Yaaay! So excited I get to go to Hiroshima tomorrow.  I’ve heard great things about Hiroshima, apparently it’s a very beautiful city!  There I’ll be visiting the “Genbaku Dome” (aka Atomic Bomb Dome or Hiroshima Peace Memorial) which should be interesting.  But to top it off, there at the dome I’ll get to sit in on a little presentation/speech from an ACTUAL survivor of the bomb!  So that’s going to be very interesting and potentially moving.  Uhh.. ok so i’ll be honest, not really sure what else I’ll do there.  So i’ll have to do a bit of research tonight.  However I do know that i’ll be staying overnight in Hiroshima then heading to the Island of Miyajima on Sunday, which is supposed to be really nice.

Anywayz, expect a big post by Monday!  I’ll leave you with a video.

Ok so here’s a delayed blog – imagine me posting this exactly 1 week ago.

This weekend (ie. the weekend before last – stay with me kids!) was a great weekend indeed! On saturday I went to Osaka Aquarium, which rocked my sox, went on one of the worlds largest ferris wheels, and ate japanese-made-mexican food!  And to top it all off, on Sunday I ate a meat pie, and watched the Rugby grand final.  Not only that, this week i did something i said i’d never do – i joined a club.  I also confronted my worst fear.

HERE IT GOES!

So on Saturday morning I met up with my buddy Annie at Hirakata station, bound for Osaka.  We hopped aboard the express train on the Keihan line and eventually, after getting off at the wrong stop, arrived at Yodoyabashi Station in Osaka.  We jumped into the Subway and headed to Osakako station – just a 5 minute walk to the huge ferris wheel and the aquarium.

Today I had a field trip to the Osaka Peace Museum (or “Peace Osaka”).  It was great; short but great (much like yours truly).  This was a field trip for my Pacific Rivalry class i’m studying at Kansai Gaidai.  A class dedicated to, you guessed it: Rivalry in the Pacific – think WWII.

So this morning I got up at 7am, snoozed till 7:45, showered, lazed around, and was on a bus to Hirakata station at 9:23.  There i met up with Annie for coffee, who is now a very special person to me: she was there when i lost my Starbucks virginity to a White Chocolate Mocha.  She made the experience as easy and as comfortable as possible – oh and so did the delicious White Chocolate Mocha. YUMMMMMMM!

After Coffee, Annie and I met up with the rest of our classmates waiting with our Professor on the train Platform.  We nabbed the express train to Kyobashi Station, all the way discussing whether or not President Obama deserved his Nobel Peace Prize or not.  (*cough*no*cough* … … well at least not yet anyway).  From there we jumped onto the Osaka Loop Line, clockwise, 2 stops to Morinomiya Station and walked about 5 minutes to Peace Osaka.

Ok, so this isn’t the big post i was promising, that one is still kinda in the works.  But for the mean time i thought i’d just share a video of my bike ride back to the Seminar House through Makino after grabbing lunch.  Enjoy =D

Things are sinking in, im starting to get a study routine goin, i finally feel like i have a bit of order in my day to day life – whilst still living in my lovely chaotic lifestyle.  It’s good.  I feel this order is really opening my eyes to what is going on around me, which really helps with time management too.  It felt like before i had no time and things were just a blur, however now i can sorta make time for study, uni, emailing and even gaming.

So what’s been happenin?  Well the Japanese students have returned to Uni. The result?

The relationship between MYSELF and the other Japanese students is completely non-existent.  Something i’m not entirely happy about. 

Wow… What a week.  The curve balls my life continues to throw at me are almost as bad as the one’s i send flying back.  But this is Japan, and everything i’ve given up is now allowing me to take hold of my dream with both hands, and run as fast and as long as i possibly can.  Half assing this trip would have made every sacrifice i’ve made completely redundant.

Japan is slowling starting to feel more like home – which is what i wanted.  I’m slowly getting used to the lifestyle, the people, the weather and even the routine of everyday life.  I love it here, and i cant wait to learn more about this country.  I feel i’ve already learned so much.

The past weekend was a long weekend as Monday, Tueseday and Wednesday were public holidays – YAY 5 day weekend!  It’s called “Silver Week” and the public holidays for Monday through Wednesday are “Respect for the Aged Day”, “Autumnal Equinox Day” and “Kokumin no Kyuujitsu”, respectively.  No real clue what they mean (except Respect for the Aged – self explanatory) or who celebrates it or HOW the celebrate it – but the long weekend was a much needed rest.  Rest from what? Well… processing Japan, its people, and its culture takes up a lot of energy.  It’s not bad! but… it’s not what I’m used to, and adjustment requires effort.  But i feel well rested and relieved.

First of all i’d like to apologise for the lack of posting this week.  Spent this entire week getting on my feet and used to wtf is going on around me.  But all is well, i nearly have my laptop up and running (Borrowing my mates adapter) and things, as far as this blog goes, should be back to normal.

Found this whilst scavenging – ¥500

Ok so the first thing that all the new students had a hard-ish time coming to terms with was food.  why? because we couldnt cook! As in literally was not allowed to cook.  This was because we hadn’t technically “checked in” or something in the first week, plus there were temporary room mates (homestay students) and apparently that complicated things – UGH i dunno.  so we had to SCAVENGE!!! … ok not quite, but we started checkin out the local restaurants etc. to find some good eats.  It was kinda hard at first, i found myself going to sleep hungry because the shops were closed or one thing or another.  But now i’m starting to get the hang of trading hours, whats good, whats not, and things are coming a long smoothly atm.  In fact, i have a couple croissants out in the common area calling my name… i can hear them.. they need to be eaten.  Will do that soon.

“Hi ish, dad and amy-chan! thought id send this to you too

 Nah getting lost is fun, because we get to see more of the area lol  Didn’t really panic.

 We found food, all the places were kinda closed on sunday, but we found a nearby supermarket etc.  Unfortunately we cant cook in our apartments until orientation week (this week) is over, so we can only eat pre-packaged stuff and we dont know what half the shit is so its really hard to find food.  I think ive probably lost like 3kgs coz im always hungry and we have to walk everywhere all day long.