polar express

Snowy hello! This happened over a month ago but; we went to Hokkaido! We, meaning me, Andrea, Alazne, Naz, Yasser, Loan, Maxwell, Trygve, Mallory and Will, packed our warmest clothes with us and off we went.
Hokkaido is the northern island of Japan and proved itself to be super beautiful and definately worth seeing! Sure, it took a 12 hour ferry ride there with Loan passing out in the play corner set up for the kids but the magnificent thing of a boat also had a cinema and an onsen. So it was all very jolly travelling. (I also took the ferry for 22 hours on the christmas holidays and must say that this time the only thing having a jolly time was the food in my stomach insisting to come out the less natural way of going up..)

In Hokkaido we made our way to the capital city of Hokkaido, Sapporo. After spending over month or so in Akita without a break or a half, Sapporo was such a nice change. The city was big and busy, the kind of place where you can sense people get off their arses and do things for their own pleasure instead of only for work. Basically a place where people live. As expected we saw the main sights, went to the famous Sapporo brewery to have a drink and had an altogether splendid time together.
After spending a few nights in Sapporo it was time to get on the road again. Renting a minivan and driving to a hot spring village of Noboribetsu through a national park was incredibly nice even with the lethally slippery mountain roads. It was the first time for me to see proper snow in Japan and all I can say is thay I loved it! Spending the past three winter away, I had forgotten how snow for the perisuomalainen in me is like sun to my southern friends. It felt like fluffy balls of energy coming down from the skies. And what better way to enjoy the christmassy weather than sit in a hot spring outside with the girls. Noboribetsu and it's surrounding nature, including the Hell Valley 10 minutes walk from our inn, was breath taking.
All in all, until recently I considered Hokkaido definately as my favorite place in Japan (opinion that changed after our travels during the holidays). Who knows, maybe I'll see it again on a later date, I know there remains lot to be seen in the North. It is funny how I always thought myself as someone who's escaping the north with it's depressing atmosphere but so it seems that wherever I go, the north always hits closest to home with me.

Now to my, and hopefully yours as well since my writing leaves room for improvement, favourite part. Pics!

 The night before we left I got to celebrate my first ever thanksgiving! Guys cooking pasta for some 30 people having dinner together. Special thanks to Niki for putting it all together! Loved it.

 On the train to Sapporo. Loan had returned to life as well! The time for miracles is not over.

 Finally theeere.

 I was not the only one enjoying the snow.

 The asian twins/lovers having a good time at the all you can drink on the first night.

 A drink at the Sapporo brewery. Attractive people, I know.

 The old city hall of Sapporo in a spooky night light! Much less cooler in the inside I might add.

 The winter illumation festival.

 Once again we put the dad behind the wheel.

 A lake with a mountain in the middle of it! THE EXCITEMENT!

 Naz could feel it as well!

 The view on the national park. Made me believe we were in Russia!

 The gang minus two posing. Aww.

 Hell valley with it's natural hot springs.

 Anarchy in the UK, I came way too close to burning my face off.

I heard this is where the Peverell brothers met Death himself.



























Amazing trip it was! As I mentioned, we went on another one recently. Stories told and pictures shown as soon as I get hold of them! Now, back to knitting, drinking tea and solving mysteries with Miss Marple. Yes, I am turning 68 this upcoming February.


With my utmost love, Sonja

go go juice

Moikkaa! Lot's has happened lately, so let's get down to business. Things done within the last month or so, excluding the most mundane tasks of studying etc and last weekend, which deserves its own post altogether.

This is really late, I know, but we went to Sendai! Sendai is the capital of the Tohoku region and a city about the size of Helsinki. It was so nice to actually see people running about for a change. Akita is nice and all, but even the city is awfully remote and quiet, especially for Japan. I thought I'd basically be running out of fresh air here with all the 127 million others, but Akita is the perfect spot for a claustrophobic. No complaints though, 365 days in a place like Tokyo and some sort of city version of cabin fever is guaranteed I am afraid.

Sendai's city life was a nice change but personally I enjoyed the school's trip to place called Oyasukyo Gorge even further. On our way there we made a stop at the Akita prefecture amusement park to enjoy all the local fun we can have here in Akita. To be honest, the park was quite silly but definately worth seeing while being slightly hungovered and dead tired made it funny on a whole another level.
Getting to the final destination, Oyasukyo Gorge was breath taking. It's a spot for natural hot springs and even with the distinctive smell of sulfer it would be impossible not to enjoy the view and the atmosphere there. Scroll down to the pics to see what I mean.

In addition to these beautiful trips we've made here, there's also been some partying going on. Halloween came and went with three separate parties, naturally with three opportunities to dress up! FINALLY, we had a proper night out in the city with my home girl Ayami. We hit the club in Akita and enjoyed the Halloween party to the fullest with some real nice people and good drinks. Since uni students never miss out a chance to party, of course this magnificent day was celebrated throuhgout the campus on several occasions as well. Pics are a bit creepy because my outfit, but we definately had some awesome times. Ah, what's wrong with Finland with not celebrating Halloween? Dressing up and free candy (I also took part in the activity of trick or treating for the first time ever as well while doing some voluntary work with local elementary students), what's not to like?

Another nice opportunity to party came with a "Hungry in Akita" event, which was basically student from the campus taking action to ensure an easy way to get to the city and back at reasonable hours (this is usually a struggle when going out with really poor bus services). Eventhough the partying was rather nonexistant we ended up having some good dinner and getting fairly drunk in an all-you-can-drink with whats-his-face ;)

All in all, Japan continues to treat me like a royalty. I will soon post about last weeks and especially the past four days which have been amazing! Travelling to the north island of Hokkaido was an adventure I am going to share with you lovely folks as soon as I get the pics on my laptop.  For now, hope you enjoy my and other people's faces in these ones here!

Sendai city.

Traditional Sendai delicacy; beef tongue.

Our religious leader Loan Loverboy.

From hangry to happy.

Scenery just outside Sendai is supposed to be one the finest in Japan.

Daredevil say whaat.

Pretty yey!

Omnoms at the most magical conveyer belt sushi ever!

Hot springs! Smells bad, looks nice.

Now we're only missing the bathing monkeys.

Tourists.

Teeny tiny waterfalls that made me want to stay there forever.

Yes.

Partay time! Halloween number uno.

Why so serious? Me and Ayami, second party edition.

Yaasaa-san! Hazy days at the park with the guys.

From hazy days to dizzy evenings. Izakaya for two got us well there.



































Love, Sonja

things that make me happy

Hello!

So an update with "things done" is coming soon. In the meanwhile, here's a few things that make me happy here in Akita! Yey!

1. Autumn foliage

It's proper autumn again! The whole world around our campus is yellow and red and brown. Ahh, gotta love the crisp morning air and smell of moist ground. Wow, that sounded weird and corny.

 On my way to the library.



























2. COS

Community outreach service. Our uni organizes voluntary work possibilities several times a week so that the students of AIU can work with elementary school kids, farmers and all that. The nicest stuff and an amazing way to get to know the locals and the surrounding areas.

 DA BOSS!

 Kids and me cooking some bad ass kiritampo. Oishii desuyo!


























3. Thoughts of others

Me thinking of people and people thinking of me. Aww.

 Wall invasion.

 Andrea's gift to the sickling. Worked!





































4. Arts and crafts

Due to the increasingly cold weather and dark nights, I find myself spending more and more time eatching classic films, knitting mittens for everyone and drinking tea. When I stop talking and start communiting with Totoro-noises instead, you know that hibernation is not too far from happening.

 Creative corner.





























5. Christmas time

Finally, it's here! The cheesy carols, smell of cinnamon everywhere and maybe, just maybe I'll the first Japanese snowflakes soon enough. I guess the proper Finnish way would be to grunt at and disapprove anything christmass-y before two days of the actual holiday, but I'm am consumed by consumerism and proud of it! Love the theme decorations, peppermint candy canes and red nosed animals of any species (they're a bit confused by Rudolf over here in Japan)!

 Christmas omnoms! Glühwein from the foreign food store and a massive package of goods from back home. Made my day, big kisses to the folks at home!

 Ayami and me checking out Starbuck's gingerbread latte, fully approved!



































Right at this moment I am retrieving to my bed with a cup of liquarice tea and the newest episode of Grey's anatomy. Thank to the all mighty all this drama only exists in the telly.




Oh, and as for as a bonus round for the list; this face!

 Won't you look at that.




































Love, Sonja

omnom

Helloo guys!
Since it's pretty late I'm not gonna be able to tell you ALL that I've done for the past few weeks (it's a lot) but I decided to dedicate this post to the eatings and drinkings in Japan as well as the amazingly magnificent experience of the AIU FESTIVAL!

Since the eatings and drinkings are pretty self-explanatory (omnoms times hundred so far), let me say just a few words about the school festival.
So apparently in Japan every school does this once a year and it's the single biggest event of the year for each school. Since our Uni is only (what) seven years old, it's absolutely mind-blowing how much popularity the festival has gained in such a short time. During the two days we had more than 7000 visitors from outside the campus. Most of the students I saw at the festival had not been sleeping for at least 48 hours while working on the numerous food stalls, haunted houses, performances and other festive activities. The hard work really paid off and while working myself as well, I enjoyed the school festival tremendously. I'll let the pics tell you why!

Otherwise things have been rather calm for a few days. It's the midterm exam time! Mine are quite easy so my studying pace has been relatively chilled for the past days but I have seen a few pairs of those ever-so-familiar rage eyes I got used to in Aberdeen during essay and/or exam period.

I can feel you get bored while reading this, so let's move on to the pictures. Many stories about our trip to Sendai, lazy days and future plans are to come though!

For the death of me I can not remeber the name of this place (very long and very consonant-y) but I can tell for sure it was delicious! Basically you buy a bowl of ingredients with a sauce, mix it and fry it yourself with the hotplate in the middle of the table. Foodgasm guaranteed.

Embracing myself for greatness (the portion was massive!). Note the fancy girl date-look, went out with mah homegirl Ayami (pic above).

Okay, Finland needs this. Izakaya is what it's called. Basically you pay a certain amount (~15e) and you can drink as much as you can for the following two hours. And yes, it is possible to order six drinks at the same time for yourself.

Alazne enjoying the perks of this wonderful invention (read: the first 500 drinks are kicking in).

Morning coffee! Since this country is seriously lacking in good coffee, Ayami and me decided to start a tradition of having some quality coffee and conversation every morning at hers.

And when you find a proper cuppa, you pay for it (~6e). Loving Danke Cafe though, quality coffee with quality service!

The closest thing to heaven: conveyor belt sushi and soda with ice cream. Mmm me fatty, me happy.

Festival presenting time! Daisuke and me ready to hit the stage.

Debate team rep crew. They say it's "intellectual fun". Ha.

Lunch break at the impressive student run cool food stalls. Oichi!

Okay, normal clothes are cool as well. Especially when hanging out with a gigantic pear? A green M&M? What is this thing?

My debate partner Ikuma doing a solid job at Kanto performance which was the highlight and the ending performance of the festival. Two words: mind blown. Better pics to follow!



































All right. After this very culturel post I'm ready to bed. Basically sleeping on the IT lab floor already. Nighty night my friends.


Love, Sonja