The long awaited school post ☆☆☆

This is what you have all been waiting for!! The school post!! Finally xD

....all though I don't have any photos =u=""" Phones are strictly forbidden in this private school, and even if they'd allow a camera, my PC is as dead as always so I can't move my photos anywhere anyway. (But I'm working on it, and I stand strong in my belief that my laptop shall be reincarnated within the end of next week)

So! I'll try to compensate with some photographic descriptions of my school(life).

- Every morning I take the train to Nerima, change for Kotezashi and go off at Hibarigaoka, then I board the bus headed for Musashi-Sakai, ride it until Mukaidaichou Ichi-chome and walk for 5-10 minutes. The entire journey usually takes about an hour, if I get on the right trains.

- When entering the school gate, I bow to the gatekeeper, then to the headmaster when he's around, and then to the school. 

Sometimes the kendo - Japanese sword-uh-combat?? - -club has morning exercise in an run-down old building right by the entrance gate. The building has very thin, very old walls. And the kendo club is LOUD. Like seriously, they're like a freaking.... Something VERY VERY LOUD!!! They're all screaming and running and clashing their wooden swords hysterically and you can hear them two minutes away!! (If the windows are open) And it sounds like SO MUCH FUN, I'm planning to stop by one day :D

- Then I enter the school. I arrive 20 minutes before school starts, in case I miss a train. I sometimes chat with my classmates, but it's hard to enter their conversations @-@" 

At 08:15 the get-your-asses-to-yer-classrooms-bell rings. It means that we must go to our classrooms. Then, at 08:20 the ceremony-kinda-sortof-begins-bell rings. It means that the morning ceremony starts, and that everyone should be meditating already (but that usually doesn't happen before 08:22). The ceremony goes as follows: stand, listen, sing Buddhist hymn, bow, sit, meditate, stand, bow, sit. And we must never do anything without being told so by Miss. Creepy Voice On Speakers or Harima-Sensei. 👍👍👍

- We have 6 fifty-minute-classes every day Monday-Friday, and 4 classes on Saturday. There is a 10 minute break between each class (just enough time to sprint for your life down to the vending machine to buy coffee and sprint up again and save it for the next break). After 4 classes we have the lunch break, 50 minutes =U= Usually I eat bento with everyone else in the classroom (provisory long dining tables are assembled with desks), sometimes I eat in the delicious cafeteria where they serve an array of mysterious Japanese meals, also 6 types of noodles, heaps of unhealthy bread and a selection of deep fried chicken. 

- This is my timetable: 

 (Is the resolution as bad as I think it is? Gotta fix this....soon...)

The white classes are with my home room class, the grey ones are with other classes or private tutoring ☆. As you can see, in addition to my own homeroom class H2 White (high school second yr color-code white), I also have certain subjects with: H1 green, H2 purple, H3 blue, M3 green (middle school), M1 green and H2 red. And they ALL want me to learn all their freaking names omg it's impossibleeee x''DDDD Tomoka, Haruka, Konoha, Kotone, Mami, Momo, Moe, Miki, Miki, Miki, Mariko, Maiko........@~@"" But it's fun! And they're all incredibly adorable omg x'D

Oh and btw, the letters at the bottom of the timetable are for after-school club activity. R is for rikushoubu=track and field/running/athletics club, and A is for art club (really Bijutsubu but anyways). When I have club activity, which is every day except Friday, I come home around 7. And I have homework. And I have school on SATURDAY, peoples. I dare you to complain about Norwegian school once more... xDDD

I reaaally have to go to bed now so here's some quick random notes:

- Japanese girls are very cute and sweet and everything but VERY NOISY x'D They scream all the time! I don't mind though. God stemning, like we say in Norway (= good mood/atmosphere)

- Also there are very many tomboys at the (girls only-)school!! They look so much like boys it's inhuman xD And some of them are quite handsome too. I'm confused. xD

- About handsomeness. They guys from the neighbouring university. Wow.

- One of my teachers is sort of strict sometimes, but usually quite nice and the rest i very nice!! They smile all the time and many of them treat the students like their own kids, playing and telling jokes and teasing and stuff. About that, my math and science teachers tend to wander off the subject... FAR off the subject... Having open discussions about soccer, for example. Or teasing the students, or bragging about their swimming club (and they're very nice and funny, I enjoy listening, but anyways). Agnes, fellow (but Swedish) exchange student, said they do it to give the students a break. When looking at their schedule, most of them having cram school in the evenings too, I can see that the students need a break, but it still seems kind of strange... Teachers journeying far away from their subject purposefully... x3

- Last comment, uhm... It's FREAKING ICE COLD in the mornings here, no talk of fresh breeze around privaties here!! (Harry Potter pun, Karoline, mother) For once I actually wish I could wear pants, or at least wool leggings, but all they allow here is our wonderful whoosh-whoosh skirts and knee socks. =~=" Hahah and btw Japanese women are incredible, while I'm freezing to death in a wool skirt and old women wear five layers of winter coats, the young women all as one stride about in mini-shorts and dangerously short mini-skirts and ankle stockings. I'm impressed by what they sacrifice for their looks.

But now I'm retreating to my bed! The sleep I missed by blogging, will probably be retrieved on the bus tomorrow... If it's not packed...

Harajuku!!

Today I went (somewhat spontaneously) (and all alone) to Harajuku!!
It's school for most japanese students (=most of Harajuku's visitors) today, so it's wasn't crowded at all.

Nearly empty.

I didn't initially go to Harajuku for shopping - I thought I'd spend my first day in Harajuku with friends. Since it's such a big deal. I mean, Harajuku.
So initially I was looking for a good library, since I like being in libraries. Not for borrowing books or anything, just for enjoying the athmosphere... So anyway one of Tokyo's better libraries (they say) was coincidentally in Harajuku, so I went there. However it was quite horrible (closed-in, unventilated, dull, claustrophobic and dark Dx But they had nice toilets!!) ...so I simply had to take the very difficult decision to go around exploring Harajuku instead ☆
So the first thing I discovered in Harajuku was... A Shinto shrine!! (And swedes) :D
I didn't even dare to take photos of the actual huge shrine, it all seemed so holy and there was miko priestesses walking around and I didn't know what or where to bow so I felt horribly disrespectful. Omg, I entered that amazing wonderful shrine with accompanying garden and had a great time and I DIDN'T EVEN SAY THANK YOU?!?! Ahhhh I will most definitely offer the gods something the next time I'm around. I feel soooo horrible for not bowing 3'x
Anyways!! The shrine was hhuuuggge!! And beautiful!!
And it had a wonderful garden!! It really gave me inner peace.

And these turtles. They were ALIVE. *0* (thought they were statues, srsly, I jumped)

Very scary Zombieturtles xD

Oh, and I saw a golden koi (that was eating Sakura flower petals). It was very beautiful and shiny. I think it's a sign. Maybe the god's forgave me for not bowing. I feel blessed, anyway.

*sparkle sparkle*

And swedes!! (No photo sry xD) I met a Swedish family they were super nice :DDD I was just casually watching koi when I heard a voice saying "Titta den är ute ock simmar!!" (=look it's out swimming!! (Regarding the turtle)) in Stockholms-dialect x'''D So I waited a minute or two and then suddenly spun around and said "Hej jag är från Norje!" (=Hi I'm from Norway! In Swedish) they were quite surprised ahaha x'D They were there on holiday... But that's dull to read about let's move on~

THEN I went to a Harajuku shopping street :D Or maybe THE Harajuku shopping street. Idk, it was the only street I found and it looked very Harajuku xD
There were soooo many cute shops :D But today I'm feeling very Edwardian, so I didn't find so much to match my time period xD But it was great to get an overview. I walked about for about 4 hours, just observing :D A day very well spent!! :D
A few super short notes!

• I saw lots of lolitas, swedes (??), HEAPS of tourists... So the people was interesting enough :D
• There was lots of gothic clothes *U*

This is only one of many!! :D

• I visited three lolita shops. Liz Liza is kind of casual, and slightly high prizes but good quality. Baby the Stars Shine Bright was very dissappointing, it's very cheap but the quality is reaaally bad 3x Ugh!! And they had signs that said "no try, no change, no return" x'D Not great service exactly.
• BUT Innocent World was amazing!! The prices are sky high ahaha, but the quality is soooo great *U* Look here, it's like THICK RUGH PROPER COTTON *0*

• And the bonneeeets *0* And the clothes are so pretty!! And the shopkeeper was super nice!! :D I really love that shop omg :'D But it's very hard to find hahah xD I was walking past a smelly kebab shop when I absentmindedly noticed the simple, A4-size signboard, and then I had to walk through a dark, narrow hallway (leading to a convenience store) and take the elevator 7 floors up x'D It was like a hidden treasure ☆
• Also, I met an elderly British couple :D We had a chat at a coffee bar :D They were sooo sweet omg I love British tourists x'D

And btw, my outfit gave me lots of funny looks ahaha xD

(Changing room)

At the library there was this little girl, who silently stared at me in the staircase. And then later on on the way out of the library she saw me again, and then she ran over to her mother and tugged at her sleeve and pointed at me super excitedly and shouted "ano hito! Ano hito!!" (= that person! that person!!) xD (apparently she'd told her mother about me after seeing me in the stairs x'''3 I'm super flattered) It was a really funny situation! She was so adorable!! :'D

Tomorrow school is starting. However, yesterday was the entrance ceremony, so I got to wear my (winter) uniform :D

(More documentation on Instagram)

I'm planning to write a (requested) post about school once it starts for real. About clubs and the school system and the level of math and stuffff x3
...And btw, my Instagram works as my second blog ahahah xD There are lots of exclusive extra photos and little stories there @U@
For example:

Reading project

Udon noodles

Japanese snacks

...

Fancy windows

My username is Japancorny :D

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Tatami, liquid strawberry cheesecake, too many coins and a 5000-yen-dude

(Switching to English haha)
Ok, so the other day I was going to finally post all my magnificent (not-phone-or-iPad) photographs, for which I need my computer, but apparently my computer has a somewhat turbulent relationship with foreign electricity, because it's refusing to charge!! >~<"" So the moment after I'd MOVED all my photographs from my camera to my computer, my dear laptop just died!! (Aka went out of battery) So now aaalllll my photos are trapped inside my dead, presently-non-chargable computer!! Argh!! 3x
So sadly enough, you'll have to wait even longer for photos of strawberry cheesecake, me with Handsome Samurai Man in Japanese Garden, video of strange Japanese traditional music, and, uh.... Whatever I photographed. I don't remember but it was a lot.
Anyways!!
I thought I'd post my phone photos instead, yay!
They have worse resolution, but are more spontaneous, haha.
So the other day, I went on a AFS day trip kinda thing!
We were in a tatami room

And had a picnic, with onigiri

And Japanese strawberries ♥︎♥︎♥︎

Then we went out in Ikebukuro! Sooo many people!
I've written a super-long post about Shibuya and crowds... But I need my photos before I can post it =~="
Anyways! Is it that a boy's love manga advertisement I see upon that skyscraper!? xD

And they say Japan is a homophobic place! Hah! x3

Also, I found Kakashi yay xD

...I mean, if you want proffessional, astounding photos of Ikebukuro, google it! My photos are unusual and exclusive! xD aka only fangirling and weird stuff x33 👍
Also, we found a sweets shop. And I found something I most definitely do not want to eat.

...yummy...

Also, we went to karaoke and did/took purikura!! ^U^
....buuuut somebody else has the purikura right now! I'm trying to find out who! :3
Today, I wandered about Shinjuku, another part of Tokyo City, all by myself! It was like you'd imagine Tokyo, incredibly crowded, towering skyscrapers everywhere. x3
It's embarrassing to take photos in crowds... xD
Well anyways, I went to this nice cafe to eat lunch (all alone) and at first I couldn't find out whether I should pay at the counter first or wait outside - I tried to ask the waiters but my Japanese failed epically - thennn I misunderstood the menu - Japanese failed again - and THEN I ended up getting the wrong dish!! xD (that last one wasn't my fault though. The waiters messed up on their own ^^")
However! It was a wonderful place, hardly crowded at all and well outside the claustrophobic walls of the station, and that dish I was served, whatever it was, tasted DELICIOUS!! :D

Rice with egg and some very delicious sauce. It tasted, and looked, much more delicious than the dull pasta I'd ordered! Very nice!! :3
Also, I sat close to two Norwegian businessmen xD Of all the 13,282,271 people in Tokyo, I end up between two Norwegians!! (Probably because I was sitting outdoors in the shadow in only 20 warm degrees. Only Norwegians prefer that.)

Btw, about Japanese coins. They have
1 yen coin (0.05 NOK)
5 yen coin (0.1 NOK)
10 yen coin (0.5 NOK)
50 yen coin (2.5 NOK)
And 100 yen coin (5 NOK)
It's like, in this box of smurf candy

One single candy might cost 1 yen!
It's so insanely little! What's the point!!
But anyways! I've ended up with a huge amount of coins, and every time I'm paying something I end up using a 1000-yen-bill because it takes so much time to scavenge through my hundreds of coins.
So I found a new way to handle my coins!!

I wrap them in receipts! Like candies! :D
My saifu - wallet - looks like a Santa's bag now :D

Everyone who goes to Japan, I strongly recommend keeping your receipts! They will prove useful!

Another thing I have discovered:

LIQUID STRAWBERRY CHEESECAKE

I'm not kidding, this stuff tastes like liquid strawberry cheesecake.

Lastly, fyi, I have a crush on the dude on the 5000-yen-bill.

Isn't he handsome!!

Homemade purikura?? xD


...Good night!! :3

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