Alice's blog

Leaving Japan

elskielstra — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 11:07:27 +0000

The end is near, I am leaving Japan. I had a great time and learned a lot. I did a lot of interesting trips and visited a lot of fun places. Before I can leave, the CIE makes you do so much stuff, that for a split second I thought of staying… The Japanese way, with so many rules to follow and procedures to stick to. The de-registration of my bike alone almost takes 2 days.

I learned a lot about myself and ‘my culture’. It made me appreciate what I have back home, but also reflect on what I can improve back home. Thank you Garr せんせいfor a great semester. I really enjoyed your class and feel very rich for learning and experiencing so much about different cultures. Personally I think it is a big loss for Kansai Gaidai to loose a great teacher. Good luck with your book and the others things you are going to do!

Kind Regards,

Alice Kielstra

Dentist horror

elskielstra — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 13:45:06 +0000

My wisdom teeth was a little painful, so I went to the dentist in Hirakata. He told me my wisdom teeth was a little crooked and so he wanted to remove the teeth. When I came to Japan I noticed every thing was very clean. When I entered the Hirakata hospital I noticed how dirty this was. I found this such a big contrast. After a week it was still very painful and I was very thankful that my teacher gave me the number of his wonderful dentist. This dentist was very clean and he told me my jar bone got infected. The hospital in Hirakata had given me stomach pills instead of antibiotics and that’s probably why it got infected. In Holland we don’t have this big of a difference in quality among dentists. Every clinic is very clean and sterile. I just didn’t expect this from a country that perfectionists and clean…

Mc Donalds in Kobe

elskielstra — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 13:11:18 +0000

We went to the light ceremony in Kobe. My dutch friends me, and uncountable Japanese people… The streets were packed and extremely crowded. In this chaos one sign stuck out, I found this very amusing!

Garbage II

elskielstra — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 12:47:44 +0000

Garbage is a really big item in Japan. After 4 months the garbage seperation is still a big mystery to me… The funny thing is that each time when I buy food products, every little item is seperatly wrapped. It’s such a waist and so opposed!

Sumo wrestling

elskielstra — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 11:03:04 +0000

During my trip in Tokyo I stopped by Kokugikan stadium. I was very lucky, cause there ware sumo wrestling matches going on. The matches were between a 6 and 7 year old, but still I found it pretty exciting. I couldn’t belief how fat these kids were. In general the Japanese people look so healthy and skinny, but these kids are the complete opposite. I can and will not belief that this is healthy for a child! Being a sumo and a fat sumo probably has to do with the subject a wrote about before; Ichiban. I think most Japanese parents definitely want what is best for their child, but they also want their child to be the best one. So if they compete in sumo they have to be fat. It is very sad, but I hope most of the kids at least enjoy the game.

Garbage

elskielstra — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 10:48:12 +0000

You can not live in Japan and not write about the garbage system. It such a big thing in their culture and after 11 weeks I’m still not used to it. We have six different garbage bins in our apartment! It is a very complex system. The garbage is basically separated into burnable, non burnable and recyclable items, but then there is a big gray area and no one knows what to do with this. Each time I go to Osaka or Kyoto I am surprised by the fact that the streets are so clean. Because most of the time it is very hard to find a bin out in the streets or at a train station, and if you find one it takes a lot of time to figure out in which bin you have to throw it. And still everyone is decent enough to not throw it on the street. It’s very good they try to separate garbage, but maybe they should have a look at the Dutch garbage- separation- system. Cause if you spend a lot of money on a nice kitchen you don’t want it to be ruined by al these bins.

Shinkansen

elskielstra — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 10:27:20 +0000

My friend and I visited Beppu last weekend. This was the third time we traveled by Shinkansen. And I love it! It is everything flying an airplane should be. The space, the drinks, the personal. It always leaves on time. It is amazing! You have a lot of space for your feet, you can change the seat almost in to a bed and the staff is very friendly. They even have wending machines in the Shinkansen, although you don’t even have time to go there, because the woman with the caddie shows up every 10 minutes. Each time a member of the staff enters or leaves a car, they bow and thank you for traveling with the Shinkansen. In my country you are happy when the staff doesn’t strike so you can take the train. When it arrives, too late, but you have to be glad that it arrives, the train is very dirty and sordid. If you ask the staff for directions, you feel sorry for asking at the same minute, because they don’t like answering questions. So I wish we had this Shinkansen densha in Holland….

Sunday

elskielstra — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 10:10:45 +0000

In Holland Sunday is a rest day with a capital letter R. No one works on Sunday except if it is really necessary. In general on Sunday people in Holland are lazy. We hang around the house, watch a movie, visit some family or have dinner with some friends. Stores are closed and there is not a lot going on in the city where I live (except from Amsterdam most cities are pretty much died out). If you would take a train or a subway on Sunday morning you would probably be the only person. Maybe some old people going to church but you pretty much would be all alone at the train station. I took a picture of a Japanese subway on Sunday morning 08.45! There was no seat available, we had to stand up. Where are all these people going on Sunday? Lot of them are wearing business suits, so I figured they were going to work (on Sunday!) but where are all the others ones going so early. People have to learn how to relax in this country, they work to hard and they enjoy too little! I visited Osaka aquarium whit one of my Japanese friends. She basically ran trough the aquarium. My other friends and me found our self a little stool and looked at the fishes swimming in the tank for over 20 minutes. It looks like they are scared to take some time and really enjoy something.

Animals

elskielstra — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 09:46:53 +0000

Being a Japan for a while now, I noticed a lot of differences. One of them makes me very sad; how people treat animals in Japan. They sell monkeys in pet stores and don’t even let me get started on the animals who life in a zoo. It is awful. I went to visit Osaka zoo (because the ticket was for free) but it made me really sad. Animals in tiny cages and small living areas. The monkeys eat their own excrements and the elephants kept on making the same movements over and over. The animals behaviors were strange and they didn’t looked happy to me at all.

Osaka zoo was not the only place where I saw same very sad animals. Me and my friend went to Beppu for the weekend to visit the Onsens. The pretty ones didn’t need decoration, but the less attractive hot springs showed 38 alligators in a tiny lake, a autistic elephant or a hippo that got fed so much, that he didn’t even close his mouth anymore. I guess Japanese think different about how to treat animals. I hope this changes soon, because no one deserves to be treated this way.

Watches

elskielstra — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 09:23:09 +0000

I am a big fan on watches. And especially expensive ones. My favorite brand is Cartier and Rolex. In Holland a store can only sell these brands if they live up to certain conditions. Not every jewelry can just sell it. The stores who do, are pretty fancy ones. The doors are locked until the salesperson approves your apparition, so you can’t go in just for sightseeing.

That’s why I was so surprised when I walked into the Don Quijote, to buy a Halloween costume. The soled Cartier and Rolex for 3.000.000 ¥ but they presented the watches as it was carnival. In the same store you can by Halloween costumes, porn and stuff to use in the kitchen. The watches are exposed Behind glass, with self made drawings to promote them!