大土産 - One Year in Japan

I've been extremely busy with the last months in Japan I didn't have time to edit photos or write the blog! I'm leaving Japan tomorrow morning for Seoul and I will fly back to Finland on Monday... But do not worry! I will update the blog even though I'm back in Finland since there is still photos to be shown and stories to be told!

Moomin Milk Salmon Soup

I'm happy that Japan tries to recycle especially since a lot of people live here. But yeah notice the word "tries"... The thing is that yes I might be used to the Finnish way of recycling which I think it's pretty neat and makes sense. Japan though could do some things a bit differently to actually recycle...

Let's talk about Finland first! The cans, plastic and glass bottles are returned to the store and you get money from that for returning them. They will use them again for new bottles, etc. Then we have one for paper which is also used again. There is also cardboard one. Then the household ones are the bio one (which mostly has food waste) and the leftover one with everything else. Most of the time you make something new out of the waste except the leftovers.

Now in Japan I'm happy that they have a separate garbage for plastic, and I hope they re-use it. They also collect bottles and cans but you don't get money back... Oh well at least they have a searate one for them. But then there is the burnable one... The rest goes there. Food and paper. In a country that likes magazines and prints that much they actually separate paper that could be re-used into burnable one... which is burned to the atmosphere!?!? It doesn't help anything... Also I don't know how many households make soil out of the biowaste in Japan. It's common in Finland. So wasteful it almost makes me cry...

So I came to Japan in august and since then I've lived in a dorm. It is the smallest and oldest of the dorms but I don't know what is the exact number of people living here... Under 100? The first floor has rooms for men and the 2nd floor is for women. We both have our own toilets, shower rooms, laundry room and a kitchen. The lounge for everyone is on the 1st floor and computer room on the 2nd floor. I live with another girl in the same room but there is couple rooms that have only one person.

How is it to live in a dorm like this? Well I have to say that in a way it took some time to get used to it but then again I had set my brain that 'this is the way I live now so live your life like you used to'. The hardest part has been getting used to not being alone. This year has been totally opposite to my last year in my Finnish student apartment when I was mostly alone and there were days I didn't say anything outloud for a few days... except the cashier at a supermarket. But I like being alone, though maybe not that alone... Because of that it took some time to actually get used to having someone else almost all the time in the same room as you. The good thing is that I got perfect roommate for my first semester that we even spent the winter holiday together and we have been roommates in spring semester too. She is quiet just like me, likes kpop and Asian dramas, and we go to sleep around the same time! :D We get along well~ One of the best things is that she doesn't snore when she sleeps!!! I can't sleep when it's noisy, no matter what the noise is so it was a miracle I got a perfect quiet roommate! haha The interesting thing about me living in the same room with another person everyday, is that I'm not that worried about my future when it comes to relationship. I've been worrying about when I'll get a boyfriend and I should move in with him, can we really find something to talk and do everyday?! But I think I've found the answer and that is "yes".

As for other people living in this dorm...... Not so positive image about them. There are some really nice people I chat sometimes when I'm in the kitchen but then there is the others that really annoy me! Most of the people left from the first semester so here's now a lot of new people. Things that annoys me the most is that so many of them were/are ignorant people. They are loud, they can't clean or they forget things were they don't belong. It seems that they are too comfortable to be here and forgetting that it's not actually their home where they can do anything. Last semester the dishes were a big problem. We had a lot of notes on the walls but it still seemed to be so hard to wash the dishes after you used them. Another thing was being loud in the hallway especially during quiet hours. I heard people talking in normal voice when you were supposed to be quiet and let me tell you, I can hear everything. Like I've seen some people skyping in the hallway and I've felt like going up to them: "you might not disturb your roommate but now not only will she hear, but everyone else what you're talking about."

Then there is the ignorance of not following the Japanese rules... Basically I mean recycling.

It takes you two seconds to take the labels off... Even after 4 months some still didn't do this. >_> I've also seen whole bag of bread in burnable bin (only the bread belongs there, not the bag), full set of yogurt cups (the lid and label are burnable, cup is plastic and I guess yogurt belong to the drain...) The reason why I get so annoyed by these things is that I don't want to be blamed. The Japanese culture works as a group so if someone makes a mistake the whole group will suffer. I'm not kidding when I say that the garbage men will call your boss that you did not recycle how you were supposed to... I also think that not recycling means that you don't respect the culture as much as you should. We make mistakes because it's not our culture but I think recycling is very easy compared to some Japanese social codes...

There is also a lot of other things that annoy me like the neighbour's dog that barks non-stop when it starts barking. Pretty sure the owners never thaught it to be alone so it barks when it's lonely... But why is the dog always barking outside!?!? And the neighbours were complayining about the noise some exchange students made at the park but what about the fucking dog that barks everyday many times, usually first at 10am for like 15 minutes... Also, this semester the neighbour room girl has a guy visiting almost everyday and I can hear him talk and it's annoying. This bass mumbling... Not only that but one of the girls like to talk in the morning around 8 non stop! I guess she is skyping but doing that everyday!? AT 8 IN THE MORNING WHEN I TRY TO SLEEP!?!? So annoying...

This happened some time ago, my Japanese anime loving friend asked me if I wanted to come with her to anime shops. She also asked if I wanted to go to anime cafe and yes sure I wanted a new experience! We went to Animate shop in Osaka which also has a cafe. The theme at that time was Brothers Conflict and I hadn't watched the anime at that time but I wanted to go there anyway and see what it's like. The anime theme changes from time to time for example in Tokyo they had Free! at that time. There has also been for example Magi, Prince of Tennis, Uta no Prince-sama.

To get to the cafe you have to make a reservation (in Japanese). Choose the time you want to go and how many people. My friend did the reservation so I can't really talk much about how to do it. When you arrive at the reserved time you have to tell your name, reservation number and also show some kind of id. According to my friend it hasn't always been that strict.

Inside the cafe is decorated with posters of the anime and they show episodes on tv. Also the theme music plays in the background. The worker took us to our table and a bit later on when everyone were seated you could the instructions. I didn't really listen since I had a Japanese friend who would explain to me later on but it was about how to order and what comes with it, etc. But you had a paper which you wrote your order.

The menu was based on the characters. I took Iori's cake and Natsume's melon soda with ice cream for a drink. When you bought something you could get free goods, coaster or a bookmark. They would be random. Since I didn't know the characters at that time I picked my favourites based on what they looked like. (I've seen so many animes I can tell about the character's personality by what they look like lol) I chose Iori and Masa. My friend likes Subaru because she is a huge Daisuke Ono fan. haha I got Tsubaki and my friend got Subaru coasters. I also got a bookmark with several characters. My friend said that since Tsubaki is one of the popular characters we might be able to trade him with someone else. At the end the girl next to our table actually asked can we trade and she had Iori! :D I also got a padge for the bookmark.

But before that while eating you could get the badges from gatcha machines. You could take photos inside so I spent my time doing that before our food arrived. The food was delicious! I also tasted the omurice and it was good.

At one point we all did rock paper scissors with one of the staff. I won the first round but lost the second. I think you could've win some coupons or something like that. Anyway I had fun and I had to watch Brothers Conflict after that! I was right about my favourite character in the end. haha

Hanami time came to Kansai area and it was like that for couple weeks. It is still quite on! Too bad I have school until late and I've been having tests (I will have more again. OTL) so I haven't been able to enjoy them as much as I would like. But I have taken photos at a few places, also from Tokyo! It has been raining but I've still tried to get the shots when I've had freetime!

I would've like to spend some real hanami, sakura viewing, but no time for that! Also, crowded place with drunken people, not really a place I like to be. haha We did have a small "picnic" with my friend at the Osaka Expo park though (since we had to eat)...

So I've decided only to take photos and appreaciate the beauty while walking past the trees. There is quite many trees all over the place so you don't even need to go for a certain place to see them. Just walk a bit outside, especially if you find a river you should find cherry blossoms.

The trees are not the only place you can see sakura. I've seen sakura in different ads and foods. I think good example is McDonalds which this year too has some special sakura burgers and drinks!