No smorking!

The highlight of the past few days was without a doubt the Kuramahimatsuri, or the "Kurama fire festival". In order to get to Kurama you need to travel by train for 3 stops or so from here. On this day, everyone, their grandmother and a bunch of other people go there for this festival. Due to that, it was the first time I got to experience a crowded, Japanese train. Don't worry, I didn't grope anyone.
The festival itself was really spectacular. There is 1 main road that lies through the town and on the sides of the road there are a bunch of little bonfires, with larger ones in between. There's a lot of ceromony involved around the fires and especially when the parade comes marching up the street. I have pictures of this and a small video you can see on my google webalbum. The atmosphere in the town was like that of New Year's Eve in Iceland, without the fireworks.
Because of the crowd we just decided to walk back home. It only took around 70 minutes and was an enjoyable walk through a little valley covered in trees. We asked an old lady in Kurama before we took off what was the best way to get back and the woman said "Follow this road, for a looong time". I like it when things don't get too complicated. Just follow this one road and that's it. This Kurama town is pretty rural and far to the North so we were basically walking in the countryside, which was nice. We are planning on going there again, but then in the daytime so we can better enjoy this amazing view.

I finally had some licorice yesterday. I have been craving it since some days after I got here and discovered I couldn't get it anywhere. The Germans had been sent some licorice from Germany and gave us a taste. It's amazing how these cravings come over you. I have also felt the same urge for a decent pizza. Food sure is some addictive stuff.

On the subject of food, we always go to the supermarket on Wednesdays as then we don't have school. This time we noticed that in the fish department, they had fish from Iceland!! It says on the packaging: "Aisurando", which is 'Iceland', but only Japanese-ized.
Would make a good story to buy it. Go all the way to Japan to eat Icelandic fish. A fish that speaks Icelandic, imagine that.

All over the place

Yesterday it rained. It is not the same rain we are used to in Iceland. This one falls straight down and feels "massive". Here you can actually make use of umbrellas with good results, but it doesn't stop your feet from getting soaked and it doesn't stop cars from zooming past and showering you with water off the road. I had to change into my other set of Superman clothes when I got back home from school.

There is a big ass building not so far away from where I live which houses all sorts of recreational activities, such as bowling, table tennis, pool, soccer and badminton. The bowling area takes up 1 floor and is the biggest bowling alley I've been into. Haven't been into that many actually, but this one must be huge on the "bowling alley size" scale. Played 2 games earlier this week and scored 102 pins in the first game and 98 in the second. This averages to 100 pins per game, obviously. And how many pins are there to knock down in 1 game? Yup, 100 pins. Heeeelloooo Mr. Average! OK, OK, a perfect game of bowling means a score of 300 so the math isn't perfect, but still.... Heeeelloooo Mr. Average!

Then the day after me and Bragi went for a night of table tennis. I say a night of table tennis because we played for 2 solid hours and weren't back until right before midnight. It was damn weird picking up a paddle after 5-6 years of no play at all. I was such a noob that several times I didn't even hit the ball. The perception was all screwy and that hand-eye coordination took a while to get back. But after those 2 hours of practise, I am closer to the shape I was in.

We finally got our gym membership cards this week. The gym isn't as awesome as I had hoped for, unfortunately, but at least it's something. This means that after a month of basically just sitting on my ass I can start pumping some serious iron. Damn this sounds bad. Sounds like I'm an Icelandic "hnakki". Sadly the gym isn't equipped with the equipment I'm used to from Veggsport, but I guess it will have to make do.

Today is a month since I arrived in Japan. Been a month already, huh? Shiiii....

And here are 2 things for you to think about:
I've followed the 'Heroes' series and have this question... How can time travel take time?

Imagine Chris Tucker as the leading role in movies like: Forrest Gump, Beautiful Mind and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
You also have to think about how the movies would have turned out if this had been the case.

"We don't need noooo education!" - Pink Floyd
"Yes you do! You just used a double negative!" - Moss from 'The IT Crowd'

Amazon.co.jp

Hell-flipping-yeah.

We had not gotten hold of our Japanese History book yet, so we tried Amazon here in Japan. The site is (almost) impossible to navigate ofcourse, but if you can find the items you want on amazon.com then you can find them on the site here. Anyhoo, I found the title I wanted, ordered 3 copies and then played the waiting game. Amazingly enough, the waiting game didn't last that long. I made the order around 18:00 on Saturday and it the box was waiting for me today when I came back from school. How flipping awesome is that? There is a Sunday inbetween and everything.
Hmm... take advantage of this? Perhaps.

And what is that!!? English? Yes, it is English. I will probably write sporadically in English, or until someone shouts at me and tells me to keep it strictly in English. If noone shouts, then I might even just keep to the oldie but goodie.
Who knows, life is full of wonders.

Blablabla

Seinasta skólavika gekk bara nokkuð venjulega fyrir sig. Ennþá alveg vel heitt og það hefur verið mjög lítið um rigningu. Einn kennarinn í japönskutímunum er alveg snarklikkaður, en á skondin hátt. Hann spilar alltaf jazzmúsík á segulbandsspólu meðan hann er að kenna, hefur það bara lágt stillt í bakgrunninum. Kallinn er allt annað en rólegur og veltir sér stundum uppúr gólfinu í miðjum tímum. Ef ég gæti bara tekið vídjó af þessu...

Á föstudaginn var "welcome party", fyrir okkur nýju skiptinemana, í skólanum. Þar mætti fullt af fólki og Bragi þurfti að halda örlitla tölu fyrir hönd okkar skiptinemanna. Þessi stutta ræða hans fer í sögubækurnar fyrir þær sakir að hún byrjaði einhvernveginn á þennan veg:
"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, or as we say in Icelandic... 'Melludólgur'"
Þetta gat hann sagt fyrir framan svona 100 manns án þess að missa andlit. Impressive stöff. Við vissum af því að hann ætlaði að segja þetta svo við náðum að bæla niður flissið einhvernveginn.

Eftir einhverjar stuttar ræður og kynningar var boðið uppá mat og drykk og fólki leyft að 'mingla'. Við Íslendingarnir fengum alveg sérstaka athygli og sér í lagi frá asísku kvenþjóðinni... Hmm... ekki vanur því. Ég var klæddur í kínverska jakkann minn og því var ég vinsælt myndefni hjá kínversku stelpunum. Öllum fannst mjög gaman að reyna að bera fram nöfnin okkar og gekk það misvel hjá fólki. Svo gekk okkur nú ekkert sérstaklega vel að reyna að bera fram nöfnin á kínverjunum, það er alveg kreisíj tungumál sem þetta líð hefur. Tónhæðin skiptir öllu máli.

Í dag var frídagur hjá Japönum ('Health and Sports Day') svo við notuðum tímann og fórum á Kyooto National Museum. Það er eitthvað með mig og söfn. Ég þoli þau bara visst lengi áður en ég missi áhugann og verð eirðarlau. Sem betur fer var safnið ekkert gríðarstórt og það sem við sáum var misáhugavert og eiginlega ekki bloggefni. Hinsvegar, þá vorum við viðstödd teathöfn sem var gaman að prófa. Þvílík seremónía sem er í kringum þetta að það er alveg svakalegt. Þetta er list fyrir þessu fólki. Svo fengum við að dreypa á te-inu sem hún var að hella uppá konan. Því miður fyrir mig er ég ekki mikill te maður, því það er svakalega mikil te menning hérna. Kannski næ ég að breyta þessum bragðlaukum eitthvað á þessu 10 mánaða tímabili.

Nokkrar nýjar myndir búnar að bætast við.

Þar til næst.