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Sooo.. I mean I could show you all the pretty pictures of the Jidai matsuri (Japanese festival, don't ask me what it was about..) that I went to this past weekend but something that I've been longing for, wishing for, dreaming about for the past 2 years happened yesterday so that will have to wait. Me and Johanna went to Shiga (a town 2 stops away from Kyoto by train) and saw the band that brought us together.. My absolute favorites in the whole, wide world: the Gazette.

I had fixed us tickets through a girl on livejournal and it turned out the seats were pretty damn good. We where on the first floor like 10 rows back, I saw everything almost as good as I would've if they had filmed it and I would've watched it at home. I can't describe the feeling when the lights dimmed and I could see Kai, Reita, Uruha, Aoi and finally Ruki come out on stage. I've been admiring these guys for 2 years and they are the reason I met Johanna and initially the reason I moved here to Japan. The live was the best night of my life, even though my neck is sore as hell today and I can barely bend over. It was aaaall worth it.

All the little moments.. Ruki licking his bedazzled cane, Aoi trying to sex Ruki out during "my devil on the bed", Aoi backbending, Reita playing his bass so sexily I had to roar, Kai roaring out his "kakatte koi!!" after MCing, Ride with the rockers, Ruki touching himself, the fact that they played "psychedelic heroine" and I got to see Ruki do his serious humping and Aoi dancing his little dances, kantou dougeza kumiai, Aoi walking over to Reita and first grinding against the back of his thigh and then proceeding to hump it.. Aoi and Reita goofing off, Aoi doing his bitchy smirking, Uruha getting into his music all adorably.. Gah. So much memories. I can't say it enough how damn good those guys are live! Ruki's voice is so close to flawless you can come and they sound way better live than on CD, it's so damn amazing to witness.

Oh I just have to mention.. Aoi wore a skirt during the encore. A pink skirt with a golden stripe on it. Oh yeah, you read it right. A pink skirt that went to his ankles. At first I thought it was like harem pants, you know the ones they wear in "Aladdin" but no, it was a skirt. When he first came out during ride with the rockers he wore a lacy belly dancerish thing over his nose and mouth. He looked like a bellydancer that had escaped from his work. Oh Aoi.. What a man.

(and uh.. Me and Johanna kind of left a note in a box that they had set out where you could leave stuff for the band with our phone numbers on it EHEHE. We wrote "Big love from Sweden" signed it, wrote our names and our phone numbers (oh and call me <3)  XDD They wont ever call us but now we gave it a shot hahah. It's not at all like I'm checking my phone all the time now.. Noooo. Not at all)

Jag har nu haft två lektioner på KICL (Kyoto Institute of Culture and Language) och det känns både bra och dåligt! Det är roligt när man förstår och hänger med på lektionerna och en utav mina lärare verkar vara väldigt glad och snäll. Men däremot läxorna är ett annat ämne, vi fick läxa på första dagen och när jag glatt satte mig ner för att göra den inser jag att det är på något helt annat än det vi gått igenom på lektionen. Här i Japan verkar det vara så att man ska förbereda sig inför nästa lektion genom att göra läxor som handlar om nästa dags lektioner. Något som är otroligt korkat eftersom då sitter man med läxan och förstår inte ett jota. Förhoppningsvis så kommer det bli bättre senare, men ändå!
Igår fixade vi även japanska mobiler! Vi tog alla tre samma sort (min är den rosa, såklart) som inte kostade någonting eftersom den är abonnemangsstyrd.. Man betalar ju såklart en öppningsavgift och sedan en fast avgift varje månad men det blev faktiskt inte speciellt dyrt :) Nu när vi har en mobil så blir allting mycket lättare, till exempel att få stora postpaket (tydligen måste de ha ens mobilnummer för att leverera paketet till dörren..)

Jag och Johanna har även fått våra Gazette-biljetter!! Weehoo! Det betyder att jag ska FAKTISKT se mina allra största idoler (musik&utseendemässigt ahahah) om 2 och en halv vecka!! OH YEAAAH!
Hoppas ni alla mår bra där hemma och att det inte är alltför kallt! (Här i Kyoto är det varmt som i en bakugn)

Igår, söndag, lyckades vi få till en rolig dag utan några planer alls! Eftersom vi bor så nära ett gammalt tempel som heter Shimogamo så gick vi dit i det fina vädret (som sedan utvecklades till outhärdlig hetta) och kollade runt lite på den fina arkitekturen.

Här har vi en bild på ingången till tempelområdet, av någon anledning var det jättemycket folk där.. Vi har ännu inte kunnat klura ut varför men trevligt var det ändå.

Shimogamo templet ligger mitt i en park som är jättefin, tänk vad fint det blir när löven börjar bli röda och gula. Det händer inte förrän i mitten av november här i Japan!

Efter att ha kollat runt vid templet så tog vi bussen till Nitori (Japans IKEA ungefär) för att köpa bäddset, handdukar och kastruller. På vägen från Nitori upptäckte vi typ en gatufestival med massa matstånd på en liten gata. Där fanns det mycket gott att mumsa på, yakisoba, chockladdoppade bananer, majskolvar, friterad kyckling.. Det var sjuuukt gott! Vi blev dock ganska utstirrade eftersom japanerna verkade tycka att vi inte borde vara där hahaha. På den stora vägen var det även processioner med traditionellt klädda män och det spelades musik och hela köret.. Vi fattade absolut ingenting men trevligt blev det ändå :D

Hoppas att alla mår bra hemma i kyliga Sveriga, saknar er!

Yesterday we had our orientation at school, which basically was first 1 and a half hour of talking about random stuff and school stuff in Swedish with a girl that had gone to the school I'm going to now (and now goes to a Japanese university) and she told us about some dos and don'ts. Then she showed us the library, the cafeteria and the roof of the university that our school is in.

Isn't the view from the roof gorgeous? The university lies on the slope of a mountain so the view is pretty spectacular.

Also our washing machine fucked us over, majorly so instead of washing our clothes in there (the manual is in Japanese and Japanese only so we don't understand it and yeah..) we had to wash our clothes in the bath tub. Let me repeat that, IN THE BATHTUB. Well the clothes got clean but still!

Here we have 2 miserable ladies washing our clothes in the bathtub after a long hour of fighting with the washing machine. BUT! Somehow we did figure out how to dry them in the washing machine....

Today we went to Osaka to check our HEP5, a giant shopping mall close to Osaka station. Our guide, Johanna who was in Osaka for 6 weeks last summer showed us all the stuff you needed to see. There were 9 floors and each floor was filled with cute shoes, accesories and lots of cute (but tiny) clothes. On the ninth floor there was an arcade hall and a ferris wheel, the ride on the ferris wheel was so awesome! You could put your ipod in the little cubicle and on the around 10 minute ride you could listen to whatever you wanted. We picked some Lonely Island songs and danced.. It was so funny! Before we got on the ferris wheel we bought crepes and they were so delicious! I picked one with chocolate, cream and strawberry ice cream. Yummy!

Here we have the crepes.. mine is the one who's already been nibbled on, heheh.

And here we have ONE of many pics from the spectacular view up in the ferris wheel.

Happy girls in the ferris wheel!

Oh and... the guy sitting next to me sleeping WAS SO DAMN CUUUTE. I was like *staring creepily at him* all the way from Kyoto to Osaka! Of course Johanna noticed it too and decided to take this pic so we could remember hahaha.

I hope everyone at home is doing good and is feeling good, comment here about how life's going for you so I can see it! I still don't have internet so I can't check facebook much but I read my mails and comments at least once a day! Love and miss you all! (Älskar och saknar er alla)

In case you haven't heard it my kittycat has died. Two days after I left Sweden for Japan he ran over the road outside our house and got run over, from what I've heard from mom and dad he didn't die from being run over.. My dad had to put him down. I was so devastated when I heard about this since it was me who brought him to our house and it was sort of my cat, he slept in my bed when he wanted to be cuddly.. The only comfort I have is that the last months of his life was very happy, he got to eat a lot and run around outside. Mom and dad buried him in the bushes he loved to sit in, facing the house where the feline he loved to play around with lived.

Here's a bad pic of the kitty and me, when he did sleep in my bed he always slept on my chest.. Close to the heart.

Idag har vi haft våran första skoldag på KICL här i Kyoto, vi har tur som har gångavstånd till skolan. Det tar ca 20 minuter att gå dit, skönt att man slipper åka buss! Bussen är ändå relativt dyr, ca 20 kr och det är ett fast pris oftast. Så det priset gäller på alla bussar.

Första skoldagen bestod av ett så kallat placeringstest, ett prov som skulle bedömma  kunskaperna man hade i det japanska språket. Det var oerhört svårt! Jag kan än inte de japanska alfabeten och såklart var allt skrivet med japanska bokstäver.. Jag tror att jag svarade på 3 frågor av typ 15. På intervjun stakade jag mig fram också, kände mig som värsta superidioten.. Jag vet att jag åkt hit för att lära mig men det kändes ändå jobbigt att känna sig så dålig. Kompenserade med att åka hem och plugga lite japanska och sedan traska till mangacaféet (som har wi-fi) och maila mamma och pappa.

Dagen spenderades sedan med att fönstershoppa i det stora varuhuset som ligger ca 3 min ifrån våran lägenhet, Qanat heter det. Jag och Johanna gick senare under dagen ut till parken som ligger på andra sidan floden (alltså jättenära våran lägenhet eftersom vi bor vid floden) och kikade. Där inne hittade vi bland annat ett tempel som är med på UNESCO's världsarvlista och som är en utav Kyotos kulturskatter, det var ett lite roligt fynd där i den fina lövskogsparken. På fredag har vi planerat att åka in till Osaka och kika lite i det enorma shoppingcentret HEP5, på taket där finns det ett pariserhjul!

Saknar fortfarande familjen oerhört mycket (tycker att ni borde kommentera lite mer mamma, pappa, Sara och Daniel! XD) det är ungefär som att ha ett hål i sitt hjära att inte kunna se dem och prata med dem när jag vill. Skulle helst av allt vilja bara sätta mig ner i våran fina, röda soffa i vardagsrummet och se på en deckare med mamma och pappa. Längtar tills vi får internet i våran lägenhet så att jag kan få se dem i webcamen! Kommer fördmodligen gråta floder första gången jag skypear med dem haha. Älskar er så mycket bara så att ni vet!

So I will give you a quick recap of the loong and hard trip over here. So it all started with a tearful goodbye of my family and friends at the airport, I still miss you all! Then me&Johanna went to Stockholm and then waited for Dena that came with a later plane. Our last meal was at McDonalds at Arlanda, I was sad since I wanted MAX but it was just for domestic flights :( We checked in and shopped a bit before boarding the plane to Frankfurt and quicker than you could say quidditch we were on the plane to Shanghai. That around 11 hour flight was haaaard. I think I just slept around 3 hours on it and we didn't even have our own private screens! But I somehow managed to live through that and we arrived at Shanghai airport which was very gorgeous!

As you can see the ceiling in the international terminal was off the hook! At Shanghai airport we went to the bathroom, sweated, went to the bathroom again and waited.

And I also decided to nap..

The flight to Osaka went smoothly but our good luck ended there since the cab which was supposed to pick us up didn't show up since it only drove to Kyoto and we were gonna sleep the first night in Osaka. We took the bus to Osaka station and planned to take a cab to the hotel from there but all the cab drivers were major assholes and said they didn't "know" where our hotel was which was complete bull of course! When we finally found the hotel it turned out it was very central and not something a cab driver wouldn't know where it is.

As you can see the hotel room was very nice! The morning after we ate a nice breakfast but there my problems with my stomach started, because of the heat in Japan and the jetlag my stomach have been acting up ever since we arrived and I threw up after the first night in our apartment and I've been feeling sick a little every day. But now it's finally getting better!

Today we took the bus to the shopping district in Kyoto, Sanjo/Shido, there's a lot of stores to explore in Kyoto.. A lot of small streets with small stores that are just crazy! I ate yakiniku today at a real Japanese restaurant, tiny space and weird vegetables.

The homesickness is also starting to get somewhat better, I still miss my parents and Sweden but it's tolerable now. When I can skype with them I think it'll get gradually better.. But I'll still miss them tons!