To be fair, the exam season here is far less stressful than anywhere in the UK ever had been. A single week, two hour long exams each day with a third hour-and-a-half one on Friday, and after that we're done for the semester. It also helps that the term has been split up very neatly, with a schedule telling us exactly what we need to revise for each exam.
And then it's off to Hokkaido! 5 days in the wintery north celebrating Yuki Matsuri and looking at clock towers. And if that weren't enough we'll also be riding on a boat for a good chunk of the time, something I haven't done in a fair while. A boat!
So as you may expect there hasn't been much happening lately, with the exception of my watching my bank balance slowly fall, like a bus ful of gold tipping over the edge of the Italian coastline. Job-hunting season is almost upon us, and it's about time I dusted off those CELTA skills and put them to good use. But not yet, I think, not until the exams are over and we have 2 whole months of nothing ahead.
I'm trying not to think of the Linguistics long essay...
Oh, but speaking of which, a hilarious thing occured to me the other day: I don't actually know where my pen drive is! Hah! And in a hysterical twist of fate it happens to have all of the Intercultural Communication essays that are due in on Monday on it. You know, the essays I didn't back up onto the hard drive because I was too busy pitting armies of small robots against each other? Those ones. After scraping together the printed copies I DO have I have decided that I need to rewrite 3 of them: two that I have given in and not received back so expect the worst, and one I don't know the title of. I'm sure I wrote it down here somewhere...
But enough about that, that is a problem for tomorrow. And today is Friday, that glorious day of celebration. And though having had no Mondays for a long while now I can't say I've worked THAT hard, I think I do deserve this weekend. No solid plans for it, just how I like it.
Okay, so there's only really one event that I need to talk about, and that's the third trip to Osaka. This time our focus was old and rustic Osaka Castle, and new and shiny Den Den Town. The trip also marked the start of my interest in panorama shots.
Like that. As you can see the area around Osaka Castle was beautifully green, far removed from the hustle of the shopping districts, and the park was a great place to walk. Huge, expansive pavements made the whole place seem quiet and peaceful, and the castle itself was a real sight to behold.
Surrounding the castle was your run-of-the-mill over-priced Japanese food (got heartburn off a takoyaki, won't be eating those again) and street entertainers who all do the exact same tricks. I'm not even kidding. The castle itself was very impressive, with a look through the castle's turbulent history and that of its founder. We also tried on some clothes, and discovered that boxers are cowards.
Next was Den Den Town, and along the way I'm sad to say that we lost Ben. He was a good man, and will be sorely missed. But, forging ever onward, we had a look around the many different shops along the road, and though heavily tempted by much I'm pleased to say I emerged from our trip having only bought Time Crisis 2 and a spare gun. Oh, the things JASSO pays us to do.
So yeah, not a great deal to talk about, really. Other things that have been happening include the start of the Winter Anime season, which looks a little drab to be quite honest. One thing that really has been sticking out so far, however, is spritual successor to superb gangster anime Baccano!, Durara!, which takes place in the apparently very trendy Ikebukuro in Tokyo. Having only passed through Ikebukuro on my way to more exciting places (or so I thought), I am unable to confirm whether there really are men who can lift entire vending machines like nothing, nor whether crime-fighting headless bikers really do exist. Can maybe a Tokyo student help me out?
Now I'm going to draw some maps.
Thanks for reading.
No comments:
Post a Comment