Yesterday I went with some friends to Shinjuku (thats the busiest station in the world, 4 million through it every day), and we went to a restaurant. It was really fun and we just ordered lots of plates and shared it. This is some of the food:
The plate on the right is like a Japanese pancake, but with noodles meat and cheese :).
Anyway today was more interesting, I had my first Japanese class and orientation. I ended up being put into class 2 (theres 1A, 1B, 1C, 2, 3, 4, 5) so its between beginners and intermediate. We have 14 hours of lessons a week, and tomorrow I have classes (all japanese language classes) from 9 till 3.
>>Its a little off track but I wanted to meet more Japanese people so I signed up for a F.A.C.E (dunno what it stands for) programme, where you get paired with another Japanese student and can do whatever you want basically. People who run this were at the orientation too and talking to them was very fun (there are a lot of bored students who like foriengers and a lot of housewives who are bored with staying at home). I get to meet my new friend tomorrow afternoon!
Anyway after Japanese class we were taken around the campus which took about an hour. Heres the famous akamon (red in Japanese) gate :
Anyway during the orientation I made a new friend (the student host) who is going to take me drinking shouchu (like Japanese Vodka) and Karaoke!
After that a few of us went to a japanese tea room and had some drinks. I met a girl here too and got her number (sitting opposite me), so i've made lots of friends today which is really good!
(theres me on the left. This was about the 5th photo because we were getting the old Japanese guy to take it and he kept cutting me off! so thats my excuse for not smiling properly!)
Anyway something we looked at a few days ago was a shop called Tanaka fruit. Its like super expensive fruit for people with lots of money. All the fruit was laied out like a jewelery shop.
Heres 2 mangos that were sold as a set: (yes, just mangos)
And to anyone that says fruit isnt expensive in Japan (read:mum!), heres some proof (given its an expensive shop in the middle of Shinjuku), but these mangoes are being sold for 42,000 Yen, which is about $500 NZD.
Yes . For Mangos.
Anyway its late here and I have to get up at 7 am to get the train (which takes an hour) to get to language class in time)
Ja ne!
3 comments:
I'll serve 4 mangos tonight and tell Sophie I have a special suprise for her worth $1000...Oh yeah - I think that would go down real well ("here's your $1000 surprise - a plate of yummy mangos")...I shudder to think what a Tanaka fruit salad platter would be worth...I'd have to trade in the Celica...:)
Sounds like you're having fun amongst the chaos! It's Saturday morning here and I am working, but despite that, it's all good. Everyone is well. We are launching the new Corolla to New Zealand in the next week - it's the 40th Anniversary of Corolla in NZ and the 20th consecutive year that we have been the market leader, so it's all a pretty big deal at work at the moment. Hope the language classes are going OK...stay positive...Jer
Hey Ben. Sounds like you are having a great time. You are going to be so good at Japanese by the time you are through. Are you still keen to catch up when I'm passing through Tokyo next Saturday? I'll email you and let you know where I am meeting my friend Leigh.
Man... so expensive.
At least I can live without mangoes, and apples and oranges are not as expensive, I mean, they are still expensive, but not THAT expensive.
Be sure to introduce me to some japanese girls later. See ya on class Ben.
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