In love with Sendai

It feels nice to finally post something because the winter semester was too short. Classes were more intense and because of my Tohoku Culture class, I was traveling a lot, had to write a lot of papers, and I did not have a lot of time. This semester I was cooking a lot, so here are pictures of food I made during the winter semester. Here are pictures of macaroni and cheese and pork adobo.

My roommate had moved to a different dormitory at the middle of this semester, so I got my own room. My room was really cold during the winter semester, so I was in the library normally. I wrote five papers for Tohoku Culture, but I am not too happy with all of them. I may post some of them on my blog in the near future.

Besides Sendai, this month I will be going to Tokyo, Okinawa, Okayama, and Hiroshima. My break is one month long, so I am very excited. As for my blog, I connected my British's friend Pimms Hubbel's blog to mine. Therefore please check out his blog. He will be going to America for the first time this month to visit a friend he met at Akita International University (AIU) during the Fall 2012 semester. 

Valley of the Hobbit and the Journey to Hokkaido

After four months of studying Japanese at AIU, I have finally arrived at Sapporo, Hokkaido with my Japanese relatives. I rode a ferry from Akita to Hokkaido, and it was not as bad as I expected. The boat shifted occasionally while moving across the water, but I did not feel seasick. The ferry was called the Shin Nihonkai, and for a ticket that cost 3500 yen it was well worth the admission. Here are pictures and the link for the both the English and Japanese website of the Shin Nihonkai.

This was the boat I rode from Tomakokai to Sapporo

Aloha' Oe to the People leaving AIU

My Japanese 300 Class this semester.

It is so sad. The semester is already ending soon, and after getting to know all of these great people at Akita International University (AIU), I may never see some of these people again. Some of the students I have met will be graduating or returning to their home country. Also the Japanese students at AIU are required to study abroad for one year, so they be leaving to study abroad at the beginning of next year. As for me, I will be at Japan, until next August, but I am pretty sure time will move by too fast. 

I know that are there some people who are thinking about staying here for at least a-year-and-a-half, but I think that may be too long for me. I do not have enough money to stay here for that long, I need to graduate, and I do not I think I will use my time at AIU more efficiently if I decide to stay at AIU for a year-and-a-half instead of a year.

My Taiwanese roommate is staying at AIU until March of next year because he needs to write his thesis for graduate school. His major is Chinese Teaching. My friend, and fellow blogger Will from Gonzaga University, is only staying here for this semester because he does not have enough money. Both of them will not be at AIU as long as me so they need to be more efficient with their time year.

My roommate is apart of the Taiwanese-Japanese Club here, so he does a language exchange with a Japanese student that wants to learn Chinese. He is also apart of the AIU's Academic Achievement Center so he gets to practice his Chinese teaching skills with other Japanese students.