August 30th, 2008 (Note: this is more of a personal ramble than anything else. If that sounds boring, don’t bother with this one)
I left Hirosaki at a fairly critical juncture when I went to Korea. I left during the middle weeks of the month of August, after the end of the semester and as such, many people have left, especially people from the western countries. In particular, one of my good friends here has left to go back to the U.S., Hojin. I definitely spent a lot of my free time over at Shimoda hanging out with him and the other guys there, many of whom have now gone like I said. The good old kaikan here feels much more empty, too. Sure, I talk with some of my friends from Korea who will be here for a year, but besides that it feels like no one else is around. The experience of the first semester is quite over now.
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August 27th, 2008 Here is the video from my trip to Korea! Yep, Joe in Japan was Joe in Korea for a while there. I did very little editing, so sorry if it’s a bit raw. It’s 24 minutes long, so make sure you have your favorite beverage handy!
August 9th, 2008 Hey all! Had quite the busy past week here in Japan. Every summer here is always full of summer festivals. Aomori prefecture, the prefecture I am currently living in, is host to the Neputa and Nebuta festivals. They are quite rambunctious affairs, with loud cheering, lots of food and drink, and of course, dancing. I even got the opportunity to participate in Neputa here in Hirosaki with my fellow exchange students. So let’s get right into it with the details!
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August 9th, 2008 The “Food Coat” at McDonalds.
August 5th, 2008 Video direct from the festival.
July 27th, 2008 Next week is the last week of classes here at Hirosaki University until next semester. The time has just flown by, it seems. I’m studying for the final tests and making plans for the summer break. But now that everything has been said and done, I’m going to go through all my classes that I took here during my inaugural semester here and give you an idea of what they were like and how they went. There is a surprising lack posting about school despite the fact that I am a foreign exchange student, so I’ll take a moment to rectify that now.
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July 22nd, 2008 Ohisashiburi! It’s been a long time, eh? Well, since it’s coming down to the end of the semester here, I’ve been busy with this and that, but I’ll try to give you all a bit up an update now. There were festivals at the beginning of the month, then a camping trip with my club and the culture festival at my host family’s daughters’ school. Also, in other exciting news, I have successfully applied for an extension, so I will be staying here in Japan until February 2009! One semester just wasn’t enough. Well, without further ado, let’s get on with it!
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July 4th, 2008 A bunch of the foreign students play basketball every Friday afternoon.
June 29th, 2008 Some video from the final event.
June 23rd, 2008 I’ve kept busy the past couple weekends, doing one sort of party or another. Not to say that the weekday stuff isn’t great, too. It’s hard to believe, but we’re more than half-way through this semester! Starting pretty soon, I’m going to have to start worrying about finals and presentations. Well, I’ll go over some of the highlights of the past weeks.
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