This log (too) has been troublesome to put up for various reasons, but here it is, finally.

In the beginning of November Pei-Ju had to go back to Taiwan, so she, another classmate and friend named Kokai (is that how it should be spelled in roman letters?) and I went out for some food and drink as a little good-bye party. We had a great time and I tried chicken wings for the first time. Apparently it is considered to be the best part of the chicken in China and Taiwan. But there is a specific way of eating it, and it took a while before I got it right. It was delicious all right, but I'd still rather go for the filet.

A few days later I went to see Nicke in his home, and we had a lot to talk about. When we went to buy some food we passed an interesting ramen restaurant with a life-size wooden ramen-eating doll out in front dressed in a suit. Anyway, we made plans to see each other soon again, but of course it didn't quite turn out that way.

The colourful leaves now occupied the ground more than the branches of the trees, and soon the first snow came. But it quickly melted. My room at the dormitory was warm as usual but my friends who live in apartments were not as lucky. Most apartments have large windows or glass doors, and the insulation there is not good at all. So they have to fire up various heaters to keep the rooms somewhat warm. I don't understand why they don't build well- insulated houses to begin with. Is it the building cost? Anyway, Kaku invited me to another party at his friend's house, and we made and ate gyoza until we could barely stand. 

In Odori Park they now started something called Sapporo White Illumination, where they lit up trees and put up various light sculptures. Other than that not much happened for a couple of weeks. There were just intensive (?) studies for the upcoming Japanese Language Proficiency Test. Then the snow started falling for real. First it snowed a decimetre or so a day, but then suddenly we had over a meter in 3 days! Well, you can read more about that on the Christmas Page. Anyway, when December came it was finally time for the test. I was quite nervous but when we started it went along better than I had expected. Something that amazed me about this test was the cheating of the people around me. There were a lot of people who leaned forward to look at what the person in front wrote, or did something like that, and the people who were supposed to prevent cheating didn't seem to notice anything. Anyway, when the test was over I went straight home to rest, trying not to slip and hurt myself on the snowy and icy sidewalks on my way.

Below is a collection of photos from November and December. 

Please continue to the Christmas Page to read more about December.