Hiya!
Tuesday night at the moment, and munching on some chocolate snacks while writing this, as a comfort for the huge pile of homework today presented me with.. Went to pay the water and gas bill after school, but since then I've been sitting (ok, almost..) nonstop with it, and I've still got five stencils to go plus todays kanji. Yadayooooo....
Anyway, enough with the complaining! Last Friday was kind of crazy and strange, but a lot of fun!! Like I wrote before we were (a group of fresh baked gaijins) out to tour the town with mame-maki. Google it if you want the whole explanation, but in short it's a cermony where you try to get the evil spirits out, and the good spirits in for the coming year. A very very old tradition apparently. We all dressed up as different gods (chinese gods actually, hmm...), plus two dressing up as devils. And then we arrived at different places, lined up, and then the traditional shouting "oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi" starts, where the two devils run in and get sweet beans thrown at them by the people watching :) The run out of the house as a sign of the evil spirits getting, well... out. "Oni wa soto" directly translate "evil is out" and "fuku wa uchi" translates "good luck/fortune is in the house". But since "fuku" also means "clothes" so me with my bad humour giggled a lot at it in the beginning. It's written differently, but it was still fun^^ Anyway, when the devils has run out of sight, a girl with a geisha mask walks in to represent the good fortune entering.
My God was apparently called "Daikoku", which would mean great land or something? Had a shitugly mask that turned me in to a smiling fat man. A slightly retarded smiling fat man. All the masks were done in kind of old japanese style, which I find, uumm... not very attractive...
Nontheless, we toured around the shopping malls -were we once made some poor baby cry out of fear-, the mayor and gouvenour (I probably spelled that wrong though..) and some other fancy-looking places. Got really nice expensive-looking food for free, snacks with tea twice, and still got paid 10000 yen for a days work. Not too ba at all!! :D
Ended up on three tv-channels that evening, hahaha. Our school recorded one of them, so if I feel brave I might put it up here on the blog. Not sure how to do that thought, so we'll see!
A kind of fun thing is that there's a few details about this celebration. You're for example supposed to eat as many beans as your age, plus one for the coming year to not fall ill or get sick. Alas, I recieved a whole bag of them, and ate them all. Because, really, who am I to believe in old fairytales? Anyway, guess who's gotten sick now... I'm not sure if I should laugh or not :/
On Thursday we have a pronounciation test, not too afraid of that. Of some really really strange reason swedish and japanese is kind of similar in the ways of pronounce things. Not sure how to explain it, but that's the way it is. So I hope that won't be too much of a struggle, and after that we have yet another test. But one thing at a time, for now I'm going back to the homework for a little while before going to bed. Didn't catch too much sleep last night (damn clogged noses!!!) so hopefully I won't stay up for much longer. Will have to save the rest of the stuff for tomorrow morning instead, yays! Nity niiite~
25/1 Do Not Taunt the Old Ways...
2011-01-25 @ 14:43:0519/1 Talkshow and mame-maki
2011-01-19 @ 15:13:03 So... another day soon to its end... I can't believe the time is passing by this fast!! Did I tell you about the interview last Friday by the way? Can't remember if I did, and I'm too lazy to scroll down and check haha.. We (aka the Swedish people at the school; me and the three girls I'm living with plus another guy) found out last Wednesday that a TV crew would meet up with us after school coming Friday, and interview us about, err... "Glimmis" wchich will say reflexes... Explained to them that "Glimmis" was only the name of a company, and they seemed quite surprised :)
Anyway, the whole thing went -kind of- fine. I messed up at a few places getting myself into too difficult sentences, but I guess it could have been a lot lot worse after all. But later I found out that the interview was actually for some fancy (or whatever) talkshow, and not for the crappy local news that I though.. A bit strange, but since I don't own a TV -and don't even know the name of said talkshow- I guess I'll never find out just how much of fools we made ourselves ou there. I should probably be glad for that?
As for the reason for the whole interview is that these "glimmis" reflexes has gotten quite popular here in Japan as a cute decoration to have on your bag, mobile, or wherever you may seem fit. So the ones available here are all in cute shapes and colours of course. Tried to explain to them that we use them first and mostly for traffic safetey, but I'm not sure they actually believed me... >_<
Today was nothing exciting, school as usual, with the change of me sniffing and sneezing in the background. Think the cold has gotten to me after all :( Did some groceryshopping, and went home to make some dinner. Fish, for the first time since I came here, if sushi doesn't count that is ;) Should have gone to 7eleven to bay the bills today, but we forgot the bill itself so that will have to wait until tomorrow. It's very handy paying bills here though, it's just to walk down to closest convinient store and hand in the bill along with the money, you get a stamp, and then it's done. Maybe it had been handier via internet, but since my account is swedish -and I'm not sure my japanese account even has an internet connection- it wouldn't work anyway.
This Friday will be interesting I think. I will participate in something called "mame-maki", which is some kind of new years tradition. I thought it was a small thing from the beginning, but after the info meeting this Sunday I got to understand that it was slightly different.. It's a friggin HUGE event!! We will do this for two days, and basically tour the town around. Visit the mayor and all the big shopping malls and God knows where, and on the 3rd we will finish it all off outside a big really pretty buddhist tempel, also where the meeting was held. Really really beautful place, situated in the middle of it all close to the Hakata station.
I'm still not totally sure exactly what we're supposed to do, but the main core is to get the evil spirits out, and bring the good ones in for the new year. We will all dress up as a god, and play its part. Seems really funny!! Of some odd reason they want only foreigners to do this, hmm...
Ok, I'll leave it at this, until next! Cheers
Anyway, the whole thing went -kind of- fine. I messed up at a few places getting myself into too difficult sentences, but I guess it could have been a lot lot worse after all. But later I found out that the interview was actually for some fancy (or whatever) talkshow, and not for the crappy local news that I though.. A bit strange, but since I don't own a TV -and don't even know the name of said talkshow- I guess I'll never find out just how much of fools we made ourselves ou there. I should probably be glad for that?
As for the reason for the whole interview is that these "glimmis" reflexes has gotten quite popular here in Japan as a cute decoration to have on your bag, mobile, or wherever you may seem fit. So the ones available here are all in cute shapes and colours of course. Tried to explain to them that we use them first and mostly for traffic safetey, but I'm not sure they actually believed me... >_<
Today was nothing exciting, school as usual, with the change of me sniffing and sneezing in the background. Think the cold has gotten to me after all :( Did some groceryshopping, and went home to make some dinner. Fish, for the first time since I came here, if sushi doesn't count that is ;) Should have gone to 7eleven to bay the bills today, but we forgot the bill itself so that will have to wait until tomorrow. It's very handy paying bills here though, it's just to walk down to closest convinient store and hand in the bill along with the money, you get a stamp, and then it's done. Maybe it had been handier via internet, but since my account is swedish -and I'm not sure my japanese account even has an internet connection- it wouldn't work anyway.
This Friday will be interesting I think. I will participate in something called "mame-maki", which is some kind of new years tradition. I thought it was a small thing from the beginning, but after the info meeting this Sunday I got to understand that it was slightly different.. It's a friggin HUGE event!! We will do this for two days, and basically tour the town around. Visit the mayor and all the big shopping malls and God knows where, and on the 3rd we will finish it all off outside a big really pretty buddhist tempel, also where the meeting was held. Really really beautful place, situated in the middle of it all close to the Hakata station.
I'm still not totally sure exactly what we're supposed to do, but the main core is to get the evil spirits out, and bring the good ones in for the new year. We will all dress up as a god, and play its part. Seems really funny!! Of some odd reason they want only foreigners to do this, hmm...
Ok, I'll leave it at this, until next! Cheers
m(-_-)m
2011-01-09 @ 13:54:09 Yep, I suck. Big time. I knooow...
However I DO have some excuses :S A lot has happened (but then I should have a lot to write about then, hmm...), a new year arrived and everything! So a belated happy new year everyone! :)
As for myself I was working my ass off both christmas eve and new years eve (and overtime as well!!!>_<), and as for new years celebration I fell asleep on my bed after work and woke up ten past midnight D: It didn't seem like I missed something though, no fireworks at all, nothing. Guess they only do it in certain places then..
And so the winter holidays went by fast, and I'm now a skilled sushimaker!! Or I wish at least... But the work was fun, and the old ladies we worked with (that btw I think reached me to my knees. Tops.) were super cute and fed us sushi as soon as the boss weren't around haha. The not so fun parts of the job was that we had to stand in a friggin freezer while doing it!! That's what it felt like anyway, and of course, even after coming home I could feel the distant smell of raw fish coming from an unknown source. Probably myself though...
School has been on again since Thursday. Yay for being back and the temporary job being done and over with!! As a welcoming gift, my class had a big test the following Friday. So there again went the spare-time. But I think I did OK though, I'm more worried over the big kanji-test this coming week. Always a bit concerned about how to get a couple of hundred chinese characters (and of course, their various readings and combinations. Horray) into my head and make them stay there. Oh well, I have something to occupy myself with ;)
Today me and the other swedish girls had been invited out by one of the teachers at the school to come with him to learn some japanese culture, hahaha. It took us two hours by car to reach our destination, which was actually twice as long as it was supposed to.. We apparantly totally got lost on our way, and everyone we asked for directions was like " Huh? No idea, never heard about it". But a few other laughable situations later (including our teacher asking us if we also are growing a rice fields with our families in Sweden) we got there! Out in the coutryside in a small little house, a lot of people had gathered for some new year tradition. It started out -or ratherly they finished off with, since we were so late- with mochi-making! Mochi is a kind of bun made of rice, with a concistence similiar to any kind of stickey dough. It was made in a rather peculiar way of pounding the dough with biiiig wooden clubs, and then, well, ready to eat XD
I actually had heard about these before, and was a bit apprahensive to eat. This is because the ones you make in the new years tradition are so stickey, that they actually are able to get stuck in your throat and choke you to death. Apparently this happens to a few people every year...
It was a lot of chewing to do before you had finished a little piece, but actually it wasn't that bad. But for the following four hours we just sat eating and eating, and I don't think I want to see a mochi again for a while. We ate mochi with soy sauce and daigon, mocci with some strange powder on (this one was a big eeeew. Tasted like bbq spice and sugar), and mochi with sweet bean paste. And before we could leave we got served curry the sri lankan way (have anyone heard me say I'm not too fond of curry..?) and when I tried to eat I think I was starting to see a white light coming for me. Maaaaaan, how can they eat that spicy food?????? My tongue hurt, the back of my throat hurt like a bitch, and after five chews tops my stomach began to hurt. Kind of like 'oooooh, I didn't know you could get gastric ulcers this fast??'. I stopped after those five chews and I'm still -a good few hours later- feeling kind of sick. I don't think I'm too good with curry, neither the one at home or the real deal...
Tomorrow will be interesting as well. Me and two friends will leave for a big cermony thingey held for all those who just have or will soon turn twenty. It will only be for like an hours time at noon, but it supposed to be really fancy dress wice, and they actually wanted us to wear kimonos. But as it is, I probably would look veeeeery awkward in a kimono, plus it would cost me 10 000 yen to rent one for a day. And after that comes the hairdressing and make up that has to go with it, so noo.. I will grab the most dress-up thingey I have in my wardrobe, and they will have to deal with that! Hope it should be OK anyway. And I hope I will be home early after that, because I really REALLY need to start study for the kanji-test.
And I know I have hundreds of mails I need to answer, and hundreds of other things I need to do (like cleaning my room. Ew) and I will try to get the most iportant things done tomorrow after I've gotten back. It's been very busy around here lately, but I'll try to get back to you all as soon as possible. Bad conscience is a great companion of mine right now, trust me!! That's why I even managed to get an update to the blog....
Hugs, hugs, HUGS to you all <3
However I DO have some excuses :S A lot has happened (but then I should have a lot to write about then, hmm...), a new year arrived and everything! So a belated happy new year everyone! :)
As for myself I was working my ass off both christmas eve and new years eve (and overtime as well!!!>_<), and as for new years celebration I fell asleep on my bed after work and woke up ten past midnight D: It didn't seem like I missed something though, no fireworks at all, nothing. Guess they only do it in certain places then..
And so the winter holidays went by fast, and I'm now a skilled sushimaker!! Or I wish at least... But the work was fun, and the old ladies we worked with (that btw I think reached me to my knees. Tops.) were super cute and fed us sushi as soon as the boss weren't around haha. The not so fun parts of the job was that we had to stand in a friggin freezer while doing it!! That's what it felt like anyway, and of course, even after coming home I could feel the distant smell of raw fish coming from an unknown source. Probably myself though...
School has been on again since Thursday. Yay for being back and the temporary job being done and over with!! As a welcoming gift, my class had a big test the following Friday. So there again went the spare-time. But I think I did OK though, I'm more worried over the big kanji-test this coming week. Always a bit concerned about how to get a couple of hundred chinese characters (and of course, their various readings and combinations. Horray) into my head and make them stay there. Oh well, I have something to occupy myself with ;)
Today me and the other swedish girls had been invited out by one of the teachers at the school to come with him to learn some japanese culture, hahaha. It took us two hours by car to reach our destination, which was actually twice as long as it was supposed to.. We apparantly totally got lost on our way, and everyone we asked for directions was like " Huh? No idea, never heard about it". But a few other laughable situations later (including our teacher asking us if we also are growing a rice fields with our families in Sweden) we got there! Out in the coutryside in a small little house, a lot of people had gathered for some new year tradition. It started out -or ratherly they finished off with, since we were so late- with mochi-making! Mochi is a kind of bun made of rice, with a concistence similiar to any kind of stickey dough. It was made in a rather peculiar way of pounding the dough with biiiig wooden clubs, and then, well, ready to eat XD
I actually had heard about these before, and was a bit apprahensive to eat. This is because the ones you make in the new years tradition are so stickey, that they actually are able to get stuck in your throat and choke you to death. Apparently this happens to a few people every year...
It was a lot of chewing to do before you had finished a little piece, but actually it wasn't that bad. But for the following four hours we just sat eating and eating, and I don't think I want to see a mochi again for a while. We ate mochi with soy sauce and daigon, mocci with some strange powder on (this one was a big eeeew. Tasted like bbq spice and sugar), and mochi with sweet bean paste. And before we could leave we got served curry the sri lankan way (have anyone heard me say I'm not too fond of curry..?) and when I tried to eat I think I was starting to see a white light coming for me. Maaaaaan, how can they eat that spicy food?????? My tongue hurt, the back of my throat hurt like a bitch, and after five chews tops my stomach began to hurt. Kind of like 'oooooh, I didn't know you could get gastric ulcers this fast??'. I stopped after those five chews and I'm still -a good few hours later- feeling kind of sick. I don't think I'm too good with curry, neither the one at home or the real deal...
Tomorrow will be interesting as well. Me and two friends will leave for a big cermony thingey held for all those who just have or will soon turn twenty. It will only be for like an hours time at noon, but it supposed to be really fancy dress wice, and they actually wanted us to wear kimonos. But as it is, I probably would look veeeeery awkward in a kimono, plus it would cost me 10 000 yen to rent one for a day. And after that comes the hairdressing and make up that has to go with it, so noo.. I will grab the most dress-up thingey I have in my wardrobe, and they will have to deal with that! Hope it should be OK anyway. And I hope I will be home early after that, because I really REALLY need to start study for the kanji-test.
And I know I have hundreds of mails I need to answer, and hundreds of other things I need to do (like cleaning my room. Ew) and I will try to get the most iportant things done tomorrow after I've gotten back. It's been very busy around here lately, but I'll try to get back to you all as soon as possible. Bad conscience is a great companion of mine right now, trust me!! That's why I even managed to get an update to the blog....
Hugs, hugs, HUGS to you all <3
