Three weeks of power with Japanese horror
Hey all,
It has been an extremely busy (and stressful few weeks) so here it goes!
Two weeks ago was our reading week where as you all know I spent 5 (which tuned into 6) days in Japan. This was a very stressful experience in itself. I spent the first 5 days travelling around the country as planned, spending a night in Tokyo, and then going on to vist Kyoto, Osaka and Hiroshima. It was fantastic as it was a part of Japan (a much more traditional and beautiful part) then I visited last time I was there. I went with a group of 3 other American exchange students, the guy I went to Malaysia with who's from LA, as well as two others (a guy and a girl) from San Francisco.
However the trip was sort of spoiled on the final day where I was travelling back to Hong Kong. This involved me taking the bullet train from Osaka back to Tokyo (around 3 hours) and then taking another train from Tokyo to Narita airport (another hour). Since I didn't have to fly out until 6.30 that night I spent the morning in Osaka, visiting this castle (I would add pictures but the site is playing up - later!) and then heading back to Tokyo at around 12. This was a huge mistake, resulting in me missing my flight back to HK.
What had happend was that someone had committed suicide that morning by throwing himself in front of the bullet train (not a very rare occurance in Japan although they normally disrupt local lines and not the inter-city lines). This resulted in the main line between Tokyo and Osaka being closed for two hours. As a result when I arrived at Osaka station there was chaos. People were stranded as the trains they had booked were still in Tokyo and trains that were supossed to arrive in the morning had only just begin to arrive. Lucky for me I had a JR pass meaning that I could just get on almost any train (except the Nozomi super-express) without reserving a seat. So I got on the next train that came through (20 minutes late, very un-Japanese!) and has to stand for most of the journey. This could have been okay except that it took around 6 hours to get from Osaka to Tokyo. The main reason for this was that whenever we arrived a city along the way we often had to wait up to half an hour to be given a platform as priority was being given to all the trains finally getting out of Tokyo. This was not helped by the fact that there was often only a single line in between cities meaning that we had to stop every 15 minutes or so to allow trains coming the other way to pass. It was so frustrating.
I finally arrived at the airport an hour after my plane left. I mamaged to get moved to the same flight the next day but at an extra cost of US$200. I then had to return to Tokyo to find some sort of accomodation. Thank God I picked up a leaflet from one of the first youth hostels we stayed at that showed all the different hostels in Japan. However there were only 8 listed in Tokyo so I started ring them reading down the list. Everyone I tried was full (leaving me more and more anxious) except the last one (always the way!) which I managed to get into. It was actually a business hotel that was affliated to Youth Hostels International so I managed to get my own room, shower (everywhere else I stayed was communial - a very interesting experience) and TV, all for around 5000yen (about A$50) so I'm not complaining! I left the next morning and arrived back at the airport four hours before the plane left (no point taking chances!) and got back to Hong Kong that night.
Another consequence was the fact that it meant my mother was left alone in Hong Kong for another night by herself. She spent another day going on another group tour but she was really disappointed. On the hand she was very happy to see me safe and sound the next day and got spend a lovely 3 nights in a five star hotel here in Hong Kong, a welcome change from my student hall. We managed to get a lot done in just four days. We went to Macau, Shenzen as well as all the markets around Hong Kong (an any woman, she's always looking for a bargin!) It was very sad to see her of at the end of it all - made me want to come home (boo hoo). No time to get to depressed though because I was about to enter into my week of power.
Four exams and two assignments all in 4 days meant I didn't get much sleep this week. This wasn't helped by the fact that there was Halloween last Tuesday which for some reason Hong Kong people really get into. That night my floor created a haunted house where each of us had to dress up as mummies and monsters etc and try and frighten one of the girl floors as each of them came through one-by-one. It was a lot of fun since we got a few of the girls to cry...very childish I know but as I said before, my felllow floor mates still act like 10 year olds (is this a Chinese thing or is it the same in all halls/colleges?).
Anyway back to the school work. I have just started to get my results back. I did really well in my Chinese but not so well in the important stuff like econometrics (only 47% although this will probably still be a pass when they apply the bell curve) and game theory (haven't got the results yet but I have ssen the answers and I am very worried). Perhaps I should party less and study more???? Nah. Its only pass/fail anyway.
Good luck to everyone about to untertake their final exams.
Study hard, I'm not!
Matt
It has been an extremely busy (and stressful few weeks) so here it goes!
Two weeks ago was our reading week where as you all know I spent 5 (which tuned into 6) days in Japan. This was a very stressful experience in itself. I spent the first 5 days travelling around the country as planned, spending a night in Tokyo, and then going on to vist Kyoto, Osaka and Hiroshima. It was fantastic as it was a part of Japan (a much more traditional and beautiful part) then I visited last time I was there. I went with a group of 3 other American exchange students, the guy I went to Malaysia with who's from LA, as well as two others (a guy and a girl) from San Francisco.
However the trip was sort of spoiled on the final day where I was travelling back to Hong Kong. This involved me taking the bullet train from Osaka back to Tokyo (around 3 hours) and then taking another train from Tokyo to Narita airport (another hour). Since I didn't have to fly out until 6.30 that night I spent the morning in Osaka, visiting this castle (I would add pictures but the site is playing up - later!) and then heading back to Tokyo at around 12. This was a huge mistake, resulting in me missing my flight back to HK.
What had happend was that someone had committed suicide that morning by throwing himself in front of the bullet train (not a very rare occurance in Japan although they normally disrupt local lines and not the inter-city lines). This resulted in the main line between Tokyo and Osaka being closed for two hours. As a result when I arrived at Osaka station there was chaos. People were stranded as the trains they had booked were still in Tokyo and trains that were supossed to arrive in the morning had only just begin to arrive. Lucky for me I had a JR pass meaning that I could just get on almost any train (except the Nozomi super-express) without reserving a seat. So I got on the next train that came through (20 minutes late, very un-Japanese!) and has to stand for most of the journey. This could have been okay except that it took around 6 hours to get from Osaka to Tokyo. The main reason for this was that whenever we arrived a city along the way we often had to wait up to half an hour to be given a platform as priority was being given to all the trains finally getting out of Tokyo. This was not helped by the fact that there was often only a single line in between cities meaning that we had to stop every 15 minutes or so to allow trains coming the other way to pass. It was so frustrating.
I finally arrived at the airport an hour after my plane left. I mamaged to get moved to the same flight the next day but at an extra cost of US$200. I then had to return to Tokyo to find some sort of accomodation. Thank God I picked up a leaflet from one of the first youth hostels we stayed at that showed all the different hostels in Japan. However there were only 8 listed in Tokyo so I started ring them reading down the list. Everyone I tried was full (leaving me more and more anxious) except the last one (always the way!) which I managed to get into. It was actually a business hotel that was affliated to Youth Hostels International so I managed to get my own room, shower (everywhere else I stayed was communial - a very interesting experience) and TV, all for around 5000yen (about A$50) so I'm not complaining! I left the next morning and arrived back at the airport four hours before the plane left (no point taking chances!) and got back to Hong Kong that night.
Another consequence was the fact that it meant my mother was left alone in Hong Kong for another night by herself. She spent another day going on another group tour but she was really disappointed. On the hand she was very happy to see me safe and sound the next day and got spend a lovely 3 nights in a five star hotel here in Hong Kong, a welcome change from my student hall. We managed to get a lot done in just four days. We went to Macau, Shenzen as well as all the markets around Hong Kong (an any woman, she's always looking for a bargin!) It was very sad to see her of at the end of it all - made me want to come home (boo hoo). No time to get to depressed though because I was about to enter into my week of power.
Four exams and two assignments all in 4 days meant I didn't get much sleep this week. This wasn't helped by the fact that there was Halloween last Tuesday which for some reason Hong Kong people really get into. That night my floor created a haunted house where each of us had to dress up as mummies and monsters etc and try and frighten one of the girl floors as each of them came through one-by-one. It was a lot of fun since we got a few of the girls to cry...very childish I know but as I said before, my felllow floor mates still act like 10 year olds (is this a Chinese thing or is it the same in all halls/colleges?).
Anyway back to the school work. I have just started to get my results back. I did really well in my Chinese but not so well in the important stuff like econometrics (only 47% although this will probably still be a pass when they apply the bell curve) and game theory (haven't got the results yet but I have ssen the answers and I am very worried). Perhaps I should party less and study more???? Nah. Its only pass/fail anyway.
Good luck to everyone about to untertake their final exams.
Study hard, I'm not!
Matt
posted by Matt at Tuesday, November 07, 2006
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