By Kofod (blogger) & Rosa (layouter)




I woke up early and ate the last breakfast with my parents before I left. Time went by unexpectedly fast, probably because I had so much to do before leaving. I wanted to make sure that I brought absolutely everything I needed, besides the few things I had decided on buying in Japan. 
At 11.50 I left home to get to the airport. I wanted to be there a few hours before my flight would leave to make sure I'd make it. I said my goodbyes to my family and went through security. 
First flight left at about 14.10 (2.10 pm) luckily it wasn't a long flight. After one full hour of sketching in the plane I arrive in Frankfurt. I was impressed with how big it was. It was about a 10 minute drive with the airport bus until we made it to the gate. 
I had to spend 2 hours in the airport, waiting for my next flight. So after I had gotten rather close to the gate I would leave from I looked for water. Which I found at last, and I've got to say it's the most expensive water I've ever bought. 3.60€?!

At around 18.00 (6.00pm) the long flight left. It was horrible, I felt sick during most of the flight and barely ate. Surprisingly I slept for a good long while during that flight to keep down the sick feeling so there's not much to say about this flight if I have to be honest. 



Around 12.50 pm (Japanese time, 4.50 pm ect) I finally landed at Haneda Airport. I got through the airport just fine, but my transportation to the host family was delayed. The driver showed up just as I was about to ask information, luckily. So I got to my host family safe and sound. 
I'm living at a Japanese lady's house, and she is honestly so sweet. Her grandchildren were there as well when I arrived, a bit shy at first so before dinner I spent a lot of time on my own. However after dinner I played games with them until they had to go back home which was really fun. 
They taught me a card game and I taught them one.

There are of course rules in this house, which is understandable. Guidelines are required to make sure everything is alright. A new one was recently added: Whenever you get back home you need to wash your hands properly. 
They try to be very cautious of the Coronavirus as there are a lot of people in very little space. 




I woke up rather early, so I went upstairs to get breakfast. My host mom was making crepe so I got some to eat. They were so good! 
After breakfast she took me for a walk around the area we live in and I got to see some nice places. She even brought me to her cousins house, which was a very small traditional Japanese house. It was so cozy! I really liked some of the details and the architecture there. 
On our way back to the house we went to the supermarked together. It was so weird being there as I recognized almost nothing and with my little knowledge of hiragana and katakana I had a hard time knowing what the different things were underneath the packaging. But it was nice experiencing that as well. 
Sunday was a long day of traveling around Tokyo for me, because right as we got back to the house I went out again. This time I headed for Shibuya to see where the school I'd be starting at were. It wasn't too hard getting to Shibuya and I quickly found the school. So I decided that I had plenty of time to get a new sketchbook and a few other art tools. The sketchbook was so expensive, I was very surprised because a lot of other art tools are so cheap, but I decided that it was worth it. 
Not much else happened in Shibuya that day, I just went back home. Or… I
I tried. I got lost in the train system for about two hours because all the trains I took did not stop at the station I was supposed to go off at so at one point I had to get off at the end station of one of the trains and turn around. 
Don't worry, I got home safely. And before my roommate arrive. Her flight got canceled so she didn't get to Japan until sometime in the evening. It was a late night that day. 



After waking up I of course did the usual morning routine, and at 7.30 my roommate and I headed for the train station. We had to be at school at 9am. We got there in time and were tested on our Japanese level. The level here is counted according to the European language votation system, I'd be on level A1 because even after years I still suck. 
It was a long day and I experienced a lot. I started talking to my new classmates and schoolmates, it was really nice! I wasn't back home until 17.30 (5.30 pm) 
After dinner I played games with my host mom's grandchildren and my new roommate. It was a lot of fun and I taught them yet another card game. I enjoy playing games with them! 



The first real school day was Tuesday, it was alright. The school didn't start until 9am, though I still had to get up fairly early since the commute was about 1 hour included in the necessary walking of course. I learned a lot of new things, but there were also a lot of the things we learned which were repetition for me. I guess that's how it'll be when you been trying to do Japanese self-studies on/off for I don't know how many years. 
But it was fun and I got to know the people in my class, it actually seemed like quite a normal school day. Besides the fact that we were off at 11.50 already, but that was fine. I had an appointment with a Japanese friend of mine. Originally we were meant to meet at 14.00 (2pm) but he said he got delayed and wouldn't show up until 14.30 (2.30pm)
Which was fine, until he hadn't showed up yet at 15.00 (3pm) 
After a long while of waiting he finally came around and we walked around Harajuku and sat down for tea. It was nice catching up, however I had to leave soon after because I had an activity with my schoolmates. 
It was very interesting, we went to this cafe called 'Kawaii monster cafe' it seemed like a whole different world. If you've ever seen 'Alice in wonderland' or 'Charlie and the chocolate factory' then it was a very similar vibe that place gave off. Even the food was colorful, like a unicorn had thrown up absolutely everywhere. 
I can easily say that the day ended on a high note. 


I could sleep in, school didn't start until 12.40 which was really great. However of course there would be a downside; school ended at 18.30 (6.30 pm) so the day just felt extremely long. 
School went by as the previous day, even though I do have to brag a little bit. One of my spin classes is called alphabet, so we will work a lot on learning and perfecting hiragana and katakana (the sound based alphabets in Japanese language) and I did really well. I originally thought I would remember none of the symbols but I remembered a whole lot more than I thought. That made me very happy, especially that might mean that I can soon change that class to the Kanji learning class. 
I'm not too excited to learn Kanji, it just seems so difficult but I really want to learn it as it is after all an important part of Japanese spelling and literature. 


After school another activity was arranged, which I decided to tag along in as well. This time we went to the Asakusa temple during the night time. Which was honestly so nice. I've been there before, but that was during the day and it was so crowded then. Not this time, there were barely anyone there so I got a few nice pictures of the temple. 
A bunch of us went to eat ramen after we left the temple, since a lot of us had eaten nothing but breakfast that day so as you can imagine we would be super hungry. The ramen was so good! And it was easy to adjust the ramen to your liking as they gave you this pamphlet to fill in at the restaurant. I definitely went home with a happy tummy.