I've been in Japan for almost 2 months now, and I've really gotten used to my life here in Japan. I'm sorry that I haven't had the time to update my blog for you guys, but finally, this saturday, I'm doing this as a priority.
Where to begin...? Well, I live in Chiba-ken, in a little city called Togane. What can I say about Togane? Well, it's surely a industrial city. It's not very pretty here, and there are a lot of car shops here and _a lot_ of roads, where the cars drives and makes noice everyday. Luckily we have this little shopping mall in front of the train station, which we often spends time in (Sunpia). From Togane it takes aproximately 1 and a half hour to go to Tokyo by train, so I often spend my saturdays in Tokyo.
I'm at the moment studying at a university called Josai international university. I can't say this school is very serious, but the norwegians studying here learns a lot japanese, so at least we get what we are here for. The thing I'm noticing the most about japanese people on this school, in general, is that they all seem very childish. In the university in Oslo people behave and acts like the grown ups we are supposed to be, but here in Japan they spend their lunch time standing outside of the cantine and fighting, bullying each other and behave like kids. I don't know if japanese people behave like this in other universities but I get kinda frustrated by this. Sometimes it feels like I've gone back in time and started highschool all over again.
We rent our apartments from school. The apartmens are really big and I love them. It all looks like a japanese modern apartment. And the bathroom is a total winner!
You can see my apartment in this URL, but you have to ignore the first half of the video where I'm blabbering in norwegian:
Short time after arriving to Japan I bought myself the pretties phone ever. I'm totally in love with it. And at the same time, I have to mention that in Japan pink is totally fine. I have seen men driving around in pink cars, having pink cell phones and other pink gadgets. I just want to buy everything that's pink my self!
Me and my Norwegian friends spends a lot of time trying a lot of delivious cakes, candies and food here in Japan. I almost feel like it has become a hobby. Everything tastes really good here.
Make up and fashion is a big part of Japan. When I go to Tokyo I often bring my big camera and takes a lot of paparazzi pictures of random Japanese people. I just love their fashion. Shibuya 109 is a huuuuge shopping mall in Japan, containg a lot of japanese bimboes and lovely clothes. It has nine floors and this is only a girls shopping mall. It's totally amazing. This is surely a place you should go if you ever go to Tokyo.
Me and a random Japanese guy which I met outside Shibuya 109.
Well, this is a small part of Togane. It does exist a lot of rice fields here.
The first time I went partying here in Japan I meet a lot of intereseting people. One of those people is really a good friend of mine now. His name is Kuniyoshi. He is the most amazing guy ever! He is really outgoing and not a shy type at all. He acts like a norwegian person to me. The other thing is that he is studying norwegian on his own, which is really amazing. And I think he has become quite good at it.
He is the one to the left.
He often comes to my apartment, hanging with my friends and making food an stuff like that. Really glad we've gotten to know this guy.
In this last picture you see another very good friend of mine, Yan. He is a really nice guy. He is actually Taiwanese, so he speaks fluent japanese and chinese. The unfortunate thing is that he is in love with me, so sometimes, spending time togheter is a bit awkavard. Especially if I meet him at school, then he gets really shy and don't even want to talk to me. Why can't people act like grown ups? If he is alone with me, he is not shy at all. It bothers me a bit, but I guess this is just a part of the Japanese culture. And I can't expect everybody to be like Kuniyoshi. He is a rare Japanese man.
Of course I've had to by something to put on my walls here in Japan:
Here in Japan, the halloween preparations started early. It was all around Japan in september. Is it like that in america too, I wonder?
Even Disney Land has Halloween theme now. I'm planning to go there next monday btw.
I also have to admit that I feel like I've turned quite Japanese. We don't have any table in our apartments so I spend my time eating dinner at the floor, which is quite fun! I love it!
And the other thing is that I have removed all the hair on my arms :O In Japan that is a common thing to do! In norway it is not. But after seeing all these hairless japanese women, I kinda started to feel like a man and I just had to remove it! The other strange thing with japanese people and hair is that they are supposed to be hairless everywhere exept in the "secret place", which for me seems strange. One of the Japanese guys claimed: "jungle is sexy". Well... I don't even know what to say about that.
I've also experienced a typhoon here in Japan, but for us norwegian people living here in Togane, it only felt like a real hot and windy summerday. Other places in Japan it was worse. So we was kinda lucky. But they even closed the school that day, and the trains stop going. It was quite a day. I somehow hope to experience a eartquake but only if it is a small one ofcourse.
Last week my grandmother had sent me a pack with some norwegian food called "risengryns grøt". So my friends and I decided to invite Yan and Kuniyoshi over for a little norwegian feast day. I had translated a norwegian story to japanese, which is about a buy who has a competittion to eat with a troll. Kuniyoshi is very intereseted in norwegian trolls you see. So it was perfect to eat risengrynsgrøt, becuase in this very story about the troll, the boy and the troll eats Risengrynsgrøt. We all had a very funny day, with a lot of laughter.
They also tasted browncheese and leverpostei, which they told us tasted good. I wonder if that's a lie?
Last sunday Kuniyoshi and my norwegian friends went to Hello Kitty Land. Which of course was a day to remember! It was fantastic to enter Hello Kitty Land. I almost felt like I had stepped in to a part of the lord of the rings actually. And everything was so lovely and fantastic. I don't even have words for it! We had a great time there. Watching theater and other cute things.
Well I think this was it for today. I will try to update my blogg every saturday or sunday. I hope you've enjoyed it this far!
You can read more from Togane and our life at Kine's blog, she is writing in english and takes lovely pictures! Kine
Kine writes in a really funny way. Love to read her blog!
And then we have Benedicte too! Benedicte
If you are interested, you can always see me youtube vidoes. I'm sorry to say that they are all in norwegian, but maybe some of them are funny anyways?
wictorianart on youtube
And if there anything you want to know more about, please ask! I will reply to you, write a blog about it if you want me too and give my best answer!
