The early morning walk to school

The early morning walk to school
Originally uploaded by Gunnella73.

Less than a month

Can hardly believe its only been a month, actually less since I arrived! So much has happened, so much has been achieved, although the interenet connection is still a no show ;-)

Weve managed to find an apartment, furnish it almost fully and the kids are already fully equipped and attending school... The equipping for school and the conundrum of renting in Japan are materials for indepth posts at a later date ;-P

My school is going well, had my ups and downs, mind not really in the whole memorizing zone but slowly adjusting..Japanese paperwork has been immense yet at the same time everyone has been so incredibly helpful and positive, so things taking time isnt such a hassle as long as they get done... And the kids got into school withough a scrap of paperwork!! Compaired to Italy this place is heaven in that regard!!

Anyways, better run now, have classes from 9 - 4 :-( takes some getting used to as well as for the brain to adjust to 8\9 hours of studying a day...And me that has always hated language classes, grammar is my very worst enemy and memorization doesnt work... guess I got myself into this ;-) and hence am doing my best :-D

Well until later, p.s. If anyone wants my mailing address let me know by e-mail.

Cheers

My brandnew wee mass reader

My brandnew wee mass reader
Originally uploaded by Gunnella73.

Ragnar in the field

Ragnar in the field
Originally uploaded by Gunnella73.

Schoolfun

Schoolfun
Originally uploaded by Gunnella73.

Noodletime

Noodletime
Originally uploaded by Gunnella73.

Noodletime

Noodletime
Originally uploaded by Gunnella73.

A walk in the park

A walk in the park
Originally uploaded by Gunnella73.

Hopefully well get the net connected late next week and then blogging will commence for real.. In other news, believe it or not the kids started school today :-D ????Pictures later ;-)

Finally a couple of minutes online ;-)

Sorry for the lack of postings, we have now moved to the new apartment which is severly lacking in internet onnection, although with Halldor here that stands to be corrected soon. Weve slowly been amassing necessities, bought futon (japanese style matresses) that arrived the same night they did. Saturday we went and got a washing machine, fridge, rice cooker and kettle, fortunately for us stores here all have home delivery. Then yesterday we trekked over to Kawasaki in order to meet up with Ragga who lent us a t.v., table, vacum cleaner and a dvd player. Amazing what a difference a wee tv and a table make to a place ! I promice pictures soon!!

Yay they made it!

Yay they made it!
Originally uploaded by Gunnella73.

Admittedly sans luggage

inside

inside
Originally uploaded by Gunnella73.

I have my new apartment!! wont write more as im blogging this from my phone

I have my new apartment!! wont write more as im blogging this from my phone
Originally uploaded by Gunnella73.

View from Japan

View from Japan
Originally uploaded by Gunnella73.

Yay it worked ;-) Just sent this straight from my phone to the blog, so seeing as I can´t transfer pics from my camera to the laptop at the moment these will presumably abound ;-)

My first Tokyo earthquake

Oh dear me, such hardship... Here I sit in my electricity, gas and waterless room forced to eat a big tub of cream and cookies icecream for breakfast seeing as the freezer is defrosting.... Such a hard life ;-)

My first opportunity to sleep in proper like was interrupted at 6:40 by my first ever Tokyo earthquake. Interestingly it was quite different from the Icelandic ones I´m used to, might be in part due to the fact that in Iceland I´m normally in a wooden house covered by corrugated iron and here I´m in a concrete box. The difference is that in Iceland I hear this high pitched kinda sound first (might have missed it here because of being fast asleep) then in Iceland it´s kind of a jolt, a forceful wave, followed by a push and then another jolt. Here it was more a sort of a rumbling, like being on the Italian tram, and lasted for probably 30 seconds, just rumbling away... As always during earthquakes I was to lazy to get up or worry.. ;-)

Here things have been incredibly busy. Have applied for my alien registration card, gotten a postal savings account, gotten my student card all of which I needed in order to apply for a mobile phone here which I managed to get Thursday. This may sound simple but when added to a full school schedule, everything being in different places and the local bureaucracy I´m pretty impressed with myself ;-P School has for the large part of the week involved long periods of waiting and listening to ill prepaired introductions and whith all the paperwork that needed to be done as well as the fact that I need to take two trains and a bus just to get there it has at times felt like a waste of time. Then I´ve also been dealing with procuring money for the downpayment on an apartment, as well as all the paperwork involved with that, all of which I´ll tell you about come Monday if all goes well so as to not tempt fate overly ;-)

People here have been incredibly helpful and amiable, with literally bank people getting up and walking me to the next bank where I might get the service I needed. Somehow can´t picture that happening back home ;-) Everyone just really seems to appreciate ones attempts at Japanese..

I had intended to post tons of pictures from school and of newly aquired friends but for some reason my camera won´t interact with my laptop :-( so I´ll have to go find me a card reader..... Again with the oh so hard life ;-) Got myself an electronic dictionary yesterday, a fancy mobile phone the day before and now I need a card reader...wonder what other gadgets I might see once I´m there ;-) I also have to remember to tell you about my cheese exam!

A glimpse ;-)

Had a great weekend, involving great partying, intensive japanese language aquisition, flat hunting and quite possibly flat finding. Would blog more but have my proficiency exam tomorrow so I´d better get back to the books. But for the time being I leave you with this glimpse into my life here in Japan, the more relaxed part ;-)


The not so asian looking lady is my friend Ragga who, along with her partner (the one on the right of the guy in pink) helped me immesurably in the househunting!

Engrish of the day

My first day here I got given this extremely helpful map of the area only my eyes were drawn to a wee shop up the road that I would have assumed from the sign was a pharmacy only it says "drag store" ;-) I´ll have to go have a look ;-D

Nighttime Tokyo

Nighttime in Tokyo
Originally uploaded by Gunnella.

It´s raining, it´s pouring, the old man is snooring..

I´ve had such a great day :-D after managing to sleep through the night (we´ll ignore those two hours between 1 and 3 ;-) I decided to be brave and attempt traversing the train system by my self, a somewhat daunting task when one can´t read the Kanji, but I knew Shibuyja was only two stops away so I just followed the flow.

It may seem funny that I´m this nervous after having lived in Japan for a year (15 years ago) but the thing is I feel slightly at odds ends here, there are so many people all hurrying, banging their umbrellas into mine, doesn´t help that it has also rained non stop since I arrived, the torrential heavy type and with it being so overcast it feels (to me) a bit like I´m right smack middle of Blade Runner only I know but a smattering of the language.. In short slightly claustrophobic, increased by a sense of being out of my depth and my brain frantically trying to interpret all the symbols around me ;-)

But anyways, managed to walk around Shibuya getting a feel for the place, found an amazing bookstore and seeing as I felt I thoroughly deserved it and that it was quite logical I rewarded myself with 4 Japanese books, 2 on Kanji, on on verbs and one (which I´m reading tonight ;-) on the misfortunuous ways to bemuddle your Japanese for the worst possible misunderstandings ;-D Then a bilingual map of Tokyo, Eragon (hey have to read the book before the movie comes out, and they trailer looks soooo good) and ooops *blush* the first season of Roswell.... Well it was 50% off, and I´ve never seen it, and I promise to watch it in Japanese and.. oh to hell with it because I felt like it ;-P

One thing that has struck me since being here is how amazingly positive everyone is to being approached, as soon as they realize I´m asking in Japanese they´re all smiles and no problem answering any question... it´s nice....and makes finding ones way around a LOT easyer!

Anyways, managed to order myself a hanko, i.e. my name stamp without which I can´t do any legal business here, might even managed to find my way back there to pick it up, fingers crossed.

Already I can feel my mind shifting gears, and it happens with increased frequency that I find myself unconsciously reading a Kanji signpost or a shampoo bottle, so I guess there is hope yet.. To explain the shifting gears thing, when I am faced with writing an essay I often get this feeling, I don´t feel like I´m actually doing any work but just looking at references and trying not to think about how close the deadline is, then all-over-a-sudden it just hits home and I find that I´ve made the connections and the material just streams out .. So let´s just hope the same goes for Japanese comprehension ;-)

Well my kombini (convience store)bought sushi awaits, until later, toodelydoo

Last Sunday..

I was so proud of myself last Sunday ;-) As I mentioned before Elena had chosen to be a candle bearer which I fully supported, however after a farwell dinner with friends and a few hours at the pub afterwards I ahve to admit that my enthusiasm was somewhat diminished come Sunday morning... hence my self proudness.
She was amazing, didn´t falter nor drop her candle (as I fully expected)and was obviously chuffed to bits to be doing this :-D I survived the half sermon, then accompanied her to the Sunday school where I admittedly left her to buy myself a bottle of water and to wait outside taking photos whilst she partook ;-) She by the way adamantly chose both her dress and tights ! ;-)
. .
This Sunday the plan is to go househunting here in Tokyo ;-) Slight change of scenery..

Sleeeeepy in Japan....

33 hours. It´s been 33 hours since I got up in Iceland, showered, cuddled my fast asleep kids and left Vitastígur for the unknown. Now I am sitting in a well equipped although incredibly small dorm room, newly showered, nibbling on sushi and drinking Pocari Sweat. The sounds of the ladies across the street doing their aerobic exercises blend with the trains passing the house and the crickets chirping (do crickets chirp?)

Think I might call it a day in a wee while, just trying to get to normal evening time so as to not further muddle my befuddled inner clock ;-)

In other news, the trip went well, a minor hiccup was that I wasn’t allowed to bring my camera bag onboard due to the stricter regulations but fortunately I could squeeze the cameras into my main bag and only leave the camera bag empty behind... not wanting to moan it seems kinda unfair when I wee the American kids bringing boxes and humongous suitcases aside from their numerous carry on items and I stand there with my measly 20 kilo suitcase and one backpack.. Oh well, that´s what Amazon was made for and boy is it going to get used ;-P

Anyways, am alive and well :-D