30. Juni 2010

Il Kook's first post

jo, hello!


Well, Tsukuba is a great place, at second thought. at first i thought damn, countryside and nasty smelling rooms!! but i got used to it and now it feels quite comfy here in Tsukuba.
Today we woke up dead tired and totally demoralised but hey, life goes on so after a quick shower breakfast and the normal daily schedule we decided to explore the area a little, get to know the place. it was raining hard, that sucked. but we went anyway. Tsukuba is a uni city or so and most of the carp members are studying at tsukuba uni. that's why we went to see the uni and went over the campus, into buildings and ate great stuff in the cafeteria(tempura etc.). we went to the city afterwards to buy the ingredients for dinner we had to cook. it took ages to get to the supaa by foot and back. the ingurisu potato stew we made was quite good and the carp members liked it alot. but before the meshi we went to "talk" to people from door to door at the students dormitory. two got hooked and were in for a second more deeper view into the way of our (here they call it) circle. (a circle is kinda like a club here, like a soccer club or a diving club.) wasn't bad for our first day even tough we just stood there smiling and the carp members from here did the talking. After that the day was already practically over. bach home we finished up with a closing whatever and went to sleep.

Sophie's first post


J-CARP experience – Tsukuba centre

by Sophie

We have now been here a day, in which we strolled through botanical gardens in monsoon weather, found out about weird Japanese toilets, cooked a mismatch dinner and went witnessing.

For me witnessing was an exciting experience. As this was the first time I’d ever been I was completely unsure of what to expect. So as I tried to fumble through my Japanese and listen, but only understanding random words (which meant I’d found out that they did something in some –sort of group). I managed to be a witness to 2 people be enthusiastic about learning more. I was warned that sometimes witnessing for the first time is like being witnessed to yourself. On a more serious note, the outreach they do here is inspiring, they are out everyday going to door without losing motivation!

My time so far in Tsukuba has been short but I’ve learnt so much already, let’s hope it continues this way.