Tearful Goodbyes

When I first arrived, I was a little worried that I would be overwhelmed by the lumberingingly huge beast that is the City of Osaka. From the time you leave Kansai International Airport, which is good 50 minutes from central Osaka by train, the population density smacks you in the face. The view from the train basically looks like buildings, on top of buildings, with more buildings sticking out of the side. Somehow though, the crazy jumble of Osaka has a way of growing on one. I wouldn't even try to compare it to Sapporo. The two cities are just too different. Both have their good and bad ponts.

My class

My last day of Classes at Kanasai Gaigo Senmon Gakko (関西外語専門学校）was December 12, 2006. A bittersweet day to say the least. The bitter; well the obvious saying goodbye to everyone. Looking around and remembering how I felt on the first few days of classes, recalling friends that left before me, etc. The sweet; well we had cake.
I got a card from my class and teacher, which I read about 100 times. Like I said, bittersweet. But I still have to go back again to get my Japanese Proficiency Test results, so hopefully we'll all meet up again then.

皆さん、ありがとう。一緒に勉強するのはかなり楽しかった。また遊ぼう。

The crew

Having some cake

Temples

The day after the Japanese Proficiency Test, our class went on a field trip to Kiyomizudera in Kyoto. Even though it was the beginning of December, many of the trees still had leaves on them in beautiful fall colours. Naturally this makes for a some naturally natural scenery. The temple itself is actually quite interesting as it is divided in 2 or 3 interesting sections. The first of note is the large stage overlooking the forest, with a great view of Kyoto. Apparantly in olden days, plays and whatnot would be performed here.There's also a section devoted to praying for love and romance, featuring two stones about 20m apart. If you can walk with your eyes closed from one stone and touch the opposing stone, it is said that your wish of love will be granted. It's actually pretty difficult considering there are usually ten thousand people in your way. Before you ask, no, I didn't try it. The grounds around the temple are just as beautiful as inside, and of course, since it's in Kyoto, there are geisha. Not real geisha, but tourists dressed up like geisha. Still the kimono are pretty neat.The roads leading to and from the temple are also packed with souvenir and craft shops. If you're looking to pick up some macha (the bitterish japanese green tea that green tea ice cream is supposed to mimic) or other Kyoto souvenirs, this is probably the place to do it. Like most souvenirs in Japan though, they're not cheap, but where else can you pick up a Hello Kitty in a kimono decorative fan/plate/cell phone strap with the word "Kyoto" on it? In any case, here are the pictures.

Taking Tests

Well December has been a pretty busy month so far.. It started with frantic studying for the Japanese Proficiency Test. I wrote the level 2 test this year, which is generally regarding as being sufficient to demonstrate Japanese ability for business-level communication. The test has 3 different sections. One for kanji and vocabulary, one for listening comprehension, and one for reading comprehension and grammar. Reading comprehension is a huge pain. It's not that its excessivly difficult, but there never seems to be enough time to finish it. They also, for some reason like to put in the sentences like the Japanese equivalent of the following:
"If you don't not want to not remain here, then consider not ungoing and reconsider abandoning the abdondonment of the orginal proposition".
Bastards. Still I thnk I did ok, but I won't know until my results show up in February.

Awesome Teller Machines

After many many months of procrastinating, I finally decided to open a bank account. I figured that I'd need a bank account if I was going to do bank transfers to pay for things like plane tickets home and whatnot. (Lots of places don't take credit cards). I'd been to the bank once or twice before with friends, and to exchange money, and I've got to say that the Japanese banks have the Canadian ones licked when it comes to service (not that that would come as a surprise). First of all, there are no lines.. just take a number and sit on the comfy sofa while you wait to be served. It's a small thing, but a nice one. But the thing that blew my mind was the supreme awesomeness of the ATM machines. As I said, I needed to make a bank transfer; the problem was that I didn't yet have my ATM card since they have to mail it to your house. Well oddly enough the security guard of all people showed me how to do the transfer from the machine in cash with no ATM card. I didn't even need an account; just put the money in the machine (it accepts stacks of bills and handfuls of coins), the machine counts the money, sends it, and gives you back the change. No standing in line (or in this case waiting for your number), no waiting for the bank managers approval, no fuss, no muss; just instant transfer satisfaction. Brilliant.

The big Buddha

Well after another long hiatus I'm back with another tale to tell. This one stars a big wooden holy man and a lot of deer. This was an especially interesting trip because it was a school field trip, so I got a day of class to frolic with my classmates in the fields and forests of Nara. Nara was once the capital of Japan, a long long time ago.. before Tokyo (Edo) and before Kyoto. Nara is the place to see the sites.. temples.. Buddhas.. deer. The place is crawling with deer (or galloping or prancing or whatever it is that deer do) and they've gotten quite used to people so they pretty much act like pigeons; swarming anyone with food and generally getting in the way. That being said, they're much cooler than pigeons, so of course I had to take some pics of them.. Besides deer, Nara is home to a monstrously huge wooden statue of the Buddha inside a monstrously huge temple. I'd estimate the size of the statue at about 30 to 40 feet high. It's big and definitely worth a visit if you're in the neighbourhood. Here are the pics.

Midosuji Parade

Well looks like I fell off the map there for a few weeks.. It's been pretty busy with tests and school and various distractions... at any rate, I managed to make it out to Osaka's Midosuji Parade today. It's kind of an international flavoured parade, with some, but not all off the groups and floats dedicated to other countries, including Mexico, the Philippines and Indonesia (those are the only ones I saw). One thing that was interesting though was that the Japanese groups (especially the school groups) consisted primary of marching bands, although there was one spectacular group of unicyclers doing all kinds of funky tricks like the one in the picture. One girl was uni-cycling backwards and other groups were forming circles and stuff. Of course I have no pictures of this, since all of those pics would have been subject to the ever-present influence of "back of old man's head" obstructing the view. Still I managed to snap a few shots that are here.

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