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

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