arrival etc.

First post about my second year in Japan! It took a while to get internet on my laptop. So far Kobe seems to be a terrific place. The flight was pretty crappy, since our connecting flight in Paris had a problem and we had to change to another plane. This took several hours so we arrived later than planned.

I took a ferry from Kansai airport to Kobe airport, from which, I could take the port-liner to Port Island, where my dorm is located. It was very sunny and the fair city of Kobe lay sparkly white against the mountain on the other side of the bay, so I had a good impression right away.

The first week has been very busy, and most of it seems spent on asking people for directions. The stations I have to pass through are complicated enough, but the campus is terrible. I was shown the way to, and around the university, but of course I couldn’t remember any of it. And you have to walk way up a mountain slope. But as a payoff you get an extremely nice view.

There were a lot of orientations, of the dorm, my faculty and for international students in general. These were very Japanese, with lots of warnings to put your trash in the right bag, not use drugs, etc., everything illustrated by pictures of cute animals.

My faculty tutor is a master student from Taiwan. She took me for lunch and helped me pick my courses for the coming semester.She`s really nice.

Overall I really like being back in Japan. Everyone is friendly and eager to help. Eating out is still a lot cheaper here than in Holland but as a trade-off supermarket fruit and vegetables are very expensive. Also speaking Japanese for a whole week already seems to improve my level. And I don’t feel tired anymore when using Japanese for a whole day.

As a side note: I forgot how loud it can be here. In shops the staff constantly shouts irrashaimase!,and almost every machine talks to you. And there must have been local elections, because on Port Island cars were riding around the whole day long with people shouting things like “Thank you kindly for your support!” through a megaphone and waving to passersby. Somehow I can’t imagine this will win over any voters.

the pictures above are first of the harbour and Kobe`s landmark Port Tower; the last three are the view from my portliner station, and from my window and the night view from the kitchen balcony. You can see the lights of Kobe sparkling against the mountain! Last one is the view from the international student center.

update:

I`ve been in Japan for almost four weeks now so there`s a lot more to tell. Maybe I`ll update more in the coming week. I decided to write this blog in english so my non-dutch friends could read it too and because I need the practice. I hope this won`t be a problem. You all can read english right!? ;)