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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November

November and autumn have caught up with Kanazawa: it’s raining ever more often, and even when it’s not, the sun’s mostly hidden behind clouds, and it’s hard to believe that it’s not even a week since I was walking round the campus in shorts and a light cardigan at worst. It’s not freezing yet, still putting on a T-shirt and a warm hoodie is enough to get me from my dorm to classes...

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大学祭 (Daigaku-sai)

From Friday to Tuesday I don’t have any classes thanks to a university festival, daigaku-sai, that’s happening at this time. Well, Friday and Tuesday are for setting up and cleaning up, the festival itself is from Saturday (today) til Monday, but I’m not gonna complain that they’re giving me time off. If I am to be completely honest, I don’t know what to really think....

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