Asian Kitchen

If you are looking for a place at Kawaramachi to eat a little something, try "Asian Kitchen". The food is spicy - no wonder, it`s indonesian, thai, etc. - and for the price, the plates are not small. I was totally stuffed after 2000 Yen (if you know me you might remember how much food I need ;-), and the atmosphere is not bad either. The interieur has been decorated as a catacomb, white walls, quite tasty...
You can also make reservations through fax, just send the date, time and duration, the number of seats, your phonenumber and your name to 075-254-0624
It`s seemed to be quite popular, by 20:00 the restaurant was already full.

The address:
ƒAƒWƒAƒLƒbƒ`ƒ“�@‰ÍŒ´’¬ŽO�ð“X
‹ž“sŽs’†‹ž‹æ‰ÍŒ´’¬ŽO�ð‰ºƒ‹�@‹ž“s•ó’ËŒ€�êB1F
ŒŽ-–Ø�E“ú�E�j�@�@17:00 - 23:30
‹à�E“y�E�j‘O�@�@ 17:00 - 00:00
Fax: 075-254-0624
Tel: 075-221-8265

"Zac Baran" - Second House

Yesterday I met with a friend of mine in a nice Cafe in the City, called "Zac Baran", a branch of Second House. From the outside it doesn`t look special or too interesting, but as soon as you enter the Cafe, you might be surprised. The staff friendly as you are used in Japan, but the atmosphere of the interiour is great, Jazz or Easy Listening in the background, delicious cakes and ... try the caramel milk tea. ;-)
If it`s a cold winter day, you might appreciate a few quiet hours in there...

Ritsumeikan`s computer rooms

In respect to the full computer room in the library I get the impression that many people don`t know about the other rooms at Kinugasa Campus they could go to.
You can find a list of all rooms on the pages of the Rainbowstaff.
In short, you can use computers in the following buildings: �}�‘ŠÙ —L�SŠÙ �s�SŠÙ �P�SŠÙ —m—mŠÙ
The computerroom in the —L�SŠÙ, 3. floor (in the japanese system) also has a scanner and a CD-Rom everybody can use. I asked the Rainbowstaffmember, if it is possible to copy any CD I want. The answer was, "basically" you can... that means, you should better copy your rented Morning Musume-CD`s somewhere else, but the 16-speed burner is perfect for legal stuff...

Gakuensai at Ritsumeikan

Last weekend the Gakuensai was celebrated at the Ritsumeikan Kinugasa Campus. All people selling old clothes, J-Pop CD`s, Yakitori, "Hot Drug", Okonomiyaki and other rubbish aside, the foreign students managed to sell loads of german "Pfannkuchen", or pancakes, to a huge crowd of japanese girls... (and a few guys)
Having one of the best places on the campus (in the middle of the new parlour, right next to the stage), people were waiting for the pancakes from 12 o`clock until almost 6 in the afternoon. If we had a third pan we might have sold even more, but we had enough for the Pizzaparty afterwards anyways. It was also nice to have so much of the ingridients left, pancakes are on everybodies menue this week. ;-)

Pachinko

If you are fascinated by bright, shiny, objects, and you feel that you have been working to much recently, or you are frustrated by games of skill or have lots of time to spend... Pachinko may be the hobby that you have been waiting for.

Pachinko, which could be described as 'Japanese Pinball', is a game in which a large quantity of silver balls is fed into a sort of vertical pinball machine, The balls cascade around, their paths determined only by small metal pins. If any of the balls land in a little hole in the center, the player wins more balls, to continue playing or exchange them for prizes.
The chances against winning are ridiculously small for the average player, and you easily loose several 1000 Yen in a few minutes. For those lucky professionals who actually get out more balls than they loose, there is a little shop behind Pachinko Parlours where you can exchange the prizes for hard cash, to avoid breaking Japan's gamling laws. ;-)

Why do people of all kinds sit in smokey Pachinko Parlours listening to a J-Pop soundtracks played at deafening levels? Where does the fascination with watching little silver balls disappear into a pinball machine come from? About 50 years ago, players could control the force with which the ball was shot up into the machine, giving the game an element of skill, but nowadays, the participants need only pour the shiny balls into the machine and watch them disappear. At last, the conclusion might be that the thrill of winning is enough to keep the folks coming. Glamour and the slightest chance to make big money are the catch. Other people might play out of popularity of the game itself or they just like the way cool Pachinko ad in Japanese TV with Nicolas Cage...

Parties

There are not too many clubs for good parties, some of the most popular include Metro, Club Africa and Imagine at shijo kiamachi. To prevent spending 3000 Yen for a punk party with a great atmosphere but shitty 60ies rock music, send somebody in to check things out ("I`m looking for a friend"usually buys you a 5 minute ticket). Sometimes the japanese definition of a music style does not fit to what you think it is. ;-)
The nice thing about japanese clubs, the DJ is actually nice and friendly. I can`t think of any DJ in Germany that wouldn`t ignore you if you ask him a question.

Where to buy cheap

The 100 Yen shops are one interesting alternative to Daimaru - if you`re looking for cheap stuff. Literally. What you don`t find there simply doesn`t exist: Good Luck bringers, soap, kitchen utensils, food, hygiene articles, crap without purpose, toys, any tools you cvan think of, watches, music, etc. blabla.
The closest 100 Yen shop to the I-House is at ŠÛ“c’¬, turn west when you get to the street, it`s on the right side. Other good shops are at Sai ‰w and Omiya.
If you`re looking for bigger stuff like TV`s, a table, a fridge or even a computer, then try Yahoo Japan
It`s second hand, but Japanese are not going to rip you off. ;-)

Well, not a day passes that something interesting happens.

Halloween seemed to be fun. People could watch Shinya with brunette hair, wearing make-up, bunny-ears, a little leather-something around his waist and Strapse. Nice, nice. He looked like a brutal Playboy bunny. •|‚¢�IRichard, of course, has been elected having the best costume. He went in his Sunday clothes. ;-) Also, Ricken got several phone numbers from guys who were too drunk to see the difference.

Yesterday people from the I-Center visited again the Kanrinin, they seemed to have a fierce discussion (for Japanese ;-). The toilet in the second floor is repaired, the kitchen still dirty (the ‘|�œ“–”Ô) didn`t work well yet, but hey, that`s life. ;-)
This weekend is one of those huge �Õ‚è coming up again, it has been decided to set up a German "Pfannkuchenstand". With white blue decoration... great. Bavaria rules *coughcough

The open •¶‹åletter by 17 students seems to have at least partly an effect on the I-Center:

Last week, Yamada Sensei has visited the I-House.
The Kanrinin (my favorite topic ;-) lied blatantly and denied using the girls restroom for anything else than cleaning. Yeah right...
The toilets are now officially girls territory, but only until the first floor is filled with guys again. We can assume that the Kanrinin got the message about his behaviour,if he`s rude again, we report it.

Until November 10th, everybody is supposed to tell the Kanrinin if there`s a hole in the rooms window`s screens or not, new screens are going to be installed before Summer 2001.

Yamada Sensei also asked for a list for neccessary kitchen stuff, yet the open list has not been started. Just think about it, we get a NEW fry pan, and pots with HANDELS! Does that not make your heart leap? *hehe

For the other problems, the running server and the lack of computers, the I-Center promised to check things out and speed up the process. Good luck. ;-)

Hello everybody,

this is the english weblog for students in Japan, news, cultural events, changes in policy of the I-Center, locations for good parties, tips`n` tricks how to survive in Japan are soon going to be published here ...and of course, what you all have been waiting for: rumors and other hogwash!

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