And so another weekend has passed

Hello Blog Readers,

So another weekend has passed in Japan. I have to say I am once more surprised at how fast the time in Japan moves. It makes me wonder and blink and already it seems half a day is passed. The teacher says it is normal and that when she was in the Netherlands she found time was moving slow. I guess it's only logical as well. This place is new and everything is an adventure. Even something simple as getting milk from the supermarket or taking the train to school is an adventure cause you have to pay attention everywhere. Making homework on the train is a No-no cause you are to busy paying attention 'which stop is it again? have I passed it already? damn it what if the train comes to late?'

There are so many things going on that it's hard to decide where to look first. But I will manage eventually and even manage, I believe, to most likely come into a rhythm that will be good for me and with which I can keep up.

For now I'll tell you about my weekend and I will also share a link. The link is for the pictures, I will post pictures on here still but if you want to see the complete collection you can check it  by following this link:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=24645&id=100000878686661&l=6651204d7d

Voila. All my pictures be up there. no on towards the adventures of the weekend!

Saturday was the welcomes party. and it was good. The getting their was an adventure on it's own, me and Marta dressed up of course cause it was semi-formal, when we went out the owner was as kind and sweet to ask where we were going, perhaps umeda? which is the more out going part and we told her school. She was surprised cause it was Saturday after all, what surprised me and Marta was that she told us to be careful for Japanese boys, it made me laugh cause honestly, what Japanese boy would try to take on two big western girls? as Marta said:" We'll just sit on them."

Then once at school we went to our countries, got led into the performance hall and there we waited our turn to preform, we came after Mexico and as true Dutch people we sang :" Er is een Nacht " by Guus Meeuwis. I got the audience to wave their arms which made it kind of awesome and well make up for a lot of things. After the performances we had a lunch, and I stuffed myself literally with potato's cause who know's when the next time will be that they have potatoes? Well we don't , so I took my chance and stuffed myself.

Several Japanese persons spoke to me which I found kind and awesome and at same time deeply terrifying but it was nice and I think I acted quite well according to social standards. After the party which ran late I went home and relaxed and suddenly felt a wave of tiredness coming over. My Sunday was mostly relaxing and nothing else, the Monday was another adventure though.

I met my host family. Which is a single mother (her husband lives elsewhere but I couldn't make out if they are divorced or not but I was to embarrassed to ask, maybe I will later find out or not but she was lovely and kind) and she welcomed me into her home with both arms. She picked me up from the station and it was a small walk towards it. Once inside I gave them the gifts I had bought them back home and they were really happy with it which pleased me greatly.

The daughter is very cute and she makes me flail and it's a shame I don't understand her but she's nice and she wrote me a card and drew a Dutch flag. Yoko-san immediately started on lunch though, making me the most fabulous lunch since my stay in Japan.  And she didn't even mind that I didn't like the onigiri all to much. After dinner I watched Totoro with the daughter and her friend who had come over, got shown around the house, learned more about Japan and everything and the family itself which is meaning a lot to me and I already made plans. It warms my heart that she wants to see me this often and I don't want to hurt her feelings so I will be staying on a week day over at her place every now and then, she didn't mind and actually found it okay cause she didn't mind when I said that the weekends were most of the time packed with other appointments. I also got invited to her daughters sports day and a festival in Japan where little girls go to a shrine, beautifully dressed up in Kimono's and Dresses and they prey that they will have a pleasurable time growing up. It's so interesting and I was invited to come along. Yoko also advised me to try and wear a kimono at least once and take pictures of it cause it would be a good memorable thing to have. The kimono's I have seen so far are breathtaking, but with this heat it makes me flail and wonder how the woman can wear them without having trouble breathing.

It is in Japan normal to wear many many layers. I've seen woman that make me want to drop to the street cause they wear so much clothes. The younger generation is slightly free'er in it. But you can still see that the shoulders are most of the time covered. I try to adapt this and not go out in shirts that reveal my shoulders. Even though they say we should do as we please because we are foreigners but as my business practices and cultures teacher says:

When in Rome do as the Romans do.

Speaking of classes cause I've more or less told everything of interest for the past few days, it is decided which classes I am taking. It will be next to my 12 hours of Japanese in the week, be the following:

- Business cultures and practices
- Business case studies

Both are interesting, though the cultures and practices had me on the edge of my seat from the very first moment as the teacher speaks fluently English and has a good way of telling and holding my attention the business case studies was more challenging but I am getting into that now. The teacher doesn't speak very good English though but I am starting to get used to her pattern of speech. And she's really doing her best which makes up for a lot of it. But it's getting interesting now that's for sure. We are learning about the strange and unusual services that Japan has like mobile phones and cars. Next week she's taking us to Mr. Doughnuts, which just makes me love her class even more.

Now how did she know that I like doughnut? XD

In the first class though there was a really small twist of words that had me freaked out about Japan in a very disturbing manner. It wasn't until later that I found out what she really meant though but I shall share it with you.

"When in Japan, you drive over little surgeon, you pay lots and lots of money. It's bad. if you kill him or her it is better cause then you pay less but if you paralyse him it's bad"

Now it might have had to do with me thinking we were still talking about mobile phones, or the fact that I thought my hearing wasn't right but I was seriously having a Jaw drop moment. You can't drive over little surgeons, what the...

In the end I figured out what she meant, not surgeons, but CHILDREN. yes children. Now why didn't she say so from the start? She also meant that if you by accident hit a child, then if the child dies, you only pay the family for the funeral (which sounds hard but understandable, but you simply shouldn't hit children with a car), however if you paralyse the child or something else you will have to pay for all the hospital bills which are alot. So even though it took me a whole class to find that out, I understood what it meant but still find it crazy.

((add to that that she started telling about what some drivers do if they accidental hit someone which is, to make sure they are dead, take them home cut them up, put them in cement and in the ocean which is the reason there are so many people missing which just freaked me out and actually wish she had never mentioned that! thank you sensei... not. XD ))

Still her classes are getting better and I really appreciate the effort she's making so I don't regret picking her classes a single bit. My Japanese class is the most difficult one of all but I will manage somehow I've got a good neighbour who is willing to help me out so that makes me happy.

The schedule for tomorrow is class, followed by a trip to the city hall to get my insurance papers over and done with followed with coming back home and going to visit a friend (Naye) who is in a very lovely part of Japan so we can discuss our trip to Tokyo.

Thursday will be a small trip to umeda in the morning and chatting with some people and catching up.

For now, this is all I have to tell. :) thanks for reading and catch you all next time,

Over and Out.