#exchange-year

Hello again! I realised that the length of the post I was writing during my flight from Osaka to Hong Kong (final destination London) started to become quite long. Thus, I decided to write another one instead of just one. I’m still in the air, somewhere above Taiwan, which reminded me of my wish to travel to Taiwan this summer! We’ll see what happens...

My travels in Japan started already in October, when Ninni and I decided to head to Wakayama for a mountain hiking trip. Both of us had a long weekend thanks to a national holiday on that Monday, which gave us some extra time to enjoy the last bits of summer. On Friday after school, we took a train to Wakayama, and stayed in a small town for the first night. Early on Saturday morning, we took the first possible bus towards the mountains. During the day, we did a 12-kilometre zigzag hike of ups and downs, the highest 'up' being a bit more than 700 metres above the sea level. We ended up in an onsen (hot spring) village, and enjoyed a night in a ryoukan (traditional Japanese guesthouse). The next days we spent exploring shrines and a beach by the sea - lovely!

My first visitors of the year made their way to Kyoto already in the beginning of November, and they were my friends Anna and Eevert from work and university. They stayed in Japan for a few days, and we were able to meet up couple of times, one of them  being the autumn day at Mount Inari, a mountain filled with small and bigger Shinto shrines and torii gates, from bottom to top.

Later on in November I made my way to Tokyo for the first time, stayed there for three days. I traveled on a night bus which was way cheaper than a bullet train shinkansen would have been (5000 yen vs. 150,000 yen - not a difficult decision with my student budget). In addition, that option gave me three full days in Tokyo as I was able to travel during the night. I was able to stay with my friends Ulla and Eetu for the nights, and spend a nice Sunday with them - we went to Toudaisai, the festival of Tokyo University, and to Harajuku, one of the centres of young spirits, pop culture and delicious crepes. Before that, on Saturday, I did some exploring on my own around the Tokyo Station and famous Shibuya crossroads, and met a friend in the evening. On Monday I was meeting with my ex-roomie, Kassu, since... well, not so long actually, because we had just quite recently met up in Finland, before I moved to Japan. He was doing some job hunting in Tokyo, therefore stayed there for a few months around the time. I headed back to Kyoto on Monday evening, just to make it in time for my Tuesday noon Japanese class!

In December, just before Christmas, Miska came to stay with me in Kyoto for three weeks. We celebrated a bit unusual Christmas as well as New Year here in Japan - it was an experience! I was very happy that Miska had a long Christmas break as mine wasn't as long and I couldn't have travelled for that long time. We went for a small Christmas mountain hike to a mountain close to my home, and after that to Osaka to see their Christmas market. We spent the new year's eve and days with the Suzuki family, who have been having me over various times at their home. We went to visit three shrines just after the year had changed, and the experience was a lot of fun. The rest of the days we stayed home and ate a lot. of super lovely, traditional Japanese food prepared by mother Suzuki.

On a Christmas hike

Osaka Christmas Market

Christmas dinner...

...and desert!

My parents had been planning their trip to Kyoto since I found out that I was accepted to study there. They came during their winter holiday at the end of February. During their holiday, we travelled to Hiroshima and Miyajima for two days. We went to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum as well as Shukkeien garden to enjoy the early spring plum flowers. In Kyoto, I introduced my parents to the places I spend the most of my time: my university, the area where I live, my favourite temples and shrines as well as the Shijo shopping district. In addition, we went to see Nijo castle and the large plum garden We also spent a day in Uji with the Suzuki family, which we all enjoyed a lot. Miska came over for a few days around the same time, which was very nice.

Now, one and a half months have passed since I returned from Finland to Japan, and the life has taken its normal, routined direction. I go to school, study for my courses, and experience Kyoto and other parts of Japan with Ninni and my other friends. In mid-May, Miska’s mother Anni came over for a week after visiting Miska in Hong Kong, and I spent a lot of time with her during the weekend and after school. Soon after that, Miska came over to stay with me during Golden week in the beginning of May, and we had a lovely time exploring Kyoto and bits of Osaka.

Later on in May, my friend Katarina travelled to Japan and stayed with me in Kyoto for a couple of days. During that time, I travelled to lake Biwa for the first time, and we enjoyed the sunset by the lake, looking at the horizon and the clear lake water. After that, I have been a good student and concentrated on my studies, as I needed to try to finish as much work as possible before my small holiday in England..!

Last words of today's first flight

The four hours of my first flight have somewhat vanished while reading my book, writing these two blogpost and eating an early lunch (? I guess not early, I'm just used to late lunches). The food was quite nice, but it appears you have to be very careful not to miss the fast-pacing flight attendants of Cathay Pacific when they serve tea and coffee! The attendant of my line was running through the corridor so fast that she had already well passed me before I was able to react to open my mouth for a 'yes please!' and before she came back, the seatbelt light had already turned on, and tea was served no longer. :< Well, I just have to improve the speed of my reactions for the next flight!! ...which is not easy after 3 hours of very light sleep. (Gosh, the turbulence just now went straight to my toes!) I guess I'll be taking a nice nap on my next, 13-hour flight.

 It's 11am (Japanese time, GMT+8), and I'm on my way to London, England, via Hong Kong. I'm currently above Fukuoka, a southern island of Japan. The weather is clear and sunny, and I can actually see the small islands surrounding Fukuoka, from the height of 12 kilometres! Before I started writing this, I was reading rereading Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone -  in Japanese!! Yes, believe it or not, I have decided to move on to 'real' literature after reading only shortstories and textbook chapters in Japanese so far. I'm a bit slow reader when it comes to more complex Japanese, but I guess it will get easier after I've read a few more pages. ;)

While I was waiting for the boarding to start, I was surprised to notice that this is already my fourth time to fly abroad during my almost nine months of living in Japan. The first one was my trip to Hong Kong for the Chinese New Year around the end of January. I took a few days off from school to enjoy new year festivities with Miska for the second time, the first one being the calendar new year which Japanese celebrate unlike most of the other countries in East Asia. We went to see the new year's parade and fireworks that lasted for more than 20 minutes! We also got to see a special new year horse race - and I've been wanting to see one since I was in primary school. :D It was also nice to be able to see Miska after only three weeks, when he came to visit me for Christmas.

New Year parade

Fireworks

Fluffy and colourful lions were everywhere during the week - even at the horse race!

Po Lin Monastery

The second trip was on my a spring holiday in March, when Miska and I went to Vietnam for a week, and then I came with Miska to Hong Kong for another week. Vietnam was an amazing experience. For the first time, I travelled only with a 30-litre backpack to make our travel trough Vietnam more flexible. We started from Da Nang, then made our way to lovely Hoi An for a couple of days. After that, we took a 10-hour night train towards south, to Nha Trang, and spent the last days there. Food was good, snorkeling was amazing and exploring ancient Hindi ruins was more than fun! The weather was hot, which made things a bit difficult, but we survived and enjoyed the holiday a lot. The second week, the one in Hong Kong, the two of us were suffering from noro virus, and as a result, we didn't really get to enjoy the city together that much. However, on one of our 'better days' we went to Victoria Garden to enjoy the Flower Festival of beautiful flowers, gardens and interesting flower installations.

The third flight took me to a surprise trip back to Finland in the beginning of April. The sad reason behind it was my Grandma Eija's passing. However, I was glad that I was able to make it to her funeral, thanks to my parents support with flight tickets, and to help with funeral arrangements as well. We were able to create a memorial service that really looked like my Grandma. I'm sure she would have loved the colourful flowers that represented her wonderful garden at her home by the sea and dozens of beautiful flower paintings she created, photo collages of her and the family and friends, and the mood we were able to create at her apartment, where the memorial service took place. She was very much loved. Everytime I see beautiful flowers, I think of her and try to capture them with my camera, and show her the scenary in my mind.

My Grandpa ♥

And now, I'm on my fourth trip from Japan, and on my way to England, to the wedding of my English sister, Olivia. (Hah, I can almost see the humour in the contrast of my last to trips.) The wedding is in a week (!!!) and I'm looking forward to all the excitement and organising there will be! I'm one of the three bridesmaids, and I've been doing some wedding shopping in Japan. I can't wait Olivia, Steph and Lucie to actually see what I've bought. :) I'm sure the wedding will be lovely, and I can't wait to share photos later! I've also promised to document the ceremony and other parts of the wedding with my camera, and I'm thrilled to see my new-ish camera in a new type of action.

Hello there! :)

It’s been exacly three months since I left Finland and started my voyage in East Asia. Kyoto, the former capital of Japan, was to become my new home town - the fourth town in a third country I have lived in during my life.

Here we go, Asia calling!

On my way to Japan

On Wednesday 7 September I took of and headed to Hong Kong, the first destination of my journey. Miska had already left for Hong Kong three weeks earlier, and I was happy to be able to see him for a little while before the beginning of the longest break we’ve ever had before.

We spend four days together in Hong Kong visiting interesting places and experiencing both funny and wonderful situations. I saw huge and expensive shopping centres of Wan Chai, night-lit streets of Mong Kok, and the wonderful night scenary of Hong Kong island from the Peak. We ate street food and drank many mugs of bubble and milk tea - which was not Yorkshire tea but good as well in its own way. I was also able to see the university Miska is studying at while he was attending a lecture on Friday.

My four days in Hong Kong were super exiting and full of new experiences.

I had a lot of fun with Miska in Hong Kong. On the evening of Sunday 11 September I headed to the Hong Kong airport. After a night flight, I would land in Japan. Next time, Miska will be the one coming to visit me, and in Japan.

Miska and I on a tram in Hong Kong.

Life in Kyoto

I landed in Kansai Airport very early on Monday morning. There was a lot of paperwork at the border, but everything went surprisingly smoothly. My landlady came to meet me at the airport, and thanks to her, getting to my new apartment in Kyoto was nice and easy. During my first two weeks in Kyoto, I tried to familiarise myself with my surroundings. The school hadn’t yet started, which meant that I had time for that. On the other hand, I didn’t do that much touristy things. Nevertheless, the first two weeks were a much needed calm start for my year as the last months, especially the last few weeks, had been so stressful.

When I got here, the weather was still very summery, and I mean that on a Japanese scale. That means too hot for a Northern European girl. In addition the the heat, the air was very humid, which made the weather feel even warmer than it was. Air conditioning at home saved me many times.

Luckily, now it’s already December, and during the last couple of weeks, the weather has actually become quite cool and a coat of some sort is a must-have. On the other hand, it’s not that cold yet. I’m under the impression that the winter will be coldest in January and February, and during those months, there might even be a thin layer of snow for a few days..! Autumn leaves have been very beautiful this year - Japanese koujou really reminds me of Finnish ruska.

Enjoying the autumn and life in Kyoto.

I really enjoy living in Kyoto. This is a very beautiful city full of history, culture and art. I love the fact that even though the size of Kyoto is bigger than Helsinki, the nature seems and feels to be very close. There are many gardens and trees, even in the city centre, and mountains and forests surround Kyoto from all sides.

Studying in a Japanese university

Studying here is both interesting and frustrating. Even on master’s level, all the courses are in Japanese. If I’m lucky, there might be a few lectures partially in English. Although I have studied Japanese and I’m still studying, the first quarter of my studies here has been difficult. Native speakers speak very fast, and it seems like the Kansai way of speaking is even faster than in other parts of Japan.

There has been a clear improvement already, and my Japanese has gotten better in stages. I’m looking forward to the next stages of improvement as it will take me closer to point when I can properly understand lectures and conversations. I have realised that I’ve already gotten better at speaking, listening, reading and writing. I’m studying Japanese daily to make this process as fast as possible. :) I hope I will see more results soon!

So, all my courses are in Japanese. In addition to the ones from my field, I have three Japanese classes a week. I have found them very useful, too, and I’m happy that this school offers some Japanese courses. For two of the classes, we have a reading homework for every lecture - that is to read a short story in Japanese and discuss it with the class. I’ve found this really useful as I get to read different things that will improve my vocabulary and grammatical thinking.

A rainbow monument at the campus.

In addition to different courses I’m taking, I’m part of the Interactive Intelligence Laboratory at the university. The teams of the laboratory have their own rooms, and in our room all of us have our own desks to work on our projects and courses. Having your own desk in a team room is very useful if there is a longer gap in the middle of the day or if there are many things you need to carry around during the day (me almost every day). I’m also part of something I like to call Project X - it’s a project that is done in collaboration with a large Japanese company and, therefore, quite a few parts of the project are still secrets. I’m pretty exited about that project as well! :)

Other thoughts

Nine years ago, when I moved to England, I realised that moving abroad, even within Europe, can be hard and difficult. So far, living in Japan has been surprisingly normal. Maybe that is thanks to my previous experience living abroad - I knew that things can get difficult and when they are, I kind of see them normal as difficult things are kind of the normal when you’re moving into a new country and culture, and communicating using a new and foreign language.

Overall, the first three months of my voyage have been very interesting and full of learning and experiencing. I’m happy that the majority of the year is still ahead of me, but I’m also happy that I get a small break from my usual life here in Kyoto, when Miska comes over. Miska is going to come to Kyoto in less than two weeks! And the best part is, that he will be staying for three weeks, which gives us plenty of time to both relax and experience Japan.