I GOT THE VISA

This last Saturday my wife said that she had big news for me, and it WAS! When she said this I immediately knew what she was going to say: She received my Visa.

I was so happy to hear this, because I was a little bit worried if it would come in on time, and that everything was arranged good. I almost cried actually and it made me have this big smile when I am thinking about it! 45 days to go now, yes counting off sucks because the days are only going slower and slower, and my excitement is getting bigger and bigger haha.

Mayuko will be moving to the house this Wednesday, so let's see what she's thinking of it.

I hope this last weeks will not be to hard, but I will try to see everything with a positive attitude.

less than 50 days to go, Yatta

Well, only less than 50 days to go, whohoe, I am getting Dokidoki *excited* because Mayuko got the keys of the house yesterday, and it is larger than we expected. It is as I have said before 2 rooms of 6tatami, but the Kitchen is also 6 tatami, so that means that we can put a table in it. and also the balcony is larger than we expected, we can even put 3 chairs in it haha.

I went to the bank last week, to get an insurance, to send money to Japan, and to give Lientje * my mom her wife* power to end my bank account. So I guess almost everything is done in here, all I have to do is send a moving out message to the City hall, and some other small things, and wait for the big thing the Visa...

Recently I have been working a lot on my website www.kobecityinfo.com and added many things, so please take a look and tell me what you think of it, and if anyone knows how I can let my website be higher in the search programs, please send me a message!

See you in 49 days in Japan :D

My love for "Dreams Come True"

My love for Japanese music, only goes to a couple of artists, such as Hikaru Utada, Boa, Spitz, and a couple more. But my Favorite Japanese Band all time is : "Dreams come True". Why I love them? Because I can cry on their music, but at the same time smile, even though I don't understand a thing about it.

The band was formed in 1988 by the bands lead singer is Miwa Yoshida, Nakamura Masato, the arranger, producer, bassist & overall mastermind, and Nishikawa Takahiro, keyboardist, manipulation and sound designer (who stepped out of the group in 2002).

Dreams Come True presents music which is a pleasure to the ear, the mind, and the soul. Never being content with one style, they compose songs with genre influences from Pop, R&B, Jazz, Funk, Disco, Soul, Rock, Hip Hop, Latin, and even Classical; Many styles, as varied as their own musical influences, provide their music with a rich base to form their own unique Dreams Come True style.

They have sold over 30 million albums and 15 million singles. Had 22 Top five singles, and reached 10 times the #1 posistion. And also their album hit the #1 album posistion 11 times. Dreams Come True albums have also been a staple of the Oricon charts, accumulating close to 18 years worth of time during the group's 17 year history. Their second album, Love Goes On..., spent over 4 years on the charts.

So I guess everyone is getting the point: THE JUST ARE THE BEST BAND IN JAPANESE HISTORY!

So here are some songs for you:









Because I think DTC is such a great band, I want to spend some more attention to them later on, so: TO BE CONTINUED

Learning Japanese

Okay, with only less then 2 months to go, I have to learn the language as soon as possible. The problem is a bit (read my previous post) that I can't get my mind clear. But maybe this is the cure for it, to keep busy in my mind.

My goal for learning Japanese this upcoming 2 months, is first of all to increase my vocabulary, to be able to talk in basic conversations *well this is for the next half year.... year).

to be continued...

Less then 2 months, and I am freaking out sometimes

It's less then 2 months to go, and It looks like everything is doing great, finished my Tefl degree, got a great cheap house, saved enough money, and am ready to go to Japan and my wife.

But, with less then 2 months, I am also losing myself in some way, getting more stressed, losing my confident, and just sometimes don't know what to do. I guess this is because of being on a distance relation for 2.5 year, and this will be the last 2 months of it. I have to say goodbye to my family, my life, my country, and start all over again, is it really this difficult? or really this simple? I don't know any more how to think about certain things, I am having my emotions about this, but when I talk to my wife about it, i can't always get to hear what I want, that's not her fault, because she is raised by this, and same as most Japanese, feelings is just way different than we Dutch people.

But it's is tough sometimes, and I guess I just have to come over it, be strong, and be patient. I am already patient for 2 years now, and now is finaly the time , and I am freaking out haha.

I should be confident about myself more, and keep knowing in my mind that my wife is loving me, even though she is busy with school, herself, and our house etc.

Only less then 2 months... Counting of the days... day by day, day by day, everything looks so slow at the moment...

Teaching in Japan preparation

When I arrive in Japan, I should get *of course* a job. My love is in the IT/Design section, but that's not so easy to get, because my Japanese is not that good yet. So instead of searching for an IT job, I want to start as an English teacher ( EIGO NO SENSEI). When I was in Japan last year, I was teaching Japanese kids in summer school for one week! It was not easy, especially because I had NO NO NO experience in teaching at all, but It also was heaps of fun, and after already 3 days the kids started to enjoy a lot with me, and I enjoyed with them.

So as a preparation to make things more easy, getting a job, and feeling confident about myself, I am doing a TEFL course (Teaching English as a Foreign Language). It is not the best teaching course there is, but better something than nothing! I have 10 modules, plus and extra Grammar, and Kids module! Here is a short list of what I learn:

> Module 1 : Student Motivation, Teacher Roles & EFL Methodology
> Module 2 : Grammar Awareness
> Module 3 : Classroom Management & Student Levels
> Module 4 : How to teach Grammar
> Module 5 : How to teach Vocabulary
> Module 6 : Observe & analyze a teacher in action (on DVD ROM)
> Module 7 : How to teach Speaking and Writing Skills
> Module 8 : How to teach Reading and Listening Skills
> Module 9 : Games & Lesson Planning
> Module 10 : Information & Resources
> Module 11 : Extra GAM (Grammar Awareness module)
> Module 12 : Extra Young Learners

Check for more info the website from I to I tefl

I am really enjoying this course, and I am learning a lot ( even though it is only theory) I still have to work on my English though, and that is one of the hardest parts of this course. But yeah, isn't everyone learning in life!? I finished all modules except the Games & Lesson Planning and the Young Learners one. The Lesson planning really is a .... But I learn a lot from it, so that's okay.

I really hope that I can find a nice teaching Job in Japan, and that I can develop my website (www.kobecityinfo.com ) , so that I can make money with that, and get more people visiting my website * currently I got 2300 a month! woehoe!

Catch you people later, and don't be afraid to leave a comment!

Baseball

The number one sport in my own country The Netherlands is soccer, I am raised with soccer by my father; we always watched the games and I played soccer daily on the street with my brother, and my dad.

This is over from the time I will arive in Japan, because the number one sport in Japan *at least the one that is most interested for me* is Baseball ( Yakyu in Japanese), you know 2 teams, try to hit the ball as good as posible, and than RUN!!! first base, Second base, third base, HOME!!!! HOMEEEEE RUNNNNNNN. In Japan there are 2 leauges, the Central leauge, and the Pacific leuage. They concists of 6 teams, which plays several games a week. The winner of each leauge will play against each other in the play offs. and the winner of that is THE WINNER!!!!

Last year the Hanshin tigers * they are located in the Kansai area, so I will probably see some games of them. * were the winner of the Central leauge, but they lost the Play offs.

In the last month their were the World Baseball Classics, what is seen as the WORLD CUP. and the winner of that: JAPAN!!!!!!!!

Housing

The last year, my wife (oksan) and I have been fantasizing about a house, where, how much, etc. We have looked around on some websites, and when I was in Japan last year, we even visited 2 houses. The size of a house is in Tatami size, one tatami is measure roughly 180 cm x 90 cm. What were looking for was a house with 2 rooms, both 6 Tatami exl Kitchen, and bath. Normally for something like this you pay around 60/70.000 yen a month * convert* and the first month you have to pay around 4 to 5 times the rent: Reservation fee (tetsukekin), Deposit (shikikin), Key money (reikin), and Service fee (chukai tesuryo) . So yeah this will cost around 240.000 yen, which is of course expensive! But the good thing is, that in Japan, you don't have waiting lists, you can get a house in 1 or 2 days! and that's what I like, because here in Amsterdam, you will come on a waiting list from a minimum of 3-4 years, at least to get something that you Like!.

Because when I come to Japan, I won't have a job yet, we need to life from my oksan her salary, so we shouldn't get a too expensive house. So what we did, well actually she did, was applying for a special house *provided by the City Hall* , which only people who don't have enough income, are handicaped, etc. and the good thing is, we got one!! (well for 99%, she only should show the papers!) this house cost us only 30.000 yen a month, compairing to what I wrote before, it's a BIG difference!!! we have size what we want, 2 rooms from 6 Tatami, and a balcony *what more do you want!!! and one of the best things is that it is located between Kobe, and Osaka, in a place called Rokko, which is just under Mt. Rokko * we spend our wedding day here. From this area you could view over the whole city of kobe, and see the ocean.

So yeah, I am really happy to get to life in this area, even though we have to walk up the mountain from Rokko station! Here are some pictures from the Mt Rokko area.

3 Months until Departure

It's been a while since I have written something down here, so I though, let's Write. Especially because it's only 3 months before I am going to Japan, I should update you guys, and well everyone else on this planet.

The last time I wrote something in here, is already 8 months ago or something, so a short update : After coming back to the Netherlands I felt really bad, because of the 2 different worlds we are living in, the selfish western world, and the non-selfish-sometimesfake- eastern world. I choose to live in the Eastern world!

I've been studying Japanese, English, and started up my own website: www.kobecityinfo.com this website started out with 100 a month, 1000 a month and now I have over 2000 for the upcoming month with around 300+ visitors a month. I almost finished my Tefl study, it's damn hard sometimes, but hey, if I can get a job more easy in Japan, why not?

2 weeks ago my wife applied for my Spouse Visa, and we will probably hear something in about 1.5-2 months from now. Crazy times it are, lot of things to do, and lots days to wait. At least, it sometimes seems to be a lot of days, while it is only 3 months.

The next weeks I will update you people more about my preparing for Japan, and my departure from my country, my family, my work, etc.

Matane ( see you soon in Japanese)

Just married!!!!

this is infront of the city hall, we kept it small but the day was great, and the feeling of being married even greater

our dinner, soup, spagethi, salade, steak, deserts, toast, etc etc.. to much haha


our view, while eating our lovely dinner, to bad the night photo's failed!!! cause that was just beautifull, looking over Osaka, kobe, see nara behind osaka, and in the background starts wakayama!


MARRIED COUPLE and beautiful background!!!

Here I am sitting in my room in Japan, a Japanese style room, with tatami mats, and those paper windows.. So cute it is haha. I am so happy to be here, to see my girl and to see Japan. I will tell more about it later, but for now I will go back to the beginning at 13july when my travel started from Amsterdam.

After waiting 7 months I was finally going to see my sweet girl again, and visit Japan for the first time. My bag was packed, everything I had with me. I travelled from Amsterdam to Brussels, Brussels to Milan, and from Milan to Kansai ( Japan). Yes, I was thinking like that too.. LONG!!! And it was long too. I need to wait in Brussels for around 12 hours , cause I needed to take the most early bus from Amsterdam the evening before. The bus wasn’t that bad though, were I could have some nice sleep, but the airport was just killing me, all the shops and café’s were closed, so I didn’t had anything to do there, besides sleeping on a table until some cleaner needed to clean it… so eventually I slept around 1 hour, and closed my eyes for 2 hours. The flight from Brussels to Milan was absolutely stunning, as I flew above the Alps, and it was the first time for me to see mountains with snow YATTA(*yatta means like GREAT in Japanese ).

Arrived on Milan, I was really happy that I could start my last flight to Japan, first I did some shopping , OF COURSE.. Hello I am in Milan, there I should buy something shouldn’t I ?? So I bought some nice perfume, and called my girl that I had a terrible night haha. I just needed to wait for around 1 hour, in an ugly airport ( with strange toilets, instead you open the door up down, you need to push the handle… how the F**k should I know, so I pulled it down for around 3 minutes… I thought I was going crazy, I didn’t want to miss my flight, If I would be in here longer I would kicked that door for sure!!!!! ). The airplane was pretty nice though as I had a tv in front of me, and I could listen to music, watch movies and played some games ( no super Mario this time.. ). But yeah all this things didn’t matter cause I was just so sleepy/tired that I didn’t felt like using it a lot. I tried to get some sleep, but it just didn’t work, maybe I was just to doki doki (*nervous/excited in Japanese), or because I changed my watch 7 hours later (Japanese time).

As I finally arrived on the Kansai airport( the airport near Kobe that was build on the water, when you land it almost looks likes you land on water, sugoii ne (* cool/great in Japanese) ) Mayuko her sister Minako-san(*in Japan they use the word San after the name as respect for people who are older or higher level) was waiting for me, I was a bit afraid of her English, cause Mayuko didn’t knew about it, and bit I was afraid that she couldn’t speak English, but yeah that turned out to be fine, and I had some nice conversations with her in the bus to Kobe city (Sannomiya), where her mom was waiting for us. Her mom was came toward us, and as I had practiced many times ( but it still feels strange) I bowed to her and said: Hajimemashite, Dave Desu, Dozo yoroshiku (*how are you , I am Dave, nice to meet you… the how are you in this way you only say when you meet somebody the first time, normal how are you is : O genki Desuka?) and she bowed back and said the same thing, + something extra that I couldn’t understand.



Its really humid in the summer I remembered Mayuko saying to me, haha and so I found out, cause it was just so hot in there, even in the car to her home it was. We talked in the car with her mom, and I said some Japanese words which I knew. The way to Mayuko her house was great, driving true strange roads, seeing Japanese style houses, and see many hills, and mountains ( as maybe some of you know, in the Netherlands we don’t really have mountains or big hills… ). The house was just so cute to see, bigger then I expected , cause I thought it was a small house, (turns out that my girl is rich anyway haha no joke,, normal she says .. Yeah right ;)) , I took off my shoes, and refreshed myself, before I would see Mayuko again.


A couple of hours later we were driving to the near by station were Mayuko was arriving. When we arrived at the station I saw Mayuko waiting outside, and we hugged and kisses each other (a decent kiss cause her mom was watching…), and it felt a little bit strange in someway, cause we haven’t seen each other for 7 months. But yeah the best thing was that after an hour or 2, that strange feeling was disappeared , and it felt like we have seen each other almost everyday.

In the evening I met her father, and he was really kind to me, gave me some beers to relaxed and as we were eating this nice oichii ( delicious in Japanese) food, we started talking , easy talk, but also really serious . I thought I would be really difficult and really not looking forward to it, but it wasn’t like that at all, it was a relaxed talk ( the beer does it.. Asahi you are the best!!!!!! (*Asahi Japanese beer .. Best haha). At the end I asked her dad straight, ( this was the most scary part!!!!) Kekon Sassete kudasai ( can I marry with your daugther) and he said……. Hai Hai Hai. Of course ( hai-yes) , and I just felt so relieved, cause In the beginning, he didn’t agreed with our relation , cause I am a Gaijin ( non-Japanese) and in his mind he thinks a Japanese should marry with a Japanese ( which I can understand in some way cause in Japan the percentage of gaijins is only 1% ( from 125Milion people, and her parents don’t know any gaijin) .

On Saturday we slept in until around 10-11 and had some talk with each other, until we decided to have a short walk around. We went to some store’s near here, and I could finally see the Japanese Vending machines , and we went to sushi train were I tried out around 5-6 different kind of sushi with raw fish, and raw meat. The rest of the day we only talked, serious up to stupid.

On Sunday we went to the city to Harborland ( an area where are heaps of shops, and restaurants/café’s ) there was a free market, which was a bit smaller then I thought, and we saw a Japanese couple who where just married in a western style dress, and some girls wearing kimono. What I really like in here is that they still were traditional clothes a lot, like the Yukata ( the Yukata is a similar version of the kimono, but then much easier and less expensive.). As I will be staying in Japan for a month it would be convenient to have a Mobile phone, and Japanese phone’s are just so kakoii (* COOL) as they have so many extra options, and great designs, so we looked for that… but at the end I didn’t bought that one but a normal phone that looks like a phone that children from 5 use… but haha I only need a phone for a month , for a cheap price, and cheap it was.. For only 25 euro (30.000 Yen) I got a phone, with the same price Prepaid card included.. Well is that cheap or not cheap? I also bought some slippers, HOT weather ;), and some nice sushi/rice/meat balls to take with us, .. Were did we go? Well haha to the soccer game, Kobe VS Tokyo… stadium was pretty big 15.000 people in it. And the atmosphere was great.. Kobe fans in Red shirts, and with flags, who were singing the Whole game, even Kobe lost with 4-0... Only kawaii-so (* sad/poor) thing was that some F-side fans started to throw bottles on the field, and yelled bad things.. Because Kobe lost the game the players decided to give there apologise to the fans, and came closer, and they even bowed for them, this was really amazing to see, as this would not be thinkable in my country, were the players would almost run to the dressing room, and run to there wife’s to forget about the game. So lots of respect for the players that did this! We walked home after the match, we were just so tired from all day walking that we didn’t felt like doing anything else anymore that evening.




On Monday ( well just 2 hours ago LoL) we went to the city to Sannomiya and to Motomachi, and Mayuko teach me about how the Subway works in here ( not that easy to understand I think, cause everything is in Japanese… ( it is difficult sometimes for me, because I cant speak Japanese well, especially against there parents it is difficult to communicate good with each other. ) there are so many nice shops in here, and everywhere there are so oichii looking restaurants!!!!! We got some Starbucks coffee ( STARBUCKS RULES!!!) and went to Kobe’s China town, were we eat some Chinese food. I noticed today about the fact that there are not many Gaijins in Japan, but yeah, in one way I think that is not a big problem for me in the future. Mayuko bought a nice cute t-shirt, and we went to the Ikuta shrine ( one of the biggest shrines in Kobe) and we prayed there, and wrote a message on a piece of wood. it always relaxes me when i go to a shrine, or a church. it makes me think deep about spirituality.


I am really enjoying my stay in Japan , and am looking forward for the next weeks, but yeah I hope they wont go to fast, as I know I have to leave Japan again , and that I wont see my girl for another 5 months, its hard to think about it now, but yeah I am here just 4 days, and I still have around 25 days to go. So yeah that Is something for later to think about more.

Today I will look for jobs, do some things on the web, go walking around, and help her mom with mowing the lawn. Mayuko is working today and I will see her tonight again.

For now, I will stop cause I am really tired. But besides that, I can say I am one of the Happiest man in the world at this moment, cause I have almost everything that I want in life for now!

Aishiteru yo Mayuko always and forever

1 week to go

Just 1 week to go, and then i am finnaly going to Japan! my flight is in brussel on thursday the 14th. its going to be a pretty long travel, cause i need to go to brussels first, wait there for 9 hours, check in, wait 2.5 hour, go to milan, wait 2 hours, and then i fly to Japan....

well i am pretty nerveuse, and also verry happy. i will meet her parents for the first time, and the rest of her familie, also i will see japan for the first time!!! have been waiting pretty long for that... but most important of all is that i will see my beautiful girl Mayuko again! cant wait to hold her in my arms, to kiss her, etc. i will stay there for 4,5 week almost, and were going to do really lovely things!!!

just 1 week work, and yeah the last 2 days next week, are just mmm hurry up days

gr Dave

Introduction

Hello everybody...

well this is my first post here! Lol... why do i want to have a blog? i was thinking about getting a blog for already a while and now i found a good one... i want to have a blog, because i think i have something that can interrest people... as in this way everybody have something that other people are interrested in.....

this page is mainly about Me , and Japan.... i have a relation with a japanese woman for 1.5 year now.. and we are getting married in less then 2 months from now, i met her in australia, and we were together for 5 months, but then we needed to seperad because we both needed to go back to our country's in the last year we just saw each other for 2.5 weeks, but we have contact almost everyday, and i will be going to japan in 1.5 month for a month long...

i wanted to know more about japan, as i didnt know much about it then Samurai, world war 2 and some anime like : REMI lost in the world.....

so i start making a website about japan japanichiban (dutch) start to post on japanese forums, and ever learn the langauge a bit......

what will be comming on this page: well mainly things about japan , from news , to strange pictures, from my mind, to a report on how i enjoyed japan etc etc

hope you people will keep comming here, and enjoy Japan, as much as i do

here is a picture of me :