Months later....


Ok so I guess I owe this place an update!

Today marks my second week here in Tokyo, Japan. This place is just mind boggling. It is immense and people are everywhere at all hours of the day. On the bus ride from the airport to the 成蹊大学国際交流会館　(Seikei University International House), once you get into the outskirts of Tokyo, all you can see are buildings on both sides to the horizon. If you're claustrophobic, Tokyo is not the city for you to be living in.

The flight over wasn't too bad. Singapore airlines were great, so many movies to watch in your own personal headset thing that you can actually rewind and fastforward! I watched Aeon Flux on the way over. It was a bit disappointing considering I was a fan of the original animation all those years ago. Theres even a SNES built into the hand controller thing you get on the plane so I was able to play Street Fighter II for the first time in about a decade. Good times. That was the flight from Brsibane to Singapore anyway. The second flight I caught wasn't too bad but the plane seemed really catered towards Asians. By that I mean, the seats were ridiculously small. I didn't get much sleep on either flights.

Arrived in Tokyo on March 28th to a cold morning. Much chillier than I'd been expecting but at least I'd packed warmer clothes. Bus ride was about an hour and a half from Narita Airport into Kichijoji Station which is about a 10 minute walk away from home (I know that now, not at the time). Been pretty tired and disorientated, I asked the bus driver where the right road was to walk towards Seikei Uni and he passed me off to some other guy who bundled me off and on to a local bus which stopped right outside the uni. Score!

Anyways, settled in here now and my new home is pretty fun. I get along with nearly everyone else who is studying here. The group of people that I share my kithen with are awesome; Nick who's from Griffith Uni Gold Coast as well but who's Japanese is super advanced (it's like he's a local), Anne who's from France is also awesome and helps me out a lot and then there's Yuki who's our Japanese student advisor who also helps me out with any problems I have. Theres heaps of Aussies here at the moment which is cool. Another guy, Josh, is from Griffith Uni's Nathan campus and is in most of my classes here at Seikei. We're both the noobs of Jap cos we've only been doing it for a year compared to everyone else who's been doing it for nearly 3-4 years. It's great though, lots of Japanese people have been complementing us and calling us brave for coming over after only having done 1 year of study.

Classes started on Monday the 10th, so far only had 2 which were listening/comprehension and speaking. Normally I would've had 4 by now but the 9am classes aren't starting till the 14th for some reason but no matter, means I get tomorrow off. Oh, it's 1am so I guess I have today off lol. I'm going to test out taking 1 culture class to see what it's like. It's supposedly in English and studies English textbooks about Japanese culture but I'm a bit skeptical. It's on Thursday morning so I'll go along and see what it's like. Leigh-sensei back home told me that I only have to take Japanese classes but I'm still not sure so I'll try take something.

So far I've been walking around Tokyo a bit. Went with a new mate, Darren, to Akihabara, Shibuya and Shinjuku the other day. Akihabara is crazy, so much anime/electrical stuff there for pretty decent prices. Shibuya is also awesome, that famous road crossing is massive and so many people are there. Shinjuku train station might as well have its own postcode because it's so big. Apparently 5 million unique passengers go through there everyday. That's 1/5th the population of Australia everyday lol. We went up to Tokyo Metropolitan Government building to the observation deck which is supposed to be better than Tokyo Tower cos the view is almost the same and it's free to go up (Tokyo Tower costs about ￥800 which is about $10).

Also started Aikido training with Darren today. It was pretty intersting, so little force can be used to completely render someone immobile. The other students were great with trying to help us understand but the sensei didn't even come over and say anything to us lol. Guess we'll have to give him some time to warm up to the idea of having foreigners in his class cos we sure as hell ain't backing down. I just take with a grain of salt, I expected this when I came to Japan so it's no troubles. Australia is such a multicultural place, I guess we take it for granted that we can interact with so many people from so many different backgrounds.

Anyways that about wraps it up. I'll post pictures as I take them but right now I have to get some batteries for my camera cos the ones I brought with me are terrible and only last for about 2 minutes.

じゃ、皆さん、またあとでね～

Just a quick note to wish everyone out there a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Hope you are all safe and doing well. I'm in Sydney at the moment with family and will be back home around the 30th.

I don't like Jetstar airlines. They just don't have the right vibe. Bought a book which is more like an indeph study into The Simpsons and how it is on of the most important pieces of 1990's pop culture. Pretty interesting read so far and I have to agree with the author on his points. Still, can't believe I'd read stuff like this and I cannot for the life of me sit through and read a textbook for my uni stuff. lol.

Well no better day to post and update than on the end of my 21st birthday! (That's right all those who forgot, start sucking up now.)

A lot has happened in a short period of time since I last updated. Most important of all is that I passed my first semester of Japanese language with a Distinction for the language side and a Credit for the culture side. In any other faculty my language mark would've been a High Distinction but for some reason the marks needed in the Language department is 5% higher (I missed out by 2.5%). This semester has just begun and I kind of regret not doing as much study as I should've over the break. Ok, I regret doing NO study over the break. Been thrust into all sorts of shit now and I'm working my ass off to keep on top of it.

University related, I've put in my application to study next year at Seikei University in Tokyo and I'm about 85% certain it's been accepted! Still waiting on official confirmation but I've already been in the exchange coordinator from there so it looks like I'll be heading off at the end of next March for a full year. There's going to be another 3 students from Griffith at the same uni and 2 more of my mates are applying for another uni close by. Then theres also a mate of mine who's in his final year who's going over in November to work. So it's going to be a lot of fun next year and I can't wait. As part of my birthday today, my parents surprised me with the news that they will pay for my flight over. Also leads me on to the important topic of....

Birthday presents! I don't expect anything when my birthday rolls around so everything is a bonus. I knew about one thing I was getting which is a brand new LG C3320 mobile phone. About time I had a new phone as well, the last one I had was a Nokia 3310 which is about 5 or 6 years old now. One present I was not expecting came from my relatives down in Sydney who all chipped in and got me an iPod Mini. Sitting here playing with it now and I have to admit, it's pretty awesome. My family here on the cost got me a voucher for down at JB HiFi (music store) which I will put to good use, haven't bought any CDs for a while so I'm lacking a bit.

Just got back from an awesome dinner at this Italian restaurant called Fratelli's. The old guy that owns it walks around and just busts out into song with his Tenor voice, it's amazing. I could listen to him all day. Anyways that's all for now, I'll update again when I've got something important to add :P またね～

Stolen from kawaii_no_miko:
You Are The Key Character
"It's what I was meant to do."
You are the true enigma. No one knows much about you, you do not understand much of yourself, and your life seems to carry no purpose. Yet regardless of everything around you - everyone knows that you are here for some reason, even if no one yet knows what that is. Things seem to simply fall into place for you. Almost as though some force is working either through you, for you, or around you. No matter your troubles, ou have been sent here to unlock something. This is your destiny.

Which Classic Story Role Do You Play?
brought to you by Quizilla I think that fits me a little.</b></a>

Yesterday my grandfather in Sydney died. This morning my aunt in Townsville died. They were father and daughter and both suffering from cancer. Rest in peace guys..

Finally got my hands on some Naruto episodes and well, it's much better than I thought it would be. It's really grown on me the last few days, I'll have to get the last few eps from a friend of mine soon so I can catch up to the current eps.

Last night was the 2nd outing of the Griffith Japan Club. This time we went to a Japanese restaurant in Surfers called "Umi" (means Sea in Japanese). The food was much nicer than I expected cos I don't have much knowledge of Japanese foods apart from Sushi and Sashimi. Was pretty tired from a long boring day at work though. The next outing is going to be a BBQ so that will be lots of fun.

I really need to get my final essay started for my Japanese Culture class though. It's due in Wednesday week so I'm a fair bit behind on getting started. Although I do manage to always get my best work done under pressure. Wonder what would happen if I actually prepared earlier?

Was pretty busy last weekend. Yesterday I went to the Supanova Pop Culture Expo in Brisbane. Had to get up fairly early to meet up with one of my friends from uni Mitch. Got to Brisbane an hour early and waited in line for an hour before we got in. It was a pretty fun day although I don't know how some people could have gone for both the Saturday and Sunday. I spent a fair bit of money on random anime stuff including a Bleach glove which I love and a couple of DVDs (Fullmetal Alchemist vol. 1 and Mezzo DSA vol. 2). FMA is pretty good. yet another series I wish I downloaded when I had the chance.

I've seen 2 anime recently.

#1 = My-HiME

Excellent show. I highly recommend it. Nice blend of comedy/action/romance/drama which was very refreshing and has got me back into the anime watching mood.

#2 = Samurai Champloo

Kicking myself I didn't watch this when the fansubs were coming out. The music just works so well with the animation, it's beautiful to watch.

Just had to get that off my chest.

Earlier this week Dean decided he wanted to get his tongue pierced. I thought he was joking about it up until I followed him into the piercing store at Broadbeach not 30 minutes ago. Was a surprisingly fast and painless procedure and turned out pretty good. $80 well spent for by Dean I think.

Tania - Great to hear from you and sounds like you're doing really well. When this semester is over I'd love to come up and visit you one day and we can catch up.

This week was mid-semester break week. I was planning on going to the uni library and getting started on my essay but low and behold before I knew it, Wednesday morning had arrived and I was at work. I gotta stop all this putting off shit and just get started on it. Next week I promise! I also plan to join the gym at uni next week. $230 for a year is too damn good to pass up and I need to get into shape and get a better physique.

Last night was the first get together for the Griffith University Gold Coast (hereby referred to as GUGC) Japan Club and damn, I'm so glad I went. A few years ago I was doing Kendo at uni but after our break for Christmas 2003, I just didn't have the motivation to go back. Anyway, on the cruise I spotted a friend (Andrew) who I used to train at Kendo with as well and hadn't seen for some year and a half now. So I went over and chatted with him and didn't realise standing next to him was another friend (Ushio) who did Kendo. Was so good to catch up with the both of them. I'm determined to get back into Kendo when they start training again at campus. It was a shame to hear news that my old Kendo sensei had gone back to Korea for good last semester though and I had also missed two friends who had returned to Thailand and the Phillipines respectively.

A good time was had by all and there was much drinking and rejoicing.