Guess who’s back!

March 18th, 2015

Rhodes

Almost a year has passed since I left beautiful Sydney. And now I am back, back to a new year of uni, new job, new apartment in Rhodes! But at the same time I can now see all my good old friends, eat all the amazing food I have been missing out on, and spend 3 times more then I should on daily necessities! Yay for Sydney!

But seriously, I came back on the 17th of February, which is a month ago. I’ve been very busy with buying furniture (from IKEA), seeing friends, going to uni again and 20 hours of work a week. All I can say I am happy to be back, but at the same time I do miss certain things about Japan. Right now I am trying to hunt down a place where I can buy a simple bicycle for a decent price (not in the 1k range). Aside from that, the apartment is mostly furnished, just waiting on dining table and sofa.

My life is back on track, so I will end this small update post by saying that while life can be hard some times, and we have so little time to do all the things we want, its important to appreciate every little thing that has happened, and continue going forward!

On leaving Japan

February 2nd, 2015

Kagoshima_Sakurjima

My 10 months in Japan is almost over and it is time to pack up and fly back to Sydney. What can I say, it’s been a wild ride. A lot of events, celebrations, and great experiences overall. But now its time to say goodbye, time to leave Japan for a while, time to go back to my proper studies in UTS.

It’s a strange feeling. On one hand its sad to leave Japan and Kagoshima, as it is a nice place to live once you get used to all the quirks of the culture and social interactions. Then on the other hand, my mind is already in Sydney settling down in my new house in Rhodes, setting up my new iMac and just getting ready to go back to university.

There are a lot of things that will be greatly missed: like the fast and convenient trains; the ability to go anywhere by bike; the delicious, healthy and cheap food; the safety; the rejuvenating waters of the onsen; the fast and unlimited internet; and just life in general. But then again there are a lot of things that I have to look forward to, such as: variety in food, delicious meat, cheap and juicy fruit; the ability to pay with my credit card everywhere; not having to deal with stacks of paperwork every week; next semester of uni and new challenges.

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The shrines of northern Kyushu

January 27th, 2015

Yutoku Inari

For the past few weeks, a few of my friends from Sydney have been exploring the land of Japan by traveling to places around Tokyo, Osaka and now coming all the way to Kyushu. On Saturday afternoon we met up with Richy and Ling, who made their way from Tokyo on the shinkansen this morning. Also a few other familiar faces joined us that day when we went to Dazaifu Shrine. The shrine itself is not much different from most other shrines in the country, but it is definitely a very popular place. The sheer number of tourists at the shrine showed us that not only Tokyo can be popular with the foreigners. After making our way back to Saga that evening, Amy, Ling and I went to meet the gaijin gang of Saga university and had a few drinks with them. It was fun to see how well foreigners get along in Japan, where you are treated as a foreigner no matter which country you come from.

The next day we ended up sleeping in, which threw us off schedule for the rest of the day. But we still managed to visit Yūtoku Inari Shrine in Kashima City, Saga Prefecture. And thats the shrine you see on the top of this post. Its a giant structure with big support pillars, which honestly looks fake, as if it was a toy or made out of plastic. But it is very very real and impressive. With the day coming to an end we made our way to Ureshino Onsen to dip our feet in some hot and healing waters. And then to finish off our adventure, we went to a yakiniku (Japanese BBQ) restaurant, where we ordered this big platter of Saga beef. All I can say is that it was amazing. Even thought I have lived in Japan for over a year (overall) now, I am still easily impressed by how delicious it is.

Also one thing I would like to note is that lately I have been getting really into photography, so after watching a bunch of tutorials on taking and editing photos, I can say that all of these were taken in raw format (most in AV setting) and have been edited with Aperture. Please do take a look at what I have created.

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2014 Retrospective

December 31st, 2014

Sakurajima Shiroyama

Wow, that went by rather quick. I remember how I was writing up the 2013 retrospective, as if it was yesterday. Why did the year fly by so quickly? Well I guess it is due to me being in Kagoshima, Japan! A new region to explore, a whole new bunch of Pokemon to catch! … wait a minute, wrong world. Anyway, lets see what the most memorable events were this year.

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Merry Kurisumasu

December 25th, 2014

Kurisu

Another year, another Christmas. As I just realised, I skipped last years Christmas post, but that was due to the long post about my blog redesign, which is still beautiful as ever.

But this year, I am taking a well deserved break from everything and traveling around Kyushu. Amy and I have already visited Nagasaki, Gunkanjima, and Huis Ten Bosch; and we will continue on to Beppu and Yufuin tomorrow. And don’t worry, there will be a post with my impressions and photos from this trip.

Lastly,  to all you folk out there in the world, Merry Christmas!

Senganen Flowers

November 9th, 2014

Gayjin Gang

Kagoshima city may be small in comparison to Tokyo or Osaka, but because of that you can enjoy traditional Japan much more, than if you were in a metropolis. Todays outing was just that, a trip to the traditional gardens of senganen in the north of Kagoshima, where they are currently holding a chrysanthemum festival.

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Saga International Balloon Fiesta

November 3rd, 2014

whaloon
This weekend there was a big balloon festival in Saga and of course Amy and I went there to check it out. Only problem was that there were no balloons.

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Poster Session

October 23rd, 2014

(hover over the image to reveal the controls for viewing the album)

I appologise for the huge delay of this post, but here it is. On the 1st of July Kagoshima University had their annual international students poster session. During this event, a chosen number of students make A0 sized posters and small speeches about their countries. The topics can include anything from just general overview to more in depth explanation of things like: events, festivals, government, education system, etc. Of course I was asked to take part in this as well, and so I prepared a beautiful poster about my hometown Riga. I talked about the geography, population, transport, food, sports and our gorgeous art nouveau buildings.

I had a lot of students and older people come up to me and ask me questions about Riga and Latvia, especially about the food (Japanese people love food). The old guy in glasses listening to my explanations of Riga you see in the photo album is the head of Kagoshima University. He said he went to Estonia about 30 years ago, but has yet to travel to Latvia.

I hope I can participate in more events like this one as not only is it good practice for my Japanese skills, I also really enjoy designing posters or signs, thats why I spent around 4 hours making my poster look that pretty.

Typhoons in Japan

October 13th, 2014

vongfong

Another day another typhoon warning. And believe it or not, this is normal in Japan. Typhoon VongFong has made landfall onto Kyuushu at 9am this morning and is slowly making its way towards the rest of Japan. This is the 19th typhoon to affect Japan this year. Trust me, thats a lot.

When it first made the news, they were saying that its the strongest this year, that its a super typhoon. The university even cancelled all the classes! Well it reached Kagoshima this morning and went right through us, but aside from a bit of wind and rain, it was a pretty normal day. When the eye of storm was right above the city, it was beautiful. The sun was shining brightly, there were no clouds, no wind, no rain. Then 30 minutes later it went back to being all cloudy and moist.

And as previously, we ask ourselves, why did they make such a big deal if it was barely any different from a rainy day? I guess after years of being ravaged by typhoons, the people of Japan take them much more serious now. Whats important is that we are ok, and are going back to uni tomorrow.

Getting a haircut in Japan

July 20th, 2014

KagoshimaBlueSky

A lot of things a very different in Japan compared to the West, such as their manners, the convenience of everything around you and of course the superb customer service. So when I decided to get a haircut, my first haircut in Japan, I was pleasantly surprised with the service. They sat me down and asked me what kind of cut I wanted while showing me a magazine with various mens cuts which I could chose from. Then once I decided to go with short (like some guy named Kenta in the photo of the magazine) they sat me down on this chair that automatically lowers and rises (adjusts) to the hair washing sink. So he started cutting my hair, very carefully and diligently as my hair is really thick and he didn’t want to hurt me. We spent the whole 40 minutes chatting about me and why I am in Kagoshima, with he complimenting me multiple times on my level of Japanese.

So after he finished, the barber pressed a button on the chair which made it spin 180° and stop in front of the mirror. Then the back of the chair started slowly descending so that my head would fit perfectly into the hair wash sink. The guy washed my hair, dried it, combed it and even showed me what the back of my neck looks like with a angled mirror. Then he took me to the door, opened it and bowed to me, while saying that I should come again.

This place also has discounts for foreigners, so the normal 3500¥ became 860¥! Such a great deal and great quality. Would recommend.