Kiwis are my friends
10/04/2006
Sorry, I haven't been able to update my blog for the last 2 days. I'm still tired because of the jetlag, yesterday I spent the whole day alternating between naps and Japanese studies. But I'm starting to get accustomed to my new life. I've found a department store only 5 minutes from my place, cheaper than the combini (convenient store), and made a couple friends.
As for food, I'd like to prepare my own meals because I like to cook but so far, I've exclusively eaten bento boxes (tonkatsu, sushi). I even had my first "instant lamen" (instant noodle soup) today. Instant lamen is the counterpart of steak-pasta in France, it's the base dish of every student. I need to get my bearings and buy some utensils, and hopefully I'll start preparing my own meals soon. I'd really like to become able to read Japanese cookbooks!
Besides, I can't live without fruits and unfortunately they're much more expensive here than in France. Moreover, I don't know where all the delicious exotic fruits one can find in southeast Asia go, but definitely not to Japan...I remember insane prices in big department stores such as Mitsukoshi and Daimaru 3 years ago in Fukuoka, for instance melons at 30 euros and apples at 10 euros (each of course!). Of course, these are extreme examples but it's still a bit scary...However it's not the rule but still, prices seem about twice as expensive as in France. So I bought kiwis I found at a reasonable price (5 kiwis for 3 euros). As for the rest of the food, I need to make a small comparison but so far, it looks like prepared meals are cheaper whereas base products are more expensive than in France. To be confirmed.
I also took my placement test this morning, and there's nothing to complain about the organization and seriousness of the process! It started with a written test, then we had to fill a form, and finally there was an oral test with two female interviewers (most teachers here are women). As soon as the written test was over, the correctors were already working to provide results to the interviewers, who could then tailor the oral test to suit each student's level. Everything was done well and quickly...that's Japanese efficiency! And I found the tests very well designed overall. The first exercises were a piece of cake, then the difficulty raised progressively until the last exercise that I could hardly understand. Same story for the oral test: the questions used progressively harder vocabulary and grammar, and after one hour I was exhausted and couldn't understand anything. Thankfully, the interviewers were very friendly and did everything to make everyone feel comfortable. In the end, I think the results perfectly match my expectations. I'm going to start in an intermediate group. Basically, I can understand all basic grammatical forms but I get lost as sentences get longer and start combining several forms. It's right in the continuity of the Japanese course I followed in Paris prior to coming here.
I wanted to go out this afternoon to take some pictures and buy a bicycle, but I was still suffering from the jetlag and I ended up sleeping all afternoon. And tonight I went to an arcade...and was disappointed. No DDR, many games I don't care about, there were some purikura but it's meaningless when you're alone and most important, I didn't have this feeling of gigantism and amazing things I had, during my previous visit to Japan a few years ago, in Fukuoka's Namco center. I still enjoyed playing Taiko no tatsujin, but the sound was too low (which sucks for a music game!). I guess most of you haven't understood my last two sentences, so I'll detail that later (I have one year to talk about Japan, it should be enough...).
Tomorrow, I'm going to Nagoya with other students I met today. I have no idea what we are going to do there, but for this first visit I don't want to plan anything and I'll see how it goes. Don't worry, I'll take pictures!
Mata ne (see you)!
Category: General
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