It’s certainly been a quiet past couple weeks since I got back from Korea. I’ve been spending my time studying Japanese here in my room and going out on my bike, and occasionally hanging out with JJ. But I’ve also had a long-standing medical issue of mine come up again and it was necessary for me to go and seek out a doctor’s help for pain in my leg. Now, don’t get too worried - I’m perfectly fine and healthy (well, besides the leg) and I am recovering. But since all this happened to me, I got to see first hand just what kind of medical care is available in Japan. So, click on to see what it’s all about!
August 9th, 2008 | 1 Comment »
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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July 22nd, 2008 | 10 Comments »
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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June 23rd, 2008 | No Comments »
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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June 14th, 2008 | 5 Comments »
It’s been a while since I posted in this space, huh? Well, I just took my first trip during my time here: a couple days down in Tokyo with some of my Korean friends. I’ll get to that in a bit, but first I thought that I’d try to play catch-up and go over what I’ve been up to the last couple of weeks since I posted last.
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May 20th, 2008 | No Comments »
It’s been a pretty full weekend for me once again. Since Wednesday, I went to the second concert on Thursday (which rocked), went to Aomori with Hwang and Paku, did CPR training with my club, went out for karaoke and finally, on Sunday, spent the entire day with my new host family. Well, let’s get into then, shall we?
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May 15th, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Sorry for taking so long to get a new post up! I’ve been busy with this and that, but I decided that enough was enough and that I’m writing this thing now. Thank you for bearing with me. I also decided that from now on I’m going to use a jump on my posts, since the long pages on this site are making it difficult for some people to load it properly. Click the following link to read the rest of the post.
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April 27th, 2008 | No Comments »
I’ve been having another great week in Japan. This past Tuesday and Wednesday, I attended hanami on three separate occasions at Hirosaki park. Situated in the northeastern portion of Hirosaki, the park is home to about 2600 cherry trees, which all have spectacularly blossomed. I’ve been told that over the course of “Golden Week” (which happens next week), about 2 million people will pass through Hirosaki park. I will now do as many other gaijin already have and cover my blog here with photos of pink trees.
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April 20th, 2008 | 3 Comments »
This past week has been one of adjustment - it’s been a long while since I last went to classes at a college level. Like I mentioned in my last post, I last went to classes last fall semester at UMaine, about four months ago. Now I’ve gotten my schedule all worked out and I feel like it won’t take long for me to get back into the swing of things. I’ll talk a bit about my classes, and then about the weekend, which was exceptionally fun - there was a welcome party for the new foreign students and then rafting with the club I just joined, the adventure club, or tanken-bu.
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April 10th, 2008 | 4 Comments »
I met Lim upstairs at his room exactly at nine o’clock, just as we planned. He was already cooking some rice in his rice cooker, the steam warming the room. He mentioned that he was watching a “dorama” on his computer, but when I went to see what it was I found it not to be a drama at all, but rather a comedy. He was watching the American version of “The Office.” I was pretty surprised. I told him how popular the show is in America and how my brother Will is a big fan.
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