I should have known in advance that it's probably not the wisest thing I've ever done to join a group of students on an day-excursion under the leadership of a japanese guide. As our pride of students strolls down the alleys and places of Shuri Castle every new attraction triggers the camera reflex of our chieftain. "Come on, let's all get together for a nice shot!" is what I hear the tenth time by the time I reach the inside of the castle and the actual place you have to pay an entry for in order to visit it. Hilarious. For some reason Asian folks do not only have a close relation to cameras as such, but the way they're gonna behave in front of them is always the same. You can try it yourself at home: Grab some Japanese or Korean dude, place him anywhere, make sure it's silent....then pull the trigger of your camera! As soon as the sound of the camera switch is hearable the pavlovian experiment will show first results. Hands will rise and fingers will form a victory-sign immediately. This is so reliable that I spent most of the day watching my classmates being photographed as I couldn't follow what the guide in front murmured anyway. Peaktime is reached when we arrive at the great central plaza. Everyone takes pics of everyone and the ecstatic photosession has its impact on the lady with the umbrella as well. We've come to the point that relaxed individual shots are being taken, i.e. groups of 5. I find myself watching some girls being just about to have a photo taken, the camera is switched on....3....2...1...this is so funny! I can just refrain from falling on my knees yelling a loud "Strike! Got ya!".
Apart from that Shuri Castle was a nice one to visit. Lots of history is what they show us even though the building as such is a replica of what has been destroyed during WW II. At the very place where this originally had happened is where they built my uni instead, so my day-to-day life takes place at a place where a whole kingdom was reigned from. Quite interesting. King for a year. Yeah.
I survived my first week at uni and it's pretty obvious that Japanese matters of teaching are rather different from the German ones. This as such is not a bad thing at all, even though this country seems so determined to actually learn that even my mobile reminds me of my mission here every day. Upon switching it on, an imaginary desk appears on screen and the light above it switches itself on, same thing the other way around upon switching it off. This however is one of the weird things only I see every day. Whilst being absolutely earnest in class about learning as such the contense of the material I work on makes me smile more often than it probably should. Japanese manners are extensively polite as long as the sun shines. Afterwards lots of these office workers seem to turn into alcohol loving maniacs. It doesn't surprise that the only thing which apparently got stuck in the minds of my teachers after I introduced myself is that I do in fact favour beer rather than liqeur, however this for sure was the least part I was talking about. The other day I seriously learned the character for downing a drink. Hehe, unbelievable.
Apart from surviving uni I survived my first encounter with local animals as well. Geez, quite interesting to meet venomous snakes next to the lane I'm running on! Nothing happened, but if I had known about their nature I probably would have run a little faster than I did...
Apart from that Shuri Castle was a nice one to visit. Lots of history is what they show us even though the building as such is a replica of what has been destroyed during WW II. At the very place where this originally had happened is where they built my uni instead, so my day-to-day life takes place at a place where a whole kingdom was reigned from. Quite interesting. King for a year. Yeah.
I survived my first week at uni and it's pretty obvious that Japanese matters of teaching are rather different from the German ones. This as such is not a bad thing at all, even though this country seems so determined to actually learn that even my mobile reminds me of my mission here every day. Upon switching it on, an imaginary desk appears on screen and the light above it switches itself on, same thing the other way around upon switching it off. This however is one of the weird things only I see every day. Whilst being absolutely earnest in class about learning as such the contense of the material I work on makes me smile more often than it probably should. Japanese manners are extensively polite as long as the sun shines. Afterwards lots of these office workers seem to turn into alcohol loving maniacs. It doesn't surprise that the only thing which apparently got stuck in the minds of my teachers after I introduced myself is that I do in fact favour beer rather than liqeur, however this for sure was the least part I was talking about. The other day I seriously learned the character for downing a drink. Hehe, unbelievable.
Apart from surviving uni I survived my first encounter with local animals as well. Geez, quite interesting to meet venomous snakes next to the lane I'm running on! Nothing happened, but if I had known about their nature I probably would have run a little faster than I did...
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