okay here's the story of my trip to japan. It's not complete yet because there's still a lot to write.
The Day I Left 30.06.2006
I left my house at 7 in the morning to go to the airport (it's located ~1h30min far from the place I live) and arrived at the airport of tokyo at 8 in the morning (local time, which makes a travel of 18 hours...)
http://www.rmxp.ch/pics/swissmap.png[/img]
We had to fly through storms or something and when we landed I felt like I was going to throw up my whole digestive system but I got well again after I walked a bit. My host family was living at Tokorozawa in the Saitama Prefecture (North of tokyo). I buyed a ticket for the bus I had to take, and the lady asked me if I wanted to ride the next one. I thought that she was stupid; she thought I wanted to take tomorrow's one or what?
I went to the bus station and saw it leave without being able to catch it. Maybe she wasn't that stupid after all. So I changed my ticket and took the next bus to meet them at tokorozawa station as I had been told. But I was tired and I got the stations names wrong :
I had to get down at 所沢駅æ±å£ (tokorozawa eki higashi-guchi, east exit of tokorozawa's station) but I got down the bus a few stations before, at　æ±æ‰€æ²¢é§…å£ (higashi tokorozawa eki-guchi, the exit of south tokorozawa's station). As you can see (or not), the stations names kanjis are the same, they're just placed in a different order.
Anyway, I took the next bus and finally arrived at the station and met my host family. Only a few of them came to welcome me (the other family members were working) :
- The Grandmother (Yamada Sanae, 52)
- The First Son (Iwamoto Kaito, 5)
- One of the Sister with her husband and their son (Tateyama family)
They were all very nice and prepared me a nice meal when we got home. They're living in a small suburb of tokorozawa in front of Totoro's forest (yes the forest miyazaki used to make his anime).
http://www.rmxp.ch/pics/shouguntoka.JPG[/img]
In the afternoon, the mother came back from work with her child (Iwamoto Kaoru, 22) (Iwamoto Kazuki, 2). We went to a mall to buy some food and before the dinner I met the Grandfather (Yamada Sankichi, 52).
The next day (Sunday) I took some rest and talked alot with my host family.
The First School Day
Sanae gave me a few explanations on how to get to the school (in the Center of Tokyo - Chiyoda Ward - near the imperial palace). I went down at the wrong station with the train, I also got wrong with the metro and I finally arrived half an hour late at school. But the teachers had envisaged 1 hour of delay for the students. After that everything went okay. I met four other swiss people, three of them living in my city and I had never met them (my city is about 100'000 people...).
http://www.rmxp.ch/pics/kudanshita.JPG[/img]
日本棋院 - The Japanese Go Federation
The morning (after 15 minutes of Bus, 50 minutes of Train and 10 minutes of Metro) I had school. After the school, I was free to do whatever I wanted. I decided to go and see the Japanese Go Federation (since I play Go). I had a visit card from Kobayashi Chizu (a 5 dan professional Go player who used to teach Go at Geneva and in many other places over the world) so I thought I could find it easily.
I was wrong. After 2 hours of searching I decided to stop and eat. I saw I map of the ward's schools when I got outside of the restaurant. I was very happy to see the federation was located on it and followed the path to find it. But unfortunately I did not found it that day.
Two days later I decided to come back and this time, find the federation. I took a photography of the school's map, walked a few minutes and eventually found it.
At this time I don't know if I was happy because I had found it or if I was disappointed because I walked before it two days ago looking at it and not recognising the (very) big letters on the building. Anyway, I entered it and played a few games versus old gramps. But I lost every game XD
http://www.rmxp.ch/pics/nihonkiin.JPG[/img]
The Day I Left 30.06.2006
I left my house at 7 in the morning to go to the airport (it's located ~1h30min far from the place I live) and arrived at the airport of tokyo at 8 in the morning (local time, which makes a travel of 18 hours...)
http://www.rmxp.ch/pics/swissmap.png[/img]
We had to fly through storms or something and when we landed I felt like I was going to throw up my whole digestive system but I got well again after I walked a bit. My host family was living at Tokorozawa in the Saitama Prefecture (North of tokyo). I buyed a ticket for the bus I had to take, and the lady asked me if I wanted to ride the next one. I thought that she was stupid; she thought I wanted to take tomorrow's one or what?
I went to the bus station and saw it leave without being able to catch it. Maybe she wasn't that stupid after all. So I changed my ticket and took the next bus to meet them at tokorozawa station as I had been told. But I was tired and I got the stations names wrong :
I had to get down at 所沢駅æ±å£ (tokorozawa eki higashi-guchi, east exit of tokorozawa's station) but I got down the bus a few stations before, at　æ±æ‰€æ²¢é§…å£ (higashi tokorozawa eki-guchi, the exit of south tokorozawa's station). As you can see (or not), the stations names kanjis are the same, they're just placed in a different order.
Anyway, I took the next bus and finally arrived at the station and met my host family. Only a few of them came to welcome me (the other family members were working) :
- The Grandmother (Yamada Sanae, 52)
- The First Son (Iwamoto Kaito, 5)
- One of the Sister with her husband and their son (Tateyama family)
They were all very nice and prepared me a nice meal when we got home. They're living in a small suburb of tokorozawa in front of Totoro's forest (yes the forest miyazaki used to make his anime).
http://www.rmxp.ch/pics/shouguntoka.JPG[/img]
In the afternoon, the mother came back from work with her child (Iwamoto Kaoru, 22) (Iwamoto Kazuki, 2). We went to a mall to buy some food and before the dinner I met the Grandfather (Yamada Sankichi, 52).
The next day (Sunday) I took some rest and talked alot with my host family.
The First School Day
Sanae gave me a few explanations on how to get to the school (in the Center of Tokyo - Chiyoda Ward - near the imperial palace). I went down at the wrong station with the train, I also got wrong with the metro and I finally arrived half an hour late at school. But the teachers had envisaged 1 hour of delay for the students. After that everything went okay. I met four other swiss people, three of them living in my city and I had never met them (my city is about 100'000 people...).
http://www.rmxp.ch/pics/kudanshita.JPG[/img]
日本棋院 - The Japanese Go Federation
The morning (after 15 minutes of Bus, 50 minutes of Train and 10 minutes of Metro) I had school. After the school, I was free to do whatever I wanted. I decided to go and see the Japanese Go Federation (since I play Go). I had a visit card from Kobayashi Chizu (a 5 dan professional Go player who used to teach Go at Geneva and in many other places over the world) so I thought I could find it easily.
I was wrong. After 2 hours of searching I decided to stop and eat. I saw I map of the ward's schools when I got outside of the restaurant. I was very happy to see the federation was located on it and followed the path to find it. But unfortunately I did not found it that day.
Two days later I decided to come back and this time, find the federation. I took a photography of the school's map, walked a few minutes and eventually found it.
At this time I don't know if I was happy because I had found it or if I was disappointed because I walked before it two days ago looking at it and not recognising the (very) big letters on the building. Anyway, I entered it and played a few games versus old gramps. But I lost every game XD
http://www.rmxp.ch/pics/nihonkiin.JPG[/img]
