This wont be too long, just wanted to note that I'm having a great time with the Taguchis! However, they are both busy today so I will be going out to explore Tokyo a bit. Haven't decided where I'll go but Akemi gave me a subway pass to use. It's called Suica and it has an IC Chip in it, so you don't have to swipe it or anything you just keep it in your wallet and when you pass through the gate, you wave your wallet past the sensor and it beeps and lets you through. So convenient compared to the subway pass I bought in Fukuoka.
Anyways, I hopefully wont get too lost wandering around by myself, Tokyo is huge after all.
PS - found out today that my mom is finally comming to visit! I am so excited to show her around!
PSS - I will be doing my first training class this Saturday at the school I'm teaching at, feeling kind of nervous, but looking forward to getting my feet wet.

I survived!

Well, after what had to be the worst plane flight I have ever experienced, followed by a skillful landing by our pilot, fighting against unpresidented and fluxuating gusts of winds, onto a fog-covered, near zero visability runway, the people in ANA flight 254 gave a small standing ovation to the crew of the aircraft.

Anyways, it was quite the experience. Needless to say, I`ve arrived in Tokyo.
I spent the weekend with Miho trying to find an apartment for myself, buy a cell-phone and such. Japan is very strict about apartment rentals and usually requires a Hyoushounin (Co-Signer) if you are a foreigner or if you are not a full time worker.

Also, there are a number of other fees attached renting an apartment from　most places. Key-Money is usually an extra month`s rent paid up front on top of the first and last months rent, and this is not refunded it is a present for the landlord. There is also a security deposit which is about 2 months of rent worth, and a cleaning fee of about 10,000 Yen (100 dollars). The security deposit is refunded, the cleaning fee is not. There is also a commission paid to the realtor (you dont rent places here by shopping for houses with for-rent signs. Rentals are only advertised at this large rental agency offices).
Anyways, there is this paper about the whole headache of the process someone already wrote in their blog, but I can`t find it right now, but basically, your $800/Month apartment will cost like $6000 upfront or something ridiculous like this, regardless of if you are a foreigner or not.
So how do people do it? Well, most smaller places (what we would call a bachelor) don`t have some of these fees attached, while some student-housing companies and such have basically no extra fees at all. So, Miho was going to be my co-signer and get this all set-up, but because she is a contract worker, even though she works full time, they could not accept her as a co-signer, and in-fact if she were to rent an apartment herself she would require her mother to co-sign even though she is Japanese.
So yea, it was kind of annoying and as of right now I am not %100 sure where I will live yet but we will figure something out.
In the mean time, Mr. and Mrs. Taguchi have invited me to stay at their place for 2 weeks in Tokyo. They are so generous and kind people. Today Mrs. Taguchi and her friend and I will go out shopping in Shibuya, not that I have a lot of money to spend, but it should be fun anyways I think.
またかくよ・・

Like Bambino...

Well, it has come time for me to leave my little nest in Fukuoka and go to Tokyo..
If you have seen the Japanese TV Drama Bambino (hint hint, Shaye), then this might sound familiar. Truth be told I have not seen much of that show yet (just started watching it).. Anyways, this post is mostly unrelated to that.

Today was my last day at Genki Japanese And Culture School (aka GenkiJACS) in Fukuoka, at least for now. Apparently I've put in 284 hours of study there according to my certificate of completion. But it is hardly a time for me to brag, I really owe so much to everyone that made my experience there so great! They topped it off with a huge farewell party at a local Izakaya (Japanese Pub), and it was fun like our parties always are!

ABOVE: Just a sign from Hakata station. On the way home from today's farewell party I became very nostalgic.

The past three months have really flown by too quickly, and while I am excited to be going back to the Tokyo area, I could not help but shed a couple tears on the way home, walking down the same streets and corridors that I have walked every day for the past 3 months on the way too and from school. I have REALLY come to fall in love with this city of Fukuoka! I really feel that GenkiJACS is more than a language school but also a family. I will write a formal review of the school sometime soon (not right now because it would admittedly be too bias as I'm missing it already having just said goodbye to everyone an hour ago or so).

Anyways, for now I just wanted to say I really had an amazing experience, I've picked up some great study habits and improved my language skills noticeably. I will miss everyone at GenkiJACS very much, and I definitely am planning to return.

So, like Bambino, I will be leaving Fukuoka tommorow to go to the big city of Tokyo, the adventure will continue, but I will never forget this city. It kind of feels like my Japanese hometown of sorts.

I tried to get a snapshot of my friend Peter and his girlfriend, but Chihomi sensei somehow snuck in to the picture aswell, haha.

Well, Miho came to Fukuoka over the long weekend this past weekend and we had a really great time. I have never felt like a tourist in Fukuoka until this past weekend. I am not sure why there was a long weekend but perhaps it was kind of related to valentines. In Japan on valentines girls give chocolate to guys.This might sound one sided until you find out that later on March 14th - known as white day - guys are expected to give a much more expensive gift to the girls that gave them chocolate..
Anyways, I got lots of chocolate from Miho, so I am saving my Yen to buy her something nice hopefully around March 14th.

It was really interesting having her visit - she has never been to Kyuushuu (the southern island of Japan that Fukuoka is on) before and to spite being non-Japanese I was the one who was the guide around town, having lived in this city for the past 3 months I've gotten farmiliar with most of it, but we still managed to find new adventurous places to explore.

We spent a lot of time at the mall around Canal city where we played some type of metal-coin gambling machine which was dangerously addictive. The hightlight of that game was when we won the Jackpot and thus with only having spent 500 yen were able to keep playing for about 2 hours before our coins ran out.


Miho finally got to try Tonkotsu Ramen - the famous Ramen of the Hakata area, and she loved it I think (Miho loves Ramen in general). We also went to Karaoke with Hiroki (one of my friends from the dorm I live at) and had a blast belting out songs. Again we ate Yakiniku (pictured here) which is becoming one of my favorites though its a little on the expensive side.

One of the other cool places we went was Fukuoka Tower, which is built right next to the beach and thus was extremely windy and it was a little unnerving seeing the top of the tower shake, but in a city that gets plummeted by typhoons every year I think the tower is built to withstand much stronger wind.

Next to Fukuoka Tower is a TV station building, and inside there is a Robotics Center called RoboSquare which has a TON of amazing robots and gadgets - a geek's paradise! There is even a workshop where you can build some robots and write computer programs for them if you've got some coding talents (although I love to write apps in C and VB I didn't give it a go) There is also a demonstration/tour put on every few hours and some competitions held there sometimes where students from local universities showcase their latest research by competing automated bots against each other in rounds of soccer. There were even a bunch of robots for sale including the automatic vacuum bot that I so want to buy. Here are some pics we took:









Also check out this video we took of one of the robots there. This one basically can move around the house and play music, and you can call it to your room when you want music or it can act as an alarm that runs away or it can dance to the music. In this video its stuck on a platform so it basically just "dances" but it was cool none-the-less.


Anyways, I had a really really great time this weekend with Miho! I will be heading up to Tokyo in 2 weeks, so in my final stretch at GenkiJACS I am trying to hit the books and study hard! Mata ne!

First Signs of Spring?

I am in great spirits lately, and enjoying the mild weather especially. I really look forward to spring coming into full bloom here!

I was surprised when I looked out of the window of my dorm today and saw that the plum tree across the street from the dorm had begun to spring some buds. Meanwhile, my hometown in Canada is being plummeted by a snow storm as I type this.

This weekend in Japan everyone will be celebrating Setsubun, which literally means the change of seasons but in this case specifically is a celebration of the comming of spring or something like this.



A few ceremonies are performed, the most famous of which is Mamemaki, which means "Bean Scattering", and basically... well, I will take an excerpt from Wikipedia because I don't feel like explaining this:

Pan-heated soybeans (called irimame) are thrown either out the door or at a member of the family wearing an Oni (demon or ogre) mask, while the throwers chant "Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!" (鬼は外! 福は内!). The literal meaning of the words is something like "Demons out! Luck in!" The beans are thought to symbolically purify the home by driving away the evil spirits that bring misfortune and bad health with them. Then, as part of bringing luck in, it is customary to eat soybeans, one for each year of one's life, and in some areas, one for each year of one's life, plus one more for bringing good luck for the year to come.

I think tommorow a bunch of the Japanese from the dorm, and myself will go to one of the temples/shrines to take part in the celebrations.