To Venice

I went to Venice last weekend! I was so excited to go to Venice.It was like my dream to go to Venice. If you have read the book or manga, at some point you encounter with the story about the Venice or talk about Venice. I was the one who know the place Venice not by the Shakespeare but from the manga which I love. It name is "One Piece." I think there we English ver. of this manga too. I read about the Venice and searched about the Venice, and I was dreaming of going there someday.
And this was the day dreams come true. Otherwise, I had some challenges to go to Venice and at Venice.


First I had difficulty with buying tickets. In the central station, there were tickets counter, but in the morning it is not opened because of seculity reasons. So I had to go to the counter. And I don't know the system. If you want to go to counter, you need to get small tickets. And when your number appear to the screen, it means your turn. I thought this system was interesting, but I hope the signs are written in English. It takes like 30 minutes to get the tickets. Also I need to wait for 2 hours in the station for the train. It was ok to wait, but I hope that I could get train more early one.

 I don't know how to read the tickets. I think the time underlined. But I don't understand the seats, so elder woman tells me which train to ride and the seats. She was so kind. I appreciate to her!!

The second problem is I don't know what platform I need to be to ride the right trains. The Electric bulletin board didn't show the platform numbers until 15minutes before the train leaves!

 This is the picture of inside the station. It was beautiful, but I had no time to enjoy watching the station. I was running to ride the trains.

 After few hours of riding the trains, we arrived at Venise!!! Oh, my gosh it's beautiful! I was already excited at this moment.

After I leave the station, what I first saw was exactly this picture.

It was beautiful. Also, I lost at Venice a lot of times. It takes me like 2 hours to get to the Sant Marco. This is because is sign are not helpful in Venis. Otherwise, it was fun to get lost. I encounter with a lot of things. When I looked at the record of how many miles I walked, I was walking about 12 miles. That's a lot for me because I usually don't walk that much. I became healthier after I came to Italy.

 The biggest problem was those three. After that, I'm enjoying the visit of the Venice. Also, I went to Murano island, which is called "home of Venice glass. "
I was taking the glass blowing art class for a year. So I know how difficult it is to make forms of glass. Otherwise in the island, there was unbelievable glass everywhere. I hope I had more money so that I could buy a lot of nice things in the shops there. I bought one glass art. I'm buying for my mother. I hope she loves it.

After I had enjoyed the window shopping at Murano Island, I went back to the main island. During the way back I saw the San Michele island. It made for a public cemetery, and the only person who is living there is dead people and pastor. I don't like the tomb or like dead peoples. I had the option to take off boats at San Michele island, but I didn't. I took a picture of the outside of island, but it was a little bit creepy.

In the main island, I went to Hard Rock Cafe! My mother is collecting the magnet of the Hard Rock cafe all around the world. So I bought Venice one for her. I need to be at the station( which I get off) at 6 pm because my train leaves in 6:20. I tried to go back to the station at 4 pm. Otherwise, I lost a lot. The final time that I arrived was 6 pm.

I want to write more about it. But it would difficult for others to read if I write more. So I stop in here. I would write more if I had the opportunity to write about this fun and exciting trip.

Field Trip in Program

At the second week, we went to Domo. (officially second time, but myself it is the fifth time to go there.)

After we meet with professor Ferilli, we walked down the street(named Monte Napoleone)and went some luxury store. In that store everything was expensive, even it looks like sandals, it was 38 euro.

 Also, this clock was hanged near the warehouse of KEIKO. It looks expensive. This street was fun to see around but not for shopping.

After we had enjoyed window shopping the luxury things, we went to eat.

At "EATALY", they were selling a lot of stuff made in Italy. For example wine, pasta, cakes, fish, meat, and so on. The first picture is the bottle opener that I thought interesting. When you try to open the bottle, it looks like a parrot. It was interesting but too expensive for me to buy it.

At "EATALY", they were selling a lot of stuff made in Italy. For example wine, pasta, cakes, fish, meat, and so on. The first picture is the bottle opener that I thought interesting. When you try to open the bottle, it looks like a parrot. It was interesting but too expensive for me to buy it.  

On another day, we went to Milan art museum. My major is not art, but I love arts. In the gallery, a Japanese artist made some of the booths. So it was written in Japanese. I surprised about that. Also, there was interesting art. 

The structure is not complicated and made by the woods. They stuck the woods like Lego and built this structure. Otherwise, it plays breathtaking sounds. After I enjoy the music, I went to Italian design showcases. Most impressive things were the lace work. I thought this was fantastic to watch! I could stay in this museum like four hours!! I hope that stay was longer than an hour. 

Also, we are assigned to go to expensive stores to see how they sell things and show things. We assigned named MOSCHINO. I'm not a big fan or interested in brands, but it was fun to observe inside the shop. 

There were like interesting design bags and more. I loved this bag, because I love Nintendo games. And Super Mario Brothers. Also, there was pouch of The Powerpuff Girls. The Showcases of their shop was impressive too. 

It was fun to go inside the shop and look around!
After this, we did presentation. Researching about the creator of MOSCHINO was interesting. He died when he was 44 years old. After his death Rossella Jardini became the creative director. I research and did the presentation about her.

This is the MOSCHINO phone case. I like this kind of exciting product. This company is making that kind of interesting products. It was really fun to do research. I hope I could go to Italy again, and spend money at that store.

Language issue

Language issues 

 English is my second language. When I became tired, I stop speaking in English because my brain is so tired to listen and speak English. I'm studying English for ten years. But still it 's hard for me to speaking English for 24 hours.  Also in the class, I'm learning Italy in English. My brain is getting exhausted because I'm dealing with two languages at the same time. So in my notebook, most of the words are written in English, but some pronunciation and meaning written in Japanese so that my brain catch that word faster than English. Most of the people learn Spanish in high school. So they are fast to pick the phrase more than me. I need to memorize a lot of words. It's fun when I learn new languages. I will try my best to speak Italian. I had difficulty with listening and pronunciation. When I learned English, I was ten years old. So it was easy for me to catch the words. 

 Now it gets tricky to find the phrase. Sounds like "gn" and "li" sound like same to me. So I can not pronounce it too. It looks like English words, but a little bit different.Confusing to me.

 I am going to review some phrases and vocabulary so that I could understand what professor are saying! 

 After I had taken the Italian class, I learned a lot of things. I used some words when I went to shopping. "How much is this?" in Italy is "Quanto costa ?" I used this word sometimes to ask the price. Still having difficulty with pronouncing some words. Like "R" sound. They roll their tongue and utter the phrase. The word "R" and "glu" are difficult words for me. When I try to speak Italy, most of the people respond me at English. I think my Italy is not sound like Italy. I will try to use at the place whenever I could! 

Also, I get used to reading some words. Some words are looks similar to English. Like "Autbus" or "Aeroporto." It means "bus" and "airport." But most of the words are not like that. I had difficulty with learning the masculine noun and feminine nouns. If you want to say "I born in Japan" and you were a man, you say "Sono Nato in Giappone." But if you are the woman, you need to say "Dove sei nata in Giappone. " Its weird for me that separates words with sex. Also the words like "a", "an", or "the" in English does not exist in Japanese. In Italy, it is "no" for man and "una" for the woman. 

 In Japanese, there are no distinguish between male or female in language. But we have many words for "me." It is "Watashi", "ore", "ware", "jib run", "watakushi" and more. Also, we have the honorific language to respect a senior person.  

 Also, I realized most of the words were similar to Spanish. While I was in Ecuador, I was learning Spanish for a little bit. I memorized the number at Spanish. In Spanish the 1, 2, 3, 4 is Uno, dos, tres, cuatro. In Italy its Uno, Due true, and Quattro. The sound is almost same. I surprized how similar the Spanish and Italy is. I searched and noticed that once the Spain governed the southern part of Italy. Also, the trade with Spain was common. May be that's why most of words are similar to Spanish. 

Learning language is same as learning their culture. It is fascinating to know another language! 

Local lifes

In the second week, most of my friends came back to a hotel and made our lunch. Sometimes we eat dinner too.
To make lunch or dinner, we need to buy food at local stores. It was difficult for me.
First, I cannot find the nearest shopping market in my google app. I searched and found out the super market at almost 1 mile away. Otherwise, I had no choice, so I walked to that supermarket. It was kind of training for me to walking that long with carrying heavy things.

Second, when I arrived to store, I  don't know where the shopping cart is. And I found out that to use the shopping cart we need to pay for it. So I decided to use the shopping basket. In Japan, the Shopping basket is near the door. Otherwise, I could not find it! So I bought shopping bag. I surprized most of the people were bringing a shopping bag to store and use them. In Japan, some of the places started this project, but most of the places are still using the plastic grocery bags.

Third the foods are different! I surprised how cheap everything is! Pasta was cheaper than the US! Also, I surprised how big the vegetables were.

After we had done shopping, we made supper for ourselves. I don't usually cook, but I enjoyed cooking with my friends.

While I was walking in the town, I realized a lot of cigarettes are there.

In Milan, they cleaned city every early morning for tourist. In Japan, it is illegal to through things on the road. Otherwise in the big city like Tokyo is not clean.
 I thought it is amazing that every morning they clean up the town!


Also, I realized that most of the shops had the security guard. In Tokyo, they don't have a security guard standing in front of the store. They are walking inside. I surprised about that too.

There were many differences in locals, so it was fun to walk around!

daily life

Daily life

In the morning, I eat Crossan. I usually don't eat bread in the morning. I usually eat rice and miso soup. Also, I'm not a big fan of drinking coffee in the morning. I could not drink coffee if it were too bitter. Otherwise, in Italy the coffee is excellent. So I drink every morning.

Most of the lunch, I eat at the cafeteria. In general, the cafeteria is not delicious. But in Italy, the food is good. I usually eat pasta and yogurt and bread.  I surprised that when I tried to get orange juice, it came out with fizzy.

It's not usually, but when I go out with my friend, I usually enjoy this kind of foods.

This picture was my supper. French fries with curry sauce. It was so delicious! It was 3 Euro, and a lot of french fries were in it. I ordered the small size, but I became full.

Most of the time I eat pasta! I love pasta. In Italy, the basic food they eat is pasta, pizza, and wine! I love this food culture.

I spend most of the time at class, but sometimes I go shopping with my friends.

Most of the time I buy beautiful clothes, but sometimes I went grocery shopping to buy local things. I surprised how large the vegetables are and how cheap they are!  It is fun to find and eat local things.

On June 6th, we went to the south if Corso Porta license at night. We walked near the canal. It was beautiful at evening, but also fantastic views at night. We walk about 30minutes to get there. There were a lot of restaurants, bars, and gelato shop. In the bridge to pass the canal, there was some padlock at handrail. I searched it and found out that lock shows love in Italy. When you have the lover, you came to the bridge and locked the padlock to show your love locked on each other for entire life. After you lock, you through away the key to the river. It is called love padlock.

We eat supper at one restaurant. We went to the restaurant it said "appritivo." It also called happy hours. This is like a buffet, and one drink is coming with it. You can take and eat anything you want. It was 10 Euro. I took a lot of pasta there. 

I ordered alcohol called spritz. It is famous drink in Italy. In the picture, it looks like brown, but it is orange.  I went to supermarket next day, and there was spritz selling like other alcohols do.

It is so fun to spend time in Italy!

Cultual Comparisons

The Difference I realized 

The first thing that I surprised is the passport control. To enter the United States, I need a passport, visa, I-20 and to write customs declaration. It requires four documents to enter the USA and sometimes more than four. So I felt weird when I only need a passport to come to Europ. Otherwise from another country, like Africa or the Middle East, took more time than I did. They asked the address that they are staying, the purpose of their trip, and they required a visa of entering the Europ. They asked like that because to protect the Europ.
I felt that Europ trusts Japanese passport. I am proud of my country at that time.

Second I realized that "water" is usually sparkling water. When I said "water" in the airport, I get sparkling water. I surprised when I pour it into the glass. If I want just water I need to say "without gas." In my country, tap water is drinkable. So I never think I should buy water until I came to the United States. In Europ, most of the country can't drink tap water. I researched at The Internet why most of the people drink sparkling water and found out that Europ water contains high calcium. So it does not taste good without sparkling water.

Third  I already know because I searched on google, but the plug has two holes.

I took picure from my room. In Japan, the plug is another way. It is interesting to me that they use longitudinal plugs. My plug made for parallel, so most of them unplug easily. 

Why do they do this??

First, I surprised how the foods are showed!  One is the pretzels. In Japan, there were played on showcases. I never thought hang like this way! It's like hanging the clothes.

Also, sandwiches are stacked a lot.  Why do they pile up like that? Wasn't smash by top sandwiches?? I don't understand.

Second I arrived at Frankfurt airport and surprised that bicycle is running.  I saw trams are running in the airport but not cycle. I forgot to take a picture, but it was interesting! I thought that would be dangerous for people who are riding. 

Third I confused how the Germany separates the trash. Maybe it 's hard to read but there are two "paper" written on a garbage can. 

I searched at google and knew the recycled paper and used paper should separates in Germany. So if you wipe up the table, you cannot use the paper anymore. So you need to trash that at a not good paper. If you want to through the notebook that you used, is going to recycle paper. Otherwise, you cannot tell which one is which from the label, so you need to look inside and separates the paper. In Germany, you need to do a lot of separation. Like you need to separate bottles, papers, cloths, organic wastes, residual waste, and power pack. In the United States, it is all in one. In Japan, we separate plastic, paper, and power pack. I honestly felt that I don't want to live in Germany because there are a lot of work to separate things. 

Transportation system

After we had finished first day of class, we went to Duomo di Milano!

We walked to metro station near the University. First, I surprised about the ticket.


We touched the machine by the card and  recognize the card. This system is same as Japan. There is card called "Suica" that you could use for transportation and some store. Right one is the Japanese one and left one is metro pass ticket.

You need to charge the money in there. Or you could buy a season ticket when you are going to school. If you are a student, this season ticket is cheaper than adults. When I was in high school, I bought this season ticket to go to school.
Second I surprised at the automatic ticket gate. There were few types of gates.
One is like the elevetor door and one is like amusment park gate.

 I don't know why they change in each station. In Japan the automatic ticket gate are all same.

In United States the automatic door was like amusument park gate.

Secondly, I surprised that there was no timetable at the station. It said, "5 minutes until next train comes." In Japan, there are a timetable and most of the train works on time.

Third, I thought the metro system of Italy is much easier than Japan! First picture is train map at Tokyo Japan. The second one is Italy metro map. It way easier to use the metro than using the train in Japan!

First post! About my trip to Milan

  I'm excited about starting the blogs....This is my first post! I'm writing this blog in Denver Airport.

 I left Kearney in May 6th. At the same release date of the Civil war-Captain America-. Otherwise in Kearney Cinema, it was earlyier than other ceater, so I watched yesterday:) It was amazing! Also the view of the Kearney sky was amazing too LOL

So my plan is like this. First I will return to my home country, and after that, I will fly to Italy! My trip is going to start on June 5th and end on June 25th. I will enter from Frankfurt (Germany) and fly into Italy Millan.
I miss the meeting with Millan students.... but I think my friends are going to post the meeting about that! In Facebook, we connected and post like "When are you leaving?" or "I'm going to stay until....Is there someone wants to come with me?" like those posts. I'm looking forward to became friends with them!

I think I need to learn Italian for some way... I will study the necessary things that I could use during my stay in Italy. I figure out how difficult it is to trill my tongue Maybe because we don't have words with roll tongues...

Right now I will enjoy meeting with my families in Japan!