Rate of updates here has died down somewhat, which can only really mean I'm settling in I think. I'm getting used to how things work here and getting into the role of a student here, which, in a sense, means there's less to talk about. That, however, has given me a little time to reflect. As much as I detest whining on the internet about problems, this post may contain a little bit of that.
Having been here a mere two weeks now, although it feels a lot longer than that, I've realised just how expensive Tokyo can be. Granted, my main two purchases thus far have been a six month commuter pass and a phone, but all the little bits and pieces have added up pretty fast. We were advised to take £1000 worth of yen with us before coming here for the first month, which I took slightly less than, but I didn't expect to go through that quite so fast.
In summary, after a couple of weeks, I've already become concerned about money. Rent wise, I'm actually going to be paying ever so slightly less than I did in my first year at Sheffield, but that didn't allow for a lot of freedom. This quite possibly means I'm going to need to try to find some sort of job while I'm here, if I'm to do the things I've been hoping to do for the past couple of years.
I'm well aware that this isn't a holiday, and I'm not going to begin treating it as such. I'm here to improve my Japanese, all in regards to reading, writing, speaking and just general understanding. I have thankfully remained strict with what I've been spending my money on, with a day trip to Tokyo Game Show, and today buying a couple of books, but somehow my money has still depleted quite rapidly. I'm hoiping it'll balance out in the coming weeks, but for the time being, I'm concerned.
I'm not sure if writing this had much of a point beyond getting it out of my system, but that's probably enough navel gazing for the time being.
Saturday, 24 September 2011
Wednesday, 21 September 2011
Typhoon
Well, term has well and truly started here, but it's been an odd beginning. The very first day, which I've detailed already, was on a Friday, and right after the weekend was Respect for the Aged day, a national holiday, which means there were no classes. Tuesday was fine, and I'll detail that in a bit, but today's lessons from 1pm were cancelled due to concerns over a typhoon passing over Tokyo today. So, while there have been four days since the start of term, I've only really had two "full" days.
On Sunday, I made a visit to the Tokyo Game Show, but as that's almost exclusively videogame related, the details of that will be over at Samurai Rocket. But other than that, my days have mostly been spent studying in my dorm, going to university and back. The daily grind has well and truly begun, it would seem.
Regarding classes, I've had my second Japanese language one, which was exclusively for speaking, and it wasn't bad at all. With the content relating to relatively simple things like restructuring a sentence to convey the same meaning, or talking amongst ourselves to ask eachother what our favourite foods are, it's really quite comfortable. I'm convinced that the next level up would quite possibly be too much for me, so it's a bit odd that the level I'm in right now is straightforward. It's doing a good job of proving to me what other transfer students have told me, in that you'll only really learn and improve outside of class. That being the case, it's almost just as well that I'm enjoying going out by myself for a wander and immersing myself.
Yesterday was a bit odd on that front, however. After class I made yet another trip to Shibuya to meet Rory, another transfer student from my year in Sheffield, and Daiki, a student from Hosei who had studied at Sheffield during the second semester of my first year. It was a very bilingual day, but I found that it kept taking me a few moments to adjust between English or Japanese. Staying in one language was fine, but switching over on the fly made things troublesome, even moreso when I started really thinking about what I was saying. I can only assume the problem was that I was trying to speak in Japanese while thinking in English, which could explain some of my struggles at Sheffield really!
As I've been writing this, the intensity of the typhoon has increased, and my attention from this has been diverted somewhat to just how strong the rain and wind is coming down. I think it's going to be most intense around 9pm tonight, and it's currently 5pm. Be interesting to see what tomorrow morning brings.
On Sunday, I made a visit to the Tokyo Game Show, but as that's almost exclusively videogame related, the details of that will be over at Samurai Rocket. But other than that, my days have mostly been spent studying in my dorm, going to university and back. The daily grind has well and truly begun, it would seem.
Regarding classes, I've had my second Japanese language one, which was exclusively for speaking, and it wasn't bad at all. With the content relating to relatively simple things like restructuring a sentence to convey the same meaning, or talking amongst ourselves to ask eachother what our favourite foods are, it's really quite comfortable. I'm convinced that the next level up would quite possibly be too much for me, so it's a bit odd that the level I'm in right now is straightforward. It's doing a good job of proving to me what other transfer students have told me, in that you'll only really learn and improve outside of class. That being the case, it's almost just as well that I'm enjoying going out by myself for a wander and immersing myself.
Yesterday was a bit odd on that front, however. After class I made yet another trip to Shibuya to meet Rory, another transfer student from my year in Sheffield, and Daiki, a student from Hosei who had studied at Sheffield during the second semester of my first year. It was a very bilingual day, but I found that it kept taking me a few moments to adjust between English or Japanese. Staying in one language was fine, but switching over on the fly made things troublesome, even moreso when I started really thinking about what I was saying. I can only assume the problem was that I was trying to speak in Japanese while thinking in English, which could explain some of my struggles at Sheffield really!
As I've been writing this, the intensity of the typhoon has increased, and my attention from this has been diverted somewhat to just how strong the rain and wind is coming down. I think it's going to be most intense around 9pm tonight, and it's currently 5pm. Be interesting to see what tomorrow morning brings.
Saturday, 17 September 2011
お待たせ~
Totally forgot to update yesterday, and therefore, that is what tonight's post shall be about! I won't be writing about today's antics because, put simply, all I've really done is get into studying properly and get frustrated at a very poor internet connection, which is quite possibly something I don't exactly feel driven to write about.
In any case, yesterday marked the first day of classes at Hosei, along with the creation of my bank account. The bank account came first, along with my first time experiencing rush hour on public trains. I can happily say that I don't feel much intention to experience them often, as for the first part I had a man sneezing and hitting my elbow each and every time, and on the second part of the journey I had a woman's ponytail in my face. If it wasn't for aircon, the whole experience would have been a whole lot worse.
Creating a bank account was a simple affair, most in part to Kondo-sensei from Hosei University. We did get a few odd looks in the branch when about fifteen foreigners walked into a Mitsubishi bank, but the staff didn't waste any time in finding us a seperate room, potentially due to the noise that was being made, I'm not sure. While I do have a bank book, I think it's two weeks until I have an account proper, but with some budgeting then that shouldn't really be an issue.
I had a rather substantial five hours to kill between that and the start of class, so I went with Daniel across to Shibuya to direct him towards the Softbank store where I got my phone, as he was still in need of one, and then arranged to meet Kim, another student from Sheffield. Apart from Daniel, who I live with and sort of kind of doesn't really count for that matter, Kim was the first person from Sheffield who I've arranged to meet, and it was pretty fun. Didn't really do a great deal apart from having another wander, finding a rather barren park situated on the roof of a carpark, going to a beef bowl restuarant and then making an ever so brief visit to a Taito arcade.
After that, I returned back to Iidabashi for Hosei University, navigating the Yamanote circle line by myself after having abrief introduction to it from Daniel on the way to Shibuya, and then had about half an hour to kill before class started. During that time, I had the fortune of bumping into Hide, a Hosei student who came to Sheffield last year. For the second time that day, it was a great feeling to see a friendly face. I was unfortunately able to join him later in the evening for some yakiniku, and he apparently didn't receive my message to say so as I'm still getting used to my phone!
For my Japanese class, I'm in group three out of four, which I believe is upper intermediate, one down from advanced. It feels like it's about my level, as while the grammar we covered was something that I had covered previously, I still don't feel completely solid on it. The kanji is also a mixture of new and old, so I am at least guaranteed of covering something new to me. Oddly, with the flashcards for this week, I have a mere fourteen to learn for next Friday, as opposed to around sixty to learn over the weekend, which is what I was only barely coping with at Sheffield.
It's a wonderful change.
In any case, yesterday marked the first day of classes at Hosei, along with the creation of my bank account. The bank account came first, along with my first time experiencing rush hour on public trains. I can happily say that I don't feel much intention to experience them often, as for the first part I had a man sneezing and hitting my elbow each and every time, and on the second part of the journey I had a woman's ponytail in my face. If it wasn't for aircon, the whole experience would have been a whole lot worse.
Creating a bank account was a simple affair, most in part to Kondo-sensei from Hosei University. We did get a few odd looks in the branch when about fifteen foreigners walked into a Mitsubishi bank, but the staff didn't waste any time in finding us a seperate room, potentially due to the noise that was being made, I'm not sure. While I do have a bank book, I think it's two weeks until I have an account proper, but with some budgeting then that shouldn't really be an issue.
I had a rather substantial five hours to kill between that and the start of class, so I went with Daniel across to Shibuya to direct him towards the Softbank store where I got my phone, as he was still in need of one, and then arranged to meet Kim, another student from Sheffield. Apart from Daniel, who I live with and sort of kind of doesn't really count for that matter, Kim was the first person from Sheffield who I've arranged to meet, and it was pretty fun. Didn't really do a great deal apart from having another wander, finding a rather barren park situated on the roof of a carpark, going to a beef bowl restuarant and then making an ever so brief visit to a Taito arcade.
After that, I returned back to Iidabashi for Hosei University, navigating the Yamanote circle line by myself after having abrief introduction to it from Daniel on the way to Shibuya, and then had about half an hour to kill before class started. During that time, I had the fortune of bumping into Hide, a Hosei student who came to Sheffield last year. For the second time that day, it was a great feeling to see a friendly face. I was unfortunately able to join him later in the evening for some yakiniku, and he apparently didn't receive my message to say so as I'm still getting used to my phone!
For my Japanese class, I'm in group three out of four, which I believe is upper intermediate, one down from advanced. It feels like it's about my level, as while the grammar we covered was something that I had covered previously, I still don't feel completely solid on it. The kanji is also a mixture of new and old, so I am at least guaranteed of covering something new to me. Oddly, with the flashcards for this week, I have a mere fourteen to learn for next Friday, as opposed to around sixty to learn over the weekend, which is what I was only barely coping with at Sheffield.
It's a wonderful change.
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