daily life

so these days nothing special really happend just days passing by.

like we have done a few trips one to osaka again and one to okinawa the tropical paradise of japan, tobad it raind all the days we were there :l.

when it rains a tropical island become very dull, as if the life is sucked out of everything when the sun leaves the sky. none the less we had a great time we even did a little scuba diving, that stuff is awesome! it was kind of a rush for me since its all new and stuff and u get a little high from the pure o2 hahaaa. next to that it was a very controled dive, since none of us had a diving license. so i think they thought we couldnt swim or something. so they sorta dragged us trough the water, or we walked on the bottem like a crocodile. still fun though to breath underwater. i apperntly was the only one that spotted the stonefish one of the most poisoness fishies out there

since it was all such a rush of new impulses the most clear image i can remember are the bubbles infront of your  diving glasses hahaaa kinda sad. BUT was awesome! do it if u have the chance, dont chicken out or be lazy $%#@#$ do it.

and we went to the aquarium where they have wale sharks and stuff

osaka was LE MAJOR big crowded city with a 3 KM roofed shopping street. and the famous food street where u can eat al kinds of stuff but mostly takoyaki and ramen. Other then that not that special just a massive city


i have to upload some more photos but the pile is getting so big that i feel more and more lazy to find some nice ones to post :D so enjoy the panaramas for now

so last weekend we had a practice rugby i mean basketball match against the army..i mean kyoto unv...

i used to know there was a rule that u could only bring 10 people to a match. they bring about 25... there warming up is like a training day at the army running circles while singing some peptalk song like the  "we are going catch some fiiiiish!" guy with a whistle ordering everyone around it was an interesting site to see

we played 2 matches that day

we were with... 6 people... thats gonna be haaard work :D

so we started playing the match, i started on the bench. but after 5 min one of the guys got a finger in the eye so i was called to the battlefield .. i mean game...but those guys from the army play so rough that it looked like a battlefield, i dont mind about some tight man to man defence but this... once u make a fake and move infront of them to ask for the ball the just push and drag u back behind them... it was insane. They defence with their hand instead of their body, and that for a no contact sport :D... elbows flying everywere people got knocked to the floor. everyone had some battle scars at the end of the day.

there is a rule in basketball that every quarter of the match the fouls per team are counted once it reaches 5 the opposing team get 2 free throws for each next foul. well for as far i know this happens rarely. but this time it happend every quarter on their side. and they can do it becouse they bring 25 people so once a person has 5 fouls  its no big deal they have 20 others to replace  him.

in my opinion  a skilled team with a good team spirit but with a reallllyyy crappy playing style.



oh and i posted some new work in the art section, stuff that i have made for class.

i have been busy questing for a long time so there has not been many reports of my journeys. a lot has happend in these past days.

like my stamina is getting a big boost becouse of the basketball training, which is 3 times a week. and sometimes there is an additional day of trianing or a game. last week i played my first game which was really nice. but i still need alot of practice to get in line with these guys, they are really fast.
 

en natuurlijk drinken we ook wel eens een biertje met zen alle ~

there also was a school festival for 3 days, on this festival every club does something to make money, we made Takoyaki. in between u walk around the festival ground see some performances from clubs or actual bands that come by. its a big festival were alot of people from the city go to to have fun.

band met 6 drums HARD!

to big for 1 photo

Matsuri

so on our free weekend we thought of visting some festivals(Matsuri)
on saturday my journey lead me towards the Festival of Fire in Kurama a temple village close to our dorm. unfortunatly when we arrived the crowd was so insane large that the only thing u could see was unbrellas... it was raining like crazy on this day of ...fire..celebration a well better luck next...wait there isnt any damn T-T


next up sunday the Costume festival in the park next to the royal palace a big park with 20 meter wide roads of gravel. here a parade started there way towards one of the other temple a few KM south west. litterly hundreds of people dressed up in traditional clothing a marvelous site for a designer like me, loved it.




check out the Photos tab for a glimps of the photos

like a boss

joined a guild

so last week i joined the Basketball guild so from now on i will fight for their name.
the people are great and everyone loves and breathes basketball awesome people a nice break from all the arty stuff plus a good way to get my condition up a few levels. But i think that will do since they train 3 times a week and have a party every once in a while

also their level off playing is quiet high so u need some skill to be able to roll with them and have some fun else u quickly fall out of line BUT after seeing them play 2 matches my basketball soul cought on fire and it really wants to play again. so i joined in on the trianings dribbles and shot a bit and got my skills warmed up again so im ready to fight....after i got back some stamina that is~

its awesome to do something seperate from the rest of the exchange students the experiance is totally different so i encourage all people to do stuff on their own! and dont stick to the exchange student group

rewards:
skill awakend: Basketball power
stamina +5
japanese +45 exp

Training ground

so sometimes you have to grind to be able to beat the boss in the Japanese RPG's SO HEY lets grind some. im gonna fight the monsters in the Gym to get my condition and Stamina back up a bit next wednesday i will go and see the Basketball club here at Seika and Join their Guild. they train 3 times a week wich is quite alot SO i have to GRIND big time to be able to keep up with those guys!


the gym is really nice barely anyone uses it so its nice and quiet. The Basketball hall is really nice a shiney wooden floor so ill be enjoying myself a bit in there


rewards:
str + 5
stamina +13
Area unlocked: Gym

ROUND 1

so on monday we decided to go someware since it was the last day for eri to be able to join our questing in japan for a while. So we decided to go to the Famous ROUND 1 a massive building were u can do...alot

there is:
an Arcade room
mini bikes
tabletennis
kidsplayground (we laughed the hardest in here)
pooltables
all kinds of fairgames
walls of manga + couches
message chairs
basketball court
volleyball
golf pitch rooms
archery
baseball pitch rooms
baseball strike rooms
soccer
batminthon
mini golf ( which they litterely implied as mini golf courses... so no walls so your ball will constantly fall of the course)

so here we spend the night from monday to tuesday for about 6 houres. an awesome experience and we will defenetly return to this epic playground.

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rewards
stamina + 5
laughing power +3
area unlocked: ROUND 1

NEW PAGE UNLOCKED

panorama photos now on separate page!

CLICK TO GO TO PANORAMAS >

getting the hang off it

so im used to living here now starting to get to know the way of japanese life. its not as busy and fast as people think it is it is long but slow. the people here work long days but they dont do as much in an houre as a western person would do.

so the long term quest is progressing nicely but its a difficult one. the Sensei's (teachers)  are hard to follow i dont really understand what they are saying so Robin and me often have a hard time figuring out what to do. Especially when they go philosofical.

"go outside to draw a tree" -  ok i get that
".....ouside....tree....draw...more.." - wait wut??
"...zara zara...big...composition...." - T^T

so yeah we thought go studie a tree and pay attention to the texture.
but it was: go outside and draw a tree.. but draw so the viewer can veel its alive and think about your composition.

what i didnt do: draw it as it is alive, think about composition.... i just drew a tree....@#$&!

also my companion in life Eri came too visit me for a few days. So we when to Osaka a metropolis city one of the biggest in japan. compared to Kyoto Osaka  is a GIANT CROWDED MESS... holy #$@%! no idea were to go, to many people walking around, o man what a place but i cant give a final judgement jet becouse we only walked around the station searching for the shoppping district. which we kind of found after 4 houres... we took the exit on the wrong side of the station. a well we have a nice day.

so the day after me and Eri had lunch with another Dutch guy who is currently working in Kyoto. After lunch we went to the river were u can cross the river by big stones in the water shaped as turtles. or u can sit on the river bank and relax, which many people did.  we started to have a water fight, even though it was only 20 degrees, I started to take rocks out of the water and throw them to create spashes. tough luck for me becouse i straind my back becouse  of that :( so now i have to sit and do nothing for a few days.

so enough time to post some stuff on blog now lol~?



rewards:
exp 34/200
health 128/604 (in need of a phoenix down)

Quest over Time: learning from the masters

so last monday i accepted a long term quest. Learning from the masters for i can pick a few masters to learn from. in the first week we just observe all the lessons see what they are about and if they are interesting. up until now we mentt he Japanese Oil painting master and the, as we call it Imagination drawing master.

the first one was a small old man with only a few teeth left in his mouth. i think he is about 328 years old. The class on the other hand was interesting but not something im searching for. Next to that the % of girls in that class is insane 23/25... lol? pretty much nothing against that BUT the can produce an amount of noise HOLY $@%#%$ pancak. so i probebly wont take that class even though the master was a nice guy. but drawing brush strokes for 4 houres with screaming girls around you is a bit to much.


second was imagination drawing. this class is about thinking of what u are drawing. draw a fish from your head and it becomes what your mind thinks a fish is, its drawing and some sort of philosophy in one really interesting.

so well see what the next few masters have up their sleeve for us!....

maby monkeys

rewards:
exp +45 LEVEL UP ~ (100/100)
nihongo reached lvl 2

Panoraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaama 2!

Panoraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaama

really nice park close to our house, this is the lake where the turtles live btw.

the little friends of the night

helllo my little friend what are u doing on my window!? too bad i wasnt able to take a better photo

my window is really a zoo at night, so many bugs and little friends are joining me in my night sessions :D

sometimes a retarded mantis (10cm) tries to fly trough the glass

Quest 4 scouting

Solo Quest: Scouting in the mountains 10km

Of i went to the mountains, a 2 km walk through the city. I wanted to gain some experiance with my new camera so i brought it with me on this solo adventure and also to capture the actual "real"nature, no man made hills or trees in rows... just the real deal.

i had to go through a tunnel underneath a mountain, before i could reach the path that would lead onto the mountains.

once at the foot of the mountain i was amused by a dragon fly which was hanging still in midair for sometime, so i tried to take some photos of it. But even it was hanging still in the air each time it was really hard to capture it. It was a long lasting battle of 10 minutes before i had to give in and let him be. i continued my journey onto the mountain.

next to the mountain was a lake with a park around it where lots and lots of people jog or just walk. i left this park and took a road that lead onto the mountain. Here i got ambushed by hordes of musquitos and little flies, very annoying. But i didnt give in and fought my way trough them. there were to many trees so the few was mostly blocked all the time which was a big bummer but maby ill find another mountain with a better few.

i didnt go all the way to the top for that i will do another time when ill be wearing shoes and not slippers.

after i came down from the mountain i went to the supermarket to get some food and drinks and went home to take a shower. becouse walking 10km while its 30 degrees and no clouds makes u sweat... a little.

rewards:
stamina + 3
area unlocked: Kouen no yama

for those who are curious about our rooms

its 6 tatami mats big, 1 mat is 0.9x1.90 meter so the whole room is about 11 square meters but the living space is about 8 since there is a big buildin closet in the room and the entrance infront of the door where u leave your shoes.

in my opinion a nice place to live the quality is quiet good everything is clean and tight so im happy with it

Quest 3: The Restaurant

additional partymember: Gill.

At the end of the day a hero's belly needs to be filled. Me and my fellow companions went to a small local restaurant which was specialized in Okonomiyaki (google it). we sat down... on the floor and put our legs in the hole under the table a really funny way of sitting. in the middel was a metal plate to keep the food warm.

There were only 4 tables... from which 2 were allready occupied. The people greeted us warmly, even the people eating. we opened the menu and by were surprise that there where no pictures as in usual restaurants. When the waitres came i sed we couldnt read the menu so we would just like some Okonomiyaki, since its their specialty... but it didnt end there... she acted as if she waited for us to order more. We asked for some vegetables. She didnt really know what to do with that since they didnt really have a dish with jsut vegetables. She showed us some other dishes which contained some.

in the end after some feet and hands we ended up ordering 2 okonomiyaki's 2 bowls of rice and a dish with some meat/fish and vegestables. A good meal for a hero's belly

rewards:
full health
exp +34 (66/100)

Quest 2: buy a camera

a Hero ofcourse needs good equipment, so of i went to the equipment shop located on in the center of Kyoto. This building, filled with 9 floors of equipment, was the perfect place to go. I searched for an NPC to was able to help me. with the few japanese i learned, before going to this over automated country, i was able to tell her what i wanted. i all went more smooth then i thought it would be.

so from this day on u can check the PHOTO's tab at the top to see fragments from my adventure.

rewards:

Nikkon D3100: vision +5
japanese language: LEVEL UP
photo action unlocked

and the questing begins

quest 1: buying a subway ticket

the day started and we went on our adventure the Dorm Head Robin (yes we have two small robins now) guided us to the school for a first meeting with the international office people. Here we met our contact person Ken Rodgers a wild looking man with sneakers

after the introductions we went to the caffeteria to get some health potions and to eat some lunch. this is were we decided to go to the center of kyoto to buy some convinient stuff like cups and bowls at this moment the swiss guy Gill had joined the party aswell. we took the bus to subway station and searched for a ticket machine. There the epic battle begun. We quickly figured out where we had to go and on which station we stood... But the ticket machine was a nasty one

luckly a brave kid appeard with great skill we asked him how to steal 3 tickets from the evil ticket machine. Since he still had the power of youth he explaind with his hands and some japanese how to trick the ticket machine.

so from now on we know how to trick the ticket machine

quest compleet!
rewards:

3 tickets
new area unlocked : subway station
+ 32 exp (32/100)

Arriving at the Quest Zone

Sooooooo that was one hell of a trip with an uncomfortable chair damn... needmorelegspace

Leaving at 8 o clock in the morning and arriving half past 8 in the morning in Japan its like wednesday never excisted. The whole trip was about 24 houres from door to door but the flight felt like 2 houres... really relaxing with some nice food.

once arrived at Osaka Kansai a dude with a sign was waiting for us we didnt have much time according to the man but we still had to get money so we began our search for an ATM which wasnt that hard to find.

so now we are in the dorm unpacked and everything ready to explore the fine culture of japan!

and did i mention the humid hot klimat ****! so hot and sticky and sweaty

Prelude

Well then... blog made and ready for action. Only a few days left... only a few small things left to handle before we fly off to japan.

My party member for this quest line will be Robin wouters u can find the link on the left to take a look at his blog. i found his abilities quite usefull so i hope we can assist eachother well in situations of danger.

ill start updating from this day on happy hunting!


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rewards
+4000 euro
+2 charm