Osaka

My Senpai(senior friend) who I met in Buffalo came from Tokyo so my friend and I took him to look around Osaka city. He helped me a lot when I was in Buffalo so this time I wanted to do something for him.

We went to Aquarium, Dotonbori and Umeda Sky Buillding, and ate some kinds of Osaka food such as Okonomiyaki and Kushiktsu. It was pretty fun. We didn't meet each other for a year since I came back from Buffalo, and we had a lot of things to talk about.

There are still many places where I want to take him so I'll do that next time he come here.

New Year

Happy new year!
3 days have already passed since new year's day.

Now I need to change my mind to the next step.

Unlike every other year, my family and I didn't visit my father's grandparents' house so my new year was kind of simple than last year.

While I was spending my new year's day in here, I realized that there were less New year's mood than before in the town.  I mean, usually many kinds of new year decoration and music were everywhere in the town, but this year weren't.  I don't know, maybe I just felt like that, but it's a little bit sad if it's true.  I think we are gradually losing our sense of season.  However, I still can see some kids and their father were flying a kite in the park, and bunch of people were going to shrine in the new year's day so I felt relieved.

And my family and relatives were also still trying to keep doing a traditional way of celebrating new year's day.

But not like normal Japanese family.  Japanese people usually eat "Osechi (new year's food in kinda big bento-box)", but both of my parent' family don't have that custom.  I just ate Osechi one time 3 or 4 years ago because Osechi looks so beautiful, and I really wanted to try it once.  Honestly, Osechi was not that so delicious than I thought.  

Anyway, this year I went to my mother's parent' house, and they served Ozoni (Soup for new year), Sashimi, and spareribs(Japanese style).  In their most traditional way, they serve 3 kinds of Ozoni, and there are goat meat in it.  But goat meat is not good for the old people's health so we don't do that anymore.

I really enjoy listening those kinds of story related to new year custom, and I think I'm lucky to have these old-fashioned family and relatives.


By the way, I also went to shrine and made some wishes.

It's Kiyoshi-Kojin shrine.  My written oracle said my year will be so-so.  Hm...but this shrine's written oracle is famous because it's really harsh so so-so is great for me.


Anyway, those are my new year's days.  Happy new year for everyone, and hope you have a great year.

Pho

My friend and I ate Pho in my favorite Vietnamese restaurant.  This restaurant's Pho is just amazing.  I think I can eat this everyday.

Pho's noodle is made from rice, and ingredients are basically bean sprouts(もやし) , green onion, and Chicken or fish ball.  The soup tastes very simple and light.  I didn't know that until I watched a video of how to cook Pho, but it actually takes a lot of works to finish it.

My friend has been to Vietnam before, and said this Pho tastes better than Pho in Vietnam.  This restaurant is in Umeda, but that'll be good if I have cheap Pho stall like Vietnam near my house so that I can eat Pho everyday.

Christmas Day

Merry Christmas for everyone!

Although Christmas day is totally nothing to do with me, I like to see how people and city are getting excited about this.  And this year, Santa Clause came to my home after his 7 or 8 years absence.  He gave me a bag which is exactly what I wanted to.  That was kinda surprise because I almost forgot about him, and didn't tried to be a good girl for a whole year.  Well, He actually gave me a present, and I think he is really good guy.

Anyway, my Christmas day was over.  No drink, No dance, but staying in a warm room with Kotatsu and good Takasugi's cake ：）

Winter

Hi !
Long time I didn't post a blog in here.  I'm basically doing very good :)
The weather in Buffalo is getting cold day by day, but today is kind of warm day.

Now I'm writing this in the library called "Capen".  UB has many libraries, but this library is the only library which is 24 hours operation.  I sometimes study in this library until midnight, and I can see many students study, too.  I think students in here are very hard working.  One of my friend said that he couldn't go back to his room recently because he has a lot of homework from his classes.  He said he spend almost of all his time in library.  Wow...


Now I'm planing to go to Boston in this thanksgiving holiday.  After that, I don't have so much time in here.  I booked my airplane ticket to go back Japan in December 13th, and our classes will be finished in December 7th.  I'm going to be very busy until thanxgiving holiday.  I have to hand in 6 pages of report, and give a presentation.  Wish me luck.




Ayumi

Weekend

Good morning.
It's September 17th, 10:06 a.m.
Today is holiday! But I don't know what kind of holiday it is. Anyway, I don't have class today.
Now I'm in Lockwood library. Maybe, this is biggest library in UB. I can't compare with Konan library. It has 6th floors, and we can eat and drink inside the library. There are many spaces which we can focus on the study. My favorite one is this individual booth. Today is study day. I'll finish up my class assignment! :)


This Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I spend very fun time with my friends. On Friday,we went to IMAX theater to watch new "Resident Evil." That was the first time for me to watch a movie in IMAX, and that was fabulous! The screen was huge, ans sound system was like that I was actually in the movie. The movie itself was also good, but I felt that the Resident Evil isn't zombie movie anymore.

Saturday was also fun. I had a dinner at my Korean friend's house with 3 korean, 1 American friends. The owner of house, one of Korean friend, made us many kinds of Korean food.

She made Yakitori for me! That was actually taste like Japanese Yakitori. We also drunk Korean alcohol, Soju.


Yesterday, Sunday was Japanese Student Association(JSA)'s BBQ event!
I met some new Japanese exchange students who came from mainly Konan Cube, and other university in Japan, and foreingn people who are interested in Japanese culture.
If you are Japanese exchange student, you might concern about how to make a relationship with other Japanese exchange students. While you are in foreign country, you will face some difficulty. At that time, your Japanese friend is going to help you. You don't have to feel guilty to communicate with Japanese people whan you are in foreign country.


Anyway, I had a good weekends!
See you!

Recently

Good Evening!

Now the time is 12:25 p.m.
I have not been uploaded my English blog such a long time...
The days in here are very busy. I'm using almost of all my freetime to do my class assignment.
I'm taking 4classes now. 2 classes for ESL(English as Second Language) class, and rest of them are academic class. Academic classes are "American Foreign Policy" and "Fundamental Journalism."
Both of them are really hard to catch up with the speed, but they are very interesting.

So many things are changed from the summer time. Especially, my dormitory.
In summer time, I was living in Greiner Hall which is the newest building in North campus, UB. Actually, many of the ELI(English Language Institute) students, including me, are the first people who were live in that building. But after summer vacation, we had to move to another place, and now I'm living in the building called Ellicott complex. And now I really feel I want to move out.

For exchange students, it seems like there are no other choices to live in here without dormitory. However, actually there are many other choices. Many people said it's good for us to live with the person who has different culture, and It's also help you to learn English. I think it's not wrong, but actually we don't have so much time to talk to our roomie. And sometimes It's disturb you to concentrate on your work. In my opinion, your room should be a place where you can be relaxed.
For the person who plan to go to UB, I'll introduce some other choices later. I'm talking about this because me myself found some difficulty to live in dormitory now.

But anyway, my life in here as UB student gradually became stable. Although sometimes feel very stressful, and loneliness, I'm trying to cope with it by myself or with someone who can rely on.

So, yeah...see you later. I'll sometimes come back here to write journal. I believe it's gonna be helpful for my study. Bye!