It's 2 o'clock at night, and I can't sleep because Shiv is away in UK. Well, actually it started with a mosquito bite that wouldn't stop itching no matter how much medicine I put on it.

Anyway, a lot of stuff happened in August, not all of it that great.
The good stuff was the university projects, I suppose. We had a workshop in an elementary school in Uto and another one in Minami Oguni as well as random trips.

The elementary school was designed with no air conditioning or heating. The no heating in Japan is normal, but not the absence of air conditioning in 30+C in the summer. The school had a very minimalist interior with floor to ceiling windows. All the spaces generally had only 2 walls. Some French architect seemed pleased he could meet a foreigner to get an opinion. We also got to hang out with the architect who designed the building and his office staff. He was also awesome because he paid for our meals.

The Minami Oguni project is still ongoing. We had 2 workshops so far and another one is coming up at the end of September/beginning of October. It's pretty hard for me because of the language barrier, but it's super fun hanging out with my classmates (lab-mates?). My favourite bit is the ride back :D

We had a trip to a ryokan for Sonyan's going away project presentation/drinking party. Watching grown people who never dance trying to mimic Michael Jackson in 'Beat it' is very funny. However, I was too tired, so I went to sleep an hour early.

The bad stuff was me being stung by a jellyfish when I was in Shimonoseki, and then the sting becoming irritated with inflammation. Falling out of the bus and hitting my back and elbow. Had to go back home, my arm was so much in pain I couldn't move it. Getting my foot caught in a blanket and falling face first onto an ironing board. I broke the ironing board and bruised my nose that started bleeding.

That about sums up some of the stuff I did or had happen to me up to this point.

なつやすみ

Aah, it's been such a busy couple of weeks. And now it's summer vacation. Or so people say. Architecture students don't have much free time.

I signed up for a workshop in Oguni with our lab. It was pretty fun. Everywhere you walk in that small town you can hear the sound of water, because the streets are lined with irrigation canals. It has a greenhouse where they grow strawberry and some other red berry. There's also an old sake brewery.

We had a barbecue in the evening, and when it got dark, we played with fireworks. After that we visited the public bath. My first time - はずかしいーー！But it's really nice to sit in a big hot bathtub.

We had breakfast the next day at a very cute cafe that sells natural apple juice. I believe they make it themselves. Everyone was oohing and aahing at the juice, but to me it felt very diluted with water. I guess not a lot of families here make their own juice :).
We ate lunch at a bar type establishment - so much food. Very good karaage. After the super huge lunch we went to play in the river with kids. So refreshing. But right at the end a local kid sprayed me with water. How dare he! So I jumped in and stole his water shooter. It was easy to operate, but I ended up spraying myself just as much as others.

Tomorrow we have an end of term party. And on the weekend I really want to go to the anime exhibition in one of the local museums. Can't really make plans further than that because of all the meetings and preparations: have to make a model on a Monday, Tuesday is for preparing for Open Campus that's on a Wednesday and a meeting after that.

In repentance for the skipped weeks, I'll attempt some more writing.

For the past week or so I've had trouble with my knee. At times it was too painful to actually walk. I am such a grandma. What's worrying is that there is a softball game coming up. I think that's what it's called. Running around with bats, hitting balls in this heat is nonsense. Maybe I can blame my knee and get out of it? Also, I don't have any sports clothes. That  may be a problem as well.

This weekend I undertook an enormous task and washed the kitchen. I know, I am so awesome.
On Sunday we went to the city centre and I bought a projector connector thingy for the laptop and headphones. The headphones aren't too comfortable, but they were very cheap, which makes me slightly less unhappy. But maybe next time I'll try to be less of a greedy little goblin and shell out on a decent pair. But the cheap ones are pink, so I forgive them :)

In Japan there seems to be a lack of colour choices that are usual for Latvia, but they make up for it with an abundance of others. Blue items aren't that common as well as grey, but they have a ton of pink and things like turquoise or lime.

Right now it is really hot in Japan (which is normal, since it's summer). It's practically impossible to live without an air-conditioner. I am sort of considering buying opera style gloves that girls here wear. It's to do with sun protection and keeping your skin white. The white part doesn't interest me so much, but the sun protection element I like. Maybe next time we drop by Hikari no Mori.

Skipping

Even though I said I'd try and update every week, I skipped 2 of them already. Why? Well, last weekend and part of this week was spent franticly getting the presentation ready for my Wednesday class. The week before that was my birthday. So I was super distracted from doing anything else.

So, my Birthday. It was great really. In the morning we cleaned the house some and did the washing - very un-birthday-like. Then we went shopping to Hikari no Mori (光の森) - a shopping mall about 30 minutes away y train. We bought a ton of things, and there was this weird thing near one of the elevators.

It's seriously huge!

When we were inside, it started raining. So when we were leaving to go to the station, the rain was in full swing. Not so bad, since I had a ton of shopping bags to protect my precious locks.

In the evening we went to a French restaurant. The same one we went to last August when I was leaving to go back to Latvia. Or was that the August before last. I can't remember. My passport, however, claims it's been 2 years already. Even more surprising was that the waiter remembered us. I suppose, foreigners rarely come there, since it's quite expensive and totally in Japanese.

It was delicious. And I really like the atmosphere of the place. They also bring out a huge number of cutlery. I am always a bit nervous that I might use the wrong one. But it usually turns out fine.
I had a really lovely birthday thanks to my wonderful boyfriend.

Now, during the past weekend I was rushing to write the presentation. I tell you, my hands were hurting a lot by the end of Tuesday. On Saturday Shiv went on a night hike from Aso back to Kumamoto. So he got back Sunday morning. His feet were in a right state.

I have to admit that because there was no one to scold me for procrastinating on the presentation, that is what took up most of Saturday. I also skipped out of helping to set up screens in the Hall for students to pin their work on Tuesday. But I did finish the presentation on time, and it went rather smoothly.
Also, Tanaka sensei taught me how to print papers double-side and in sets. I shall have to try that later by myself.

Local Bar

About a month ago we went to a bar that served lots of pork stomach kebabs. They also served all sorts of sake, which I didn't drink. I got my さんざし.

Shiv found on the internet that if you order sake from Tohoku, a part of the money you pay goes to charity.

It was pretty fun.

After the bar we bumped into my teacher who was out drinking with other teachers. I had no idea what to do. Shiv talked and I smiled and bowed or more likely nodded :)))

Sudden memory loss

I forgot I had a second lecture today... Total memory lapse.

今日は、二つのじゅぎょうがあるのをわすれていました。。。

Routine days

Let's see. This week we were preparing for the debate again. I did manage to get data from my other class, but we didn't use much of it I think. Had to meet on a Saturday too. Our team won though :)

The week wasn't very eventful. I honestly can't remember much of what I did. Thursday's meeting took a really long time. I ran away before it finished (as always). I really want to know what the upperclassmen are doing though. I spent Friday preparing the 2-week report. As usual I do stuff at the last minute. Got to work on that.

I try speaking with the students from the lab a bit. Even my tutor girl forgets I don't understand much and just rambles on in Japanese until she sees my eyes glaze over :))) Well, I suppose it's good practice. I also told Shiori-san I might start attending the competition meetings next semester or the next competition they have. The current one's description was so confusing and vague, I just gave up.

Shiv says I should write my blog every day, at least 2 sentences or something. Isn't that what twitter is for?
I might try it though.

On Sunday we went to the city centre. Did some shopping and fighting :(
I finally bought that make-up thingy, but not sure yet if I like it as much as I thought I would. Need to experiment a bit more with the application.

So serious.

I think the most enjoyable part for me was drinking the honey-au-lait and stealing Shiv's pumpkin cake.


In the spirit of practicing my Japanese more, I shall attempt to write some stuff -->

今日のディベートで私のチームはかちました。とてもうれしいです。
ディベートちゅう雨がとてもはげしいふっていました。

The Rainy Season

And so it started. It's been raining practically non stop today and the forecast promises more to come.

Basically, the rainy season is about 3 weeks of rain with high humidity and moderately high temperatures. Beforehand I've been told scary accounts of how it's going to be (むしあつい), but so far it hasn't been too horrible. Certainly better than the rainy season in Latvia, where it gets pretty cold in June. And practically always rains on my birthday. The weather makes my hair all fizzy and I feel sticky, but better this, than the August heat.

Still waiting for my marriage document resolution. I guess it's no big deal if we don't marry in June.

I tried taking some pictures of the rain today. As I got the camera out, I noticed that the battery was dead. Off to the charger with it. I took my phone to try and get at least something. But it refused to cooperate, saying the battery was too low. Put that on charger as well. Conclusion - no photos :(
Not like you could see much in that wall of water.

Another Week

This week I was a bit more free, since we no longer had the debate preparation meetings. So nice. Tomorrow, though, we will get a new debate topic and the troubles will start all over again. Hopefully, this time there will be someone in my group who speaks English.

Right now it's all about the campus project. But the more I listen to what the teacher says, the less I understand: gradation story? requirements/conditions for space? Huh? Am I being thick?

On the other hand, I'm hoping that my Japanese is improving slowly but surely. I do try and talk more in the lab. I guess I 'have' to, because one of my pals speaks not a word of English. It's fun though. We share some similar interests.

On Friday we tried to get married, but the City Hall officials had other ideas. All our papers were in order, it's just one of those things - one of my documents was of a new type, different from an older version (no longer given out). We'll wait a bit and see what the embassies say.

On Saturday we went to the city centre. To get my shoes from the cobblers' (the place is too upscale for that word...) and buy some walking shoes. Shiv persuaded me to buy slightly larger ones. Buying new jeans for Shiv was also on the agenda. He looks pretty good :D

Today we had the campus project meeting, and afterwards I went to play catch-ball with some of my lab mates. It was fun, but I got bitten by mosquitoes and am now super itchy.

May

Already end of May. Time flies so fast, but it feels like one week takes ages.

University is far too busy here. I often have to go there on the weekends as well. I feel overwhelmed.

The weather is a bit annoying as well. I should really start getting ready for the rainy season and buy some rubber boots (and a better umbrella). I've already spent some days with totally wet feet.

Today was pretty nice tough. Quite warm and sunny. I have actually got a bit of a tan, although nothing too noticeable it seems. If I was in Latvia, I'd be pretty happy about it. But in Japan, white skin is considered more of a beauty standard, so you can see many girls and women walking round with parasols. Because of this, now that I finally don't look like a zombie, I'm afraid of getting too tanned. Ridiculous! Oh, the dilemma :)

In general, I think, I'm getting accustomed to university life. The biggest problem, of course, is the language barrier. There are only 2 people in my lab who speak English, some more people who can understand some amount of English, and the rest can't make out even a word.
One of the lectures has debates. Today we had the first one. It was pretty awful. I prepared for it a lot, but when it came to asking or answering questions, I couldn't help, because I couldn't understand when was the time to ask the question or what was the oppositions question to which I know the answer. Soooo frustrating.
But some of the students do sometimes express a desire to speak more English. And many help me by typing some of the stuff that's being said into a translator. I am infinitely grateful to them for that.

I keep forgetting about the blog. Plus, I rarely get a lot of free time. But maybe now I'll try tracking my study process more, so that'll give me more opportunity to write :)

おやこどんぶり

Recent stuff

I haven't written in a really long while. Since February in fact, and it's already April.

I have been to Latvia and back. Spent only about a week there, running around the place. I think that week we got all the yen out of Rietumu Banka.

Currently awaiting my papers to go through to change my status to 'Student'. Yes, I am going to study at a university here. For now it's been a bit of a disaster really :) I feel very out of place on a campus that is predominantly made up of asian kids. Been getting too emotional as a result - no idea where I'm going, how to ask where to go, and what to do.

I also miss my parents a lot. Knowing that I won't see them for at least a year and a half makes me very sad. At the same time though, I'm pretty happy here. So maybe it balances out in the end.

I got my hair cut. It cost quite a bit for what you get. Next time I'll try explaining more what it is that I want. Maybe even in pictures. I doubt that my hairstyle is so unusual in Japan that the hairstylist couldn't understand the idea. So now I have a fringe... :D It's not too bad, but very hard to style and looks hilarious in the morning.

For now the days are peaceful. The weather is great - it's already 20C. Dreading Summer. Mostly I just lazy around and occasionally do useful stuff, like cooking, washing and cleaning. Very housewifey :)

I found this great site with easy and quick recipes - http://www.japanfoodaddict.com/

I've been trying them out a bit. Even with my culinary skills they are achievable. And with practically all ingredients I used to use at home unavailable in Japan, these recipes help out enormously. A sort of a guide for beginners into Japanese cooking.

That's about it. I suppose starting next week I'll have a more busy university life. がんばります。

Valentine's Day

Woke up - raining - very gloomy.

Chatted with my cousin for an hour or so. She lives in America, so there's a massive time difference. While I was busy doing that, Shiv got up and left for work.

Ate breakfast. Tried out the new cheeses we bought. Pretty tasty.

Practiced some kanji.

Tidied up. Vacuumed.

Washed the dishes.

Practiced some more kanji.

Got a message from Shiv. Went to the university. We ate at the canteen - nothing fancy.

Came back home. Drinking tea now.


I know, very romantic. :D

Recently I have quite a bit of free time, alas I am not being productive. Must be the winter blues. It's really cold in the flats at this time of year as well - no central heating.

I'm hoping that after the Valentine's day I can buy lots of cheap chocolate.

It's getting warmer again, unlike in Latvia where it's anywhere from -10C to -20C...

Snow bombs?

It's been a while again - a whole month.

Winter here is more like autumn. Not much snow (I think I've only seen it twice here), but it does rain from time to time.

Valentine's day is marketed much more than in Latvia. One of the department stores even has a 'Valentine's square'. At least half the floor is dedicated to chocolate. Kind of awesome, though extremely expensive. On  the other hand, there are virtually no flower shops. Perhaps girls are more wares driven. I would love to get some flowers. Unfortunately, like everything else, flowers are expensive. Maybe because of the rarity or because of the occasions on which they are given - mainly big events.

Today I found out I did get into Kumamoto University. Yay for me. Excited and terrified. My Japanese is horrible.

No way is anyone going out today. It's been snowing forever. Doesn't seem to let up at all. The snow is around 50cm, I am told. But obviously in places it's much more than that. It's the return of real winters here.