Time off for gathering data

Tonight I am setting off for this massive, crowded monster-that-never-sleeps usually called the capital of Japan, Tokyo. So expect a break here, while I’m off having adventures, exploring the strangest of strange and generally enjoy this time off right until my return on the evening of the 30th of December. Afterwards I’ll do my best to bombard you with posts about all these strangest of strange, adventures etc. Meanwhile: いってきま～す！ ...

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Regarding cars

We all know – and, judging from the numbers of ones seen on the street, somewhat appreciate – Japanese cars. They are thought of as reliable and quite good, not necessarily one’s to scream about, like the supercars in Top Gear, but for the average Joe Japanese cars seem to be just right. When not considering subjective opinions or personal tastes, that is. However, I think that...

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五箇山、富山県 (Gokayama, Toyama-ken)

As a sort of way of congratulating us for surviving our mid-term exams, on Thursday we went on a trip to Gokayama, area of the city of Nanto (南砺市) in Toyama prefecture. It was a brief trip, we spent more time in total on the bus than in Gokayama itself, but if it meant: a) having no classes; b) spending some time with our Japanese foster families; and c) seeing something interesting,...

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高岡市、富山県 (Takaoka-shi, Toyama-ken)

I spent this weekend in Takaoka, in the Toyama prefecture, where I participated in a so called Monitor Tour. Simply speaking: people speaking the most popular languages amongst tourists (English, French, Korean, mainland Chinese and Taiwanese) were invited to take part in order to help improve tourism in Takaoka. The trip was entirely free, including accommodation, food and transport...

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In a Japanese high school

One of the subjects I take is a Japanese Education class. But it’s not just lectures, note-making or discussions – every now and then we have an opportunity to visit various schools, and the first one we went to was the Kanazawa Nisui Prefectural Senior High School (石川県立金沢二水高校, Ishikawa-ken-ritsu Kanazawa Nisui Kōkō). Entrance to Nisui. http://www.nisui-dousoukai.com/page17/index.html Although...

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Weathery

There’s a saying in Kanazawa: 弁当忘れても傘忘れるな (bentō wasuretemo, kasa wasureruna), which simply means „even if you forget your lunch, do not forget your umbrella”. And the longer I’m here, the more I observe what’s happening outside, the more I agree with this saying. On the one hand weather forecasts in Japan are very reliable. I haven’t yet had a day where I’d check the forecast in the morning on the Japanese Meteorological Agency’s website that...

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Kenroku-en times two

Taking my friend from Oxford’s visit as an opportunity to get out, yesterday I ended up in Kenroku-en for the second time round. Well, technically it was second and third. Although I did not manage to get there for the actual moment of suspending tree branches, I had the opportunity to see the effects of this, during the day. As much as I find the idea of suspending branches...

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