I am two weeks old here in Tokyo, Japan. I am having a great time even though I am terribly missing my family and that most people here do not speak English. I live in Komaba International Student House which is close to the Komabatodaemae Train Station on the Keio Inokashira Line. My days here in Japan have been made easy because Hrvoje Markovic, a Croatian PhD student in Hirota Lab, is helping me to adapt to life here in Japan. Actually, he is the one who welcomed me at Narita Airport. He continues to help me on a day to day basis. I am very grateful to him.
I started attending Japanese lessons on Wednesday, 16 April 2008. I have started with Class A, the lowest level. My classmates are from Indonesia, Phillipines, Bangladesh, Turkey, Iran, Nigeria, Madagascar, Ethiopia, Nigeria and England. Hirakawa-sensei and his team have been super. I am now mastering the Hiragana and Katakana characters. I can now construct a few sentences in Japanese.
On Thursday evening, I attended Jingjing Wang’s birthday dinner in Machida. Jingjing is a Chinese PhD student in Hirota Lab. There was a lot of food. I saw my new friends eating crabs, octopus, sushi etc. I, however, ate only spaghetti with bacon and some pizzas. But it was a great experience for me.
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7 users commented in " Updates from Tokyo "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackIt sounds like you’re adapting very well! I lived in Costa Rica for a while and some other ex-pats were crying daily.
Being so far from home is hard and being surrounded by a foreign language is challenging, but it’ll be great to look back on this and realize how far you’ve come!
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I can’t even imagine how difficult the communication barrier must be! It’s nice you have someone helping you though!
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I’m certain that there is much to get used to over there in Tokyo. It’s really pretty cool that you are learning their language.
However, you need to learn to eat their food too. Sushi is one of the best foods there is and it’s very good for you. Have them hook you up with a California roll… don’t forget the Ponsu sauce with some Wusabi… excellent for the sinuses…
Have fun with it…
Christine
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Hi Clement
)
so you haven’t experienced the cultural shock yet.
when I was studying in Japan it began about one month after my arrival.
gaijin – alien (literal translation
hope you mastered the chopsticks so you can impress your hosts with your skill
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What a great opportunity for you to experience travel abroad! Sounds like you are learning alot and having fun. I stumbled across your blog today and found it very interesting
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Glad you are having a fantastic time in Japan. Two people in my work are really jealous as they are both very keen on going to Japan. Hope all goes well over there!
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Good luck with your lessons and life here, it can be kind of crazy in japan and the language is HARD!
Ken Shibuya´s last blog post..Shibuya Sightseeing- Getting to Shibuya
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