Snowboard, Nagano, Consussion

Yappari in het Japans betekent... zo als verwacht, as expected....

Ik heb zaterdag een hele mooie dag gehad op de bergen vlakbij Nagano en ben met veel plezier het oefenweide vlakbij olimipische pistes afgedaald op het snowboard! Het was geweldig! Anders dan het surf board glijd je gewoon naar beneden en staan je voeten vast, dus ik had al gauw de eerste bewegingen te pakken! We hebben echt heel veel lol samen gehad.

Nu dan het hard hoofd en het "yappari" verhaal....

In heb mijn board leraar waarschijnlijk meegesleept in mijn enthousiasme en overmoedigheid en toen hij me de tweede dag een bochtje maken wou leren ben ik niet zo prettig op mijn hoofd terecht gekomen. Recht met mijn snufferd in de sneeuw... ik denk dat ik een gen mis die het signaaltje uitzend "steek je handen uit als je richting de grond gaat met je hoofd"...

Maar geen zorgen, er is een CT-scan gemaakt en alles zit nog op zijn plaats! Margreet is zondag met me naar de kliniek geweest en voor me gezorgd op de weg terug naar huis (Tokyo). Verder is Rene de hele tijd bij me geweest. Hij heeft me vancht om het uur wakker gemaakt en is vandaag de hele dag bij me gebleven, niet naar school gegaan, en deze zieke doch altijd hongerige meid verzorgt. Ik heb bijna de hele dag geslapen.

Gister is Sjors bij me gebleven en smiddags zijn we nogmaals naar het ziekenhuis gegaan. Nog een keer alles gechecked en het zat nog op zijn plaats. Ik ga nu al weer met sprongen vooruit, dus

GEEN ZORGEN MAKEN, T KOMT ALLEMAAL GOED!!!

For the English speakers, I am sorry to write this quickly in Dutch... I had a concussion last Sunday during snowboarding, but am already recovering quickly.

Sorry for not replying emails for a while, as you might understand it is still not very good to spent too much time at the computer... But don't worry about me, I am more than good taken care of!

Big kisses x x x

New home, sunshine, temples and tunas

Last weekend was great, and it is only getting better. I can finally enjoy everything to the utmost without having to worry to much. Unfortunately I had to cancel my plans I made for last weekend as the time of my appointment with Yanagisawasan about moving and the kenshuusaki (Internship) changed from 1800 to 1300, meaning I couldnt make my weekend trip as I had to be back already early. I must say it did not bother as much as some thought. I had wanted to go for the weekend to Kamakura, but that might be better anyways when it is warmer outside. So instead I enjoyed the city, in which there is still plenty to see!

Friday went properly out for the first time with a small group and danced together with the Japanese, which entails as much as dancing on the same dance floor, and next to yelling subarashii (cool, great) so now and then, everybody leaves each other alone, funny to experience the Japanese culture in the disco. Trying to have a conversation is a whole other dimension, as the plain form used when going out and among friends, sounds like a complete different language than we learn in class. If I want to master this in the future, there is only one thing I can do... go out... a lot!!!!!!!!

Saturday went to Omotesando with Oneesan (decided to use our "ingroup" for my fellow JPP students, so nobody would be offended having his/her name displayed on the world wide web....) and we had just a relaxed day together, ending in going to the cinema in Shibuya. A perfect Saturday. I have never heard such a silence before in the cinema (same silence I was socked by at the beginning in the metro). People just do not laugh, talk, nor wishper while watching a movie, which might sounds logical, but is not once you experience how it is when people do not!

Sunday had my appointment with Yanagisawasan, and got more information on the place where I am going to live and the internship. As she had everything prepared, explained and printed on paper in detail; how I had to go to my new apartment, go from home to work,which bus and metro would be easiest, including the minutes how long it takes to get from one to the next (even the walking parts in minutes, the Japanese leave nothing, really nothing unprepared...) I decided to make the trip immediately afterwards. It was perfect weather and the neighborhood is a beautiful spot. As it is near the dock where the boats leave to Taiwan, China, etc, and the area is pretty new, spacious and with several bridges, so it reminded me a little bit of Rotterdam and I couldnt help feeling at home already! I realize how lucky I am going to live in this place, the location is perfect. I took the bus to Tokyo eki (eki=station, this is the neighborhood where I am gonna work, called Marunouchi) and it was only 30 minutes all together with walking, looking for the building, etcetera, so nothing to complain about!! Made my homework in a cafe in Ginza, and thus I had the Monday to enjoy another part of the city I hadn't been yet....



....Asakusa, where I went together with Shachoo to explore the famous Sensoo ji temple .












Trying my luck at the temple... where it is custom to buy a fortune telling note... and like the other times before.. there is only bad luck in prospect... in life, health, love, work and traveling is also advised against... FORTUNATELY... if you dont agree with the outcome, you hang your fortune note and leave it for what is.... hmmmm... I wonder what they say about putting it on a web blog...


We ended the day at the 22nd floor in the building on the other side of the river enjoying the sun setting over this beautiful city. It was perfect! whaaaaaa, I love sunsets...

Looking forward to weekend! Gonna trade my surfboard in order to learn how to snowboard!! In order to most probably find out that I am as bad in the snow on the board as I am on the waves.. :)


So here some dates in order to keep track of me. So please do not to worry when I do not write on the blog too much... it is gonna be a crazy time..! Got the schedule today and in the next coming three weeks, gonna snowboard, make the sankyuu (name of the big Japanese test, next Thursday), pack all the stuff I already collected after living here for two months, go to Kyoto, a trip during which we approximately get up between 4.00 oclock and 7.00 in the morning, get back, sleep two days in the hotel here (Ajia kaikan), pack again, and move the last weekend, starting to work the Monday straight afterwards... I guess the the black below my eyes and my (angel, according to Japanese ideal) white face will not disappear for the next coming weeks... months...

Soooooooooo...........

Next Friday 15th gonna take the shinkansen to Nagano!!! Coming back Sunday late...
Thursday 21st big test time
Saturday 23th gonna be in the Kansei region for a week with my JPP tomodachies (fellow students), coming back the 28th.

Moving the 1st of March and starting to work the 3rd!!!!

Pic above: Shibuya the weekend before last by rain...

New address from the 1 of March onwards:
Shokuin Juutaku 405
Harumi 3-11-10
Chuuoo-ku
104-0053, Tokyo
Japan

house phone:
0081 3 3536 7067



Below some promised pictures of last week Wednesday visit to the Tsuiji fish market, where we went at 5.00 in the morning to see the tunas being sold.... It was the best experience ever, I loved it, seeing the big tuna sold in an old fashioned auction, to the smaller fish middleman, to the restaurants, to my plate of sushi just next to the market, the best sushi I have ever had!!!!! hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.......................









Three pic at the left: Tuna being sold on the market! Wow there are so many!










Pic to the left: This is no tuna....



Hmmm... to end with some good news... tomorrow we are gonna play soccer, revival of the Genki Henkie's !!! Our soccer team started up in Leiden start training in Tokyo!!! Finally after two months gonna do some sports again, before going extreme on the snowboard... :)

Big KISS and hug for all :)

X Kir

Weekly report: Tunahead, no more headaches and our sensei

Dear all, next to my other messages, I will post a weekly report every Wednesday. This because we have to write a report about the happenings in Tokyo for the institute (JNI) and I thought it would be nice for you guys to read those as well, as you might get a better idea of my world reading it like being part of it... Below my report of last week. In case you want to read the (boring, sick) stories of the last two weeks, please scroll down for the first and second report...

Third week (this week)
Finally, I succeeded to achieve my objective of getting healthy! Last Saturday I joined the group to eat sushi at Suzikisan's "maguroya" (maguro mean tuna, the "ya" ending stands for shop, Suzuki is one of Tokyo best sushi chefs). Suzikisan made us a real party meal. He thought of everything. He even cooked us a head of the tuna (magaro no kama). There were cheese and salads on the table, the second course was sashimi, and afterwards came the sushi. We even had to order our favourite sushi and he went to make it for us. Now we thought we were really full, he came with fried shrimp heads and some other very strong tasting Japanese specialty, some kind of vegetable. In the end we couldn't take it any more! We were so full and ate so many to us strange tasting things. Of course out of politeness we ate everything. Especially the tuna head was hard to finish as it was such a distinct taste. It was great to see that all sixteen of us joined in trying to finish the plate completely and to not disappoint Suzikisan everybody swallowed without complaining. Drinking a bit of sake helped naturalize the taste. It was a great night, ending in going for a small drink in Roppongi (city district where lots of "foreigners" go out). I joined going to the bar and enjoyed the couple of hours with the others which up till now I had to miss out on several times. Evelien came up to me and said that everybody thought it was so great hearing me laugh again during dinner, that they had missed that, and were happy I joined that night. It is great that everybody is so open to each other and that, according to Evelien's words, such things are not left unsaid. I was grateful to receive such a sincere compliment from the others. Very smartly I did not drink alcohol and stayed on the cranberry alcohol free cocktails. For sure I have to stick to this a little bit longer, because also after last night (when we went to play some darts) I noticed this morning how bad I felt, only because I went to bed at 11.30. Not that late at all, but for sure not have any reserves yet, nor resistance, so will watch out carefully with my undertakings.

In class some things have changed after I had stayed at home for two days. The speed of the classes is definitely higher and we don't have to listen again and again to this overly too easy and boring tape as we had to do before. The sensei (teacher) had a talk with some of us during my absence and asked for feedback. This has definitely helped and I think a lot of things have change positively. Also, I have more faith in being able to get closer to the sensei, something I doubted before. At the beginning I felt a large cultural difference between the sensei and us, and felt we had difficulties understanding one another. Next to cultural differences, it was moreover due to the fact that the classes were really too easy for us at the first with the negative consequence that we not really acted interested and motivated during the classes. The sensei work very hard for us, and I think everybody realizes that. In Leiden we did have five sensei, and here in Tokyo they are coping with teaching us with just the three of them. I think the mutual respect for one another has grown in the first month and I definitely enjoy the classes more now that the level is somewhat higher.

Two more highlights of this week were the visit to the Tsukiji market, it was amazing!! And the visit to the Canon factory in Toride, which I also really enjoyed. The time flies here in Tokyo and exactly today one month ago we arrived in this overwhelming city of which I hope to see a lot more in the upcoming half a year that rests us. Looking forward.

Second week
In my weekly report of last week I made one resolution and that was to rest as much as possible and be totally healthy next week. Unfortunately I did not succeed. I left my window open during the night last Wednesday and got yet another flu... Thursday and Friday I went to bed at nine hoping to feel better. In an effort to be healthy, get some exercise (which I have not been making free time for since December) and be out of the city a little bit, I went to the ice skating event with four other JPP buddies (Japanese Prizewinars Programme, the program I follow this year) . It was amazing to be out of the city for the first time and see Fujisan up close. Unfortunately, it turned out not to have a positive effect on my general state of health and Sunday I spent all day in bed in the hope to be better the next day. I did not.

I must say it is not so much that being sick is really not nice when you just moved to another country, it more the 'meewaku' that I am causing to everybody around me because of my sickness. (meewaku is untranslatable as it means the negative social consequences one could give another persons by ones actions) It seems that being sick is not part of the Japanese culture. And I do understand why. Trying to act according to a new set of customs in this case is not easy. Being used to individuality, while thinking about the whole is were I am used to, now I try to think about the group, but I am also urged to also put myself first as I know that otherwise I keep on bugging everybody with my ongoing sickness. Ever since I got here I tried and do my best to show up everywhere although I felt horrible and just rest after I came back home at the hotel. It has unfortunately not worked out, as I kept on being sick. I hope the three days that I spent in bed are going to help, although I must say that after a full day today, I am completely broken.

Lastly I must say that next to the care of the NRG (Nichirangakkai or in Eng. The Japanese Netherland Institue, JNI) , my JPP 'tomodachies' (Japan Prizewinnars Programme, tomodachi means friend, i.o.w. my fellow students) have been amazing. They are not letting me participate in anything and say I have to stay in bed and take it easy. Obviously they also know that the 'healthy me' is way more fun and do all their best to make me feel better. There is almost no one that hasn't not knocked on my door to bring food, salt (with the advice of sniffing it through my nose in order to feel better), apples, peers, tangerines, movies, books, sushi, Muji (famous japanese store, comparale to the HEMA only then better) bath oil, homework, or just for a little chat. It was really heartwarming that one without knowing of the other came by to check on me. My humble contribution to our Japanese this week is that everybody, including myself, knows how to say 'get well soon' in Japanese, 'odaijini'... Therefore... yet one more time this will be my resolution for next week, including a weekend without any intensive activity...


First week in Tokyo
Last week has been amazing and quite tough at the same time. "You experience everything so intensively and with so much emotion, no wonder that you are so tired", remarked Margreet (fellow student) yesterday to me, when I had to cry because of a general lack of sleep and the pain of my bladder infection. I know she is oh so right. And because of this, I felt happy, because I got confirmed that my fellow students really got to know who I am and what I am about. The support of my fellow students is heartwarming, and I really think that we have a great group with a good balance. We do a lot of stuff (sumo, karaoke) together and try to involve everybody, while there is enough space to also go out into the city on your own, or go out in smaller groups.

I love Tokyo, and I am really happy that I am here. I love to get to know the Japanese, to try out all the food and to get to know their traditions. Last week I made a start by going to the sumo and seeing two kabuki plays. Both events I really enjoyed and definitely belong to the highlights of last week. To the lowest points of this week I definitely count in all my small sickness that I got since I got here. Starting off with pain in my throat, I moved to having to a headache, having a cold, ending up in a nasty cough I was just trying to get rid off, when I got a bladder infection. The truth is, I would like to do a lot a stuff at the same time, but on the other hand know that my body needs of lot of rest to process all these different impressions and new things that I experience intensively. My resistance is very low, although I am eating 500 mg of vitamin C a day in order to keep it up, and I get easily sick. I am grateful for the way Remmelinksan, Yanagisawasan en Miyazakisan (of the Japanese Netherlands Institute, JNI) helped me with my bladder infection problems and other sicknesses and my resolution for upcoming week is do rest as much as possible and be totally healthy next week.

Both the lowest point of my tiredness/sickness, my most intensive and best experience got together in the highlight of last week; last Thursday when we had the "jikoshookai" (selfintroduction) and met our hosting companies. First of all I was really proud of the group, as all of us, after quite some struggle both in Holland as well as here in Tokyo, ended up having fantastic self introductions. Further, the people of Nomurasoogookenkyuujo (my internship company) were really great and we talked the whole evening in Japanese. At least we tried to do so. It was amazing. In the end of the evening I was broken, but happy. I am looking forward to start my internship.