Marlene in Japan

Konbanwa! Det är lördagkväll och jag ska strax lägga mig. Imorgon väntar nämligen en hel pluggdag. This post will be about my trip to Shirahama last Wednesday. Shirahama is in Wakayama prefecture and it took around 3,5 h with bus from Osaka. I had read about Wakayama, which is going to have some incredible nature, and also beautiful beaches. What I didn´t know was that it took 3.5 h to get there... Jag hade givetvis kunnat åka senare dit men våra midterms och andra prov börjar komma, hösten börjar glida in osv. Men ja... Jag hade planerat att åka dit, vädret skulle vara bra, jag var ledig och det är faktiskt mindre än 3 månader kvar här nu så jag bestämde mig för att ändå göra en dagsutflykt. Jag begav mig iväg klockan halv 7 på morgonen för att ta mig till bussen i Osaka. Jag bor utanför Osaka så till den stationen jag behövde ta mig till tog det ca 45 min. Efter bussresan ner möttes jag av 30 grader och strålande sol. Shirahama stranden var en folktom, lång vit sandstrand bel

Hey😊, I was planning to write this post last weekend, but it has been super busy with studies and exploring Japan... 😅 So what I´ve been up to. Last week on Wednesday, which is my day off  (I´m trying to go to different places every Wednesday), I went to Osaka. The main reason for visiting Osaka was because I wanted to visit the pop-up Harry Potter store :3 The decoration inside and outside was super detailed which was fun. The shop is called  Mina Lima , they were the ones who made all the props (rekvisita) for the films. There was a lot of stuff I wanted, however, everything inside the shop was really expensive so I didn´t end up buying so much... But to just visit and see all the stuff made my inner "witch" very happy😉 If you don't have any plans to visit Japan, they also have a much bigger store in London (how Can I have missed this?) and an online store. I ended up being in Osaka until 9 o´clock hehe. I have also booked tickets to Universal Studios, can´t

Ohayou! Long-time no see. I haven´t had time to write this last week because we have a lot of homework.. We got tests every week and homework for every class. If you are going to a University in Japan, be prepared to study! But of course, I have had some time to do other stuff also, which will be summarised in this post.  So what have I been up to? I have been to Kyoto one more time with two Swedish guys from my home institution. We went to the Kyoto National museum who had a special exhibition with very, very old things from Japanese culture. Usually, fro what understand, they have a few national treasures. But during this exhibition, they had a lot more. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures, so sorry no pictures from there... At the weekend I went to Rafting (forsränning), and it was super fun. It was arranged by Japanese students from Kansai Gaidai, as an "Experience Japan" activity. Unfortunately, I can´t get the pictures from my camera on my

Saturday I went to Osaka to meet up my speaking partner for the first time. I had trouble getting to Osaka... First, the express train that I have taken before did not go and I didn´t know why... So instead I had to take the local train that stops at every station... Second, when I arrived at the station where I should change trains, I was in such a hurry that I jumped on the right train line, but this train went the wrong way haha -.-' Explanation: It was the so-called "loop line" which means it goes around so both ways, the train stops at every station. I would eventually get to the right station, but instead of taking 5 min, it would have taken like 40 min... So yeah I got off at the next station and jumped on the right one. My speaking partner was super nice and (important) the same height as me (short people club xD). I was so nervous about how it would go with the communication, but we communicated with a mix of Japanese and English. 😊  We ate lunch at a sushi

Small update about my life here in Japan. School started this week, and we have already got homework in every course I´m taking >.<’ It was a while since I had homework actually haha. In Sweden at the university (from what I now) we often don´t have any homework. We have a lot of group work, but not homework that we have to hand in before every class. So far, it´s not so much homework (yet), so I´m fine. I´m used to do everything even if it´s not obligatory. But for people who are not used to it, I guess it can be kind of hard to get into it and plan your time effectively. Today I had my first lesson test, which was a kanji test. I think it went well. Here they have midterms and finals. But during the term we also have lesson tests and class activities that will be counted into the final grade. So yeah, every class performance and every test counts. Ganbatte ne (right?) For instance the final grade in one of the kanji classes is divided as followed: Final exam: 30% Less

Hallu! Then it was time for the big day, a.k.a moving in day to the host family. First, we had a meeting at the campus with the host family to go through some rules, etc. I was so nervous, like where will I live? Will they be nice? What rules do we have to follow? etc. I had to wait in the common room and fill in a paper with questions I already had answered online, don´t know why because we didn´t go through them...  Anyhow, I got called by a staff member who should be with us at the meeting and translate if we didn't understand something. But when we walked towards the host family, another girl was also walking towards them. Oh shit, I thought, now I need to share a room with someone... My mum and I had talked a lot about this, if you share a room with another student then you will talk much more English than Japanese, which runes the point of staying with a family. But it all worked out just fine, we got our own rooms and she seems like a nice person. The house is really big,