Japan: A Retrospective

Fair warning to all who read: this might not be as funny as the rest, but it's stuff that I want to say. Also, it's quite long. I suggest that about half way through you go for a cup of tea, or something...

So, today (Monday, 20th August 2012) is my last day in Japan as an exchange student at Hosei University. Though in truth I finished my tenure at Hosei almost a month ago, I suppose I'm still technically a Hosei student.
At the time of writing this exact sentence I have nine and a half hours before my flight, though when many of you read this, I could well already be on it. I still have vivid memories of my flight to Japan, I was talking to a lot of people, and got to practice my Japanese before even setting a toe on Japanese soil!
I remember so vividly arriving in the room that was to be my home for the next 11 months: it was bland and empty, and very isolated. I was to exhausted for anything but bed, so I unpacked a few things, got myself into bed and just slept.
When in actuality, this was about fifty weeks ago, it still just feels like I've been here less than a fifth of that... At times at least.
At other times, I feel like I've lived here for much, much longer: Japan has been such a welcoming country, as well as Hosei University and the dormitory where I live, that it feels like I belong here in a way that I don't get in England - I think this is a feeling that will be entirely reversed upon returning home, though Keighley isn't the most welcoming of places at the best of times!

So, what should I say about this amazing year (yes, I'm rounding up)?
Should I talk about how much my Japanese has improved, given that this was the aim of the year abroad?
Perhaps I'll talk about the places I've been and the things I've done, given that I have been as busy as possible this year?
Maybe I could talk about all the amazing people I've met, both from Japan and from elsewhere in the world?
Or how about how I taught English as a part time job and have a new appreciation for people trying to learn English as a foreign language?
Perhaps about some of the amazing classes I took at Hosei, sparking new interests or rekindling old ones?

For me, Japan has been such a varied experience, that to talk about it all in one blog post feels not only an impossible task, but also it feels like a disservice to all of the people I've met, the things I've done and this country as a whole. So I won't talk about everything, as there's so much more than just the above few things that have made this year incredible.

The whole purpose of my trip to Japan was to improve my Japanese and gain insight into the culture of Japan. I can safely say that I have done this. Perhaps, not as much as I would have liked: I certainly expected to have a broader vocabulary than I do, but my ability to converse has gone way up. Not to mention, I have discovered whole new realms of study-methods that will in future help me to improve my Japanese even further! 日本語よ、かかってこいぞ！

I have done many weird and wonderful things in Japan, some of them fun, some not so fun. As you'll have read (I hope) in my earlier blog posts, I went to Kobe in June and saw more penis in one day than most non-urologists do in a life-time. I went to the Studio Ghibli museum, which was a fantastic afternoon out. I got so drunk in Roppongi that I blacked out and woke up behind a hotel sign with no idea how I got there and no idea where my friends were. I shouted at a police man in English when he couldn't help us find Kristy's stolen bag. And most recently, I was involved (like my good friend Thibault) in a bicycle chase across Kasai:

The police in Japan are fierce about you waiting for the
green light O_o

Ahh the people I've met! This is where having Facebook has become something of a) a liability and b) a cause for embarrassment. My first few weeks in Japan, I was meeting so many new people and then finding my Facebook page overloaded with friend requests, that I just started accepting them whether or not I actually knew the people. This has led to more than one sticky moment in a corridor at Hosei where someone has said "Hi Bill! I saw about your recent antics involving a large quantity of alcohol, empty beer cans and a rudimentary throne on Facebook!" (I may be paraphrasing ever so slightly) (Also: see below for further details). The point is, despite this person apparently knowing everything there is to know about my life (my fault I suppose, I shouldn't put anywhere near the amount of stuff on Facebook that I actually do!), I have next to no idea who this person actually is... Maybe I got drunk with them once, maybe I met them in a lesson, or just got chatting to them whilst wandering around campus. It can be quite embarrassing (not to mention difficult) to feign a perfect knowledge of who somebody is, and this compounded with having to do it in a foreign language makes it downright difficult.
   Other than the veritable cornucopia of Japanese people I've met and befriended, there have been the rest of the exchange students in Japan. I have met people from France, China, America, Russia, Italy, Australia and all sorts! It has been amazing getting to know all of these people and making such strong relationships in such a short space of time.
Honourable mentions go to:
Ron Hurrle: for some of the silliest times spent here, all on a six-pack of beers.
Thibault Bachoffner (I hope I'm spelling that right darling!): for some amazingly chilled times on the roof.
George Cashman: for the co-invention of bottle-ball and the motivation to play at all hours of the night.
Ren Zhihao: for some of the most hilarious and dead-pan one-liners I've ever heard.
Rachel Holt: for the nickname poo-face and general silliness.
Kristy Jones: for the inability to get anywhere on time, or ride the trains without making a mistake.
Kate Tepper: for introducing me to the Peace Rock, which despite closing down, was an awesome hang-out spot.

Ron and I decided to build a castle out of all of our
empty beer cans from the year... Castle was difficult, but I flew!

There are so many more, and I don't want to make this drag on longer than it has to, I still have a couple more topics to get through! People that I didn't mention, please know this: Japanese or otherwise, you are no less important to me, have affected my life no less, and will be just as missed as everyone else whom I did mention.

There are so many more people that aren't in this photo that I've come to know
and love, but this shot has the most in one.

At this point, you've been reading for some time: so go stretch your legs or something. Have a brew. Walk the dog. I'll still be here when you get back, so go on.









Ok, and we're back.

A part-time job, it turns out, is pretty much essential for living in Tokyo (if not all of Japan). Tokyo being the most expensive city on earth requires a fair amount of dollar to do something like go for a meal, or have a night out. There is no concept of "student night" at any drinking establishment (though I have previously alluded to the wondrous nomihoudai in my previous posts), and so a full night out, encompassing the same activities as one would do in England would probably cost somewhere in the region of £100.
Digression aside, I got a job teaching English. The premise was: I meet the student in a coffee shop, they buy me a drink and then I teach them English, after which I get paid ¥2000. This was both a really good job, and a really bad job. Good because an hour's work of using my native language for the equivalent of £20 is a damned good deal! Furthermore, I got the chance to think about English from the Japanese point of view and try to approach it with Japanese in mind: a good challenge!
However, it was bad too: the fact that I worked just one hour was sometimes hugely inconvenient, especially when I had nothing but work at 7pm in one day, and had to trek all the way out to Iidabashi. Moreover, I did have some terribly non-committed students, who cancelled more lessons than they attended... This was often very bad, as I was relying on the money I would be receiving and had to juggle my budget accordingly more times than is absolutely necessary.
Finally, it is difficult to teach a foreign language with a) no prior experience of teaching anything (foreign language or otherwise) and b) no linguistic knowledge whatsoever. Trying to explain complex (or sometimes remarkably simple) concepts such as why we say "in Tokyo" but "at University", or "a town which..." vs. "a town where...", "who" and "whom", "sung" and "sang", and "the" vs. "a". There were so many more, but this is just a sample. Try teaching these things to someone who is not fluent in the language you're explaining in (or try explaining in a language you're not fluent in), in as simple a way as possible. Go on. Have a think. It's bloody difficult.

Finally I'll briefly talk about Hosei. Looking through my pictures, I'm actually stunned to see that I don't have all that many of the campus! It must have become rather mundane to me, though of course it is nothing of the sort.

The Boissonade Tower - Hosei's iconic 26 story building

I took a few really great classes at Hosei: a translation class, taking Japanese haiku and tanka and putting them into modern English (not as easy at it sounds); a Shakespeare class, reading Macbeth and rekindling a love for English literature (I expected the class to be in Japanese, but it was still fun!); a linguistics class, talking about the application of linguistic knowledge in the real world (a fascinating topic, which led Ron and I to attempt creating our own language, vosmir).
All of these classes (as well as my actual Japanese classes) taught me a lot, and gave me a whole new set of knowledge, and many more doors to open in the palace of interest. I shall be doing a lot of reading in the next few years! Linguistics is one of the most fascinating things I've ever had the fortune to study!




When I first came to Japan, I was a totally different person. Not least because then, the amount of facial hair I could grow was laughable (which it still is now, just less so). I was much less socially inclined, happier to spend time on my own and I found it very difficult to talk to people I had never met before.
Now though, I am (by comparison) a social animal: being on my own has very little to no attraction for me, and I'm glad of the change: the past couple of days in which I've been the only exchange student left at the dormitory have been very quiet and I would have loved to be able to go up to the roof with everyone all together one last time. Again by comparison, I can talk to people I don't know much more easily, both in English and in Japanese - something that I am very happy of in myself.
I don't know how Japan has changed me like this, perhaps it has something to do with growing older whilst I was here, or the utterly different way of life. Maybe it's something they put in the food. Either way: Japan has made me a happier, more confident, and in my opinion, better person than I was before.
Oh, Japan did make me a lightweight (even more so), therefore my first weeks back at Leeds will be an exercise in tolerance-building!


So then. All that is left for me to say is goodbye to Japan. Which is something I really do not want to do. If I could bring all the people and things I love to Japan instead, I would do it in a heartbeat. But alas, I return home in eight and a half hours (wow! It's taken me an hour to write all of this!). My final meal in Japan shall be ramen, and I drank my last beer last night.
Goodbye is such a final word, and it most certainly will not be goodbye, Japan. I will be back. Maybe not to Tokyo, and maybe not all that soon, but I will be back. You have not seen the last of me. As all of my friends have said before me: "It's not goodbye, it's see you later."