Japan

Tadaima

2008-08-04T11:16:00.000-09:00

I'm home!
And I miss you guys already.
And the humidity.

2008-07-26T23:48:00.003-09:00

Ó mæ god, isshukan! And not one time that!
The clock ten minutes in six after week will be I up in the high airs somewhere for above Europe. God mine almighty.
In last week went we to Fukuoka. Chou tanoshikatta!! It was so good weather! It was very hot and the sun shone, and the sweat slid in strong currents down the chin and the back.
Ok I give up. It's too difficult to write like that. Back to proper English now. Yosh!
I don't really know what to say. Last two weeks or so have been really good, and the trip to Fukuoka was a great success (even when we had to walk for three hours around the city to find the club that we never even entered)(and even though I was stuck with three Norwegian guys known for their pessimistic (and/or) I-don't-care attitude [yes, all of you] during the time planned for shopping) (and even though me and Karsten were left behind by the rest of the group three times during those two days). It was awesome. It was so hot, and I loved it. I think I was the only one though. Oh, I am so going to miss the heat and the humidity here in Japan when I'm back in the 10°C of Iceland with its 100% dryness. X-(
I wonder if my speech has been affected by the nihongo. The fact that I speek eigo all the time here mus also have its effect on my mother tongue.
Tomorrow, I have kaiwa shiken. I should have taken it last kinyoubi, but my own teacher send me an email and told me to come at goji instead of around three. I hope I get lucky and it all goes well. Maybe I get to talk about aisurando ryouri.
Anyway, it is time for me to go to bed now. I hope you enjoyed my random writings. I just felt I had to post something today because today is Sunday and I leave Japan next Sunday.
Scary stuff.

Japanese Fashion

2008-07-02T01:41:00.006-09:00

Yoga & Sencha & Dragon Pearls

2008-06-22T22:52:00.003-09:00

Me no like rainy season.
After rainy season comes summer. To read on summer in Japan click here, I highly recommend it. It explains a lot :) It tells you what it was like when I came here last September, and what it is going to be like when I leave. And about Japanese fashion. "no shoulders, no waist, no armpits"
That link is my post this time, so you have to read it.
I got my first mosquito bite last night. My wrist itches.

On Festivals and Aircons

2008-06-15T20:37:00.006-09:00

Kinou was the World Festival. It was absolutely tanoshikatta! I didn't expect it to be, but I had a great time! The World Festival is a festival that APHouse holds every year, where each floor of the two dormitory houses has a performance, cooks food, or hosts some kind of event. Suz's floor made green curry, the Jojis' floor made spicy shrimps, Mylène's floor danced, Morten's all guys floor dressed up as girls and danced, Nika and Yogie's floor held a wedding ceremony!! One of the floors made a short movie about the ghosts at APHouse (there are a few, and I have heard that they are the reason for why there is no mirror in one of the elevators. The story goes that late at night, when you were alone in the elevator, you could see a girl in the mirror. As if elevators aren't scary enough as they are, closing you inside this tiny box, moving you up and down and you never really know where you are in the building... Anyway, the they had to get a shinto priest to come and exorcise the ghost with some paper strings on a stick. And they removed the mirror to be on the safe side.) My floor offered people to win prizes by bowling, using a volley ball and water bottles. The girls used an inflatable beach ball and got smaller bottles with less water in them. I had nothing to do with that decision. I find it offensive to all girls who do sports, and most others as well. But then again, when I think of the Asian girls, they are too sweet to bowl with force. :-O It's strange but it's true. (that is what I mean when I say that people (me) get more racist by going on an an exchange programme like this) So it is for them. It was girls who made the decision by the way (along with the boys).
By the end of the festival, prizes were handed out to the floors that ranked 1st, 2nd and 3rd in each of the three categories; food, performance, and event. And guess what, my floor, R3, won the number 1 prize for the best event! :D We got 3000 yen to use int Tokiwa, the department store, and a shopping bag full of snack and candy! :D :D
I wonder what happened to that bag...
After the festival, people who were in party mood went down to par-tey! I somehow convinced Nika at the last moment to skip her kitchen duty and come with me to dance. She used her immense powers of persuasion to find someone to clean the whole communal kitchen in her place, changed into shorts and net stockings, and we ran out to catch the last blue bus at 22:32 from campus. We went to a place where we had to pay a thousand yen to get into the tiny, extremely loud and non-airconditioned smoky little thing that played bad music, called Roots, a favorite of APU students. I found out that the music didn't really matter when I was in a mood for dancing. you just wave your hands up in the air when everybody else does, and jump jump jump when the DJ shouts "Jump! Jump! Jump!"
And then you go outside after an hour because a room this small, with that many people, way too many of whom are smoking, just makes you call for fresh air. And my ears were numb from the noise. But it was fun. And the day after, I slept the whole day, was awake half the night, and fell asleep, just in time to miss my first class. And I kindof feel like the day before yesterday was yesterday. I mean, that yesterday was the day before yesterday. I mean.... ah, I feel like yesterday was the day with all the fun!

Oh, but I cannot forget the greatest news of all! We have got the aircon! They turned the aircon on! Hurray!! We've been waiting for that. In APU, as in all of Japan, they like to preserve energy, recycle trash, and save money (and children). One of the great ideas to save energy is to only have the airconditioner available to APHouse residents during certain periods of time, so that we do not overuse them. What that means, is that after I came here, sometime in October, when the heat was still waaaay above 20, (and never got so low as 20), they turned the aircon off, so we could not cool ourselves down in our own rooms. Then the weather got cooler and bearable. And then the weather got cooler and cold. And then we were shivering in our rooms, because winter had arrived, and the temperature was only about 14 degrees, which is fine outside, but inside the house, it feels like freezing! We didn't get the aircon/heater turned on until sometime in November, if I remember correctly.
When spring came, we went through the whole thing again. One day, the aircon was turned off. They had even put up signs that said that they were going to turn it off, and that we should "enjoy the heater while you can". Bastards. And everyone was freezing again. Then the weather got better. Then it got hotter. Lately, we have had about 25 degrees every day, and for some people, who's rooms face a certain direction, the sun shines into their rooms all day long, and they have had no way of cooling them down. I don't know how they could sleep in there. We could all hear them complain, and I once visited one of those rooms. All I can say is that I am glad that my window doesn't face the sun. Yet I keep my window wide open almost all the time.
Windows in Japan are different from windows in Iceland. They're bigger. They are much much bigger. 131x85 is the part you can open. Two people can easily go through it side by side (on the first floor, hopefully).
But of course on the day they turned the aircon on, it was rainy and cold. Cold meaning anything below 20 degrees, in this case, 17. I am pretty sure it is the coldest day we've had for over a month.
Oh, and before I forget, the 40 points I talked about in my post before last, it was out of 40! ;) I got a 100% score on the midterm! But since then, the term has ended and I have written a final report/exam for the same course, and I think I did well on that one as well, but I won't know for a fact until September. September is when I get all my grades and my credits for this semester. This semester is divided into two terms calles Quarters, and the courses are quarter based. That is why I have taken final exams, but am still in school. The first week just finished. This quarter, I am taking Intermediate Japanese, Introduction to Programming, and Urban and Rural Studies in the Asia Pacific. I am thinking of attending Progler's Peoples and Religions of the Asia Pacific as well, even though I couldn't register for it. The topic is interesting and the teacher is great. And even though all the seats are taken, half of the students don't show up, so I can easily find a seat anyway.
I also finally joined the Tea Ceremony circle. And my Japanese teacher said to me "you are pretty good at Japanese, aren't you?" to which I couldn't really reply, because that came eins og skrattinn úr sauðaleggnum. How could she possibly think that when I have failed more than half of the chapter quizzes? Then I realized it might have something to do with the fact that I got over 90% correct on the reading part of the midterm, and I got a 100% on the listening part. On the other hand, my grammar and kanji was not so good. But now my teacher thinks I can understand Japanese. I do know a lot more Japanese now than when I first entered her class, svo ég tali nú ekki um síðan ég kom til Japans en fyrr má nú aldeilis vera. I'm still only getting barely 70% on the chapter quizzes. I have one tomorrow, and I'm not sure I'll even get that much. We'll see.
I want to go to the yoga class, but it will only be twice a week for me +weekends, if I feel like it, and I have to buy a yoga mat. Is it worth it, for such a short time?

I'm really short on time.

Um ellefuleytið

2008-05-31T20:18:00.000-09:00

Tveir mánuðir og tveir dagar.

Too Much to Say, Too Little Patience to Write

2008-05-21T03:38:00.007-09:00

Solveig has a tan.
Solveig, stúlkan sem stafar nafið sitt rétt!
Solveig recently realized you don't always have to wear socks.
Solveig got a 40 on her mid term on Cultural Anthropology, but doesn't know out of how many.
Solveig is skipping class a lot.
Solveig is still a good girl.
Solveig saknar skyrs.
Solveig saknar Heklu.
Solveig doesn't want to go home.
Solveig is so not going to miss APU.
Solveig is watching This is My Life, the Icelandic song for Eurovision.
Solveig goes to a school where the teachers say "shut up" to students.
Solveig goes to a school where where office ladies sleep with students.
Solveig goes to a school where they hang up giant posters with sculls on them to warn students not to drink alcohol.
Solveig's direct quote from the Student Office: "All students at APU are expected to be very careful not to have an easygoing feeling"
Solveig goes to a school where the teachers tell students to download books and movies using torrents if they can't find them in libraries or stores.
Solveig veit ekki hver Yann Tiersen er.
Solveig and friends were asked to leave the bar where we were celebrating birthdays, half an hour after the all-you-can-eat-and-drink finished. At 23:30 on a Saturday night.
Solveig and friends say sentences like "Let's meet at the eki, and don't forget your obento!"
Solveig is writing lots of statuses (is that a word?), as if she were on Facebook.
Solveig will be returning home in less than three months.
Solveig hates APU with passion.
Solveig had creamy chocolate today.
Solveig went to cheer for the Ritsumeikan team in college sumo and watched them loose almost every single match.
Solveig's room is messy.
Solveig loves the sun.
Solveig is doing very well in Cultural Anthropology and in Japanese Culture.
Solveig can spy on the smokers, gyehehehe. (That was an evil chuckle.)
Solveig has many good friends.
Solveig has written her name so often now that she feels like she's being narcissistic.
Solveig and friends say sentences like "Can I have one of those please? Kore mo. Hai, thank you arigatou gozaimashita! EEH?! Okane ga nai! Can you lend me some?"
Solveig believes "Hnefill" must be a hard name to pronounce for foreigners.
Solveig knows so many French speaking people, but only speaks English.
Solveig has to pay 208,000 yen for the ticket home.
Solveig has to pay 148.200 krónur til að komast heim.
Solveig has to pay 2.071,57 francs pour son billet pour rentrer à la maison.

2008-04-09T23:44:00.001-09:00

How long has it been since my last real post? I have been so busy. I have been having fun for a change. The vacation is over, the new semester is starting, and new people have moved in and AP House has come alive again, like waking up from it's winter slumber. And with all these new people, the internet has become almost as slow as it ever will be. It took me a whole minute to open a web-page the other day.

And since my last post, I have been to LA (that's in the United States of America) to meet my dear mother whom I hadn't seen in six long months. When I saw her from the taxi I got all exited, but it still felt like I had just seen her yesterday. Which means that by the time the taxi stopped and I got out and we actually met, the initial excitement was mostly gone. None the less happy to see her though, of course!

When I was planning and buying the tickets to California, I didn't have much time on my hands and was running to and fro different cities to get my re-entry permission, and more. (and stuff) That gave me no time for asking irrelevant questions, like how long is the flight, and how much time difference is there between America's West coast, and Japan? And I still didn't know the answer as I sat down in the plane in Tokyo, fearing the long voyage. I am still not entirely sure how long it took from Japan to LA, but I know for a fact that on the way home, it took 11 hours and 55 minutes. We came early though, but couldn't change the landing time.

I had a wonderful time in LA. First Downtown, and then in the suburbs where I met familymembers that I have never seen before. Only the grandma, my granpa's sister, can speak any Icelandic. It was a strange thing for me, but I guess it's nothing new in the States.

I went to Hollywood and Beverly Hills too. Not so interesting from my point of view from the front seat of the car. But now I can say that I have been there.

Shortly after I came back home (to Japan, I still live in Japan), my dad and younger brother Karl came to see me in Beppu. It was equally wonderful to see them after all that time and I only wish that Magga and Þórður could have come too.

The guys wanted me to show them around the town where I live. I told them there was nothing to see but the onsens; The hot springs to bathe in. They thought I was kidding. They found out they were wrong, and after barely two nights we left for Nagasaki to see the Peace Park and Museum, and the statues of the martyrs etc. It was great! :D

I don't want to tell you in detail. Enough to say that I had a wonderful time with my mom in LA, and then with dad and Karl in Japan.

I finally bough a rice cooker. Actually, I am cooking teriyaki chicken in it right now, and some vegetables. I don't think I'm allowed to cook in my room, but I do it anyway. I don't like to have twenty pairs of eyes watching me while I cook. And I would prefer this text not to be underlined, but I don't know how to. Above picture: Underlined, below picture: Normal.

Here is said picture:

My new rice cooker!

I put up a few more pictues on my picasa web album. They are from the hanami or the cherry blossom viewing I went to, and a few others, like from when they lit the mountain on fire.

We didn't do much flower-gazing, but we played games, like tag. Can you imagine 30-40 18-25 year olds running and screaming and laughing in a public park? ^^ It was fun.

What can I say. It is getting warmer and warmer every day. No more coats for me I think. Or soon at least. We get 20 degrees during the day now, and a few days it was even warmer than that. Hurray! Summer is here! Except I guess it's spring. Summer is not warm, it's HOT.

School during summer is weirrrd. I won't be finished 'till August first. And then I rush home! :D

I'm going to put some pictures up on Facebook too.

Allrighty, that's it then. I'm done with my report for now. Please ask any questions you like, in e-mail or as comments, and I have something to write about. Maybe I won't answer, but I will have something to write about.

See you soon!

Do Not Forget

2008-04-02T05:24:00.000-09:00

Japan: Onegai

Schoolbooks at APU

2008-03-21T20:44:00.005-09:00

On Monday we will get our grades from the final exams we took in November and January. Before you judge me and my grades, I want to show you what my schoolbooks are like. Douzo:

North-Korea

2008-03-18T19:40:00.008-09:00

Characters:
Me: The worldwide traveler
Mylène: The pretty French girl, my travel buddy
Even: The cool Norwegian guy, my travel buddy
Vocabulary:
DMZ: The Demilitarized Zone between the two Koreas.

No, we didn't go to North-Korea. Only a very few select tourist can do that every year, and I am not sure I have the guts to do that. Going to the DMZ was crazy enough.
The DMZ is an area that reaches 2 kilometers on both sides of the border between South- and North-Korea, where no weapons are allowed. However, it is crawling with the military. The North-Koreans have cut down all forests and anything that might hinder their view of the South in their area. The South-Koreans have left the land untouched, and because access is restricted, it is now a paradise for birds and animals that are close to extinction in other places. In that area is also one town on each side, the Propaganda Town on the North side, where no one lives, and the town on the South side that I don't remember the name of (probably something along the lines of Unification Town). But let's begin the story at the beginning.
When we went to Osaka, the original plan was to contact Mylène when we were on our way south towards Hiroshima, so she could come and meet us in Fukuoka, and there we were going to split up and some of us go with her to South-Korea, and some were going to go home. En svo varð ferðin styttri en ætlað var og við fórum bara öll heim og hittum hana Mylène þar.
Ævintýrið byrjaði strax daginn sem við ætluðum að nota til þess að plana og kaupa ferjumiðana. Við Mylène og Even vöknuðum snemma til þess að mæta í Kóoppið um leið og það opnaði til að kaupa miða en þar var okkur sagt að við þyrftum að fara til næsta bæjar, Oita, til þess. Þangað þurftum við líka að fara til þess að fá límmiða í vegabréfið okkar sem gefur okkur leyfi til þess koma aftur inn í landið eftir að við förum frá Japan. Það er mjög mikilvægt að hafa þann miða skal ég segja ykkur. Ég þekki strák sem fékk ekki svona miða og þeir sendu hann aftur til baka þegar hann reyndi að komast aftur inn í landið. Svo var hann svona viku á ferðalagi um hin ýmsu lönd af því að hann fór hvorki heim til Íslands né Indónesíu. (kannski er ég að ýkja, hver veit)
Anyway, I was in an extra hurry because I had to be back to the Coop before 4 o'clock to get the info on weather or not I could get tickets to go to LA. The buying of ferry tickets, getting a South-Korean railway pass, and getting the re-entry permit took so long that I had to spend a fortune on a taxi to get back to APU in time. But I got there, and I got my ticket, the last available seat on the plane, and I got it. It took me more than half an hour though. When I was finally done, Mylène and Even were coming back from Oita, and we all bought tickets for the highway bus. 4 tickets, we only have to make a reservation whenever we want to. Cool. So we made a reservation. When we were about to leave the shop, Bhuddi, the friendly APU student who works at the Coop and knows every single person in this university told us that the weather was going to be bad tomorrow, and the bus would propably not be able to make it up to the mountain. And that's when the other Coop people came to us to say the exact same thing, and advised us to take the bus tonight instead. Ouch, that meant we had to pack in hurry, find a hotel to stay at in Fukuoka, and a hostel to stay at in Korea, and we had two hours to do that.
And hurry we did. Almost everything was full in Fukuoka that night, so we got a hotel instead of a cheap hostel for that one night, but at least we got a place to stay. Phew! And then we hurried outside to take the bus down town where we would take the highway bus. It was raining, so it wouldn't come up the mountain to us. The highway bus cannot handle rain.
But our pre-adventure was not over there, oh no, when the bus arrived, the bus driver told us that the highway was closed and he would have to take the longer way and it would take all night. We didn't care, we're young, we can sleep on a bus, right?
"Aaaa, chotto... I don't really want to drive all night."
Well ok, he didn't really say that. Not in so many words. But that's what he meant, and when we did not listen to that, he said that his company didn't want him to do that either, because they can't really be responsible for us for that long.
"Take train," he recommended us. We looked at the time and wondered if the trains were even still working. Plus, it was going to be expensive. What should we do? We can't go back up the mountain to APU, because we have to take the early bus to catch the ferry, and the early bus leaves before the city bus starts running to take us down town where we are going to take the highway bus... Should we stay at a hotel here? But where are the cheap ones?
"Let's just take the train, let's hurry."
And hurry we did. Again. With our bags.
"Sorry people, we don't have local trains running that can take you all the way to Fukuoka," the train ticket man said, "but," and we felt a little tingle of hope, "you can take the local train from here, then change to the Shinkansen, and that will take you all the way to Fukuoka."
Nooooo, not the Shinkansen! The Shinkansen is fast (300km/h) but it's expensive!
"What other choice do we have?"
"Shigh, allright. There goes my new 5,000Yen bill."
And when we finally got to Fukuoka, we had 10 minutes to find the hotel where we were staying. Luckily, Mylène had been there before, and knew how to get there. Except, she got confused and we left the train station by the wrong exit and had to walk (run) all around the station. The hotel closed at midnight. We got there at 11:59. Phew!
And then we had a good night sleep, woke up for Japanese style breakfast (onigiri and tea) at 7:30, and went straight to the ferry.
And then what? You know what, it's easier to tell you about it face to face. Why don't you come here and I'll tell you about it in person. Ég sakna þess að tala við ykkur augliti til auglitis!! Eigiði ekki vefmyndavél á msn? Sendið mér allavega myndir af ykkur svo ég sjái nú hvað þið hafið vaxið mikið síðan ég sá ykkur síðast.

The ferry was called Beetle, and it only took three hours to sail from Japan to South-Korea. Cool, huh? It felt funny going through customs and everything at both ends without going into a plane, but of course we were still entering another country. The ferry felt a little bit like a plane at first, because they have the same rules. Although, the reason for keeping your seatbelts on is because the Beetle might have to swerve in order not to run into a whale or a dolfin. At one point, I noticed that we did take a sudden turn, and I swear I saw the back of something coming out of the sea.

When we approached Busan, I did not like what I saw. Tall tall blocks of grey buildings that were so dark, like there were clouds, only for them, but there were no clouds. It was so creepy.

And the first thing we noticed when we walked around the city was how rude the people are, and how dirty the city is.

But compared to Japan, everyone is rude, and all cities are dirty.

We only stayed in Busan one day, then left for Seoul early morning. When we bought the ferry tickets, we got a free railpass around South-Korea! It was great! We could go anywhere we wanted for the next five days, without paying a penny. We used it to go to the capital and back. There was no time for anything else, really. And it was enough. In Seoul our hostel was right next to the second most important palace of Korea, and we took a tour around it. Man, it was so big! The tour was almost two hours, and still we only saw a part of it. I have some pictures. It was so beutiful, even though it was still winter and nothing green.

When we came home, Mylène and I were browsing through the pamphlet they have at our disposal about where to go and what to see, when my eyes caught the letters DMZ in dripping letters.

"You can go there?" I thought, "No way!"

Yes way. There are many tours to the DMZ, organized by many different tourist agencies, including different parts of the DMZ, some lasting only a few hours, others the whole day. Wow. Now that was something. Now or never, let's go!

And that's how I came to see North-Korea.

More Travelling

2008-03-13T13:31:00.002-09:00

Last week I visited South-Korea, and went so far north that I could see into North-Korea, and the tallest flagpole in the world. Right now I am on Main Street in LA, California.
I'm not going to tell you about my trip to the DMZ (google that!!) right now, because I sent some of you postcards. I have to warn you though, I had to send them from Japan because we couldn't find a post office or post box in Korea. But the cards are bought and written in Korea, even though the stamps on them are Japanese.
Btw. I am closer to Iceland now than when I am in Japan! Time difference wise anyway.
Good luck with your tax reports.

2008-03-08T23:24:00.000-09:00

This is a picture of the chairs we have in our Japanese classroom. This is the way i sit. It is as uncomfortable as it looks. I put my feet like that without noticing because of how the chair is designed, and when I do that, the table lifts up a little and rests on my lap. The proportions there aren't quite right, because if I wear heals (not that high), I am this close to touching the table. I can never cross my legs in Japanese class because it would make the table rest on my knee and my papers slide off of it.
Poor, poor people who are 170 and taller.

Travelling

2008-03-08T19:30:00.005-09:00

I have too much to tell.
I went to Osaka, and I took pictures.
I also put up some pictures from Kyoto (Christmas-time), but you will have to ask me for those. They were not taken on a camera, but on my cell phone, so the quality is not high.
What did we do in Osaka? Hm, I have to think to remember, because the memory is shadowed by my newer more awesome memories of South- and North-Korea. Anyway. Osaka. Osaka Osaka.
We were a group of five people, me and Bart, Nika, Even, and Julia. Five different people from five different countries. We started by taking the ferry, just like I did with Bart and Nika for Christmas, and started looking for our hostel or a place to eat, whichever we would find first, but we had two major problems. 1. We didn't have a map of how to get to the hostel. We knew which subway-station to get off at, but not which exit, and we had no idea in what direction we were to walk. 2. It was before 7am, and not many places are open at that time.
But we were incredibly lucky! After walking one street and turning back, we found a café that was open! We didn't really like what they had to offer (toast with butter and coffee), so we walked a bit further, and there we found another one, also open, where we could get a Japanese style breakfast! :D I took a picture of it.
And by pure chance, the hostel we were had booked happened to be next door. It was perfect!
We all got separate rooms, and the girls had to stay at an all girls floor. No men allowed. But we could all hang out in the guys rooms and in the lobby sofas where there was internet, and make plans there.
We went to the zoo, and I have tons of pictures from there. Tons means too many. Everyone went up into a weird oval-shaped, yellow ferris wheel. Except me of course. I have only once done that, in a children fun-park, so the wheel wasn't even that high, but I swore I would never do it again.
It's raining outside right now. Eugh.
Then later, the guys found the tallest ferris wheel in the world, and they just had to try it. Me and Julia both stayed on the ground. We didn't really know the whereabouts of Nika at the time. We lost her in one of the biggest cities of Japan.
We found the coolest ninja store, where they sold old-fashioned ninja underwear, among other things, and got to try real throwing-stars. Shuriken is the word. Now I am the (proud?) owner of a rubber throwing-star I got as a present. I'm not that good with throwing-stars. I prefer guns. I was pretty good with that rifle when we got to try it shooting plastic bottles and trash from the sea, back in the country-side of good old Iceland.
Aah, I kindof miss my friends from back home. Guys, why aren't you here?!
We also went to the aquarium in Osaka. That aquarium is considered very good, and some of us were very exited and looking forward to seeing the whale-shark that they have there, and we were all kind of bummed when we saw the baby whale-shark. Not even close to the 12 meters we were expecting.
One day, me and Julia set out on our own, leaving the others behind, to take a look at Osaka Castle. It is considered a real gem, as it is the only castle in Japan that has not burned down since the 16th century. But it has gone under some face-lifting procedures. I have pictures, and they are amazing. Especially the ones from the Plum Grove in the castle gardens. I use one of them for my desctop now.
And all the time, the sun shone, and the weather was in general so good, so very beautiful.
Plum trees in bloom smell wonderful. I cannot describe it how the Plum Grove smelled.
The day after, there was a day-trip to Nara. I have already been to see the Nara deer and I didn't want to spend my precious few thousands yen on another trip, so I stayed behind in Osaka, and had a nice day of walking around the city, sightseeing.
Hm, what did we do more?
Don't really remember. I'm just going to put up the photos and put them on my picasa album.
I promise to blog again soon, because after I came home from Osaka, I went on another trip, this time with Mylène and Even, to South-Korea. And I took pictures there too. See! I'm getting better at this! ^_^

2008-02-19T04:13:00.002-09:00

-How do you say "one" in Japanese?

-"Ichi".

-And how do you say "person" in Japanese?

-"Hito".

-So, "one person" is "ichi hito"?

-Uh, no, it's "hitori".

-Oh, so when you count people, the counter becomes a suffix? Hito (person) + ri? Is that correct? Does "ri" also mean one?

-Uh, no, the "hito" part of "hitori" means one. "Ri" is the "person" part when we write it in kanji.

-How does that work? That's so confusing. If "ichi" means "one", and "hito" means "person", how can "hito" be "one"?

-"Ichi" is the number one. If we are counting things, it's different.

One person: hitori

One animal: ippiki

One small round thing: ikko

One flat thing: ichi mai

One big electronic thing: ichi dai

One thing in general: hitotsu

One day: ichi nichi

One long thing: ippon

One book: issatsu

Nr. one/first: ichiban

-Gee, that is so complicated. It makes no sense at all!

-What about Icelandic? Do you know how many ways you have of saying "two" in that language? At least fourty two!

-Eeeeeeh?!

-Yep, true.

Two, masculin, sg.: tveir, tvo, tveimur,

Two, masculin, pl: tvennir, tvenna,

Two, feminin, sg: tvær, tveggja,

Two, feminin, pl: tvennar, tvennum,

Two, neutral, sg: tvö,

Two, neutral, pl: tvenn, tvennt,

Two (types of): tvenns (konar),

Nr. two/second, masculin, sg.: annar, öðrum,

Nr. two/second, feminin, sg.: önnur, aðra, annarri, annarrar,

Nr. two/second, neutral, sg.: annað, öðru, annars

-Wait, wait, wait... How can you have "two" in singular and plural?!

-Nothing is impossible, as long as you wish for it hard enough.

-Who ever wished for multiple numbers?

Ávaxtasúshí

2008-02-16T21:29:00.003-09:00

Nammi namm.

http://www.mbl.is/mm/folk/recipes/index.html?sub=view_recipe;rec_id=1028

Onegai

2008-02-11T00:21:00.001-09:00

Someone send me e-mail.

My Giant Christmas Present from the Satos

2008-02-04T01:24:00.000-09:00

Harro Kitty!

Kawaii ne～!

Homestay - Continued

2008-01-17T23:19:00.000-09:00

I just found this on my blogger account. I never published it. Weird. No wonder you were getting impatient. I apologize to yo all.

Main characters:
Me: The daughter from Iceland
Mama: The mother of the house, Mrs. Sato
Papa: The father of the house, Mr. Sato
Chipi: The dog of the house

Last time, I told you about stuff. This time, I'll tell you about other stuff that I haven't told all of you about yet. Last time, we left off where I was leaving APU to go stay with the Sato family. I have to apologze for the fact that in my last post, I misspelled the name Sato. It is Sato, and not Satou.
Mama picked me up from AP House and took me to the place that would be my home until the next year. It was a very nice looking white two story house with a beautiful garden outside. Pink flowers were blooming on the trees, and Chipi, the dog, jumped up and down with happiness when he saw us coming.
Inside the house was just as cold as outside, but they provided me with the best slippers ever! The looks of them are not what I am used to, as they are bright pink and fluffy, and the front is shaped like a big peach with a smiling face. But those were the best slippers I have ever had! My feet were never cold.
New Year in Japan is the most important holiday of them all, and in many ways it is similar to Christmas in Europe. Preparations are similar, the days before New Year's Eve, the whole family is extremely busy cleaning the house and cooking for the next few days, when most shops will be closed. Because the Satos were expecting me, they had already cleaned everything, and I did not have to take part in that.
Usually, it is the mother who does the cooking, sometimes with the help of the daughter. The cooking takes about three days, mama told me, both because she is cooking three days worth of food for the whole family, but also because some of the food takes time to prepare. Mama made me promise not to say, but, we didn't cook at all. We bought the New Year's food at the supermarket, because mama had hurt her fingers somehow, and couldn't handle so much cooking. So my New-Year's was very quiet.
Japanese people have strange customs, especially the older generation. I got to sleep in every day while I was with the Satos, and we always ate breakfast at 8 o'clock in the morning.
That kindof resulted in me being very sleepy on New Year's Eve and going to bed at ten o'clock, ahem. *cough*

I got to do some really cool cultural things while I was there. We went shopping for flowers, and then mama put me down at the kitchen table and told me to do ikebana! Ikebana is the art of flower arrangement, if you have never heard the word before. I was very nervous, because I know nothing at all about ikebana, but she just told me to cut each flower to different lengths, and put them so that they would face the front, and arrange them somehow that I thought was pretty. So I tried. I had 3 pine branches, 3 yellow roses, 3 branches with green leaves and red berries, which is something special for New Year, and some more things (3 of them) that I can't really remember. Then we put the flowers on the shinto shrine in the tatami room.
Shinto is the so-called original Japanese religion where there is, simply put, a god in everything, for everything. I don't remember if I have mentioned tatami mats before. You just google it. It's a very Japanese style of floor.
The living room was kindof warm. The Satos had a gas-fire-stove-heater thingy to warm up the room, and then they sat under the most coolest of tables. It's called kotatsu if I remember it correctly, and it is a low table with a thick blanket hanging from all sides so that you can pull it over your lap to keep you warm, and, here comes the best part, underneath it is a heater so that under the table and the blanket, you can have it as warm as you like! Aaaaaaahhhhh, it's so good! But the rest of the room is still kindof cold. That one heater in 0ne corner of the room just doesn't do it.
When I walked the hallway up to my room, I could see my breath.
I watched TV a lot. I got to see all the snow they had in Nagasaki! Wow! Well... wow because it hardly snows here in Beppu :P

Homestay

2008-01-09T03:49:00.000-09:00

Main Characters
Me: Exchange student in Japan, about to do a homestay
mama: Fumiko Satou (Jp: SatouFumiko) the mother-to-be of my hometaying

Allright allright here's the sequel.

I spent new year with a Japanese family!
When you go living with a family for some time, it is called home-stay. In Japanese, the word is hoomusutei (I'm not kidding).
My family is Mr. and Mrs. Satou, and their dog, Chipi. Chipi is chained to his house outside, and is only let in during typhoons. (note; not storms, but typhoons)
My mama's name is Fumiko. I don't think I ever got to know papa's name. They don't have any children. Only a few homestay daughters.
I cannot say 'mama' and 'papa' without hesitating, and thinking wildly how I could call them otherwise. But the Japanese have this extremely strange custom of talking about yourself in 3rd persona sg. (þriðja persóna eintölu, hvernig er það á ensku?). So mama would say (and did say when I first met her on campus) "Mama has become Santa!"
Ok, let me start at the beginning.
I applied to the homestay program they had for new year's, and got the Satou family. Mama wanted to meet me before I came to stay, which I thought was a great idea, it makes the whole thing a lot less scary. Or it should anyway. So she came up to campus and we ate curry rice at the cafeteria. She paid. We talked for a while, and she was carrying this big white plastic bag. Then she suddenly said "mama has become Santa". I stared and it took me a few moments before I could ask "wha...?", and she repeated "mama became Santa today. I have a present for you."
'Oh no,' I thought, 'that can't be a present for me in the big bag there! I just met the woman!' *gulp*
And of course it was a present for me in the big bag. A big one. 16x21.5x27.5 cm to be precise. Would you ever buy something that big for someone you were going to meet for the first time? I was only going to stay with them for four days! Usually you pay back for presents with other presents later. She was putting me in her dept there!
But she seemed nice. I managed to speak some Japanese with her, and I was really proud! Then she drove me and Nika down to YouMe Town, the new mall, so that I could buy a cell phone.
The day after, before we left for Kyoto, I decided I should open the present before going to Kyoto, even if it meant opening it before Christmas. 'It is from a Japanese person,' I said to myself, 'they don't have Christmas traditions to hang on to. I'm allowed to open that before the 24th.'
And I did.
Good lord, you have to SEE it! I am 22 years old for kræsseik!!
Japanese mentality.

Anyhow, I left APU after long goodbyes at noon on the second last day of the year. When I came outside, snow was gently drifting down from the heavens; the first snow of winter. And I was going down to Oita City, where it never snows. Dammit, I wanted to see the faces of the people here who have never seen snow in their lives! :D There are many of them.

To be continued...

Next: My days in a typical Japanese freezing home.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

2008-01-02T23:57:00.000-09:00

Main characters:
Me: Still the same exchange student in Japan.
Bart: The wonderful man who paid for the shabu-shabu.
Nika: The girl with the camera.
The maiko: A maiko is an apprentice geisha.

I want to begin this wonderful new year by emphasizing the fact that the last entry was not written by my fingers, nor was my computer anywhere near the spot where it came to be. One of the actual fried dorks of the DorkSquad has already confessed in the comments, but the other one has yet to come forward. After a blog like that, I am not so surprised...

Ok, but on to the news, because a lot has happened since I last logged on. Whenever that was. First of all, as you can see from my comment to the DorkSquad's blog, I spent Christmas in Kyoto, the city of Japanese culture and tourists. The trip started with a little boat trip from Beppu International Port with the Sunflower, over the Sea That I Can't Remember The Name Of, and aaall the way to Osaka. It only took twelve hours, so there's not much to tell from that trip. Except we got some fried chicken and french fries from a vending machine there.
In Osaka, also a great city, we went to the Russian consulate so that Nika could sign some papers and stuff.
How is it, what is the difference between a consul and his consulate, and an ambassador and his embassy? Embassies are on their own national ground, no matter where in the world they are, does the same apply to consulates? Because I didn't have my passport...
Anyway, the people at the consulate were very nice and courteous and after waiting only a short time *cough* they politely told us that the papers Nika had weren't good enough and good bye.
That's when we left for Kyoto by train, which turned out to take just as long, and cost exactly as much as going from APU to down town Beppu by bus. Gosh. Papers still unsigned.
In Kyoto we met people! Ingvar-kun, Bragi-san, and Gústaf-san from our Japanese course in Iceland, and Heather, and the Germans, and the French, and, and some Japanese people too. Together we had a great Christmas meal. Hangikjöt og niðursoðnar grænar baunir, brúnaðar kartöflur og laufabrauð. Some rice pudding with almonds. Hmm, what was there more? There was a whole lot more, because everyone one brought something, and we were almost twenty people I think. And I just remember the Icelandic food :P And the rice pudding, that was not ours.
We had a most wonderful time there, the atmosphere was festive and everyone was happy. We had candles, and a Christmas tree with presents underneath... aah :D It made me so happy! I had so much fun, thank you guys for letting us partake in you're Chrismas festival!

The next few days we spent sightseeing in Kyoto. We found about one million Starbucks, and, going to Fushimi Inari Shrine, a billion fox statues and kazillion red torii gates. If I ever manage to get my pictures out of my new cell phone, you might see some. Or if I get pictures from Nika and/or Bart. O, what am I saying, I'll just link to Bart's blog when he puts them up. Right Bart? ;) And then we went to see the 1001 statues of Kannon the bodhisattva. His name is not Kannon in English, but who cares, you're not going to know him anyway. Ingvar came with us to see that one, then wandering about Kyoto in search for food. We met Bragi and his girlfriend at Fushimi Inari where we got lost between the torii gates and wandered about the mountain for hours! We saw the Golden Pavilion and it's golden phoenix, we saw the most famous Japanese Zen rock garden there is, where there are 15 rocks, but you can never see more than 14, no matter your viewpoint. We saw International House, one of the Kyoto Sangyo dorms.
Oh, we saw a geisha! On Christmas Day, we walked around Gion, the part of Kyoto where there just might possibly be a geisha on her way to a party. The neighbourhood is big, with one small part of it built in old style, with expensive restaurants and an interesting air about itself. We entered one of the restaurants and ordered some shabu-shabu, a very Japanese meal that consists of fresh vegetables and thin slices of meat, this time lettuce, mushrooms, spring onions, noodles, tofu, and beef. The vegetables were all in one big bowl, but each of us got a big dish of meat slices of our own. On the middle of the table was a pot, with boiling water. We said itadakimas, cheered for Christmas, and selected some vegies to be put into the boiling water, then picked up a slice of meat with our chopsticks and dipped them into the water, just long enough for it to be cooked, which was only a couple of seconds. Then we ate. And we ate, and we ate. Nika and I had some Japanese plum wine with the meal, which turned out to be a verry good choice. They served it in wine glasses with ice cubes, but it tastes like liqueur. Sweet, but so good.
When we had finished our meal, and had some mandarin sorbet afterwards, we left the restaurant fully sated and happy. That's when Nika shouted "geisha!!" and began to fumble with her camera. I didn't really think that we would ever ever see one, so I didn't realize what she was doing right away, but when I looked up, there was this maiko dressed in a colorful kimono, with a big, long cushion on her back and white make up, red red lips and her hair done up in the traditional fashion. My mouth dropped as she smiled at us, knowing exactly what effect she had on us, hurrying past us, and before we knew it, she was gone. Where to, I have no idea, it all felt like a dream, and we have only a couple of fuzzy pictures from the back to remind us that we really did see a maiko.

Next: I did a homestay with a Japanese family over the new year. If I haven't blogged about it in two-three days, send me an email!

2007-12-24T01:14:00.000-09:00

HELLO THE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THIS IS THE BEPPU SQUAD!!!(long live the dorks)
How have you al been doing? I bet you got more sleep than we did on a ferry. >_<
YES.. we traveled to O sake by fairy.
No wonder the floor was shaking the whole time!!
Tinkerbells tinkerbells tinker all the way!
omg, someone is still a little dizzy 8)
Must be from walking around in O sake.
Yeah, definitely. Thank Buddha, we are now in Today&!!!!
You:re welcome. Aum...
Ha?????????
NO
Yamete ne!
Today is KURISUMASU. (sounds like a polite verb)
And we still have one hour until they gonna feed us. *cries*
Wait... shouldn:t that be spelled: "Kuri shimasu"?
Whats "kuri"? is it from "furi kuri"?
I think it means chestnut. So that would make Christmas: I do chestnut!!!!
Oh/////
Aren:t we just nuts?
Hey! Speak for yourself! I am totally sane! ^^ Yes, Roberto-san?
MuHUHUAHAHAHAHAHA

DORK SQUAD SAYS: BYE!!

Christmas Presents

2007-12-13T23:18:00.001-09:00

I got Christmas presents! (Can you say Yule presents?) First, two days ago, I got a package in my mail box, it came as a complete surprise, because I wasn't expecting anything. It made me so exited! It was from Vala ^^ and it had strict instructions not to open it until 18:00 on Christmas' Eve. Hehehe, I see you people don't trust me anymore, living in such a place like this :P ^^
Then, yesterday, I had something waiting for me in the mail box again. But this time, it was a slip of paper from the post office, telling me that they had tried to deliver a package to me earlier that day, but as I wasn't home, they took it back. On the paper, the following was the only information that I could read:
Addressee: Solveig,
Sender Kan Rahaii.
Ok, when I say I can read things, that does not mean I can understand them. Who the heck is Kan Rahaii?? Sounds Indian... It was written with letters that I understand, it was not in Japanese. But really, Kan Rahaii? I did wonder if it was supposed to be my dad's name, Kan being Karl, but how can you change Roth into Rahaii? Lower case th doesn't become haii just like that... Plus, as far as I knew, he hadn't sent me anything yet. So I was really curious!
The lady working at the security office at the time told me that I would have to call the post office and tell them when I would be home to receive the package. I think I must have made a face, because she then offered to do it for me, which I gladly accepted.
And today I was home when the phone rang, and a man's voice, introducing itself as the post office, told me that there was a package waiting for me downstairs.
So I ran downstairs.
And now I have more presents! I think I'm going to have to buy a Christmas tree for all these presents! :D
Btw, the wrapping was a bit torn, and I could see inside one of them! ^^
The funniest thing about getting presents from abroad is that everyone has to write what is in the parcel when they send it, and I can read it when I get it! Hehehe.
Aawww, no surprises at Christmas. :(

Pictures - Finally Up!

2007-12-13T05:56:00.000-09:00

Já biðin er nú loksins á enda!
I took pictures, put them on the internet, and hereby give you access to see them.
Don't expect anything extraordinary... I still don't really know my camera that well.
I went to the so called Monkey Mountain and then to Umitamago, or "Sea Egg", which is an aquarium, believe it or not. But you can't really take pictures of fish in aquarium. So I took videos. Sorry for all the lame still fish pictures, they were taken before I figured I could take videos. I deleted all the horribly bad ones, but there are still many bad ones. Deal with it. And enjoy.
Copy paste the following:
http://picasaweb.google.com/solveigster/MonkeyMountain

Pictures - Almost There

2007-12-11T07:09:00.001-09:00

They should be up tomorrow. ...if I feel like finishing it tomorrow. But until then, you can enjoy this picture of my homework for the Quarter Break. Douzo: