Festivals, Takarazuka and other things

07 August 2012

Hey everyone!

Let's continue where we stopped last time ^_^

On July 1 we had Koi Koi Matsumoto, a festival in which people from various countries do something, like cook, give a show, etc. We, the Dutch people, also contributed this year. Some of us did as stamp rally, in which you have to collect stamps from people representing different countries. If you collect them all you get a little present.
Our little group did something that has actually nothing to do with the Dutch culture whatsoever. We made our own Takarazuka musical XD we took a lot of well know characters such as Dracula, Romeo & Juliet and Oscar & André and made our own story: Dracula and der Tod spotted Juliet while she was having a picnick with Romeo in the park. They both fell in love and der Tod agreed to help Dracula kidnap her. After that they had Oscar and André set up a rescue party to save Juliet from Dracula's castle. In the end everyone but der Tod and Juliet die XD
We also performed a Takarazuka musical in Holland once, with English text and Japanese songs, but this time everything had to be in Japanese or else no one would get it. So the most difficult part was writing the script, but thanks to Manon and the help of our tutors we managed to make a decent Japanese script for our play ^_^ In the end it was a great success and I had a lot of fun :D

On July 8 and 9 we had a mandatory trip to Tokyo with school (how awful XD) for which they also paid. We went to the Tsukiji fish market, the anime museum in Suginami, the Tokyo Sky Tree, the Edo museum and the temple in Asakusa. We also went to a tempura restaurant (I love tempura <3)

Of course I can't forget to write about the second Takarazuka musical I went to <3 This time we went to Romeo & Juliet, performed by Tsukigumi (Moon Troupe), in the original theater were it all began back in 1914.
We had tickets for the show on Thursday July 19, and we had the 7 AM bus to Osaka, where we arrived around 2:30 PM on Wednesday. The afternoon was spent shopping and in the evening we went to the Umeda Sky Building. On the top floor they have an open deck from which you have an amazing view of Osaka.
The day after was the musical. We went to Takarazuka (the city) on time so that we could see the irimachi. It finished around 10 AM after which we went searching for the Taka-an. We know where to find it in Tokyo, but since we'd never been to Takarazuka before we had no idea where to find it. We asked a fellow fan and she walked with us to the shop, even though it was very hot. She even told us that Ouki Kaname (the next top star of Soragumi/Cosmos) had a day off that day. once we found the shop we enthusiastically started searching for postcards, DVDs, program books etc. In the end I bought a few plastic flyers, the program book from the musical "The legend of the four gods", a mini calender of Otozuki Kei and a normal sized calender of Ouki Kaname. After that we went to the Quatre Rêves where I bought a number of postcards and the Romeo & Juliet edition of the Le Cinq.

Around lunchtime we were sitting on one of the benches opposite the theater, and we saw little groups of actresses coming out of the building, most likely to eat lunch. Because we are pretty noticeable  being foreigners and stuff, it didn't take long for them to spot us and stare at us (of course trying their best not to seem too obvious XD). So we decided to smile and wave at them, and one group smiled and waved back ^_^
Manon and I also had a pretty interesting encounter. We were sitting on that same bench when two older men came up to us and made some small talk. Like most Japanese they were pretty impressed that we as foreigners spoke Japanese, and one of them wanted to take a picture with us. Then he asked for our email addresses so he could send us the photo. We agreed because apparently he was from the "Takarazuka Friendship Association". At the end he added that if we ever came back to Japan and needed a job we should definitely give him a call. How awesome is that? :D He also asked me if I was an actress, which I think is a rather nice compliment <3
The musical started at 3 PM and it was awesome <3 From the beginning until the end I sat in my chair with a huge smile (except for the sad parts of course). Around 2 years ago I myself also played a role in Romeo & Juliet (as Benvolio), so to see this musical in real life is really awesome (our musical was also based off of the Takarazuka version of Romeo & Juliet). Our places were really good, front row on the balcony. The musical we saw had Ryuu Masaki play Tybalt and Asumi Rio play Romeo. On other days they would switch roles so then Romeo is played by Ryuu Masaki and Tybalt by Asumi Rio. It was a day to never forget.

The next day we went to Kyoto, met up with Renate, and went shopping together. Unfortunately it was raining and I had to continue bare foot since my slippers made me slip and slide all the time XD that evening we went out for dinner at a place called Ninja Sweets, an all-you-can-eat restaurant with a lot of cake and other sweet stuff. They also have pizza, french fries, curry and other non-sweet food. The staff is dressed up as ninjas, hence the name "Ninja Sweets" ^_^
The day after was Renate's graduation ceremony, meaning that she successfully completed the intensive Japanese language course at the Kyoto University of Foreign Studies. We Shinshu University students will not get a ceremony, however :( (though we do get a certificate)
We also got to meet up with some other classmates also studying there, so it was fun ^_^
The day after we went back to Osaka because our bus would be leaving from there. We dropped off our luggage in one of the many lockers of Umeda Station and then went to Tennoji Zoo. I made a lot of photos there, and bought myself a very fluffy red panda stuffed toy <3 the only downside is that I got bitten by mosquitoes around 26 time on my legs -_- and that all in one day...

About 1 1/2 week ago we held a small party for the senpai of the club we joined, because we finished our last training before we ended school. Our club is called Wasshoi, and it's a Yosakoi club. Ten of our senpai responded to our invitation and we cooked for them and made sure they had enough to drink. As a great ending we went to shoot some fireworks that 2 of our senpai had bought. In Japan it's very normal to shoot fireworks in the summer.

Four days ago was the last time we saw our club before we went back to the Netherlands. We joined them in doing a festival called Matsumoto Bon Bon, which is basically dancing for 20 minutes, a roughly 10 minute break, more dancing for 20 minutes, another break and the loop goes on for 3 hours. Most of the groups wore yukata, but we wore our club clothing (a Wasshoi shirt and sports pants . The dance itself is pretty easy, but it still tires you after 3 hours of dancing. I was sad when it ended because we would (most likely) never see our crazy senpai again. They're even more crazy than us, I swear XD

Next to that I'm already preparing for my return home. School has finished now with my last test results being a 69/100 for grammar and a 85.5/100 for oral. I packed up most of the manga I bought in boxes, I have 2 boxes at the moment of roughly 10 kg, but I still need to add around 7 manga to that. I also bought a second suitcase ('cause I really bought too much stuff here XD), and it's bright pink, and I decorated it with panda, cat and Pokémon stickers 8D

Sorry for the extremely long entry and all the (unfamiliar) names, hopefully it makes some sense XD

またね！

~Marlies / マーリス

Visitors, classes, Takarazuka and shopping

20 June 2012


Took me a while to get this one up XD

Let's start at the beginning. On May 16 two teachers of my school in the Netherlands came to visit Shinshu University. There were in Japan for 2 weeks so they could visit all the other universities with which we have an exchange program. We were up for Wednesday. They came to sit in class in the morning, and in the afternoon they had a talk with us to see how everything was going here. That took about an hour and then they had to leave for a meeting. Later that afternoon they visited our apartments and made photos and videos of it to show to the people back home. I was so glad I cleaned up my room XD

In the evening all the Dutch students and the two teachers were invited for dinner at Sato-sensei's place. We were all asked to bring food, so Janneke made curry rice and Manon spaghetti. Sato-sensei's home is very spacious, not at all what I'm used to (usually houses, especially apartments, are very small in big cities). I guess that's an upside of living in a for Japan small city ^_^ He also own a talking stove that warns you when the gas is too high and stuff. I want one XD it was a very fun evening and went home around 1 at night.

In the meanwhile we had exams twice already. For the first exams I got a 69.5/100 for grammar and a 85.5/100 for oral. We recently had the second round of exams so I don't know the marks yet.

We also bought ticket for the Romeo and Juliet show from Takarazuka's Tsukigumi (Moon Troupe) on the 19th of July. We leave for Osaka on Wednesday morning. The show is on Thursday in the Takarazuka Main Theater around 3 PM and will probably run until 6 PM. We have very good seats, all S rank, first row on the balcony. On Friday we are going to travel to Kyoto to meet up with a classmate who is currently studying at the Kyoto University of Foreign Language. On Sunday we return to Osaka to take the bus back to Matsumoto. Looking forward to it already ^_^

One of the classes I'm taking is called Japanese Martial Arts and Traditional Culture I (武道・伝統文化実習I) and we do all kinds of cool stuff there. Last time I played an instrument called a "koto", which is a snare instrument. You play it with the thumb, index finger and middle finger of your right hand, and with you left hand you make the tone different. We only used our thumb 'cause else it would become too difficult. I had a lot of fun, but remembering all the notes was quite a challenge for me so I messed up often. Sato-sensei filmed a part of it which can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtXGkmEvtcQ&fb_source=message (the girl in black is me XD)

We also practiced kendo for one lesson. For those of you that don't know kendo, it's a swordsmanship sport. We practiced using a wooden sword called a bokuto, and after a while we got to hit a real person (he wore protection, don't worry) XD

A few weeks ago Manon's tutor Ayumi showed us a really cool secondhand shop where they sold all kinds of stuff. The shop was divided in two buildings; one for clothes and one for games and mangas etc. I bought a couple of earrings, a shirt and 2 very beautiful yukata. I also bought Yu-Gi-Oh! trading cards, the manga serie Loveless, Romeo and Juliet, and the volumes of DN Angel I still didn't have. The manga were a 100 yen a piece (100 yen is roughly 1 euro). I also managed to find the album Crescent by Gackt for 300 yen :D

This shop is definitely my favorite, together with the Book-off where they also sell secondhand books, CD's, DVDs  games and magazines.

That's it again, またね！

~Marlies / マーリス

Internet problems

I was planning on putting up all the translated posts yesterday, but my internet kinda died on me D: right now I'm quite busy with school work, but hopefully I can resume posting on Monday or Tuesday ^_^

So please be patient with me until then :)

~Marlies / マーリス

Birthday and Golden Week

05 May 2012

It's been a while since the last time I wrote something, so I figured, let's put up another one ;)

Exactly one week ago I had my 22nd birthday, and it happened to coincide with a school-planned bus tour and a party hosted by the ryuugakusei ouen family after that. We went to visit a museum about the history of the most important buildings in Matsumoto. After that we went to place where they make miso, the most important ingredient of the Japanese miso soup. We could also taste miso soup ourselves, but it's one of the few Japanese foods I don't like, so I opted out XD

Even before I went to Japan I figured it would be a memorable 22nd birthday, and it was. Only not for the reasons I thought. Because around 12 o'clock that night we were brought to the hospital by Sato-sensei, because Manon had a very bad migraine and needed stronger medicine than she had with her. Luckily the hospital could provide her with painkillers that worked and we went home again. Let's just hope that will be the last time I see a Japanese hospital from the inside...

Now for something else. As some of you might know it was Golden Week in Japan the last week. Because there are a few holidays close to eachother most Japanese have a free week and use it to take a short vacation. Because we still had to go to school on Tuesday and Wednesday we couldn't do that, but we made a last minute decision to go to a Takarazuka show in Tokyo.

There are 4 different seat ranks in  the theater; SS, S, A and B, SS being the best and B the "worst". Because Manon and I didn't want to pay as much we decided to go for the A seat while Janneke and Jolene bought an S seat ticket. We also rented opera glasses for 500 yen so we still got to see quite a bit of detail ^_^
The show we went to was Tsukigumi's "Don Carlos/Shining Rythm!" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk_Zw9BvbZw).

Of course, when one's in Tokyo one also does some shopping. When we arrived in Shinjuku by bus from Matsumoto, we took the subway to Harajuku, now as the fasion district of Tokyo. There's a street there called Takeshita-dori, and they sell Gothic Lolita, punk etc. One of my favorite shops there has to be Closet Child, which sell second-hand clothing, assesories and cds. I bought a shirt there from which I think is h.Naoto, a famous Japanese punk designer. I also bought a pair of shoes at the Bodyline store <3

Later that evening we went to Akihabara to check out some cd stores, and I bought one of the cds I've been wanting for a while (Toxic from the GazettE, in case anyone is wondering ^_^).

The day after was the musical which started at 11 and ended at 2. Of course we couldn't resist to buy some merchendise at the Quatre Rêves and Takarazuka An where they sell second-hand Takarazuka merch. At 9 in the evening our bus left for Matsumoto again where we arrived a little after midnight. It was a really awesome 2 day vacation ^_^

Until next time, またね！

~Marlies / マーリス

School and shopping

19 April 2012

School has finally started, and I guess that will also mean less frequent updates from now on.

Since the last time I wrote an entry nothing much happened  After a week of trying out different kind of classes I made my final schedule and it was approved by my teacher. Since most of us (the Dutch students) ended up in the C class (C being the second highest difficulty level) they decided to split the group in 2 and I ended up in class C2. My schedule is as follows:

Mon: free
Tues: 09.00-17.50
Wed: 09.00-12.10
Thur: 09.00-16.10
Fri: free

So as you can see I have 2 long days, but hey, I have a four-day weekend :D the classes untill now have been very easy, nothing new anyway. The teachers are very nice and make most of the classes fun.

A couple of days back Janneke and I went to the Yamada Denki (on our newly acquired bikes), a big electronics store in the south of Matsumoto. We bought an iron and a vacuum cleaner, one of those that doesn't need a bag.Then we went to the cheap clothing store that was in the same building as the Yamada Denki, where I bought my very first Japanese clothing ^_^

There was also a supermarket next to the clothing store (Yuparetto I believe it's called) and we actually found frozen food for a reasonable price! Everything in Japan is so much more expensive than it is in the Netherlands. Especially fruit and vegetables. We also bought canned apples, which really interest me since I've never had them before. It was only after we came home from our shopping spree we realized we didn't have a can opener XD

Guess that's it for this time, until the next! またね！

~Marlies / マーリス

Getting settled

09 April 2012


I just started my second week in Matsumoto, and we finally have internet :D ever since I left Tokyo my internet has been kinda gone, but today we got everything settled and have an internet conncection at the apartment I live in with 2 others. So from now on I try to update regurlarly.

Umm where to start.... Well, I guess I can start on the Saturday before I left Tokyo. Me, Janneke and Jolene went to Ginza to buy Takarazuka related stuff, and after buying quite a few postcards and photo books we headed over to Shinjuku to buy the buss ticket to Matsumoto. We also met up with Manon, and after buying the ticket we went back to Ginza so that she could buy a photo book of Ouki Kaname. After that she had to get back to her host family for dinner, and we went back to the Takarazuka Theater (also located in Ginza) so that we could wait for the Demachi of Tsukigumi. A Demachi is when the actresses leave the theater after a show to go home. We waited for two hours in the cold wind, but it was so worth it. We got to see all the Tsukigumi actresses including Kiriya and Masao <3 I even filmed it XD

On Sunday we left Tokyo to go to Matsumoto where we'll be spending the remaining 5 months. The weather was perfect and the closer we got to Matsumoto, the more mountains (with snow!!) we could see. The temperature is a lot colder in Matsumoto than it is in Tokyo, but it is so pretty here ^_^

On Tuesday we had our first guidance and the placement test. We also met our tutors. Each exchange student has their own tutor, and my tutor is named Sugiyama Moe, family name first, (kanji: 杉山萌) and she is very nice. The result of the placement was announced on Friday, and I'm placed in the C class, which is the second highest class possible. I'm really happy with the result :D

On that same Friday I went to buy a keitai denwa, a mobile phone, together with Janneke, Manon, Jolene and 2 of the tutors. After searching far and wide we managed to get a prepaid one from Softbank, because prepaid is cheaper for half a year.

Saturday we chose which classes we want to take for the next semester together with the tutors, and I chose the same classes as Manon and Janneke.

The classes start from tomorrow on, and I'm excited to see how it goes ^_^

Until next time, またね！

~Marlies / マーリス

Japan

31 March 2012

Two days ago I finally arrived in Japan. After a flight of roughly 11 hour me and my friend arrived at Narita airport. I tried sleeping on the plane, and I succeeded in sleeping for two whole hours XD so I ended up watching a few movies and an episode of NCIS.

When we arrived at Narita airport we went to pick up our luggage, and mine appeared very quickly, unlike the one from my friend. Then we had to figure out how to get to our hostel in Tokyo. So I asked a kind lady at the ticket counter, and told her we need to take the Keisei line to Aoto station, and she gave us the correct tickets ^_^ It was the first time I spoke Japanese outside of school so I was really happy that she understood me~

So after an hour we finally arrived at Aoto and then came another problem. We needed to get to Honjo-Azumabashi, but we couldn't find it anywhere on the train map. So after standing there for a couple of minutes looking clueless, a helpfull Japanese station employee came over to us and asked us what we needed. He told us we had to get a ticket for 350 yen and the we had to go to platform one. Luckily for us the train just arrived when we got to platform one, so we didn't have to wait. It was a fairly short train ride (5 minutes I think) and then came the biggest challenge: there weren't any escalators.... So we had to drag our heavy luggage up 5 stairs... But we managed to do that and arrived at the Asakusa Smile hostel in one piece ;) we didn't really do a lot except a trip to the conbini/100 yen lawson for next day's breakfast, and meeting another friend who is also staying at the same hostel.

On the second day we decided to go to Uneo park and Akihabara. Although we didn't plan on it we also went to Ueno zoo, where we spent most of the day. I made a lot of photos there but since my laptop is refusing to connect to the wifi at the hostel I can't post any (this is being typed on my ipod XD). But hopefully once I arrive in Matsumoto I will be able to post them ^_^ after Ueno zoo we went to Akihabara in search for a Denshi Jisho, an electronic dictionary. Finally I found one from Casio in a spiffy red-ish color for 27.800 yen. Because the shop I bought it from has a point system I got 10% of the buyig price in points, and I bought a nice pouch for it (and I still have 1300 points left). On the way back to the metro station I got handed various flyers from maid cafes, and that was pretty fun. I even got one that has cute guys on it instead of girls :3 But now I now why Akihabara is also called the geek district. There are a lot of anime shops and related stuff there, mostly aimed at guys XD

When we got back to our hostel we ate s

ome cup noodles as dinner and pretty much relaxed all night because our feet hurt from all the walking we did.

Today, on the third day, we are going to do some shopping at the Takarazuka shop and in Shinjuku ^_^

またね！

~Marlies / マーリス