I've been pretty busy the past few days and missed blogging some events in my life. Too tired to write it all out so I will do it in sections. First, baseball ( Read more... )

- I planned to go to my research room today but apparently the whole building is closed for the next 2 days because students are taking entrance exams. These are exams for grad students which comprise of a written exam and an interview. From what I hear, most of the exams (which differ by subject/department) have you writing two essays in an hour ( Read more... )

So today, I decided to go on bike to this sports equipment store some 10km+ away for the first time. I reasoned that it would be an adventure and provide some exercise, especially since I am resting my ankle right now. No, it is not sprained, I just rolled over it slightly a few days ago and it is a bit sore. Well, despite going there the for the ( Read more... )

So yesterday, I finally had my first conversation practice with my tutor. Here at Tsukuba, a tutor is usually a Japanese student who is paid by the school to help international students. They don't get paid a lot though, something like 40-60 dollars for one semester and I can get help for around 40 hours. I butchered the language quite a bit but ( Read more... )

One thing that was apparent during the trip was that...I did not fit in. I'm not blaming anyone for anything but...I was constantly reminded that I was different. When introduced, I was often "the American." To be fair, I wasn't like everyone else, and it was obvious whenever I spoke. Despite my fluency in the language, I have a distinctive ABC ( ( Read more... )

So, this past weekend I decided to tag along with many Taiwanese students on a trip to Nikko, Tochigi (kudos if you know where it is), even though I am not technically a Taiwanese student abroad in Japan. It was sponsored by some group that fosters Japan-Taiwan relations and we only had to pay for the train ticket to Nikko. It was actually quite ( Read more... )

Rumor has it that someone in my lab (research room) might have swine flu. Not sure how credible it is but I think I should be relatively safe since I doubt the person is coming to the room now. Not that I do that often anyway.

Hmmm...haven't updated in a while. Not much as happened, still trying to learn Japanese while not being very productive. At least the university is closed tomorrow because of a typhoon. Not really sure if we will have to make up the day later though. Somewhat lucky because I have a quiz tomorrow but the classes only meets 10 times a semester so... ( Read more... )

So I went to the Tokyo Game Show this weekend, though it is not exactly in Tokyo (in Chiba, which is another prefecture). It was my first convention/show of any kind and it was pretty fun. Met up with Jamie and two of his friends there and it was nice getting to know a bit about the life of JET, which I was so close to getting ( Read more... )

Back from Day 1 (or 3, depending on how you look at it) of TGS (Tokyo Game Show) where I met up with Jamie and his friends. A bit tired now (slept for a total of...13 hours the last 3 days) so I will give a detailed account later. I do have to say that my first convention was pretty nice. I hate getting up early on the weekends though...