Snoring, Alcohol, and Naked Japanese Men

The long-awaited (yeah-right!) Kobe (ii) post!

Once again, I took the night bus to go to Kobe, this time I wasn't alone! It was meant to be a 4 person trip, but Mr Ron Hurrle and Yuui Sasaki had to drop out. So 'twas just myself and Kristy Jones.

Having booked our tickets separately, we couldn't sit together, so I asked the gentleman sitting next to me if he wouldn't mind swapping seats with her. He was happy to do so, before realising that the person to whom he would then be sitting was a girl. He seemed adamant not to swap seats, leading me to conclude he was shy. As it turns out, the bus company operates a policy wherein male and female passengers who don't know each other are not allowed to sit together... Quite why this is is totally beyond me. Maybe they assume all males have an innate sense of ちかん in them that would be uncontrollable whilst asleep?

In any case, we just knuckled under and tried to sleep. Note the use of the word try. There was a man sitting in front of me wearing a face-mask (a lovely gesture, as he clearly didn't want to infect us with what he was clearly suffering from). The face-mask does not do much to dull the snores. It literally sounded like somebody was juggling chainsaws badly in a nail factory. A lady in front of him eventually took it upon herself to wake him at the next stop and tell him that he was making what is normally a pretty mediocre journey downright unbearable (I could be paraphrasing there, I'm not certain...). Happily, her efforts were a success! I was all for giving her a standing ovation, but I don't imagine it would have sat too well with the other passengers... Though come to think of it, they probably weren't sleeping either.

Furthermore, there is a particular scent that Japanese salarymen in their mid-fifties or so develop and can't seem to wash off. I first came across this *ahem* delightful odour in my part-time job in an English conversation café, and was reminded of this when the fellow next to me finally dropped off and breathed in my direction all the way to Kyoto. Given that the man was too large for his own seat and had taken up approximately one third of my seat, my options for evading the stench emanating from the mouth of that snoring (oh yes, he was snoring too) behemoth were somewhat limited. Finally I had to suck it up, detach my staunch British personality and give him a few harsh jabs in the side so he was breathing into the window instead.

We arrived in Sannomiya more or less perfectly unhappy with such a journey.

The Friday evening was good fun though: alcohol and a good film (everyone should see The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, because it's totally rad!) plus Doctor Who afterwards... Massive kudos to Elen for more or less translating the episode to the non-English speaker of the group: I particularly enjoyed the description of Rose Tyler as 前の彼女!

Saturday was the day set aside for Spa World: plenty of onsen, with the odd sauna and a swimming pool to boot! We met a couple of Kester's friends and hit the Spa!

Becoming a doctor notwithstanding, I would be very happy to never see anybody else's penis in my life. Male genitalia aside - it was a very relaxing day! Lots of red-hot baths (some of these were not so fun with my minor sunburn) and a sauna or two. Possibly the highlight of the day was sitting in a bar, stark naked and drinking a beer. It felt ever so decadent. Definitely a place to go again, if I can get the cash together to get down to Kansai again! The outdoor bath was a treat and my first sauna experience was epic fun!

The swimming pool in the establishment was more of a large track for rubber rings, but quite good all the same... However, the main event of that area was the Death Loop! This was a slide that one pays ¥300 to get into. The occupant stands in a torpedo-tube like pod at the top of the slide, and after a brief-countdown the floor disappears and the suicidal idio- *coughsplutterahem!* I mean, the fun loving Spa-goer rockets down the slide at a fair old rate of knots! A direct quote of what I said as the floor disappeared from underneath me was "SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIARRARARARGGHHHGHGGHGHHHHH!"

The evening of the same day was spent in a drinking-establishment before returning back to Akashi to embrace our student heritage and play ring of fire until the early hours.

Homework for today reader (I know it's really just my mother who's given me 1215 page views... Thanks Mum! ♥) - do we think it's a viable business venture to try to set up a Japanese style Spa Resort in the UK, bearing in mind that nakedness in a Japanese onsen is more or less mandatory?

Coming soon: The Speech Contest

Catch up... Part 1

So, after a good long while of having done no blogging, I should probably get a new one out there... As we're currently about halfway through the semester at Hosei, things are getting nice and busy, not least because I'm taking 11 subjects, rather than the minimum of 9 I took last time.
I have also been dealing with a bout of major laziness, which I'm happy to say is cured!

So first off is the Leeds Exam - the bane of all of our lives. Doubtless, had I followed Leeds' recommended revision plan, I'd have been a deal less stressed by the time the exam came around. However, opting for the slightly easier method of not bothering proved to be much more entertaining in the months leading up to the exam. This, naturally, led to a break-down of sorts. People that know me will know that I tend not to sweat exams as much as I did this one.
Perhaps it was the stress of knowing that this exam is basically the thing that decides whether or not we pass the year abroad... Or maybe it was knowing that I'd really not worked hard enough, and that others had been doing the preparation since September (Yes, Kobe-Gakuin, I'm looking at you).
However, the world did not end, and after a relaxing Skype session with the family the night before the exam, I pulled through and even went so far as to feel pretty awesome by the end of it! In the intervening weeks, I celebrated the finishedness by getting rather tipsy at a Hobgoblin watering-hole in Akasaka: cigars and all!
As it turns out, I got 63%, which (somehow) works out as a merit! So provided I manage to get a merit or better on my essay on Japanese culture, I'll have done rather well :D
Nevertheless, I intend to keep learning the kanji from KIC, so by the time I get back to Leeds in September, I'll be majorly on top of them!

What next... FUGU! I ate fugu and lived :D For those of you that don't know (ie. haven't seen the Simpsons) fugu is Japanese blowfish (the name literally means "river pig" haha!) and when incorrectly prepared can be lethal! It's quite the delicacy in Japan, though having eaten it, I can say that it's not the most flavoursome of dishes, and why someone would want to risk death over such things is beyond me... Nevertheless, the setup of the meal was fantastic! Lots of food, vegetables (urgh!), rice and noodles. All around a very cool bowl of boiling water (pun? or just really bad English?) in the middle of the table led to a rather splendid meal, thank you very much :) And the rest of the evening wasn't too bad either - arcade silliness in one's finest suit is always good! Time-crisis 4 was especially fun, though I don't think it'll ever beat the grand fun of the taiko game :D


Perhaps the laziness is not quite defeated... I'll be going now and continuing to catch you up shortly!

台風!! (Except apparently it wasn't one)

This is the second typhoon I've survived in Japan, but the first one that I willingly went walking in.

The first time, my typhoon-virginity one might say, I made it back to my dormitory in time to sit out the storm in comfort and dryness.
This time, I openly set out into the growing tempest, oblivious to the tribulations that would later befall me.

I was supposed to be meeting Morimoto Sensei from Leeds University for some thing or other, I'm not really sure. When I arrived at Hosei, mildly damp and prepared to "dazzle" my teacher with my Japanese, I was told that the meeting had been rearranged to 2pm that day, and that I'd been sent an email... I received no such message, checking both my phone and gmail (upon arrival back here).

So, having been spurned away from campus and told that a storm was a-brewing, I made my way back dorm-wards. However, having earlier been unable to meet a Miss Kristy Jones from the airport due to my meeting, I decided to take a detour to Ueno, where I (foolishly, it now seems) gambled that she'd take the train to.

Let me tell you: I've never seen organisation and crowd management like it. If we had weather conditions like this in England... London's subway would be on its knees! Normally, travelling at just before 4pm in Tokyo isn't too bad - most people are still at work, at school or whatever, so the trains aren't too packed. In this weather though, people are sent home from work early in case they are stuck there. Usually at 4pm.

Most figures for Tokyo's population don't take into account the massive influx of people who work in Tokyo but live quite far away. In fact, 43% of Tokyo's workers don't even live in Tokyo prefecture. The general estimate is that the population is around 8.5 million, but this can go as high as 12.9 million if people who work in Tokyo are counted too.
For the first time today, I truly got a sense of just how many people live here.

To put this into context: lets say you have a tube of any length you like. This tube is specifically designed to be ultra-efficient and let the maximum number of marbles (for example) through without things getting backed up. This essentially means that between 7.40 and 8.20 in the morning, you get a steady stream of marbles running through this tube, perhaps not comfortably, but they can always move through the tube and very rarely have to wait at one end.
Now picture all the marbles that go through between those times trying to get back again, only instead of staggering themselves nicely, they all want through at the same time.

Kayabacho station (the only way to get to the Tozai line from the Hibiya) was much like our hypothetical arroyo at 4pm today. It was like being in a water park, with massive queues and staff holding people behind rope barriers. The staff were blocking people from going downstairs until the disembarking passenger flow had thinned sufficiently to allow the horde of white-shirts down onto the platform. Queues for the ticket machine longer than my d-   *ahem* they were long. Ticket barriers being literally fought over.
The best thing I saw (and was involved in) was boarding the train to Ueno. The packed train completely emptied itself of passengers, so there was the usual mad scramble for seats. As I was trying to get on the train, another five people were doing the same (three had pushed in to try and get on ahead of us). These doors can barely manage three abreast, but six was ridiculous. Ever the Brit (WE KNOW HOW TO QUEUE!) I stepped back and allowed them to scuffle it out for the best positions on a train that was fast looking like it was a tube of smarties. With people for chocolate. And smarties that are shaped so that they tessellate with each other perfectly and easily.

Skipping forward now to having not met Kristy and making my way home, I get to Kayabacho and find that the trains aren't running. I wait on the platform like I'm at the post office lining up for stamps: eagerly awaiting each time the line will move forward... Ok, that simile doesn't really hold up, as the line wasn't moving... ANYWAY! After more trains that I cared to count passed with no lights and no passengers, one finally arrives that is already choc-full of damp Japanese men and women. This train, is only going to Toyocho, three stops shy of where I need to be: Kasai.

So, getting to the last stop on the train's ill-fated journey I leave the train to wait for the next one, and see even more people (who'd have thought it possible?) than there were at Kayabacho.
It turns out there was a shuttle bus running to all the stops that weren't going to be hit by the trains, so I went to check that out, but the queue was ridiculous so I thought, as a true Northerner should "Screw it, it's only rain."
Famous last words. When I finally arrived almost 90 minutes later (the wind doesn't half slow you down when you're having to lean into it one minute, lean against it the next), I was beaten. My shoes had lasted until the last 200 metres, and they finally took on water. My hoody was so wet that it weighed twice as much. My jeans were beginning to chafe, and were actually leaking it turned out.
I must have looked ridiculous, because when I returned to the dorm, the dorm mother greeted me with a gale of laughter (ha, see what I did there?) and asked if I was ok.


Crikey, this was going to be a short post. Extreme weather means extreme blogging.


... Or something.

A very short one

So the homesickness finally hit a few weeks ago - manifesting itself in sleepless nights as well as minor loss of appetite (as if I can stand to lose any more weight!).

As a result, there's likely to be no more posts on the family visit (sorry you lot!) - just because it wasn't helping matters. If I sort myself out in the future (undoubtedly I shall, when lessons begin again), I might do a quick summary of the week my family came to Tokyo.

As it stands, I've not been really busy enough to warrant a blog post, but I might try to do a few more in the future, even if they're just short... Regularity is key, I'm certain!
If I have any insights, I might do a few pseudo-educational posts, and some other stuff too - try to mix it up. I'm very consciously aware of my list of "to come" posts that have not materialised... I'll build up to it, I promise!

I think I'll change the "ten reasons..." blog to a five reasons either way deal. I'd like to kid myself that I have a large enough readership to spark debate over it, but it doesn't seem likely ^_^ Any thoughts on ways to increase it?

Erm, that's all for now!

Ideas for posts:
The food for one week (will do this when meals are given to us again)
Five reasons why Japan>UK and five why UK>Japan
Taking the newbies to Hosei
Star Wars 3D

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The O'Dwyer Invasion, Part the First: 到着、上野、浅草、動物園、渋谷、代々木、原宿・・・And about 300 coffees.

久しぶり、インターネット！
So, it's been almost a month since my last post, and I've been busy!

I've decided to split this blog into multiple parts, since there's plenty to discuss and I don't want to miss anything out. My thoughts are likely to occur at random points, but I'll try to keep them consecutive with regards to the blogs. So there could be some backtracking involved, which would likely lead to heavy use of Shift+9 and Shift+0.

On the 10th February 2012, the O'Dwyer family made the (as they put it) once-in-a-lifetime trip to Tokyo, Japan. I disagree with this statement, as I intend to come back to Japan a great deal in future! However, it is the furthest that my Mother, Father and younger sister have travelled - and I certainly hope I didn't disappoint!

I started, as I do most things, by being late. They were due to arrive at just before 10.00, and thanks to being a minute late for the train, I had to wait an hour for the next one. So by the time I arrived, they had been at the airport for about an hour and a half. But they were remarkably happy to see me, and I they! There's something fantastically overwhelming about walking across an airport towards one's father - in fact I was unable to keep a straight face!
   We made the journey to our hotel, and I got to show off my Japanese several times (not actually complex stuff, but it's always impressive!) - asking for tickets to Ueno and directions to the hotel. After depositing the baggage, and making our first foray into Japanese cuisine at Yoshinoya (牛丼), we found a Starbucks and got the first of what was to be many coffees.

The next day, the plan was to do something not particularly strenuous, so we hit Asakusa (as many signs say "a mere 4 stop train journey") and enjoyed the shops and the Sensoji temple, with a brief education in some of the simpler points of Japanese culture... Mainly the difference between shrines and temples, and how to wash one's hands before praying.
   We had a good look around Ueno park and zoo as well - I saw my first panda! And my first polar bear... The polar bear was much more awesome than the panda - I think we named him Reginald.
   It is a testament to how pale Elsie is that less than 24 hours into being in Japan, she drew stares, and at one point a man blatantly filmed her just walking up the stairs of the temple. Further to that, little Japanese children at the zoo seemed to think that the family of four 外人 were another attraction, and we also drew many stares.
   It's odd that I've only noticed this phenomenon just now, though I'm certain it doesn't occur at other times. Naturally, the little kids are slightly more amazed to see us, but I imagine when I was their age, seeing somebody with a different colour skin, or differently shaped eyes was astounding!
   That night we dined on ramen (after having several more coffees during the day to keep certain people's blood sugar up *ahemDadcoughcoughElsiecough*) and it was another success! I was beginning to think that Dad wasn't going to have the difficulty with Japanese food that we had all anticipated... Famous last words!

   On Sunday, we made the trip to Shibuya, Yoyogi and Harajuku that I made during my first month here - courtesy of Yoma Shimada. We only got lost a couple of times, and whilst we did stumble onto some weird stuff in a Shibuya underground shop, Yoyogi park and Harajuku (I decided to get the most unusual stuff out of the way first), we had a good time!
   A combini lunch in Shibuya was most delicious, and gave us sufficient energy to find Yoyogi park. There appeared to be some kind of market thing going on at the entrance, which we wandered around for a while before hitting the park itself.
   Having never been to Yoyogi park on a Sunday, it was a new experience for me as well as the family. A drum circle, small dance troupes training, and a dog that was either 2-legged or whose shorts had fallen down so far that he was basically just pulling himself forward with his front legs all pale in comparison to the two most bizarre sights of the day:
   The first was some kind of expressive dance/art sort of thing. A young fellow (maybe late teens) was setting up an easel, and had an apparently home-made DJ rack strapped around him. He began the show by dancing a little to some odd music, and then broke it down and cracked out some smooth beats whilst he began to work. Spray paint flew, the craft-knife sung as it sliced across the paper, all whilst he was constantly changing the sampled track and dancing. It was a sight to behold - not least because of his outfit (photo to come).
   We stayed to the end, and left quickly. As we found the exit, and made for Meiji-Jingu, there were more dance troupes - this time not training, but apparently performing... Not well. They weren't even coordinated! Men (and women) in Elvis-style hairdos, and either head-to-toe leathers or denims were dancing 60s and 70s style, most poorly it has to be said. What's so weird about that, you say? The fact that there were three groups of them within a space of about 15 metres, all dancing to different music (right down to genre). The cacophony of noise was unbelievable, and made the experience all the more surreal. I may go back regularly and try to persuade them to have a dance off, or something. It was all very "Grease."
   Harajuku was Harajuku. Just. Plain. Strange.
   We got to the end of the main street where all the odd things can be seen, and came back on ourselves - finally missing the turning to head back towards Shibuya and the train station, so coming back again. The number of cosplayers, and abnormally dressed folk was amazing! One might say it was all a bit peshwari.
   Dinner that night... Wasn't quite so successful as previous nights. At least, not for お父さん. His udon was drenched in miso soup, and he (like me) is not overly fond of it. However, he was a trooper, and lived until the next day...


To be continued...

Just another 外人 in Akashi

So, the long awaited (and what promises to be a rather lengthy) Kobe blog! Though I know what it is you're all really waiting for is the 10 reasons why Japan is better than England (stick with me guys, I'm getting there!)

Day 1
Shinjuku station is enormous, and unbelievably difficult to navigate at the best of times. But thanks to an alarmingly unhelpful 駅員and an inability on my own account to print a map to the bus terminal, it was down right appalling. Having said that, I was able to find the place thanks to ringing Kester様 and getting the name of the building.
   The check-in room was freezing, but I survived... Only to be fuming when I discovered that the departure lounge was lovely and heated. Tits!

Unlike my first ever flight to Japan (back in Year 11... Wow!) the leg room on the coach was not pleasing. Coupled with a rather large bag with all my stuff, less than an hour in I was already numb in the leg...
   After sporadic sleep, I got to the first of the drop points (Kyoto I think - brought back memories!) and a considerable number of passengers got off... Including all six in the surrounding seats, but not the fellow next to me... Perhaps some innate inability of Japanese to break the rules, he remained in his seat all the way to Osaka where he finally realised that a double seat would allow more space to spread out.

Arriving in Sannomiya felt very Lord of the Rings-y, when I called Kester to find out where he was waiting and he said "looks towards the sun." After a manly embrace, we got on the train to Akashi and saw the wonderful Akashi bridge and the mountains... Pretty epic views!
   The drinking began early (after receiving free booze as well as the crate from the sake shop) and we got the beers in and started out with an extraordinary amount of FIFA, 20 minute halves, no less :D

Day 2
Rising early and hungover, we played one round of FIFA before heading out for some tasty, tasty ramen! It was most amusing to see that Kester was so hungover, he forgot how to speak Japanese (in the process making me feel a little better about myself).
   The plan for the day was to hit an Irish bar in Akashi - so to pass the time until then, we watched Jurassic Park 2 and made plenty of japes (Don't go into the long grass! You don't have any pokeballs! etc.)

Hitting Akashi with the Kobe-krowd, we got lost on the way to the pub that Kester swore he knew the way to. Not to worry - some random little Japanese old man asked us if we were lost, and offered directions! When he said he didn't know the place we were headed for, he wandered off... Only to literally chase us down the street to tell us that he'd asked directions and knew where the place was. I love Kansai folks!

Day 3
Went to collect Kielちゃん from Sannomiya, and hit up Akashi park on the way back... After being three very camera-happy 外人, we all turned out to be far too pussy to ask to take any photos of the cosplayers in the castle's park.
   The afternoon passed in a bromantic blur and we hit the all you can eat (and drink) meat grilling feast :D After lots of meat and beer (ordering 8 in the last 15 minutes is always a good move) we headed back to Kester's for some Anchorman fun (during which I passed out in the kitchen for a little while).
   Admittedly, three boxer-clad men sharing a semi-double bed is a little homoerotic, but it's all pure bromance (y)

Day 4
The day of the marathon... A short trip to the ramen shop for another bowl of delicious ramen to cure Kielちゃん of his hangover and a beer run. And so it begins. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1q_zYLIM5_o

The rest is a blur of tiredness, alcohol and hangover, but rest assured... It was a hell of a weekend!

Japanese Exams and Some Not-so-subtle Ranting

So, I'm in the midst of exam season and I'm taking a well-earned (honest) break from revising to display my shock about Japanese exams...

England is the country that invented the exam (thank you Oxford University, we're all so grateful...) so I think we've got the way to do them down by now.
I was under the impression that going to a large room in the school, such as the gym or assembly hall and sitting at your own individual table, everyone facing the same way so you can't communicate or make eye contact or whatever was commonplace throughout the world. It would seem sensible - minimise the ability to cheat by having people sitting at least 3 feet away from each other, so you can easily tell that they're trying to look at someone else's work.

I was both surprised, and a little disconcerted to see that exams in Japan are just sat in the classroom we normally have our lessons in, sitting next to each other as we normally would. Not only this, but we were actually able to communicate across the classroom to give answers (but believe me, trying to get somebody to realise that you're mouthing 四国 is possibly the most challenging thing I've done yet in Japan... Yes I'm looking at you Dean Spooner and Kristy Jones.), and really quite easily sneak illicit dictionaries and so forth into our tests. In my listening exam, I found myself sharing an electronic dictionary with Artem sitting next to me (this transpired to be worse than useless, as I can't read the Russian definitions, and found myself worrying that I'd forgotten what English looked like.)
I found myself so stunned by this, and a little cheated that my "hard work" could potentially be plagiarised, that I made every effort to keep my answers covered (communicating across a room in mouthed gestures doesn't count, obviously!).

This method of exam taking takes me back to the year 10 kanji tests we'd have every week in Mr Verfuerth's lessons (oh Mr V. you brilliant, crazy German, how I miss you!) where we'd write the answers on a piece of paper which would be taped (or sometimes written directly on) the back of someone's shirt. About halfway through, this person would remove their blazer, and the answers would trickle back through the classroom and we'd all come out with full marks... What pros we were!
At first, I assumed that this was just the way our own Japanese lessons were going to be tested. But then other, non-Japanese classes started having exams in the same method. So I changed my theory to it being a Japanese sense of trust (not entirely unlikely, I thought, since the crime rate in Japan is so incredibly low) and left it there.


However, in asking around, I found that this is the system in America as well - exams are just conducted in the normal classroom without much in the way of anti-cheating measures. Thankfully, it seems that Australians know what they're doing and do exams properly, segregating each student and so forth. Talking to Americans about this, the general view is that if you're resourceful to get away with cheating, then more power to you and you shouldn't be punished. Is it just me, or are all British exam-takers feeling a little hard done by and mistrusted at the moment?
But then, surely this just means that our degrees are worth more? If we come out with a First Class Honours (that's honours, America) when we wrote our dissertations alone, and sat our exams in total silence and solitude, surely that is much more indicative of our ability than that of someone who gets the equivalent grade in America by using his neighbours' answers as well.


Homework: discuss.




By the by, this was typed on my little Android smartbook, which appears to have no spell checker... Apologies for any appalling mistakes in spelling!


Coming soon:

• Ten reasons why Japan is better than England (Yes, I am working on it, but I'm running out of reasons, and I'm also trying to write it in Japanese too)
• Kobe (parts 1 & 2 - provided I can afford to go to Kobe a second time)
• A week of Japanese meals (mostly photographic, you lucky buggers!)
• The O'Dwyer invasion
• Sumo
• My week in food

Japanese New Year

Forgoing this year the standard New Year boozey party - a culture was embraced!

Getting to Yasukuni shrine (near Hosei's Ichigaya campus) at about 22.30, it looked quite dead and as though it would be a quiet affair...
Passing through the first torii gate, the food stalls began to appear, kebabs, yakitori, whole fish, squid... All sorts of food - hot and cold, traditional and not so much. Personally, I had a kebab (not quite up to Mango's standards, nor even the Roppongi kebab shop's - but still おいしかった) and a bit of garlic-y yakitori.



We made our way through the stalls of sweets and such and found our path blocked by a rather sizeable gate.


Of course, as a Brit, I know how to queue, and so - like good little 外人 queued to get into the shrine proper.







When the gate opened we made our way through and towards the area where you throw your five yen into a giant tarp and make your New Year's wish.







The reason for the five yen is that "good fortune" and "five yen" both have the same Japanese pronunciation: ごえん "goen"

So I threw in my coin with a hole in the middle (I love Japanese money) and made my wish... No I'm not telling you, shush.


After that we made our way around the stalls in the inner-shrine and warmed ourselves on some of the boy-scout-guarded fires. There were a couple of large walls of "ema" - wooden plates that one writes a wish upon, from a lot of Japan's larger shrines, covered in some very impressive dragon artwork, for the year of the dragon, don't you know.

Here's Yasukuni's one - it was a little large!!

Incidentally, if anybody could shed some light as to why the dragons all seemed to be holding some sort of orb, I'd be most grateful!







To further keep out the cold, we wandered around some more, and got food as well as a nip of some exceptionally delicious sake:

As it was rather chilly out (めっちゃ冷たい one might say!), so the sake was nicely chilled - and went down most welcomely :)











Finally, we all took our (utterly incomprehensible) fortunes. These we took home with us for translation purposes... Hopefully they're not unlucky!!

That was お正月 in Japan... Not the boozey affair the England has, nor did we sing Auld Lang Syne, but it was still damned good fun!


Signing off.

Coming soon:
10 reasons why Japan is better than England
Exam time
Some sort of food-related post (at Eddy O'Dwyer's request)
Kobe, parts 1 & 2
My fortune: A translation

"British" pubs and drinking with teachers

Since it's the end of the semester, our teacher for Japanese Thought II (a lesson about the occult in Japan) took us out to a bar in Ichigaya...
First of all, this in itself is quite strange! Though I've heard of some lecturers at Leeds joining the merriments of the fourth-years, I just can't wrap my head around it!
This isn't the first offer of drinking with a professor, just the first I've been to (and apparently another is in the offing at some point).


Once you get past the awkwardness of drinking with someone who on a normal day is your teacher and you have to shut up and listen to him... It was quite fun (^_^)
As I knew already, Ioannis Gaitanidis (a Greek don't you know) had completed his MA and PhD at Leeds (some of the readings for our lecture were photocopied from Leeds University library books, these always got a thumbs up!), so we got to talking about some of the lecturers and the classes I took... He can safely recommend lectures conducted by Dr. Ampiah and agrees that avoiding Irene Hayter's lectures is a good idea (Hayter's gonna hate). Had a jolly ol' giggle! ...With all the names here, my spell checker's having a fit!


So, the bar we went to was one of a popular chain in Japan: Hub, the "authentic British pub"
As a Brit (one who spent an awful lot of time in pubs last year) I can say that it holds up only reasonably well. When I first went to a Hub, I thought "my God, this is nothing like an English pub!" - so either I've been in Japan long enough for me to forget what English pubs actually are, or I was feeling particularly belligerent at the time... General side note, I'm in 大好きwith the word belligerent at the moment!

So here's a list of Hub's pluses and minuses towards being "authentically British" and you can decide whether or not you agree with me.

• TVs playing sports (rugby and football no less!)
• +1 (Hosei were playing rugby and were being obliterated before half-time: 29-7!!)
• Music thumping, sometimes loudly, through the pub
• -1 (the tunes in the pubs I frequent aren't usually offensively loud)
• Wooden tables and panelling
• +1 (very comfortingly British)
• Advertisements for Guinness
• +1 (and possibly another +1 for the price of a Guinness, too)
• The cheapest alcoholic product is a cocktail
• -1 (if it's not watered-down lager, it ain't British)
• The walls aren't adorned with random crap
• -1 (slightly picky, as it's hard to be individual in a chain restaurant)
• Food (A few pub standards: fish 'n' chips, bangers 'n' mash etc.)
• +1 (most pubs do food in some form)
• Food portions (not to mention eating it with chopsticks)
• -1 (probably not Japan's fault, but unforgivably small - if you come away from a pub meal hungry, you've done something wrong)
• Waiters/waitresses
• +1 for being dressed in Christmas outfits, but -1 for not having to go to the bar to order
• Ashtrays
• -1 (for that authentic British feel, make smokers stand outside in the cold!)
• Cabinet full of random bottles of alcohol
• Undecided about this one... I don't remember seeing anything similar back home
• No fruit machines/pub-quiz machine
• -1 (Got to get the drunk fools to waste their money somehow!)

So a few good pros and cons to go at there... I think on the whole that Hub makes a valiant effort, but that I'm just going to be hard to please in this area, because I miss drinking in England... Try going for a night out in Tokyo on £10: impossible.

Anywho, anybody in Japan that's been to a Hub, feel free to dispute/add to my list :)

Rant over

Next week: Christmas in Japan

Japanese Christmas Dinner

So tonight for tea at the dormitory we had the official Christmas Dinner!
On the menu:

• Fried chicken with lettuce, tomato and lemon
• Pasta with mushrooms in some sort of sauce
• (A disturbingly yellow) Egg salad with broccoli and red peppers
• Rice with chunks of carrot
• Misu soup
• CAAAKE!!!

So, of the above meal (all of which I ate except the tomato and the soup), precisely nothing is on my standard Christmas Dinner... Kind of strange - not least because it's still the 14th of December and Christmas is 11 days away (HOLY HELL, ELEVEN DAYS?!?!?!?!).

I am considering, as I write this, returning downstairs and stealing another slice of that cake - My first cake experience in a little over three months and it was gooooooooood. Nice vanilla sponges separated by buttercream, with a strawberry coulis and white chocolate sprinkles... I'm foaming at the mouth just thinking about it.

My conclusion thus far is that Christmas Dinner in Japan, much like Christmas Day itself, is not a big deal  - in fact, a lot of folk get a KFC Christmas bucket for their lunch and have done with it - not very festive (at least by our standards). Further, Christmas in Japan is not a very family-ish sort of affair... It's all very couples-based (I saw an AKB48 poster - don't google them if you value your sanity - that said something along the lines of "lets be together this Christmas, just you and I"). Having said that, Chrimbo can be quite couple-y back home, but the focus tends to be on the family side of things.

This doesn't count as my Christmas in Japan post, it was just that I'd not done one yet this week and I figured I'd have a pop at it... Not quite as amusing as others, but hey!

Black Holes, Revelations and World Peace

I've written a post in a while. Not really sure what I'm going to achieve by just writing one now - prossibly it won't even relate to Japan in much of a ways... But I am hoping this gets me back into the habit of regularly writing.
The truth is (実は in fact) that not much really blog-worthy has happened in the past weeks...

All right the school festival was pretty cool, but I had no time to write about it until ages after. In short, it's a chance for all the circles at the school to show off - there's lots of shows, food stands and little cafe bar things. Case in point, there was a pretty nice little piano cafe in room which was epic - tea, candles and epically skilled pianists... Methinks I'll try to blag my way through asking to join the piano society!

After that... It's all a lovely great (sober) blur. Time seems to mush up in the strangest way in this country - the morning (when you actually venture forth from bed) is overly long. The afternoon seems to pass at a fairly average rate, and the evening (primarily between about 6 and 10) seems to go absolutely nowhere. It's like living near a very small black hole, and the time dilation varies according to the proximity to midnight...

Tokyo tower last week was rather fun - large, panoramic views of Tokyo from 250m up (that's about 800 feet I think) - all by night... Didn't have my camera with me though, so no photographs are forthcoming!

On Sunday I went to Odaiba, and walked along the teleport bridge (seriously) into Palette town. I was so close to finding a security guard and asking him where I could get a charmander - どこヒトカゲを買うのができますか? - but I bottled it at the last minute... Fool!
There were some excellent Christmas shopping locations, including an entire shop dedicated to lego and lots of traditional Japanese crap (the latter will be making up most of my Christmas presentage).

I'm now on with trying to lessen my workload - it seems odd that so many subjects just require an essay for the end of term grading, rather than an exam - lots of kanji to learn, lots of words to write about dull topics, and lots of lesson notes to condense.
I don't imagine the Christmas break will be much fun at all...

In other news, I've solved the problem of achieving world peace:
If we were to all carpool, then the eventual outcome would be peace across all nations.

Think about it. You know it makes sense.


I'm going to try to get a blog done every week now - it's even on my to-do list!
At some point (I don't know if I've said this before) I'll be doing one in Japanese as well, just for practice purposes...

Coming soon:

• 10 reasons why Japan is better than England
• Christmas in Japan
• New Year in Japan
• Exams
• Studio Ghibli museum

Any requests for things to do and/or write about?

Haircuts, Cut-throat razors and vacuums.

Well, with a title like that, it'd have to be exciting!
This is a slightly belated post, as I've been busy all weekend... Or hungover.

I had decided (with some coercion it has to be said) that it would be a good idea to get my hair cut... As some of you know, I had previously dreaded the cutting of my hair in Japanese, not least because I have no idea what sort of phrases would be needed... Something else I didn't anticipate was the idle chit-chat in the chair, but no matter!

So in order to combat the mullet, I googled a few key phrases and managed to communicate what I wanted to the good man, who dutifully started cutting my hair. And I must say he did a great job! Despite the fact that he would occasionally press his crotch against my elbow...

The cut was very thorough, he went at the back with clippers (something that hasn't happened in years!) and then preceded to use three different sets of scissors to trim the rest of my hair, and cutting what looked to be layers... This bodes well for future growth, as perhaps I may avoid the mullet-effect this time!

When he had shown me the back of my head, I assumed that we were done... But no! First he went to a microwave and set it going... Then he took a vacuum that had been built into the unit in which all his tools were stored, and gave my head a good sucking - this was a little reminiscent of the suck-cut in Wayne's World, ho-ho! After this, he took a flannel from the microwave and gave my face - covered in hair as it was - a good wipe down. As a final hurrah, he took a (badger?) shaving brush, and covered the back of my neck and a little behind my ears in shaving foam, before taking a cut-throat razor (eek!) and tidying up all the edges. Efficient stuff, no?

And all that for 1000 yen!   A bargain if ever I saw one.

Mosquitoes are the devil

After a short wander around Kasai tonight, I discover that I have no less than fifteen mosquito bites.
Never mind the fact that it's now supposed to be "too cold" for mosquitoes (as if, it's 18 degrees right now and it's almost midnight!). Never mind the fact that I was covered up and only my hands and face were showing - two areas that mosquitoes are rarely attracted to.

No, I have nine on my right hand, two on my forehead, one on my cheek and three on my left hand.
In my forthcoming post entitled "ten reasons why Japan is better than England" - I shall most definitely not be including the wildlife as a pro. I'm so indignant the the first photo I upload to this blog will be one of my mutilated right hand:
















You can't actually see too much in there, but they're absolutely gross!

Fireworks (花火), Karaoke (カラオケ) & Sleeping on the subway (電車で寝る)

斬り捨て御免 It's a long one. And it's also been a while since I've written a post. (wikipedia tells me that 斬り捨て御免 -kirisute gomen- is used in modern Japanese to mean "sorry in advance for this one")

So, as I write this I've just gotten in from a night out. I'm still quite awake, and while it's all fresh in my mind I figured another blog post would be in order (as I have been neglecting you). Apologies in advance if I'm more rambly than usual - I'm at that stage of sleep deprivation where I'm sort of high.

Yesterday, though I've not slept so I'm still thinking of it as today, there was a gigantic firework display in Futako-Tamagawa. I'll bash a link to the website at the bottom of this bit, so's you can have a gander - though it's in Japanese, so good luck!
In any case, when in Britain we hear "big firework display," something not unlike the 5th November firework displays in Hyde park come to mind - and rightly so, because they're pretty special. However, when I looked at the website for this event, I discovered that we were in for an hour of pretty lights and loud noises. This was promising.
Equally promising was the level of organisation and planning that went into this: even before the train stopped in Futako-Tamagawa, I was treated to a view of the area in which the display was to occur. A small bit of a river with stretches of land either side of it (naturally, otherwise it would be the sea - and even that has land at either side), already covered in people ready to watch the show. I was equally impressed to discover that in the station itself, there were plenty of marshals around to shepherd us all towards the right exits and do so without blocking the way for people who (ludricrously) were heading away from 二子玉川. Heading towards the event once out of the station was like being part of some sort of rally - roads had been cordoned off and people in uniforms were waving red, flashing batons about to direct us onwards.
When I finally managed to get into the area itself (though not yet having found the people I was meeting there) I was hard pressed to locate anywhere that I'd be able to park myself should I want to give up, sit down and just enjoy the show. Indeed, when the display started, I was standing for 15 minutes before I spotted everyone sitting not 30 feet away from my position of vantage.
But I digress - the fireworks... My. God.
They were out of this world - not a single whistling rocket, and only about eight of those ones that go up, pop and crackle a load. These were all gigantic, deafening and sky-lightingly magnificent. And the fact that they were reflecting in 3 nearby tower buildings, and echoing off those buildings in such a way to make it sound like Tokyo was being bombed was quite cool too! I'll try to steal some video from someone and demonstrate just how epic they were. For the sake of trying, here are a couple of figures:
Duration: 1 hour
Turnout: 380,000 people (based on 2008's figures)
Number of launches: Over 6000
Needless to say - last year's display for bonfire night in Hyde park has been massively dwarfed.

Here's the website for anybody that's interested: http://www.nikotama-kun.jp/fuukei_hanabi.htm

Following the giant display of 花火 (fireworks lit. "flowers of fire") we hit up Shibuya for food and karaoke. Strange experience! For one thing, karaoke bars in Japan stay open all night. For another, despite the fact that it was such an enclosed room, there were ashtrays available. For yet another, when you ordered drinks, food or were going to be interrupted in your dramatic renditions of Eye of the Tiger, Losing My Religion and Crazy Little Thing Called Love - the staff member who knocked on the door and then opened it would instantly get down on one knee and hold the tray up for you... Bizarre ね?
But whilst I'm on the subject (not quite, but I did mention the ashtrays) - the smoking ban that appears to be prevalent almost everywhere these days is apparently non-existent in Japan. You can smoke in bars, restaurants and small, enclosed boxes that one might sing along to one's favourite songs in. And yet, smoking in the streets isn't allowed. There are certain areas where you may, but there are honest-to-God signs on the ground telling you not to smoke on most of the pavements in Japan. When I get a camera (lost my old one, don't ask) and can be bothered waiting the age that it will take to actually upload photos along this internet connection that is paid as a separate fee to rent, yet remains infuriatingly slow, I'll show you a picture. In any case, this is a completely backward country, no doubt about it. Further evidence in favour of this hypothesis is that 20 Marlboro will cost you about 415￥. That's about £3.50.
In any event, we were in the karaoke booth from 11 until 5 in the morning (oh how time flies when you're having fun!) and had paid the fixed price of 1980￥ for the privilege. £16 with change. Kickass, especially when you bring your own alcohol and don't have to pay the bar's extortionate prices!

(Just realised that that last couple of paragraphs makes me look at little money-obsessed. Let me emphasise that I'm now happy in the knowledge that I can convert in my head between yen and pounds quite easily, and am just showing off!)

Finally we were headed home. And as I'm sure you'll have skipped to the part involving subway-sleeping to see if I did indeed get the phone number of an attractive Japanese female, I'll save you the time now and say I didn't - so go back to the top and read it from the start like the rest of the boys and girls, you naughty bugger. I was used as a pillow, though only by Kristy - whose phone number I already have.
I'm still having issues coming to terms with how many people are on the Japanese subway at such ridiculous hours of the morning. All right, the trains aren't full to the brim, but it just seems mental that at 5.30am you could have so many people in one car that there are no seats left. And admittedly, this morning, it wasn't quite that bad - but it was yesterday at the same hour! (Oh the social lives of students, eh?)
But I digress: I witness something most adorable on the train back to 葛西, where I'm staying. There was a couple sitting across from us on the train who looked to be about mid-forties. And a few minutes into their journey (which I add was being conducted hand-in-hand) they had both fallen asleep. Naww, isn't that lovely? But the thing that I found most adorable/amusing was that more or less every time we got into the next station, one of them would wake up, look around for the name of the station, and then go back to sleep. This is fairly commonplace, as so many people sleep on the train and it's so easy to overshoot. However, just as the doors beeped and opened, the other one of the couple (they didn't quite alternate, but I didn't want to outright say it was specifically the man or the woman every time) would do the same: jerk awake, look around, and slump back down.
 I thought it was most amusing! I even tried to take a photo - not of them doing the meerkat thing, because I'd probably have been seen and shouted at by some tired, Japanese people for being a pervy 外人痴漢(bash that into google translate and make sure it's set to Japanese-English) - but here are a list of reasons why I didn't succeed in getting a suitable photo:
- the camera on my phone is most definitely not good
- the rocking of the train made it unnecessarily difficult to get a smooth shot
- the shutter noise on my phone cannot be turned off even on silent
- when I did take a photo, the shutter noise made them look as if they were going to wake up
Therefore, I only took one photo, and it was a disappointment.

And now, I am going to
1) Make some tea because I found milk and I've not had a proper cup of tea in a long time
2) Watch Doctor Who, because quite frankly it's killing me not knowing what's happened
3) Sleep because I'm going out later today, and could do with being awake and friendly for it

Signing off.





Oh, there was a pretty Japanese girl also sleeping on the train. But by the rules stated in my last post, I couldn't ask for her phone number (or wake her up) because she was not asleep on me. Drat.




I'll try to keep the length down in future too. Something this long stops getting entertaining after a while. Especially since it's basically just me typing my thoughts and all the minor tangents involved therein.
So the challenge for the next post is to keep the length down. And maybe to write it a bit sooner this time.

Though that could be fun - if you can think of any "challenge" for me to attempt, either in the post or in Japan - please leave a comment and I'll consider it :)






See what I mean about tangential thoughts?

Japanese 3, 4 and sleeping on the subway

So, my placement test put me into Japanese 4! Yippee, right?

WRONG!

Evidently they consider the level of Japanese I do actually posses to be enough to get by in a lesson taught resolutely, and entirely in Japanese. Which would be fine, I would be able to deal with that - until I realised that the method for the semester in this class is "learning Japanese from the news."
This sounded really interesting, and indeed is. However, when you're trying to understand key-words that'll be used in the recorded snippet, and the definition is only in Japanese with the occasional charades-style mime... Methinks I'ma be in trouble!
However, I muddled through the lecture with poor-to-average success and attempted to engage the teacher in conversation afterwards about whether it would be productive for me to remain in the class.

ビル: 英語で質問を聞いてもいいですか。
先生:ごめんなさい・・・英語が全然できません。(or words to that effect)

Bill: May I ask you a question in English?
Teacher: I'm sorry, I speak no English.

So, after failing to get an answer to my question, asked in poorly-phrased Japanese, I say "また来週・・・" -see you next week- with (what I hope was) a "determined-to-improve-my-Japanese-post-haste" sort of expression on my face. And thus, cursing fluently under my breath I leave Japanese 4.

I have, however told this story in reverse - I had Japanese 3 (speaking) before this, and it was great! I'll be forced to talk Japanese, but on easier topics than was dealt with in Intermediate Japanese at Leeds... Phew! We talked about food (yum) and did a bit of grammatical conjugation, which I've already addressed at A-level, so marginally less homework for now :)

Post lessons I did a spot of shopping around Iidabashi, purchased a couple of Japanese DVDs (Phonebooth and Pirates of the Caribbean!!) which I shall watch for "revision" purposes at some point, in the same way that reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban has been used - I'm 4 pages in and I bought it about 10 days ago. Finally found a bin, because I'm sick of using carrier bags strewn about my room and I also invested in a couple of folders because the epic amount of sheets received after just one day (in which two lectures were had) is plainly riddukulus (see what I did there?).

On the subway back to 南葛西 I was wedged between two Japanese females, one of whom must have been about 80, and the other was in a school uniform so she can't have been much more than 16 or 17. In any case, the young lady to my left promptly fell asleep no sooner had we left 日本橋 where she'd boarded the train. It only took a couple of minutes for her to completely slump over and find my shoulder a particularly comfortable place to lay her head. Being British and also somewhat shy in a country where I don't know how to say "Wake up, wench!" I was incapable of finding any way of extricating myself without disturbing the sleeper...
About 15 minutes later, the old-lady to my right noticed this and tried to give me (what I'm assuming was) some advice, to which I must have looked totally blank because she reached across and poked the sleeping girl in the head repeatedly until she awoke! They exchanged something in Japanese and I distinctly heard the word 外人 thrown about a couple of times. As we pulled into 西葛西 station, the young girl - blushing heavily as she did so - apologised to me and left the train with some degree of haste.

With hindsight being 20-20 (not to mention the dictionary open at my side) I realise that I actually do know how to wake somebody up, though whether or not it applies to anywhere but beds is a mystery. But lesson learned, in any case. Next time I shall wake the sleeper with a poke and a 目を覚まして！And if she's attractive I'll then ask her for her phone number.

Orientation, Tests & Alcohol

Ok, the bandwidth of the place I'm staying sucks, so you'll get pictures when I'm next on campus!


The past couple of days have been somewhat busy:

月曜日
Primarily orientation at the Hosei campus. We took the metro there, which (including the walks to the station from accommodation and to the campus itself) was about a 45 minute job. We were taken to room F501 for the orientation, but before this was to begin we had to introduce ourselves. Whoever invented the system of everybody in the room standing up and introducing themselves whilst everyone stares at you (foreign language not withstanding) ought to have been shot. However, the orientation itself was given in both Japanese and English - so I was able to listen to the Japanese and then compare what I thought had been said with the actual translation... I came out at about 50% accuracy, so plenty to learn!

In any case, an hour later we had the tour of campus (some parts of which are still undergoing minor repairs post-earthquake) - and very lovely it is too :) Following that was the placement test: multiple-choice "insert the correct particle/kanji/phrase/grammatical construction" (delete as appropriate) The second part was to follow the following day...
After the test we had a brief talk about where we're living and some of the rules surrounding said accommodation. All terribly exciting, wouldn't you say?

To round the day off, a small group of us went a-wandering around the area in which the campus is situated (I'm not sure if it's called Ichigaya or Iidabashi). There was a rather cool looking temple, unfortunately no photos could be taken inside, but I got a good snap of the exterior!

火曜日
Yesterday was mainly part two of the placement test: the dreaded interview... Expected at 10.30, actual time - 11.55... Sweet.
In anycase, it went pretty well - I had to ask them to slow down a couple of times and forgot the word for "culture" (文化 for them that care). As a result, I'm into level 4 classes for Japanese language :)
Later that day was the welcome party for the ESOP students... Thoroughly fun and met a whole lotta Japanese folk!
To round off the day, we all (about 66% of all the students both foreign and Japanese) stocked up on alcohol and hit the park for a spot of drinking - classy right?

Right, I'm bored of typing now - and I have lots of forms to fill out for my alien registration card application which is tomorrow's job... Signing off!

着いた！

Yesterday my plane arrived at Tokyo Narita International Airport and a (rather attractive) Japanese lady was waiting in the arrivals hall for me with a sign saying オダワイヤ・ウイリアム 法政大学 (William O'Dwyer  Hosei University). She said that we were going to be waiting for another student arriving in about half an hour from America, but she got a phone call and was told that said student had missed his flight (wonder what happened there!).
So I was handed over to another employee (less attractive, and virtually silent... Though the latter was less of an issue, as I wasn't up for trying to fathom Japanese at that moment) of the company that Hosei hired to take us to our accommodation and took the hour and a half combination of trains and walking to get to 南葛西 (Minamikasai) and therein my accommodation.

The tour of my accommodation was entirely in Japanese, with the odd English word thrown in when I looked particularly mystified... As a result, I think I know what I'm doing (though I've just this second forgotten that I have to turn my name-tag back to present in the atrium!).

... Phew, just got back from that. Didn't realise how effective my air-con is!

As it turns out, my accommodation is not solely for students of Hosei, but for a few high-schools in the area as well. The entire 3rd-floor are not 大学生 but 高等学校生!


I went for a wander today around the 葛西 area which was cool - lots of convenience stores as well as a nicely large bookshop (I bought Harry Potter & The Prisoner of Azkaban to work my way through) and a music shop for all your CD and DVD needs, provided that those needs are restricted to J-pop and manga ;)
Since there's no food made for us on a Sunday, I've invested in a few large tubs of ラーメン (ramen) for eats later :)

Everyone within my accommodation seems rather shy (though there isn't much in the way of a common room, and there's one kitchen for the entire complex) so I've yet to meet many other people yet... I did bump into the other two English guys staying here and they gave the impression that their Japanese was a little stronger than mine :/ Either that, or smiling, nodding and saying はい every now and again is very convincing!

Tomorrow is orientation and a Japanese placement test, so I think a spot of revision may be in order!

With that in mind, that's this post over! Camera now has batteries, so photos with the next post... I promise!

T: minus 82 hours

In 82 hours, I'll be on the plane to Japan and in 109 hours, I will have arrived in Tokyo Narita, eagerly hunting for the "escort person holding a name board" to take me to my accommodation... Oh yes, bitches - Hosei is that good! (Though if this is Hosei-exclusive, I do not know.)


In the email explaining all of this to me, I also received a google-map link:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&view=map&msa=0&msid=110361643537677050227.00046dc5acf87d67a7d93&z=9
I'm staying at Minamikasai... Which is a considerable distance from the Ichigaya campus where I'll be studying. Methinks a bicycle purchase may be in order!


And now some fun facts gleaned from my guide to Hosei accommodation:
- "You must inform the dormitory manager if you wish to stay out by the morning of the day you will stay out." (curfue otherwise is 12 midnight...)
- "Illegal acts are strictly prohibited." (I should hope so!)
- "Gambling is forbidden." (Balls.)
- "Visitors of the opposite gender are not allowed in the dormitory." (Interesting...)


Finally, I'll leave you with my outrage that I will have to pay for the internet whilst staying in university accommodation at Hosei.  ლ(ಠ益ಠლ