Tokyo: events, events!

I have returned once again!

Today, I shall begin the task of tackling my travel backlog. Let us return to last November for a moment, and take a look at what I did in Tokyo on the 9th and the 10th. This will include both the events I went to as well as my first experience with night buses and a cabin hotel.

My trip began on the 8th, as night buses tend to be the cheapest mode of transport available. I travelled by Sakura Kanko (さくら観光), a round trip from Kanazawa to Tokyo costing about ¥10 000. (For reference, a one-way train trip would be about ¥14 000 as far as I know.) This company's buses have four seats in one row, two on each side of the aisle, meaning that you'll be sitting next to someone by default. I'm the kind of person who finds it hard to sleep on vehicles and/or in a small space, let alone when trying to not accidentally punch a stranger, so not much sleep was had on the way to Tokyo. (More sleep was had on the way back as I was quite exhausted at that point.) I've used this company three times so far, and I'd say it's a good option as long as you're fine with sitting next to a stranger - unless you're travelling with a friend. The company has a waiting room in Shinjuku, Tokyo, which is a short walk away from the station. If you're early enough, you can grab a chair and ask about the wi-fi. Sakura Kanko also doesn't seem to ask for tickets, though I tend to have some sort of payment verification with me just in case!

Ikebukuro early in the morning.

My main purpose for visiting Tokyo was Tales of Fanfesta in Namco Namja Town, Ikebukuro. In practice, it meant that Namja Town, an amusement park inside Sunshine City, had a bunch of Tales-themed gyoza and ice cream that came with cards, as well as a Tales garaponia, a type of a raffle with prizes such as microfiber cloths and postcards. Tales of Fanfesta is not the only special event Namja Town hosts; at the moment, they have both an Otomate and a Hoozuki no Reitetsu event. During Tales of Fanfesta, the other event was Danganronpa.

Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World cardboard cut-outs.

Lulu (Tales of Xillia 2) ice cream.

Kratos Aurion (Tales of Symphonia) gyoza.

Yuri Lowell (Tales of Vesperia) ice cream.

Surprisingly enough, I gained a new friend thanks to the event! A Japanese Tales fan came to talk to me upon noticing that I was eating a theme gyoza all by myself. We talked a bit about e.g. Tales and cosplay, and Ayako even saw me off to Ikebukuro Station as I had to leave. We've since exchanged quite a few e-mails, and also met a second time during Comiket. I'm really glad we happened to meet in Namja Town! I've met few Japanese with interestes similar to mine, and talking with Ayako is also very useful in the sense that she doesn't speak English - leaving me no choice but to somehow say what I want in Japanese!

After Tales of Fanfesta, I spent about 40 minutes in a train, heading for a certain university festival. Why? Because Morikubo Showtarou, a voice actor, was to have a talk show there, and I had a ticket! It felt rather weird going all the way there from central Tokyo, especially since I didn't see any other foreigners around, but I definitely wanted to seize the chance to see one of my favourite voice actors. There was a lot I didn't quite catch, but fun was had regardless!

Waiting for the talk show to begin.

My accommodation of choice was First Cabin Akihabara, a couple of minutes away from Akihabara Station by foot. I doubt I'd be able to sleep peacefully in a capsule, so I decided to try something between that and an actual room! A regular cabin is the size of a wide single bed, high enough to stand in, and has a locker in it. However, the lockers are not big enough for something like a small suitcase, and the cabins cannot be locked. At first this made me nervous but after three stays, I still have both the items I've kept in the locker and the ones I've kept elsewhere in the cabin. Only the people staying at the cabin can access the floors, and only the floor of their cabin. Women have one floor, along with their own elevator, and men have two.

One of the cabins.

The cabin "doors" aren't great against noises but in general, the loudest noises to be heard around the cabins are opening/closing suitcases and doors. Noises from the bathroom are muted quite well by the wall. At least for women, there's a powder room with eight sinks or so, and the floors also have coin-operated laundry machines. There's a larger bathroom on the first floor; I've never used it, though. Overall, the hotel is very clean and modern, and I definitely recommend it should you need to stay in Akihabara for a night or two! However, if you're with friends, you might want to consider going elsewhere if you're not willing to either remain silent or talk in a separate room meant for talking/calling.

On Sunday, I visited two exhibitions in Akihabara: Tales of Viva Festival in Kotobukiya and a BlazBlue museum at Gamers. Tales of Viva Festival was very colourful and pleasant to look at. The BlazBlue museum had less to show but was worth taking a look nevertheless. Photographing was not allowed in the latter, so seeing a bit of Tales of Viva Festival will have to suffice.

Kotobukiya before opening.

A general view of Viva Tales of Festival.

Tales drawings by different artists.

Plenty of rubber straps!

Badges and clear files.

Colette Brunel (Tales of Symphonia) figure.

Zelos Wilder (Tales of Symphonia) dream cushion.

After the event roll, I headed back to Ikebukuro to find out that the main store of Animate, one of my favourite merchandise chains, had moved. Whereas I had regarded the previous one large compared to other Animates, the new one made it look quite small! I also tried out the Animate Café Caravan which was selling Free! drinks at the time of my visit. I quite liked the Rin drink I bought.

Captain Levi kindly suggests that you use the stairs rather than the elevator.

Animate Café Caravan.

Rin drink & coaster.

The old Animate main store.

From Ikebukuro, I headed to Shinjuku and maneuvered my way to Square Enix Artnia which had replaced the previous Square Enix Showcase. Although I liked the café, I prefer the Showcase to Artnia. There's no winning Sephiroth-in-the-floor, and I would've loved to see Genesis' costume again after having actually played Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. Artnia also doesn't have that much merchandise for sale, and the beautiful merchandise statues were nowhere to be seen.

A parfait in Square Enix Artnia.

With Shinjuku, my trip drew to a close as I arrived at the bus waiting room, sitting there for a couple of hours before it was time to return to Kanazawa. Not a whole lot of stores are open once it gets late, so I'm very grateful that there is a waiting room. It's not that big, though, so you might not find a seat unless you're there by 9 PM or so; depends on the day, I suppose.

And that's what my first trip during my exchange was like! Next up in the travel backlog, Christmas in Sapporo!

Sakigake

By this point, everyone must've noticed that I'm terrible at regularly writing on a blog. But without letting that be a hindrance, I'll finally talk about the dormitory I live in!

Kanazawa University has several dormitories. The one I live in is called Sakigake, located at the edge of the campus. Instead of the regular apartment houses, Sakigake consists of five separate two-story houses, three for women and two for men. Each of these houses has two or three units, and each unit consists of eight rooms. Three of the rooms are downstairs, five are upstairs. Both floors have their own WC and bathroom, whereas the kitchen and the laundry machine are downstairs. As far as I know, there are two types of unit layouts. The biggest difference seems to be the size of the kitchen. The unit I live is one of the ones with a larger kitchen.

先魁, Sakigake. Entrance of the exchange hall, the common space of the dormitory.

Each unit has two Japanese students acting as resident advisors (RA). The other people in my unit come from Ireland, Belarus, Indonesia, China, and Taiwan. My Belorussian roommate has already moved out, and my Indonesian roommate is moving this weekend. One of the two RAs will also be leaving soon due to graduating. I'm looking forward to seeing where our roommates come from!

My room. Laundry is hung in front of the window. There's a closet to the right, accommodating e.g. my clothes, suitcases, and whatever food doesn't need to be in the fridge.

In general, all of my roommates are very nice people. I've heard that some units have people who don't really clean up or take the trash out when they're supposed to but in our unit, that only occasionally happens simply because someone forgets it was their turn. The only actual problem I've had here is soundproofing. To put it simply, the soundproofing is terrible. I live downstairs right next to the kitchen table, which means I can basically hear everything from the kitchen. Coming from a very quiet apartment house, it took a while to get used to people simply talking in the kitchen. By now, I'm capable of mostly ignoring the sounds of daily life. However, we did have some problems with keeping quiet between 23 o'clock and 7 o'clock... But luckily, they became pretty rare after I was annoyed enough to let everyone know how I feel about not being able to sleep properly.

Preparing hot pot for a quadruple birthday.

I considered moving upstairs for the spring semester to reduce noise but in the end, I decided not to do so. The process would've been a bother, and I didn't quite fancy the thought of moving because others have occasional trouble with keeping quiet. This room does also have its good points. Hearing everything can definitely be an unnecessary annoyance, but it's also pretty convenient to be able to tell whether anyone's using a certain domestic appliance without even leaving my room. I also consider this a good experience in the sense that I'm forced to learn to tolerate different kinds of things, such as people having friends over way more often than I ever would. I'm also positive that I'll appreciate going back to living alone in Finland quite a bit more after living in a unit for ten months.

Dishes prepared by my Chinese and Taiwanese roommates for a Chinese cuisine evening!

Despite me loving to complain about differing sounds habits, I do want to emphasise that my roommates are, all in all, easy to get along with. Whenever I've requested anyone to be quiet, usually after they've forgotten what time it is, they've done so. I heard that some of the people previously living in this unit didn't listen to such requests at all, so I'm definitely happy that my roommates are considerate enough to listen! I'm also aware that rather than just some of them being more social than others, I'm probably used to a more quiet environment. As I said, my apartment in Finland is very quiet, and I've also noted some smaller habits which make some people louder than others. The way you walk and close doors can make all the difference when it's night-time!

A morning view from my window.

Garbage disposal in Japan is a world of its own. Certain types of trash are taken out on certain days, apparently even in certain types of bags. Here in Sakigake, the pattern goes like this: combustible & compostable trash on Mondays and Thursdays, glass on Wednesdays, and non-combustible & recyclable (practically PET bottles and tins) on Fridays. The list for different types of waste is longer, but I'm not too knowledgeable on the rest since I haven't needed those rules for now. Though I do know that if you're throwing away something especially large, whatever the size limit is, you need to separately arrange a pick-up and pay for it. The trash here is taken out in the morning between 8:00 and 8:30 o'clock; in practice, before 10 o'clock seems to be enough. The garbage station is located behind the exchange hall, the common space at the gate of the dormitory, and is locked whenever it's not trash time.

Watching a film outside the exchange hall.

As a Finn, I'm not used to taking out certain types of trash on certain days, but it works quite nicely once you get used to it. Separating combustible and non-combustible trash was news to me, whereas it initially felt strange to throw cardboard and paper in with the combustible waste instead of recycling them. We'll see whether I'll have the opposite problem when returning to Finland!

A flock of crows on the dormitory yard.

For a couple of more details, I'll finish with the fridge and the utility fees. First, the fridge. It's a pretty normal fridge, smaller than the one I have in Finland but still quite a regular size. But. It's for eight people. Apparently many of the other units have purchased a second fridge, or even have three, but we only have one. We also have no TV. I don't mind us not buying either of those things since I'd rather not pay for them, but the size of the fridge does get rather annoying from time to time. However, we should be getting a new fridge soon-ish. I'm not certain if we can keep them both but if I heard a kitchen conversation correctly, we can. That would be pretty convenient!

A small guest!

Second, the utility fees. Everyone pays for the electricity in their own room, and the electricity in the common areas along with water and gas fees are divided between the residents. Makes sense. What I somewhat dislike is that the common utility fees seem to usually be more than what we pay along rent each month, so I might prefer the monthly utility fee being raised a bit rather than paying the extra every few months. I don't know what the fees are like for other units, though, but I'd assume that few – if any – spend less than they pay.

A winter view from my window.

Well then, that's about it for now! I still ought to catch up with my travel logs here, so it's likely that the next entries will revolve around Tokyo, Hokkaido, and Okinawa. None of them will be up right away, but let's say I won't take a sudden four-month break from blogging this time!

Studies: an overview

Again, long time no see!

I continue to be busy but now that I have a couple of mid-terms behind me (and more ahead), I thought I'd write about studying here in Kanazawa University.

I belong to the KUSEP programme which means that I have to get at least 10 credits per semester if I want to complete the programme. Five of these credits must come from Japanese classes, and the remaining five come from other courses (two credits per course). For Japanese classes, you must have a general class (three credits), a kanji class (one credit), and a skill-specific class of your choice (reading, writing, listening; one credit). The credits change a bit if your Japanese skill level is very low but for the rest, this is how it goes.

Before the classes start, there's a placement test to divide the students based on their Japanese skills. It's possible to change the level during the first two weeks if you or the teacher feel like the current level is too high/low, but after that it is not allowed.

North campus. All of my classes are there.

Now, before I started studying here, I was under the impression that the Japanese classes will be completely in Japanese whereas the other classes will be completely in English. If you're under the same impression, I can tell you that you're wrong. The Japanese classes are in Japanese, yes, but I'm only taking one course that's completely in English, and the only reason for the language is that it's being taught by an American. The others spend quite a lot of time talking in Japanese, the amount depending on the person. But on the other hand, my Japanese book has the vocabulary and grammar notes in English. I thought we'd have to learn the meanings through Japanese which would've been much harder so I'm glad it's this way, haha.

As for my studies, I'm taking the following courses:

Japanese C2
Three times a week (two grammar and reading classes + one conversation class; separate exams for the two), three credits. C2 is the middle level, the levels being A/AA, B, C1, C2, D, E, F. A is the lowest level, and the AA course covers both the A and B courses in one semester. For me, the C2 pace feels a bit slow even though there are many new pieces of grammar for me. I'm planning on attempting to cover the D level by myself before the spring semester so that I could proceed straight to E. I haven't yet asked if it's okay to do that, though, but I feel like that would suit me better than continuing to D.

View from the bridge connecting the north and central parts of the campus.

Kanji 4
A kanji test every week, 20 kanji (=one chapter in the book) per test. The placement test placed me in Kanji 4 but the teacher had us take an additional exam during the first lesson. According to that test, I should've changed to Kanji 3. However, I already had a listening class at the same time as Kanji 3, so I asked if I can stay and was allowed to. Kanji are a difficult means of dividing people, anyway, as each textbook has its own order of kanji. If I could decide, they'd be thought in the JLPT order to avoid problems when switching schools. I may not be suited for Kanji 4 based on this book, but there are still some kanji I know even in the last chapter. Makes a whole lot of sense.

Intermediate Listening
For skill levels C2 and D. Watching dramas, learning related vocabulary, reading some parts aloud and so on. The class also includes two drama skits (the first of which was this week), meaning that you pick a short part of one the dramas and perform it (1-3  persons in one group) after practicing. After next week's mid-term exam, we'll watch the first episode of Attack on Titan! I am definitely hyped, it's currently my favourite anime and I can't wait to do a skit on that next year!

A garden connected to a tea room. Visited during the tea ceremony class.

Writing 1
For skill levels C1 and C2. I expected that we'd spend the lessons studying how to write a certain type of essay or e-mail, but half of the time we actually just start writing and go through a model text after that. Lately we've done some small exercises before writing, though. I think this class has helped me a lot with remembering how to write kanji.

Japanese Politics & Diplomacy
The only course I'm taking that has a foreign professor. The classes are basic lectures: the professor talks and sometimes asks a question, we listen. At first the lectures were hard for me to listen to as I've grown accustomed to language classes as well as remote lectures (allowing me to do something while listening, and to take notes on my laptop) but as we got to World War II, it became easier both due to re-learning how to cope with these kinds of lectures and because war history happens to be of great interest to me. Writing notes by hand is really boring, though, but my laptop shuts down if it's not plugged in. (There's a problem with the battery, that's why.)

The garden of Nakamura Memorial Museum.

Law and Society in Japan
In these classes, we're always divided into groups of four or five in which we listen to the professor and occasionally discuss a topic. The means of dividing vary from initials to reversed postal codes. Before starting the actual class, we also tell our small group about our week to practice Japanese (if you're an exchange student) and English (if you're a Japanese student). Our professor is very relaxed and nice. He also likes heavy metal. :D

Japanese History
It didn't say so in the syllabus but as the professor speaks Japanese most of the time, the skill level required for this class is C1. I personally think that a person on a lower level could manage if they worked hard enough but well, it wasn't up for me to decide. Like the law and society classes, the history classes also have occasional interaction between Japanese and foreign students. We're also sometimes asked about the history of our home countries, like we're asked about the situation of our home countries in the law and society class. The history professor is my favourite professor. He's funny, and he even brought a katana to class this week! (It wasn't sharp, no worries.)

The katana our history professor showed us.

Japanese Culture through the Way of Tea
One of the "experience in Japanese culture and society" classes. You can only take one each semester (excluding the budou classes). I originally wanted to take a course on the traditional culture of Japan but as the skill level requirement was D, I couldn't take it. I actually can't stand matcha but out of that, pottery, and education, I figured that the tea course would be the best. Seeing tea rooms and tea ceremony equipment has been very interesting! Listening to the Japanese lecturers is hard, though, and not being able to drink matcha has been a bit problematic. I can force myself to drink it but unless I absolutely must, I won't. Luckily, a German fellow student has offered to drink two out of my three cups so far, so I can always sit next to him when in trouble. :D

Tea ceremony equipment.

And that's about it for my courses! I also participated in a teaching practicum; that is, I was a student for Japanese students studying how to teach Japanese to foreigners. This lasted five classes, with ten different students teaching. Some of the classes were really interesting, others were less, but overall it was a nice support for the C2 course. Though I wish we would've had a chance to speak with the Japanese outside the practice lessons.

I've also noticed some things which differ from Finland. One of these is that in the C2 classes (and in other Japanese classes to a lesser extent), the teachers always wonder why a person is absent if they're not present. I'm more used to teachers just taking a name roll, or not even taking one if they know all the students or if it's not necessary.

Another thing I've noted is how several students repeat words to themselves during class, or even (relatively) quietly react to what the teacher is saying with words such as "Oh, I see!" or "Yes." That can actually be rather disturbing even if they're not very loud. I sometimes sit next to a person who does a lot of this, and I find it very annoying. In Finland, the people who do this do it so quietly that you can't even necessarily hear them. I'm used to people speaking in class to each other when they're not meant to, and that doesn't necessarily annoy me unless I can't hear what the teacher is saying, but somehow this quiet repeating and reacting is very disruptive to me. I'm wondering if it's common among Chinese. I'm not saying that all Chinese seem to do it, but the only ones I've heard doing it have been from or around China.

Tea ceremony confectionaries.

And that's it for today! Hopefully I'll have the time and patience to write about the daily life here before Christmas holidays, as well as about my trip to Tokyo which took place earlier this month. I'd love to get to write more specific entries rather than these general ones but I'd also rather not push myself to write when I'm busy and/or really don't feel like it, so excuse my slow pace. :)

Osaka: stopping by

Long time no write!

My first month in Japan has been quite busy due to various deadlines, studies, and simply getting used to the life here. But as it has now been a month since I arrived, I’m finally taking the time to write about the days I spent in Osaka at the beginning of my journey!

Leaving for Japan was surprisingly easy. I thought I’d have a small nervous breakdown at the airport but nope, did not. I also got really lucky with my seat. I had a regular economy class ticket but during baggage drop, it turned out that there was still one better seat available in the plane – and it was given to me! It was a hybrid class, I suppose, with business class seats but economy class service. It was a lot more comfortable than the regular economy seats. It was also great to get better headphones as they blocked noises more efficiently, which made watching movies a lot easier. Finally saw Inception!

From the Kansai International airport, me and Iitu (the other exchange student from my university) headed to the city. Having two suitcases didn’t make moving around any easier but since my hotel (Tennouji Miyako Hotel) was right next to Tennouji station, I didn’t have to cope with them too long. Staying at Tennouji worked out nicely as it’s easy to travel to other parts of the city by train or by subway. There’s also an Animate very close to the train station, and Animate happens to be one of my favourite stores! The hotel was nice, wouldn’t mind staying there again. If I had to complain about something, I’d point out that there is no WLAN. However, since I had my laptop with me, using a LAN cable wasn’t an issue.

View from the hotel window.

After I took my luggage to the hotel, I took a look at the nearby Animate as well as the surroundings in general. After checking in around 14 o’clock, I noticed a problem: my adapter and laptop cable weren’t compatible! I have a multicountry adapter so it’s basically supposed to be able to connect any cable to any socket, but my laptop cable turned out to be too fat for it. I’ve never had such a problem with the adapter before so I didn’t realise to check the cable back in Finland. Luckily, I had checked the location of some stores back in Finland already, and headed for the Yodobashi next to Osaka station. I had trouble finding the adapters to begin with, let alone a fitting adapter since most were not meant to be used in Japan, but after a couple of questions, the right one was found! By the time I got back to the hotel, it was already evening so I stayed there for the rest of the day, cursing jet lag for not letting me sleep early despite having been awake for quite long at that point.

Pokémon Center.

Saturday’s main activity was Kaiyukan, an aquarium in Osaka. The admission fee for an adult was ¥2300. Kaiyukan’s largest pool hosts the species I was most interested in: two whale sharks, one hammerhead shark, and a bunch of stingrays! Sharks and stingrays happen to be my favourite types of sea creatures, and I’ve never seen a whale shark or a hammerhead shark before. The stingrays were also impressive, some being pretty huge, but I have to admit I was hoping to see a manta ray as well. There was also a shallow pool filled with smaller stingrays and other fish, and these you could touch. I have now petted a stingray!

Kaiyukan.

Whale shark.

Hammerhead shark.

A ferris wheel next to Kaiyukan.

Sunday was the shopping day! I headed to Namba’s subway station and, after some wrong turns and accidentally coming across a shopping arcade, found my way to Otaroad. If you’re interested in anime/manga/game merchandise, this is your area. My main target was Kotobukiya’s Tales of Shop. Kotobukiya/Tales of Shop can be found in few cities and Kanazawa is not one of them, which is why I definitely wanted to seize the chance to visit the one in Osaka. I managed to get my hands on the Tales of Xillia 2 compact mirror, the Tales of Xillia 2 rubber strap collection (including the Kotobukiya-exclusive Gaius!), and a bunch of other items. Apart from Kotobukiya, I visited Otaroad’s Animate and various other stores. I also bought my first Ichiban Kuji tickets ever! I received an F and a G prize from the Tales kuji. I figured out what my favourite type of crane game is as well, managing to catch three prizes.

Tales kuji and crane game loot!

On another day, a crane game prize got stuck... But a staff member opened the machine for me.

Powered up my Suica!

Dinner at Hard Rock Café near Namba.

Monday was my last full day in Osaka. After not being able to enter the Animate Café thanks to not knowing that the last week of the Brothers Conflict café was special and required a ticket even on weekdays, I went to take a look at the Osaka castle. It was really hot so I didn’t wander around for long, and I didn’t go inside either. Maybe another time! I also went to search for Mandarake but because of the inaccurate map I had drawn, I couldn’t find it. I returned to the hotel a bit earlier than planned because I was really tired, and wanted to pack my suitcases since there wasn’t time for that on Tuesday morning. On Tuesday, I arrived at the Kansai International Airport before 10 AM and after the chartered university buses arrived, I was off to Kanazawa!

Osaka castle.

Animate Café.

One of the memorable events in Osaka for me was being able to watch the last episode of Attack on Titan on TV. Being able to watch an episode of a series I love as it was airing for the first time felt pretty cool! The episode aired at 2 AM which added an unfamiliar element to the situation as well. Good times! I couldn’t eat my snacks, though, because I realised that would’ve made hearing difficult and I sort of had to hear every single word if I wanted to catch anything that’s going on. :D

So that was Osaka for me this time around. In the next entry, I’ll finally be moving on to the main plot of this story, Kanazawa!

On the way to Kanazawa!