er niet denderend op vooruit lijkt te gaan.
Maar jammeren is voor saaie mensen, aldus bo's wijsheid. Ge kunt beter uw tijd steken in sweets paradise, vlooienmarkten, winkelcentra, locale specialiteiten, zelf proberen wagashi maken en er nog in slagen ook, het idee krijgen dat ge meer chinees verstaat dan japans na een maand om te gaan met meer chinezen dan japanners en koreanen achterna lopen die liever engels leren dan u koreaans bijbrengen. Pseudotolk spelen bij een groep buitenlandse studenten in kimono waarvan iedereen denkt dat ze traditionele japanse madammekes zijn, sakura proberen fotograferen, proberen op het dak te kruipen van gebouwen waar ge niet moogt zijn, beseffen dat japanse zon, eens ze schijnt, zijn naam waardig is, ruzie maken met korsakoff-jappen -ze bestaan écht-, enz.
Een nieuwe week geeft nieuwe perspectieven en voor we daarover een volledig epistel gaan schrijven, kan ik misschien best met het begin beginnen, nl 'the day I thought it all went wrong'
De eerste dag van het schooljaar was een 'entrance ceremony' (laat me eventjes een foto toevoegen). Deze werd in Osaka Dome gehouden en we werden letterlijk gedropt recht onder de plaats waar we zitten, nl. pal voor het podium. Het onderscheid 'buitenlander' en 'nette japanse student' is niet moeilijk te maken, neem ik aan? Goed zo, we waren dan ook de aapjes in de zoo. Hoewel saai, heb ik mezelf doodgelachen met het spektakel dat ze de 'grand opening of the schoolyear' noemen: een koor dan geen engels kan, maar het toch zingen moet, lollige Rits-slogans, hiphop op podium en dansacts die u alle hoeken van de zaal doen bekijken, kortom, ik was blij dat het voorbij was.
De volgende morgen was er een placement test, beginnende met een luistergedeelte en daarna een schriftelijk. Omdat deze test voor zowat alle niveaus was, kwam ik buiten met het gevoel dat ik mijn tijd verkwanseld heb de laatste jaren. Na nog wat overbodige -wij behandelen buitenlanders als peuters-bullcrap, kon het weekend starten met in het achterhoofd dat we op maandagmorgen nog een mondeling hadden. In vergelijking met de luistertest, die nogmaals bewees dat ik mijn aandacht geen 2 seconden op dezelfde zin kan houden, viel het mondeling wel mee. Niettemin voelde ik het onweer al boven mijn hoofd hangen.
Na nog 2 extra dagen van 'je mag geen brandend papier in de vuilbak steken-onzin' kregen we eindelijk te horen in welke klas we terecht zouden komen. Zoals verwacht, lager dan ik zou moeten zitten. Ondertussen heb ik er al vrede mee genomen echter, denkende 'beter een goeie basis om op verder te bouwen, dan niet weten hoe een werkwoord te vervoegen, maar wel het woord voor werelddominantie te kennen'. Kanji? Ik ken ze al, grammatica? Ik ken het al, maar opfrissen kan geen kwaad, plus dit geeft meer kans om me te focussen op praat&luister-skills.
De profs zijn chill, maar strikt en stiekem mis ik uhl, ako & niehaus wel, maar toch, klagen kan ik zeker weten niet doen.
Buiten de klas om, wordt elke moment waarop het niet regent, benut om zoveel als mogelijk cultuur op te snuiven. De dagen dat het niet regende, kan ik echter op mijn rechterhand alleen al tellen. Mijn vrijetijd werd dus vooral opgevuld met elke witte kamer dat deze dorm rijk is, gezamelijk in te drinken. Al zeg ik het zelf, dat is ons aardig gelukt. Ook wat zoetigheid betreft, hebben we goed ons best gedaan om zowat alles dat anders of net identiek hetzelfde is als thuis te proberen. Ik kwam erachter dat hier in de winkel ze zaken uit België verkopen waarvan ik bij god geen idee heb wat het zou moeten zijn. Daarvoor komen we naar Japan, weliswaar.
Tot nu toe kwam echter enkel Kyoto zelf aan de beurt en geloof het of niet, na een maand wordt het dringend tijd voor er toch eens op uit te trekken.
Volgende week is het Golden Week, de meest afschuwelijk drukke vakantie die Japan rijk is en hopelijk ga ik dan Ise en Nara bezoeken. Afhankelijk van het weer ook Osaka en Kobe, maar dat valt nog af te wachten. Ik hou niet van plannen en als het regent, zet ik liever geen voet buiten. De kat uit de boom kijken, lijk een echte gaijin. Ondertussen met mijn vieze vingers nog wat vers fruit aanraken, daar kicken ze op, ik voel het.
Verder heb ik vooral lompe stoten uitgehaald, reeds 192 mensen bijna met de fiets omvergereden omdat ze gewoon niet uit hun doppen kijken, gezorgd voor verkeersagressie (langs mijn kant toch alleszins), kyoto binnenste buiten gehaald én veel vriendjes gemaakt.
Eens het goed weer wordt, gaat er wel nog meer leuks volgen, meer verhalen over de graslei van kyoto, mushimushi zoeken tussen de bergen en schrijnen, jappen leren recht lopen en verkeersregels bijbrengen, mijn japans bijschaven, meer locale specialiteiten leren kennen, enzovoort.
Yamazaki misleiden, de tuin onveilig maken, illegale dingen bekokstoven, bendevorming, ouw madammekes uit de onsen pesten en hopelijk nog veel meer volgende week!
maandag 26 april 2010
zaterdag 27 maart 2010
donderdag 25 maart 2010
Getting to Japan
So,
my first blog ever, in english even, making sure I do not have to write this thing twice (I might be in Japan, but i'm still a lazy Caucasian, nevertheless).
Lets start with a mood-description shall we?
Right now it's 01h30 Japanese Time. Yes, it's late. I'm drinking a beer in my new room. This reminds me of a certain moment I got sick somewhere in Cirrouqui'smt.... I will call it "Spain" and my mom had to smuggle beer into the hostel to make me feel better. (This might sound strange to 90% of the people reading this, but I'm sure it'll put a smile on 10%' face.)
The reason i'm quietely drinking my smooth Asahi-beer is not because I'm feeling ill tho, but it is the same reason that right now I am awake but need to get up at 8 in the morning. I just can't seem to sleep. Going up & down to the toilet doesn't help and I have been enough of a pain in the ass today to bother people at 1.30 at night.
My adventure started -officially- 3 days ago in Belgium. Candide & my mom drove me to the airport in Germany (Dusseldorf) to catch my plane. It was my -perhaps- last chance to act like a shitty little kid. The only one noticing it, was ofcourse Dide & he bought me a starbucks Icecoffee. Thanks my love : )
As soon as the moment of truth drew near, I got emotional, luckily all 3 of us felt to same (not that this made it any easier) but at a certain point I had to turn around and not look back anymore.
Fully aware of the display I left behind and coping with it, I walked towards the gate & started feeling better.
Monday the 22th& tuesday the 23rd I had 3 planes to catch, yes I did, an annoying task with more luggage than I was supposed to have, but no questions where asked.
The first plane went to Frankfurt. I sat down nexto 2 german girls that showed no interest in talking to me, which amused me. After about 45 minutes they did start to talk because they apparently saw my visa and noticed how I was going to Japan aswell. All of a sudden an announcement was made saying: "People going to Shanghai will be picked up right at the exit of the plane & will be taken directly to the gate".
first thought: aaaaaaaalright no walking
second thought: goddamnit I don't have that ticket yet, let alone they know where my baggage has to go
Getting out of the plane, there was -as said- a bus waiting to pick us up, all 4 of us : D The rest of the plane had to share a bus too :D
At the gate they booked my ticket, Bo was happy & set to fly to Shanghai - flight number 2.
Lots of people showed up, lots of chinese flying with Air China, a crosscontinental airplane with the worsed seats you can possibly imagine. Luckily nobody sat nexto me, so I could lay down if I felt like it (this does not mean I could sleep). Just like in every company, they forgot I was vegetarian. But these stewardesses were particularly amusing. They got annoyed at me, saying I didn't order, while I did and even got the confirmation. When I kept on saying 'i'm sorry I did order and don't eat meat or fish' all of a sudden she started calling one of the others and that one handed over a paper saying -they didn't know- which she pushed into my face. Custumor-service ey?
Anyway, I got my vegetarian stuff... twice, so no complaints, however they weren't all that friendly tho.
Arriving in Shanghai -woooohooooow CHHHHINAAAA- I had no clue whatsoever where I had to go, that airport was HUGE. But ofcourse, apparently I had to go through customs again, because... I didn't have a ticket. Customs looked at me like I was a weirdo... but I wasn't the only one... I got out, looked at the baggageclaim, reminded myself of the fact that the lady in Frankfurt told me that my baggage would go directly into tranfer to KIX, and went to find my baggage anyway. What showed up 5 minutes later? My baggage ofcourse. I went out to find a desk to register again and went back in. So far my chinese adventure :D
No wait, I was so thirsty I needed to change money, but they charged 5 euros for exchange while I only wanted to change 10, so I told them to get lost. Luckily there were 'warm-water'refreshers at the airport ;)
To Shanghai I noticed already we had alot of turbulence, even breakfast was served an hour later because of it, but to Osaka aswell... tur-bu-len-ce. Friendly staff, not knowing I was vegetarian, but still friendly.
In Osaka, I took a shuttle, that person immediately made me realise how important my keigo was, but after 10 minutes I fell asleep because the seats were 20000x better than those of Air China.
Somewhere in Kyoto they told me to get into another car and I had a nice chat with the taxidriver. He put me at ease and dropped me off after alot of searching for the I-House.
Arriving here, was a warm welcome. It made me feel right at home. They gave me a room, blankets and a tour of the building. I checked the computer, told everybody I was ok and fell asleep.
The next morning, I woke up by the rain on a shed. I got up opened the curtains and noticed how it was impossible to look outside. The bicycleshed blocked my entire window, i'm not joking. I got repulsed immediately and closed the curtains again, saying to myself 'this isn't all that bad, this isn't all that bad' but you can be sure I felt horrible. While closing them up, I noticed the stains on the curtain that looked like someone pucked on them, and started feeling even worse... I coped with it for 10 minutes but then thought "I'm getting out, I'll go store and don't think of it for a while".
The store was a mechakucha-distaster. The most intense shopping experience éver.
Everything from entering the store to leaving it, took 399% of my attention not to fuck things up.
Walking to the store -eventho it's on the other side of the road went fairly easy- but the store itself... They have plastic bags to put your umbrella in -genius- but I took one out of the garbage instead of the clean ones by accident. In the store I had no clue whether I was looking at stuff to clean the toilet or wash my face... At the register they didn't pack my stuff, but gave me bags to go to a special counter to pack it myself... It took me an hour to get eggs, drinks, toothpaste & bodywash.
Back at the dorm, I got confronted with the shed again, but before I could get over it, the telephone rang and I got invited upstairs to a cocky english -highly enjoyable- teaparty. Everyone made me feel better and eventually helped me to ask for another room, which I got.
Right now I'm on the 3rd floor without a shed. I fixed myself a table and a fridge and am set to go for alien registration at 9 in the morning, tomorrowmorning.
Right now it's time to put on those toiletslippers one last time and meet my strange beanlike pillow to lay on.
Goodnight.
ps: apologies for writing-errors. This was written in 30 minutes & I don't feel like reading it again ;)
my first blog ever, in english even, making sure I do not have to write this thing twice (I might be in Japan, but i'm still a lazy Caucasian, nevertheless).
Lets start with a mood-description shall we?
Right now it's 01h30 Japanese Time. Yes, it's late. I'm drinking a beer in my new room. This reminds me of a certain moment I got sick somewhere in Cirrouqui'smt.... I will call it "Spain" and my mom had to smuggle beer into the hostel to make me feel better. (This might sound strange to 90% of the people reading this, but I'm sure it'll put a smile on 10%' face.)
The reason i'm quietely drinking my smooth Asahi-beer is not because I'm feeling ill tho, but it is the same reason that right now I am awake but need to get up at 8 in the morning. I just can't seem to sleep. Going up & down to the toilet doesn't help and I have been enough of a pain in the ass today to bother people at 1.30 at night.
My adventure started -officially- 3 days ago in Belgium. Candide & my mom drove me to the airport in Germany (Dusseldorf) to catch my plane. It was my -perhaps- last chance to act like a shitty little kid. The only one noticing it, was ofcourse Dide & he bought me a starbucks Icecoffee. Thanks my love : )
As soon as the moment of truth drew near, I got emotional, luckily all 3 of us felt to same (not that this made it any easier) but at a certain point I had to turn around and not look back anymore.
Fully aware of the display I left behind and coping with it, I walked towards the gate & started feeling better.
Monday the 22th& tuesday the 23rd I had 3 planes to catch, yes I did, an annoying task with more luggage than I was supposed to have, but no questions where asked.
The first plane went to Frankfurt. I sat down nexto 2 german girls that showed no interest in talking to me, which amused me. After about 45 minutes they did start to talk because they apparently saw my visa and noticed how I was going to Japan aswell. All of a sudden an announcement was made saying: "People going to Shanghai will be picked up right at the exit of the plane & will be taken directly to the gate".
first thought: aaaaaaaalright no walking
second thought: goddamnit I don't have that ticket yet, let alone they know where my baggage has to go
Getting out of the plane, there was -as said- a bus waiting to pick us up, all 4 of us : D The rest of the plane had to share a bus too :D
At the gate they booked my ticket, Bo was happy & set to fly to Shanghai - flight number 2.
Lots of people showed up, lots of chinese flying with Air China, a crosscontinental airplane with the worsed seats you can possibly imagine. Luckily nobody sat nexto me, so I could lay down if I felt like it (this does not mean I could sleep). Just like in every company, they forgot I was vegetarian. But these stewardesses were particularly amusing. They got annoyed at me, saying I didn't order, while I did and even got the confirmation. When I kept on saying 'i'm sorry I did order and don't eat meat or fish' all of a sudden she started calling one of the others and that one handed over a paper saying -they didn't know- which she pushed into my face. Custumor-service ey?
Anyway, I got my vegetarian stuff... twice, so no complaints, however they weren't all that friendly tho.
Arriving in Shanghai -woooohooooow CHHHHINAAAA- I had no clue whatsoever where I had to go, that airport was HUGE. But ofcourse, apparently I had to go through customs again, because... I didn't have a ticket. Customs looked at me like I was a weirdo... but I wasn't the only one... I got out, looked at the baggageclaim, reminded myself of the fact that the lady in Frankfurt told me that my baggage would go directly into tranfer to KIX, and went to find my baggage anyway. What showed up 5 minutes later? My baggage ofcourse. I went out to find a desk to register again and went back in. So far my chinese adventure :D
No wait, I was so thirsty I needed to change money, but they charged 5 euros for exchange while I only wanted to change 10, so I told them to get lost. Luckily there were 'warm-water'refreshers at the airport ;)
To Shanghai I noticed already we had alot of turbulence, even breakfast was served an hour later because of it, but to Osaka aswell... tur-bu-len-ce. Friendly staff, not knowing I was vegetarian, but still friendly.
In Osaka, I took a shuttle, that person immediately made me realise how important my keigo was, but after 10 minutes I fell asleep because the seats were 20000x better than those of Air China.
Somewhere in Kyoto they told me to get into another car and I had a nice chat with the taxidriver. He put me at ease and dropped me off after alot of searching for the I-House.
Arriving here, was a warm welcome. It made me feel right at home. They gave me a room, blankets and a tour of the building. I checked the computer, told everybody I was ok and fell asleep.
The next morning, I woke up by the rain on a shed. I got up opened the curtains and noticed how it was impossible to look outside. The bicycleshed blocked my entire window, i'm not joking. I got repulsed immediately and closed the curtains again, saying to myself 'this isn't all that bad, this isn't all that bad' but you can be sure I felt horrible. While closing them up, I noticed the stains on the curtain that looked like someone pucked on them, and started feeling even worse... I coped with it for 10 minutes but then thought "I'm getting out, I'll go store and don't think of it for a while".
The store was a mechakucha-distaster. The most intense shopping experience éver.
Everything from entering the store to leaving it, took 399% of my attention not to fuck things up.
Walking to the store -eventho it's on the other side of the road went fairly easy- but the store itself... They have plastic bags to put your umbrella in -genius- but I took one out of the garbage instead of the clean ones by accident. In the store I had no clue whether I was looking at stuff to clean the toilet or wash my face... At the register they didn't pack my stuff, but gave me bags to go to a special counter to pack it myself... It took me an hour to get eggs, drinks, toothpaste & bodywash.
Back at the dorm, I got confronted with the shed again, but before I could get over it, the telephone rang and I got invited upstairs to a cocky english -highly enjoyable- teaparty. Everyone made me feel better and eventually helped me to ask for another room, which I got.
Right now I'm on the 3rd floor without a shed. I fixed myself a table and a fridge and am set to go for alien registration at 9 in the morning, tomorrowmorning.
Right now it's time to put on those toiletslippers one last time and meet my strange beanlike pillow to lay on.
Goodnight.
ps: apologies for writing-errors. This was written in 30 minutes & I don't feel like reading it again ;)
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