Against all odds, I am still alive. Actually there haven’t been that many odds. Actually everything has gone rather smoothly. Actually I’m waiting for this all to collapse and turn into shit somehow but honestly, so far everything has been so good.
My classes are finally starting. For HUSTEP students the first few weeks are trial-classes, so you can take as many courses as you want, and check out the courses and the teachers before you actually decide what you want to study. I regard this practice as a work of genius because this allows you to see the teacher’s teaching style and you can learn more about the course content and expectations before signing up for class that sounds good on paper but isn’t that in the reality. So far I have tried Japanese Political History, Risk Governance, Contemporary Japanese Society, Gender & Sexuality in post-war Japan, and Roadmap to UN with special reference to WHO. Next week I’m still going to try Introduction to Japanese Politics and maybe Soviet History. In the end we’re expected to choose 4-7 core classes that are held once a week, plus all the Japanese language classes. Hence our following schedule for the autumn semester doesn’t sound too busy or impossible.
I took the picture above today from my route to Hokkaido University. As you can see, the weather has been treating us nicely and Sapporo has proven to be a beautiful city. Before I came here I admit to being a little nervous as to how I’m going to survive in asphalt jungle but as you can see, Sapporo is actually a very green city. There are stunning parks, little roads, and greenery everywhere. In Hokudai students can actually study Agriculture as a major, so we have their playgrounds all around campus: apple trees, potato-carrot-onion-salad-fields, greenhouses, flowerbeds, tree plantations… You name it, they have it. And it’s beautiful.
As you can see from the picture I have recently also acquired a bike! Surprisingly enough, bikes are the main means of transportation around the city. I got mine from bike-sales and altogether paid 7000 yen for it; that’s 6000 yen for the bike itself and 1000 yen for a lock and lock’s installation. 7000 yen is around 62 euros.
There are many rules in regards to biking that confuse the hell out of me though. For example, you cannot bicycle with your umbrella or someone on the backseat because if the police catches you, you could get a fine for those. When you buy a bicycle you have to register it and keep your registration document with you all times when biking because if you don’t have it and the police stops you, they would have to assume you’ve stolen the bike. It’s so complicated and so bizarre to have to register your bike as if it was on the same level as a car but I guess this is what keeps the society running and so well organized.