chochajin: (Default)
chochajin ([personal profile] chochajin) wrote on November 21st, 2008 at 03:29 pm
[Japan]: Sitting on the floor makes you old.
Good evening (or rather night - ... or whatever time it is where you live XD)!

I just want to make a QUICK update today. Nothing special, more a rant like anything else, I guess.

Today I was informed that I have to pay back my university tuition (which is not a surprise), but it was sooner and more than I expected. This will definitely interfere with my savings for my dream (which is visiting a Japanese language school full-time for at least 1 year).
Furthermore I have to figure out how to transfer money from my Japanese bank account to my German one without too much effort and costs (x____X) ....
Then I will have to pay way more taxes next year, too. That is ... ONLY if I get my work visa anyway.
So right now my dream is getting farer and farer away from me ;_____;
But it's too early to give up, I guess. I'm just a LITTLE bit down because of it right now (.__.)
I need more money or I will wait forever until I can attend the school -___-'' ....

Quite a big problem right now is that my back (especially my tailbone), my shoulders and my knees hurt. I'm 100% sure it's because I'm sitting on the floor the whole time here in my appartment. You've seen photos of the table (which is also a kotatsu in winter) and the chair I'm using. I wonder if I'm not sitting properly, but then again is there even a way to sit properly and in a healthy way on the floor? I couldn't find anything about it!
I do have a REALLY small desk and a completely crappy chair for that and that's why I never use it. My small table and the sofa chair thingie are so much more comfortable! And especially now in winter I don't wanna leave my kotatsu anyway. ... I wonder if there's anything I can do to not kill my knees and back in the future x____x ...

I was talking to my Japanese coworkers about ... how they keep warm in winter and we had quite a funny misunderstanding. They were fangirling about a thing called "yutanpo" which keeps you warm and is like a bottle where you fill water in. I figured it must be something out of metal, because they told me it will keep warm for the whole night and blah.
After talking about if for a few hours (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) I finally had time to google it because I wanted to know the German name for it .... and that's when I figured that they were talking about the good ol' "Wärmflasche" the WHOLE time XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD ...... *headdesk*
Of course I brought 2 of them from Germany already *lol*
So ... how do I keep warm right now? ... Actually I'm still figuring that out. Everybody has to do this in winter in Japan. This is what sucks about Japan, I guess. No insulation at all. Of course you can run the AC the whole night, but that will kill you when you get your next electric bill. I was thinking about buying a heating blanket, but those are quite expensive and I guess they still will make your electric bill explode somewhat. I intend to buy at least a normal cheap fluffy blanket to drag along with me and use for my upper half when sitting in my kotatsu XD ... and some warm clothes (UQ seems to have some good stuff - just need time to go there x___X ....).
And everybody keeps telling me that it's not THAT cold yet ... uh,oh.
Don't get me wrong, I'm used to cold!!! In Germany we sometimes have -10 degrees or at leat -5 around this time of the year, but INSIDE we have central heating so it's warm!!! (x____X) I always wondered about the people who were complaining about how cold it is in Japan when it had 8degrees or so. Now I understand. And I guess you won't fully understand unless you've been here and experienced it (x_X).

Oh ... and my digicam is kind of broke. I still can use it but no properly anymore. It's not in shape for my next vacation ... I need to buy a new one although it hurts me to spend even more money -__-
If you have any recs for good digicams, please let me know! ^-^ I want a light one with a huge display and at least 5 Megapixles that's not UBER-expensive.




Yes, soon it's Christmas. Japan seems to start even earlier with Christmas deco and stuff than we do in Germany (I'm not talking about NOW, but quite a while AGO! XD) .....
This cute pamphlet was in my mail box a few days ago and I wanted to share it with everybody ^-^



I would like to try one of these, but look at the price! Holy cow (x__O'')



Me loves Japanese bread <3333 (I wonder if I ever manage to try all the bread fillings they have!? XD) .....



[random] Ryo had a really funny dorky moment in RnK today XDDD [/random]

Okay, gotta get ready for bed now.


Bye~chuu!~
 
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