Sakai-zemi Class Trip 26-28

I just came back from my 2nd trip to Tokyo this month! (Only this time it was with the 2nd year students in my seminar plus my Prof.) And I took loads of pics too... I'll only post up a few. I'm still waiting for pics from the others, too.


The excited group of people about to experience Shibuya in daylight.


Kaori at Hachiko


Waiting to cross the Scramble-kousaten


Yeah, they might look like they're looking at something nice, but they're posing. (^_^)


Map of the Govt. buildings at Kasumigaseki


Front of MoFA - we couldn't take pics inside


Building in Roppongi


What we found in front of that building.


Sakai-zemi + Lucas


Vending machine I found at the hotel... they sell pasta too.


Nikkei Weekly's - they showed us how to use EDISON 21


Harajuku - experiencing how fast Sakai-zemi can pose for pictures. I barely blinked and they were already ready.


Me and Koyuki trying to laugh in the face of the cold. It was extremely windy that night.


He's posing. LoL. Satoshi.


Koyuki, Yukichi and Ginga from right to left. Dinner.


The Prof, Nami, Wakki, Ayaka and Mizue from right to left.


At the boys' room in our pyjamas resting our feet and enjoying ice-cream after dinner.


Me and Sue at the Brunei Embassy


Kaori trying hard to give me a 'serious' face but can't help laughing.


She's given up, LoL. My sunglasses btw. They were all trying it out.


Wakki with my sunglasses.


Satoshi with them.


Akihabara later that day. We went hunting for a maid-cafe.


Tokyo tower later that night.


I looks like the shorter vr of the Eiffel Tower.


View from the top.


Flowers I found by the side of the road while waiting to go on the bus back to Osaka/Kobe.

National Day

I went to Tokyo during National Day to celebrate it with a lot of people. They used a room at the hotel and invited 700 people it seems. It was fun! I'm not feeling up to speed right now to write any further about it - and I'm going to Tokyo again tonight with my class. We're visiting MoFA and MEXT and Nikkei Shimbun.

Adeline!!!! Can I have the pics pleeeeeaaaaaseee (^_^)

Sakai-zemi Class Trip 20-21

I left yesterday morning with just a backpack for my trip to Himeji with my friends, seniors and the professor of one of my seminars. I left a little ahead of schedule because I didn't want to miss the train. I ended up going ahead all the way to Himeji-eki with my friends who helped organise the trip.

Mizue and Kumiko.

Yesterday was mostly business. The seniors were presenting what they thought they wanted to do for their graduation thesis and we all just listened and gave comments here and there. This went on from 1.30pm to 6pm. We had a breathers between the presentations and a 10-minute break in between, but I still can't believe we stayed 4 and a half hours discussing.

At night, we 2nd-yrs were in charge of activities so we decided to have our version of the quiz show: Hexagon! (And I got to be one of the MCs!)

This group won the first round! (They're showing their prizes in their mouths LoL - chocolate)

They all ended up liking the game so much they went for another round (even though we didn't have any prizes left!). And even after we all went and came back from the onsen everybody went and gathered in the boys' room to play bingo. At first we all played for prizes, but then when those ran out, we played instead for stories(?). Whoever got bingo had to answer any question the previous winner asked and then make a question of their own for the next 'winner'. Of course the questions were like "When did you have your first kiss?" or... when the professor got bingo they asked him how he proposed to his wife, and then they asked stuff like "Who would you never had become friends with had it not been for Sakai-sensei's seminar?" or the 2nd most irritating person in class. The 2nd most terryfying in class. And stuff. It did get pretty interesting but then once it hit 1am everybody was lying on the floor sleeping. LoL

I had the key to the girls' room so I 'led' the ones who were already half-asleep back to the room - and then when I went back to the boys' room... I must have been gone for only 10 minutes but everybody was wide awake and noisy again. .......In some way I don't really get these people. But I stayed anyway till 3am and then went back to the room to sleep. Everybody else slept around 5am. It was so unbelievable when they actually managed to wake up the next morning for breakfast. We had to leave at half-past 10 too.

Everybody gathering in the lobby.

Kentaro-san pretending to eat that already fired up charcoal.

And then! We went to Himeji castle!

2nd-yrs from my seminar & Sakai-sensei

Ginga... pretending he's Goku???

Ume blooming already!! Winter is really going to end soon (I hope)!

View from the outside

View from the inside

View from the top

Well. That's all of Himeji for now. I expect I'll be going again with Mom and Azzi. After all that we went for lunch! Look at the parfaits these people are eating!

Gackt-san with his parfait.

Ginga with his. Yes. He was very happy.

I realise there's something blocking part of the pick but try to pick out the parfait on the right side... the huge one. 4 people shared it.

I didn't have any parfait.... I think I kinda got full just looking at them....

As it is! I'm going to Tokyo tomorrow night. Hahaha... my February has only just begun.

Btw- I took all these pics from my phone (^_^)

Snow, Gym, Disney and Oguri Shun!

It was snowing today! I was so surprised when I flipped aside the curtains to the balcony this morning and saw mounds of snow falling. Although it lasted only about an hour.

I've been pretty tired lately, trying to clean up my room since all this business with Uni is just about over and done with. But my room is still so cold and I can barely move inside it unless I'm in my futon enjoying the warmth of my electric blanket. I'm in the living room now, of the apartment (yes! I finally finally can enjoy internet!), and since we have a shared air-con here, the temperature is just nice.

I just peeked out the window and it's started to snow again. Yech. I hope it doesn't accumulate too much. I need to go back up to Uni to return some books tomorrow.


I went to the gym today. I wasn't feeling so well so I only stayed an hour with the treadmill.

After that I had a meeting with my friends from Oga-zemi. There were 4 of them when I arrived, and 6 in total once we actually got down to business. We were trying to decide what to study in Ogasawara-sensei's seminar next semester- so basically we were just brainstorming. I suggested studying Children's stories and Disney for next semester, since everybody was leaning towards visual arts, film and photography.

Children's stories, because of this interesting thing I heard from my translation course last semester. The professor was trying to tell us the difference between the German, English and Japanese version of Hansel and Gretel. The original version featured the real mother of Hansel and Gretel while the English and Japanese featured a step-mother. The difference was astounding and could have brought over significant social impact over the image of divorced women and remarriage. Not to mention step-mothers. At least, that was what the professor believes.

And Disney, because (since the last semester was mostly about Postcolonialism and Postmodern Geographies) I took a course on Contemporary Cultural-Anthropology where the teacher showed Pocahontas, as a Disney-fied symbol of colonialism and segregation. Sure Pocahontas saved John Smith, but in history, they weren't real lovers (which is a little besides the point, but). Sure, Pocahontas went to England, but she was baptised (in a way, meaning, the only way she could be seen as 'cultured' was to 'become' a 'white'-man). And in a really famous picture (I forgot who drew it),that shows the baptism of Pocahontas, a really unpleasant looking 'Indian' was squatting in the dark corner of the picture. They were separating 'good indians' and 'bad indians', in a way. I'm never going to watch Disney with the same eyes ever again.

Of course, there were other proposals, such as visiting art museums, sports, montage pictures, filming and stuff like that. I wonder what we'll be doing next semester... hmm.

In any case. On the way back, we had ice-cream (yes, I realise that it is winter, but even so we really wanted ice-cream!), and I just stepped into the bookstore near Hankyu Rokko station and I found a picture-book of Oguri Shun! hehehehehehe He's sooo cool!

Pics! - January 6th in Nara

These are purikura with my friend from Nara, Kyoko. I stayed over her house around the 5-6th of January. We went to karaoke and dinner with her parents. They were really really nice and a ton of fun! Kyoko and I haven't really spent that much time since I stopped taking French classes.

But we're still really great friends! (^_^)

Happy.

I have internet at my place now! Finally! I don't have to go out of this already cold house to the even more cold outside to walk up to Uni to use the internet anymore!

Life is good.

Shocker!

That presentation I am supposed to do? I volunteered the topics "Realism, Liberalism and other (concepts)" and "(the) PKO and Japan's Involvement".

First off. I thought, that the realism and liberalism part was going to be soooo easy. I was soooo wrong. Look up "realism" and "liberalism" on wiki and you'll see what I mean. Guuuurrrrghhh. (Not to mention I need to use the Japanese material since the presentation is in Japanese - and there are so many kanjis there! My head's spinning at the very thought of it.) I've copy-pasted only what I thought was relevant material and even so! At TimesNewRoman, font 9 and one-inch borders all around on MSWord, I have 16 pages! How am I supposed to deal with that..... *panic* Obviously, the only way is to deal with it one bite at a time but I need a computer that lets me type in Japanese so I can at least save my arm the ache I'd get from writing all weekend. #the future does not look promising-- and this is to be the beginning of my Spring holiday???#

I've yet to pounce on the PKOs but it looks like a lot of work from the websites I've seen already. I'm so dead. I'm so. Dead. Maybe it's not too late to ask someone to partner up with me on the second topic? ....

And the worst part is! (Did I mention I have a Nintendo DS now?) I played my GBA-ver of Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town and I got to the end of Winter in the first year; everything was going soooo well. Until. The game somehow reset itself. Which means? I have to start from the beginning again!

You know what that was? It was a sign. Everytime a string of bad luck happens to me it always starts with something as devastating as that! Guuuurrrghhhh. That's all there is to it. Gurgh. At least until I find that silver lining.

Freedom!

No more exams! I only have 3 reports and a presentation left to do and I'm freeeeeeeeeee.

Or so it might seem.

My last exam was yesterday and my next deadline is tomorrow (my math class: Structure and Mathematics). I really liked that class. Sure the way he did the math was a little different that what I used to have, AND he did a lot on symmetry... one of the things I'm really bad at, but it was really nice since he linked math to a lot of arts. Then my other deadlines are on the 12th and 20th this month. My presentation, or study session really where I've been given the topics of Realism/Liberalism and PKOs to look into, is on the 12th.

Between my part time job teaching at WILL and then (oh I forgot to mention! I joined-) the Gym, and my field trips, the only day I have left to breathe in this month is the 13th - and even then, Yahoo BB! will be coming in to check the phone lines at the apartment in the afternoon (yay! finally! internet!).

I joined the gym - Central Sports- at the beginning of this month. I've already been there 3 times and I love it! So, all I do is walk, run, cycle and do some weight training, but they have TV there too, so it keeps my mind off the time. They have showers, jacuzzis, saunas and massage chairs hehehhe... They have these aerobics and special exercise classes too. They offer ballet lessons, they have table tennis... pools... I like this gym. I'm not sure if I'll still like it as much in the summer. It's cold now so I don't sweat so much when I go back up to the apartment (after showering at CS).


About my trips this month.
The first one will be to Himeji on the 20th-21st. It'll be with my classmates and seniors from my seminar, and the professor'll be there too. I have no idea what the purpose of this trip will be but I hope it'll turn out well.

The second one is a reception for the National Day. It's on the 23rd and I'm only planning to arriving in Tokyo in the morning and then leave at night. I need to find a place I can wash my hair and change when I arrive though... hmmm... I can deal with that later.

The third trip is again to Tokyo, but from the 26th to the 28th, and again with my classmates, but no seniors this time. The professor will be attending though, especially since this is actually an official Uni-funded trip to the Foreign Ministry, MEXT and Nikkei Shimbun. I'm going to be really tired aren't I? ... Hmmm...


But then! After all that! My only plans in March are to go to Semba Curry again and then going to Nazuna's place again in Fukui during mid-March! Then, after Mom and Azzi come and leave I have one week to prepare for the next semester.

It is so unnatural for me to have plans to that far in the future. Hahahaha. Good luck to me! Later!