Mini Trip to Plymouth.

Good evening,

So aside from the never-ending catch-up, it's nice to write about something a little more current. However, saying that I don't really plan on writing a lot - mostly pictures today I think. But you know me I'll have to get back to you on that because I'm sure by the end it will be completely the opposite.

Anyway, last month I had a weekend off so I decided the normal student thing to do was was travel to the end of the country on a train. Normal of course. Not a completely wasted trip I assure you, a few of my friends are at uni there, as well as my grandma that lives nearby.

First Stop Grandmas, I wasn't going to get away with travelling all that way ad not popping in, I kid, I love my grandma to pieces, in fact, the night I arrived I went to La La Land with her. Side note - AMAZING film. My cousin Amy (Blog) even came up from Plymouth to go to the cinema and catch up.

Next stop Plymouth, my trip was not exactly planned in advance so getting in touch with everyone was a little difficult, however, I did, of course, see my cousin and one of my friends from Tokyo. Geoff (Photography Instagram) and I managed to arrive ourselves, we even went for Sushi, but let's be honest English sushi I just not the same in comparison with Japan. It's expensive and lets not even get into the fact that I ordered a cucumber sushi roll and the rice was warm! Anyway, it was really good to catch up me, I hadn't seen anyone from Japan since June so it had been a long time.

Later on that weekend, the sunshine decided to poke its head out for an afternoon, so we decided to venture out with our cameras in tow. It was still incredibly windy, so it's a good thing I don't vlog, despite many people's insistence, I should.  We went to The Hoe, and it was surprisingly not freezing which meant we were able to take nice pictures of us as well as of the beautiful scenery. Although I had a feeling sunglass were needed occasionally (see picture below). It is just typical British weather you need every type of weather gear possible for one afternoon, sunglasses, coat, umbrella.

The point is we had a great a great weekend and the sunny afternoon brought with it great photos. And now I have visited them down in London its time for them to travel up to see me in bustling London a sure change from the seaside city of Plymouth.

You know sometimes when I start writing a post I have no idea what I am on about! A post full of pictures you say, past maria? You only have photos of one sunny afternoon, Idiot. Although I did alright at keeping words to a minimum.

Well, I hope you enjoyed reading/looking at my little mid-term adventure and I will see you all soon.

Maria x

P.s. If you want a heads up of when I post there is a little button in the sidebar just under "about me" called "Followers" hit the follow button to get updates on when I post.

Student

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I'm at Uni!

Hi,

Look at me being so efficient! Defying the odds. (Haha, maybe not, I took my time finishing it) However, unfortunately, this may not be a terribly long post, oh well. 

So for those of you that don't know last year, I did my last year of A Levels. I think I'll talk a bit more about that process another time but needless to say, I did well enough to get into university. 

I am now a full-time student at London Southbank University studying architecture!

I remember the day we got our results, I spent most of the night before coming up with plan A.B, C, D and E.(Yes, I literally had that many, no joke)  Only to find out I got into my insurance choice, all that anxiousness and thoughts of being incredibly busy dissipated and I was left with absolutely nothing to do. It was weird.

Anyway, in September I enrolled after another debacle with changeovers, this time with my dance certificate. Why is enrolling so difficult for me and why the hell is a dance certificate so damn important especially for an Architecture course! If I was studying dance I would understand, maybe.

As you can imagine, the first week was terrifying. It was instantly apparent my course was huge and bigger than normal. We are a real mixed bunch, which makes it kind of interesting, but also makes crits incredibly long. Just as well there is a pub round the corner to escape to after.

So it's now February and I have finished the first semester, time really does fly. A major jump I know. And overall it's been a lot of fun so far. We have been studying all sorts from; architectural engineering to the history of Architecture. And for the Studio and design sections of the course our topics have included, the Visible and Invisible City, as well as Room in a City. All of which will appear in the Portfolio section of my blog in due course.

We just handed in our Portfolios for an interim mark so that we get an idea of where we are. So undoubtedly there will be some things to tweak.  And This week we start semester 2 which mixes all of semester 1 topics into one in one very long and in-depth project that will finish in May.

If you would like to know any more or have any questions feel free to comment down below. Other than that I hoped you enjoyed a little overview of uni so far, and I hope to fill you in more as time goes on.

See you soon,

Maria x

Student

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Japan in the Snow

Good afternoon,

I'm still working on more detailed posts but I thought I would tell you about an experience I had yesterday. So yesterday was a Monday, and if that wasn't bad enough its winter. The weekend had been cold but it wasn't that bad.



Then on Monday morning I woke up to Utsunomiya blanketed in snow, with no warning it had snowed around 20cm! As anyone would my first thought was no school/work, and if you don't your lying. Unfortunately as I picked up my phone and was about to get into bed I had a Email. *ping* SCHOOL IS OPEN.


Well that killed it, it was time to put as many layers on as possible and head out it to the big white world. As you all know my journey is already quite a long one and in England I would have never bothered to try, as when it snows; Britain tends to shut down. But I thought thought 'this is Japan they get snow all the time, they'll be prepared' I couldn't have been more wrong.

As I started the journey it wasn't that bad, I did get the earlier train just in case, the skinkesen was a tad late and travelling slightly slower but who can blame them. Infact, while waiting at the station freezing my butt off I saw a train wiz past and I have to say it did look quite cool, but unfortunately I didn't get a picture.

< Bit like this but cooler

The issue became apparent as soon as I got into Tokyo. I think its strange how the fastest train in the world can cope in the snow but the small city trains have so much trouble. I know why but it doesn't make sense to me at least.

First issue, the Yamanote line, famous for being overcrowded, and unreliable but I hadn't encountered it until now. The queue was astonishing, the lines for each platform merged into one, but as comically Japanese culture is always portrayed they were stood dead still in immaculately straight lines with little attitude; can you imagine. Once I was finally on the train I was flung into the train just by the force of people that wanted to get on this train, we were way over capacity, I don't think I've been that squished in my life. My feet were no longer touching the floor! 

Now of course the journey once on the train was far longer than normal, by this point I was already at least 30 minutes late to school, spending ridiculous amounts of time at each station and trying not to be swept away by the sea of people getting off at various stations. When I finally got off the train I was relieved, home stretch only 15 minutes left, but I forgot this was not a normal day. It seems i take the two busiest train line in Tokyo to get to school and it was mayhem.

After what felt like a lifetime I reached Sangen-Jaya station and a I left I noticed there was a hold up getting onto the station platform. The police had stopped people entering the station and as far as the eye could see and further there were crowds of people, waiting. I have never heard that station me so quiet, hundreds of people yet a dead eerie silence in the air.

     

^   Snaps of my first snow journey experience.

So in the end it took me 4 whole hours to get to school instead of the normal 1 3/4. And I thought i had it bad one of the guys from my school got held up even more missing both his lessons. His journey normally take 20 Minutes, that fateful monday morning it took 3!! I suddenly felt like i was unable to complain especially when he showed me the pictures.

All part of the experience I guess, and no doubt I may encounter the snow again, one of the hazards of winter. To finish of the day I was treated on the shinkansen to a beautiful view of Mount Fuji in the sunset, I have noticed that because occasions of seeing it are becoming more frequent as it get colder as there are no clouds, so i'm sure I will have way too many photos of the volcano by the end of winter.

Thanks for reading my rather hilarious story of my time with transport in Japan in the snow,

Maria x

Student

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First week of school

Good Morning,

So after a lot of kerfuffle and sorting out I finally enrolled at the British School in Tokyo. 

I started on the 31st August, I know early right. I was called in for the afternoon to sort paperwork and talk to our teachers, I have to admit it was kind of scary, but it didn't last long and it made it easier for the actual first day after.

When I arrived everyone was given their timetables for the year, but because my registration papers weren't in order, I didn't have a timetable. So the first thing I had to do was create a make shift timetable on a scrap piece of paper. Physics, Chemistry and... Maths. I hadn't planned on maths but they convinced me that it would help with the other subjects. Once I had completed the form and spoken to all the relevant people it was time to go.

I thought it was quite funny actually I had not officially been offered a place but they expected me to start attending on the first day of school. In fact it wasn't until the next week I was legitimate, while on a school trip. (I'll explain later)

From the first few days I feel I learnt a lot about the school. It is so different to my school in the UK. for starters it's tiny! The whole of secondary school, that's Y7-Y13, is around 800 people and Y13 can't be more than 20! To come from a school where there were between 1-2000, its insane. Then there are the people; I thought I had traveled a lot, and I probably had in comparison to anyone at Oxted but here I feel so untraveled. I know that was naive to think that seeing as its a international British school, but oh well.

All the students seem nice, but I feel I need to give it some more time before I can form a proper opinion or make friends. however they have told me I should hold back on my opinion on the school as well. So I'm sure there will be an update school blog in a few months. 

The most stressful thing so far is getting up and ready in the morning. The school day starts in Tokyo at 8.30am which means because I live in Utsunomiya I have to get up at 5.30! Meaning my morning routine has changed significantly. Cue girly talk; I now have to shower in the evening which isn't to bad as I quite like that, I also have to pack my bag and decide what to wear (that's another story) before I go to sleep. When I wake up I throw on whatever I chose, use the facilities, grab my breakfast for the train  and if I have time swig a mug of tea. And off to the train I go. 

At this school we have a sort of uniform, you cant just wear what you like, as I was used to. Its not exactly a uniform more if a dress code which is; Tokyo business. This normally consists of a shirt and a skirt. Yeah, there is a real difference between Tokyo Business and International Business. 

Maria xx

Student

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