Busy week finally behind me

This past week tired me quite a bit for some reason. Maybe because I had fairly many classes on technical subjects, like 3d printers and internet infrastructure. It takes a lot of energy to stay focused for entire 90 minutes when you have to listen very carefully what is being said and at the same time follow teachers body language, and try to scrape out whatever understanding I can get from lesson materials, which are almost 100% in japanese. Hanging around in big malls and having that interview on friday didn't exactly help either.

Interview was conducted by Northern Regions Center, which is some kind of government supported organization in Hokkaido. There were also 2 other people who were asked mostly same things, kind of a round table discussion I suppose. Both of them were japanese exchange students who had spend fair bit of time in Sweden and Norway. Chisato Yabe had been living in Norway for two years and Sayaka Fujiwara stayed in Sweden for 8 months. Talks were mostly focused on cultural matters.

NRC's magazine, called Hoppoken, is published 4 times per year. Mr. Sakabe said he will send me the issue where my interview is in Finland, since I will go back home a bit before its release. For more information, please take a look at NRC homepage.

http://www.nrc.or.jp/english/jyoho_E.html

Anyway, it is just nice to finally have internet connection here in the apartment and just spend one day relaxing and unwinding, without schedules and large crowds surrounding me from all directions. Tomorrow I have a meeting with one of the teachers, and this time I will learn a bit about Shogi (japanese chess, or "Generals game"). It seems to have bit more complex rules than normal chess. I just hope I can navigate the city well enough so I can get to the meeting place. Knowing me, I better leave early so I can backtrace my steps if necessary...

Summer is coming soo as well. Locals have told me that summer in Sapporo is warm and dry, which doesn't sound bad. Just have to avoid excessive exposure to sunlight and I should be fine.

And now couple miscellaneous pictures:


View just outside Sapporo International House, everything is so neat.


Odori park was so darned pretty last weekend. Behind fountain you can see very famous television tower of Sapporo, which is also acts as 0-0 adress number spot for the city. So yes, to find your adress in Sapporo, you calculate your distance from the tower. :)