Sonntag, 26. Februar 2012

trying to catch up

"trying to catch up on things i've done" sounds like I did a lot... in fact, I did not.

I mostly sleep, eat and just do nothing at most of the time. Sometimes I go out on my own for groceries or really just as an excuse to walk/move a bit.  I did start to look up vocabularies (got a huge ass list by now of about 15 pages) for one of my papers... and went to print it out at 7-11 (Convience Store).

I once went to Himeji on my own, and just walked through the city until I reached Himeji Castle and decided to see the City Zoo next to it. It was only 200 yen. Considering the size of the animal cages and territories, you do not wonder about the 200 yen fee. I always found german Zoos way too expensive. Now I will pay any high entrance fee to german Zoos with joy !! The cages were unbearable small... two huge icebar shared literally a few drops of water,and so on...



Himeji Castle is still under construction: 


Yesterday Dai, his Mother and me went to the real inaka (country side) to get some rice. Dais mother explained, that shes knows the area well and feels safe to buy rice there. She can be sure the rice she gets is definitely from that very area, while in supermarkets or from other sellers she couldnt be sure. I guess it's more of a tradition for her than anything else... besides it gives her a reason to visit her family and her old home. Her mother and some relatives still live in her old home of childhood. It's quite big old traditional house... but I guess when she lived there with about 8 siblings, it was probably overcrowded.




When I sat down in the living room, everyone left... I guess I was scary to them?! The woman continued making Ichigo Daifuku (which were extremely tasty)and we were offered coffee. We left there quite quickly and took 70 kg rice with us.  (Half of that goes to Dais grandparents)
At this point the rice is still brown, called "genmai". In order to get it white it needs to be milled. Which can be done at self-service machines for a few yen. We did that too:




Ok I gotta hurry now because we will go fishing :) I've never been fishing before, so i am kind of excited to try it out !!

Freitag, 24. Februar 2012

はじめまして- first entry

main purpose of this blog will be to keep memories.

 I arrived in Japan on 15th february and since then live with my boyfriend and his family in Takasagoshi (Hyogo-ken). Currently we keep looking for a place to live close to Hyogo-ku Station (Kobe). My bf starts school (senmon gakko) in this area soon and wants to live as close as possible.
Unfortunately, living close to a good station in bigger cities is extremely expensive... after we watched some apartments, I couldnt help but cry. We will most likely end up paying about 700 euro a months for an old place with the size of a SHOEBOX. And tatami. I dont mind tatami (japanese style rooms) but if I had a choice I'd probably prefer a western room for now. Well, I have no choice though.

After watching apartments, I bought a denshi jisho in a lovely color. I got it at some sort of casio outlet store in sannomiya (or motomachi?) and the shop clerk was extremely helpful. Providing lots of information, showing us how to use it, giving discounts etc.
I have an electronic dictionary now, containing japanese, englisch and GERMAN. But afterwards I regretted that I did not ask for a model that has the kenkyuusha dictionary...Just after trying it out at home for real, I realized I do not need the german dictionary. The german one is not as useful as the english-japanese dictionaries :/ So i could have saved the money actually.


Other than that, I havent done much yet here. One point is to save money.. leaving the house always leads you to spend too much money. And another reason is... I am not able to do the things I want. I could not open a bank account so far. I was denied two times already. I hope once my "alien registration card" (gaikokujin torokushomeisho) arrives, I'll be accepted.
Without a bank account it'll be difficult to get a mobile phone (except prepaid models/ plans). So yeah .... gotta wait til 8th march for the next round of bank applications :)