Asakaze
.
Had a wonderfull dinner tonight at a typical Japanese restaurant called Asakaze (cannot read these kanji, so don't know what it stands for..probably just the name of the place) in Shianbashi with Akitaka and Mai. Had great food and it was just nice to see them again. I do love the vinagred jelly fish 水母 or 海月 but pronounced kurage and had fugu (blow fish) for the first time. Apparently the people who do die from this fish do so because they're not content with just the white meat but like to eat the intestines and it's there that the poisonous gland is situated. About 15 people die annually by eating this delicacy.
Learned a lot about the inflexibility and rigidity of the Japanese again this night. Apparently Mai had a chat with the head of the Internat. Student center, Koji Takehiko 小路 武彦 and she was adviced not to associate anymore with the Dutch students because "they" are lazy and do not study. It's funny to see how easily the Dutch are blamed for the fact that their beautiful course doesn't bring in the desired results instead of trying to communicate with the students to find out why things don't work out.
The stupidest thing here is the 80% attendance rule. You must have the 80% otherwise you forgo the credit for that subject. So if you miss a couple of lectures because of sickness or whatever reason then it's basically no point continuing a tedious lecture because even if you would do very well at the exam or presentation.. you will not ever get that credit.
They will reconsider this exchange programme now with Leiden...well not to worry ......there are not many applicants anyway. I think a prestigious university like Leiden should try and get more students placed at Tokyo University, Keio, Waseda and Kyoto where they can also attend some really interesting lectures about the arts, law, politics etc. instead of just outdated language courses. And putting 10 Dutch students on top of one another doesn't really help to improve your language proficiency skills either.
By the way it's so humid here at the moment (湿気が多い) that the mirror in my room is steamed up.. like a bath room mirror. Everything is damp.. clothes, paper, magazines even the Dutch liquorice is sweating. Had to put it in the fridge. Reminds me of the stories Niels told me about his time in Dhaka, Bangladesh where because of the humidity this green goo came out of the stereo equipment. Now I know what he means......
Had a wonderfull dinner tonight at a typical Japanese restaurant called Asakaze (cannot read these kanji, so don't know what it stands for..probably just the name of the place) in Shianbashi with Akitaka and Mai. Had great food and it was just nice to see them again. I do love the vinagred jelly fish 水母 or 海月 but pronounced kurage and had fugu (blow fish) for the first time. Apparently the people who do die from this fish do so because they're not content with just the white meat but like to eat the intestines and it's there that the poisonous gland is situated. About 15 people die annually by eating this delicacy.
Learned a lot about the inflexibility and rigidity of the Japanese again this night. Apparently Mai had a chat with the head of the Internat. Student center, Koji Takehiko 小路 武彦 and she was adviced not to associate anymore with the Dutch students because "they" are lazy and do not study. It's funny to see how easily the Dutch are blamed for the fact that their beautiful course doesn't bring in the desired results instead of trying to communicate with the students to find out why things don't work out.
The stupidest thing here is the 80% attendance rule. You must have the 80% otherwise you forgo the credit for that subject. So if you miss a couple of lectures because of sickness or whatever reason then it's basically no point continuing a tedious lecture because even if you would do very well at the exam or presentation.. you will not ever get that credit.
They will reconsider this exchange programme now with Leiden...well not to worry ......there are not many applicants anyway. I think a prestigious university like Leiden should try and get more students placed at Tokyo University, Keio, Waseda and Kyoto where they can also attend some really interesting lectures about the arts, law, politics etc. instead of just outdated language courses. And putting 10 Dutch students on top of one another doesn't really help to improve your language proficiency skills either.
By the way it's so humid here at the moment (湿気が多い) that the mirror in my room is steamed up.. like a bath room mirror. Everything is damp.. clothes, paper, magazines even the Dutch liquorice is sweating. Had to put it in the fridge. Reminds me of the stories Niels told me about his time in Dhaka, Bangladesh where because of the humidity this green goo came out of the stereo equipment. Now I know what he means......
posted by 狩人 (Hunter in Japanese) @ 6/25/2006 10:17:00 pm
4 Comments:
At 8:00 pm,
Anonymous said…
You got AC? ドライ? use it. Before you know everything is moldy. Your bed, your clothes. etc.
pato
At 9:04 pm,
Anonymous said…
Oops. No good words to say about the Japanese education system then? Think yourself lucky. If you were of school age they's be beating you with sticks or whatever they can lay their hands on. If you ask me it's all because of their written language. Would drive anyone to drink. Now about putting 10 Dutch students on top of each other - I've always found that a rather pleasant experience. Especially when I'm in the middle but enough of that. Sweating licorice!! What a horrible thought. I love heat but not too keen on humidity. I suppose the end is now in sight for your stay in Japan. Montreal soon and then HOME. Will write more soon. Take care. Chris xxx
At 11:11 pm,
Anonymous said…
Hey Paul,
it is disappointing very nice to hear that kind of remarks about the Dutch students. And only on the superficial basis of results in a foreign education system.
As for Leiden, the influx of students is larger than the past few years, and the university will need every place in a Japanese program it can get, to give students a decent training in the field of Japanese studies. So that includes learning Japanese in Nagasaki. The thing to do, in my opinion, is to do as many things on the side as possible, to get to know the Japanese outside of the schools and in normal life. That includes having tasty dinners of course, so enjoy the delicious foods, as it sounds pretty good
Greeting from Leiden,
from your fellow thirdyear student of Japanese,
Raymond
At 1:01 pm,
Anonymous said…
Chris got a point about the written language. Kanji need to be crammed in, an other approach doesn't work. So the japanese system is just that. This is the kanji and it hasn't changed in thousands of years. So listen to the teacher, shut up and cram it in. They think that everything has to be crammed in. Which, in our western "enlightened" (ahum) system is not the case.
About the 10 dutch students on a heap. I think it is a bad idea. How about to separete the "cultural" stuff from the language. You get 5 places in Nagaski one in tokyo, kyoto, and three places in three different locations somewhere in inaka (hokkaido, miyasaki, ehime for instance) then let everybody do half a year in nagasaki, then rotate the other five every month. switch half a year later. When I, who is just a baka "techneut", meet a Leiden "japanoloog" and there are words that I have to explain I feel kind of embarrased for him or her. (I still order "kore, to kore to kore onegaishimasu", so my japanese basically sucks)
pato
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