Before I leave Japan, I’ve got a million things in my room to get rid of. Actually, I checked with Virgin Atlantic and it seems to be worth it to pay for extra baggage. But there are still things like my bike, speakers, guitar etc. to get rid of. At the moment I am thinking craigslist, but am still unsure. Maybe there’s a second hand shop around that will take the stuff off me.

Mate came round to visit me here. We did lots of sightseeing in Tokyo, and also went to Kamakura. Order of things we’ve seen most of: Izakayas -> Trains -> Temples/Shrines -> Pizzas -> Baseballs.

Since then I’ve registered for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test N2, and have been studying for it every day. Well, I say every day.. it took amazon two weeks to send my books. Word of advice for future test takers: don’t get neither Kanzen Master Vocab 1,2 nor Kanzen Master 2kyuu Kanji. They’re a waste of money. Grammar and Reading Comprehension, on the other hand, are good.

In between studying I’ve had a bit of baseball going on. We finished the league somewhere in the middle with 5 wins 5 losses. Two weeks later the Japanese Public University Baseball Tournament started. I missed the first game due to stomach ache. The baseball team is currently organizing a softball tournament within TUFS for everyone to join. Rita and I have made it our goal to put together a Ryuugakusei (foreign students) Team, and it’s looking good so far.

The other day I got a phone call from a friend in Germany who I haven’t seen/talked to in ages. She was in Tokyo for a few days so we met up the same evening in an izakaya. It was nice to see her again, we both missed out on a lot of things happening at home apparently.

Other than that I’m just wasting away in my room with Kat, studying for the upcoming exam and watching Green Wing and Black Books.

Snow.

Setsubun is where people go to the shrine for a ceremony that is held within and that can't be seen by public. We waited outside until all the people in neat clothing came out and threw beans at the crowd. Doraemon was there, too. People then grab as many of those beans they can, go home and throw them out of windows and doors to drive off evil demons and invite good luck.

Of course, many a sushi were had. Mhh sushi.

The ryuugakuseika gave out free tickets for some sort of Asian Cup or whatever football matches. I went to the women's finals (China vs. S. Korea) with my tutor Shin, and we routed for China - and they won. There were about 300 spectators in that huge stadium.. which nearly TRIPLED!!! when the men's finals were held between the same countries. China won 3-0, even though I was routing for Korea. Boo. I was supposed to meet up with my friends from the dorm for this game, but they all bailed and left me watching alone in the cold rain. Shame on you.

In Japan, on Valentine's Day girls give boys chocolate etc. and not the other way around. And so, the managers of the TUFS baseball team made the players cookies for V-Day. They're still hanging from my lamp to remind me how good it felt to belong to a team - can't bring myself to eat them.

Apart from all this sort of stuff happening, I was mainly caught up in Japanese class related work and going to baseball practice. Theoretically, we have on average about 4/5 times practice a week now. My body is slowly catching up with training demands, although ye ol’ knee injury frequently keeps me from performing at my best.

Coming Sunday my parents will come to visit me for 3 weeks, out of which 2 weeks we will spend together traveling in the Kansai area. Maybe I’ll find the time then to do some more blogging. During the time I spend with my parents I obviously cannot participate in training and practice games we have against other universities. I’m a bit relieved, to be honest, that I don’t have to go to the practice games, because I feel nervous enough as it is now having to speak and understand Japanese during training with my club mates. Even so, it’s not like I’d be in the starting lineup for a game at my skill level, so cheering on is all I’d have to do.

And so, I decided to keep the second note until I leave Japan. This turned out to be a good idea, as Hyun-Hee (sorry if I misspell your name >_>) explained to me, because apparently these notes are rare and are said to bring the owner luck. Yay! A couple of days later I proudly showed Tatsu my note and he said there existed another rare-ish note: 100 yen. Tatsu works part-time at a konbini so he said he’d check the register for me next time he went to work. Sure enough, next time I saw him we traded two 100 coins for two notes!

So here they are, my monetary all star team! (well, duo):

Look at these bad boys

Yen has never been this sexy.

]]> http://casmo.paralapse.com/2010/01/12/bank-notes/feed/ 0 http://casmo.paralapse.com/2009/12/27/christmas-days/ http://casmo.paralapse.com/2009/12/27/christmas-days/#comments Sun, 27 Dec 2009 10:31:34 +0000 casmo http://casmo.paralapse.com/?p=217 Just like expected, nothing happens on Christmas here in Japan. While Christmas paraphernalia sales boom, on the actual day(s) Christmas cannot be felt. The only feelable change is that apparently loads of restaurants were booked out, KFC being one of the most popular (don’t ask), because Christmas is a couples thing here.

Anyhow, after celebrating Tom’s and my birthday, the 22nd of December was a celebration of freedom from class for the coming 3 weeks. That evening, Tom hosted a burger party in his room and it ended up being packed with roughly 10 people. The day after that was supposed to be Kat, Tom and my day in with lots of cooking, eating and movies, but we all slept in too long and didn’t get shopping and other things out of the way until it got very late in the afternoon. I was a bit disappointed that it ended up in just cooking dinner together and watching a few movies with the others.

I spent the 24th of December, which is traditionally the most important day, well evening, in Germany, I spent with Kat waiting for it to pass.. slightly depressing. Then again the outlook of the following day kept me going. This shall be explained… in the following post!

No replacement for Pepsi Ice Cucumber!!!

Japan loves its seasons and so do Japanese beverage companies. Autumn has arrived and Pepsi unleashed its new creation a couple of days ago: Pepsi Azuki. It’s name is derived from the Azuki bean. I had high expectations when Tatsu sent me a picture of it to my phone, because 2 years ago during my trip through Japan I enjoyed Pepsi Ice Cucumber (2007 Summer Release) a lot. Azuki’s taste is.. well.. alright. It’s fun to drink because of the unusual taste, but I doubt I’ll be drinking it too often.

Recently I’ve been trying to discover all the different flavours of Fanta. So far I have come across: Orange, Grape (my favourite!), Melon, Cassis, Cider, Peach and one that I forgot the name of, but is supposed to taste like.. Japan. Well, it tasted disgusting, sort of like washing up liquid. But all the other flavours are great and I wish they had them in Europe as well. Selection/variety of soft drinks in England and Germany are pathetic compared to Japan. I’m not sure if I mentioned drink vending machines yet, but they are on every corner in Japan and sell drinks slightly more expensive than supermarkets do, but cheaper than some konbinis do! (147 yen vs 130/110 yen vs 100 yen)

Out my window

My academic advisor being a badass musician at a party.

Goofball being drunk and trying to ruin Tom's song.

Shibuya? Harajuku? ..uhm forgot.

Shibuya!

£2, no wonder I'm getting fat.

Some guy sitting in MOS Burger with a mask on as if it was normal.

Some good sushi that, £1 a piece.

Where my laptop lives

Where humans enter my room.

Where countless loose papers will get lost.

Where food lives and is sacrificed.

Where I go out to yell at people or hang out.

Not much has changed since I took these. I’m planning to get me some posters and shiz to make it a bit more friendly. That is all, bye.