Since my post last year I could say a lot has happened!!
First of all I want to wish everybody a happy new year!
It maybe a bit late, many people might already have experienced their
first best and worst memories of the year.
I want to start with last years christmas.
The twentieth of december I took a flight from Nagoya and back to
Norway. I was very excited as arriving the next day and meeting my
family and old friends:)
Next thing was Mari and Kimmy going to europe for their first time,
visiting me and John in Norway for christmas!
I picked them up at the airport and took them home by train. It was
really nice meeting them there in Norway. John met us in tønsberg not
far from our hometown.
We spent days showing the girls around where we lived and introducing
them to friends and family. On christmas eve Mari, me and my family
had a really nice dinner and ended the evening opening all the
presents we had. The days after christmas I spent relaxing at home
with Mari and my family.
After a week we had to go back to Nagoya. It was a bit sad going back
as I really enjoyed staying in norway with mari.
We left early the thirtieth of december and arrived in Nagoya early
morning the thirtyfirst.
Upon arriving i was really tired from all the travelling but I had had
the best christmas I can remember, in Norway.
After arriving we took a rest at home and met up later to celebrate
New Years. We had decided to sleep together at a hotel that night but
it was hard to find any vacant ones..
It ended up with us going to Red Rock bar where we celebrated the
countdown, we didn't stay there long though since we were still tired
from all the travelling. We took an end to the night by going to the
closest love hotel were we immediately fell asleep.
On the following day me and mari went out doing hatsumoude and
spending our first day together in the new year. John and kimmy
disappeard. However on the second day me and mari parted, and i
started preparing for going to tokyo.
John was also going to tokyo but on a later date..
I went to tokyo on the third day. My schedule was shopping and going
to a concert. This was also my first time in tokyo and i was very
excited. I arrived quickly with the shinkansen upon where i went
directly to shibuya and then up towards harajuku and shinjuku.
In harajuku i went to meijishrine to do a second hatsumoude. There
were about 30 000 others who also had decided to go there and so i
spent several hours walking in a massive queue there.
After having bought a mikuji (fortune) at meiji i went up to shinjuku.
I spent some hours trawling the shinjuku district, and eventually met
up with Jo whom I was going to the concert with.
We queued up early in front of the big nippon budokan where we
immediately got our tickets and went in to find about 14 000 people
also waiting in high excitment for the concert.
It took some time before the concert started but luckily enough we
were seated and so we didnt need to tire.
The concert was a big thrill! It lasted for five hours with some
pauses between each band. The bands were timed so as the most famous
ones were the last ones and highlights of the concert. Each band had
their own fanbase amongst the audience but everyone seemed to know the
procedures of each band. Almost everyone knew the dancing routines for
each song and so it seemed that the audience was more interested in
the dancing than the actual songs.. Me and Jo tried to join in
sometimes but I gave up too easy, especially when the audience started
bringing out special props from their backpacks, and used it for
dancing...
Anyway after the concert my ears were dead and the rest of my body too.
I hadnt booked a hotel yet so i followed jo back to hers and booked
one there, were i immediately fell asleep.
The next day, although pretty tired, i went around harajuku and
shinjuku again shopping.
By the time i had almost died from walking and found myself waiting
for the best and fastest shinkansen back to nagoya, i had bought seven
pieces of clothing i was reAlly content with.
Back in nagoya i had to prepare for the first day of school.
From the fifth of january my school started the new semester. It was
a bit exciting getting new teachers and continuing my japanese studies
but also pretty bad as i soon found out i didn't have any money., and
that i needed to find a job.
However my travelling plans had far from finished. Just ten days after
starting school i went to Kyoto for the second time. This time i was
going to the sanjusangendo to watch kyudo contests.
The first day in kyoto me and my friends from the kyudo went to
arashiyama were i had already been last fall. And kinkakuji which i
had never been to. After having done the sightseeing and eaten some
times at macdonalds we went to the ryokan we were staying at. This was
my first time staying at a ryokan, which is a japanese traditional inn.
The next after having slept well and woken up early the next day. We
went to the sanjusangendo where the contests were being held. The
kyudo contests were really interesting and pretty to watch. Everybody
wore the hakama and dogi and the women had dressed up really nicely in
kimonos.
That's also probably why you could see a lot of old men with big
proffessional cameras taking pictures of the girls there.
The contests lasted the whole day. When they finished we took a rest
and drove home.
Well back home in nagoya i spent the remaining two weeks before the
springbreak concentrating about school and finding a job. And spent
the time i could with Mari.
At school my marks got good again and i managed to deliver homework in
time.
Finally springbreak is here and now I am taking a rest from my trip to
tokyo two days ago.
Kimmy, Mari and me wanted to go to Tokyo to meet John and spend time
together. We went last saturday morning by bus which took six hours
and arrived in tokyo at four pm.
There mari went of to see some friends and me and kimmy to meet John.
All three of us spent some time together with some people from Johns
school, we went to a resturant and ate some before going to softbank
to pick up johns new phone.
We tried to get a hold of mari but it took some time and after some
struggling we managed to meet where our hotel was. We checked in and
took an early night.
The next day me and mari were early up and ate breakfast. John and
kimmy was a bit slow and so me and mari checked out and went off to
where the hotel we were staying in sunday night was. We met up with
john and kimmy there, stored our luggage in a locker and set off to
asakusa. In asakusa we went down one of the known market streets to
sensouji. Me and mari went ahead of john and kimmy and did some
praying before we sat down in a small seating place and got our
picture taken several times by one of those old perverts with a camera.
We then went to akihabara, mainly because i wanted to see it, and ate
some gyudon there before going to tokyo central station and the
imperial gardens. The wind was powerful and we wanted to borrow bikes
but we were just minutes too late.
We decided to head back to the hotel via some shopping in Ginza, which
by the way is the coolest part of tokyo, at night.
Before meeting john and kimmy we bought some food and drink and went
back to the hotel with them.
We agreed to meet up eight pm to go out but again john and kimmy were
a bit late and so we headed out before them trying to find a three
hundred yen bar. After some searching we finally found it, it was a
stand-up and drink bar were you can buy anything they have for three
hundred yen.
It was a nice place and it didn't take long until kimmy and john
showed up. We spent some time there and it all ended up a wet night. I
remember watching pirates of the carribbean 2 dubbed in japanese,
pretty entertaining, hearing johnny depp speaking japanese.
The next last day we saw john off to school and went to yoyogi park
and ate lunch there. Then we went shopping in harajuku and omotesando,
lunch/dinner at macdonalds and walked down to shibuya, where we took
the train back to shinjuku to meet john, who had finished school.
After having been at a cafe we went to a bar not so far away to say hi
to an old friend of mari and kimmy. He was an irishman who had worked
with them earlier and now moved to tokyo.
We spent the rest of the evening at that bar. And around 10 pm we went
back to shinjuku getting ready to leave with the night bus.
At eleven thirty we said bye to john, he said he was going to visit
nagoya next week, and the bus left.
We arrived in nagoya at six am and me and mari went back to my dorm
and rested there.
She left just some hours ago and now i am preparing to go to shizuoka
tomorrow with her and chiyuki and chiyuki's friend.
I am really excited as we are going to see mount fuji and go to onsen.
Mari is leaving next week, going to Europe for one month, visiting
several countries.
Until then we try to spend as much time as we can together. And also
maybe i will start working at the cafe she works at.
If not then i am already recruited by three modelling agencies..
Hoping for a job there..
Until next time bai bai.
And i hope i can be better at writing more often.
Ugf tsukareta..
Her er forresten et bilde jeg tok i tokyo fra asakusa. Finn mari?!!
Purikura is one of the most known Japanese phenomenon’s except for
karoke and arcades.
Purikura is an english import word,
an abbreviation of “purinto kurabu” which means “print club” in English..
In Japan you’ll have your purikura
taken at least once during your life if
you are Japanese, and most likely about 100 times..
Purikura’s are a special form of photo where you, hopefully in company of other merry people, walk into a big photo box to get your photo taken. Once in the photo box you choose backgrounds and how many pictures. POSE and get some nice pictures, and do a wide variety of after-touches to them afterwards to make them look really cool.
Purikura’s are highly addictive and one can end up taking a lot of them without having a reason for it. You can get the pictures in print-form and on your cell as a wallpaper. The print-form is really neat as it is actually a sticker!!
Now while I’ve been in Japan I have had the the chance of taking many purikura’s. I also really recommend doing it if you decide to go here, as it is a really nice memory of the trip. They are also great fun to watch!!
I can share some purikura’s here, two seconds..
I at least hope so.
In waiting for my next post I'll give you a nice picture:) ...
