Bergentz in Japan 2009!

Finally? I guess so.

2009-08-17T01:40:00.000-07:00

It was a long time ago... Almost one whole summer holiday ago since i last wrote anything.

I will start to tell you about the festivals that we have around here. I have been to quite a few of them by now and they have been really awesome.

It is mostly a bunch of really cool fireworks and alot of good food. The last one i were at was apparently called "San man hanabi", i think. "San man hanabi" means 30,000 fireworks which meant they shot up 30,000 fireworks in the air. It was really long and really cool.

There is also good food around, last time i ate some sushi and some yakisoba, which is fried noodles, and it was very good.

Here is a video of some of the fireworks.

So anyone who is wondering, my school begins again the first of september. Or, well, the ceremony is like an hour on the 31:st.

I have done quite alot this holiday like going to Tokyo and Kyoto and im going to Osaka soon too, alot of traveling indeed.

When i went to tokyo i met a friend, it took a really long time to find eachother in the big "Tokyo Station". We went to Tokyo tower at first. Here is a picture of it, it is actually a copy of the french Eifel Tower except that its red-ish. It is really high and it was really cool to go up to the top.

Here is a picture of it and another one from the top down through the glass floor. (And yes, those are my feet, obviously).
After the tower we, me and Skye, called another friend we have in tokyo because we did not have any idea how or where to go.

We went to harajuku and met our friend and he showed us around a bit. Harajuku is kind of a shpping place i guess that is focused on young people. Since i have one like it but about 10 times as big in Nagoya it did not really impress me that much. From there we walked to Shibuya, a really cool place, and we walked around there for the last hours i were there. Shibuya is a place where there are alot of stores and things and alot of people just standing around or walking around.

Here is a picture of Shibuya.

More coming soon

Yay, Not much left now...

2009-08-16T10:22:00.001-07:00

I am going to write something but now its too late... gotta sleep... just hold on another 10 hours.

By the way

2009-07-18T22:07:00.000-07:00

This pic of the day thing doesnt really work out for me, but i will put up pictures when i find something to take pictures of. There is nothing more to photograph here in or around my house :P

Summer holiday...

2009-07-18T22:04:00.001-07:00

Ok, now i have summer holiday, all my friends are busy with clubs... So... I have one and a half month with nothing to do.

I am going to tokyo towards the end of the month, alone, to meet a yfu friend.

Other than that i dont know what else to do... Im too used to this place now, its like in sweden, i have seen all the interesting places and i know them.

But its allright, im gonna find something to do.

Yay! Finally! Summer Holiday!

2009-07-17T19:13:00.000-07:00

SO, i finally got summer holiday now... its really great!!
I am going to tokyo towards the end of june, and right now i am going to see the new harry potter movie with my host mom and host sister.

So...

2009-07-16T22:22:00.000-07:00

I feel there is no need to write or upload anything if there is no-one who reads my blog... Therefore i have taken a break until people start reading again.

#7

2009-07-13T03:03:00.001-07:00

Umm... A yellow house in the middle of a street full of white houses.

So... I have done the math!

2009-07-12T04:57:00.000-07:00

You guys are always complaining that im not taking enough pictures... I have been here for almost 4 months now and i have taken around 400 pictures. Thats about 100 pictures a month, about 3 pictures a day, give or take. I think that is enough photographing actually... Well, it can never be enough photographing , but im really satisfied.

So, anyway, today we (the people from yfu japan and the students in japan) had our meet up thingy. We all went to Nagashima. Most people would probably say that its an amusement park, but i would say that its a rollecoaster park. I have never seen that many of them, gathered in one place. Well, maybe in like computer games and stuff but that doesnt count.

There were alot of rollecoasters there and most of them were really wild! And yes, ofcourse i rode all of them! I had to, they all looked so much fun.

Im too excited to write anything more, the left over adrenalin is blocking the idea part of my brain.

So there it was, the best day of my life!

#6 Best day of my life!

2009-07-12T04:45:00.001-07:00

Today we had an "YFU Get-together" We all went to an amusement park, or more like a rollercoaster park!! It was the best day i have had for a very long time... The park was almost empty, which means that there were almost no queues!! I met both old and new friends and i have to go there again!! And i will next summer i hope!

#5 Golfpic 2

2009-07-11T06:55:00.000-07:00

The sign says: No smoking on the tee-ground.
I did 2 birdies, 2 pars, 2 bogeys and the rest was double-bogeys.. We only played 9 holes, Im really satisfied, although, i was like inches from making one of the birdies an eagle.

#4 Golfpic 1

2009-07-11T06:52:00.000-07:00

Its kinda hard to turn it all around and start counting how many yards i can hit instead of meters :P

#3 "Jihanki" Or Vending-machine.

2009-07-09T02:23:00.001-07:00

These are everywhere!!

#2 Night!

2009-07-09T02:16:00.001-07:00

Just a cool picture of my street at night! :P I went home from the karate lesson and i needed a picture.

Pic of the day #1

2009-07-07T05:32:00.000-07:00

I read my friends blog and he is posting one picture a day on his blog, i thought i could do the same... If i can remember to take a picture every day xD I will try.

Im gonna start right now with a picture of my new "Karate Gear" I finally have everything i need to have now.

Pictures are coming soon

2009-06-25T01:44:00.001-07:00

I am sorry... i totally forgot!

2009-06-25T01:23:00.000-07:00

Yea yea, i know it was a long time ago since last but dont meddle in the past :P
Think about now... or something.

I would like to begin to complain about the heat (allthough most of you would probably hit me for it) It is so darn hot here... and the sun... and the humidity... Everything alltogether is just a big pain.
It has been 30 degrees and up, even when it is raining. So there... out with that.

Here goes the real post.

Theese few weeks (How many was it? Two since last?) Anyway... they have been really great. I feel i have become more proficient in japanese only during these last two weeks, now i can actually almost speak with half a flow :P its not fluent... yet. I can understand pretty good too but there is ofcourse words that i cannot understand. I am kind of starting to understand some lessons now, and im learning a little. Not the modern japanese lessons, they are too hard. The physics lessons and the math lessons are coming along. The english lessons were never really a problem. I never really liked chemistry in the first place but it is pretty difficult to know all the japanese names for all the different metals and gasses. The P.E. (Physical Education) is really fun, we have been playing volleyball and badminton by now. We will go on to playing doubles badminton, basket, swimming and so on. I havent really seen the schedual. This week is the term test so there will be no club (Damnit! What am i supposed to do after school with no club and all my friends busy studying.) so i will go straight home...

These past weeks nothing really interesting has happened. I have been to karate and im in big pain now because i strained my calf during a kicking exercise, but it should be no problem. It doesnt hurt as much anymore so im just trying to walk as usual now.

I will pretty soon advance to the next colour of belt, Purple. Karate is probably, by far the most fun sport i have exercised. I cant wait until i can be in a tournament.

Please ask me some questions about stuff here in the comments. I have nothing more to write about now so i would appriciate that.

Have a good summer holiday... (You lucky bastards... I have to wait another one and a half month...)

すばらしいですね。

2009-06-14T05:17:00.000-07:00

みんなさん、こんばんは！

今日は僕はゴルフしました、すばらしいでした。
今日はすごい暑かったでした、でも僕たちはすごいうれしいでした。
たぶん三十五度ぐらいでした。
今週僕は学校と部活に行きますが、だからブログに書くない。
前週の日曜日に僕はラースとラースのホストお母さんが会うましたが、
すごい楽しいでした。
僕たちはスウェデンの食べ物が食べました。

Engelska... For alla er som inte ar japaner :P

Good evening everyone!
Today i have been playing golf, it was great.
Today it was extreemly hot, but we were all happy anyway.
It was about 35 degrees outside.
The sunday of last week me and my host mom met Lars and his
host mom and ate swedish food. We all enjoyed it very much.

I dont know what else to write today so ill give ya a few pictures instead. They were all taken a little while ago but ya havent seen them.

Hey people, again...

2009-06-04T02:49:00.000-07:00

My favourite quote: "Like the other illadvised five word sentences every man eventually
says in his life: "I can jump that far"... "Im gonna win her back"...
"I can trust you guys"... We would come to regret it... we just
didnt know it yet."

So these last few weeks i have had severe pain all over... But damn its worth it...
I have been going to karate practice once a week and it is always very painful the day after... But! It is by far the most enjoyable sport i have ever practiced. I will soon, i hope, move on to purple belt. Even though i cannot run on golf practice the remaining days of the week i feel really good.

My japanese is moving on pretty good and people around me tell me i speak pretty good now.

All is well here in japan, sorry for not writing all the time.

...and just behind the corner, from those moments, is a cruel unshaven bastard called reality...

2009-05-26T02:50:00.000-07:00

I bought a skateboard a few weeks ago, i have gotten hang of the riding itself, its not that hard... Im also almost getting the hang of ollies (Jumping). The scariest thing about skateboarding is when its going downhill because then it is impossible to stop unless you jump off it and break bones... Here in nagoya it is totally flat, which means that this place is really great for casual skateboarding.

Yeah...

2009-05-25T00:49:00.001-07:00

Last saturday i met up with my YFU friend Nils. He is also swedish and lives in nagoya.
We met at a station called kamimaezu, there is that big shopping place there. We walked around and looked at stuff, i didnt buy anything. After that we went to sing karaoke. It was really fun, as it always is.

Today i went back to the shopping place to buy a pair of shoes. Here is a picture.

Thats it for today. nothing more to tell, you guys barely comment anything.

Media...

2009-05-18T02:05:00.000-07:00

Golf swing...

Cant find the rest right now, i will put them up another time.

Oh my god it has been a long time since last... Gomenasai

2009-05-18T01:28:00.000-07:00

I guess i will probably left off where i started, golden week. I spent my golden week with the golf club, we stayed for three entire days at the golf club, Sanage Country Club is its name. The first day i had to get up really early because i was going to meet my friend Sano at Nagoya terminal. I went up at around 6 in the morning, too early for me by the way. But it might be too early for anyone... Anyway, i had breakfast and packed my things and left for the train to Nagoya terminal. I got there and met up with Sano and we left for Myoshigaoka, that is the name of the station where we get picked up by Suzuki-sensei (the golf club teacher). The train ride from my station, Nakajima, to Myoshigaoka takes a very long time and is very expensive. Allthough that might have been because i didnt know how to use that ticket thing the first time so i paid around 1500 yen for a one way ticket there. Now i know how to do so its only 600 yen.

We started off the golf weekend as we always do. We practice at the range for somewhere around 3 hours. In my personal opinion that is way too much time to spend at the range. After that we had lunch and then we went out to play an 18 hole round. Nothing much happened except that i didnt play very good, or even slightly towards good, golf. But it was fun and that is what counts.

The next morning we had to wake up at 5,30 in the morning for a morning round. We went up, got dressed and went to the club house. At the club house i found out that we had to run for somewhere around 10 minutes before we were allowed to go out and play. It was not great to run at 6 in the morning but i managed to without dying and played a morning round of golf. Very bad that one too, but fun.

We did the same thing for one more day, the only thing that was different was that we went to an onsen the second day. An onsen is a place where they have many different hot, or cold, baths that feel really great. They also had a sauna where we sat for a long time and then i forced my friends to jump in to the cold bath. They were really chickens at first but then they got in and thought it was really, really cold.

When i got home from the "golf camp" i was very tired. So was everyone else so it was nothing to be ashamed of.

The day after i came home, the last day of golden week, i was invited by my university friend lars to go and sing karaoke. It was very fun, we went with Lars`s host mother and another Meiden student that she knew because she is an english teacher. They all thought that i was very good at singing.

After that i had another school week, it was fun, as it usually is. I like the golf club, we have much fun during our training and practice.

This last week was as any other week except that there were no club the last two days of it, thursday and friday, because the members, and the whole school for that matter, have to study for the mid term exams. I dont have to because im not doing em. I cant. So i study japanese instead. But it gets kind of boring when there is no club to go to after school. I found out today that this week will be a club free week, and i dont like that a bit. Its not fun to go home and stay home alone for a few hours. My host mom is always visiting grandma at the hospital. I dont know why she is in that so dont ask me. I think she has some cancer thing in her stomach so she cant eat anything and it is too big to take away. So she stays at the hospital now and i dont know if she is coming home. The family has pretty much accepted that she is not well and they dont want to tell her what she has.

Today i have dont nothing of great value. I went out to ride my skateboard for a while, Nagoya is really good for my kind of skateboarding, no hills, very plain asfalt roads and not too much traffic. I dont feel comfortable riding where there are slopes and hills, because i just fall and stuff.
This post is only a text post, i will post pictures in the next one. Look above.

Have patience my friends.

2009-05-13T06:36:00.000-07:00

People... take it easy, im going to write something soon i just dont have enought time yet, im busy with golf, friends, karate, school and being social with my host family. I might get some time tomorrow to write something fulfilling... maybe not. You are going to have to wait and see. I promise though that i will write something this week. If anyone has any questions that you havent asked before please ask me and i can have somewhere to begin writing the next time i write.

Good night, i have had a long school day, i ran for a long time with the golf club. I almost ran all the way home and then to seven eleven to get some money from the atm. After that i ran home again, packed my karate bag and took the bike in high speed to the place where i practice. Now i am semi-dead. Not gonna write anymore now, im too tired right now.

This week, i promise!

"Boringu" --- Bowling and more :P

2009-05-01T06:30:00.000-07:00

This was all for today, dont feel like writing today :P but if a picture says more than a thousand words... What does a video?

A short answer to a comment...

2009-04-30T07:26:00.000-07:00

I dont really care about lowering my golf handicap, ill just play some to improve here and then when i get back to sweden i can start going down in handicap.

The gym and the running makes one loose weight, im not really overdoing the gym like i do in swden because i do it every day so i think its an optimal way to train.

Its also very nice to be dead each weekend :P It feels like you have accomplished something.

I would also say that when you combine moderate gym exercising and running you dont get hurt like you might do from only gym exercise.

I am breaking the "Silence" ...finally! Sorry for the long absence.

2009-04-29T23:25:00.000-07:00

I havent had enough time to sit by the computer that much this week, and for that i am sorry, but now i will post a long post... Hopefully :P (Maybe even with some pictures).

Here we go... Everything is great by the way, just to clear up that.

This two latest weeks i have done alot of things. I am running every day for about half an hour, the golf club is more like a "Track & Field Club with a little bit of golf thrown in"... But it feels great to be dead every weekend. :P The running is done at a nearby park that is called "Chikusa Park" Its really beautiful and its really big. We run 7 laps around it and then we are done. I havent gotten a chance to take any pictures yet because i have been busy running and i can never remember to take my camera with me. I will soon, i promise.

After the running, when everyone is really tired, we go to the school gym and work out for about one to two hours. Im the strongest one in the team by the way :P.

After the gym, the club is finished and we all go to change in to our bloody school uniforms again. They are really really warm and the training does not make it better.

On our way to the train station, wich is like 20 minutes away, we stop and buy something to drink at a little store. Its almost like 7 eleven, named "K". (I think) xD

Enough about running... We do actually play golf aswell.
Last saturday it was raining as if someone was pouring buckets full of water down everywhere. but we still went out on the course for a 9 hole round.

I was playing with "Lik-chan" and a guy i dont know the name of but i am allowed to call him "Johnson". Why? Because the first time we met, he held out his hand and said "Hello... Johnson!"
I think thats about his limit for communicating in english but we get along well anyway, i do know fairly much japanese by now. Because of all the socializing and the... I dont want to admit it... Kumon.

The round in itself was really enjoyable even though it was raining buckets full of water. I putted like a god and the other clubs worked fairly good, i ended up with 10 over par. Im satisfied.

I forgot to mention it, before each round we stand for like 3 hours just shooting at the range, luckily the range mats have roofs... all of them! Its fairly good to get the swing and the hit right but its kinda tiring.

The golf club members usually stay the night at the club and play another round on the sunday but i didnt have a permission form from yfu until this week so i had to go home.

This weekend i am going to stay for 3 days, we have a week of holidays next week, it fells AWESOME!

School is still kind of boring but im learning a little more stuff, im trying to follow the lessons but its pretty hard so mostly i am just doing by kumon. wich is becoming quite a challenge by now, im on level C... I started out on level 3A, and it goes on to 2A, A, B, C, D, E, F, G and H... and then there are more. xD im gonna do as many as i possibly can without overdoing it. xD

Today we changed seats in the classroom, i got a great seat. In the back of the classroom and with cool people around me. It couldnt get any better.

The english classes are not really anything for me, they are so easy. I dont have to do anything, i dont even get asked about anything anymore. They ask me some stuff during the history lessons and sometimes english about sweden, and then i answer.

Some funny facts about japanese high school students:

1. They eat all the time. Every time there is a break in between lessons they all pull out a sandwitch or something, and start eating. Im still full from the breakfast when its time for lunch so i dont really know how they can eat all the time.

2. Many students sleep during classes, in sweden we are not really sleeping during classes. The reason i believe is that the classes are so much more boring than the swedish ones. In sweden we have to be active during lessons. During japanese classes, all you do is listen to what the teacher says and write it down. Thats it. I can admit that the classes are really boring, and i think even more boring when you cannot understand them.

3. Most of them stay up at night really late, that may also be a reason to the sleepy lessons.

To be continued on this one :P

Yesterday everone had holiday, it was a red day because it was the emperor`s birthday. That day i slept for more than usual, i had to catch up on some sleeping. I have a long way to school so i get up pretty early.

After lunch, me, otoosan and okaasan went to a museum. It was a toyota museum of industrial technology, i think... But anyway, it was really interesting. Here follows some pictures.

This is a future car thingy that toyota would make or something like that, it was really cool though. Those lights could have any colour.

This is kind of obvious that its a broken carwindow, they showed some different glass types and how resistant they were against smashing.

This is a long line of car motors, Its not much to say about them. They are japan made.

This is the big car exhibition hall, it was quite intersting. It continues underneath the ledge i stood on when i took the picture.

This is toyotas first car, the Toyota model AA. apparently the guy who built it was studying the arts of carmaking in england. I think it is kind of obvious if you look at the picture.

This is the same AA model but in wood.

This was a house inside a bigger house. They had recreated that cardesigner`s workshop.

This was at the entrance, its a machine made by toyota that makes cloth.

Today i woke up and i was sick... Sick... I dont want to be sick. I went to school anyway to see if it got any better but i dont think it did. I dont have any fever or anything im just having some pain in my throat. Hopefully it will go away soon.

Because of my "Condition" i didnt go to the golf club training. It wouldnt be good to run and train with a cold.

Tomorrow i wont go either but, after the club tomorrow me and my friends are going bowling. Its gonna be really fun. I hope it goes allright. But it will be fun anyway.

Today we also had an earthquake drill, we went outside, folded our jackets and put them on our heads for protection and then we sat down in the middle of a parking lot, and i bet it was atleast 35 degrees in the air, it was "mecha takusan totemo choo atsui" :P. Which means something like "Very Many Very Extreemly Hot" :P

Hmm...

2009-04-22T04:45:00.000-07:00

I have got this feeling that people has given up on my blog... I dont know but no-one ever asks me anything anymore so i have not so much to write about.

I have taken all the pictures i can for now and you have seen them, i dont know what to take a picture of other than the things i have photographed...

Not much things are happening these days... or maybe way too much is happening, since i joined the golf club i havent really been able to write anything of great importance on the blog.

I can tell you about the karate lesson i went to today, but i dont have any pictures so please imagine yourselves and dont ask me for pictures either... when i get the feeling to take a picture and actually share it i will.

Today i went to look at the karate lesson, since i dont really know much karate i didnt join in because today was like an examination for the members to get another belt.

So today i just watched, they begun with kata. Kata is like a decided pattern of different moves that someone does.

Nothing much happened except for the fact that it was cool to watch.

The second, and last thing was fighting... Real genuine karate fighting. It was awesome to watch, those small guys were like machines! they just kept going and going. There was this one guy i thought he would drop dead, he just kept getting hit and then he just kept going and going... The bigger guys were more for really fast and hard hits and not for the berserk kind of super punching as the smaller guys.

Everyone were really good and i cant wait until the next lesson where i get to join in.

Its gonna be awesome!!!

Thought i could put some pictures up for a change :P

2009-04-19T04:48:00.000-07:00

Here is a couple of new pictures i have taken.

The first one is a picture of my new training bag, for my golf clothes. It looks really really cool, i think anyway. It has the swedish colours.

The second one is a picture of my new cap i got from the golf team, it is pretty much obvious if you read the text in the front.

The last picture is a picture of my new golf shoes... i dont think i have ever had a pair of shoes that are this comfortable, not even my slippers i wear at home is this comfortable.

There you go people. Have a good day.

The club itself

2009-04-19T04:15:00.000-07:00

I am in the golf club... The golf club is AWESOME! I have played one round of golf this week and i cant wait to play the next one. Unfortunately we only play golf on saturdays and sundays. On weekdays we run for like 45 minutes or something and then we train at a gym for one and a half hours. But its ok, i have to get used to all the running, thats all. :P

Otherwise everything is going well and the days just fly by... i cant believe i have already been here a month... its really creepy.

Change of club...

2009-04-17T04:35:00.000-07:00

According to the answer on the question about club i will jioin the swimming club but thats wrong. I have joined the golf club instead. And i am training karate outside of school so i still get some martial art. Thats all i had to say today.

The answers...

2009-04-15T01:24:00.000-07:00

Question ----
Is it possible to buy the magazine called "fruits" where you live?
Answer ----
Maybe, im not really cruising around all day looking for it :P

Question ----
How is the japanese going? Can you speak to friends so that they understand you?
Answer ----
The japanese is going quite well...
I can understand the main points of conversation and they can understand me, but i dont really know that much to say yet. I speak both english and japanese,
but we can understand eachother.

Question ----
Can we chat on skype soon?
Answer ----
I dont really know, i am in school or sleeping the time you are free. Maybe during the weekend.

Question ----
How does the japanese subway REALLY look? Do they have the "White glove train people pushers"?
Answer ----
Yes, they do have the "White glove train people pushers" but its not really that many people in the nagoya subway so they are mostly there to organize the queues into the trains.
They have really many lines and nagoya is like the central station so its enormous... Its maybe a little hard to find my way around it but i know how to get to and from school and thats all i need for now.

Question ----
Do you miss anything swedish?
Answer ----
Actually i dont really miss anything in particular... Maybe ill return with something later that you can send :P Hehe.

Question ----
Do you have a tan?
Answer ----
Yeah, it would bee weird not to in this sun... and im walking forever from the station to school
so yea, i think i have become a little more brownish in the face :P but i have to wear the school uniform so i dont really get tanned anywhere else.

Question ----
Do you know how old your parents are?
Answer ----
Yes i know how old they are. They are 47 and 49.

Question ----
Which club will you join?
Answer ----
I am joining the swimming club, one, because they dont have training every day and two,
because i am pretty good at swimming.

Question ----
How and when do you eat lunch in school?
Answer ----
Lunchtime is usually around 12 so i eat lunch around 12...
I eat my lunchbox that okaasan makes for me in the morning.
Me and my classmates push our tables together and eat our lunchboxes in the classroom.

Question ----
After school, between classes and clubs, is there anything eatable to buy?
Answer ----
Yes, the lunchplace has a little shop, and there are like 2000 vending-machines
in and around the school. xD

Question ----
Do you have any lockers at school?
Answer ----
No, i have to carry everything in my bag every day.

Question ----
What do you do after school?
Answer ----
Either club, shopping or just hanging out at home.

Question ----
Does the family do stuff together?
Answer ----
Yes they/we do... we have gone to many tourist places here in nagoya.

Question ----
Can you help the mother with the cooking?
Answer ----
I ask her if she wants any help but the cooking is fine without my help so i just make the table.

Question ----
Is there anything that is cheaper to buy in japan that one would want to have?
Answer ----
I think that probably, most things are cheaper than in Sweden. But i dont really care about that.

Question ----
Can you take a picture of your classroom?
Answer ----
Ehm... Yes, some time :P

Question ----
Can you take a picture of your new friends?
Answer ----
Yes...

My friends think that those horses are very interesting :P ("Omoshiroii!!!")

Group picture :D but not everyone... someone has to take the picture right? :P

My friend trying on a really cute hat... :P

Question ----
Have you found any nice katana store?
Answer ----
Not yet...

Question ----
Can you post a little more pictures of your hood?
Answer ----
I have pretty much taken every available picture of my
"hood". :P

Question ----
How much does it cost to buy something to drink?
(Japan has many good and whacky drinks.)
Answer ----
All drinks cost between 100 and 150 yen (all the ones of interest anyway) and they
have really many cool drinks everywhere.

Question ----
Is there anything that you want from sweden?
Answer ----
I cant really think of anything right now... maybe some really salt liquorice.
(They dont have that here)

Question ----
Can you speak to your classmates?
Answer ----
Yes, we can speak some but not about everything yet.

Question ----
How long school days do you have?
Answer ----
School starts at 8,30 and ends at 15,00.

Question ----
Does the family eat dinner together?
Answer ----
No, only on weekends. Kento comes home at 21 and otoosan too... so we other people
eat dinner before them. but we keep them company when they eat.

Question ----
Have you managed to learn sin, cos and tan yet?
Answer ----
No i havent. But im not really making an effort to. Im focusing on japanese right now,
that is one of the reasons why im here, right?

Question ----
When you are free from school, do you spend time with your siblings
or study in your room?
Answer ----
I spend time with the family, i dont have to do any homework and i get much japanese studying
done at schol so i have nothing to study at home really.
I think it is better to just socialize at home instead of sitting in myroom.

Ask some questions or something :P

2009-04-14T01:46:00.000-07:00

There is not much things happening right now, only like school and stuff so ask me some questions. and not like one per person. i want atleast 5 from each so i can make an entire post about them :P

post 5 or more questions in the comment.

Cool things...

2009-04-13T04:29:00.000-07:00

Yesterday i got my japanese phone ! Yay!... Its really cool phone and the battery lasts forever.
But the best part is...

Look at this picture and guess!

It has TV!!!
Its really really cool, i can watch 10 japanese channels... For free! its incredible. And i can also mail my friends (only have one email address from a friend right now but ill be getting more :P)

That was all for today... This picture was taken by my new camera. xD

Yeah people... !

2009-04-09T02:22:00.000-07:00

Yep so today begins a new story, about school...
So i spent all evening the night before practicing the speech that i was gonna hold infront of the entire school, in japanese by the way, and they are like 2000 people.
I went to bed a little early and woke up way too early, it takes like 15 minutes for me to eat breakfeast and get ready... i woke up one and a half hour before. But it was fine, i worked really slow with everthing. like trying to get the tie to be the most perfect and the hair to become great but i was still done after half an hour so i just watched some tv.

Then i left for school... The thick dark blue winter uniform and 22 degrees outside. Hell yeah, not!
And the train was like too much people... but it was allright.

I have like a bike ride to the station Nakajima, one train to Nagoya, subway to Ikeshita and then like 20 minutes walk to the school. But that walk is not the most annoying part... its the Nagoya - Ikeshita subway. Its just so much people...

I got to school, and our class had to meet in out classroom before the opening ceremony.
The walk to the classroom was quite interesting, i got countless "Hello" and "How are you doing" in bad english xD. But it was quite nice. Everyone was smiling and looking and saying hello.

I got into the classroom and met the class teacher, he is very good. He is also very weird in a good way... We had some kind of information. I didnt understand a word, by the way. Then we went in to the big gym hall... or whatever its called :P. Big sports place with a stage. everyone sat dow in perfect rows. And then everyone stood upp and stood really really straight, I did as the others did. Then they checked everyones shirts and ties and skirts and bowties. Everything had to be perfect. And then the principal came in and had some kind of an opening/welcome speech, which i didnt understand att all either. Then it was my turn and they told me to do the speech in english. That was maybe lucky, maybe unlucky... but at the time i was more thinking that i was lucky. I then went up on the stage and looked out over the 2000 students sitting in perfect rows. All the nervousness dissapeared and i started talking about me. And the english teacher translated.

After that the most interesting exams i have ever done begun. We went to the classroom and sat down. We then did different tests... In japanese. Even the math was impossible becuase half was understandable but the understandable was really not understandable in a math point of view... I havent even heard of the things the test was about... So well, it was... Interesting...

The english test had questions in japanese so i just guessed and got 50% right on it :P

The japanese test is not even worth mentioning... it was... in japanese.

After that i went home, at around 13.15 maybe it was.

On the train home i met a really nice girl that i tried to talk a little to and she tried to talk to me. She went off at the Sakae station.

The second day.

The second schoolday was very good. Many lessons that ya dont really get anything out of... people sleeping around the classroom :P (Not me, i promise xD), People doing other subjects homework, and then there were the people who were actually listening.

But i got alot of help from my new friends with everything. Their names are Liza and Yuki. Later after all the lessons the school had a club orientation. It was three hours where the different clubs showed different stuff to recruit clubless second and third years and ofcourse the new firstyears. Who are about 700 by the way :P.

I was sitting with some really cool people that didnt have a club either. One of them was gonna join basketball and another tennis. I still dont know wich one to join...

After the baseball teams performance they all (and i mean everyone) went up and sat around me xD i bet it must have looked really fun. it was like me in the dark uniform and them in white/purple baseball wear. They are all really nice and they taught me some japanese.

Today was another day at school. During the first two days every girl in the entire school had introduced themselves to me and the third day everyone came asking if i could remember their names... i couldnt. only Liza, Shiho, Yuki, Ai, and Yuu. I dont remeber as many guys names though. Only Masato, Masahiro, Takae and Masako.

Its not that they have that hard names to remeber but its too many people under such a short time. Ya dont really get the chance to register a face.

Today i went to the kendo practice to watch them in action. It was really cool, DAMN they are fast. I dont think i will join the kendo club becuase of morning training wich i have a hard time getting to, since i have an hour to school. and They have long practice every day... I want some freetime too. So i will do some more browsing. Havent decided any club yet. But i will do Karate every weekend i hope.

Alot of talk and no pictures... Thats what it will be today. I havent taken any pictures. I am gonna buy a camera tomorrow or saturday.

Got any questions, dont hesitate to leave them in a comment. Have a good one mateys!

Yay, Adventure!

2009-04-05T02:01:00.000-07:00

Just a little pre story, Today we went to the castle of Nagoya. It was really cool, the pictures that follow ar from there and from Atsuta Shrine.

This first one is a picture from inside the castle. Its a samurai sword, obviosly. And it looks really cool. :D

This picture is taken from the top floor of the castle. It was just a room with lots of windows. Really cool view though. This is the view towards my part of the city.

This is another picture from up there. This one is like nagoya. dont know what part of town.

This is a picture from just outside the castle. Its me and my host mom.

This picture is from outside the castle walls, there was theese people playing japanese drums. It looks really cool when people play it. And it sounds really powerful. My first night in my host family they took me to a concert.

This is just another picture of the castle and the other house on the castle area.

This is just a picture of the map over the castle area.

This is an awesome picture of alot of sakura.

This is a fortune from the shrine. It lsays that my lucky colour will be white. I will be very lucky soon. If i work hard i will be even more lucky. People i wait for will be late. And stuff like that. Its really cool. :D

This is a big thing that was at the shrine. Everytime we passed one of these we had to stop and bow to it.

This is a 1300 years old tree. Apparently one of japans national treasures is a sword that was forged from the tail and a head of a eight headed snake living in this tree. According to japanese "mythology"? Or maybe Legend... Anyway. It was a really awesome place. They have so much to see in japan.

That was all the pictures i had to show you today. Next week school will begin so ill maybe write something more next weekend, it depends on how much time i will have.

Answers...

2009-04-02T18:26:00.000-07:00

Things cost like they do everywhere, i payed like 7000 for the converse, no idea about jeans, other shoes and other clothes. There are many second hand cloth stores so maybe not so expensive.
I will take the train and subway to school, my mom payed the train card, its like the one we have in sweden. There were several english books in the bookstore, but i did not buy anything, we were just there to check out the japanese language books that lars had used and recommended that i use instead of kumon. I havent bought any pens or that stuff, but i will during the weekend. You guys ask hard questions... maybe i will know the answer later.

Yeah, Sakura and sunshine, could it get any better?

2009-04-02T07:19:00.000-07:00

So, today i went out for a little bike adventure around the area where i live. It was really nice and i went in to some small shops just browsing around. This area is really beautiful. There was this bridge over a canal a little while from my house. I was just crossing it when i saw how beautiful it was with the sakura and the sunshine.

Heres a picture for ya.
Some answers to your questions, School starts the seventh of april.
There are like 2000 students at the school.
I am finally finished with all the kumon that i have got, so now i send it to the kumon tutor and get 2 new books.
The city i live in is not that crowded because its such a huge city, people are spread out.
I live in the harbour area, so there aint that many people running around. most people are in the central nagoya.
I will have to get used to the kendo training... Wake up very early, training at 6 until 8.30 when the other lessons start and then training after school a very long time... But hopefully kendo is a fun sport and you know what they say, the more you practice the better you get.

Watermelon colour...

2009-04-01T19:00:00.000-07:00

The pants are striped green and blue, just like a watermelon, and the tie is the same colour. thats what i ment by watermelon colour. just to clear up some misunderstandings. or something.
The picture doesnt really show off the watermelon characteristics. and it is too big, but it is very comfortable.

There are several cheap computers here fritjof af herserud. lets just wait until the end of the year, the one i have might be alot cheaper then, or something.

Some questions that came up.

We dont sit on the floor when we eat. We have an ordinary table.

I can understand and talk some japanese now, the thing i am best at is reading.

My sister and brother are really great. We dont really talk that extreemly much but i try to talk japanese with them and try to understand what they say. We can communicate quite well.

Pictures again. and a little stories, not that much has happened.

2009-03-31T19:30:00.000-07:00

I dont have that much to tell this time, write questions in the comments and i can answer them.

Today i got my school uniform, its cool. heres a picture, just decide what you think.

Its really baggy, but the guy the measured it said that its supposed to be like that. Everyone thinks its really かっこい　(handsome).
So i suppose its all good. Even though it is almost the same colour as a watermelon.

Heres a picture of my computer.

here are the things in it for you geeks out there.

Intel Core 2 Duo CPU 2,66GHz
4GB RAM DDR3
320GB HD
NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT
Japanese Windows OS

There you go, for today. More will come when more has happened.

I need to catch up.

2009-03-29T18:25:00.000-07:00

Yesterday me and okaasan (mother in japanese) went to nagoya to meet lars. Another swedish guy in japan except that he is now here for the second year and is attending a university. We met and talked about stuff, he was really nice.

He hand his host mother was discussing with okaasan what places they would show me. they showed me the biggest book store i have ever been to, it was like 5 floors with only books and such. It was really cool. then we bought smoothies and then we didnt do much more than just walk around talking. it was really nice.

I forgot to show you the map of the place.

2009-03-29T18:23:00.001-07:00

This is how big it was. Several crossing streets and it was only shopping.

Yeah, new computer...

2009-03-29T17:41:00.000-07:00

the day before yesterday i was at this cool huge shopping place, called osu street. It was the most shops in such an area that i have ever seen. it was awesome.

i bought a computer and a 電子辞書, a japanese electonic dictionary. Heres a picture of it.

It is the best one they had and the store was going to close the next day so i got 40% off the price. im really happy.

the computer i bought is also really good. so thats awesome too.

I also bought a pair of shoes that looks really cool, but my feet hurt after wearing them for a full day so i will have to get used to them. heres a pic of them too if ya want. (even if you dont want here they are anyway).

After i had bought eveything i wanted that day we just walked around and looked at everything there. We went to a really cool temple that were nearby called osu kannon. We went in there and threw money in a well and wished for something. heres a picture of the temple.

After that we went home and were really happy.

Today i went to visit my school.

2009-03-27T01:48:00.000-07:00

Today i went to visit the school (Meiden High School) that i will go to, as you can see below the school building gave me a very good impression.

I met the headmaster and the english teacher, they were all very nice. They gave me a guided tour around the school and i got all my school materials. Apparently i ended up in second grade, it is about the same thing as the second grade gymnasium. My class is 2D and my classroom is on the third floor.

They also gave mevery much information about everything, apparently the kendo club members are like worldclass so they said that maybe i could join it if i wanted to but they i would have to train exceptionally hard, so i am considering maybe golf or swimming.

That is about it.

Tomorrow i am going to go shopping for a computer and stuff with my brother, thats gonna be fun. Have a good one mateys, let us all pray that the spring will come to sweden aswell.

oh and by the way, today was about 12 degrees outside and very windy, but thats allright. It is definitely better than snow or whatever you guys have around there.

So you have all been waiting for this moment... i believe

2009-03-27T01:09:00.000-07:00

This my friends is the most boring thing that humans have ever thougt of... This is Kumon. a japanese study material... it is all about repeating and repeating the same stuff... 400 pages per book and the same thing on each page.

funny facts about it... i looked up the word in a dictionary and it actually means "Agony or Anguish"... so there...

I actually learn stuff but it is so boring that it might kill me.

____________________________________________________________________

This is my "semi walk-in closet"... not much to say about it other than that it is pretty empty.

_____________________________________________________________________

This is my cool desk where i get all the kumon done, almost xD.

I mostly sit there and try to read some books or do kumon.

_____________________________________________________________________

There is my awesome bed, it is really comfortable.

___________________________________________________________________

This is the view from my window, its cool.

____________________________________________________________________

This is my extraordinary looking school. it is quite far to get there though but it is still a very cool building.

____________________________________________________________________

This was just a cool house i saw on my way home from school.

_____________________________________________________________________

This is just the big street that my street leads to. it is typical japanese, much advertisements and many stores.

____________________________________________________________________

These are my too many school books, i promise ya that these weigh somewhere between 7 and 10 kilograms. thats just too much for school books. and thats only the books, i wonder how heavy it will be with all the notebooks and pens and stuff in my bag. By the way, they are all in japanese (except for the easy english books) so they are only a heavy bunch of papers to me. hehe, will have to change that.

____________________________________________________________________

This is my bag that is made from like very tough fabric (obviously) since the books weigh a ton. its pretty cool though. my sister doesnt like the colour. she said it was watermelon colour.

____________________________________________________________________

This is the Aichi, Meiden (the schools name) badge that i need to put on my uniform. I get my uniform in april by the way.

That was all the pictures i had for you today. maybe more will come, ya cant be sure... naaah, just as soon as i get some more ill put them on here.

You greedy bastards... hehe fooling ya.

2009-03-24T18:34:00.000-07:00

Okay since my last very long post wasnt enough, here comes another one.

I have already told you about everything that happened so now i will tell you about the things that happens around me. or something like that.

The weather in japan is awesome, you dont even have to wear a jacket, only in the evenings. it is like 15 to 18 degrees above but the weather is very unstable, one day its raining and the next one is so clear that you can barely see cause of all the sun. its very lovely.

The sakura, cherry blossoms, havent really started to bloom yet but they will any time now. in tokyo i saw some sakura. but here in nagoya there aint that many of those trees. thats too bad. i think they just invest in those trees to make tokyo beautiful.

the food here is great and the bed is great too.

I am sitting here watching television right now, even though i just understand some words it is quite amusing because their shows are so crazy. There was this show yesterday during dinner where they had made big holes in the sidewalk and then covered them up with some plastic and then made them totally invisible. Then they had this girl that fell on the other side and when the guy went over to help her he fell down this hole... it looked so damn fun, he just dissapeared into the ground.

then the camera zoomed on his face and every single one of the guys who fell down had this very surprised look about them that is almost too good to discribe. it was Legendary.

The family is very nice, i have one broher whos 18 and his name is kento. he is at school right now because his school started last week. he is in a club that makes robots so he comes home around 21.

then there is my sister Lisa, she is 16, right now she is working at a coffe shop, we will go to the same school and it doesnt start until the 7,th of april.

then there is grandma, she is very nice and like this typical japanese tiny old person. she mostly watches television, she is very tired all the time. her name is yoshie.

then there is dad, he is working at toyota as a group manager, dont really know what that kind of manager does but anyway, he is practicing japanese drums after work so he is also home pretty late.

and last there is mom, she is very helpful with everything and she is always smiling.

apparently they had another excange student 2 years ago from america.

also, kento was a year in america last year so he can speak pretty good english.

i hope that was enough to answer some questions, i will wait and save up some real stories to tell next time i writein about a week. Hope all is well, sayonara.. :D

Hmmm...

2009-03-23T22:20:00.001-07:00

There will be no pictures yet though since i dont have a camera.

Hello everyone. Long time no writing. Too much to do.

2009-03-23T21:14:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone i am writing in english cause this keyboard doesnt have the three letters that messes everything up.

Where to begin, there has happened so much stuff...

Ill start with the flight. It was good, pretty boring and i didnt get that much sleeping done. There are several explanations for that, babies crying, sunny weather and movies playing. it was okay though. i am satisfied. Nothing that interesting happened.

The plane landed at 9, ten minutes delayed, no biggie though. It was nice to finally stretch my legs. Everything went smooth at the airport and i met some other guys from yfu. I forgot to tell the right "Returnee", volounteers that helped u s during the orientation camp, that i had arrived so we were all waiting for me for a while, that was pretty funny.

The yfu atudents i met were only germans, i hate german it just sounds so ugly...
there were 2 others that werent germans they were australians, i finally had someone to talk to.
their names were Beck and Skye. I had met them on facebook one week earlier.

There was a 2 hour bus drive to the "Olympic Center" where we were supposed stay for a week.

The camp started out not so good. like 30 germans who only spoke german and then us 3 english speaking people. There was a guidance where they told us about everything we needed to know to check in and to eat dinner. I arrived at the camp at 12 in the morning. it felt pretty weird though that i was so goddamn tired even though it was morning, and then we were supposed to be up until like 22 because everyone had different arrival time.

Finally some other nationalities arrived and we had pretty fun just sitting around talking or buying stuff at the cool vending machines. They had hot coffe in a can. Thats pretty awesome.

We ate some dinner, i dont remember what though. i just remember that we had rice with every meal so.. rice and something. Every meal we could choose between 5 different dishes to eat. it was very good food.

at 21,30 our last roomie, colin, finally arrived and we could go to sleep, just to wake up at like 6,30 the following morning.

My roommates were. Nils from sweden, Colin from america and Jon from holland. we had very much fun. I just wish the camp would have lasted longer... anyway up early in the morning for more guidance and stuff...

I dont remember the exact orde of the awesome events that happened. so ill just tell you everything like a "mix".

We had our first japanese bath, it was quite an experience, we had to shower first and then go down in a much too hot pool in the middle. but it was really great. it felt really refreshing.

The vending machines had a variety of cool stuff... it had Kit Kat in a jar, coke in a aluminum bottle, Fries, Coffe in a can, Tea in a can, tea in a bottle, hot dogs... almost anything that you can eat or drink. it was pretty cheap too.

The convenient store was pretty awesome too, it had much stuff, cool candy sorts, souvernirs, drinks, the famous face masks. Jon and Colin bought a pack each and then Jon walked around with a facemask and sunnglasses. it looked pretty cool.

We had this Adventure Game thing where we walked around to different places and played games. There was one where we were supposed to fold a paper into a sumo wrestler and then have a wrestling match, there was one where we got to look at a picture and then we were supposed to explain what it was in japanese. i got a picture of a hurricane.

Then there was a room where we were supposed to make a word out of alot of characters. The next one was pretty fun, we had to pick stuff up with chopsticks within one minute There was small beans 5 points, gummibears 2 points, wrinkled paper 1 point, i only tried to get beans, i got 90 points.

There was also in the same room a game where we were supposed to write a word and then pass it to the next guy who wrote the same word, we all had 10 seconds each so it was pretty hard.

One of the games were rock, paper, scissors (ジャン献本 (jan ken pon) i think it is in japanese) It was fun too.

One of my norwegian friends Hien, I call him けいちゃん (keichan) since a little internal joke thing at the swedish orientation camp, Anyway he went around giving everyone nicknames, mine was guschan, pronounced gooschan with an american accent.

On the last whole day we had this farewell party where every different nationality had to show something that was typical for that country. We swedes danced around a midsummer pole. most of the people just tried to get others to say something in another language. the japanese returnees finished it off with a japanese fashion show. it was all great.

after that we had free time, free time we had like once every day like 4 hours in a row where we did everything fun. during the last freetime we took a long bath and then we just talked in our room, we were many in that small room, to quote colin, it was "awkward cozy" he was a fun american.

The following morning we all had to wake up early, at like 6, and clean the room and get ready to meet the host family. we all said our goodbyes and then we were off in groups, everyone who was taking the plane to their destination were in one group, the ones who were going to live in tokyo were in one group and the ones who was taking the train was i one group, that was me.
we took the bus to tokyo station and then we took the shinkansen to our final destination. mine was nagoya station.

everyone got really Really REALLY nervous when the train stopped, including me, but it all just went away when we saw the host families. allhough i had thing thing to say prepared i just didnt remember at the time. we walked to the car and then we headed home, they were really nice.

Later that same night they took me to a concert with japanese drums, it was really cool, i worked really hard to stay awake because i didnt want to miss anything, after that we went to one of those cool sushi places. where the sushi passes by the table. There was also this screen where you could order anything and then a small shinkansen came to deliver it to you. it was cool.

After that i went home and slept almost the second i touched the bed.

The day after that i joined the scouts, the dad is a scout leader, on a day trip. The first stop was a very cool place. You payed a small amount of yen and then you entered this green house with thousands of strawberry plants and then you could eat as much as you could get. The strawberries didnt grow in ordinary soil, they grew in water. They tasted really good, i think i ate about 60 of them. The guy who ate the most ate about 130, by the way i have said it alot at the camp and i say it again: Japanese people eat too much.

the next thing we did was to walk really far and then we had lunch. after the lunch we went to a japanese vinegar museum, it was teally cool.

after that we went home, it was starting to get pretty late.

we had dinner and then i took a bath and then i got to bed, nothing interesting.

monday we went out to buy me a school uniform, we went to this big mall that had several floors and i tried some stuff and it all looked good. I get my uniform the first of april, since they will sew it for me.

And today, the day i am writing this nothing special has happened, I am watching the baseball world championship finals right now it is japan against korea. Pretty interesting.

That pretty much sums it all up. I hope you are all having a good time wherever you are and ill try to write again soon.

Japan... Nihon

2009-03-15T09:48:00.002-07:00

Jahapp... hemma från lägret nu. Det var folk från alla möjliga ställen i Sverige och Norge.
Nu pratar man då nån blanding av japanska, norska, norrlänska, svenska. Låter sjukt.

Åker imorrn ju, håller på att packa nu. Det ska bli jätteroligt.

Kommer landa i tokyo och sedan vara en vecka på läger där med. Alla olika sorters nationaliteter. ska bli jätteroligt det med.

Japan... niho

2009-03-15T09:48:00.001-07:00

2009-03-11T15:15:00.000-07:00

Det blir lite stökigt när man ska packa ihop de bästa kläderna... Hehe!

OJOJOJOJ!

2009-03-11T15:09:00.000-07:00

Nu börjar det verkligen dra ihop sig, ska ju iväg på pre-departure läger nu innan jag åker iväg. Det ska bli jätteroligt att få träffa alla andra som ska åka och de som ska vara här.

Packningen går väl sådär, allt är en enda stor röra :P
Jag måste ta tag i det här när jag kommer hem från lägret.
Jag tror att jag har koll på vad jag ska ha med mig men jag har en tendens att glömma saker. det skulle ju bli väldigt jobbigt i det här läget.

Idag träffade jag några kompisar och "tog farväl" *snyft*, nä men jag kommer ju tillbaks. Året kommer nog gå snabbt.

Det känns ju lite jobbigt att man ska gå japansk skola, Man kommer ju inte förstå någonting i början. Det släpper väl sen så småningom.

Vet inte om jag kommer kunna skriva på ett tag nu på grund av att jag ska flyga. Sedan måste jag ju införskaffa en dator men sen kommer jag skriva igen.

Några Kanji..

2009-02-13T10:06:00.000-08:00

Bara övat lite på en papperslapp :P

Inte så långt kvar...

2009-02-13T09:57:00.000-08:00

Nu är det inte så långt kvar tills jag åker.
Det ska bli hur kul som helst.