Probably some of you have noticed that yesterday there was no new post on the blog. It would be nice if I could say a good excuse why... but I have no. We just went for a beer in the night with the guys in the dorm aaaand... well after returning it was better not to go online. :D
So.. Yesterday I was pretty tired still after Mt. Fuji. We didn't need to do anything cos the guy disappeared who we needed to work with. Anyway it was Monday, so every parks and museums were closed. And I was so tired and sleepy that I just slept on my desk at the school. But... We've found a nice place where having a beer with some friends is very very good priced. So after school we went there to have a talk, watch the olimpic games with some guys. Aaaand there were some funny stories. We went with the irish guy, the german and the italian and it was just hilarious. While we were searching for the place a lilbit older, well dressed black guy came to us if he can help what are we searching for. He could help and afterwards the italian guy started to shout: that's what I love in Tokyo. You don't know something and suddenly a friendly Japanese NIGGA come and help you out..." It was way too loud. Anyway we've had fun. the place was empty we were singing Backstreet boys but most of the times they played hip-hop and RnB. Like this:
Ok, not. The place was totally empty. But still it was cool. Heading home was funny the Italian guy threw out next to a hippy musician on the street (who we set next to) and than he started to shout and run away, so I have no idea how he could end up in the dorm.
Today waking up was really really hard but I was at the uni from 10 am till 7 pm. Yeay! But I've had 3-4 hours free time so I went to the Zoo to check it out. And it was amazing! Like... I really like it. First of all I love animals. And finally I could see with my own eye giant pandas, polar bear and things like this. I really loved it. If I1ll have some time in the end I'll go once more cos I really needed to hurry. And I've seen the cutest and most adorable animal of the planet: The red panda. It's incredible. The only problem was that it was really really hot. But whatever. I just feel shame for the animals in the zoo. I'm pretty sure that they are suffering there... like for a polar bear this 100% humidity with the 33 degrees can be nothing but the hell.
Rest of the day was just working. My mp3 player broke. Aaand I've copied a lot of pics to my computer. I haven't put pics in the past couple of days online... maybe it will change. But to sort the pics will take a lot of hours and right now I'm too tired for that. Anyway all day long this song was in my head:
And the one which appears at the end of the post. Now life is a lilbit more silent and calm here which is not that bad. If I'll have time I'll try to do more sightseeing tomorrow. Later we will have a kind of welcome party... I guess we will get fish. I'm so bored of fish... amazing. Every single day we get fish. Before Japan I didn't even eat it... now it's a must. And I've heard a rumor that I'll get a day off from work on Friday. We'll see. Gosh, the lyrics are way too perfect...
So.. trip to mount Fuji! Yeeeey! Well, it sound amazing. And I can make it sound even better: Hiking to one of the most beautiful peaks of the world, with good company... on the top checking out as the sun rises from below where you are. It comes out majestically from beneath the sea of clouds... Afterwards visiting a shrine... Sounds lovely isn't it?
Well everything is true, but the reality is pretty disappointing. Unfortunately this trip was... well, not a mistake but it was nearly not half as good as it sounds. Mount Fuji is high. Like super high. More then 3700 meters and it's volcanic so on the top you find nothing but stones and rocks. We arrived to 2300 meter, around 7-8 pm... where we needed to wait for the organizers who brought us the headlights and the gloves. We decided to climb in the night to check out the sunrise from the top. The beginning was great. Forest, friends, wide roads, nice weather... but soon the forest ended and you needed to climb 1300 meters high over a stony wasteland. Stones... nothing but stones. The route was totally artificial... just a zigzag with some rest houses, in where, for a huge amount of money you could have some relaxing time.
But the biggest problem was... the crowd. I like to say this sentence: I love Tokyo but I don't like Japan. Crowd is something really Japanese thing. No matter where you go there is crowd. I remember my mom said for Malgrad De Mar (Spain) that it's a touristic factory. NO!!!! Mt. Fuji 2012.07.28 midnight: That is the tourist factory!!!! I mean... it was amazing. Mt. Fuji is a symbol. Symbol of Japan. Everybody wants to hike there, and the sport companies make you believe: that no matter who you are, with proper shoes and equipment you can hike and "reconquer Japan". NO! This hill is 3700 m high and the road is very rough! It is NOT for everyone. Only for people, who are strong or have stamina or experience for these kind of things. There were shitload of people on the very very narrow path. But seriously, a really really huge amount. Like in a music festival or on the Csiksomlyói Búcsú. Nearly everyone in Japan wants to climb Mt. Fuji. Which is nonsense. A 60-70 years old grandma or a 6 years old boy cannot do it. Sorry I'm lying... yes they can. In a lot of hours with a lot of suffering. We climbed to the top in 5-6 hours. And most of this time was nothing but queuing. Seriously. It was not like you are climbing a mountain comfortably in your tempo. You were one person in a really big amount of people who were trying to climb one by one and everyone a grandma, a child or anyone had problems you needed to stop and wait for 5-10-15 minutes. Seriously I stopped to wait people in front of me during this trip, more often then I did actual hiking. It was amazing.
Hungarian people, do you remember West Balkán? Here it is not existing. Always more people can fit in everywhere and they really don't care how crowded something is. No, the hiking was really not fun because it was supercrowded. PR and advertising is incredible here and unfortunately they really can make believe people who CANNOT climb mountains, that yes they can, if they pay money. There were big amount of 30 people rookie tourist groups, with leaders and everything who were suffering up... and now let's stop for a second.
Our group was lovely. BUT. Some really cool and friendly and awesome people came with us, who I really really like as a person... but because they came from countries where they had no opportunity for hiking or they are super not sporty they had many many problems with climbing. Guys, girls? Why did you come? I mean: really? There were people on the route who needed oxygen at around 2800 meters!!! Every year many people die trying to climb the mount Fuji. We've had friends who could climb up 3-4 hours more than me or my friends did (And we were sleeping 1 hours at 3400 meters, next to a toilet cos we didn't want to reach the top so early and froze to death on the top while we are waiting for the sunrise). Was it fun for them? I don't think so. Was it fun for the people who could climb slower because of them? No I don't think so.
And here comes the question. Am I mean, because I am angry on the 60-70 years old Grandmas who just tries to "capture" her own country? She is suffering on Fuji! Hiking and climbing is not fun for her! And the problem that she disturbes 100 other hikers and takes over their fun also by "not being able to hike proper". I mean... Hiking and mountain climbing is for fun. You mustn't do it just to capture hills and show up how high you could go. It has to be about having fun while you are doing sports. But Japanese people totally not get it. For them I think it's kind of "Mekka..." A challenge what they must take or I don't know. but I'm sure that the nature and the hiking and the climbing... is not about the fun. And it leads again forward... I'm seriously not sure if they know what fun is or know how to have fun.
But whatever. Yeah, I queued up to Fuji, on the top it was really really cold and windy I was freezing like hell despite all my warm clothes so I checked out the sunrise took some pictures and we went down. The view was really not spectacular cos you didn't see anything. All around there were only clouds. The sunrise was nice but... you were freezing so despite it was beautiful you couldn't really enjoy it. No It not true. I am glad and happy I could be there it was fantastic and the view was till amazing. But still... But again the road down was the most boring hiking route ever... A zigzag downwards across a red stone desert. Mt. Fuji is beautiful when you look at the pic on my blog's background but... it's a lie. I've been here for a whole month and I haven't seen Mt. Fuji yet. It's always cloudy and foggy here, so you cannot see far away. You cannot see the hill. And when you are up on it you just realize that because of it's height and it's volcanic stuff the top is just a boring desert. Where the forest starts... there are the parking spots and the busses. And we didn't have time to hike in the forests.
And one more super annoying thing. This whole place is a national park and part of the UNESCO World's heritage. BC the weather is very changeable I took a lot of stuff. clothes, food, drinks... many things. On the whole trip there was NOT A SINGLE TRASH-BIN! Not on on the top not on the bus park not on the bottom not at the houses... nowhere. No trash-bins. It is a big problem also in Tokyo... you cannot find a single trash-bin nowhere but this is ridiculous. We went to the hotel workers and the leaders of this touristic areas just to ask where can we found a trash-bin and they told us that there are no trash-bins here. NO! NOT A SINGLE ONE! In 24 hours more than 2000 people appeared at Mt. Fuji and there was not a single trash-bin for them.
So again... Japan is a strange world. Extreme mountain climbing tourism... trash problems... and diverse feelings. Ok, it was really great and nice to climb to the top of Mt. Fuji but I don't really recommend it to anyone. If one day there will be kind of birth control here or not everything will be supercrowded or ban out pensioners, small children, pregnant women and stuff from extreme hiking routes, probably it will be a better experience. But Japanese people don't mind the crowd and to wait and stand in line... so here we are again. Japan is really closed and it is really really not opened for tourists or outsiders. If you want to enjoy Japan: be a Japanese!
Yesterday we partied it was super ok. We could make it for a really acceptable price. At the place 80% were boys but still we had fun and we were pretty cheerful. But today's work... was not really effective for many of us. :D One guy lost his glasses and wallet, he slept on a toilet at a metro station, an other one slept 3 hours on a train... so things here just happen. :D
Anyway after couple of hours sleep I went to work. It was ok. We did some experiments and afterwards I've had a lunch. It was a totally different campus but it was the best cafeteria ever! They had grilled chicken, french fries (I missed it SOOOO much!!!) and European food. It was cool to eat it after 24/7 Japanese food. :) Later I came back to the dorm. And went to say bye to Nick, a Serbian guy. He is really really cool we will miss him. Yesterday he was crazy he always made a lot of space in the superovercrowded club... so all the Japanese were angry on him. And he enjoyed it. :) So we said bye and now I'll go to sleep.
Tomorrow mount Fuji trip. I got shoes (they are small like hell), and I'll still have to buy some stuff and make sandwiches! Yeeeay! But hopefully I won't die there and it's gonna be great. We'll see.
Sooooooo tonight we're gonna make some big meeting and hanging out and partiing. Cos tomorrow I'll have to go to work to 1 pm! Yeeeeeey!
Btw please forget all the bullshit of yesterday what I've been speaking about Japanese people. They are really friendly and nice They also lend me some shoes for the hiking of the weekend. Yeey. anyway I'm the dumbass cos I didn't bring shoes from Hungary. So today there was again at 8:00 a lab meeting... waking up-early being tired... But I don't know. I slept afterwards 30 mins and that was enough now I'm not that bad or sleepy. Whatever. We made some experiments and measurements it was nice. With my lab colleagues we played some table tennis in the afternoon. It was really nice. I got pretty sweaty but we had fun. I thought they'll be better but still it was enjoyable game they really liked that I played a lilbit better than them. They play totally different than us. Always try to hit curves and spinning balls. We had fun!
Aaand soon we are heading out for partiing. We didn't invite some guys... who we really don't like. I mean there are some serious douches not much but with some people just noone can get along. But the rest of us will have hopefully a great night all the cool guys from the dorm will go. BTW It seems that the company is pretty awesome here with the Irish guy, German guy we are pretty cool friends and also the African guy, the Italian guy, the Belgian guy are pretty cool. So we have fun. BTW yesterday we took a bath. Here it's like sauna. Japanese people love it. It a big pool of incredible hot water where people go to sit in... and do nothing. It's nice and fun to relax, chill out and speak with your friends about stupid things. Of course everyone is fully naked but still it's nice.
Yesterday there was no post. It has one very simple reason: The internet went out in the dorm. But now it's back...
So here we are. Past days were usually about the work. Yesterday needed to do quite much stuff we were in a campus far away and polished all day long Aluminium for some experiments. The food was expensive and bad... BTW it's ridiculous. I mean in Hungary you go to the canteen and... there are a lot of food. Like... you can choose Italian, Hungarian, German, or anything. Here you only have Japanese food. Nothing else. Amazing... And the variety is really not big. That's life. Rice and fish. Later we went to a Honda exhibition... my college and the African guy told it's gonna be fun... it wasn't. Like... ok in a way it was. Nice cars, new technologies, nice motorbikes some robots but nothing special. It's pretty difficult to find an open exhibition or museum after 5 here. :( Anyway I did some sightseeing and walking alone and grabbed some beer with friends. And it was nice and interesting. I mean. Here are lot of cool people from all over the world. And also some jackasses hehe. Anyway I spoke with a Serbian guy who went to study to the US at one of the best unis of the world... financing everything from scholarship and having a great life. Like... he needed to finish in really really great positions in study competitions so he must be supertalented... but not a g33k. A normal guy, works out, has a girlfriend, fun to talk with him and like incredible smart. And could make a nice life... he was brave had the courage and ended up in Frisco. Maaan. It would be great to go there. States. Well we will see.
Anyway today again it was again a more or less uni day. We needed to stay there and every hour put some nitrogen into a machine... but it was not a big work I said to my polish collegine to go for sightseing I'll handle that. I needed to sleep, write some music stuff and do some jobsearch. Hellyeah. Afterwards we went to some sushi party... it was a farewell to someone... but I didn't figure out for who. Anyway... sushi is not that fun so... I just eat a very very small piece. And came home for a proper dinner. On the weekend we will hike to Mt Fuji and we will climb to the top. I need to get shoes for that. I have some troubles... But I'll try to get. I mean... it's a must to do it. We will see. But I thought I can just borrow some training shoes from someone from the laboratory... But man. Japanese people...
EDITED
Whatever. Here is a nice one because my friend Göcsei Gábor is scumbag.
I mean literally. But before... I've heard some comments about the grammar errors of the blog. Sorry for that. It's not because I'm drunk or high... it's bc I have very limited time, I'm in a rush and I don't have time to recheck my stuff proper. and usually I make a lot of typing mistakes. And also BC I'm lame.
So. Today was the first nothing to do day. Perfect for job search! But I couldn't concentrate on that we were waiting for the professors and discussing the weekend... how drunk were the people and the crazy stuffs what happened. so here are some of them:
Sat night some guys stayed at around the karaoke stuff and they were drinking a lot. They've met some Australians and went with them back for two hours to karaoke and drink and party. So one of the guys totally lost his camera (later they've found it... it's Tokyo not Budapest), his jacket and everything.. but he has no memories of the night. He woke up at 11 am... on a train. Which was going all around Tokyo... he was sleeping on it for 6 hours. An other guy so drunk that only the security could get him on the train... some other fell asleep at the station while standing and he woke up cos he felt in front of his face to the ground... some other climbed illegally a skyscraper by a fireladder and watched on the top the sunrise... So it was nice. And on Sunday a guy and a girl had a date... which was really a secret thing but it was really funny cos afterwards we've met the guy and he was like: wooow it was so great. And the girl we asked today and she said: Fuuu the guy is such an asshole. :D (BTW we also don't really like him.) So there were plenty of things to talk about but I feel guilty I didn't use my time well. Anyway after lunch I went to sightseeing.. which was a bad idea cos it's Monday and everything was closed. The only open museum was a Kite museum... which is as lame as it sounds. No it is a lilbit even more lame. Anyway.. I've checked out a really old and famous bridge and I've gone to the 45th floor of a government building to 202m height... so check out the sunset in Tokyo. It was amazing, trust me! And this is it. I love this city. It is hilarious. You look around and it is a fuckin' metropolis. Skyscrapers and city and lights and neon and people everywhere as far as you can see. It is so living such an amazing sight you cannot really describe it. This city is really really special and wonderful. But the Japanese lifestyle, and people and culture and especially the way of living is really way too freaky and sad for me. Her religion or family is just a tradition. Work is everything. You start to work and have no holiday and have to go to work also on Saturdays and Sundays and it's like... pfff. But you know that's why you are here. the see different things. And it's amazing. Later we did not too much just a quick dinner and watched some videos with the guys here. Freaky Japanese videos like this:
Horrible people horrible. Anyway here is something nicer:
We went with my lab colleges to a small village at the seaside. It was exactly like this:
Ok... not. It was totally different. First we went to a bearing factory (csapágy magyarul).. which was totally pointless for me. We've listened to presentation in Japanese and I've visited the factory where they produce bearings... which I have really nothing to do cos I'm an electrical engineer. But my ploish college who is a mechanical engineer was really crazy and enthusiastic. Anyway... at least the food was nice and everyone was friendly and there were some interesting robots and techniques so.,.. it was ok.
I'd like to write a lot... I have a lot of memories and thoughts... but I have no time. Sorry. Really. This is like Finland... but twice as intensive. Like really have no time for myself, to wash, to eat proper, to be alone, to listen to music or write the blog. We left friday morning and till sat night I was on this trip. Sat immedietly I've met some friends at the city center than celebrated the birthday of a Japanese girl... I arrived back totally dead around one am slept 10 hours and today was allday sightseing with friends and afterwards dinner together and chat together til 0:30. I love it. It is nice to be all the time with people but it's really tireing and exhausting. For 2 months it's great but afterwards I'll really enjoy to be alone for some days.
So quickly. I shared a room with 3 Japenese guys one was my professor. It was Japanese styleromm... so no beds sleep on the floor sit on the floor and stuff. Here the teachers are really friendly with the students and while it was really really rainy we were just sittiing inside or go to the beach, I visited a museum and we were all together drinking. I've learned how to play mahyong, in the night we've done some fireworks, and I needed to play a trad game where my eyes were blinded and I needed to follow instructions and try to beat a melon with an iron stick. :D Crazy. Afterwards everybody got drunk and we've played jenga and games. the food was nice. Next day I've take a swim in the ocean (20degrees the air 15 the water) it was really great to swim and move again... after some football on the beach (I sucked really bad) and things like this. It was really cool. And we've had a sealunch... which was horrible. I know I1m in Japan I need to adapt the culture... but NO!!!! Horrible! People are you stupid? In hungary for this shit people would pay lot of thousands of forints!!! The most dead thing on my table was the sushi!!!! I needed to eat raw fish... while it was staring at me with it's dead head and eyes. I needed to eat shrimp... by cutting it's head off and eat it. It looked totally alive. Not baked or anything. Like cut down the head of a pig and eat it raw! Horrible! And disguisting I couldn't do that. Start to cut off the head and some liquid come out and bubbles go inside the animal and you want to eat it... bahh! And also seasnail which you need to get out buy a totthpick... ahh. I know it's luxury and elegant and delicious... but sorry the food is baked or roasted or cooked and it's not whatching you while you are eating it!
But the trip was really great. 2 chinese, 1 hun, 1 polish and 15 Japanese... so the languieage was a bit problem. But everyone was really helpful and freindly. It was crazy that a chinese girl looks like 14 but she is already 27... but it's pretty usual for Asian people. They look really really young. No idea why. especially in Japan. Few food few sllep lot of work... and everyone lives long. And they drink lot of cofe and energy drink.
anyway yesterday was party and stuff. we've went to a karaoke place... which was not really good cos it's really expensive (13 euors per hour) and it's a small box for just you and your friends. But you can drink as much as you can. But I was really tired and my stomach was not good after the raw octopus and stuff so I went home around midnight and slept 10 hours. Some guys stayed and they'e had a crazy night I'll tell stories personally if some of you are interested... :D Amazing.
And today: Skytree. Worlds second tallest building. It was foggy we went only 350 meters but it was nice and a great feeling. Afterwards checked out some temples and shrines... amazing and beautiful and we've eaten some traditional Japanes food in a restaurant where every table had a hot spot in the middle where you neededto bbw you own food. :D It was hilarious. But good. and at night I've found a suopemarket (I thousght his things here doesn't exist) and gcould finally buy bread and butter and ham!!!! And I've eaten finally a nice and good dinner! But it is really expensive here. So propable I'll have to eat microwave shit as usual that's the cheapest. Sorry I have not too much time for more details. But I have so many impressions and feeling and thoughts. And in some days I1ll upload shitload of pics. And today I've seen a moomin café! Hooray!!!
Anyway I'm incredible lucky and blessed and fortunate that I could participate in such awesome and miraculous things in this weekend I did. Like swiming in pac ocean and doing there crazy things with Jap university students. :D And being in the world's tallest building... kill your shrimp and bake in the middle of your table your own food... :D People it is amazing! It is a miracle a blessing it's undicripable. I am very very very thankful that all these crazy things happening to me. It is really something special and a great treasure! AMAZING!!!
I mean: "Shit just got real." Ok. First one and a half weeks passed. It was a nice time we started to get to know each other. Cool. But I think the point slowly came when we already found each other... clicks are starting to form... friendships/enemyships. You know the other people you know who you wan to hang out with you know how you want/can do it... So things from now on will start to get interesting.
I mean we are a communitee. At least here. IAESTE trainees from all over the globe. Sweet. But it's like... nearly all of the boys are living in the same (male) dorm.. and the girls are separated. They are living in female dorms and also they are separated from each other.. Like girls are living in different dorms. About the guys. Nearly everyone is cool. Ok, there are the Chinese guys with who you cannot really do anything cos... it's just like a click. But they are like cool with each other we cannot really interact with them. There is a really freaky guy who... who I guess believes that he has invented the Spanish wax... He is way too much and he is a mayor asshole. Noone likes him but a Croatian guy... but slowly his illusion will also fade away. So there is a really freaky African guy (but he is cool), an Irish guy, a German Guy (he can be kinda bro, he is really cool), an Italian guy, and me.Actually it's a nice combination. And today there was a big meeting for the exchanges. Like.. the university organized us a party. A pretty small one... but it was a party. With some trad food and a very little beer... and the opportunity to get to know newpeople. So we've met this Austrian IT guy... who was finally the guy who could tell us all the infos we needed. Like: Cheap bars, chaep clubs, nice places, way to get to know Japanese girls and stuff... I mean sightseeing and being a tourist a thing. Working here is an other. Both of them are really really important. But in a way... You know it's Japan. Here are guys who lives thousands of km-s away. Why the bloody hell should anyone come to Japan? If you have a nice and stable girlfriend and a cool job why do you come so far? Trust me this place is really not full of the people who are this manga crazy Japan freaks... They are usually so stupid that they can never ever visit their beloved country. Here I see desperate guys who has now idea what to do and they want to have some fun and crazy experiences. And while friendships are forging I really hope that the next weeks will bring this to most of us.
And about the girls: Yeah... there are some. Many Polish, no mediterranian, some Japanese, and so on... It's gonna be interesting cos everything is pretty colorful... Like there are these "woodenvaginas", "queens of traineeships", "Hot chick wannabe"-s... So there will be a lot of nice stories. I've already heared a couple of really crazy stories from the African guy. And of course there are some districts and bars where usually foreigners and Japanese people try to get together... so the best is yet to come. At least I hope so. Anyway I'll tell the stories later Now I've gottago. BTW the party was the lamest party ever. Like... I1m a 24 years old Electrical engineer with a Master degree... and as a welcome event the university dressed up the kitchen in Disney style and the professors were doing speeches in top of a podium with Disney princesses... there were Japanese old ladies singing Disney songs while 10 years old Japanese children dressed up like Disney characters were dancing and holding Winne The Pooh pictures... I mean... seriously man WTF? It's cute and nice... you can play this chair conqueor game but... really? This is a program in one of the world's best university for 14 years old engineers? I'll post a youtube video online about it... it's just ridiculous. Ok it's nice they put a lot of effort but maaan. Japanese people have no idea how to live.
So tomorrow two day trip with my lab colleges... 4 girls 15 boys... everyone is Japanese... only food is fish. It's gonna be... an experience. :D
Do you remember that yesterday I was complaining about the hot weather? Well... today it was even worse. amazing. 37-38 degrees with 100% humidity. Local people are going to work in ties and shirts and suits... I am dying in shorts and T-shirts. I understand why they are workaholics... they have air conditioning at the workplace!
So... we've went to work to 11... when they told us to wait till 13... which was a pity. Cos if they'd tell this before we could do some sightseeing. Maybe tomorrow... :S But our schedule is pretty chaotic so it is really not easy to fit in some cultural program. Anyway I was seeking for jobs and we've done experiments till 6 pm. We've had 1 hour break when we've checked out the pond of the campus...
It is amazing. The university is spercool supernice, superpretty and modern... and it still has a bond with a lot of fishes. The problem is that they have a lot of mosquitos or really really small insects... which like me. A lot. I've spent there only 15minutes but afterwards my body was full of really big white bites and spots... at least with 20. I guess I have some kind of allergic reaction. I looked horrible. But in 2 hours everything disappeared. But meanwhile I needed to scratch myself a lot.
After today's measurements we've had a dinner and meeting in a park. The Irish guy, the German Guy, me, a polish girl, a Japanese girl and a Danish girl. “Rød grød med fløde” Right? Anyway it was really nice, to speak about some familiar topics and I've been discussing a lot about Japanese relationships with the Japanese girl. It is totally weird. Here if you ask a girl out for a date you have to do it at least 6 times and afterwards ask her if she wants to be your girlfriend. No kisses or anything before. If she says yes, you can get together... but you already have to start to think about marriage. Wow! But most of the people doesn't have a relationship.. cos it's too complicated and it's not really suitable with the work. :D Tomorrow I'll have to do a life presentation at 8:00 so let's go to sleep! I wanted to write more about Japanese food but I'll do it later.
Btw couple of days ago we've had an earthquake. I was sleeping like a baby so I just woke up sensing something is wrong... I've realized it was an earthquake.. and felt asleep again. It was strong, more then 5... but anyway I was very sleepy.
After the marathon lab We've met a french girl and we've visited a park together with a quick visit of my polish college also. It was nice and fun we've taken a beer and laughing a lot. I was really surprised that the park was open at night... here it is pretty unusual.
Anyway the daytime was horrible. The weather is really unbearable. It's really really:
So today it was a national holiday. Hoooraaaay! We didn't need to do anything. That's pretty cool considering that yesterday I haven't done anything... just enjoying solitude (such a nice lie) and relaxing. So today with An Irish guy and a German one we went to do sightseeing. I could finally buy a monthly ticket. So we checked out the real city center, the surroundings of the emperor place, gardens, and a lot of nice things. There was an art gallery with pretty old Japanese pics and it was a nice but exhausting day.
Unfortunately we couldn't go to the most important garden of the palace cos it was closed, we arrived too late. But I have eaten some rice... tried out a Japanese Italian restaurant and things like this happened. Anyway... It was really hot... and I'd be happier if we could check out more things... but time is running and you have to be smart with sightseeing. Later in the city we've met some friends and while everyone was tired we came back around ten. I still needed to do university stuff. And from tomorrow work continues. Hooray!
Yesterday there was no post. It has a very simple reason I was out all day-all night. So. We went to Kamakura. Of course I was sleeping till very very superlast second so I couldn't make too many preparations but it was cool. So one and a half hour of travelling, using the train and stuff but it totally worth it. Cos Kamakura was awesome. IT is part of the world heritage and there are a huge amount of churches, shrines there and really really beautiful landscapes. And of course the pacific ocean. It was really refreshing and nice to be out of the city... and really... these statues and monuments are just simply great. I can say that I'm really lucky that I could see so wonderous things. It was a really, really beautiful experience with the giant Buddha statue and everything. I've uploaded some pics on fb. We were in separate groups but it was really a nice experience cos we could meet finally more trainees. We are not living in the same dorm... just with some guys so it is always nice to meet new people ore more people. BC we were in different groups we also mixed and could talk to many new people. There were also Japanese organizers... in numbers much more than the trainees... But it was really really difficult to speak with them. Cos they do not really speak English. But they were friendly of course. And there were some really really cute girls among them. Anyway... Pics on FB. I've met a Hungarian girlchoir during the day... it was weird to hear Hungarian. A little I miss my language.
Afterwards we went to a drinking party. This is the most convenient way to have fun in Tokyo. People are making drinking parties. It's two hours of staying at a fancy place... and you can drink as much as you want. Ok. For them it's a little bit of strange or different.,.. cos they drink 2 beers and they are drunk. So they don't need to and they are really polite and stuff... But we with some guys were doing it for real and we tried to make the most out of these hours. We were playing games, havin' talks it was fun. One girl got completely wasted and the waiters were really angry with the Japanese organizers... but with us they were supernice.
Later it was pretty difficult but we could find each other in the city with a German guy, a Belgian guy, and two Japanese girls and we went for clubbing. First clubbin Tokyo juhúú! But it was not THAT good. It was really expensive it was supercrowded and... I got offended cos some black security guys were not really polite with the German guy. Her you can dance on the stage...or podium only if you are a girl. It was good and nice but not something special or really spectacular. But a little we had fun. But I think I was a lilbit rude at some point.
So today just sleeping and relaxing. I needed some time alone. Tomorrow national holiday so it will be sightseeing. Here are some pics:
Yesterday night there was this drinking stuff in my room and the African guy told me.... ok to everyone, that we MUST check out a huge exhibition today. Tokyo science frontier... it is cheap if you pre register it is not so far away from the uni and it's a lot of interesting engineering stuff. BAH!!! So morning after the nice toast called breakfast I went to uni, we did some measurements and... we had 4 hours free time. So... let's check out this science stuff! It was the worst idea ever. It was really, really far away... we traveled there and back at least 3 hours+ registration +printing and stuff... we had only 20 minutes to look around. For the transportation I've paid around 5000 forints and... ok, it was in a nice building it was at a nice area... the exhibition hall is amazing and stuff. But...
First of all. It was an exhibition whee nearly all the companies who are involved in any kind of electronics where there to exhibit their new goods. It is perfect for them... they can check out the new stuffs, buy some machines, blablabla... kind of unofficially as a student we could go in for free to check out the newest technologies. But more than 3 hours of travelling, a lot of money... totally didn't worth it. I mean during this small time I checked out of course the products of the RF engineering measurement companies... Anritsu, Agilent, Rhode & Schwarz, etc. And it was nice... their products were amazing. But just some new functions, better preciosity, nicer displays, more interesting modules... amazing things but nothing really extraordinary. And this I think didn't worth that much travelling and money and stuff. Especially while at most of the stands the exhibitors and the engineers couldn't speak too much English (the hostesses couldn't speak english at all...) so... It didn't worth the time and money. Ok for the African guy probably everything is amazing what can kill a scorpion and more developed than a wooden box, but still... Ok, there were in limited hours and times some crazy robotic shows but we couldn't check that out... and everything there is still really prototype.
Afterwards we continued the labwork. I've realized that the only way to communicate with my labmates is to write. They cannot speak English. they can read and write but cannot speak. And not like... they have horrible accent. they cannot say words they do not understand our "non Japanese accent"... so we need to write down everything.
Later we've met with Yuki and some trainees to check out.. a festival. And it was amazing! Really. My first really amazing, truly Japanese experience! there is a really huge shrine and next to it there is a big park where there are memories of the 2nd world war's fallen soldiers. So there was a huge celebration for them and it was amazing. Incredible big crowd, people everywhere, amazing lights, stalls, shops, kiosks everywhere. You could buy crazy manga stuffs, crazy party stuffs... crazy Japanese jojos, fish, masks... lot of people dressed up in trad Japanese clothes and around a statue people were dancing trad Japanese dances. Further there was a trad Japanese drum show. It was really amazing. Like... these are things for which it is worthy to go an exchange program. To go to Japan to a really traditional Japanese festival. It is really undescribeable. The atmosphere, the people, the goods, the cultural heritage and the music, in the people... everyone had a lot of fun and you could get a piece of the country what not too many people can. It was something really amazing. We also hanged out laughed and talked a lot. Took some food, some beer and enjoyed the crowed and all the crazyness. I've made some videos... I act a lilbit rude but it was just teasing... and I was asking the Japanese people if they have to choose which Pokemon they would choose from this three. Childhood memories... :D Anyway it was a big fun. And btw Squirtle've won. I've made some pics and some videos. The videos supposed to be funny but right now as I'm watching them I'm not sure about it... especially because of their quality. Anyway I think later I'll put them online and share with some close friends.
Btw. today David Guetta is headlining Balaton Sound. Many great bros are there, have fun guys! I hope all of you'll have as much memories afterwards as I have from last time;)
So. Today I needed to go to the uni at 8 am. I was a lilbit a late and it was pretty difficult to find the proper room but it was ok. Everyone from our labor needed to make a presentation about who he/she is and what he/she is doing. +their hobby... First of all. Japanese people love presentations. True story. I've never ever seen before 2 or 3 slide presentations but they do it. Amazing! :D Second of all... well this university rocks. Like... seriously. They have much much more moneys and much better machines than you can ever imagine in Hungary. Really it's an engineer factory. Lot of student doing lot of researches with machines and techniques which we simply cannot afford and have. Amazing. If you want to be an engineer come to this university! It is amazing how super high-tech they are. Later in the afternoon we've continued our research. Yes, they told us we have nothing to do... but it was a trap. Of course we have to but they are really supernice and we can do a lot of stuff with them they are helping and next week we will also present our stuff. I mean... we cannot use the machines alone... but they are taking time for us and help us through all the steps of the bonding process what we make. Like. But they really do not speak English. I mean it's crazy... they can make nice presentation... they write and read English proper... but they do not speak it. True story. Even in the school they don't have to speak it. :D Just read and write. Because of it... it's really difficult to talk with them about the researches and stuff. And Japanese people sleep much less then European... in average 6 hours/day. Some student even don't go home... they sleep at the uni's lab. They have a bed there and shower. Workworkwork! And you can have a nap everytime. BC of the early waking up, today, while we needed to wait for an experiment, I've taken a nap also on my desk. It was pretty painful.
So we decided to check out the national museum today. But it's horrible here. Usually work takes place till 16:00 or 17:00... and all the museums close at 17:00. Really, all of them. The only option to see something from the city is the weekend... but then you have trips. Anyway we shall totally do that on Sunday. So... instead of museum we just went to the technology district again with some exchanges. There are some pretty cool new guys and a guy who just come for a weekend from an other city and staying with us. It was fun. We went to a hyperbig electrical store where I could try out some really strange massage chair (bahh... horrible I don't believe in massage...), I could listen to Deep Purple's Machine Head album on a headphone which costed 300000 forints (sounded nearly same on the headphone costed 30000), checked out a crazy musical instrument store with 7 stores, I played with the newest play station portable game where I was a manga character and I needed to kill pokemons (it was FUN!!!!), and we tried out some crazy arcade games. I mean I didn't want to pay but the other guys yes and I joined... but it turned out I'm really talented so I've won two extra rounds... despite I still have 0 idea what the hell that robot does.
Afterwards dinner (fish again.,.. but here tastes quite ok), and we deicided with the German guy and this other city guy to drink a couple beers... tomorrow is casual Friday (just the Japanese people don't know it yet hehe). So we started to have some drinks... and people somehow noticed it and in the end it was 8 of us in my room hanging out, talking, making jokes. It was FUN! Finally! But c'mon I'm not that social guy... shall I make here the cheerful mood? anyway it was really nice to meet everyone and the new guys (I have a neighbour who is technically Jao Ming), so we've had fun. At a certain point the director came to be silent but we've joined the room and he also was not angry just let us know so I guess it was ok. First hanging out night... I guess all of us had been waiting for this for so long. Anyway there is only one guy who maybe doesn't fit so much or he is a lilbit strange but I hope it will be over he is just a bit nervous yet (but, to be honest...). Btw it's a male dormitory so no girls. :(
Tomorrow there will be a huge technology fair which I propably won't join. Cos I'll have to work but it would be interesting. But we'll see. On sat we'll have a nice trip so we cannot go out for too long but at least a lilbit maybe we will. An then let's see...
And here is a masterpiece which I want to dedicate for all the foreveralone guys (so 95% of the readers of my blog...) and I just want to focus you attention on the beginning of the video where Nick is giving an advice to poor Aaron. Trust him! He knows these things. :D
So in this post dolphins will appear. But now, for something completely different!
So. Today after so many troubles and difficulties finally I could get up early and I could eat some breakfast at the dorm. Hooooray, give me a big yeeey! It was.. rice of course. No, I'm kidding. It was pasta, with some sauce, meat, onion, and just bc I'm European, a toast. Pretty good. Taking a shower, cleaning, and going to work. I got my first salary! And also my last one. I got all the money I can spend here... so now I have some money I hope it will be enough till the end. Afterwards going to work... You remember I said I have nothing to do? Well I was lying. Or at least I was misinformed. We needed to go to another campus where all afternoon long we were cleaning and polishing aluminium in a clean room. Later we will bond two pieces of it. "I've got life brother..."It was ok, but as usual we were working together with the Japanese guys and only one guys can speak more or less speak English so it's always sooooooooo funny. Ok, actually it's not funny at all.
After work I went with some other trainees to an aquarium. To watch a dolphin show, a sea lion show, penguin feeding and stuff. It was really funny and enjoyable. But expensive. Actually it was strange. This whole aquarium took place in a hotel in a very very fancy area... looking like Las Vegas. But the animals were cute, the tricks were nice I loved them. The sea lions were much much less thinner than in Norway (what a surprise...) and it was a nice afternoon activity. Btw I bought some Japanese chocolate and it tastes awesome, but still far from Fazer. Which I brought here with myself in a large quantity... hehhe. :D Actually I haven't been to an aquarium like this since I was six (it was around Barcelona)... so it was a funny and nice experience. And everything were supercute. It was really funny that the dolphins sometimes made a really huge splash next to the seats for the audience and the 8 years old Japanese children were running away crying with their wet JVC cameras :D. BTW slowly I'll turn to Japanese cos today I was sleeping in the subway. And trust me here it is a folk tradition. They sleep at the subway. It's the second bed for them. It is forbidden to speak on mobilephone in the subway cos you can disturb sleeping people, and always half of the population is just knocked out during travelling. An other weird stuff that they are always carrying umbrellas... cos they are afraid of the sun and the UV. No suntanning that's unhealthy. At least they say. And they all the time are hiding from the sun. Which is pretty impossible. Even there are commercials on the subway to protect yourself from the sun... Bahh! Anyway it was a not too interesting day I've eaten some fish for dinner at the cafeteria (and it tasted good!!! Really good! Not comparable to Hungarian:(((() and I'll go to sleep soon cos tomorrow I'll have to go to the uni at 8AM!!!! So wake up at 6!!!! And now it's nearly midnite.
So please do not do it. At least not often. Here people did. So they have now walls at the subway and doors on the walls which open when the subway stops. So... noone can jump in front of the subway. Yeeey!
People in my country usually say: what you eat is who you are. So I am propably rice. Today for lunch again I've eaten rice bowl (it was not a conscious thing...) which is... a bowl of rice. And on the top there is.. well something you can choose. Usually it contains onion... often eggs and there is also chicken or pork. But instead of this you can eat also soup... which is pasta with soup... and tastes like a spicy chicken soup. And there are normal meals... similar to schnitzel and stuff... So I cannot say any bad word about the kitchen yet. But hopefully tomorrow I'll try out the dormitory canteen... I couldn't do that yet. :D I mean... sleeping is mandatory. Sleep as much as you can! And in the night... if you come home early, you can eat but cannot do sightseeing. If you do something after work you cannot eat. And if I1m here I want to see things everyday.
So today we checked out a guy who was doing some laboratory stuff. Clean room, dressing up, photoresist and silicium dicing.. hell yeah. Like my independent work during my bachelor years. The guys were really really helpful and friendly trying to explain everything.. we'll still speak about that later. Anyway... It was just a university lab... and maaaan. I've been working in the Hungarian National Institute of Science... in a same kind of lab... And... :D That was like toys compared to this, The materials, the machines the technologies, the precision... everything here was much much proper... they had much much more money. and it was just a "common" uni lab. Amazing. :D Anyway the problem was still with the language. I mean... it is amazing. I'm at the 25th best university of the world. And here is a guy who is right now finishing his master thesis... and he cannot explain me in English what is he doing or working on. I mean bc. of language problems. But I cannot complain they are super friendly and nice and amazing and cool people! But they don't speak english. And here we are again: Japan is superclosed. They have McDonalds, Starbucks, Subway (even at the university!!!) but that's all from the west or east. No language, no cultural stuff, or anything. What can I say? Japan. After school I went with my lovely Polish college for some sightseeing.. we wanted to check out a park her. It is huge. Like... really really huge. Cannot really comparable to Hungarian parks. Lot of lakes, statues, zoo, museums... everything was closed. The girl went home earlier I continued alone the sightseeing. Every second spent at home is just the waste of time. So I just checked out from outside the closed museums and the park... bought some beer for future days... tried out fish tasted chips and went later to a "bar" with a German guy and an Austrian girl. The bar was actually only a garage but... You could drink a small beer for 180 yens. Which is very cheap here. But later you needed to pay additional 300 yens as a service charge. Anyway... It was awesome. I missed soooo much drinking beer with friends and having relaxed, more stupid talk. Later coming home, blogging, sleeping. Yeey. Tomorrow payment day and maybe we'll make some interesting program in the afternoon.
Oh again a crazy thing (I have infinite amount to tell...) You can go to a bar where you can drink as much alcohol as you want for 2 hours.. maybe you can also eat something. The price is 10000 forints (30 euros). Aaaand... additionally you can choose from a list a "supersexyandhot" Japanese lady... who will be you company for those two hours. I mean company... you know... you can talk to her... No touching... no sex... just talk. :D And these things are popular, and desperate Japanese men do it large quantity. :D Amazing.
Soon I'll post some more pics till that everyone can see some tagged ones on fb. And here is a nice song for my cheerful mood.
Today was the first working day. Yeeeeay! So I wanted to wake up early and do some touristc stuff... But I couldn't. I woke up... took a shower, dressed up, get prepared and stuff... and all beforenoon disappeared. So I needed to go at 1 to a station to meet Juki and a polish girl and we went to PSOAS. For the unlucky one who don't have a clue wtf is psoas.. they organize the housing and dormitory and stuff in Heaven. So I went to the Tokyo Psoas to fill in some forms and contracts and stuff. Hooray. Wewent there with an additional Japanese girland a Croatian girl, afterwards picked up a polish guy who has been here for some weeks already (and for the first sight he seemed a lilbit too... I don't know. Fake...?) But he was nice and friendly helped with some infos and took us to the uni cafeteria where I couldn't finish my jap soup cos we needed to go to meet the prof.
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But the dinner was nice they asked if we want to drink which would be sooooo cool but I cannot afford... so we said no. They also went home. But on wednesday or thursday they will organize a welcome party for twe two of us. :D Btw they didn't know where Poland is. :D So after the dinner I didn't feel like going home. (I never feel like going home... you are in Tokyo. Every second you spend sitting in front of your comp is waste of time!!!!)So with the Polish girl we went to the technology center. It's like Vegas. hell yeah it is. Lot of neon lot of skyscreaper... and everything is electronics shop. Most of the things were closed but at night... It is like a pleasure area for gamers. Imagine skyscrepers with 10 or 11 floors of games. Arcade games. Hell yeah they are superpopular here. All of them are with manga characters and all of them are full. Guys in uniforms go to school and afterwards from school go here at 5pm and stay here till midnight. Spending amazingly lot of money! Incredible. Lot of guitar hero, dance games for girls, drum simulator... everything. Adults are in the next skyscreaper 8 floors only with cash machines and coin machines... playing all they long fortune games. :D Incredible!!! And shitload of skyscreapers like this!!! And they are full and the streets are full. People are really really addicted! And next to them we've found a porn shop... 5 floors of porn toys and add-ons. Fake vaginas, fake assholes, fake lips, fake fingers for girls (seriously, WTF???). There were like a collection made out of gypsum of vagines 30 different types. And if you tell the seller which one you prefer he brings a lot of fake vagines of that type. (WTF???) And everything is advertised by animes and mangas and cartoongirls. Lot of times in really sicky and pervert way... like there is a max 11 years old naked girl with a face like heavily suffering from raping and she was full covered with semen. And guys suited up are in these stores with business package in glasses and they are buying these stuffs. :D amazing. And in the middle of this shit there was a statue of Yoda. Seriously... WTF???? We've seen a church... which was a restaurant but looked like from outside as a gothic church. I've seen a metal shop with a lot of cds and metal records and stuff... like Hammer. And you could buy there OSSIAN, Dalriada, Tűzmadár, Nevergreen and a lot of Hammer products. In Tokyo. Amazing.
So today was just more weird stuff. Monring I wanted to take a shower and the cleaning up lady started to speak to me Japanese. I tried to explain or show that I do not speak the language but she continued... till I said yes ok. :D Amazing. So this is a crazy city. But a materopolis it is living it is wow! so awesome! I love it. But You cannot live here for long unless you are Japanese. but I love it. Anyway later at home I got lilbit sad cos of girls but it has not too many things to do with Japan so no details. Let's go to sleep it's 3 am...
Remember, when I said: "Usually you have the impression that Japan and Tokyo is this superupgrated 23rd century city... but in reality as you look out on countryside: you see something like from the Vietnamese thematic american movies"? Forget it. Today I woke up at 10, bc someone knocked me. I went to the corridor and heard some English speech from the next room so I put on some clothes and checked whatsup. It was the German guy and the African guy, figuring out what to do today. So we planned some sightseing, and instead of having breakfast... I slept one hour more. In the end the African guy didn't come but with the German guy we started to discover Tokyo.
Ok. First of all. Tokyo is fucking big. Amazing. Really. We have been out for 12 hours today and yeah... we've just seen only 1/15th of the famous and nice stuff. In the end the African guy didn't come so it was just two of us. We went to Shibuya but before we walked to the close station called: Kamakuru. This area where we live is this Vietnamese style town nice but not a metropolis. Some grass, we checked some shrines... nothing too urban but a nice town area. But Shibuya... Welcome to Tokyo!
So imagine a real metropolis. Skyscreapers, neon, advertisements, and people people people. Meanwhile walking I've eaten some chicken nuggets as a breakfast and we were just checking out the streets, the shops.. it's amazing. I've never ever been to a citys like this. We checked out a very very nice garden. Here if you want to visit a park you have to pay fee... so it was not for free... but it was amazing to see some nice green spots, water, gardens... It was really amazing and nice. Afterwards we had some lunch (some Japanese rice stuff, and a fried hot-dog kind of weirdness and went to Harajuku. It is a really nice train station aaaand... it has in front of the most crowded street of Tokyo. amazing. Crowdcrowdcrowd... people. Lot of shops, owners standing in front with speakers trying to convince you to come in and shop and people everywhere. We went to a casino...or game area. You cannot win here money... just presents. It is a nation rule. But in the next shop you can exchange your presents for money. Fuck logic! I really didn't get the point of the games. Everyone was playing something... which was kind of mixture of the Pokemon video game and the half handed slotmachine.I know it sounds crazy but it was. Er ere watching them for minutes and didn't get any closer what the fuck they are doing. It is still not clear even if it was just a game of luck but you needed to use some skills. anyway it was really popular. We also checked out a manga store. Incredible amount of books... all of them foiled you cannot even look in them before you read it. Lot of cartoon dolls, and comic book in infinite amount. There was a separeted section just for porn. Shitload f books in front of anime girls with enormous boobs... which is something really really really rare in the real Japan. :D Anyway it was crazy. Then even had a private section for the gay porn manga books. So we ere just checking around the enormous skyscreapers, supertall buildings, plazas. Amazing architecture. Really. We've found the local Prada store it was maybe one of the craziest building I've ever sawn. But there was a skyscreaper looking like a remote control... and shitload of stuff. Amazing! And every time we stopped some Japanese strangers came to us to ask if we are lost and can they help us? amazing! We just stopped for a sec to eat or something and they came. :D Even if they didn't speak English. We met later at the train station with Japanesegirl #2 and a French girl... Oh the meeting was sooo weird. We haven't seen the girls and they surprised s buy grabbing our backs. So I was surprised and for a sec I forgot Japanese stuffs and I gave Juki two kisses on the cheeks like we usually do with girls in Europe. But in Japan... noone. So it was totally weird and I realized just later that I forgot where I am. Anyway four of us went to eat some pancake. Here pancake is totally crazy but superawesome. It is really really huge (forget Nagyi Palacsintázója and stuff... much bigger) and they make a tqwister from it. And what is inside? Whatever you want. Mine was included a chocolate ice-cream and a lot of cream, and vanilla, and suga and stuff... it was amazing.And expensive of course. :D So we checked out this supercrowded bedestrian streets took pics from some crazy cosplays and guys/girls dressed gothic or lollita or manga. Later we went to check out the Tokyo Tower. It the Eifel tower of Tokyo. Do not laugh it is true. It was built in the middle of the 20th senctury and it higher than the Eifel tower and it is less heavy. And it is amazing. really. If someone would tell me a year ago that I will se the Japanese Eifel tower earlier than the actual one I'd just laugh... but that's the fact. And the sun went down so we've seen the real metropolis with all it's lights at night. Amazing. So many buildings and floors and people everywhere. A crazy experience. Like here if a building is just 10-20 floors high you see it short or small. 2 levels of roads and a lor of levels of subway... amazing. Up, up, up! The sight is hard to describe. And also the tower looked amazing with the lights. But next to it there was a really old and big and nice shrine. Amazing also. Christianity is not the official religion here it is something else. But most of the people are not religious. They believe in work hehe. :D But ok. I've seen today a christian church but it was build I guess max 10 years ago and it was kind of super modern you wouldn't recognize it without the cross. Later we were havin a Japanese dinner... but me cos I didn't have money... I was just eating some cheap burgers in a Mcdonalds. Here that is the cheapest thing... the 100 yen offers are kind of same prize than in Hungary. But they have some differences. Much more and much fresh lattice is inside the burgers and they have some shaky chicken which is crazy and it includes not only chicken but something really slippery and strange stuff also. But the normal hamburger is the same. Oh one more carzy stuff. When the French girl hopped on the train we waved her goodbye... and a bunch of totally stranger Japanese girls started to wave us back from the train. :D Amazing.
So that was it, coming home and blogwriting and now sleeping. Tomorrow I'll have to work at 3. Previously I'll meet with Yuki and the Polish girl at 1 pm I'll have to do some registration and stuff. :S I forgot to mark that tomorrow morning I want to have breakfast so I guess I'll have to buy myself something. Anyway I'll later mark that I want some dinner... And I'll try not to be superlazy and go for some sightseeing before work. we'll see. Oh... and In my last day in Tokyo Unisonic with gotthard will perform here. I think I'll try to check them out. Te entrance fee will be around 24000 forints but they will perform here 2 days aaand you cannot taste the legendary Japanese metalconcert feeling everyday. So let's bang some head!
Oh... and here are some pics dudes... I guess the faithful ones who are following my blog maybe've already missed some. Sooo. This was the trip and the first night:
Because hell yeah people, I'm here I've arrived. Shining, fluffing, ready to rock... I have a shitload of things to tell so be prepared: today's post will be long... :D (surprising eh...?)
(Meanwhile I'm listening to Radio1... they are speaking about having lunch... maaan so weird. It's 2 am...:D)
So. I had this idea not to sleep between Thursday and Friday cos than on Friday I'll be sleepy and I'll be able to sleep during the flight which will be great cos after 11 hours of flying I'll arrive to Tokyo at 7:00am local time. So I did like this, and completely tired I went to the airport on Friday morning saying bye to mama. It was 30 minutes of flying to Vienna... zupa easy, enjoying some tea on the way. In Vienna I had 5 hours to wait... so I went into the city center. Bad idea! It was really really hot and warm, and despite I've checked out that Maria Theresa hasn't moved away from her throne and the Stephan's dom is still standing I've spent most of my time in the Stadtgarten. Very nice, relaxing, beautiful and stuff but... I've misschecked my boarding time and I needed to hurry back to the airport like a crazy guy. I needed to take a special train so in the end I've spent a lilbit more money than what would be acceptable... well Marci will always Marci. Unfortunately. :S So after my usual struggles with life I boarded in and started my flight to Tokyo. I've felt asleep immediately... but after 20 mins my neighbor woke me up cos the stewardesses started to serve the refreshments and stuff... and I couldn't go back to sleep for many, many hours. I was watching a Tarantino movie... Pure Romance I only can recommend it. Anyway I had a lovely neighbour a Japanese lady with the age of 55-60 but she was really friendly and cool. Ee've been chatting a lot. She told me that Japanese people miss a gene or something and cos it they cannot really digest alcohol... and that's why they cannot drink. But she is different. So I've drunk with her a bier and a wine (no, not bottle, just a glass...) but afterwards she became really cheerful. Anyway I've had some time to think about my stuffs on the flight and maaaan...
I mean this whole Japan thing. I've never really believed it. The first time when I've realized what is happening was when I looked at the flight details and I've seen that we are flying above the border of China and Russia... east from India. Maaaan! Where the fuck is that? Sooo far from Hungary... from everywhere. What am I doing? And then they've served us the dinner... Japanese kind of food (but with chicken instead of fish), with shitload of strange stuff I've no idea what was that. So yeah. I must be crazy to start this journey.
We arrive at around 7 am. Before the departure I was in a kind of surprised shock that 80% of the passengers were Japanese. Well after the arrival there was custom check, passport check and every crazy stuff and then I was there at Narita airport. Japanese signs, 100% asian people and... craziness. The first surprise was to see outside the airport building that people are smoking... inside a very small box which is for the smokers. Amazing! But I think it's a nice thing... despite it can be pure hell for smokers. The Tokyo/Narita airport is a lie. Narita is 65 kms away from Tokyo. To get to tokyo I've taken a suburban train (HÉV). There is the so called skyliner which is a supersonic fast train... but I didn't have money for that. Still. It was much much more faster than the Hungarian HÉV, or the average trains... and it was the first step into the cultureshock. Where to begin? Even the inside is craszy... monitors, advertisements... newspaperlike advertisements hanging from the ceiling... and everywhere Japanese signs, cartoons... PR on perfection. But after the first stop people started to get in the train and it became full.... of Japanese people. And trust me every single thing is weird on them. I mean. You know what is the difference between the European outlook and a Japanese? NOTHING! The clothes, the hairs, the eyes, the hair, the skin... Everything is different. Not in a bad way but I started to feel myself really uncomfortable. I mean I looked so different from them and I was the only one in a huge crowd...wow. I felt like I'd have 3 legs or a 2nd head. I just didn't fit at all to the train. And then you look out and... rain. It's the rainy season so it was raining like hell, fog, grayness, bamboo forests, and every sign saying only one thing: You are fucking in the far east! The houses look completely different, the humidity different, the colors, the styles... the cars are taller and thinner... everything is so different. Amazing! Usually you have the impression that Japan and Tokyo is this superupgrated 23rd century city... but in reality as you look out on countryside: you see something like from the Vietnamese thematic american movies. Strange houses and buildings with strange shapes/materials and stuff... and as you go further and further into Tokyo you start to realize that it's the same there. I guess this whole area used to be forest but the people have cut out everything. Like Vietnamese bungalows/houses very close to each other just dropped on the top of each other... amazing. Everything is tall. You travel with the train and you feel comfortable cos above you there are the top of the buildings... but then you realize that the train is not going on the ground floor. but higher above. And still there are buildings (no skyscreapers of flats) above you. Like bodegas on the top of each other. During the ride we were in a crossroad were there were 4 roads crossing each other simultaneously... and they were just above each other. Amazing!
So I've arrived to Nippori and I couldn't find my contact person (kummi student)... she said to meet at the exit in front of a store... well there were 4 exits and shitloads of stores. So... We've been searching for each other for a whole hour. So there I've met my kummi: Japanese girl #1 and a friend of him japaneseguy #1. While there was a girl travelling with the same plane I've met my first fellow trainee (we'll also work together) polishgirl #1 and her CP japanesegirl #2. So we went to have a breakfast and then to the city center, Shibuya area. And hell-yeah. Shibuya is slightly different than the suburbs. Metropolis. Like New York, or Tokyo. Ok, we are actually in Tokyo so... anyway. Lot of advertisements, tvs, screens, infinite high skyscreapers... just a couple of streets away from the piles of bodegas. Amazing. And shitload of people everywhere. Only asians, you do not see anything else. I am soo amused. I mean I cannot really say anything. Remember when I've sad: Finland was like the end of the world? Well if that's true Japan and Tokyo is already a completely new world. Crazy colors, clothes, people, everywhere cartoons, stickers... electronic and mobile shops. There was a dentist working on a second floor behind a huge window.. everyone could watch from the street how he is doing his job. amazing. Like when the end of the Story of Anvil movie Robb and Lips are amused by Tokyo. I felt the same. Amazing. Maybe some of you've heared about the movie: Hatchiko: A Dog's story. It's about a dog who were adopted in baby ago by a Japanese piano teacher and went every day to the railway station to wait for him. One day the guy died from heart attack when the dog was 1-2 years old. And the dog stays there and waited for him for 9-10 years till he also died. :( It is unfortunately a true story and a really said one. But at Shibuya where the dog used to wait for the guy there is the statue of the dog and it is an amazing story. So I've met some pics there with the statue. I've bought a Japanese mobile (they don't sell SIM cards just alone.. you have to buy the whole phone. 27000 forints for a phone... it was the cheapest one. But finally I have a Japanese number and I can interact with people. Aaaand it is not sony or samsung or nokia... some totally weird Japanese stuff. But everyone has mobilephone like that. Btw there are 3 kinds of Japanese: the ones who always read on the train, the ones who are sleeping on the train and the ones who no matter what happen just all the time online with the phones and just pushing the screen all the time. Amazing. Afterward we bought some plugs and adapter cos of the electronics and then I've came back to the accomodation place to capture the room. It is a dormitory... there are other trainees here also. Run by an old guy and it has a lot of crazy rules. Where to put the garbage, how and when use the toilets, bathrooms, where what kind of slippers you can wear and shit... amazing. I am living alone in a room nearly as big as mine was in Oulu. Everyone alltogether ha one shower room... you have to digitally preprogram how warm water do you want. If you want to dry yor clothes you have to bring them out on the terrace... but it's always raining so it's tuff. :D While the guy was explaining all these things I've nearly died. In the past 56 hours I've slept only 8. So I was really tired and he said a lot of infos about food and everything. Till he finished it was 4:30. Japanesegirl #1 and Jguy #1 invited me to a party... starting at 6pm tonight. I wanted to sleep an hour before but that was not enough so I slept more and I joined the party later.
Before I've met on the corridor Chineseguy #1 and Africanguy #1. It was again a reall guessing game to find my trainstation from the dormitory. Travelling is really expensive. From the dorm to get to the city center a one way ticket is 4.50 euros it's about 1350 forints. One way. You can buy a monthly ticket... but just for lines. There is no ticket like BKV monthly ticket for everything. But the public transport s really clean, always hyperpunctual and... really crowded. :D So I went to the CCenter... lot of people, neon metropolis, amazing sights... girls and guys dressed to kill... amazing! Crowds, rivers of young people ready for some party. I've missed the predrinking but I've arrived to the "normal" drinking... to a British pub. And faced to sad thing:
Alcohol is even more expensive than in Finland.
One minute silence. :'( Hell yeah. In a shop bear is around 600 forints the cheapest one. In the pub I've drunk 4dl bier for 1500 forints. Cheapest one. I'll not make a regular thing out of it. But fortunately the university pays out the lodging, the food, some transport...so I can spend my salary on trips, and hopefully some parties and drinks. The thing is that already there are only 11-15 foreigner trainees here. But there are around 50-60 iaeste organizers.. so in these parties we are always sorrounded by Japanesepeople. It is not a problem just a lilbit strange. :) But I've talked and started to make friends with an Austrian girl, an other Polish girl,an African guy, a German guy... and some Japanese organizers.
But don't misunderstand it... Tokyo is not a Spanish fiesta. We are only a few exchanges here and... In tokyo which is a 30million city: THERE IS NO NIGHT TRANSPORTATION! Amazing! That's why I didn't go further to party. If you cannot come home with the last train you have to be out till 6am. And after sofew hours of sleeping I won't be able for that tonight. Some Norwegian guys went but I haven't met them yet... so we'll see. Anyway partiingm clubbing is really expensive and you have to be really ready to rock to spin all night. As far as I've seen from the group noone is the crazy partyhead bastardo so I'm not sure how often we'll go out. But anyway I hope sometimes it'll happen.
So that was the day I've arrived home around 1 am. Let's see some other stuff: Japanese people are weird. But I like them. they are really really friendly and nice. Helpful. And it's super cool. But noone speaks english. And when I say it I mean it. NOONE. Even the ones who believe they do... have such a few vocabulary and strange accent that it's really hard to understand them. From the ones I've met today... they were not so partiing and outhoing but of course it is depending on people. I mean it's Tokyo... here you can find everything and everyone, every type of characters. Tomorrow we are planning to do some more sightseing with the other exchanges. But let me tell you still two more stories. First: Before the train/subway (here subway goeas above the ground floor...) arrives everyone stand where the doors will be in proper double line. Amazing. Looking at the people waiting like this is crazy. They always keep on the left side of the escolator... also amazing. :D Aaand. Despite we were really supercrowded on the last train... there was a drunk guy sleeping on the chairs. But taking a lot of chairs. And noone woke him up... people understood he has problems he is drunk let him take 4-5 places... while we were standing like the fishes in the can. Amazing! :D So Japanese people are supernice and cute and friendly... but they are really shy and I think it is not that easy to make contact and long talks with them. Now everyone is surprised, little scared, and shy...s o now we'll need to have time to make everyone feel comfortable and starting to make real friends.
So. That's the stuff. Tokyo. Amazing. Really. I've written down lot of bullshit but it makes sense. You have to come here and see this by your own two eye. It is really different from everything else I've ever seen. Totally different world. A very closed world where you can have a long and pleasant living only if you speak Japanese proper. But and interesting and crazy one. I think people cannot be natural with this crazy city. You can love it or hate it. Love or hate everything in it. Which one I choose? I don't know. Let it give some time! but this is the craziest and weirdest experience of my life. It is is AMAZING! True story.
Terve/Hola/Hi... Szia!
So people here is the thing... I'm starting a new blog. I'll go to work in Tokyo Japan at the University of Tokyo for two months. So while I'll stay there I'll write a blog. I'll try to make it up-to date and recent day by day.
So the official plan is to make something liet I've done in Finland with incifinnci.blogspot.com However there'll be some differences.
First of all maybe some of you've already noticed that there is a small change in the language. Well in the past year I didn't really put too much attantion and effort to get along with my old Hungarian friends (sorry guys:((()... most of the time I was with exchange students. So for them English is more convenient and understandable than Hungarian. But of course I'll keep on checking the stats and if the amount of the readers will be really dominated by the Hungarians I'll change at a point to Hungarian. BTW sorry for my english it's really far from perfect. Second of all this blog will be shorter. Only 2 months. Propably last weeks not too many posts... you know I'll propably try to spend more time with the people in the end. And third of all: This won't happen in Finland. It's gonna be Japan. So different experiences, different stories, different people.
The ultracool superawesome ones who've already followed my previous blog can expect something very similar. I want this shit to make honest. I don't want to lie here I don't want to make borders... I really want to write down everything I think and feel cos' I'm also doing this for myself and for my own memories. So... many times you guys will see me in ways which you are not used to... angry, sad... I'll be bitchin' about completely ridiculous stuff, all the time I'll speak about girls and why I cannot get together with them. Food, stupid metal stuff... but if you are lucky at some point you'll also find some nice and interesting infos about Japan. :D Ok I'm kidding but you know... I'll try to cover everything. Of course I'm always happy if anyone asks me: hey how are you in Japan... so I won't tell to anyone to: Read my blog bitch, why u no doin' that???". No. I'll try to talk to everyone kindly on fb and skype while I'll have time. But if someone wants to have some extra experience, or just meet "the real me", come and follow my journey... I can promise it will be an adventourus one.
Please, if you have time and... you're fancy with that leave some comment or let me know your opinion about the stuff going on here. I'm really looking forward all the nice and bad responses.
So that's the staff as a starter. I'll leave BP on friday morning so my first real entry will come sometime on saturday I guess... I don't know too much about Japan, I don't know too much about the mangas, the food, or anything... so it will be a new dimension. :D As usual in the end I'll always share some music video with a song which has lyrics or spirit/feeling/emotions similar to how I feel. So fasten your seatbelt and come with me! A new exchange period starts! Again... :DDDDD
