Constantly updated – Odd things

So I didn’t really want to make a blog for each time I take a single photo because it’s really funny but doesn’t really have a story, so I think I’ll just constantly update this with random photos and a little caption for each one! Starting with the latest photo I have taken so you don’t have to scroll every time 🙂

Also, at the very top of the blog is a little box of links to all the ‘Constantly Updated’ posts, so if you want to bookmark them, or find them quickly, you can 

 

 

This is a fun courgette! It was yummy and cost the same as a normal one so I got this haha!

You can get these beetles in little plastic tubs here; along with loads of other kinds of trapped species; I have seen jellyfish and shrimp too. I feel really bad for them; especially as the jellyfish died a few days after I saw it

The whole beetle care section

Japan is a little late on the named coke!

Japan does this thing. Dessert sandwiches.

GIANT

These are egg mayo sandwiches that are somehow not in the fridge and have pressed edges. Perfect for the fussy kid??

The largest size in women’s shoes I have found in Japan, in case no one believed me. I am doomed to be deprived of adorable shoes.

For the street drinker in you! A litre of beer in a vending machine. Wow.

The salarymen in 2 by 2, hurrah, hurrah!! These guys wander around in two lines, in height order with the same outfit and case. Where’s Neo then?

I have been wondering around Japan in this 20-30 degree heat wanting to be in a paddling pool with someone holding a BBQ. However the Japanese seem to think it’s still cold and are wearing hoodies and coats. If I told anyone from the UK to dress for the 22 degree heat in which this was taken, I imagine there’s be shorts and crop tops. Not raincoats!!!

In the dorm loos. Be warned bog roll thieves! You will be arrested!

I know Japan is very wasteful, but really?? Individually wrapped jelly beans?!

These guys are like the ice cream trucks back home, except they do baked potatoes. Song and all.

I went out without looking at which shoes I was putting on and accidentally ended up looking pretty fly.

Japan sells bread in small portions and always without end pieces. However, 2 slices was too funny not to post!

Occasionally my hob does this. It worries me somewhat.

This is a poster for train safety. Or rather for not being so safe. I don’t care how drunk the little plastic man is, I’m sure he shouldn’t look so happy about his current predicament!

Strawberry jelly that looks like…. well.

This is a link to a video I shot of the wind doing fun things to the dust on the sports pitch outside my window:

http://youtu.be/Mf49Kyoy6u8

“The Natural Ideal style of eating vegetable”

Apparently cheap scissors are like onions…

Note to self: pay attention when putting rice on; if the pot isn’t in the cooker don’t put the rice in….

For a country so proud of their rubbish separation (by the way Japan, other countries recycle too, you’re not some overlord of rubbish separation), they use a stupid amount of plastic. The first thing I noticed was that every single shop tapes the things you buy; if you have a bag they tape it closed or if you don’t need a bag then they tape the items individually. I wonder how many tonnes of plastic they waste a year taping stuff?! And it’s very annoying if you want to get into the damn bag when you walk out the shop! But not only the tape, Japan has this obsession with wrapping EVERYTHING in plastic individually too; take these postcards for example. The only reason I can think of for their plastic covers is so that they can place that little blue tape somewhere without ruining the card itself…. Stop it Japan! This is bordering on lunacy!! Covering bits of paper in plastic so the other plastic you want to cover it in doesn’t mark the card…. just don’t use the tape in the first place!!

I made pancakes with Sam last night and I magically made this cat paw!

These are backpacks for school children. For about £350. THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY. Seriously?!

So they really do deliver! In adorable McVehicles no less!

So in Japan it’s tradition to get your Christmas dinner at KFC…. apparently this gives them the right to terrify small children and anyone who (used to before this) loves Santa!!

My umbrella seems to have a glitch… (yes I bought one even though I hate the damn things, but this one is pretty and if you don’t have an umbrella you have no defense agaist others’ waepons!)

Another work related post; they also made me write a self intro sheet, I guess so that students can judge me before they come along!

In oral class we got given this sheet which is from m first year textbook! A blast from the past Mr. Miller…

For a country that doesn’t really do Christmas, they certainly go all out on the decorations! It seems rather random to me; it would be like buying all the fireworks for November 5th but never lighting them…

Why are tomatoes pink in Japan?

So I started my job on October 24th but no one came to the English speaking session so they found me something else to do! I had to write a book review for them to put up near their tiny library. Sadly the only book they had that I had read was twilight >.> However, I was really surprised when they had actually put up a big display about it! The following week I had conversations though so that was more fun 🙂

Clearly the animators of this anime didn’t care much for the tween shots!

Seriously, who gets bitten on the palm?!

I ask you; “the developing of harmful insects” ??! I love Engrish!

Creepy bug that was chilling outside my door this morning. Blegh.

It seems this cubic mouth thing is actually something; these were in a big department store!! How weird…

Sooooo, a puzzle with weirdly square mouthed Disney characters?!

Constantly Updated – Cool things!

I was updating my ‘Odd Things’ post with more pictures and realised that some of the things I’ll be taking photos of that don’t need their own whole post aren’t ‘odd’ but ‘cool’! So this is where the cool photos are from now on 🙂

Also, at the very top of the blog is a little box of links to all the ‘Constantly Updated’ posts, so if you want to bookmark them, or find them quickly, you can 🙂

Sakura KitKat

And it’s actually pink!

Mitch and I have tickets to so many things!!

Japan and Marlene have introduced me to golden kiwi fruit; it’s delicious 🙂

So you know underground car parks? Well Japan cycles so much that they have them for bikes!!!

They even have a thingy which pulls your bike up for you!

I bought the Japanese guide for my Japanese version of Zelda and now I can finally get past damn Jubajuba! It counts as practice 😛

I love these hair extensions!

I got my own ice lolly makers 😀

My first ice lolly of many this summer

Marlene taught me how to make cute paper hearts 🙂

Marlene and I made omerice and curry sauce one night; it was yummy!

Dessert!

I bought bear tights!!

I started cheerleading!!! It’s great fun 🙂

The ends of the temporary fences are so much cooler in this land

booze post! I ordered alcohol from amazon, I didn’t know you could do that!

A nice Starbucks person drew me a smiley face 🙂

Delivery company with a man powered delivery tuck. Love this.

My present for doing another research thing for my teachers

I recently aquired chairs and a blanket to make a sofa on my balcony!!

I started learning German!

Best ice lolly ever; watermelon covered in soda chocolate with chocolate ‘seeds’

This little guy was huge! About the size of your thumb. Just chilling out in my halls.

I bought a polaroid!!

The only way to revise; with my new favourite alcohol that Japan has revealed to me! Cassis and orange juice

I got a once-a-month job as an English conversation person and this is the nice entrance

Bekah as a ginger!!

And Sam as a ginger!!

They drew on the cups 🙂

My friend Robin drew me. The expression pretty much sums us all up in that particular class!

I retail therapied myself and bought all the Harry Potters in Japanse!!

I also bought a candle which makes my room a lot cosier 🙂

The last in the set!!

I started football!! Yay! I have been going for a few weeks now and I’m really enjoying it; the girls are all lovely and it’s awesome Japanese practice 🙂

You can get anime themed juice at convenience stores!!

I have recently learnt to make my hair do this 😀

My hair in those big curls making excellent antennae

So most men in Japan have these wonderful and stylish manbags and I just love it! I had to snap a sneaky pic of this guy’s as it was just so designer looking 😛

The manager of the football team went home to Kyoto for a bit and brought back these amazing matcha biscuits; they were really sweet and had white chocolate in them 😀

In class our yes/no cards got updated from bits of paper to proper little paddle things! They’re so cute!

Practical Japanese; this id how I learnt the word for graze!!

This, my dear friends, is my booking for KFC on Christmas day. Bitchin’! KFC wont know what hit them when we turn up… I might wear a Santa hat and everything.

On my way to the immigration bureau to pick up my forms, there was this funky tower. I don’t know what it is but I liked it.

Some pretty trees on the walk to the Bureau! Which actually only took 20 mins; quicker than waiting for and riding the bus and much prettier and cheaper too!

A nice view of Tachikawa station plaza

I had jacket potato at Sam’s! I miss ovens >.<

It was cold so we hid in the duvet 🙂

I found my university advertised on the tissue packets they give out! That’s something Japan does; gives out little packets of tissues with adverts in. I reckon it’s awesome as I’m way more likely to take the advert and then never need to buy tissues! Sadly this would just end up going very wrong in England…

Bekah, Sam and I had a DS party 🙂

This cost me about 60p….. It’s huge!!!

A photo I forgot I had from when we went to Ikea; I fit inside this egg chair just for kicks!

I bought a spray art from a guy in Ikebukuro and now all my photos are making the best ever frame 🙂

I bought another Nanoblock Pokemon 🙂

Mitch sent me flowers from 6000 miles away. Who said long distance relationships don’t work! He’s a cutie ❤

I couldn’t resist this from a 100 yen shop; it says Cat, What makes you so happy?

Oh I don’t know, maybe because it’s filled with CHOCOLATE!

I used the wrapping from my flowers to cover my bedside table 🙂 Much prettier!

I realised that this is probably something I should put on the blog as it’s really not something we have in England! Everywhere you go in Japan there are vending machines. Including in front of my dorms, in front of my lecture building, in the stations, randomly on street corners etc. They sell everything from biscuits to ice cream to canned coffee and some, like the one in the photo, are totally digital; you can pay using your Pasmo or Suica (Japanese Oyster Card) and they even have built in bins for when you have finished your drink. They’re so great! They don’t cost more than the shops either so if you’re thirsty they rock! Good ol’ Japan and its convenient stuff.

My wall of photos above my bed! It’s very comforting to have these all here, and with all the purikura I’m doing the collage is getting slowly bigger!

I have seen nanoblocks in England before, but not Pokemon ones!!!

Lots of tiny bricks

partway through

Done! Isn’t he adorable!

During the school festival I didn’t have classes so I had the luxury of being in my room when the sun hits my bed in the early afternoon! It has been great to warm myself up here 😀

I went back to my dorm a different way and the sun was setting and looking all pretty 🙂 My room is the right hand building, top floor, third from the right!

Autumn is beautiful here

In class we interviewed a Japanese student about her future and the teacher took this! I think it’s a great memory, thanks sensei!

Thanks Steph, these are working wonders on my feet now it has gotten cold 🙂

This rain got this heavy in about 3 seconds and lasted for about 10 minutes! I had just finished taking my washing in too!

The sky after the rain 🙂

I found clothes in my size!!!! I never thought trousers would be a possibility for these whacking great hips, but apparently they are!

And a nice jumper to go with the coat and trousers 😛

These are melon sorbet ice cream pots!! The English says “Hope this food will bring you a wonderful time” How cute!

Minus the packaging

Once this little melon is open 😀 The ice cream is tasty and then you get a little melon pot afterwards! They love melon in Japan.

I went to do a random thing for my teachers’ research project and they gave me a USB in return. One can never have too many USBs I guess!

Our teacher gave us cookies in class 🙂

No one ever told me chocolate sauce was free at Starbucks! This was an exciting moment.

When you do something well in Japan the teachers circle it rather than tick it like we do in England. So when you do really well, you get a giant spirally swirl on the entire page! This made me giggle a bit 😛

My friend told me about a shop nearby that sells western stuff! The item that made me most happy was the Maggi!! I was expecting to have to eat my eggs without it for a long time but now I don’t have to! 😀 I know the tins and herbs aren’t specifically western, but I finally found ingredients for chilli, so this made me very happy!!

For those of you who can’t Japanese, I’m going to attempt to explain why this is so cute! Basically the sign says “this is panda bread” which doesn’t sound all that great, until you know that it reads “panda pan da!” which is a very cute little play on words 🙂 The first ‘panda’ is written in the script used for foreign words and means ‘panda’. the second ‘pan da’ part uses the foreign language script for ‘pan’ (bread) and then the normal script for the ‘da’ (this is). Does that make sense? If not, just know that it’s a sweet little word play that tickled me 🙂

The view from the 8th floor of the Research and Lecture building, where I’ll be studying in my breaks from now on I think!

Casual devil sticks with a traffic cone on a rolla bolla. I like Ikebukuro.

I know my address works for ordering online; I Just got all my translation books!! I can start reading around my dissertation topic now 😀

LOOK WHAT I WON IN A UFO CATCHY ARM MACHINE IN IKEBUKURO!!! The people there see you trying and come over and open the door to move the one you want to win so you can actually have a chance if you get it right 😀 Isn’t that cool? The ones in England are all just cons, so I’m very happy 🙂 I went with Bekah and she won some Attack on Titan stuff she has had her eye on for ages too 😀

Diggers are a much fancier colour in Japan! Or at least this one is 🙂

The covered walkway down the long road between the halls and the main campus 🙂

The lovely view from the second floor of the main lecture building; how cool is the circular yellow brick road!!

This isn’t really odd, but cool! I was in a lecture and the lecturer asked us where we were all from. Seeing it written down that there were 25 different countries represented in one small room really made me think about what it means to be here!

Constantly Updated – Campus Photos

I realised today that I take an awful of photos of my campus as it’s so pretty! So I figured I could just put them all here because they probably shouldn’t all qualify for my ‘cool things’ post and then you can just have a gander whenever you want. Hopefully because they’ll be in order you’ll be able to see all the seasonal changes! Newest first as usual 🙂

 

Random one of Travis, Marlene, me and Leo in class!

This tree is having eggs.

It’s currently the rainy season here! The campus is lovely in the rain 🙂

Our translation teacher is so brilliant; one of the lessons we watched some music videos to look at their translations and when we did ‘Let it Go’ Harrison was loving it!

Let it Go In class!

I have never seen so many ants in one place. Incidentally the ants in Japan are about as long as fingernail!! Gross

The green in the dormitory grew back! 😀

You can get slushie from a vending machine on campus. I love this place!

They FINALLY put up a stronger warning sign for those selfish buggers who choke me every 5 minutes.

Another sunset; I just love them

One Amity practice I went up here. I took a photo because I haven’t seen the uni from this angle before!

Just a lovely day

I never knew the campus shop had such fancy notebooks

I bought some more stuff in this semester’s bazaar 🙂

I now have a sofa!

Back to lush and green

These flowers are everywhere in May

Refreshing

I saw my halls from a new angle; very photogenic indeed

One of the last class days of semester 1

 

The sports pitch was a beautiful open blanket of white

I hate not having my own shower… walking through this in flip-flops is treacherous!

From my balcony

The first bit of snow!

Another meal at the uni cafeteria. I’m not a huge fan

A sunset behind Mt. Fuji 🙂

It looks like spring already even though it was January!

The back of my halls/entrance to the third building

I love coming home to a sunset and just having this view to welcome me!

From my balcony. I know I put up a lot of these but it’s amazing being somewhere with a gorgeous sunset every single day!

Another Fuji sunset

Still some green left, even if it’s about to snow!

A fantastic cloudscape. If that wasn’t a word, it is now.

Mr Penguin put on his Christmas gear!

I found the lab in my dorms is warm and much less distracting than my room!!

This was an amazing moment for me; the first time I saw Mt. Fuji from my dorm!! How cool is that, I can see an amazing landmark from the comfort or my own building!

Another Mt. Fuji shot; sunset version!

I had another dinner in the cafeteria! Beef something or another and scrambled egg and rice. Oh and a single bit of broccoli but I ate that before I took the photo…

The cafeteria penguin got his Christmas on!

I walked out of the library the other day, a way I hadn’t been before and it was beautiful!

And on my way back via this way I hadn’t been before, I spotted a pond I hadn’t noticed before too!

It’s a lovely pond

And it seems to have some kind of Japanese traditional thingy by it which I intend to explore when it’s more open looking!

Another look at the Autumn colours from my room

More Autumn!

I went up to the cafeteria the other day and was pleasantly surprised by how nice the area and food was!

a different angle

my food! It’s like a pic and mix; you grab some food and they weigh it to charge you! it’s about 70p per 100g 🙂

My friend the Suica penguin and I – he just chills in the cafeteria

The week of the 18th of November was the school festival! Sort of like an English school fete but waaaaaay bigger and at university not school 😛 So I took lots of piccies for you to see. There’s also a video of the end of festival fireworks here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF20ymwsREw&feature=youtu.be

The stretch up to my dorms has never been so busy!!

Awesome music was coming from this every day but I never had time to go in 😦

My first food purchase; a very tasty chocolate banana! I got another later in the week

Pretty sun

Guess what I bought from this guy!

Yep, a hotdog!

Some of the many food stalls

The main stage which I could hear from my room!

Some chicken which wasn’t that great but I took a photo anyway

One of the food stalls

Some more food!

These were very tasty

From my picnic spot one day; some lovely girls came over and started chatting to me that day 🙂

another main stage shot

A pano of the main area

They mowed the forest of crazy plants and now all the nice bug noises at night have gone 😦 The grass and plants were as tall as me before!

More destruction of wildlife by these insatiable gardeners. Oh well, at least we now have……. an empty expanse of stones. They really take the gardening too far here, the leaves don’t need sweeping EVERY day and the plants were a nice addition to an other wise blank space!

Bikes are a massive thing in Japan.

My main classroom

My dorms; 6th floor from near my bedroom door 🙂

Another lovely sunset from my balcony!

It might be November but the sun is still shining 🙂

Another shot from the JLC

From my main classroom 🙂

Just coming out of the Japanese Language Centre where classes are

The dorms from the sports field

Same rain, pano style

Sudden rain when the rest of the day had been pretty sunny!

From the 8th floor 🙂

What a view! this is the 3rd or 4th floor

A nice place to sit and study

The covered walkway to the dorms

A shot of the cool circle thingy in the main campus area

This is a lovely road to the main part of the campus, my main lecture building being on the right.

Isn’t it beautiful? 🙂

Maisy’s Japan-Urban Dictionary

I have recently come up with a couple of words to either replace words I deem inadequate or to name something that doesn’t have a name (as far as I know). So I thought I’d make my own little dictionary; so as not to forget my genius.

It wont be in alphabetical order, but rather in the order I think of them! Again I shall put the newest word at the top, like my cool and odd photo posts 🙂

Baka-gaijin-ing Verb. Taken from the Japanese ‘baka-gaijin’ meaning idiot foreigner; an act of doing something regardless of knowing one shouldn’t do such a thing in Japan, and using your (however wrong) status as an ignorant foreigner as an excuse.

Yennies; Noun. The new name for the one yen coins one inadvertently collects on one’s travel.

Earthwibble; Noun. To replace ‘earthquake’ as it was deemed too scary for the wibbling movements that take place.