Techonology!

Realized I didn't really update on my gadgets and what not.

I got a phone from softbank about... 3 weeks ago? Osaka U had this "contract party" specifically for softbank where the hard device is free but the model you get is first come, first serve. Choosing strictly on color, I ended up getting one of the good ones.

Some features that I can remember off the top of my head:

   - Widget function, much like the iPhone.
   - Touch screen/widget slide function
   - Japanese-English, English-Japanese dictionary
   - Reversible screen
   - 10 mp Camera


Also purchased a rice cooker! After a month and a half of being here I finally bought one, haha.

It's the same model as my buddy Heather (the one who lent me her bike for the year) only her's is a lime green. It was pretty cheap for a new rice cooker, around 4,900 yen. I've been looking at this one for a while at the Saty shopping center near my apartment for a while and when I finally bought it, it ended up being the last one on the shelf. <3

Sorry for the late update, but there's been so much that's happened recently! I'll probably have to do another few blog entries. For now though here are some photos of random things around my school:

 An elephant key chain someone left behind on campus. I put it here in case anyone wanted it, but it was still in that general area for a week. =/

Pikachu happily warning children of danger. There are some other signs that say "ちかん" and for the longest time I had no idea what the sign or the word meant (the sign had lots of magnifying glasses and some witch/devil thing) until I looked it up... Apparently it's a warning sign to beware of molesters...

Bento!

As I'm starting to get back into the flow of organized schedules and school work, I'm also working on my diet. I've actually been eating breakfast almost every day now. But I guess I'm using a lot more energy everyday that something in the morning before class has become quite the necessity. Today I made a small bento of rice, tamagoyaki, and pan-fried sausage. For tomorrow I prepared boiled sausage (to look like octopus!), kabocha (pumpkin), and rice. I hope by the end of my time here I'll be a bento master. People in my program have started telling me that I'll become a great house wife though. BLEH.

Kotatsu and Concerts~

Monday was a holiday so the housing administration escorted students living in the apartments to a few stores that are known for selling cheap furniture. c: Josephine and I bought a little kotatsu~ <3

 This is Andrej, he's a Swedish man in a Gundam.. that specializes in massage.

 The admini surprised us by treating us to lunch after our shopping spree! D:

Later in the day, Josephine and I made plans with John to go see his guitar teacher's band that happened to be touring in Japan that weekend. So, here are some pictures of Umeda!

 HEP 5 Ferris Wheel

 Booze and Boogie, that's all you need. =)

 Wat.

The band we were there for was called Jaded Heart, but the head lining band, Doro was also really good

 The venue.

 John's guitar teacher, Peter.

 At the end of the show all the bands that played got up on stage and did a big number for the crowd... plus a sex doll.

On the way back to the station we saw THAT.

Oct. 4 - Oct. 6

Monday Oct. 4:

First real day of class! Every Monday the program has a meeting of some sort to go over program rules/upcoming events. That day I went to an intro to Japanese literature class and human rights education. Not sure what I think of the human rights one yet, but I think I might have to take it for the sake of getting credits. A couple of the girls recognized me and it turned out that they live in the same building but on the second floor. :o One was named Margot (from France) and the other Jeongeun (from Korea).

We stayed on campus for a while after class with the guys and I decided to invite the guys over for dinner. A few days before I had gone with the guys to go apartment viewing with one of the admini people. John (from Sweden) really doesn't like the dorms cause it's ridiculously dirty, I guess. The guys also wanted to see what our apartments looked like. We made stir fry with tomato sauce (surprisingly delicious) and put it on top of rice. I also introduced A Very Potter Musical to everyone. Martijn was totally into it. XD

Tuesday Oct. 5:

First Japanese class. Oh goodness, looks like it's going to be difficult. Was also the first time going to Toyonaka campus via the shuttle bus. Also went to get, I guess, hired for an English-speaking type thing. The guy in charge is kind of weird... But anywho, here are some pictures of the campus:

There was a little stray kitty on campus near my Japanese class. =( He looked so skinny, but he was really nice. He approached me to get some pets. I named him Mufasa.

Josephine, Martijn, and I decided to make yakisoba that night and watch more Harry Potter musical. We also took purikura!

Wednesday Oct. 6:

In one of our classes we met a Japanese girl who can speak Swedish, a good day for Josephine. We all decided to follow her to Minoh campus just to check it out and see if it was worth taking the bus there for one of our classes the next day. Turns out it is. The campus is a lot smaller, but it's in the mountains so the air is refreshing.

Bike

My buddy Heather was living in Namba for the summer to go to an intensive language school and bought a bike. She left it with one of her friends at the hostel she was staying at so that I can pick it up and use it. (MUCH LOVE FOR THAT) So I went to pick it up yesterday. Got up pretty early but didn't get to Namba till maybe 10:30 or so. After circling the same couple of blocks for about 45 minutes I finally found the hostel. OTL Went up, got the bike, then proceeded to find my way back to Aoyamadai in Suita... According to google maps the distance is roughly 20 km. Here's a map:

 

My apartment is the northern part of the map and the bottom circle is where Namba is. Basically what I tried to do was follow the train line that takes me from Kitasenri station to Umeda station, but there isn't a set road that follows along the train lines. Rather, the roads are cut up or don't exist at all. In total it took me about three hours t o get back because I got lost twice, haha. But I really only had to ask for directions once. By the time I got home I realized I'd gotten three shades darker and almost got a sunburn D: There's also a bug bite on my ankle that swelled up like a bugger, it's gone down a little since then though. 

Went over a few rivers on the ride home.

The way I knew that I was going in the right direction/following the right train were the landmarks that I remembered. This cemetery being one of them.

In other news, I made pasta the other day and also found Boursin at the super market! I loove this cheese. It was actually introduced to me by my most recent boyfriend Jon. <3 

 

 

The apartment complex recommends that the tenants get a cover for the window since you can see into the apartment/if you're nakey near the bathroom from outside. So I put this there. I hope the mailman doesn't judge me. XB

Made this for me and my flat mate. c:

Small update

Thursday was a holiday so not much really happened. Took a walk and bought more stuff for the apartment, then went to Umeda with Alesandra (girl from Brazil) and Sami (girl from China). We got lost and just looked around mostly. It was a holiday that day so we couldn't go to city hall and do our alien registration =(

But that was done yesterday. Pretty simple. Took the train to Suita and went to city hall. The school gave us a little pamphlet for what to do/what to bring along with the proper documents to fill out before hand. After alien registration we also went and applied for the national health insurance located somewhere else in the building. The only thing that kind of sucked was that we still couldn't open a bank account. We need to give the Application for Certificate of Alien Registration to city hall, as I understood it, but they told us to go to the location at Minami Senri instead of Suita, and they said we couldn't do that until Monday. orz No biggie. Tuesday we're supposed to pay the deposit in cash. Luckily I have enough for it and then some for other things until my bank account is active. After that we went to Namba and went to search for Dotonburi. Got distracted by Big Camera but we eventually made it. We only walked part of it cause by then we were all pretty tired.

That night I met my room mate! Her name's Josephine and she's from Finland. Strangely enough, she doesn't speak Finnish, but she speaks Swedish. ._. We went to daiso and bought more stuff for the apartment, like a bulletin board! c: There's some other stuff we're still working on. I still need to get a shelving system type of thing/drawers/some way to organize my clothes and my papers.

Today Josephine went with one of her friends to explore Suita campus. I'm probably gonna work more on my room/organizing stuff. Actually slept in a bit more for once. Past couple days I've been waking up at 4 or 5 in the morning. XD

 Flat mate Puri Kura!

Apartment! Plus Mild Insomnia...

Woke up with a rumbly tummy, but the only thing in my fridge at the moment is water and calpis, so I'm distracting myself with internet until I fall back asleep. So I'll talk about moving into my apartment!

I was at the hostel for quite a while before actually making my way to Suita campus for the apartment orientation. The reason behind it was that I had already eaten breakfast at he hostel before meeting these three girls from Austria who happen to be in the same program. That morning we decided to take a taxi together to campus since they said that the program would pay for it or something (though I was planning on taking the trains which would have been somewhat difficult, but cheaper). But the girls hadn't eaten yet so they went out and said they'd be back in an hour or so, which means I would have made it in time for the earlier orientation. They ended being late, but it's was all good in the end cause I guess the orientations were running off schedule anyway. We later found out that the campuses we were going to were different. They were going to Minoh campus while I was going to Suita. The taxi driver dropped me off first before taking the girls to Minoh. I didn't pick up the tab at all (though I tried). The girls were sure that the price didn't matter, so I hope it worked out in the end. When I got there the tab was at 6000 yen!!! D:

Went to the international hall, got my key and a bunch of info about garbage, the apartments, and shops near by. There's a mall that's a 5 minute walk from my apartment. =) Since the apartment's a 2DK, it's a lot bigger than I was expecting. My room is small and cozy, but the kitchen and living room are huge. Internet is set up, but I have to connect directly with my LAN cable. The NTT company is supposed to give me a password for wireless at some point.

After we were told things that we can touch/shouldn't touch on the laundry machine and bathtub, we were set free to just settle in and relax. Of course right after this I realized I needed to pee reeeally bad only to find my toilet fully wrapped in plastic and no toilet paper. Held it in for a while before running to the mall with a girl from Brazil that I met at the orientation (she lives in the building next to mine) and got some general cleaning supplies and toilet paper. =) Yay for daiso!

Had McDonald's for dinner.. hoping to do a little grocery shopping on the way home from City Hall after doing my alien registration to make some pasta or something. I haven't really had a chance to eat proper meals since coming here. My stomach is also kind of thrown off by the time difference.

Once we got back to the apartments, we found out that the Brazilian girl's room mate had just arrived! She's from Hong Kong and had already settled in while we were gone. My room mate won't be here until Friday since Thursday is a holiday and they won't be doing orientations.

Later that night I was looking over the alien registration papers again when I suddenly noticed that I had my period. The only thing I had at the time were tampons, but considering that I was going to sleep soon I didn't really want to sleep in a tampon, but what other choice did I have? Trying to figure out the situation, the baggage delivery service came!!! They came a little earlier than expected but it was PERFECT TIMING AND SAVED MY LIFE. Received my suitcase all nicely wrapped in plastic and the zippers tied together to ensure security to find all my stuff there, including my pads! <3<3<3 I was also able to just get everything out of my suitcase and shoved into my closet. Oh happy day.

This is my front door. Shoes already nicely laid out c:

My bathroom. The shower room is right next door.

Laundry/beauty area right outside the bathroom and shower room.

The kitchen is actually a lot larger than I was expecting.

My room. The futon and desk were included. I might go out and buy a small shelf or something at some point.

That's all for now. I think I might be able to go back to sleep, though now I can hear the cicadas and there's a small thunder storm going on. Till next time guys!

Tomorrow's Mission: Alien Registration, Open a Bank account and get some groceries!

Hostel Adventure!

Flew into Narita around 4:00PM, about half an hour early which resulted in half an hour of extra waiting. XP Went to one of the baggage delivery services (宅急便・たっきゅびん・takkyubin) at the airport that was highly suggested by a few friends and teachers. As long as you have a final destination, you can specify what day and what time of day you want your luggage to be delivered. Handai said that the bag has to be delivered after I've officially moved in (today) so it should come by sometime tomorrow morning. GREAT IDEA because I had one less giant bag to worry about.

After dropping off a suitcase, I took the limosine bus to Haneda airport where I would make my transfer flight to Kansai International. My Japanese was pretty rusty when I got there so the rest of that day was me being super retarded and asking staff where I should go for checking in, which train I need to take, how to buy a train ticket, etc.

My flight to Kansai was spent asleep but with amusement because I flew on a Boeing 777 from Tokyo to Osaka, a one hour flight, at night, with no more than 50 passengers. Once I flew in, me and my second largest suitcase and two carry on's made our way to the hostel located in the Chuo ward of Osaka city. After I bought tickets, the train ride was fairly smooth with only one transfer. The only hard part was lugging my bags up and down the stairs, a problem many travelers in Japan seem to wind up in. I arrived at Tamatsukuri Station and attempted to follow the directions word for word from the Guesthouse U-en website. However, it turned out I had mixed two different parts of the directions together because I got lost on the wrong side of Nagahori-dori and was looking for the hostel around the right landmark but the wrong location that was described on their website. Still attempting to adjust to the humidity and heat while pulling 65 pounds proved to be far too difficult (I know, I'm a wuss.) and ended up waving down a taxi for help. I was then literally taken about 5 more blocks down Nagahori-dori and we circled around the area till we finally found the place. Boy, some trip.

I arrived and probably looked like a damsel in distress upon walking in because the guy behind the counter immediately guessed it was me and expressed his relief thinking I must have died along the way or something considering I was rather late for my reservation. Being so tired I spoke with the staff mostly in English. Yoshi, the guy that showed me around the hostel and helped me throw my luggage up a bunk bed, didn't realize I could speak Japanese until one of the morning staff members, Emi, pointed it out after I had a conversation with her the next day.. he then started to pout because I guess he had a hard time explaining the place in English. orz But today we all had a great time just talking about traveling and stuff. I'm definitely hoping to hang out with them whenever I'm back in that area.

Here are some pictures from the hostel! After having stayed there, I'd highly recommend it for anyone who wants to go and travel in Osaka. Very English friendly (minus Yoshi, haha)