台風。。。と後 Typhoon and after

 So, what were you all doing Thursday (or I guess it would be Wednesday back in the islands)? My guess is that you Hawaii people were relaxing at work or home or...doing something otherwise mundane and boring :p For those in Okinawa, we had a much more fun time. But, not quite for a fun reason. We were informed on Thursday that we were in a 暴風 warning (gale warning). That was at about 10:30 or so. I left to go to my office/classroom/research room at 10:00. In the winds that were already at that strength -_- That sure was fun. HAHAHA. The top picture is all the open space that was next to me since only 3 of us actually were there and for the most part, we didn't want to be there but since we had arrived before the warning, we just stayed to finish our work. On the plus side, we did get some awesome colors outside. These pictures don't do it justice. We got some purple and we even got to glimpse some blue sky! Went outside to take the pictures, and soon after realized that wasn't exactly the smartest thing to do as the winds and rain made it so cold outside!
It is starting to feel like autumn now (compared to how hot it was last week -_-)

I believe that I've been putting off my promise of introducing my office/research mates. So far I can only show 3 of us, but hopefully I'll be able to get the fourth person soon (Ricky is his name and he recently had a baby so we'll celebrate soon...maybe get a group picture then? We'll see).

(Sorry all the pictures are kind of dark. We'll go into why later...)
The person on the far left is Tanaka Kentaro, Tanaka-san, my senpai. He's currently a third year PHD student finishing up his degree and graduating this coming March. He's super nice and has been so much help to me. His English is quite amazing! I was happily impressed so while I'm trying to use Japanese, if I ever can't express what I want, usually I can say it in English and he'll understand.

 Lets see, to my right is Kinjo Haruka-chan. She is a fourth-year (senior) and will be graduating this coming March. She's actually from Okinawa originally so hopefully I'll be able to learn some Okinawan from her. (^^)v She's recently been showing me some of the ropes on how to perform some of the various different experiments and stuff that I'll eventually have to do once I start getting my experiment going.

The third person in my office/research room is the one with the cap on (the middle guy). His name is Kawasaki Yukito-kun and hes been the one (for the most part) that has been taking me all around getting my various things that I need (you know, things to cook with, sleep with, and general things that are just needed). Oh yeah, also went to get my cell phone and all those important things together. He'll also be graduating this coming March but will be returning as a graduate student the following spring semester.

Now, onto the reason for the dark pictures.

We went to an 居酒屋 (drinking place) as a sort of welcome party for me. 2 hour all you can drink! It was fantastic but I definitely need to not drink that much next time. Haha, Wasn't quite to the drunk point, but was definitely having fun! Actually, I think we were all having a great time (at least, I hope that is the truth). We stayed there for more than 4 hours. Since it was Halloween weekend, all the waiters/waitresses dressed in costumes and there was even Halloween specials.

After finishing the 飲み会 (drinking outing), a few of us went to the 留学生会館 (international students meeting hall) and joined some of the festivities that were going on (the Halloween party mainly...).

All in all, Friday ended up being an awesome day.
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Oh yeah, forgot to mention the best part, my scholarship money finally came in on Friday so I'm finally able to book my trip over to Fukuoka. 1/4~1/11;12. So, should be lots of fun ^^

台風を待ってる waiting for the typhoon

So, its now almost 12 on Wednesday night. In the next day/day and a half there’s a category three typhoon that’s waiting to hit us here in Okinawa. So far we’ve just had really strong wind and quite a fair bit of rain. There’s supposed to be thunderstorms sometime tonight or tomorrow and I guess I’ll find out if we’ll actually be having classes tomorrow or Friday. Man…I’d love to have a break (^^)v
LOL, I should really be worried about the coming typhoon, but I’m not. Instead I feel like updating my blog ^^ …even if it periodically erases -_-Let’s see, last time I said that I was going to introduce my office mates. However, recently, my studies/research has gotten to be very busy so I haven’t gotten around to trying to get pictures or anything. However, next time for sure! Because we are going to (if the weather holds up) a nomi-kai (飲み会). Let’s see, how to explain a nomi-kai. The quickest and simplest way is that it is an outing where we meet and go drink. However, it’s more than just that and if you wanna know, just comment ^-^Instead I’ll talk about what has happened since the last post. As of the last post, I had joined (sorta) the billiards circle which meets every Wednesday night. Since then, I have joined two more circles, バレー同好会 (people that have an interest in volleyball) and 琉球大学アルティメット(Ryudai Ultimate Club). The バレー同好会 meets every Monday and Friday. The people there are quite amazing, if I do say so. They are all players from high school time but at least I’m able to hold my own ^_^
琉球大学アルティメット, now can you guess what this is? THAT’S RIGHT, ITS ULTIMATE FRISBEE!! I was happily surprised to find that most of the people are fairly good too. (Though none have been playing for as long as me, they are good. ^^) I just went this past Tuesday and it was incredibly fun. (Maybe more so because the typhoon winds were just starting to come so the winds were quite strong :p) This club meets every Tuesday and Thursday.So, for those of you that can keep track of days, yes every weekday night now has an activity (or two depending on some other circles…).

Hmm, now that that’s out of the way, the weather did clear up some this past weekend. Luckily for us, it was also the same time as our outing to きらきら海 (kirakira beach) and so we had a real fun playing in the sun and having our BBQ. I’m definitely going to do that again!! I can’t wait :p

Well, it’s now about time to try and get some sleep since I’m still not certain if get class tomorrow.

サークル入った！～ I joined a circle (or club I guess its called...)

So, I've been thinking about how to meet many different Japanese people and make friends (along with force myself to speak Japanese). Its been three weeks in planning and finally I've found some circles/clubs that I'm going to join. Tonight I went to the Billiards circle where we basically just played billiards for 3 hours spending a grand total of 300円!! Not too shabby at all :p Minoru and Eric also seemed to have fun and I believe the three of us will be going again next week...
After, I've sort of joined the Exchange Student Sanshin club but, well, it meets tomorrow and I found out that the Nature Photo club also meets tomorrow...どうしようかな... I'm gonna go the nature photo club meeting (which starts an hour earlier) so hopefully if all works out I'll be able to be in both :)
Lets see, also found an Ultimate Frisbee club, definatly gonna check that one out too :p Also some sort of coral reef exploration thing...gosh, so many to choose from :D

Well, its now 4 in the morning...sleep time -_-
Next I think I'll introduce my office mates (hopefully with pictures if they'll let me HAHAHA :D)

沖縄に着きました Arrived in Okinawa

Aloha from Okinawa! This picture is from 'kokusai dori' (こくさいどり） which literally translates to international street. I went there two weekends ago (10.9.10 ~ 10.10.10) where I got to meet Yuko again! (^-^)v

I officially arrived in Okinawa almost three weeks ago, 10.1.10, to begin my new life as a graduate student at the University of the Ryukyus (琉球大学）. Its been an interesting first few weeks filled with little to no internet (hence the fact that I couldn't start this earlier). I'll be majoring in Marine Chemistry with a focus on Coral Reefs. But, lets not worry about that and give you an update on what I've been up to for three weeks.



I'm sure that you'll probably be expecting that I did lots but, honestly, I haven't done all that much (during the weekdays anyway). Most of the weekdays in the beginning were spent taking care of various things that needed to be done. Basically, making it so that I don't get kicked out of the country (at least....unnecessarily).



Weekends, on the other hand, have been rather busy. The day after arriving here (10.2.10), the 琉際 started which is basically a big school festival. Yuko came out to the 琉際 and we got to meet for the first time here in Okinawa. I got to eat so much Japanese food and the best part, IT WAS REALLY CHEAP!! Where else can you pay about $3 and get enough food for a meal? It was great :p Which went really well with the fact that I had next to no money for the weekend...笑 (T_T)

The following weekend (10.9.10 ~ 10.10.10), I traveled to 那覇 (Naha) to attend the Orion Beer Festival (I thought it was just a normal festival...oh well ;p ). Once again, got to meet up with Yuko and we had a great time :D (Or, I did...I think you did right Yuko?? HEHEHE, for more than one reason ;p ). The Fireworks were AWESOME!
Also, we got to participate in what I think is one of the largest tug-of-wars in the world. Though, it was quite long...and tiring...and dangerous -_- Anyway, also went to Karaoke not once, but THREE times during the weekend (Sat, Sun, Mon). LOL. Can't wait to go there again...

Last Friday (10.15.10)  we had our 入学式 (Entrance Ceremony) so I am NOW an official graduate school here! This pictures with Roy who I met here (lives in the same dorm, entering the Engineering Graduate School)



*Phew* That sure was a mouthful. But, that pretty much sums up what I've been up to the past three weeks. Now I'm off to enjoy the wonderful sounds or rain dropping on my porch -_- My WHOLE porch -_- At least I have one. ;_;



Just FYI, I'll see how often I can update this, maybe not once a day, but I'll try a few times a week.