Tasks, Presentations, Field trips and Parties.

Hello world,

Couldn’t update blog regularly as I was overwhelmed by tons of homework, presentations and other activities in the past month. I had things to do every day, sometimes I didn’t even know where to start as there were many things needing to be done. But finally, they are all over and now I can relieve and think about my trip on winter break. 

Well, in the last two weeks of November, we went to see Sumo as I mentioned in my last post. It was very exciting! Like you see your favorite football team play and enjoy every moment of the match. Can’t explain with my humble English, you’ve gotta go and see! I took a video but can't upload it on here :(

We also went to Fukuoka City Museum for our field trip. Nothing much except for the costume corner where we tried on costume of asian countries. There were Áo dài and other traditional clothes of Vietnamese ethnic groups but I tried the Korean one - hanbok. Another field trip was visiting shrines and temples in Hakata which is one of two downtown cities in Fukuoka. After that, two friends and I went to Canal City for lunch and window shopping. Around 5pm, we left for a Vietnamese restaurant in Hakozaki after meeting a Japanese girl in Tenjin. But none of us knew the way well so we walked around that area nearly 1 hour and found the place after almost getting lost. It was nice to meet Vietnamese there, but the food was not the one I expected. It didn’t look like and taste like the one I often eat. Anyway it was fine as I am in Japan, not Vietnam. But my friends seemed to enjoy their meals (the Thai girl ordered spring rolls with noodle, the Japanese girl ordered a set including Pho and spring rolls).

Me in Hanbok, with Indonesian friend

Doing fun

Posing with momiji in front of the museum

Phở Hanoi in the Vietnamese restaurant

Katsudon - deep fried pork with vegetable and rice - my lunch in Hakata

I saw my host family in late November and earlier December. There were only me and host mother in the meeting in November as her kids were busy with homework. She took me to eat sushi and visit Kashi and Hakozaki shrines after. Both of them were nice but I prefer the Kashi one. It took me time to walk around Kashi shrine, but I could see people life in peaceful surroundings and enjoyed lovely nature. In the meeting in December, we, including the host mother, her kids and me, went to botanical garden and zoo. I had much of fun with them! The kids were very lovely. They sang Arashi and Big Bang songs all the time on the way to the garden. I don’t know many Japanese songs but at least I could join them to sing “Fantastic Baby” by Big Bang, which was very funny. After having lunch at the botanical garden, we went to see animals in the zoo and played some games at a theme park which is located inside the zoo. I don’t remember exactly when I last played in a theme park, but I did do it again at the age 21 with those lovely kids, and I even felt asleep on the car on the way back. Ahhh, stay young!

with host mother in Kashi shrine

 

with host family's kids

At the theme park - forever youuuuung!

Botanical garden

There were a couple of parties held a past few weeks. With more than 100,000 yen we made by selling green curry and cookies in a school festival in October, WJC students and JD mate had a party with karaoke in Tenjin. After that, some of us went to see light illumination decorated for Xmas and New year before going back to the dorm. There were many people going to see and take photos with the illumination and so did we. We took lots of photos and really enjoyed it! It was another weekend I went hard!

with friends at the light illumination place

Light illumination

Last week WJC students held an early Xmas party as after Friday we will be on our own way for winter break. People cooked tons of food. 3 of Vietnamese students including me made Bánh cuốn (rolling pan cakes) and one made chiffon cake. Another night having fun and being full! Felt like I could get 3 kilos I have lost so far back. 
 

Xmas party with tons of food

I had a presentation in Japanese on Monday this week. The topic was about Fukuoka and Hanoi yatai. We were very worried about that presentation as we are beginners, our Japanese is limited and it is really challenging for us to talk in Japanese in front of many people whose Japanese is much better than ours. But we all did well.  Japanese tests were also finished yesterday and today. Eventually I get everything done! Now, it’s time to relax and go! Osaka and Hiroshima, here I come! 

After presentations

with teacher and classmates

Một người bạn đã viết cho tôi thế này: “Being away from home has it struggles but when you get home and look back on this time you will ask yourself did you live the experience to the fullest potential? Make sure the answer is yes”. Đúng thế, tôi yêu từng khoảnh khắc tôi đã và đang có ở đây, cho dù đó là vui hay buồn, tôi đều trân trọng vì tôi biết tôi không thể có được những điều đó ở những nơi khác. Chỉ có ở đây, Nhật Bản này, xa nhà, với những người bạn không hẹn mà gặp, với những cảm xúc ấy.   

Busy days

          This is a busy and difficult month of mine. Everyone has been busy with researches, classes, field trips and other activities. We all are craving for a long enough sleep or a real day off but it seems hard. For me, classes are not a big problem, but I have been low this time due to being hit by homesickness.

In the first month, I was super excited discovering new place and new things, my mind was busy thinking and taking everything. Then the homesickness came all of a sudden and made me feel bad as if I was sick.  At the moment I feel better but haven’t recovered yet. I was trying to keep myself busy. Before going I hadn't thought I would be affected by homesickness as I was tough but I was wrong. Anyway I’ve got a new experience and understand more the value of family which I wouldn’t know if I still stayed at home. 

Besides that dumb feeling, other things of mine were good. We had a very great time at English Camp with a bunch of fun physical games like dodgebee, treasure hunt as well as interesting lectures. 

Pic taken in english camp

a part of the place we stayed during english camp

Playing dodgebee

The field trip to Dazaifu was nice as well. Dazaifu, which is nearly 1 hour driving from the school, is quiet and peaceful place with a large space, green fields, small houses and lovely flower fields. Dazaifu was the imperial office governing in Kyushu. In the period of Nara and Heian and even Kamamura, it was one of the military and administrative centers of Japan. In the field trip, we went to Government Office Ruins, Kanzeonji, which is a temple of Tendai sect of Japanese Buddhism and Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine that  inspired me the most. 

A park near dazaifu tenmangu

 a street in Dazaifu

Me in front of mandarin tree at government office ruins

 Dazaifu Tenmangu is located on the grave of Sugawara no Michizane, who is considered as the god of the education and wisdom today. The shrine reminded me of Temple of Literature (Văn Miếu) in Hanoi due to the image of a carp leaping over the dragon’s gate on the shrine’s front gate. For Vietnamese, the image of a carp successfully jumping over the dragon’s gate is a symbol of courage, perseverance, and accomplishment, which is used to say about students’ academic success. This culture derived from China. I’m not sure if Japanese people know that legend but it seems we share some cultural similarities. After the trip, I realized we don’t necessarily have to leave Fukuoka to find an oasis from urban commotion, just choose to take a bus and head mere one hour south to the wooded temple enclave of Dazaifu. It is an ideal place to visit with small-town charm, boast temples, old-fashioned tourist shops and pilgrims on the hunt for spiritual enlightenment.

 The carps and dragons image on the front gate of dazaifu tenmangu

Dazaifu Tenmangu

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The unique StarBucks in Dazaifu

In another field trip, we went to Fukuoka castle which was completed in the early Edo period for Kuroda Nagasama. In the past it was very huge but at the moment it is just ruins. But we used tablets with GPS animation on them so we could see all images of the whole castle when it was standing. What a great tour!

A yellow leave tree in Fukuoka castle - the winter is coming

In japanese class, we learnt how to make miso soup that is a traditional japanese meal as well as japanese table manner. It was very interesting and practical as there were many things I hadn't known before and now I can apply what I've learnt in the class while visiting my host family.

Traditional japanese meal - miso soup (left), rice and some vegetable

I went to a spanish restaurant last week with my jd mate, enjoyed super duper delicious food and spoke spanish which I always want to do.

A huge lunch with chorizos, grinned potato, salad and bread

Live music at the restaurant

Tomorrow, I’m going to see Sumo Tournament in the downtown Fukuoka. It seems exciting! Two presentations (in Japanese) are waiting. And the 2^nd host family meeting is on Saturday 23^rd. Busy month! Yes, it isssssss!

Fukuoka - The first month

It has been one month since the day I reached Fukuoka. Living far from home, I already missed everything in Hanoi. I miss Phở, Bánh mỳ ( Vietnamese bread), Bánh bao (Vietnamese dumpling with pork and eggs) that I ate every morning. I miss my blue scooter that I used to travel to school everyday. I miss my friends who always chatted with me. And I miss my mom and dad. I thought I wouldn't miss them that much but I did actually. I always wait to talk to them on skype every weekend. Now I understand the feeling people call "homesick".

I did many things in the past one month. WJC students, including me, had the first field trip to Kirishima and Kumamoto. In Kirishima, we stayed in japanese inn, wore yukata and did onsen (hot spring) for the first time. However, my skin seemed not to be interested in the onsen. It got scratchy after that and I have seen doctor four times so far. We moved to Kumamoto the day after to visit a castle. The castle was nice. We went to the top, took photos and had fun together. Then, we went to pick pears in a local garden. The pear I picked was 1.4 kg and super sweet. The pears were 700 yen per one but we had them for free :P

Japanese inn

Yukata for the first time

 

Kumamoto castle

The gang in front ot Kumamoto castle

The surroundings of my dorm is kind of boring (although it's peaceful) so we often go to Tenjin or Hakata at the weekend. At my first time in Tenjin, my Thai friend took me to a famous bakery. The cakes were super delicious, but kind of expensive. Japanese cakes are great in general actually. I have to say they have brought food appetite back to me.  And at the moment, I'm feeling fat :(((

I also went to Fukuoka Tower, which is the tallest beach tower in Fukuoka. It's also called Lovers Sanctuary as couples often come here for dating. There are lots of locks with couples' names and promises on them. From the top of the tower, you can see the entire view of the city. We did and it was amazing. And when we just got out the tower, we saw lots of people dancing flashmob in front of the gate. It turned out that a guy was about to propose a girl. Then we decided to become a part of that special event as flashmobbers. My friends seemed very happy and they kept saying "oh my god", "i wish someone did the same thing to me".

View from Fukuoka Tower

Love locks

Fukuoka is a rich cultural city so there are many festivals all year round. One called lantern festival in early October took place in Kira Town ( kira means sparkling in english) and almost WJC students went there.  We were given lighters to lighten hundreds of lanterns in the town. At 6pm, the festival started. People lightened every candle in the lanterns and after 20 or 30 mins, Kira town became very sparkling with fanciful candles.

As I mentioned in the previous post, Vietnamese students quickly got close to Thai students. But sadly, one of them, Hoong, who came here 6 months ago, had to go back to Thailand due to some course's change in her home university. On the day before she left, we went to Fubar for her farewell party. There was a drink buffet called nomihoudai in japanese, and usually you pay a single entrance fee which is 2000yen for girls and 3000yen for the guys. But we just paid 1000 yen as it was on Friday and we were students. I drank some kinds of cocktails and a shot of tequila and danced a lot. We stayed there till over 2am and got the dorm around 3am. It was a pretty awesome night! The day after I tried to get up early to see Hoong before she went to the airport. It was so sad to see her leaving. We keep in touch with each other on facebook or talk on skype sometimes at the moment but it would be better if she were still here.

Hoong's leaving party

That crazy night!

Okonomiyaki with cheese and mochi (japanese sticky rice)

Today, I had a first meeting with my host family. It's a family of five people: the couple called Mr. and Mrs. Shiraishi and 3 kids, but I didn't meet the husband today as he is in Tokyo at the moment. According to Mrs. Shiraishi, Mr. Shiraishi will be home in December and I'll see him around that time. But I had a very good time with Mrs. Shiraishi and the kids. I gave the kids snacks and Mrs. Shiraishi a Vietnamese wall carpet and she appeared to like it a lot. We cooked and ate okonomiyaki together. The kids couldn't speak English but Mrs. Shiraishi could. She even wanted to speak English to me while I tried to speak Japanese as much as I could so we ended up doing both Japanese and English. It was very fun! Around 7pm, the family took me home by car. On the way back we dropped in a convenient store and Mrs.Shiraishi bought me a chocolate cake. I´ll be seeing them again on the 6th November and Mrs. Shiraishi said she would take me to the elementary school where two of her kids are studying. So excited to see them again!

A bit about my classes. Japanese class is very fun. We study very - basic - but - useful things. As people here are not good at english and they don´t even want to speak english, I try to study and speak japanese as much as I can. I make mistakes most of the time but it´s good to study from your mistakes. It´s really cool to talk to people in japanese. In the afternoon I study some subjects in english. Less interesting than japanese class but anyway so far so good!