Month in Japan + azumino park
Door: Tim
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Tim
28 September 2013 | Japan, Matsumoto
A whole month in Japan now!
Yesterday I was a whole month in Japan! Only 4 and a half month left before returning. So have to get going and do some more sightseeing! Which we did today, on month+1 day. I'll get to that later, first something about my university.
University test.
We took a entrance test to see what our level was in the Japanese language. I came in the middle at a B level together with 4 of my classmates. One had to show off and get one level higher than us.
I've had my first lesson this Friday and it was fun. Talking any language besides Japanese was forbidden and you were also not allowed to use your electronic dictionary. It was mainly a speaking lesson and for each lesson you are to prepare something from the news and explain it in Japanese.
City hall...sign here please, and here, and here...oh also here please.
All the exchange students had to go the city hall to register. If you stay for longer than 3 months in Japan you will need to get a different visa. Up to 3 months is a tourist visa, any longer and you will need a special visa. We also had to register at the city hall because we will be staying here for an extended time and the Japanese/Dutch government would like to know where.
Now every government likes paperwork, however, this was a bit crazy. First desk that I went to I had to sign some papers. Second desk some more papers, third desk even more papers...You get the picture.
Also something funny occurred when we were waiting at city hall. One of the Korean exchange students had some English text on his T-shirt. On his shirt was something slightly inappropriate, to keep it civil I shall not repeat it. It wasn't a very bad thing, but if you knew the meaning you probably wouldn't wear said T-shirt to school/university/church/funerals/any official meeting etc :P I wondered if he knew what it meant. He did not. It was pretty funny afterwards when I told him.
Just like we sometimes have T-shirt with Chinese or Japanese characters on them of which we don't know the meaning, Asian people sometimes have this with English.
Foreigners are scary!
Whilst shopping in the Seiyu supermarket, I came across a small girl (reached till my knee). She was looking at something and was moving about a bit. I stopped for a second so she could move out of my way in a calm and orderly manner. Instead she looked at me, which was hard for her as she tried to look all the way up, and quickly ran back to her father with a scared look onto her face. I'm not sure if she started crying, but I think I saw the tears coming as well.
So there you have it, I am a scary looking bad ass!
OMG, OMG, OMG! Foreigners! So cool
Today the complete opposite happened. A couple of young school girls entered the same train as us when we were on our way to Azumino park. They didn't notice that we could understand roughly what they were saying. They thought that Lisa(one of my classmates) her hair was very pretty. She has blond hair, which is very rare in Japan.
When we reached our stop, they also reached theirs. So together we left the train. When we were looking at a map to see where we had to go, the same girls came to us giggling and asked if they could take our picture.
So it is official. We're famous! At least for about 3 high school girls.
Azumino park.
We decided to go this park because of our Japanese tutors said it would be a pretty place. There were suppose to be tulip fields. Unfortunately there were no tulip fields, but cosmos instead. This also a flower type and looks a bit like a daisy.
This park was also a bit of a playground. There were lots of families here with their children and there were also numerous things to do for them. For example: hammocks (which we also used for a bit), disk golf, a air bubble for jumping and some other small things.
We first walked to this park from the station which took us about a hour and a half. We decided to take the bus back which took us a mere 10 minutes. At least this did give us a some nice opportunities to take pictures whilst we were walking.
Yesterday I was a whole month in Japan! Only 4 and a half month left before returning. So have to get going and do some more sightseeing! Which we did today, on month+1 day. I'll get to that later, first something about my university.
University test.
We took a entrance test to see what our level was in the Japanese language. I came in the middle at a B level together with 4 of my classmates. One had to show off and get one level higher than us.
I've had my first lesson this Friday and it was fun. Talking any language besides Japanese was forbidden and you were also not allowed to use your electronic dictionary. It was mainly a speaking lesson and for each lesson you are to prepare something from the news and explain it in Japanese.
City hall...sign here please, and here, and here...oh also here please.
All the exchange students had to go the city hall to register. If you stay for longer than 3 months in Japan you will need to get a different visa. Up to 3 months is a tourist visa, any longer and you will need a special visa. We also had to register at the city hall because we will be staying here for an extended time and the Japanese/Dutch government would like to know where.
Now every government likes paperwork, however, this was a bit crazy. First desk that I went to I had to sign some papers. Second desk some more papers, third desk even more papers...You get the picture.
Also something funny occurred when we were waiting at city hall. One of the Korean exchange students had some English text on his T-shirt. On his shirt was something slightly inappropriate, to keep it civil I shall not repeat it. It wasn't a very bad thing, but if you knew the meaning you probably wouldn't wear said T-shirt to school/university/church/funerals/any official meeting etc :P I wondered if he knew what it meant. He did not. It was pretty funny afterwards when I told him.
Just like we sometimes have T-shirt with Chinese or Japanese characters on them of which we don't know the meaning, Asian people sometimes have this with English.
Foreigners are scary!
Whilst shopping in the Seiyu supermarket, I came across a small girl (reached till my knee). She was looking at something and was moving about a bit. I stopped for a second so she could move out of my way in a calm and orderly manner. Instead she looked at me, which was hard for her as she tried to look all the way up, and quickly ran back to her father with a scared look onto her face. I'm not sure if she started crying, but I think I saw the tears coming as well.
So there you have it, I am a scary looking bad ass!
OMG, OMG, OMG! Foreigners! So cool
Today the complete opposite happened. A couple of young school girls entered the same train as us when we were on our way to Azumino park. They didn't notice that we could understand roughly what they were saying. They thought that Lisa(one of my classmates) her hair was very pretty. She has blond hair, which is very rare in Japan.
When we reached our stop, they also reached theirs. So together we left the train. When we were looking at a map to see where we had to go, the same girls came to us giggling and asked if they could take our picture.
So it is official. We're famous! At least for about 3 high school girls.
Azumino park.
We decided to go this park because of our Japanese tutors said it would be a pretty place. There were suppose to be tulip fields. Unfortunately there were no tulip fields, but cosmos instead. This also a flower type and looks a bit like a daisy.
This park was also a bit of a playground. There were lots of families here with their children and there were also numerous things to do for them. For example: hammocks (which we also used for a bit), disk golf, a air bubble for jumping and some other small things.
We first walked to this park from the station which took us about a hour and a half. We decided to take the bus back which took us a mere 10 minutes. At least this did give us a some nice opportunities to take pictures whilst we were walking.
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