Where am I ? Google map !

The dormitory is located about 40 minutes by walk from the school. You can see them from the google map here.

There is a subway station about 5 minutes away from the dormitory. The cost for one stop, two ways, is 400 Yen (CHF 5.--) which is not really cheap. Calculated on twice per day would be about 10.-- Swiss francs. I'm considering buying a monthly ticket that it would pay out after 19 return tickets.

Trains in japan are quite expensive. Interesting is that the train cost for employees is usually paid by the company, so that the employee doesn't have to bear the cost himself.

You might object that 5.-- for a return ticket is not that bad, but if you consider that a Bento (a Lunch Box) is sold for about the same price, compared to switzerland the result is that a one subway stop's cost is nearly CHF 10.--...

Students get rebates, but apparently Language Students are not considered "real Students" therefore, no discount... Since i didn't have a lot of luck with bycicles in the past (two arms broken at the same time) ...i might consider walking or get a monthly ticket ;)...

Shots from The Street: April 7th, 2009

The following are few shots with a brief comment taken on the street...

You might not have noticed at first, but there is a man there...

This is (apparently) the first mobile phone with LCD screen in 3D. Looking at 2D images is not really comfortable as the image appear a little bit strange, and unfortunately i could not see any 3D images demo, but it should be quite impressive ;) The pictures need to be taken by a camera with two lenses. More on this topic here

This is a Chocolate Boutique. In Japan, if you want to make a nice chocolate gift, you go to the chocolate Boutique. It looks like a Nespresso store, but for chocolate. I didn't check the prices...but i guess they might be quite high...

This is the inside of a Shopping Center at Kobe Station. Looking from below, it looks like a sky full of stars...

An italian old style bed, sold for over 1 million yen (about 12'000.-- Swiss Francs)

This is a convenience store, in japanese called "Conbini". Is like a 7-eleven or small stores open 24 hours. The guy is not reading an encyclopedia....is a comic book! They might even spend hours ...just reading it there... Now i've noticed that in some book stores, the comics are wrapped with plastic paper to avoid people reading it in the shop, but at some stores they are still available unwrapped. At the moment i took the pictures, there were about 3 guys reading ;)

They Took it Serious: Cleaning Day!

Today the school sent a specialized cleaning company to clean up the shower room. The Cleaning Guy spent more than 4 hours to deep clean it.

The result is really good. He cleaned everything and even the filters, so now it is possible to take bath too!

The Korean student told me that in the past they never took the bath, as it didn't look well, but he said he didn't mind it.

Late afternoon i went out for a long walk and by the time i was back, i found one of the School staff directing further cleaning work. All students were busy cleaning and i joined too.

I hope the will not find out who's fault was that they had to clean ...

Anyway, you can see by yourself from the images below that now it looks quite different, just don't look at the trash bags that need to be taken out. In japan, normal trash can be taken out every week on Monday and Thursday between 5 AM and 8 AM. So we will need to wait thursday to get rid of them.

I was surprised that they don't have Trash Containers as in Switzerland, the trash is "abandoned" on the street at specific places of collection...

What you cannot see from the picture is the inside of each closet that was thoroughly cleaned and each student got a space assigned.

Sudden Waking up!

This morning i was waken up by screams and yelling... I thought someone was going to fight. No idea what was going on, they spoke chinese and I didn't understand a word.

I got out of my bed (it was about time, as last night i didn't sleep well, today i was in bed until 9.00 AM woah!) and went to check it out.

i found paper boxes and plastic everywhere in the kitchen...

I was relieved...nobody was going to kill anybody. Just the two Chinese guys apparently yesterday night went out shopping and bought a new desk and chair for their room... they were just discussing how to assemble it. Went back to the kitchen and fixed myself a coffee and had "kurimu-denishui" that should be a Danish Cream something... it tastes like butter croissant but in the shape of a toast... nice ! ;)

Change of Room !

The Above pictures were taken in my previous room. After my complain at the school about the cleanliness of the place, for which they looked very surprised, i was told that unfortunately no other dormitory was available.

Luckily enough, i was one of the first ones entering the dormitory, so they proposed me a change of room. Since my first room looked like a prison with Steel bars on the outside and no natural light coming in, i was more than happy to do the trade!

The following are the pictures of my new room...

Now this is much better! I can even see a strip of sky and plenty of light from the outside!

Today two new students from China moved in as well. One took my previous room and the other one took a double room. As we didn't yet have our "Fridge Space" we choosed it. The fridge was very dirty as well. So, without a word i started cleaning it and i was surprised one of the two students (the one in double room) who's name is Tycoon was willing to help...in no time...the fridge was new looking and the previous stains of dropped ice coffee and remain of onions and other unidentifiable marks were gone.

After cleaning we had chinese Tea. He brought it from home, i must say it was really nice. Usually i don't drink green tea as it is quite bitter...but this one, made of real dried leaves, tasted good !

So we finally came to the usual questions (that by the way is currently hard to communicate as my japanese is really beginners level, but his one is Zero...and he doesn't speak english and my chinese is only based on few words that are "Ni-hao" and "Mei-Mei". so we didn't go far, but one thing was clear: He asked me how old i am. He is 18 and when i told him I'm 35 he happily said "Like my Father"! ...like his father? It turns out his father is 32... and his mother 30! Is that actually possible? Let's see later on...when our japanese improves... because this would mean his parents were 14 and 12 respectively when he was born...

Korea Vs Japan: Tense Moments

Just few people Heard the news last week, but There was a high risk of war between Japan and Korea.

Apparently Korea wanted to launch a Missile and fly it over japan.

Korea told Japan that they just wanted to put a satellite in orbit. Japan Believed it was a warhead Missile.

The US government didn't really want to enter the matter but helped japan, as they could, with satellite images and intelligence.

Japan was ready with anti-missile weapons located in the north of japan.

Even though the news was not so relevant in Europe, here created a lot of discussion and fear.

The sign above was photographed in Sannomiya station. Luckily even if Korea launched the Missile, Japan didn't react. Half of the rocket fell in front of Japan and the other Half in the pacific Ocean (on the other side of Japan)...

Korea is really teasing on this... it's already the third time they play the same trick... the only difference, is that this time, with the pressure of Australia, it seems that the US governement is starting to take the threat a little more seriously...

Sakura : Cherry Blossoms

This year I was lucky! Cherry Blossoms were expected to bloom around the 3rd week of April. Instead, because of the cold weather, the did on the first week of april and i had finally the chance to see them.

I went to sakurakawa (Cherry Blossoms River) to find out how japanese enjoy this traditional occurrence.

I thought they would just stroll under the trees and take few pictures, but what i found was really surprising!

Japanese Enjoy the cherry blossom with pic-nics under the trees. Full families meet in places like this one to have nice time and enjoy food and drinks.

Most of them were families, but there were a lot of students, probably from the university, that enjoyed them in a different way.

It didn't take me long to realize they were playing the "bottle game" where after sitting in circle and spinning a bottle in the center, the choosen one had to empty a can of beer bottoms-up!

It didn't take long for the guys to get drunk. At 3PM they were so drunk that were throwing up everywhere. Some of them sleeping and feeling sick. Most of them Boys, but girls did enjoy it too although they looked quite fine.

On the street was possible to purchase a small glass of sake for 100 Yen (CHF 1.20) and you would get a complimentary wasabi-peanuts pyramid shaped small bag.

I finished the sake...and tasted (just) a few of the wasabi peanuts...