Transportation for this month: Train

For this month, i finally went for the "Train Option". I bought a ticket for unlimited travel for 30 days between Shin-kobe and Sannomiya (1 Stop). Priced at 7800 Yen (CHF 90.--).

I guess that what japanese save in drinks (see previous post) they pay it out in train fare ;)

If I recall correctly, In switzerland, we can travel all over the city of Lugano for 1 month at the same price...

The procedure to get the monthly ticket is not that easy. You must first fill-in a form that you deliver at the counter. It seems easy, but the paper is all in japanese. When done, at the counter, they scan the form and your name, sex and age appears on the ticket with your own writing! (see above).

You can see above that the ticket will expire in the year "21", month "5", day "7". This because the japanese Year is currently 21. "21" corresponds of the number of years of reign of the current Emperor.

My Roommates went for the bicycle and bought it for about 20,000 yen (CHF 240.--), Lock included. Apparently is not the cheapest model, but still a good deal...

I've read a while ago that people should carry the bicycle purchase receipt at all time, so in case the police stops you and checks if the bike was stolen, you can prove with the purchase receipt that the bike is, indeed, yours.

One more thing i forgot to mention earlier today...the school warned us that if we park at a wrong spot, the police might remove and tow away your bike (!!). The cost to get it back is 2000 Yen (CHF 25.--).

Vending Corners Everywhere!

In Japan there are vending machines everywhere, and every 50 or 100 meters or so.

The reason they are so popular is the products they offer and their prices (hot and cold drinks during winter/spring time and only cold drinks during summer time).

Prices my vary between 100 yen and 150 yen (CHF 1.20 and CHF 1.80). Normally the price is around 120 Yen, but near schools or special places the price drops to 100 yen. This price is quite cheap, is the same price as one can find at the supermarket, therefore convenient.

Interesting to note that all drinks are in PET bottles or Aluminium Cans. Yes, even Hot coffee is available in Cans. besides Coffee, other choices are: Green Tea, Chinese Tea, Vitamin Water and Various Sodas.

Europe should learn a little from this, as in switzerland, vending machines are usually quite expensive (double of the retail price).

Dormitory: The Outside Look

Before i posted some pics of the inside, here is how it looks on the outside.

What time is it?

A recurring question I get lately is "What time is it there?"... well, Japan in comparison to switzerland, is +7 hours during summer and +8 hours during winter (Japan doesn't have dailight saving). You can take a look to the image above that shows "Greenwich Mean time" times differences.

Switzerland is Greenwich + 1 and Japan is Currently Greenwich +8 which results in 7 hours difference. If still in doubt, or you interested in other time zones, you can check this website that shows all world times in one page!

Did you know? : Pedestrian Traffic Light

This is a pedestrian Traffic light. Japanese call the Red "Akai" which means Red, but they call the Green "Ao" which is translated in to "Blue". Normally the Color Green is called "Midori" but not for the traffic light.

Therefore, is always a little confusing at first, when you are told to cross the street when the traffic light is Blue.

The reason behind it, is that until the 1185 D.C. only the word "Ao" (blue) was used. There was no word for "Green". Still today, the same concept is applied to some Vegetables and Fruit, like Apples...the same doesn't happen on the other hand for other stuff like Cars and T-shirts, for which the word Midori "Green" is then used.

I don't know exactly how this happened to be applied to traffic light, since are quite modern, but foreigners still often jokes about it...

By the way, you might wonder what the Scale next to the traffic light is...that one indicates how long you need to wait, before the traffic light turns Green..*ups*...Blue....

Enrollment and Placement Test...

This is the School building. Besides hosting the Language school, it hosts a medical School as well.

The appointment for all students was at 9.30 at the 9th Floor. There we had to register our name, and we were give a tag with a letter and white paper to write our name. I got Letter "B". Firstly puzzled on the meaning and why people were assigned either "A", "B" or "C", it became clear later.

After signing in we were introduced to the school Manager, Staff and students. We took the entrance picture and we got a tour of the facilities.

Here we found out what the assigned letters meant. "A" was for chinese speaking and "B" for English and other languages speaking people. No idea about the "C" one, but i guess it was chinese, too.

The total new students were about 40 people. 80% was from either China or Taiwan. 4 people from Thailand, 1 from Iran and me and another guy that probably comes from either europe or USA.

During the tour we were shown where to park bycicles, were to get lunch (Students get a 50% off discount on the building restaurant on the ground floor, apparently you can get as much rice and bread as you want with your meal.

Then we got down to real business. The placement test (!) ... Written and Spoken Japanese. Even i passed my JPLT Level 4 test in 2007 (thanks to Shoko-Sensei) i merely practiced for taking the test. I can recognize Hiragana and Katakana and some Kanji, but that's about it. I can tell you what i had for breakfast or that is nice weather. The Test was quite difficult, so i must say it was turned in almost blank.

I just hope i can be placed not in the real beginner class, but at least in a upper beginner not to go thru again with all the basic alphabet...

Tomorrow at 9.50 AM we will know the class assignement...

Laundry Day: Ups...

As today is my last day before school start, i've decided to do the laundry...

Woah...i didn't think it would be that difficult... I'll better get busy and start translating all those buttons...