Hallo!

SO, *deep breath* that is me finished with University here until next year… until January 6th to be precise!  It is a lovely feeling, I have to admit!  I have reports and projects that I have to do, quite a few actually, by that time … but none of them are TOO tricky – I can do them in bed, in my pyjamas, if I want to!  It’s not like getting up for 9 o’clock lectures on a Monday morning … knowing that they will last straight through til 12.10!

So yes, what has Douglas been up to recently I hear you ask … well … I’m not sure if I do, but that’s what you’re going to hear anyway!  Hm … WELL, I have been going to Shibuya quite a lot recently which is always fun – and H&M had a rather amazing sale on so I have been to raid that a bit … which was fun!  Also been going to Harajuku quite a bit too!  You can actually walk between the two, which is rather convenient!

Today I went to an exhibition with Nat and her mum and her aunt, in a gallery in Shibuya (東急文化村), to see an exhibition of works by Lautrec and people in his ‘cercle’, which was interesting!  Also had some lovely food afterwards – Natsuho’s mum is convinced I don’t eat enough so whenever I am with them I always get fed amazing food – they even got me some more food to take back with me!

Christmas … my plans are to hang out with the other Brits in the dorms here and we are going to have a proper Christmas do – we have booze, and we have random bits of Christmassy food courtesy of Eliza’s mum and Eliza!  I think I even heard we might be having stuffing!  It will be so lovely!  I tried to find sherry for breakfast but I couldn’t find any…  and yes, for new year, I should be going to Natsuho’s house on New Years Eve to see in the new year!  That too is going to be sooo cool and I will make sure I take lots of photos!

Tomorrow I really should do something productive but I haven’t decided yet … maybe I’ll end up in Harajuku or something … it could happen!  Honestly though, I just need a bit of a rest – I’m kind of exhausted still!

In other news … I have been listening to Michael Bublé a lot – somehow his music is very Christmassy, and hence mixes well with mulled wine, and/or chocolate, and/or strolls in Midtown at night!

Hey everyone!

So today we had a bit of a gathering in Tokyo, for all the people from Edinburgh who are in the East of the country – namely me, classmates and Fumiko sensei!  It is SO bizarre seeing my teacher from Edinburgh all the way here in Tokyo, it’s as though Edinburgh has sort of moved out en mass!

So yes, we are sitting in a classroom all with DSi’s that we’ve been lent by Uni, for a year … the idea is we do bits of work in Memos, recording our voices, writing things, etc etc, and then our teachers in Edinburgh checking our work and sending it back.  It’s actually very convenient in some ways … all McDonald’s here are Nintendo DS wifi hotspots so even if we are travelling, we can send assignments and things back …

I haven’t decided yet whether it is a bit gimmicky (which I suppose it really is) or whether it will actually be of benefit … I have quite a lot of work here as it is … if this takes up a lot more time then it will be a bit of a stress!  That said … we get a DSi for a year which is nice, and it’s free … although I do already have a DS lite which is my baby…

So yes, the up side of this is that we are currently NOT in the lectures which we would usually have on a Thursday afternoon – WOO!

This is me RIGHT now – blogging on the move!

In one of my classes last week, the teacher came wearing a kimono!  So there was a big class photo!  I was right behind her so, I cropped it and … here we go I look funny but still

www.adamwrites.co.uk

My lovely classmate Adam has a new blog!  You know Adam!  THAT Adam!  Yeah, anyhoots, have a look!

Tokyo Dome City – Winter Illumination … I went there this evening and took some photos!  I miss Edinburgh’s Christmas, but this did help to soothe that!

これは、「総合日本語」という授業のため書いた作文です～☆　日本語が出来る人どうぞ、読んでみてください！笑っちゃうかもしれません！99パーセント本当のことですから！まだ日本語は変なのかもしれませんけど！

私の笑える話

16歳の時、若く、寂しい拓羅寿は、彼氏が欲しくなった。拓羅寿の学校は、男子校であり、男子のほとんどが恋人を探すことは無理であった。しかし、拓羅寿にとっては、問題ではなかった。恋人は直ぐに出来た。マシュー君という初恋の人であった。優しく、頭が良く、彼を見ているだけで、拓羅寿は幸せな気持ちになった。何ヶ月も付き合い、幸せで、拓羅寿は恋い焦がれた。

ある日の放課後、歩いてバス停に行っていた時、マシュー君よりかっこいい男の子を見かけた。素敵なその人と目が合うと、好きになってしまった。直ぐにマシュー君と別れ、サム君に近づき、付き合う事になった。サム君は拓羅寿の後輩であり、拓羅寿の卒業のダンスパーティーへ二人で行った。黒髪の拓羅寿は銀色のチョッキ、金髪のサム君は金色のチョッキで。それはまるで夢の様な夜であった。

その後、拓羅寿は大学へ引っ越し、独身になった。

晩秋の夜、勉強中の拓羅寿はサム君から電話をもらった

「拓羅寿こんばんは！大ニュースがあるよ！婚約したよ！」

「へー？まだ若いじゃん！何ていうヤツ？俺の知ってる子？」

「知らないかもね。マシューっていう彼氏にプロポーズして、私がオッケーした。」

「…」

こんな風に、今、拓羅寿の元カレと元々カレは結婚する予定である。これは変ではないだろうか。

以上

Today was a very bloggable day, so as a result, here is a huge blog post with a very generous smattering of photos to boot!

As most of you know, recently all I seem to be doing is cramming for short relatively-meaningless tests and generally working myself to the bone … however, I decided that today I really HAD to have a break, so I accepted my friend Natsuho’s gracious invitation to come to her 餅つき (Mochi making) do in Ningyocho (人形町) where she lives.  Mochi is a special way of preparing gluetenous rice, whereby the rice is pounded with a hammer and things … it’s all rather exciting AND something you only have at new year so, this was my only chance probably to see it on this trip to Japan.

So, yes, I got off at Ningyocho station in Nihonbashi, and Natsuho and her mum met me, then we walked down the main street towards the Mochitsuki.  Firstly, we popped into this shrine…

And … here is a mildly overexposed photo of Douglas!!

… and here is me and Nat!

So yes … then we walked down the road … and I stopped to take a photo of this original security door …

… before arriving at the Mochitsuki!

… and here are people making Curry-Udon (カレーうどん) which is rather yummy – I had some!

Here’s me looking a little bit warped, with Nat’s mum!

This was a cool clock that is unique to Ningyo-cho, and on the hour little men come out and dance around and things!  I was very taken with it!

It was so crowded!  … also … about 16/17 degrees centigrade!  … which for December isn’t bad!

… here are the mochi making tools!

… aaand here we have one of the younger members of the community having a bash, quite literally!  I was thinking of doing it too but … I didn’t!  I have done it before though, when I was last here … so … yeah, I decided I would let myself off this time – also I am rather lethal with that hammer!

While they were making the mochi, we went down the road a bit to another famous shrine in the area, where it was actually quite busy.  This shrine is popular amongst young mothers-to-be, as it is associated with trouble-free birth (安産).

… a bit touristy maybe but this is actually one of my favourite photos – I thought it was quite a nice sort of sum-up of Japan ^_^

Cute kids in kimono!

Nat’s dog – the cutest EVER!!!

… and finally, in the evening, we went to a supermarket shopping and then for Chinese food!  Here’s a wee picture of the supermarket outside … I was quite suitably impressed!

So yes, one of the nicest days I’ve had for a long time!

My new haircut has grown into a bit more of a hairstyle now – I have given in to pressure and hereby am giving you a photo of me, right now!  Excuse the cheesy grin.

That BIG thing behind me is the air-con in my room.  The little fan over my left shoulder is a fan I got given in Akihabara by a random person giving them out on the street … speaking of which, I want to go there again soon … it’s been a while.  For those interested, the mysterious characters that adorn it are advertising ear digs.  Like, things you can buy to clean your ears.  Nice, right!

Hello there!  I had a bit of time free this evening so I thought I’d do a blog post … although as my classmates will understand, I really haven’t been doing much recently aside from living between my dorms and uni, doing work >_<

That said … a few things which might amuse!

Firstly … my current favourite items of footwear, which I only really feel safe wearing in Asia!

They’re rather amazing right!!!  I love them … they’re so warm and squidgy!!

Ok, secondly, my new favourite magazine here is called Choki Choki (チョキチョキ) so I thought I would show you some photos … GQ it is not!  Also it is really a specialist hair magazine …

So yes … there are a few pages that I thought were interesting There’s also a big two page spread advertising this sort of special body suit you can wear that claims to be able to increase a person’s height by 15 cm in 3 months … although that sounded rather dangerous to me!

Ok, this amused me too, it’s a sort of ‘how to look like a foreigner’ kit.

I wasn’t sure whether to be insulted or not … I’m sure you couldn’t buy the ‘look like a Japanese person’ equivalent of this in the UK though!  A bit shocking!  But amusing.

Recently, it has been much colder here too … and naturally this means that the vending machines start selling more hot drinks – here is my favourite!  They have lots of vending machines here, outside mostly, every street has them all along it!

… and finally, my first complete manga set!  This is Death Note … I am going to go to Akiba to scout out some more manga some time, obviously I will get a lot more before I leave!!

I hope this finds everyone well!

Hallo~!   As predicted, as I have so many classes, my blogging has been not as avid as it was when I first arrived … sorry about that!

It’s Sunday afternoon, I’m just having a little break writing this before I get back to my work.  It’s funny really, I seem to do little else!  Saying that, I did go have my hair done at a Harajuku salon last week, which was good!  I actually got a postcard from my hairdresser a couple of days after, which was so SWEET!  I realise they do it for everyone, but still!  It was really cool!

I went with one of my good Japanese friends to Nihonbashi yesterday – we always have lots of work, but it’s fun changing the place where we are working at least!  Except … we ended up walking to Ginza by accident, but there was a nice café there that we found so we could work there just as easily!

So yes, that is sort of the shape of my life at the moment – it feels that I do very little apart from work, but I try to find new places to go and work, to make it more interesting!  I am in Tokyo after all, it’s a big place – lots of options for study-cafés!