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Japanese Whiskers

Observations from and comments on my stay in Akita, Japan.

The Model

2005-04-27
The school has been arranging photo shoots this week for next years pamphlet to introduce and promote the university. Of course, being one of few gaijin (foreigner, mostly used for westerners) students, and the only one known as "Angel", I was of course forced into hard labour. I knew modeling wasn't exactly a glamourous profession, but now I finally understand how boring even a short session can be. And tiresome. We did a shoot with 6 of us "running" from the front doors of the lecture building. Of course we couldn't actually run, so we had to try to look like were running, first by just standing in a "running" position, then taking a step forward timed with the camera. I'm not sure if either really worked that well, but in typical Japanese fashion, the crew was of course very thankful and thought our performance was absolutely great.

I also appeared in a shot where eight or nice students sat and stood around a couple of benches, chatting, laughing and generally having a good time. Which was actually pretty fun, since we din't have anything to talk about and so talked absolute nonsense. "So wasn't dinner aweful today?", "why yes, it stunk. I especially hated the baseball players", "I take it to be self-evident that all men are created with carrots sprouting from their noses", and so on. Maybe not a hundred percent accurate quoting, but you get the general idea.

And no, I won't send you the pamphlet, unless I by the grace of God allmighty (whom I don't even believe in) actually look decent in the shots. I'm not even sure I want to see the pamphlet myself... hey, a good self-esteem doesn't have to have full coverage, right? I don't like to see myself in pictures (I'm more ok with video), and like most people think it's very strange to hear my own voice. Which reminds me of the fun times we have in Japanese class. We do pronounciation practice where we read stuff to tape and listen to ourselves. Of course everyone in class gets to listen to everyone else. Which actually works better than expected. It seems like listening to your own voice speaking a foreign language feels less strange than listening to it in your mother tongue. Either that, or my voice has just became nicer. Hard for me to tell, though I wouldn't think so.

I promise, a picture update will come soon!

27 april, 2005 23:26, Anonymous Anonym wrote:

How does a normal day in class look like? I'm interested in studying at Akita. :)    


28 april, 2005 09:44, Anonymous Anonym wrote:

show plz ^^    


28 april, 2005 14:35, Blogger The Scarlet Apricot wrote:

Hey anonymous :)

A normal day? Pretty much like a normal day at any small university where everyone stays at the dormitry I guess. Not too many classes, but loads of homework for most of the time. And of course teachers who think their subject is definitely the most important one and the one who should take up the most of our "free" time.

Japanese classes are probably not the worlds best, but the actual being surrounded by the language every day, but still being able to ask things in English when you don't understand, is pretty much priceless.    


28 april, 2005 20:37, Anonymous Anonym wrote:

Well, you know me, and therefore you'll understand why I cannot resist asking you what you mean by "eight or nice people"...
May I suggest "seven or naughty", or something like that?    


29 april, 2005 15:42, Blogger The Scarlet Apricot wrote:

That would be my fingers playing tricks on me and typing a `c` instead of an `n`. Funny things, those fingers.    

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Nothing new on the eastern front

2005-04-21
Guess what? Nothing seems to be the word of the week. The most exciting thing that happened these last few days was going to Aeon (the shopping mall) on tuesday. I bought a bag that says "Stockholm" (couldn't resist), the entire collection of the Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind manga, a couple of shirts and some food. Clothes are cheap in Japan, so I'll probably end up needing to send a big box of clothes home to Sweden by mail before I return. The rest of my time is mostly taken up by classes, homework and idle chat. I'm getting better at Japanese of course, but I doubt anyone would like me to go through my newly aquired vocabulary. Or anything else of that nature for that matter. Talking about intonation and accent in class is about as interesting as it sounds. It's very hard to learn that way, I wish our teachers would just let us pick it up as we go along, and focus on more important parts. It's not very Japanese to do so, but I think I'll just tell them.

Oh yeah. One thing that's amusing is that I'm now "officially" known as Angel among the Chinese girls (except Lily who calls me usagi - rabbit) and some of the Japanese girls. I think it's my curly "blond" hair and blue eyes. I do have similarities to the image of a roman, which is probably what a lot of angel paintings are based on. Romans didn't have chubby cheeks though, but that's just cute, according to trusted sources...

23 april, 2005 23:58, Anonymous Anonym wrote:

"I´ll think I´d just tell them".

Wow! Would I like to be there when you do it! If anyone could do it in a way that would have the effect intended I´m sure it would be you!

Wish you were with me in the statstisc-course classes in Vasa. We are 30 middle-aged students humbly suffering through hour after hour without understanding a thing and without "just telling" our teacher his teaching doesn´t work. Why don´t we just tell him? It´s a mystery…

your devoting mother    


25 april, 2005 12:40, Blogger The Scarlet Apricot wrote:

Hey Bertel! That's great. You being a photographer (well kind of), please comment on the few pictures I've posted so far.

And please come back in a month when all the spring pictures have come in. The Sakura (cherry blossom) will start in a week or so.    


28 april, 2005 20:41, Anonymous Anonym wrote:

Now I'm curious. Did you "just tell them"? Or are you still waiting for the right moment?
Please let us know if you do it, and then, what happened.    


10 maj, 2005 17:15, Anonymous Anonym wrote:

WEll, if you cant find anything else thats intressting to tell us, write about the girls!    

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Nothin'

2005-04-17
I really don't have anything interesting to report or talk about today. All I did was study, talk, play a board game and watch some tv.

So as a note for the future: I promissed to make updates every day, but updating for the sole purpose of updating doesn't seem quite right. So from now on I won't talk unless I actually have something remotely interesting to say.

17 april, 2005 16:28, Anonymous Anonym wrote:

Well it´s good to hear you sometimes have a day off!
Do the japanese have the same weekend-system as we?    

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The Boon

2005-04-16
So today was the trip to the onsen and swimming pool (with water slide) "The Boon". An hour by bus from AIU, The Boon turned out to be a rather big attraction. The slide was pretty good, compared to the slide we have in Vänersborg (my home town that is). They had some outdoor pools, which we spent quite some time in. We were also supposed to do karaoke at lunch, but it was mostly a few Chinese girls enjoying it. And I was the only one drinking beer at the lunch, which was kind of awkward.

The actual onsen turned out to be pretty cool too (not literally), though my room mate was jokingly complaining about the lack of a unisex area. You have to be naked in the onsen btw...

I'm really tired after 5 hours of swimming, but still a very pleasant experience. Now I just want to visit an onsen with actual open ponds of spring water. In "The Boon", the spring water is pumped up from below ground, you see. Which is not as interesting of course.

Todays exciting news: Basketball

2005-04-15
It's amazing how many wonderful activites we can engage in here at AIU. Just think of all the possibilites you have with a deck of cards for instance, or a TV set. Today's "highlight" was a basketball game. Went pretty well and was fun, but damn it am I in bad shape or what?! Half way through the game my heart was pounding and my lungs hurting. And I was working out for two months before coming here, and did improve. I'm glad I didn't do an aerobic test during christmas or so. The results would not have been pretty, that's for sure.

Oh, and I finally got to load up my Shuffle with some of the music I brought today. What a relief. And what a nice little fellow it is! I'm glad I got this instead of the bigger and heavier ones.

Swing Girls

2005-04-14
Nothing particularly interesting happened today, except that Kawatsu-sensei (of of the Japanese teachers) showed us the Japanese movie "Swing Girls". If you want to know what it's about, look it up on IMDB. Suffice it to say that it's about girls playing big band jazz, and that I'm yearning for some "swing" myself. Movies like this always gets to me. Dang it, I wish I hadn't stopped playing clarinett. Would've been so much fun playing jazz (not to mention Balkan folk music, whish is way cool).

It was kind of like the movie "Shall we dance?" (the Japanese original that is, not the cheesy hollywood version with J.Lo and Richard Gere). Not quite as good, but still very... erm... heartwarming. I know that's a pretty lame way of describing something, but I can't find a better word for that "warm fuzzy feeling". I guess there's a reason the term "feel-good" exists.

15 april, 2005 12:09, Anonymous Anonym wrote:

About the clarinet and "dang it". Well the reason you didn´t continue playing probalbly was that your motivation for doing so was to low. Agree? What your-re really saying is: Wish I had been motivated when I was a kid. But that is almost the same as to say: Whish I was another person.

I sound like a preacher I know. And I do regret things myself in a very similar way. But remember I was 25 when I learned to play the guitar! (I never became a great musician but that´s not because I was to old but because I wasn´t motivatetd to become more skilled than I actually got.

So now you want to play clarinet! Start doing it for heavens sake! (Or start doing in it when you are 30 or 50).

The only thing that´s to late for you is the chance of becoming a young star.

(I agree though that it´s a pity you gave up on music, I rememember how extremely fast you learned to play the guitar when you were 12 or so)    


15 april, 2005 13:59, Blogger The Scarlet Apricot wrote:

12? Was I 12? I thought I was more like 15 but oh well...

Yeah I know what you're saying. And I know it's not too late to pick it up again. I was just expressing the frustration of realizing what one actually does most often doesn't live up to what one wish to do or have done. And also I just wanted to pick up an instrument and start jammin'. Even if I could learn that, it doesn't take away the immediate desire, now does it?    


15 april, 2005 14:22, Anonymous Anonym wrote:

Well maybe you were 15, I don´t remember. No the fact that it´s not to late doesn´t take away the immediate desire. But it´s also a good thing to experience such desires, don´t you think? There are things in life to look forward to. Although most of these things can only be accomplished if you put a great deal of effort in them. I wish I weren´t so lazy!    


15 april, 2005 22:44, Anonymous Anonym wrote:

Talking about playing the clarinet...
You know, it's still here, just waiting for you to come home and bring it to life... (Just don't forget that it's mine...)
It may need some adjustments and service, but then I think it will be "fully operational".
And don't forget the motto of Dr. Emmet Brown, "If you set your mind to it..."
:-)    


16 april, 2005 13:03, Blogger The Scarlet Apricot wrote:

Den här kommentaren har tagits bort av bloggadministratören.    


16 april, 2005 13:04, Blogger The Scarlet Apricot wrote:

Lazy? Don't remind me. It's my middle name... or at least it should've been, if y'all had had any sense of how I would turn out.    

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Going to Onsen

2005-04-13
On Saturday we will be going on a day trip to a nearby Onsen, or Japanese hot spring. They've built a little spa around the actual spring, and lunch and karaoke (!) is included. Plus we international students don't pay anything since part of what we pay to come here is called "activity fee". Which basically means we need to come along on all trips arranged by the school or lose money. Probably a good thing. I'm looking forward to it.

In other news, the craving for a mac has suddenly been taken to a whole new strata in no small way influenced by the official Tiger release by Apple. I really hope those new iBooks see the light of day as soon as possible. Roar!

iBook

2005-04-12
So here I was, thinking I would by myself an iBook as soon as I got to Japan, to use Skype, chat with all of my dear readers and generally having a good time without having to use the school computers (who happen to come from our good friend Dell and run our equally good friend Windows).

Turns out I won't be doing that anytime soon. The iBooks have been dying for an upgrade for a while now, and rumour sites tell us "Don't Buy - Updates soon". So I'm gonna stick it out and hope for as early a release as possible. Preferably by the end of the month. Wouldn't want to wait until June to get a real computer here.

Oh well, guess it's true what Mark Twain said:

Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.

13 april, 2005 09:44, Blogger Elenaria Cúthalion ni Aesin wrote:

BUT also "If it weren't for the last minute, nothing would ever be done".
Hohoho. I am t3h st4lk3r.
I agree on the homework part. Argh! And oh how it would be nice to get that nifty, apple-decorated beauty in your room right now... but, alas.    

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Homework

And lots of it! I'm really not used to getting copious amounts of homework. Seems like this here semester ain't gonna be no piece of cake, if you pardon my double negations. The college algebra class I'm taking is probably the easiest. Cultural Anthropology will be quite demanding, but also interesting. And of course, Japanese, the reason I came here, is gonna be very hard work. Which of course is fine and the way it should be. Can't waste all this money on nothing, now can I?

13 april, 2005 22:59, Anonymous Anonym wrote:

Of course not!
But I hope you'll also have time to take lots of nice pictures, do your blogging, sending email etc etc.
And just filling yourself with japanese language and culture. And maybe lots of sushi as well...
:-)
Btw, I think this really looks good!    


14 april, 2005 13:44, Blogger The Scarlet Apricot wrote:

Sushi? Nah, haven't had sushi once since I got here. Will probably get some in Akita City sometime, or for a special occasion here. Or maybe even on Saturday when we go to the Onsen.    

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Classes begin

2005-04-11
Classes started today, I'm taking 8 credits of Japanese (which is the maximum) and also a 4 credit algebra and a 3 credit cultural anthropology course. Japanese class will repeat lots of the stuff we did in the fall, which is a very good thing considering we moved so quickly through that book I swear I could hear the swooshing sound of knowledge passing right over my head.

Cultural anthropology is taught by Dr. Mock, who seems nice enough. Funny too. The Japanese students pretty much looked like question marks though. He told them they have to stop him and ask him to slow down, but like he said - they probably won't. At least not in the beginning. Japanese students generally seem to adopt the "sit quiet in my seat and listen" approach to learning. I'm not very much for that myself, so I'll try my best to lead the way to more conversational classes.

12 april, 2005 11:28, Anonymous Anonym wrote:

Aaaah - det svisjande ljudet av kunskap som passerar strax ovanför huvudet. Underbart! Får jag använda detta citat i min undervisning?    


12 april, 2005 15:01, Blogger The Scarlet Apricot wrote:

Be my guest.    

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First pictures

2005-04-10
First post all done, and now I should be posting all the wonderful pictures (...) I've taken. Unfortunatly, to post more than a few I need access to photoshop to scale them, which I won't have for another week or three, since the school computers only have MS Paint and I'm ordering my iBook tomorrow.

So three pictures from Tokyo will have to do for now. I hope you'll enjoy them.




Gate in the Meiji shrine, Harajuku.





Tokyo Big Sight, where it just so happened, the Tokyo International Anime Fair 2005 was held. Lucky me ^_^





Ginza at night. Pretty good view, if you ask me. Though actually being in the store is pretty cool too.


10 april, 2005 23:15, Anonymous Anonym wrote:

Hehe....Mac....Stink bigtime =P    

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First Post

So I promissed to start this blog as soon as I got to Japan. Big deal. Almost two weeks isn't a long time anyway. Stop looking at me like that.

Anyway, I'm here now, at Akita International University not far from Akita city. After the flight, which was a pain in the ass - literally! - and four "busy" days in Tokyo (busy sleeping off the jetlag that is) we arrived in Akita on Monday the 4th. The past week has been but one long introduction. Dormitry, cafeteria, library, lecture buildings, academic affairs, and so on and so forth. Followed of course by the formal matriculation ceremony at the nearby hotel "Plaza Crypton" (I forgot to ask if Kal-El was in) that lasted for one ass-soaring hour. Great music though, by famous violinist Reiko Watanabe, who happens to be a professor at the university. I held a short speech at the reception after the ceremony, some of it in Japanese, to the audiance's liking (or so it seemed anyway).

Campus life is pretty easy to get used to. The dorm has paper-thin walls, and the hot water is pretty random on the forth floor, but otherwise it's fine. Got an american roommate, Tony, whose sleeping habits seem odd at best, but who has a pretty good taste in music. The cafeteria food is better than the "good old" school stomach filler, but I'm having trouble adapting to Japanese breakfast. I want my yoghurt, milk and cheese on rye. Not rice and fried fish. But I guess I'll get used to it.

As for communication, speaking Japanese turns out to be about as hard as I had imagined. The almost total lack of practicing actual conversation in class has left its legacy. But the good news is that continual practice also will leave a legacy, I'm getting better by the day. Understanding what others say is of course much easier, but still hard sometimes. And it varies quite a lot from person to person. Some of the Japanese students, I can understand even when they talk to other Japanese (to a certain extent of course). Others are hard to understand even when they try their best to talk as simple as possible.

All in all, I seem to have made a good choice to come here. And remember,

Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.
- Victor Borge

10 april, 2005 10:53, Anonymous Anonym wrote:

This looks nice! I really like this theme too. It'll be interesting to follow this blog - I'll add it to Newsfire RSS :-D    


10 april, 2005 12:54, Anonymous Anonym wrote:

Aha, där är du!    


10 april, 2005 13:26, Anonymous Anonym wrote:

Oj vad snyggt! Men varför kallar du sidan morrhår? Sticks den eller är den känslig?    


10 april, 2005 23:14, Anonymous Anonym wrote:

Nice.
Gött att se lite av din kamera kunskap och hur du har det. Hoppas att det blir lättare och lättare med språket.
Ha det bra.    


12 april, 2005 06:21, Blogger The Scarlet Apricot wrote:

Thanks for coming here, bring all your friend! I'm trying to get one update in every day.

Maria: It's just word play. Plus I do like cats you know.    


12 april, 2005 16:45, Anonymous Anonym wrote:

Ordlek? Kan du inte förklara jag är för obildad. Men fint låter det och en bra metafor för en som är på besök nånstans och känner efter med sina känselspröt. Det låter som du sticks lite också med tanke på vad du säger om dina försök att få till "more conversational classes" och att du inte direkt gillar "sit quiet and listen"-stilen. Men med morrhår sticks man ju på ett ett rätt angenämt sätt så det passar nog dig brav kan jag tänka. Miao!    


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