Casmo hits Japan » Project

TUFS Ryuugakusei Softball Team

casmo — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 05:12:27 +0000

Last week the Foreign Students Softball Team Rita and I had formed with our friends had its first game. It also turned out to be our last game, since the softball tournament the baseball club organized uses the knock-out principle. Only very few in our team have had a bat or glove in/on their hand before, so we had 2 training sessions before the big game in which I explained the rules of the game and basic throwing and batting techniques. We were all in high spirits, and even after losing 5-17 we were still a happy bunch. Each tournament game only lasts 5 innings, so I was going to sub in people on the bench in the 4th inning, but the game ended after 3 innings because of time limit, so unfortunately some of us didn’t get to play. Anyway, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and for those reading this and are studying at TUFS: definitely take part in the tournament! There were over 30 teams of different strength, so extra people were needed here and there.

And now, the group picture we took after the game!

Ryuugakusei Softball Team, me as coach, Rita as captain!

Money Flowchart

casmo — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 18:50:23 +0000

I made a flowchart depicting how I will manage my money before and in Japan. It only looks slightly complicated on first glance because I’m lucky to have won the JASSO “lottery” and have my parents support me, too. The whole chart could really be summed up by saying: my savings in UK pay for time until bank is set up, my savings in Germany pay for fun stuff, the rest goes into daily expenses. Anyway, here it is:

Only thing left to find out is how to move around money the cheapest way. I don’t look forward to being charged for all this.

Organizer

casmo — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 17:55:03 +0000

Roaming the intertubes for affordable, feature rich organizer that would do the trick for my stay in Japan, I settled on the $12.99 Moleskine City Notebook Tokyo:

Moleskine Front

Moleskine Map Sample

It features maps with indexes, blank pages, lined pages for “database” entries, and.. well other stuff. It’s purpose is mainly for taking notes while traveling, as there are no calendar pages. Attached to the back of the cover is a little pocket designed to store little loose notes, I guess, which I might use as new house for my iPod Touch. All day-to-day organizational matters will be managed through my iTouch: calendar entries, to do lists, contacts, drinking games.

While the Moleskine is sort of stylish on its own, I wanted to try myself at customizing something for the first time in my life. I’ve seen many friends upgrade their belongings to make it more personal and was always jealous that they.. well.. could be bothered to do it. Seeing as I have lots of spare time over here in the USA, I made a little project out of it this weekend. It was quite easy actually: make a collage of photos, print out samples a couple of times to get the size on the paper right, print the actual thing, put plastic sticker over it for protection, fold paper to make the cover, adjust back cover to allow usage of rubber band.. DONE! (ignore “sleazy” face)

Ignore face..

Only thing left to do is decide what to use lined pages for and make my own labels. \o/