Sašo in Japan!

The Final Post

2017-08-18
tags: goodbye | japan

Hello. It’s me. It’s been a long time, how are you? I’m doing fine, thank you very much for asking! This is a post without any pictures, and very likely completely unreadable compared to the other posts, which were kind of unreadable to start with. Didn’t want to just leave this blig to keel over and die, so this is a conclusion post that discusses way too many, very unrelated things and tries to give several poorly-worded excuses for not writing ten-or-more posts in the time from the last one to this one.

Fuyukomi 2016

2017-02-05
tags: japan

There’s this event in Tokyo just before every New Year called the Winter Comiket. Over 600 thousand people go there in a span of three days every year to get their fill of self-published manga (doujinshi in Japanese). Of course it’s one of the things I definitely needed to visit during my stay here.

Warming up in Okinawa

2017-02-02
tags: japan

Right after our trip to Hokkaidou, Youri and I went to Okinawa to warm ourselves up. From the north extremity of Japan to the southernmost, it was quite a jump in temperatures. Having had to wear every thick piece of clothing we had to keep ourselves from freezing, and then going to short sleeves in a span of a bit more than a day, it was certainly an experience.

Winter in Hokkaidou

2017-01-31
tags: japan

Still being last year for the events of this post, we went to snowy, freezing Hokkaidou for our winter vacation. Some of the things we did are: slid across partially frozen water while looking at water that only freezes at the north and south poles, pretended we were lobsters, and apparently entered hell. Sounds interesting? It was!

Autumn in Nikkou

2016-12-23
tags: japan

Nikkou is a popular destination to see falling leaves (momiji in Japanese) in autumn, so the majority of this year’s Vulcanus participants went there for a day to see what the fuss was all about. Rivers, waterfalls, nice scenery, all bathed in sunlight, it was a really nice day.

Kamakura

2016-12-03
tags: japan

Home to the Daibutsu, a surprisingly huge beach, a big shrine, and a very beautiful street in front of it, Kamakura is really pretty. It’s a bit hilly, so there are hiking trails, and it has a very nice charm when you walk through the residential areas, which offer a very welcome break from the Tokyo city centers.

A Guide to Vulcanus: The Application Process

2016-11-20
tags: vulcanus-guide

About applying to Vulcanus in Japan, there’s one thing I’d like to get through quickly, because it’s just so important. If you’re interested, start preparing your application immediately. This thing takes a while and definitely can’t be done in only a couple of days. With that out of the way, let’s take a look at some things I found to be important while applying. There are a lot of resources to consider if you want to learn more about Vulcanus, including the application process. Read more...

Kawagoe and Its Festival

2016-10-24
tags: japan

Last weekend was quite busy. We went to a real festival! Taking place in the city of Kawagoe, which was completely closed off for traffic that weekend, it offered an endless supply of chocolate bananas, takoyaki, dango and other delicious street-vendor things-to-eat. But that isn’t the point of this festival; the centerpieces were the numerous floats which performed musical battles in the evening and put on shows during the day. Never a dull moment in Kawagoe!

Tokyo Tower

2016-10-10
tags: japan

After a bunch of studying last weekend I felt hungry and went to a convenience store to grab some quick lunch. As soon as I stepped outside I was greeted with one of the best days in the previous month, being sunny, not a cloud in the sky, with just the right temperature. “Well, time to go somewhere!”, I thought. Studying could wait until later. Along came the idea of visiting Tokyo Tower. It was the last day before they closed the top observation deck for renovations until next summer. Deciding to go was a no-brainer.

Akihabara!

2016-09-27
tags: japan

AKIHABARAAAAA! is a district in Tokyo. But that’s the only boring description you’ll ever find. Appropriately named the Electric Town, it is home to an overwhelmingly large number of stores, both of electronics or other goods. But the electronic aspect isn’t what makes Akihabara interesting for me. Instead, it is a centre, a gathering point, a core, a one-of-a-kind nexus of anime, manga and related popular culture.