Christmas

About Christmas - Japanese do not celebrate it. Or at least, not in the way Europeans do it. Now, for us Christmas is merely a tradition, but we should remember that this celebration comes from Christian church. In Japan, almost nobody is Christian - about 7% are Catholic, baptized by the first missioners in late 19th - 20th century. The rest belong to Shintoism or Buddism, or even both. Still, as Japanese people say themselves - there is no national religion in Japan. They are keeping some of the "religious" traditions, but they are not perceived as being religious. Therefore, for Japan Christmas doesn't mean the same, as for other Christian cultures. It is a commercialized event, mostly for friends and couples to enjoy, and for businesses to earn some money. The idea of decorating the Christmas tree was also overtaken by Japan, but in a more global way. By almost every bigger train station there are illuminations - areas, which are practically covered by small Christmas lights. So, many people travel to biggest stations to see the illuminations:

This could be seen by Shinjuku stattion - Shinjuku Northern Lights.

Yebisu atation

Shimbashi

Japanese fact sheet No. 1

Sorry for not writing for some time, all of the exchange students here are burried under piles of work - most of the lecturers prefer to see a group presentation instead of correcting lots and lots of final exams.

So, anyways, there is a thing I wanted to tell about for some time. Do you know that Japan recycles literally everything? Well, every country recycles at least a bit, but here, when moving in, we got a whole pamphlet with information what can be thrown out together. It's ok, as far as you consider that Japan is one of the most technically developed countries, and most probably, pollutes a lot; therefore they have to compensate this somewhere. But you would never expect this:

As you can see, this is a fast food restaurant. Let me give you a hint - this is one of the biggest fast food chains in the world. McDonald's. Even here you have to recycle. As well as in Strabucks, Burger King, and in any other Japanese and non-Japanese fast food chain. Makes me think that Danes, which consider themselves very "green", are not trying good enough :D

The zoo

So, Wednesday afternoon we went to Ueno Zoo. It was realy cold - in the moist country as Japan +9 degrees Celsius feels like at least 10 degrees less than it actually is. But we enjoyed it a lot. This is the main entrance:

As you can see, somewhere in the background are the ticket machines. Actually, in Japan the ticket machines are pretty popular, even in restaurants, especially at the eat-all-you-can types. So, the visitors/customers choose a needed type of a ticket, and then it will be controlled and checked by the staff.

Probably it would be boring to show you all the animals in the zoo, most of them you all can find in any European zoo, therefore, here's the main attraction:

They are even cuter in real life!! Anyways, the panda is a national symbol, and you'll be able to find something panda-like in every souvenir shop. Which there were tens of around the zoo:

Tea ceremony

I'm sure you have been waiting for this moment, when I finally will write about this famous Japanese tradition. Tea ceremony - 茶道, pronounced as Sadoo. The event was organized by one of the clubs at university, so I went there with 30 other students from Rikkyo Univesity. The ceremony was held in Mejiro Garden,  just 15-20 minutes walk from Ikebukuro. Realy beautiful place, surrounded by modern buldings (you won't see those in the pictures, but believe me, each "piece" of nature in Tokyo is surrounded by some modern buildings):

So, let's start from the beginning - the most important attribute for the ceremony is a pair of white socks, everybody must wear ones.

You must bow before you enter the room (it's not a slight Western bow, but a Japanese one - you have to kneel down, put your hands in front of you, and bow your head towards the hands) and then you may enter and take a seat. The laidies (hostesses) were so nice and told us that we don't have to sit on our feet all the time, we could place them to the side, so it's easier for us to sit. Afterwards, the hostesses enter the room:

This is how the room looked like from the place I was sitting. There is a "hole" in the floor, which has some glowing coal in the bottom and a ceramic jar on top with water. Before preparing the tea, hostesses enter the room with some treats:

The pink one is a sweet potato ball covered with sweet rice paste, and another one is a simple sugar/green tea candy.

Afterwards, while one hostess prepares the tea, another brings the drinking bowls from another room - enters the room with a bowl in her hands, kneels down in front of another hostess, and leaves a bowl in fron of herself. If the tea is ready, she takes it to the guest, leaves the bowl in fornt of him/her and bows. The guest must bow at the same time, too, in order to show the gratitude. A ありがとうございます - (arigatoo gozaimasu) thank you very much - said when bowing is a common courtesy. The hostesses were entertaining us by telling the stories about their previous guests, and about how they do ceremonies. It was very interesting, though I understood maybe around 5% of what they said. Well, it's good that other students did speak in English, so if something was realy not understandable, I could ask them for a translation. 

This is the tea:

I must assure you - the tea tastes better than it looks; the taste reminds me a bit of a seaweed powder diluted by water. 

The bowls are taken away the same way - a hostess kneels in front of you, bows (you must bow too, and say thank you) and takes away the bowl.

After the ceremony we went to another room to do some ikebana (いけばな). We should kneel and bow in front of the basket with flowers, then choose a vase, and afterwards do the ikebana - choose flowers and arrange them.

The point is not to choose as many flowers, as possible, usually it's only 1 or 2 different ones you have to choose, but to choose the flowers that would look good in the vase you chose and enjoy the whole arranging process. When you're finished with arranging, kneel and bow in front of the flower basket again, and take your place.

These are our "masterpieces". Guess, which one's mine? ;)

All-in-all the ceremony was realy enjoyable, you feel afterwards like you did a deed of the week. 
 

Ghibli

Everybody's writing about Ghibli. And I will do it as well :D For all you, anime fans there! If the names Spirited away, Howl's moving castle or My neighbour Tottoro tell you anything, then you're in the right place. The world-famous animator drew this place; it was built 10 years ago, and still frequently visited both by Japanese and foreigners. This is what it looks like:

Exibits are inspired by the works of Ghibli studios, showing work-in-progress, tools, etc. There is a large Cat-bus to sit in, and it's not the only thing to see in the museum. Scenes and places are "revived" to a real life - Soffie's room at the Hatter's Store, Yubabas office with large porcelan vases, Japanese diner where Chiro's parents got turned into pigs... makes you fell like you are in a fairytale. All these exhibitions divided by a large fairytale-like "hall":

On the first floor there's a room full of eye-deceiving motion figures, which simply amazes you by showing, how unperfect our vision could be. Like this:

In reality this looks better, but well, the staff does not allow the visitors to take pictures, either :D

And if you'll look at the top of the bulding, you will see real grass!

A true story house, indeed! On the roof "lives" the giant robot from anime "Castle in the sky".

The last stop of our visit was Staw cafe, which served caffe latte with Sofie's hat drawn in chocolate:

Winter

So, Winter finally came. I guess, it's what Japanese call the ever changing weather here :) If one day the temperature is around +17 Celcius, on the next day there's only +5 degrees Celcius, as today :D Everybody's freezing, everybody has a cold :S I had one, too. Luckily, it's almost over, I wouldn't like to be sick, when there are so many midterms.
I guess, the only one who doesn't care about the weather are these:

I'm simply amazed that something can bloom in Winter.

What's missing ... or not

Maybe I have told this earlier, but Japan is all about convenience: the most shopping centres are located around the train/subway stations, convenience stores are open 24/7 (and you can buy there everything from food to tooth brushes, plus also pay your electric or other bills), trains are arriving every 5 minutes (depends on the line, though. Trains on Yamanote line, the one that circles around the central Tokyo, come every 3-7 mintes. On the other hand, the trains on Tobu-Tojo line, which I use every day to get to university, arrive every 10-15 minutes).
There are some things which I find inconvenient. Actually, only one - the last train for my station leaves at 00:30. The next train is around 5:40. That doesn't leave you much time to chat with friends from other parts of Tokyo.
Another thing is completely missing in the streets:

Yes! These are garbage cans! And you can be sure, if you miss the opportunity to throw you trash out, while you still can see one, it's unlikely that you will find another one around. Sometimes you can circle the whole area without finding any trashcans. And still, Japan is by far the cleanest country I've seen. Makes me wonder, what do we do wrong in Europe ... I guess, it's a culture difference - here you have to keep your garbage in your own bag :D

Autumn

Finally it's Autumn!! The season started for long ago, but finally you can feel the actual change in the weather. It's around 15 degrees Celcius outside, and sometimes it's even raining (once or twice in 2 weeks). Well, it's too early for the rainy season, it's in Winter. But this is what Japan looks like when it's rainy (sorry for the bad quality of the photos, I was taking pictures with my phone. I promise to replace them as soon as I can ;) ):

This is, by the way, the famous Shibuya crossing - the most crowded pedestrian crossing in the world. There can be up to 2.000 people crossing this road here on a Saturday afternoon at the same time.

And this lovely place is near Ikebukuro station :D

You probably noticed the transparent umbrellas - they are everywhere. Not all people remember to watch the weather forecast (which is about 90-95% accurate here in Japan) in the morning. So if it suddenly (for some people) begins to rain outside, they can go to the nearest convenience store, kiosk, drugstore or supermarket to buy one of these umbrellas. These are disposable umbrellas, only for one time use, therefore, they cost around 500 yen. Though, I've seen one in a supermarket for as little as 150 yen! If you're a fan of transparent umbrellas, you can also buy a normal one, which won't break after one use. These will be at least twice as expensive.

Nature

So, I made a video of my latest hiking trip, just to make it interesting for both you and me ^^ Enjoy ;)

The Language

I'm back ^^ So, here's a small post about the language, because there are some interestings issues in connection with it. As you can imagine, all the bigger nations are more or less self-sufficient, and Japanese is one of them. Most of the people living here are the Japanese, so there's no need to learn English. Therefore, except the buisiness life, English language is more like a trend. It's fashionable to wear t-shirts with imprinted English words or sentences that do not make any sence, or name a fashion shop in English just for the language's sake:

Funny, right?

Well, here is another example, just outside Ikebukuro station:

More sweets

If anyone wonders about traditional Japanese sweets, here they are:

The first ones, the yellow ones are made from sweet potatoes. These are not sweetend European-kind potatoes, but rather these:

They are naturally sweet, and there are many different kinds of sweets made out of these, such as cakes or buns. They even use it as a filling in ordinary bread buns.

The second sweet, the pink one, is made of rice. As I understood, they cook rice, and then batter it for couple of hours, until it becomes one solid, sticky mass. Then they form it and add other ingredients. Usually sold as odango:

A bit sweet...

Today I experienced a major dissapointment. Does everybody remember an anime Spirited Away? The one that got an Oscar? In any case, here's a reminder:

Well, I remember one scene, where Lin is feeding those little black fluffy balls with some kind of colorful candy:

And ever since I saw them in the Japanese shops, I was eager to buy some. So, as you can guess, I bought those today.

To my (and probably your) dissapointment, these small candies are made of melted and colored sugar... The advantage of this experience is that I became even more curious about Japanese sweets ^^

Out there...

What I especially love about Japan are the vending machines:

These are literally everywhere, in the streets, shopping centres, game halls, etc. As somebody, who has survived the Japanese summer, which just ended now, I can say that these machines are undoubtedly convenient. The beverages cost from 100 to 180 yen, dependent on the location of the machine, and they are selling everything from water to beer. As far as I know, there's also a possibility to buy canned coffee in a special cans that can warm the coffee up.

There's only one inconvenience - there are no trash cans in Tokyo. Well, not entirely everywhere, sometimes there is a trash can for bottles and cans close to one of those vending machines. Sometimes there are some in front of a convenince store, and of course, in university full of exchange students :D But most of the time you can circle around the whole block (and these are a lot bigger than in Denmark) withought finding any. Conclusion - wear a bigger bag, so all of your trash can fit in there, until you'll get home.

Weather updates

I promise to write something soon, during this week ^^ But right now I can tease you a bit with the weather forecast:

Groceries

I thought it would be interesting for all of you to read about the groceries. No! Japanese do not sell only rice and sushi. There is a big range of western-syle food, many French bakeries in supermarkets and at a train stations, and a lot of western sweets. The are certain differences. For example, they sell yoghurt plain, without any fruits or other additives. The sizes of all that you buy are two times smaller than the ones we're used to in Europe. The biggest chocolate you could buy in a nearest store would weigh arround 100 grams, bread is sold in a packages with 6 realy large slices, müesli is in a package of 425 grams.

The only thing they sell in a realy large package, is rice. Rice is usually sold in 2-3 kilo packages, and would cost around 2000 yen, which is realy expensive, compared to Europe.

The least thing, I expected, is that Japan has a realy small variety of fruits. The most of them are a lot bigger, then we're used to, and also a lot more expensive. I put a phone besides those two, so you could see, how big they actually are.

So, this one apple costs 100 yen, and the other fruit (I have no idea, what it is. It has a shape of peach, the texture of a pear, and it tastes like pear and orange combined.) was 150 yen. And they were discounted. Usually, the yellow fruit costs about 300 yen.

On the other hand, there are a lot of vegetables. I have never seen so many different kinds of mushrooms in a supermarket! All vegetables are cheaper then in Europe, and there's much more to choose from.

I mean it !!!

Schools and grading system

This is my second week of school now. In Japan a school year begins in April with a Summer holiday starting in mid-July. The second semester begins in late September, with the last exams in the beginning of February.

So, compared to Denmark, the attendance in the university is compulsory. If you're late or not attending 4 or more lectures without any reason, you'll automatically get a D. Grading system resembles the universal one, with A, B, C, D grades. Sometimes, there is an S grade, which stands for excellent, remarkable. Therefore, a D would mean that you have failed a subject.

For most of my subjects a grading system looks like this:

I don't mind. It's certainly more fun to attend more classes and participate in discussions; the most of the lecturers encourage us to tell them our own opinion.

Furthermore, there is no dress code in Rikkyo University. You can dress as you like. Though, I think, most of the people dress up to the ethical standards of the country.

Almost all elementary, secondary and highschool students wear uniforms, and sometimes the rules are even stricter, such as: you cannot dye hair, use any decorative cosmetics or nail color.

How to live in a metropolis 2

We were recently in one of the skyscrapers in Tokyo, in Shinjuku area. Seeing the view from the 45th  floor reminded me of Aarhus. With one HUGE difference - from the suburb, I live in, you can see the whole town from:

If you look closely, the white tower, you can see on the horizon - it's the city hall, the center of the city, only 5 minutes walk from the pier. I love living in Viby, it's a nice area, and the night view is just fantastic.

But it is no match for this:

There aro no words to describe the feeling, when you're looking outside the window, and all you see are buildings - until the horizon, no matter from which side do you look.

It's even more impressive to stand beside a skyskraper, and looking all the way up. The head starts to spin, and you realize, how small you are and how powerful a man's hand can be.

How to live in a metropolis

Could you imagine yourself living in a city, where's not a lot of space, the most parks are a train ride away? Possibly, you wouldn't have a space to have a pet. There's been found a great solution to the problem here, in Tokyo. It's so-called Cat-caffés. Rules are simple - you come inside the caffé, play with a cat or two, or three, or as many, as you like, while drinking some coffee, soda, juice, etc. Or you can enjoy your drink sitting by the table, eating snacks and looking through the albums with the pictures of the caffé's pets. These were just so cute:

Language

There are 3 different alphabets in Japan: katakana, hiragana and kanji. Katakana is used to spell the foreign words, like these:

Hiragana is the simple language. It's possible to spell everything in hiragana, but it would be hard to distinguish the words, as in Japanese you do not use space between the words. Therefore, hiragana signs can be joined to kanji, like these:

Hiragana is mostly used for a suffix of the word.

RUID Dorm

Some exchange students have a possibility to live in the university's dormitory. Rikkyo University has it's dormitory in Saitama, it's about 20 minutes ride on the train to Ikebukuro. Not so far away, as I first thought, and considered to buy a bicycle. They are quite cheap here, you can buy a new one for about 10,000-20,000 yen. But in reality, there are approximately 17 km between the two stations, so I decided to stick with the train.


This is how the room looks like:

- Why does the toilet look so weird? -The toilet seat is heated, if you turn it on. It does a lot of other things, which I do not know a thing of, because I do not read Kanji.