Tampere trip on spring

On 4th and 5th May we had planned a spring trip to Tampere. I actually met with Mayu and Rika also on 14th April, since I really wanted to bake cinnamon rolls, and I asked if the girls wanted to join me. It’s not really an EOTO-meeting so I’m not going to write about it.

But on 4th and 5th May we had planned a similar trip to Tampere as we had done on autumn. I asked the girls what they would like to do in Tampere, and tried to plan some kind of schedule for us. Sadly earlier the week Tiia said to us that she couldn’t come, since she had to attend her cousin’s birthday party that weekend in Helsinki. Jonas was also unsure whether he could come or not. And on 3rd he told us that he’s not able to go with us. So in the end it was only the three of us.

Actually I also had some other plans for Sunday, but Mayu and Rika still wanted to come to Tampere. I went there already on 3rd and the girls arrived early in the next morning. I went to get them from the train station and we went to supermarket, and bought some foods for the weekend.

After we finished shopping we headed to the center of the city. We decided to go to Kauppahalli at first, just see how it looks like there.

In Finland these kind of places are quite often more expensive than supermarkets, so I  was really surprised to hear that in Japan these kind of market places are usually cheaper than supermarkets! I had no idea about that.

After going around Kauppahalli we went to take a look if the old church in the center of Tampere was open.

And it was! Lucky us.

After visiting the church we headed to Alexander’s church.

There was one another church where I wanted to take the girls, but in the end we didn’t have time to go there. We also took a peak at Tampere's library Metso and visited the Moomin museum again.

We walked along the Hämeenpuisto for a bit, and then went to take a look of Kehräsaari. Mayu and Rika both liked the place a lot. Too bad that the weather wasn't as good as they had promised earlier the week..

We were getting pretty hungry so we visited the café in Amuri, Amurin Helmi, but of course they didn’t serve lunch during weekends. We were wondering where to go, and in the end we decided to go and buy some tortilla ingredients and go to my sister’s place. We also visited the market place really fast, and bought some black sausage.

Mayu and Rika had both also said that they really want to try making some karelian pies. I myself had never made any so I was feeling little bit hesitant. But in the end we decided to make some. And they turned out quite nice. Maybe the taste was little bit more like cocktail pies, but they were good!

Sampo was also interested in what we were doing.

Delicious!

We decided to watch some movie, and ate the same time. We also tried playing the game called Africa’s star.

Later on the evening we decided to go to Pyynikki’s Näkötorni. The girls visited the tower, and we also took a little walk on the woods. We saw some signs of spring.

On 5th I left pretty early with my sister to go to the flea market, which would be on the center of Tampere. Mayu and Rika stayed at my sister’s place, and I met them later on, when they visited the flea market. We made a plan to meet at the café in the center at 4pm. I took the girls to this waffle café there is in Tampere. We sat there about 40minutes, and after that it was time for the girls to catch their train.

This was our last EOTO-meeting, but we have some plans to keep some kind of small party before Mayu and Rika are going back to Japan.

This whole EOTO-course has been really fun, and I’ve learned to cook many Japanese foods, learned new vocaburaly, and a lot about Japanese culture. I hope to see the girls again in Japan, when I have the chance to go there. Hopefully on my 3rd year I could go to Japan as an exchange student, and then I Mayu and Rika could show me little bit about their hometown too. And of course I hope to keep in contact with the girls from on too!

A little bit this and a little bit that

Last time we met was 15th March. We knew Rika wasn’t able to come with since she was going to abroad, but we decided to held a meeting just the 4 of us. We had plans to go the grocery store, and buy foods which the exchange students had been interested in, but not tried them. We planned to meet at Prisma. Me, Jonas and Mayu were waiting for Tiia to arrive, but she informed us that she didn’t feel well, and therefore couldn’t come. So in the end it was just the three of us.

We went inside the store, and saw some Easter decorations.

We told Mayu about the Finnish Easter tradition, and how she will most likely see children going around on Easter Sunday dressed as witches.

We continued to the food section of the supermarket. We discussed about the foods, for example what we have here in Finland a lot, but not much in Japan and what there also is in Japan. It was pretty interesting. I’m still worried about the fact that if I get accepted for exchange (and I really want to get accepted), I can’t eat that much fruits in Japan as I can in Finland, since in Japan fruits are really expensive. I really love eating fruits, so we’ll see what I’m going to do then. Also the fact that in Japan they don’t have that diverse selection in breads is worrying me too, since I really like to bread too. When I was in Japan last year, I remember only finding that really white toast bread. I’ve heard that they make other kind of bread too, sometimes they’re so just more difficult to find.

Mayu was also surprised that we have this many Easter chocolates here in Finland. Of course they have these kind of candies too in Japan, but they are available over the year.

After we finished shopping, we came to my house to eat! Here’s all that we bought.

Mayu really wanted to try some kind of special cheese. She said that in Japan they don’t have so many different cheeses as we have here in Finland. We bought some kind of pepper cheese and also bread and crackers to eat it with. Hapankorppu was also something that sparkled Mayu’s interest, and she really liked it. After eating everyone were feeling really full.

We talked a lot while we ate, and after too. We also made a list about similar words that we have in Japan and in Finland. Here’s the list in case someone is interested.

Word             Finnish             Japanese

Kutsu             Invitation             Shoes
Koko             Size/Whole         Here
Kasa             Pile             Umbrella
Sora             Grave             Sky
Tori             Market place       Bird
Me             We                      Eye
Te             You             Hand
Se                   It             Back
Suru             Sorrow             To do
Kani             Rabbit, bunny      Crab
Tai             Or             Thai
S(h)ika            Pig             Deer
Naku naru       Naked string  To disappear
Naku  Naked  Disappear
Naru               String  To become
Hai  Shark  Yes
Nai(da)  Fuck  Isn't
Sukunai  Little
Suku               Family (as cousins, aunts, grandpa etc)
Joku/Yoku  Someone  Often
Aho  Meadow  Idiot
Kai  Maybe  Shell

Our next meeting wasn’t decided, and we’re still kind of deciding the date. On Sunday 14th I’m going to meet with Mayu and Rika, but it’s not really counted for these EOTO-meetings. We should still meet once next week I think. Then we are going to Tampere again, at the beginning of May.