It sure was a long journey. But for the feeling that
can only be described with the word “ただいま” (I’m back!) it
sure was worth it. Let’s face it: everything was completely new to me two years
ago, when I first came to Japan. Now most of the things are already familiar to
me, so to smell the indescribable smell of Japan (every country has its own
smell, don’t let your accustomed noses fool you), to see the long unseen and
very missed vending machines or to see that it may be a little crowded and
there may be little unused spaces, but somehow it’s warm in this crowd (and I
don’t just mean the temperature) was just like coming back to one of my many
homes or like seeing a long unseen friend.
The fact that now I understand and can say a lot more
than I could two years ago definitely helped too. Back then asking about anything
straight after arriving was causing a minor panic attack (how do I say that?!),
but now? If only I can hear it through the noise and/or ears deafened by the
change of pressure during landing, then it’ll be fine, right? I even had some
not so small conversations with a few people and managed not to make a fool out
f myself, so not bad at all!
And, well, those feelings of coming back aside, my
journey wasn’t very exciting. I don’t remember who it was, but whoever said
that Helsinki Vantaa Airport, where I was transferring, was the most boring
airport in the world was lying and clearly never flew from Doncaster-Sheffield.
True, spending about five hours there is too much, but it would be anywhere. So
if anyone’s unsure, I do recommend Finnair airlines – nothing to be overly
excited about, but it was comfortable, efficient and not too expensive, what
more could you want?
I’m sorry for the tiny amount of photos. When
travelling in clothes that were definitely too warm (thank you, saving
kilograms on luggage by wearing the heaviest things) and with two heavy
suitcases (plus a handbag which was sliding off my shoulder every now and
then), taking pictures was the last thing I could do. But I will share the few
that I have taken.
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| Sculpture at Helsinki Airport - I've no clue what it's supposed to be |
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| You've no idea how much I missed this taste! *.* |
This was the first time that I took a train going
between cities in Japan and I like it already. It was comfy, lots of space,
relatively cheap (train from Osaka to Kanazawa with a reserved seat = Y7240,
that’s about £45 for about 200miles done in two and a half hours)… But my
favourite were the conductors! Japanese politeness at its fullest because every
time they passed through my cart (and other ones too, I assume), they bowed
before leaving. Before and after ticket control they even announced that they
were “extremely sorry” (or “thank you for your cooperation”), but it’s ticket
inspection time and a massive bow.
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| Pongyi, entrance |
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| Pongyi, side view |
Above is the Pongyi Guest House, where I was supposed
to sleep off my journey, but where I ended up waking up after four hours. Above
all: if anyone is considering visiting Kanazawa then I really can’t recommend
Pongyi enough! It’s cheap, comfortable, adorable (the house used to be a kimono
shop!), really close to the city centre, the owner is the most lovely and
helpful (poor her, she wanted to carry my massive suitcase up those teeny-tiny
stairs, right after offering to call me a taxi in the morning)… Yeah, it’s more
of a hostel type thing than a hotel, there’s only two dorm-type bedrooms, a
male and a female one, but if you’re not looking for hotel luxuries and just
want a nice, cosy and cheap place to sleep somewhere convenient for
sightseeing, then you probably couldn’t do better.
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| Kanazawa Daigaku |
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| My room - behind the curtain is a tiny corridor with the kitchen |
Now I’m all moved in to my dorm, all the formalities
done for today and I can rest a little bit. True, the International House isn’t
the prettiest thing to look at, inside it looks genuinely unfinished with its
bare concrete walls and corridors, but the rooms are cosy (although this will
be the first time that I’ll shower in a cupboard, but hey, adventures) and it
definitely could be a lot, lot worse. Having “raided” the recycling room, where
previous exchange students left stuff they no longer needed – like crockery and
cutlery, hangers, all sorts of kitchen appliances, I even managed to dig out an
umbrella – I unpacked, put everything in its new place and now it even looks.
As in even looks kind of nice.
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| Recycling room |
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| Bathroom - yes, that corn for the shower. And yes, this bathroom is smaller than my wardrobe. |
And since my fridge was empty, I went food shopping.
Believe me or not, but during my previous stay in Japan I was in a supermarket
only once and only for a moment, before travelling with my host family to
Kyoto, just to get some lunch, so this was my first proper time to look around
a Japanese supermarket. I mean sure, they all look fairly similar, but it’s
interesting to compare the prices and see what’s expensive and what’s cheap.
This week’s shopping (and maybe more, we’ll see how long it’ll last me) cost me
just about as much as it would’ve in the UK, and the most expensive item on my
list was tea because I decided that I can’t be cheap on tea. Unfortunately, at
nearly Y400 for 50 bags it was a bit much, especially compared to the UK where
I never drank an awful tea and even the Tesco’s Everyday Value one, which is a
pound or less for 100 bags, was quite nice. That’s only for now though, I’m
secretly (well, quite openly, actually) hoping for food parcels from home. But
I was very happy to see the fruit and veg prices – a lot of the stuff that I
eat and like (like apples or onions) had very decent prices indeed (Y98/apple
and Y28/onion).
And that’s it. Since I don’t want to bore you too much
with my excitements over food and accounts notebook that I set up just now, I’ll
share my first Engrish discovery of this trip:
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