Whoo... it's been a while!
Dec. 22nd, 2002 07:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
melredcapYikes. So much for updating more often, huh? Sorry about the huge delay, guys... there were essays. And tests. And more essays, and exams, for my uni in Australia. And me not being very well... Nothing to worry about, really, though I got to jump through a few medical hoops and get tested in various interesting ways before that was worked out! Unlike the doctor's first thought, my thyroid and associated bits and pieces all seem to be working fine; it's just that my body clock is broken. Apparently it wasn't happy about my moving from Canberra (spring moving into summer, lots of sun, long days getting longer) to Kanazawa (autumn moving into winter, lots of RAIN, short days getting shorter and usually overcast). I haven't been getting enough sun to convince my body that it's worth waking up for, it seems, so I ended up sleeping up to seventeen and eighteen hours a day, sleeping right through two alarms, and feeling tired even when I was awake. Blah. I do seem to be adjusting now, however, so cross your fingers!
So. What have I been doing when I haven't been imitating a hibernating bear under a huge mound of blankets and suchlike, I hear you ask?
Well... I went on a two-day field trip to various fun places. My 'Experiences in Japanese Culture' class has been doing fun things like ikebana (flower arranging, though the style we did was more like leaf arranging), tea ceremony (I am ADDICTED to tea ceremony sweets now, though I can leave the tea itself alone quite easily thank you), and kinpaku (gold leaf - I won't tell you what I made there, because I've sent it to my mother as a present and she hasn't opened it yet, haha!). Budo class has been getting even more interesting; we now do five different attacks, plus two sequences that we perform in pairs with one person armed with a wooden sword. (The person armed with a stick always wins. Respect the Stick!) I have bought manga, which is incredibly cheap here compared to in Australia, especially now that I've found several second-hand shops. I have a rice cooker and can cook some pretty mean udon even if I do say so myself. And winter has officially started, 'cause we have SNOW!
Well... we had snow. For a week. *grin* About six inches of it, that came down *splat* with no warning whatsoever. We've had over a week of relatively fine weather since, though, plus some rain, so almost all of it has melted; and there isn't any more forecast for this week, so I guess I'm not going to get a white Christmas after all. Foo. I can still look forward to several more feet of the stuff before February, so I'm not exactly worried! (I took some pictures; I'm going to mail several to Christy after I hit 'update' on here, so they should be up on my picture page when she updates. Do NOT nag her if they don't go up immediately, or I will send ninjas after you; she's busy with her job!) All the trees and hedges around town are being trussed up in bamboo and rope to protect them from the coming heavy falls, as otherwise the trees would lose branches and the hedges would be squashed flat, and I have a couple of pictures of that happening too; even trees on what looks like waste ground get this assistance. Oh, and the first snowfalls revealed something else cool about Kanazawa! Not all the streets are cleared by snowplow, and they never put salt down on the roads because they don't want to damage the environment; instead, a lot of the main roads have a different-coloured strip down the middle of them, and water from a natural underground reservoir is pumped through this strip to squirt out through little nozzles, washing away the snow! It looks weird, but it works, and since the water is always at about 15 degrees C, it doesn't form ice on the roads. Neat! No photos of that yet, but I'll be out with my camera as soon as the next snowfall lands!
Well, winter break starts officially tomorrow (yay!) and I'm looking forward to getting in a bit more sightseeing around Kanazawa. I still haven't been to Kenrokuen Park, for crying out loud, and I wouldn't mind going before it snows again so I can see it both ways. And yes, I will be writing - but don't expect a chapter a day or anything like that, because I still have to study kanji etc., and there's one more exam on its way to me from the Australian National University.
That's about it for today... let's see if I do any better about keeping this up to date from now on!
So. What have I been doing when I haven't been imitating a hibernating bear under a huge mound of blankets and suchlike, I hear you ask?
Well... I went on a two-day field trip to various fun places. My 'Experiences in Japanese Culture' class has been doing fun things like ikebana (flower arranging, though the style we did was more like leaf arranging), tea ceremony (I am ADDICTED to tea ceremony sweets now, though I can leave the tea itself alone quite easily thank you), and kinpaku (gold leaf - I won't tell you what I made there, because I've sent it to my mother as a present and she hasn't opened it yet, haha!). Budo class has been getting even more interesting; we now do five different attacks, plus two sequences that we perform in pairs with one person armed with a wooden sword. (The person armed with a stick always wins. Respect the Stick!) I have bought manga, which is incredibly cheap here compared to in Australia, especially now that I've found several second-hand shops. I have a rice cooker and can cook some pretty mean udon even if I do say so myself. And winter has officially started, 'cause we have SNOW!
Well... we had snow. For a week. *grin* About six inches of it, that came down *splat* with no warning whatsoever. We've had over a week of relatively fine weather since, though, plus some rain, so almost all of it has melted; and there isn't any more forecast for this week, so I guess I'm not going to get a white Christmas after all. Foo. I can still look forward to several more feet of the stuff before February, so I'm not exactly worried! (I took some pictures; I'm going to mail several to Christy after I hit 'update' on here, so they should be up on my picture page when she updates. Do NOT nag her if they don't go up immediately, or I will send ninjas after you; she's busy with her job!) All the trees and hedges around town are being trussed up in bamboo and rope to protect them from the coming heavy falls, as otherwise the trees would lose branches and the hedges would be squashed flat, and I have a couple of pictures of that happening too; even trees on what looks like waste ground get this assistance. Oh, and the first snowfalls revealed something else cool about Kanazawa! Not all the streets are cleared by snowplow, and they never put salt down on the roads because they don't want to damage the environment; instead, a lot of the main roads have a different-coloured strip down the middle of them, and water from a natural underground reservoir is pumped through this strip to squirt out through little nozzles, washing away the snow! It looks weird, but it works, and since the water is always at about 15 degrees C, it doesn't form ice on the roads. Neat! No photos of that yet, but I'll be out with my camera as soon as the next snowfall lands!
Well, winter break starts officially tomorrow (yay!) and I'm looking forward to getting in a bit more sightseeing around Kanazawa. I still haven't been to Kenrokuen Park, for crying out loud, and I wouldn't mind going before it snows again so I can see it both ways. And yes, I will be writing - but don't expect a chapter a day or anything like that, because I still have to study kanji etc., and there's one more exam on its way to me from the Australian National University.
That's about it for today... let's see if I do any better about keeping this up to date from now on!
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To Mel`s buds
Date: 2002-12-22 03:54 am (UTC)-FlareCarrot
PS.. you can`t trust them vegemate eaters..
no subject
Date: 2002-12-22 10:43 am (UTC)Thank you for the slices of Nipponese living.