I’m 500% done with everything except my homework

There are days when I get out of bed and regret the decision immediately. After all, my favorite hobby is sleeping and then feeling like I haven’t slept at all. There are days when I can’t be bothered to put on clothes, put on makeup, do my hair. Je suis sick of that shit. There are days when I literally give up, so that the quilt of not doing stuff I was supposed to do today gives me energy get stuff done the next day. I mean, like, why do homework when I can sit here and hate myself? I literally sit there, looking down on my homework like I should totally do this for tomorrow and then, because I am a gigantic idiot, I’m like nah, not feeling like it. Then I panic the next day because I am not prepared for class. What kind of an idiot does this?!

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In any case, I’ve been having trouble sleeping lately. My morning classes start always 8:45 and it takes me from 20 to 30 minutes walk from my dorm to Uni depending on how badly Sapporo’s weather is trying to kill us that day. Which it had been valiantly doing since a couple of days ago. Our bikes outside are gone. Nothing but a huge pile of snow. People slipping everywhere. Snow in my shoes. Everything is white. We’re drowning in a gigantic white pillow called Sapporo’s weather.

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I’m so fucking done with this weather because it means early wake up calls. Which are hell. You’d think that as a person who adores sleeping so much I would go to sleep helluva lot earlier but no, nope, my brain refuses to shut the fuck up in the evenings.

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On the bright side, our midterms ended a week ago. I scored almost perfect score on each of my subjects because I’m also a gigantic nerd and a perfectionist. I feel like I haven’t studied this much since high school. Yeah, I could have bullshitted my way through basically everything else but Kanji midterms exam (because you actually have to study for that) but I ain’t about that lifestyle. Then again, I had been feeling really stressed about my schoolwork so I cancelled one of my classes which I’m planning to retake in the spring. So now, I feel more balanced and focused. Zen.

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But really, me eating spaghetti doesn’t have anything to do with regret and everything to do with the fact that I can’t cook. You want to see a magic trick? I can even make pizza explode in the oven! I haven’t cooked by myself in weeks and why would I, when I can get anything and everything straight from conbi (convenience store) that are open 24/7. Maybe the fact that I’m getting so many pimples has something to do with my diet literally consisting of rice, meat, sauces  and sweets. Like, I don’t know, sounds totally fake but okay. cough-denial-cough 

Not only is my skin breaking out but me and the other Finns – that have fallen victim to all the chemicals Japanese people pump into their water – complain about the same thing: hair loss. There is hair everywhere in my room. Tufts of it come off when I comb it after shower. I have hair in my clothes, in my shower, on the floor, on my bed, even in my fridge. How, I do not know, but there it is. Apparently this is normal and to be expected and it should stop after half a year, but I’m not sure if I’ll have any hair left after six months if this pace continues.

What else have I been up to except for worrying about sudden baldness? Well, let me talk to you little about contemporary entertainment.

Lately there has been a lot of commotion about Yuri on Ice!!! which is basically an anime about a Japanese figure skater Yuri Katsuki who gets famous and successful Russian skater Victor Nikiforov as his coach, and they fall in love in the process of working towards winning the Grand Prix gold medal. And the commotion isn’t unfounded, this anime is truly a feast from visual effects to soundtrack. Besides, all that fan service. My god. Take me out of the oven because I am so done. This time in a good way.

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The other anime and manga that has had my undivided attention for a while is Haikyuu!! (what is it with all the exclamation marks in the titles, I do not have answers for you, I’m also bewildered). Surprisingly enough, it’s a volleyball anime. Yes, I have fallen for a sports anime and I can’t get up. In fact, I don’t wanna get up. If anything, I’d like to dig myself a little bit deeper into this series because it’s so worth it. You know when you get that nervous flutter in the pit of your stomach and panicky jitters when you watch your favorite sports team play IRL? This basically puts all those emotions in a nutshell and let’s you enjoy the feeling to the fullest.

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Everyone should just keep an open mind and try different things even though they are not in your usual genre because, who knows, maybe you’ll also come across gems like these two animes. I’m never been into sports animes before but hell, I ain’t turning back now.

One more serie that I want to talk about is not an anime and surprisingly enough, not even Japanese. I’m talking about a Korean history/romance/action/drama called Scarlet Heart: Ryeo, or also known as Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo. Don’t let this soft looking name ruin this bad boy for you, alright? This thing, right here, is pure gold. If by pure we mean it will make you the happiest person on earth, and by gold that it will eat your heart, chew, and spit the remains out just so you can cry yourself into dehydration. That kind of gold. The main storyline is basically about a modern woman who gets thrown back in history into Goryo-era (I do not know Korean history enough to tell you anything meaningful about this era, I’m sorry) and attempts to survive in there, all the while she just might fall in love (more than once) and change history.

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Through my various experiences with animes, dramas and fan fiction, I have arrived into a conclusion that I greatly enjoy watching other people emotionally suffer on screen. I will also stay awake the whole night in order to partake into the said suffering and cry my eyes out because the said actors are too precious for this world. I just like torturing myself, ok? Don’t judge me.

What else, what else? There have been a couple amazing parties I’ve gone to.

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For example, there was this awesome Thanksgiving Party where everybody cooked or baked some food to share. Even with this many people everyone had their stomachs full by the end of the party. The food just kept coming and coming.  I am actually in the picture as well, somewhere on the background behind everyone else (curse my vertical restrictions).

Another party that I thoroughly enjoyed was International Christmas Party at Club Vanity in Susukino. Since I felt like my makeup that night was totally on point, here, have a picture.

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Thankfully there are no actual pictures from that night but let me tell you, it was awesome. We danced for maybe 4 hours straight and had a blast! Shout out to my party gang of Helka, Joan, Stuart, Kaita and Hao for being totally awesome, and also congratulations to Kaita for winning ”the wild-one” gold medal with the pure power of his abs. Another similar party will be held next weekend but in a different (bigger!) club, and to tell the truth, I can’t wait. I need more party outfits. Shopping required ASAP.

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So, in midst all that drunken haze we actually managed to have another wonderful trip to the onsens with Ewelina, Carmen and Agné. This time it was the Hoheikyou onsen near Jozankei with a very reasonable price of 1800yen which included the bus tickets there and back, as well as the onsen ticket. We managed to soak up for a good 3 hours, saw the sun set and stars come out, all the while floating in that steamy pool. Pure. Extacy. And so, I conclude this blog entry with some pictures from that magical place as well as of us, being just generally magical:

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“Shit it’s 2 a.m,” I say every day at 2 a.m. as if i am surprised

It has been a while, hasn’t it? And honestly it’s my own fault too, trying to get involved in everything that happens at Hokkaido University and going out every night and evening and day. I’m trying to rewind just a little bit and tell a summary of things that have happened here since my last post.

I think the first thing I wanna tell about is climbing our nearby mountain (or as our guide that day put it: a glorified hill), Maruyama.

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This was our gang for that day.

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The mountain is gorgeous and it was already turning into autumn colors. The little fox statues along the road were prayed to and asked to protect ”lost children”. That’s why people also dressed the statues warmly so they could deliver those clothes to the children needing them. It was creepy and heartwarming at the same time.

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The view from the top was so worth the hike!

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”A bunch of sweaty but happy foreigners”.

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…then there was this other time we hiked Maruyama at evening with Agné, Ewelina and Pardis. And it was beautiful. Children, do not try this at home. Photo © Agné Jurgaityté

Then the next worthwhile thing to mention is our self-planned trip to Otaru which is a nearby tourist town of Sapporo.

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Highlight of the trip for me was to try something one Japanese couple recommended to me at work back in Finland to try out if I was ever to go to Sapporo: Genghis Khan. Basically you have the grill in the middle of the table and you fry meat, onion and sprouts on it. Plus you get rice, sauce and miso soup.

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At this point weather was turning freezing cold already. Photos from Otaru © Carmen Winfield

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The autumn here is amazing and colorful. Unfortunately, as I’m writing this, the snow has already fallen here in Sapporo. The autumn time was short-lived as snow arrived almost a month earlier than on the previous years. In other words, I’m in my element.

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This it what it looks like in here… The snow just really came out of nowhere. Photo © Agné Jurgaityté

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Eternal fucking struggle to figure out how much clothing to wear in the morning. It might be sunny in the morning but it gets freezing in the evening. If you walk, you need less clothes or you start sweating like a little pig. If you take bike, you need more clothes because of the wind. Do you take the short jacket you have for autumn and risk freezing, or do you get the long winter jacket and risk freezing later ’cause you used the winter coat in the autumn? ARGH! Seriously, I mentally high-five myself every time I get my clothing choices right for the weather. (Or high-touch, as the Japanese say. …yes, I know, wtf?)

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Japan, for me, has been a time of firsts. In that category also goes my first experience with proper Halloween. And it was awesome and everybody’s outfits were so on point!

…less vodka next time though.

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The amount of hangover the next day, oh my god… Not to mention that it wasn’t a normal stay-at-home-and-die kind of a hangover day, no, nope. We had a fucking trip on that day. We went to Shikotsu lake, Ainu village and Jigoku Hell Valley, not to mention that half of the day we sat in a bus. Gosh, just thinking back at it makes me nauseous. The trip was awesome, though.

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First stop, lake Shikotsu. We look like we’re fucking freezing, hah! (We were.) The wind was crazy strong and damn cold, but on the bright side I got to taste a corn-dog which was nice. And yes, I know it’s american but I’ve never had it before. Who said all my new experiences had to be strictly about Japan?

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Jigoku Hell Valley. I learned from Supernatural that demons smell of sulfur. Also learned that day that sulfur stinks pretty bad. Wind that smells of rotten eggs and hangover – true hell doesn’t get much better than that.

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True to it’s name I found this oni (Japanese monster) from Hell Valley. Didn’t seem to mind me invading his personal space. I don’t have any pictures from Ainu Village but, uh, there wasn’t that much to see, so… Go there yourself if you wanna see it, dammit.

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I did get the permission to show you these two adorable group pictures from Ainu Village though. Photos © Gabbie Manolo

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What else, what else? Well, there has been about a million different parties that make me deliriously happy. So many amazing personalities, so many new friends and inside jokes and so much laughter. I’m surprised how well I’m doing on these with my social skills being:

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In any case, I feel like I’m slowly getting the hang of socializing. It’s not so bad. It’s just me that’s bad. But I’ll get better, I swear.

Apart from countless parties that I’ve been lucky enough to join, there’s one another thing that makes me the happiest person on earth:

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Onsens.

Gosh, those places are awesome. Onsens are basically public bath-houses, with either natural hot water springs or man-made ones, but whichever you end up with, you’re bound to enjoy it. Sure, the nakedness is awkward at first but it’s the same with Finnish sauna: first it’s awkward and then you realize nobody cares about your (or their) nudity and you can just stop caring as well.

Pro Tip: Instead of having feelings, try being dead inside. Everything is still horrible but you will not care at all.

I’m kidding, of course. But I promise, after the first shock everything gets exponentially better. If you don’t take my word for it, take my friends’. The onsen near to our dorm is called Souen, and on their website you can check out the pictures of the place. With onsens there are few rules you need to follow:

  1. Bring your own towel. One big and one small (called modesty towel). Otherwise you will have to rent or buy them.
  2. Onsens are usually pretty cheap. For example in Souen you pay 400 yen (little less than 4 euros) and you can stay as long as you like.
  3. Strip naked. And I mean entirely. No, swimming suits of any kind are not allowed.
  4. You can bring your own soap and shampoos, but usually onsens provide the basic ones.
  5. Important: clean yourself from top to bottom before entering onsen. Wash yourself carefully, including hair. Because you’re a foreigner you have to be extremely careful with this unless you want to get on the Japanese peoples’ bad side.
  6. Tie your hair up before entering onsen. It’s important your hair doesn’t touch the water. It’s not a fucking swimming pool, alright?
  7. If there’s a scoop before onsens, it’s for scooping some water and splashing it on your feet in order to get rid of any dirt you might have gathered from the walk between shower and onsen.
  8. You can put your modesty towel (which you can use to cover your, uh, lady parts while you’re walking if you want) to the side or on top of your head. If your towel gets wet, squeeze the water outside the onsen, not back into the onsen.
  9. If you go to sauna, shower afterwards before entering any other onsens.
  10. Be careful of getting dizzy! It can happen surprisingly fast because the water is hot. Take a cold bath or shower before taking another dip. Also, stay hydrated afterwards. The water of onsens doesn’t magically get absorbed into your body, so remember to drink!

I know this seems very complicated and lot to remember at first but honestly, just use your head and common sense and you’ll be fine.

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You should also get something to eat after taking a dip. Just like swimming, onsens make people super hungry. My choice for the day was fried shrimp with egg, noodles, pickled pieces of something yellow (I told you, I don’t usually know what the food is), and Sapporo Classic Beer.

Alright, couple more things and events I think are worth mentioning before this monster-of-a-blog-entry is done. I just feel like I need to get all the events before snow out of my system, so the next entry can be about Sapporo’s early winter.

15036556_1151081928320145_3929508904473064068_nSo, on that note… I went to see an orchestra. It was awesome but in my typical style I feel asleep at some parts. I’m so sorry, I’m so ashamed of myself.

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We found a gorgeous little soup-curry place near Odori Park. Soup-curry is one of Hokkaido’s specialities.

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There was this autumn-event where they lightened up the Ginkou Alley on our University Campus. It was so pretty! A lot of people gathered at the beginning of the road and we had a countdown for the lights to be turned on. Honestly, the picture taken with my phone doesn’t do the place any justice.

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Got some super cheap cotton candy and coffee! In the picture you can see mine and Ewelina’s excitement over the treasure we found.

It’s not like it’s all party-party-party every night though. Only every other night. No, but seriously, the thing keeping me awake isn’t only the constant socializing but also schoolwork. There’s been a staggering amount of it, when you consider it all. The HUSTEP core courses aren’t bad, no problem, I can do it. It’s the japanese classes that are giving me a rough time. Every morning – and I literally mean every single morning – begins 8:45 with a test. Then you give in the homework you spend three hours total completing. Then you learn new grammar and kanjis every single day.

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But it’s not like I’m ready to give up, fuck no. I came here to study (yeah, I could hear that skeptical snort through the screen), so study I shall. And it’s not like it’s all pointless, I’m learning more japanese than ever and my english has majorly improved because of constant communicating with my friends. Nowadays I even start my conversations with other Finns in english by pure reflex.

Besides studying I decided to join a Karate Club but since I’ve only been to one practice so far (I started last Thursday), I don’t have too much to tell yet. Maybe in the next blog entry.

Gah, finally this word-picture-vomit of a blog entry is over. I hope you enjoyed!