Finally, I took the time to go through my pictures which have been piling up since May. So, http://www.kolumbus.fi/zombie/japan/2/ is the second gallery for the trip, spanning May, June and some of early July. I've commented almost every photo and there's a total of 270 pictures or so.
There were a lot more pictures to choose from, but let's face it - most of the pictures won't be browsed by anyone, they are only meaningful for me. Also, the majority of my pictures are scenery from Hokkaido, which reflects the fact that I've spent a lot of time peeking around.
Jul 8, 2007
Jul 5, 2007
Week 16 - Visit to junior high school
I finally got the longer headpost to my cycle from a cycling shop in Obihiro last weekend so I installed it and since the weather was great on Wednesday, I went cycling for the first time in almost a month. That it, the first long distance trip. I went to Chimikeppu-ko, a lake in the middle of a forest, in a national preservation area. The place looked just like Finland and its lakes.
The most important event of the week was something I had not paid a lot of attention to - a visit to Hokko junior high school in a suburb of Kitami. That is to say, I had not prepared for it at all so I only did it on Wednesday evening. Had I started before, I might've had an interesting series of photos with me but I really didn't think about that stuff too much, I just wanted to get the visit over with.
In contrast, when we arrived to the junior high, we were received with the warmest welcome we've ever had by complete strangers. The children were totally unlike their junior high counterparts in Finland - they were friendly, funny, cheerful and really excited about people around them. (Finnish high school kids, especially boys, have a completely different attitude - they try to act impossibly tough; failing that, they are too shy to speak about other subjects than computer games or something equally nerdy).
We had a dance, gifts, songs, calligraphy, games and all around a lof of fun. I guess the children don't have such an opportunity to meet foreigners every day, so they really wanted to take out most of it. What the girls wanted to do was to touch Mika's hair all the time - his curly, soft hair was something really strange and beautiful for the girls so they just ran after Mika, touching his head all the time. At some point, they turned attention to my hair too and poked around Matias' head as well.
I really wanted to go to Obihiro by cycle this time, but what do you know - rain once again on the weekend. For a month, it has rained every Friday in Kitami. So, I decided not to even wait for Friday and hopped on the last bus of Thursday instead.
The most important event of the week was something I had not paid a lot of attention to - a visit to Hokko junior high school in a suburb of Kitami. That is to say, I had not prepared for it at all so I only did it on Wednesday evening. Had I started before, I might've had an interesting series of photos with me but I really didn't think about that stuff too much, I just wanted to get the visit over with.
In contrast, when we arrived to the junior high, we were received with the warmest welcome we've ever had by complete strangers. The children were totally unlike their junior high counterparts in Finland - they were friendly, funny, cheerful and really excited about people around them. (Finnish high school kids, especially boys, have a completely different attitude - they try to act impossibly tough; failing that, they are too shy to speak about other subjects than computer games or something equally nerdy).
We had a dance, gifts, songs, calligraphy, games and all around a lof of fun. I guess the children don't have such an opportunity to meet foreigners every day, so they really wanted to take out most of it. What the girls wanted to do was to touch Mika's hair all the time - his curly, soft hair was something really strange and beautiful for the girls so they just ran after Mika, touching his head all the time. At some point, they turned attention to my hair too and poked around Matias' head as well.
I really wanted to go to Obihiro by cycle this time, but what do you know - rain once again on the weekend. For a month, it has rained every Friday in Kitami. So, I decided not to even wait for Friday and hopped on the last bus of Thursday instead.
Week 15 - Even more studies
We had the second International C hour this week. The theme was a group of Japanese students visiting New York for a month to study English - they could learn something, but the whole presentation was held in Japanese, which I couldn't understand. Neither I can understand why would someone want to go to another country for just a month. You cannot learn much in such a short time. Well, at least I can't.
I finally finished studying through Minna no Nihongo I this week and I ordered the second book. I hope I can study through it with some kind of decent pace - ideally, during summer vacation would be a good time for that.
Once again, on Friday, it rained. I couldn't understand it anymore, it has to be some kind of curse or something.
I finally finished studying through Minna no Nihongo I this week and I ordered the second book. I hope I can study through it with some kind of decent pace - ideally, during summer vacation would be a good time for that.
Once again, on Friday, it rained. I couldn't understand it anymore, it has to be some kind of curse or something.
Week 14 - More studies
Mika and Samuli said that the water they got from the faucet was all white on Tuesday morning when I got back to Kitami. I was happy to find out that the dorm suffered no problems whatsoever regarding the water issue. However, since Mika and Samuli couldn't even go to shower, we decided to go to onsen. A few other people had done the same decision as well, which resulted in really cramped pools of hot water and even more people than usual staring at us.
I also begun working on my project for Tampere University of Technology, finally. The project is a kanji writing system, not so much about recognition as much it is about learning how to write correctly (although the recognition obviously plays a big role in this). I had received the go for the assignment a long while back but didn't just begin working on it. I still have many months to write the documents, though - until April. I hope to finish most of this project, too, at least the documentation part, by the start of summer vacation. The programming can be done any time with the documentation finished, anyway.
On the weekend, it rained once again on Friday. I put my alarm clock on for early morning to leave by bicycle in case it didn't rain, but just glancing through the window made me change my mind.
I also begun working on my project for Tampere University of Technology, finally. The project is a kanji writing system, not so much about recognition as much it is about learning how to write correctly (although the recognition obviously plays a big role in this). I had received the go for the assignment a long while back but didn't just begin working on it. I still have many months to write the documents, though - until April. I hope to finish most of this project, too, at least the documentation part, by the start of summer vacation. The programming can be done any time with the documentation finished, anyway.
On the weekend, it rained once again on Friday. I put my alarm clock on for early morning to leave by bicycle in case it didn't rain, but just glancing through the window made me change my mind.
Week 13 - Water shortage
I started to notice that my knees were hurting a little so I relaxed on the cycling thing for the whole week. I did start to look for a bigger seatpost, though, because the one I had now was just too short. There was none to be found in Kitami, though.
I could make good progress with our Japanese book, Minna no Nihongo I. I did all the exercise for a couple of chapters per day so I could finish studying that book by the following week. Of course, there are always things to interrupt studies even if you really wanted to concentrate on them. So, the daily life of us exchange students in Kitami is basically going to lectures, to lunch and around the city every now and then. Usually, if someone wants to go shopping for clothes, for instance, a bunch of people join him just to keep company.
I also went to onsen with Oeda-san, the Japanese guy I had done some jogging and cooking and stuff before. We could talk something in Japanese and some local people in the onsen were interested in talking to us as well. Mostly, they were interested in Finland, sauna and swimming in the snow.
On the weekend, I went to Obihiro as usual. I really wanted to cycle there, but it was raining on Friday, so I passed and went by bus. On Saturday, there were breaking news from Kitami on TV, about something related to water. It was easy enough to guess that the city was out of it and something didn't work since there were large stale pools of brown-blackish water being pictured by the cameras and following that, a shot of a woman trying to use the water in a kitchen, but nothing would come out of the tap.
In reality, about 80 000 people in Kitami were without water. For whatever reason, there was water in the dorm, but not in the school cafeteria and Mika and Samuli's apartment was out of water, too. They had to pick water up from in ten liter plastic bags from the university, to which water tank trucks had parked. There were same trucks in the city centre as well.
I could make good progress with our Japanese book, Minna no Nihongo I. I did all the exercise for a couple of chapters per day so I could finish studying that book by the following week. Of course, there are always things to interrupt studies even if you really wanted to concentrate on them. So, the daily life of us exchange students in Kitami is basically going to lectures, to lunch and around the city every now and then. Usually, if someone wants to go shopping for clothes, for instance, a bunch of people join him just to keep company.
I also went to onsen with Oeda-san, the Japanese guy I had done some jogging and cooking and stuff before. We could talk something in Japanese and some local people in the onsen were interested in talking to us as well. Mostly, they were interested in Finland, sauna and swimming in the snow.
On the weekend, I went to Obihiro as usual. I really wanted to cycle there, but it was raining on Friday, so I passed and went by bus. On Saturday, there were breaking news from Kitami on TV, about something related to water. It was easy enough to guess that the city was out of it and something didn't work since there were large stale pools of brown-blackish water being pictured by the cameras and following that, a shot of a woman trying to use the water in a kitchen, but nothing would come out of the tap.
In reality, about 80 000 people in Kitami were without water. For whatever reason, there was water in the dorm, but not in the school cafeteria and Mika and Samuli's apartment was out of water, too. They had to pick water up from in ten liter plastic bags from the university, to which water tank trucks had parked. There were same trucks in the city centre as well.
Week 12 - Out of Sounkyo
Because it started to rain in Sounkyo and I couldn't get up to the mountain, I decided to go to Obihiro instead. I took a bus, put my cycle in and off I went. I was asleep almost all of the way and when arriving to the apartment, I just crashed to the bed and didn't get up in six hours. Even then, I could sleep just as well in the night too. Mountain climbing is really tiresome, it seems.
After spending a long while not studying at all, I finally decided to get a hold of myself and start actually studying some Japanese. So, I spent the rest of the week studying and then some. There's not much more to tell about it. I really tried to do my best to learn Japanese although my mind wandered off to other things every now and then.
Finally, on the Monday of the next week, I cycled back from Obihiro to Rikubetsu, totaling about 115 km.
After spending a long while not studying at all, I finally decided to get a hold of myself and start actually studying some Japanese. So, I spent the rest of the week studying and then some. There's not much more to tell about it. I really tried to do my best to learn Japanese although my mind wandered off to other things every now and then.
Finally, on the Monday of the next week, I cycled back from Obihiro to Rikubetsu, totaling about 115 km.
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