Mongorific Megablog

September is drawing to a close, which means I've nearly been in Japan a whole month! Within that time I've gradually been getting used to things, and accepting that I'll be here for some time (though I'm sure when I leave it shall seem rather short). So, to wrap up this month I thought I'd do something a bit like my "Miscellany" entries, but going into some detail about the various things I've learned and experienced since arriving. Hope you enjoy it!

The most prominent idea that springs to mind is that being wrenched away from all I knew and being placed in unfamiliar surroundings allowed me to realise what really matters to me. If I had ever had any doubts about myself or about how much I cared about my friends and family, this separation swiftly stripped them away. I feel a renewed appreciation for those I love, but also of other things I may have taken for granted. My mind drifts back to locations dotted around the British countryside that I have during family holidays and the like, and I consider that I'd like to seem them again. Perhaps when I return I shall, and write a blog called "Cal in England."

Speaking of exploring England, my time in Japan has also led to a stirring of certain Cecil Sharpe-like ambitions. At the moment I'm not sure if I'd have the confidence or charisma to go to a village and talk to its oldest residents to collect and preserve traditional songs and stories (though who knows how much this year may change me?). However, I could certainly go to fairs, fétes and concerts, try out local foods and discover local lore and history. This would not only be an interesting experience and fuel for future writing, but could help to preserve local culture worthy of note for a little bit longer. We all know, of course, that large corporations' selling at low prices often spells doom for independent businesses, which is a bad thing, but many of us have insufficient funds to always choose fair trade chocolate, meat from the butchers, locally-produced cheese and so on. But if, at the sacrifice of one less drink at the pub, or packing homemade sandwiches rather than buying them during a lunch break, we splash out on such things every now and then, it could have a positive impact.

To bring things down to earth again, though, much as I am loathe to admit it rules my life at present. I am very fortunate, of course, to have been so gainfully employed over the last few years, and for the support received from my family and student loans. It is somewhat jarring now to try to live without any income coming in, when such simple comforts as large, cheap supermarkets within easy walking distance now seem as a far-off dream. I have no doubt that while I am in Japan I shall be as frugal as is practical.

There are foods that I've discovered in Japan that I am rather taken with, and find myself thinking "I'll miss these when I eventually go back to England." Wonderful thing is, of course, that being in a foreign land has exposed me to such foods, and that having gained familiarity with them and learned their names, there is no need for me to let them go. Britain is rather an international country, and the Internet has shrunk the world to the extent that one can get recipes (which seldom contain specialist ingredients) of almost any food, and to be able even to watch someone making them to get a firm grasp of the method. So who knows, perhaps after this year I'll often cook Japanese foods that I only seldom ate in Japan, maybe even play around a bit to create some interesting variations.

Some may question the "authenticity" of Japanese cuisine made by an amateur English person who doesn't even stick to the original recipe. I doubt I would get on well with such people, but it leads me nicely on to my next point. When you’re somewhere in England talking about “cool stuff from Japan,” it's easy to forget or overlook the fact that manga, Lolita fashion, video games and the like are part of a sub-culture. That’s not to say that this is a bad thing – after all, it’s largely chance what emerges as “mainstream” or “sub” cultures. However, it does mean that if you have an interest in that sub culture, you have to go looking for it. True enough, in Japan there are more places you can find it – even the stationary shop at my Uni sells copies of the latest popular graphic novels. But I think stories, art and fashion transcend location, so whether you are in the country in which they originated ultimately makes little difference.

Where am I going with this point? I suppose that sometimes people in the West are criticised for liking "Japanese" things too much, which I object to. While I agree that it's not healthy to concentrate your interests solely on one aspect of one culture, people should like what they like no matter where they come from. Transmission of influences from outside is nothing new, and while I was never ashamed to strut down the streets in cosplay costumes, I certainly will not be embarrassed to talk about my love of Japanese comics, or Korean pop music, or Devonish scones, or anything of the sort.

I think I've waxed lyrical long enough for one entry. It has more of a "I miss England, and when I get back..." flavour than describing what's going on in the land of the rising sun, but these are the sort of things that my first month here has inspired me to think about. On a side note, I'm now on Twitter as well - http://twitter.com/caldannescourt. I still mainly use Facebook for communication and this blog for experiences in Japan, so I doubt my tweets will be anything to write home about (truth be told I just joined to follow the likes of Stephen Fry).

天鎖斬月...曜日

A part of me still finds the idea somehow sacrilegious, but I can't get over how much fun I have on Mondays! Actually, if I'm honest I still don't feel at my best in any of the Japanese (language) lessons, not that they're difficult, just a tad boring at the moment. In an attempt to excuse this attitude I quote Wilde - "Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast." However, as soon as that business is dispensed with, look out! After another failed attempt to collect an international money order (it seems more complex than it should be, so I'm going to ask someone at Uni or a dormmate if they can explain it to me in English) and a short rest, off I went to Tea Ceremony Class!

In addition to reviewing what we learned last week (there's a lot of bowing and speaking humbly to people, the words aren't so hard to remember but the 'when's and 'who's are a bit tricky) we learned the proper way to open and close the door, in case you're the first or last guest to arrive. Served this week were the same tea as before and sweets called Kiku komoro (菊衣), the first part of their name being a type of flower, the second part meaning coating or clothing. The best way I can describe them is that they're a bit like slices of swiss roll, if all the jam were concentrated into one lump, and they weren't wrapped into a full roll. Except with red bean paste instead of jam and something entirely different instead of sponge. Nevertheless, they tasted good, went well with the tea and represented free food in the name of study!

Classical Japanese is still proving interesting - due to the more intense way I was taught it at SOAS I can still keep up with minimal preparation, and the lessons feel pleasantly laid-back. I'm still reserving judgement on which teaching method I prefer, but I think if anyone asked me I wouldn't mind trying to teach it myself someday. A quite unexpected touch to how C.J. is taught at Nanzan (though it makes perfect sense) is the use of music - today we listened to a song sang on miner's steam trains from the late nineteenth/early twentieth century.

Ever mindful of the future, I was considering the one course at SOAS that I failed last year - Modern Japanese Literature. For those of you who are not yet aware, the result of this course was judged entirely by two essays, both of which I turned in shamefully late. I got permission to retake the course this year, not attending lectures but e-mailing the essays to the Faculty Office, who will handle the printing and submission for marking side of things. There was one book I already knew I wanted to write about ("Paprika" by Yasutaka Tsutsui), and which I had bought on eBay during my first week in Japan. However, I was starting to worry that it may have been lost in the post, and resolved to read some other stories as possible candidates for my second essay. I borrowed two anthologies of "Modern" literature from the library, only to arrive home and find my copy of Paprika to have arrived, along with several heart-warming communications from home.

"In this moment, no one is pulling me down into the ground." -Fyfe Dangerfield

Japanese Snacks Vol. 4 - Bacon Cheese: A welcome change when one feels one is getting too much fish and rice.

Shrines, Swords and Study

I'm still getting used to weekends that I don't spend at work. In fact, I'm still getting used to not being at any kind of work throughout the whole week. Sometimes I get a bit "What? There's no money coming in? So every time I spend money I'm running at a loss?!" but this is all a part of acclimatising to this new environment. I would never have been able to do this a few years ago. Moving back to the issue of weekends, even though I try to be lazy and sleep in I find myself waking up at a similar time as on weekdays, during the day itself time seems to creep by, but at the end it feels like it's flown by.

As my destination for this Saturday's wonderings I chose Atsuta Shrine (熱田神宮/Atsuta Jingu), one of the three most important Shinto shrines in Japan. On the way there I passed the first above-ground train station I've seen since arriving - the trains didn't look that different from English ones, except the electricity runs above them on wires rather than below on rails. It also helped me visualise possible routes to the airport a bit better. Premature, I know, but the memory of the trip from the airport to my dorm previously filled me with some uncertain horror, so I want to be as organised and familiar as possible for when I make it again next January.

The trip to Atsuta (walking, as usual) took a surprisingly short amount of time. Once there I was a bit confused as to which was the parking entrance and which the pedestrian, but eventually I found myself in front of a massive wooden gate (or tori) and walked though into the shrine grounds. Since being in Japan I have noticed that when one enters a shrine everything seems to become a lot more quiet and peaceful, as if a kind of holy aura surrounds the place. I'd make an analogy to English churches, but my memory of them is somewhat hazy. And the change in atmosphere might just be because I turned off my iPod, anyway.

Atsuta Shrine lies in the middle of a large, shady grove, I'd say overall about the size of the graveyard in Southampton Common, perhaps a little bigger. All around this place were scattered smaller shrines, then at the site of the main shrine were several buildings used for wedding ceremonies and the like. I actually caught site of a couple in Shinto wedding gear, as well as a chap who was having his new car blessed. Within the shrine (not open to the public) a whole load of important deities are venerated, and legend has it that Kusanagi, a mythical sword and national treasure, is stored inside, though no one has ever been able to confirm this.

There was an area with benches and things for resting, in front of which was a pond in which carp and turtles swam. Also a large sacred tree, which was clearly incredibly old, though gnarled and not even as tall as the entrance gates. Japan has the highest life-expectancy for humans in the world (average 82, according to Wikipedia), and though I don't stop to ask people their age, I've seen quite a few elderly-looking people on my travels who seem mobile enough but very stooped in posture. Perhaps there is a connection?

Sunday consisted mainly (as did Saturday evening) of studying, in an attempt to get into a good rhythm of getting work done again, though I did venture out once or twice to find food. For the first time since arriving in Japan I managed to walk to the Aeon Mall at Aratamabashi without getting seriously lost! My excuse of shopping there to save 20 yen on bread used to sort of fall apart when I'd spend 230 yen getting home on the underground, so successfully pulling it off this week gave me a certain amount of pride. Next stop, Nobel Prize!

Every picture ever taken of Atsuta shrine.

金曜日はAwright fer faaightin'

It's interesting how quickly one can get used to things. When I get up in the morning and see the Japanese foliage, hear the insects, walk to Uni through the Japanese streets and notice that the vast majority of people are Japanese it shocks me a little bit how not-freaked-out I am at it all. Something that's been a far-off goal for many years is now an everyday reality.

But still, the earth goes on rotating and orbiting, and Thursday was a great reminder of this fact. In Japan the day of the Autumnal Equinox is a national holiday, so there was no Uni for me that day. I thought I'd spend it studying, but with a brief trip out to collect a money order that I have as yet been able to get at. Unfortunately it didn't occur to me that if the University was closed so too would be the post office. This only dawned on me when I found the nearest P.O., at which point it was pouring with heavy rain. When I got home I had to change and hang up my wet clothes, meaning a smell of damp pervaded my chamber for much of the day.

Japanese Religions is fast becoming one of my favourite lessons - it's quite laid back and undemanding, yet somehow intellectually stimulating as well. At the end of the class our lecturer usually says something like "Have a good weekend, and keep you eyes and ears open." And even though we're learning about ideas and traditions from hundreds of years ago, much of it is still practised today, or the influence of it remains in everyday customs, so it still feels relevant.

Shock and horror, though - apparently Political Correctness even strikes in Japan! In February there is a holiday called 節分(setsubun) to welcome the Spring, similar to the British custom of opening the back door on New Years to let the old year out and the front door to welcome the new year in. In the case of Setsubun, beans are thrown about and people say "鬼は外、福は内/Oni wa soto, Fuku wa uchi," which roughly translates to "Out with the demons, in with good fortune." But these days the bit about the demons has been cut out in some regions, as there's an implication that the demons you send away will go to someone else's house!

On Friday evening the promise of a free meal lured me to the Friends of International Students Group Welcome Party (or FISGWP, as I shall refer to it hereafter). I filled my face with much karaage, shrimp tempura, takoyaki and sandwiches - note the increased familiarity with some Japanese foods compared to the last free meal I attended. But of course, I wasn't just there to eat - I spoke to many people as well! Having been here a while, I'm getting a bit more confident when it comes to speaking in Japanese. As for conversation topics, they were mainly to do with manga or England, sometimes both! And I won a money bank in the shape of a frog wearing a crown in bingo. By the end of the evening both my belly and my heart felt good.

A shrine

火事だ！

Getting back into the swing of going to lessons and doing homework again is proving a bit of a challenge, but I'm sure this too will pass. In Japanese there's a word for it - Yasumi Boke, or "Holiday Lag." On Tuesday night we had a party in the evening to celebrate a whopping four birthdays this month! Dinner consisted of several pancake/omelette-like ...things, cooked on large hot-plate-esque devices. Outside there were sparklers, of which we ended up throwing large numbers into a flaming bucket for best pyrotechnical effect. And there was cake (hard but good) and other assorted snacks (mainly crisps and pocky). A fun way to while away an evening, and an opportunity to disprove any image of myself being a recluse that anyone may have had.

Wednesday was the deadline for final registration (which meant little to me as I hadn't made any changes since the initial registration), as well as the day of my last "catch-up" test. These are the ones that help to understand where my strengths and weaknesses are at this stage, which is a bit strange as earlier in the day I'd had a review based on the results of the ones I've already taken. In between these two occasions, though, I had a rare bout of socialising - was approached by some people from the Friends of International Students group and had a pleasant chat with them for a while.

In the afternoon an "Anti-Disaster Drill" was held for residents of the dorms. Unfortunately because of the test I missed the first part, but I imagine it was just something along the lines of "calmly evacuate the building." Everyone walked to a green area on the campus where a fireman gave us a talk about safety, and then we practised procedure for putting out a fire! A real fire was not actually provided - just wooden boards with pictures of fire on them, but we got to handle a fire extinguisher and shout "Kaji da!" ("Fire!" - That's what it says in the title) I was quite impressed with this exercise - although one may think that sort of thing is common sense, it was good to feel that the University wanted to make sure we'd be properly prepared if anything should happen. A far cry from three-plus fire alarms a day in the first few weeks at Dinwiddy!

Miscellany III

The largely unexciting mid-week rears its indistinctive head, therefore may it please my readers to hear some more random little thoughts and reflections.

• Brooms - A rather quaint thing I've noticed while in Japan is that the majority of people still use proper brooms. By "proper" I mean the brush is made from twigs rather than synthetic fibres. I don't know why I like this so much, perhaps the organic-looking brooms are so much more aesthetically pleasing?
• Chalk - This may be a feature more of Nagoya, or even just of Nanzan University, but I feel it's worth mentioning. Chalk and blackboards are still used! Quite a change after many years of marker-pens and (sometimes interactive) white boards. Though as I understand it real chalk is in short supply nowadays (can a mineral be an endangered species?), so the stuff commonly used is just a chalk-like substance. Still, combined with the individual wooden desks that usually adorn the classrooms this all gives the University the sort of look one "traditionally" associates with "education."
• Banks - I finally got around to opening a bank account on Tuesday. It was not like banks in England, where most of the office work goes on behind closed doors, so visitors are only aware of the presentation of the bank employees they're directly dealing with. Instead, behind the counter the rest of the office was in plain sight. Perhaps this is to imply the bank has nothing to hide, thus inspiring trust in their customers?
• 1-Yen Coins - These are annoying! Japan's smallest denomination of coinage are worth (by current exchange rates) about three-quarters of a penny, and look like coins from out of a toy till-and-money set. They exist mainly just for making change. Some may say this is true of pennies and five pence pieces as well, but 1-yen coins weigh so little it's hard to take their existence seriously.

A shrine

For Real This Time (?) / 今度は本気です（か）

Despite the negative associations of Mondays, I had a really good day today. First of all (as usual) was Japanese, specifically the listening class. Was I more prepared this week? No, for I am now in the IJ500 class, so I have different teachers and classmates and a not-very-different routine to get used to. The lesson mainly involved conversations being played and then answering questions based on them, and afterwards watching a (children's) news programme (they're easier to understand). The later years of school and college instilled in me a certain apathy for watching videos in class, but Uni has somehow rekindled the enjoyment and wonder of such activities. I still feel a little rusty when it comes to speaking Japanese, and it still seems like a lot of people know vocabulary I was previously unaware of, but at this level it's a bit less demanding and it feels good that I'm not being constantly watched in a "do-I-belong-here" sort of way.

The highlight of the day was undoubtedly the first proper Tea Ceremony lesson! In a building nestled away in a shady grove of the campus stands the tea room, which looks very traditional and Japanese-y - tatami mats on the floor, sliding screen doors, the whole shebang. It was a little crowded but we all managed to fit inside, and since we're just starting we didn't have to sit in the proper Japanese posture (which is easy enough to start with but soon becomes murder on the legs). We were each given a fan (small ones for the girls, larger ones for the guys - personally I prefer a bigger fan but resent having it assigned to me) and shown the proper way to enter the room. It's... a bit strange, you sort of swing on your knuckles and scootch in while still kneeling down. Looks rather comical at first, but one has to adjust one's mindset when in a different cultural sphere, after all.

Once in the room, first came sweets (or manju, which I can best describe as being like doughnuts but made from something more squishy than dough), which were unfamiliar in texture but pleasant in taste. Then the tea itself. Did you ever wonder why Japanese tea is often called "green tea" when it's actual colour is a sort of light amberish colour? What I had today was undeniably green - the kind of green that's used on the Starbucks logo, which was a little strange, but it smelled gorgeous! Imagine, if you will, a day spent rambling in the English countryside, trudging over dry earth and occasionally getting snared by gorse bushes. Suddenly, a local inn hoves into view, wherein one is served a deliciously rich and fortifying beef stew. This was the image that drifted into my mind as I beheld the aroma of this tea, and through association that was also how it tasted, aside from a slightly bitter aftertaste.

During last week's Classical Japanese lesson I think I was half dead and a quarter asleep. Not so this week - I must have better regulated my food intake, and a nice sit down and a cup of tea no doubt helped as well! Anyhoo, it was a good lesson, was able to follow it well enough and wasn't shy about asking questions and that sort of thing. Afterwards I had to print off a piece of homework, and discovered the devious nature of printing things at Nanzan - the use of the printer is free but you have to supply your own paper! Then, when I went to the teacher's office to hand the work in, she sprang some tests on me! I can understand her reasoning, as they were tests I missed due to my up-and-down-type switching between classes, but it still felt a bit thick at the end of such a busy day. Hopefully I was still operating at a level appropriate to do me justice.

Oh yes, and today is a holiday of the non-day off variety in Japan - Respect For The Aged Day! I don't consider anyone I know to be aged, but if there are any readers out there who consider themselves "a ripe old age," well done!

Japanese Snacks Vol. 3 - Mochi Mochi Cheese: A sort of bun with a spiral of cheese-spread-like cheese hiding just below the surface. Gorgeous when still warm.

So Many Shrines!

On Friday one of my housemates informed me that someone had been looking for me - a mystery man with a "thick English accent." I didn't run into him, though. I wonder, could it be...? As usual Saturday has provided an opportunity for exploration, and did not fail to deliver. I set off in search of Osu-Kannon temple, and saw a good many different shrines along the way - I suppose the whole area is a bit sacred. Shrines and temples seem a fairly common sight in Japan; it's quite nice to be walking around a city then suddenly happen upon an old and quiet place. Though sometimes when I visit one I'm a little unsure of etiquette - where I should and shouldn't go, what I should or shouldn't do, that sort of thing. But I still have a good look and come away feeling better for the experience.

Actually, there is one bit of shrine etiquette I remembered - just outside is usually a font of water with wooden ladles, which you use to splash a bit of water on one hand, then the other, then on (but not in) the mouth, then on the bit of the ladle where you touched it. The point of this is to purify oneself before entering, and to leave the tools clean and ready for the next person. Only one of the shrines I went to today actually had such facilities, though.

Osu Kannon itself was big and impressive, with lots of the wooden bits painted red. Don't particularly know why this surprised me but there it is. I chose to go there today as I had heard that on the 18th and 28th of every month "a market" is held there, though when I arrived it struck me as more like a car-boot sale (perhaps "market" is a more international term for tourists). At first I wondered if this was an odd location for such an event, but then again, most English car-boot sales are held in fields not far from village churches, so not so strange after all. There were various sundry items on sale - semi-antiques, jewelry, kimono, cloth; I didn't indulge in anything this time.

Nearby was a shopping arcade, where I was delighted to see some shops stocking manga-related memorabilia, and others selling clothes of rather an off-beat fashion. Back in "The West," I had the idea that the three most popular manga series are probably Naruto, Bleach and One Piece, in that order. But, so far over here I have seen much more One Piece and Dragonball merchandise. Kinda strange how different stuff has a different level of appeal depending on location. Also, while there are unexpectedly numerous clothing shops, a lot of the apparel on sale strikes me as a little bland and lacking in variety, so I was glad to see the kind of fashion one runs across in, for example, Camden Market for a change. The journey home was long and arduous but not very eventful.

Osu Arcade

First Proper Week Draws to a Close

Recently my breakfast has included toast rather than bread, as I finally realised that we do have a toaster in my dorm. What had fooled me was that it looks a bit like a tiny oven - you lay the toast horizontally then open up the door on the front. I can't think of any particular advantages or disadvantages this design could have over the European style, so I suppose it's just an interesting difference. The Japanese (nationality) students have returned to Nanzan, so there's more hustle-and-bustle at the Uni now, not so much of a ghost town. It was raining for most of Thursday, and I was surprised that everyone I saw had an umbrella - I felt more keenly than ever what a unique sight my cat-eared hood and I must be.

The Toaster

One of the things that has been ongoing this week has been trying to open a bank account. The last orientation session was about this, and took place on Monday. All the strange forms and documents overwhelmed me a little bit, so I put the folder containing them in a corner of my room and have gone back to them every day since when I feel like I can manage them. I now have everything I need to open an account, but since the bank closes at 3 o'clock it's a bit tricky to find the time to get over there. It is quite cool to have my own inkan - the design's nothing special, it just says "CAL", but it's mine and my own so I like it.

As an interesting rounding up of the week, on Friday I had my first lesson for Japanese Religions, and though it was one of the longest classes I have had so far, it was also the most enjoyable. In terms of content we just covered a quick introduction to the idea of religions, types of religions, Japanese religious mindset and some specific things to do with Shinto. I think I enjoyed it so much as it was something I'm interested in and have studied in my own time, but doing it in a classroom sort of legitimised it. It all felt rather groovy and SOASian, and it's comforting that I have one lesson taught in English.

The Ups and Downs

Today (Wed 15th) I ate a slice of pizza, which I assumed to be some variant of the Hawaiian, but with hotdogs instead of ham. However! When I bit into what I thought was a large chunk of pineapple, it turned out to be potato! Touché, Japan, consider my mind blown. And I saw the most elaborately decorated hearse ever - all decked with golden-coloured adornments. It made the thing look a bit unwieldy, and I saw it twice. Maybe the drivers got lost. Or perhaps it was carrying a famous person's corpse and they wanted as many people as possible to see it. Well, to start off with something like that probably reflects that the last few days have been a tad slow and uneventful, but here's a breakdown of events and thoughts so far.

The fancy hearse

On Monday what I consider the proper term started - a full week of standard lessons at standard times. Monday starts off with two hours of Japanese, followed by one and a half each of Tea Ceremony and Classical Japanese (both of which are taught in Japanese - scary!). The first Tea Ceremony lesson wasn't hugely exciting, as it was only an introductory session, and overbooked so the whole class couldn't fit in the tearoom (a few people changed to a later slot, though, so hopefully in future...). Went over some basic terminology and watched a video about some famous teahouse and all the patient preparation and venerable taking of tea that happens there over the course of the year.

Classical Japanese was interesting - readers who know me well will know that I have already taken a class in it before so know a thing or two about it already. However, I was curious to see how it might be taught differently in a different place, and I was not disappointed. First we covered just how long Classical had been used (I knew in Meiji a lot of authors experimented with a more colloquial style, but what we now call Classical Japanese was in official use until 1945 - who knew?) then plunged into how some letters are read differently to modern Japanese. That's all the detail I'll go into as otherwise it won't be very interesting for those who don't speak any Japanese. Then we started reading a story from the (19)20s! It wasn't too difficult, as most of the vocab and grammar were relatively modern, but I was still surprised at the sudden launch into studying texts.

The main issue this week so far has been whether I'm in the right level of course. I know earlier I said IJ600 was the one for me, but now I have my doubts. I'm sure I've studied as much as the other people in that course, but I seem to have studied different grammar, kanji and vocabulary, so sometimes I feel a little out of place, and the course is mainly based around speaking, which for me - being a shy and quiet type- is rather a weak spot. So maybe if I go down to 500 (which is still nothing to sneeze at) I can practise speaking in a less intense programme, consolidate what I already should know, and do work on new stuff in my own time. I'll see how the rest of the week goes and take it from there.

Miscellany II

Not a whole lot has been going on over the last few days, so here are some more varied thoughts about Japan.

• Light - I recall reading an article (or perhaps the start of a book) written in the early phases of Japanese modern/Westernisation, and the author was complaining about how electricity produces such glaring light that shows up everything, whereas Japanese aesthetics are based around shadows and subtlety. He theorised that had the Japanese people been left to their own devices, separate from Western innovation, they would have eventually discovered electricity but harnessed it in a fashion more to their liking. Not that there was any way of proving this. However, in my time here I have noticed that there is a lot of frosted glass about - perhaps they found a way to have subtle electric light after all?
• Colour - From shop signs and banners to neon lights and advertising pamphlets, a lot seems to be brightly coloured. Sometimes this boarders on garish, but it is rather refreshing to see a big city that is not resigned to becoming grey nothingness.
• Sound - Continuing on from the previous point, sometimes it seems like there is a genuine effort to maintain a link with nature. Sometimes this is a literal link, such as the many parks scattered about the city, but at other times there is a sort of abstract mental link as well. For example, on underground stations an unobtrusive recording of birdsong can be heard.
• School Uniforms - In England to see someone dressed in a Japanese school uniform generally indicates that person is interested in Japanese pop culture and dressing up, and in manga starring students the protagonists are usually drawn in such a way as to make their age ambiguous. Therefore seeing people in such uniforms over here who are just school children (emphasis on the children part) takes some getting used to.
• Slippers - In my dorm building we take off our shoes and wear slippers inside. When I first arrived going up stairs without them falling off seemed like an insurmountable feat. But now I do it with no problems at all - maybe I've developed a necessary skill, or maybe I've just started wearing smaller-sized slippers?

An impressive building of uncertain purpose

冒険でしょう、でしょう?

What does one do with a weekend to oneself? For me, I decided to use it for more exploring! Looking at a list of places of interest in and around Nagoya, I settled on 栄(Sakae), the major downtown shopping area for today. It was quite a way away from where I live, but I was able to take quite a good route there and back, only losing my way a few times and never very severely. When I got there it looked just like any large city centre might look, except that in a lot of the taller buildings there'd be signage on ground level for shops on upper floors. So, where one might except to find a doorway into a shop there was only directions on where the entrance to the building was.

My attention was suddenly arrested by sounds coming from a ... the best way I can describe it is a spare bit of space. Not quite a park or green area, just flat and somewhat shady. In any case, it seems that some local bands had come to play a bit o' music, maybe drum up some publicity and sell some CDs. That was a nice surprise, I just stuck around to listen to one band (whose name escapes me), they had a interesting mix of screechyness and catchy rhythm - if they find their sound a bit better they could go far, says I!

The afternoon sun was beating down; I was starting to consider turning around and making for home, but I thought I should look at some more shops and at least see the Nagoya TV Tower (oldest TV Tower in Japan), so I wondered toward Central Park. How glad I am that I did! For there was a festival being held, in which representatives from across the land had come to sell their local cuisine, demonstrate local traditional dances, and generally promote whichever prefecture they came from. There were lots of brightly-coloured stalls, flags and costumes all around. It very much reminded me of the country fairs and markets back in England, which I think I may like to make better use of when I return. I'd always thought of those affairs as being very English, but it turns out they're also very Japanese. Perhaps gathering together to show off what your home can produce is an international, human trait?

学生生活

The following entry includes events from Thursday and Friday. I had my first lesson, or rather, an orientation session for the Japanese Course. It involved ... lots of tests! First was a mandatory one to check that people knew what they should, to prevent slipping down to a lower-level course. The second was optional to see if it were possible to move up to a higher-level course! I blazed through them both perhaps a tad too enthusiastically - structured, assessed academia after so long? Ecstasy! Thereafter there followed a mass self-introduction-ing; all the usual one comes to expect from this situation - "What's yer name and where d'ya come from?", "Why are you studying Japanese?", "Cal is the only English person here."

A bit later I went along to the office to find out my test results - 84% for the first and 82% for the second. Not bad at all - good enough to get me into IJ600, in any case! Once upon a time I thought it might seem a little arrogant to apply for the highest level course, but I have come to conclusion that the First and Second Year Japanese course at SOAS is the best ever (*shameless plug* - I suddenly love my home Uni more than ever), and I should do right by it by doing the best course I can handle. On an unrelated note, Thursday was the day I spent the least money since coming to Japan, weighing in at 98 yen.

The lessons for Intensive Japanese 600 (or at least the first ones) were held in basement classrooms. For some reason it struck me that there was a lot of wood or wood-effect furnishings, giving the room an overall feeling of "brown" as opposed to the "white" I tend to associate with English classrooms. As for the lessons themselves they consisted of more orientationing and then mostly speaking. I don't like speaking very much, but it was interesting nonetheless to observe, from the way people talked, what differences there are in how we've learned Japanese up to this point.

It also allowed me to see where I need to improve (mainly in terms of working more variety into my sentence structures), which is good from a personal perspective, but later the teacher asked me if I thought the class was going to be too hard for me >.< I replied in the negative - maybe I don't excel in spoken work due to my confidence issues, but if something feels solid and academic then I can sink my teeth into it better. It seems like recently my whole life revolves around the fact that I do things differently to most people ... oh well, that's Friday down so I have a whole weekend to study and explore, yay!

Japanese Snacks Vol. 2 - Choc-Chip Melon Bread: pleasantly sweet, with a light, fluffy texture.

A Good Title Elludes Me Just Now

There were a few orientations on today, but most of them were for scholarship students (grr!) or students doing other subjects that require special equipment or textbooks. Unfortunately I only realised I didn't need to be at any of them after I got there, so no lie-in for me! Also, it was raining, but still really warm. Consider my mind blown - in the planning stages of this journey I was totally unable to concieve such a situation! It goes against everything life in Britain has instilled in me - I have but one garment for rainy weather, but as it's designed for cold and rainy, I was a little bit uncomfortable at times.

Later on in the day, there was a field trip to two locations - The Tokugawa Art Museum and Nagoya Castle. Conveniently, Nagoya does an all-day travel pass for 600 yen (comparatively cheap) on weekends, holidays and the eighth of each month. Why the eighth? The best explanation I can come up with is that the city's symbol is the kanji for eight (八). Unfortunately photography was rather restricted inside these places, but I shall endeavour to describe them.

The Art Museum did what it said on the tin - it contained artifacts of everyday life of long ago, but with a focus on the extravagant and good-looking. For big social symbols there was armour, swords, palanquins and the like, all looking very sturdy, - beautiful but built to last! There were also painted screens, illustrated scrolls and other such things to do with writing and painting. And there was a replica tea house and Noh theatre stage and costumes, that was cool, evoked a better sense of closeness to the objects and the lifestyle of people who may have used them.

Nagoya Castle was a good location - it feels like quite some time since I last visited a castle, and in many ways it reminded me of the ones I've visited in England - it being a large fortified structure and all. But in many other respects it was refreshingly different. Architecturally, of course, the design was quite different, in the oriental style with golden "dolphins" on the roof. I put that in quotations as that's what some of the translations called it, but it looked like no dolphin I've ever seen, with big teeth and moustaches. But they were apparently another important symbol of the city back in the day, so they featured quite heavily.

Inside the castle there were several floors, with a long winding staircase going up (and another going down, and one in the middle just for show). There was information all about the history of Nagoya (luckily this was printed in Japanese and English); the bit I liked best was a mock-up of a medieval street, with reconstructed shop fronts and changing light and sound effects to simulate passage of time. On the top floor there was a great view of the city - at first it seems to stretch on and on as far as the eye can see, but then one catches a glimpse of mountains in the background, which is somehow reassuring.

Those were my adventures and thoughts for today. It's strange, sooo many of the English speakers here are American, it makes me feel a little bit out of place and fills me with longing for my home and its customs and accents ... Well, maybe not all of them.

Nagoya Castle

最初の月...っえ、違う、火曜日なの？

Could have sworn this was Monday >_< Days are getting less eventful, so I may take to compressing several days' worth of stuff into a single entry soon. In terms of the time difference things are getting better, not waking up so much but still not sleeping enough. Orientation sessions today about student life, what to do in an earthquake, being sure to sort rubbish correctly and the like. Also did course registration - in addition to Japanese I shall be taking "Japanese Culture and Tea Ceremony," "Classical Japanese" and "Japanese Religions." Though I'm not sure when classes start, though - Thursday for Japanese, maybe next week for the others? I'm sure I'll get told at some point.

Was given a quick tour of the campus, some interesting places around that I didn't know about before - shops, different cafés, the library and so on. Then, just as I was feeling rather weak and tired, there was a welcome party with free food! I stuffed myself full of as much sushi, tempura, sandwiches, spring rolls, and other things I don't even know the name of as I could handle. All thoroughly delicious; I shall be looking out for certain dishes again so I can find out what they are and where to get them. FYI, in Japan a lot of restaurants have plastic copies of the items on their menu outside on display, so finding "that thing I had at the party" is not such a daunting task as it may at first seem.

My next order of the day was to go to the Ward Office to pick up my National Health Insurance card. I decided to try walking there, but thanks to a travel map and the Hammond travel compass I managed to walk there and back, using the underground stations as landmarks. I felt so proud ^_^! I'm beginning to feel a bit more comfortable speaking Japanese, so I may do alright after all. Want to study up lots and try to get into the higher class... Over and out!

Here's the Library

Miscellany

I didn't do a whole lot today - IT and library orientations that I took in but was at least half asleep throughout. Thereafter I lounged about, did some shopping - found a 100 yen shop and picked up my own rice bowl and chopsticks. I feel strangely proud when I manage to go shopping successfully -like a big child but with money and responsibilities. Got lost again, but less severely this time. It hurts to spend so much (?) on underground tickets so often, but at the moment I think I must look on it as an investment, for gradually I'm getting to know my way around. Therefore, to flesh out this entry a little bit, here are some miscellaneous thoughts and impressions I have had recently relating to Japan and the Japanese way.

• Cleanliness - There's a lot of emphasis on being clean and healthy - lots of people wear uniforms (school children, obviously, but also traffic guards, car park attendants and so on) and they always appear to be spotless. Most parks seem to have toilets in them, and although they're not pristine, I've not yet run into a tap that doesn't work. Yet, strangely, there's not a lot to do with drying after washing - in public toilets there's usually just a roll of toilet paper next to the sinks for drying oneself off. Perhaps everyone in Japan just carries a handkerchief?
• Traffic - Before coming over here I was told that people tend to wait for the lights to change without fail, even if there's obviously no cars coming. I decided that if this were the done thing I should try it, too, and indeed I've got no funny looks yet. Then again, I see people just looking if it's clear and then walking. In general as regards customs I think "If you see a Japanese person do it, it's probably OK." However, even when the pedestrian signal turns green, cars may still be turning into that street. But they wait. I think. It's hard to gauge the relationship between pedestrians, cyclists and motorists, especially coming from an environment where everyone hates everyone else.
• Cost of Living - It's so high! T^T It was all very well knowing the exchange rate back home, but I realise now that that means nothing if one doesn't know the prices over here. There is little under 100 yen, bread comes in packs of about 5 or 8 slices. Makes me really pine for places like Asda and Tesco.*sigh* New games are something close to fifty quid. But, books and trading cards are relatively cheap. So best to stock up on those before leaving...
• Local Fauna - Spiders look really sinister, but they tend to stay in hedges and bushes so there's no trouble running into them. Butterflies are considerably larger than the English variety. Dogs are mostly tiny, and wolves are extinct. Crows leave their beaks hanging open a lot, why I know not. Lack of education?
• The Language - Looking foreign and being a bit of a loner, sometimes it feels like maybe I'm not getting as much practice in Japanese as I should do. However, seeing that most signs, shop names etc. are written in Japanese, there are a few kanji that tend to stick a bit better due to their constant repetition and use in place names, so even just walking around can help sometimes.

Japanese Snacks, Vol. 1 - Onigiri: triangular lumps of rice wrapped in seaweed, with various fillings, in this case, egg, though I more often partake of the salmon, tuna mayo and chicken teriyaki varieties.

暑くてたまらないよ!

Lesson learned from today? Lots of establishments in Japan are chains - don't try to use them as landmarks to navigate your way around. Also, in Summer have lots of water on you and refill at every available opportunity! From these comments more astute readers may guess that today I went exploring and got a bit lost (I did something like the equivalent of trying to get to Southampton City Centre from Woolston and ending up in Lyndhurst). I think I better understand the mentality of Japanese court ladies of old - on a day like this lounging around the house in paper-thin robes writing poetry would go down a treat.

I started off walking down a random road and seeing where it took me. It took me many places, but mostly residential rather than to shops and things like that. Though I did find quite a few pleasant parks, and some fancy bigish houses. Took quite a few pictures this time; good scenery all around. Also, Japan (or at least Nagoya) can be surprisingly quiet. I passed quite a few streets on my way back that were practically uninhabited. A lot of houses have quite a distance between their front gate and the house proper, too, so it can all look quite eerie in the dirk. That will give you an idea of how long I was wandering around, and the fact that the underground station I eventually used to get home was the last one of the line will give you an idea of how far I wandered. A somewhat exhausting day.

One of the parks I sheltered in throughout the day

週末だわ!

Last night, bearing in mind that the only thing I had to go to was at six in the evening, I thought if I slept in a little bit it might help to finally get over my jet lag. It worked - I got up at 8 in the morning... English time >.< That's 4 in the afternoon Japanese time. I had just about properly woken up when I was called upon to help out with the finishing touches to the purin from last night - we arranged oranges on top into a heart shape! Everyone else was finishing off their shizz as well, and before we knew it we were off the Welcome Party!

In the past week and a bit, I have learned many important life lessons. One is, when a beautiful young woman asks you why you're not single, being separated from the person you're in love with by nearly 6000 miles is perhaps not the best answer. Another is, don't go anywhere in Japan without a camera! Even a trip down to the shops may present all kinds of unique scenery or experiences. So sorry all, guess you'll have to wait 'til I turn up on Facebook to see what this party was like >.< In the meantime, allow me to paint a picture of it with words!

Seeing as it was held at an international dormitory, and the theme was "Pot Luck," i.e. bring whatever you can make, there was a great variety of persons and food. Everyone was eatin', drinkin' and havin' fun, though it was quite difficult to try to eat with chopsticks while also holding a plate and can. Suddenly, everyone sat down for a game of bingo! The first prize to be claimed was a subway ticket! Second was a glass with a One Piece design! Third, which I claimed, was a packet of ... something. From what I could understand of the instructions, it's some kind of lurve bath mix that you use with or on the person you like (like, like like) or something. In conclusion, meeting new people and free stuff, so quite a good day.

Something else that was on offer - okonomiyaki, a sort of pancake/omlette

疲れたけど...

Wow, it's been a full day over here. I feel tired and my pockets feel lighter, but I'm starting to feel better about this whole experience. First up today was more orientation malarkey - primarily announcement of the results of yesterday's placement test. This, however, is only an initial decision, two more tests to go until which classes we are in is decided and set in stone. For the moment, though, I got placed in Intensive Japanese 500. To give a bit of explanation, there's 6 levels of the Japanese course, IJ200 being for those with hardly any experience, and IJ700 being crazy advanced. So for me this is an alright result, but if possible I want to try to push myself up to 600. We also had some stuff about confirming addresses, and designing and ordering an inkan, or ink stamp, which is what they tend to use here instead of signatures.

Next, I had to go to the local Ward Office (a bit like Southampton City Council's Gateway) for Alien Registration - that is, registering as an alien, not registering an alien. The journey there involved my first trip on a Japanese underground train, or 地下鉄(chikatetsu). My initial thoughts on it... buying a ticket was a lot like in London, except the tickets themselves were smaller. The trains are broader and more square and silvery-coloured than in England. I found myself fascinated trying to read the various adverts, and saw a few genuine high school kids in uniforms like what you see in the manga. How their shirts stay so amazingly white and pristine is a mystery to me.

So, registration went OK, just lots of boring paperwork. Came back to the dorms, then went exploring around the Uni campus a little bit, then back to the dorms again for a trip out to a big shopping centre! We had dinner at a restaurant serving shabu shabu, which is quite an interesting dish. There's a hot-plate sort of affair in the middle of the table, on which is put a bowl divided into two sections, one with water and a small strip of seaweed, the other with a different ingredient - curry, soya, that sort of thing. This is heated up to boiling point, then you get vegetables and thinly-sliced strips of raw meat, which you dip in either one or both bits of the dish until it's cooked. One of our party described it as "DIY food." It was well good, though. Afterwards we had a look around the shops for about an hour and a half.

Shabu-shabu

Finally, I got to see some of the Japan I imagined! There was an arcade full of games and shinyness, just outside of which was a looooong line of different capsule machines. Then I found myself in the games section of a department store. O-O Pokémon Black & White, Metroid Other M, Project Zero 4, I found it a considerable strain to control myself. There was a big bookshop as well, full of many kinds of books but mainly I was looking at the manga. And there was a supermarket on the ground floor, so I was finally able to get some comparatively cheap supplies, score! It was really fun, but I wished my friends could have been there to enjoy it as well.

Last order of the day was a little bit of preparation for a Welcome Party going on tomorrow evening at Nagoya Koryu Kaikan (a slightly bigger dorm up the road a bit from mine). Everyone's meant to make and bring some food, so we split into teams to each make something different. The team I ended up in decided on purin, a sweet and squishy Japanese dessert. I was a little bit tired and not paying a lot of attention (my contribution to the effort was mainly stirring things), but it seems quite easy to make, though I couldn't rattle off the ingredients from the top of my head. We left it in the fridge overnight to set, while I put myself in a bed overnight.

First Day

I dreamed of my friends. It was sexy, but also rather sad. I woke up to realise that Japan is hot and cicadas are noisy. The little chaps don't ease up for a moment, either. I think gradually I'm coming to get used to them as background noise, though, like traffic and sirens in London. Met a few of the dormmates and walked to Uni together, though I'm terrible with names and faces and chronically shy sometimes, so that little trip was fairly uneventful. But! I was able to take in the surrounding area in the daylight, and it's quite nice. Japan has a lot of concrete block-type buildings, but also nice medium-sized houses, and lots of greenery, too, so it doesn't feel like an English council estate or nuffink. The Uni itself has a big Japanese-y looking gate at the entrance - the moment we passed through this gate, a crow cawed. Ominous?




First order of the day - placement test! It was ... kinda strange. All multiple choice, and strangely easy until the last section, which was nigh on incomprehensible. After that we had an orientation thigamy, having welcome talks from senior staff and going through materials given us in an orientation pack. This included - I kid you not - a 'phone charm with a chibi version of the school president. Only in Japan.

With the afternoon free, what did I next, you ask? Explore? No. Due to jet lag my body was all "Bedtime! Bedtime!" I slept for a little while, then there was a dorm meeting, everyone did the self-introduction thing. A few names and faces stuck better this time. I'm the only English person living here, there's also folk from Japan (obviously), America, China, France and Korea... and I think I heard a whisper that there's Italians on the way, too.

I went to a shop at some point to get some supplies, was a little overwhealmed by the variety and unfamiliarity of it all, so ended up just with bare essentials - bread, milk, etc. But I got change, so started familiarising myself with Japanese coinage a bit. I spent a lot of the evening getting online, catching up with a few people and generally arranging my room to be appropriate to my tastes. Though I try to listen to my environmental conscience, I find myself having both the window open and the air con on. Eventually I went to sleep at nighttime over here, but woke up for evening back in England, 2 in the morning in Japan. Little by little, I think I'm adjusing to the time difference.

The Journey

I left Southampton bundled into my parents' car, having that day collected my Japanese monies and bid farewell to family and friends. We all wore smiles in anticipation of things to come, though tinged with sadness at our temporary parting. The drive to Heathrow was far more quick and painless than I had expected - we arrived in good time, checked in bags &c. without a hitch. I was wandering how I'd fill in the remaining time until the flight, when wonder of wonders, Belle and Fran appeared from the ether to join in the sendoff. Good fun and I had a stream of goodbye texts before boarding.

As to the flight itself, some 11 hours from Heathrow to Shanghai. So, what's with airline food, amiright? It's custard, Richard. Actually I didn't find it too bad. And as to being on my first really long flight... the main problem was fighting off boredom. I slept for a lot of it, read some of Three Men in a Boat, and slept some more. The movement of aeroplanes is quite soporific, really, once the get going. The last sight I had of England was a big criss-cross of lights, like a big, flat Christmas tree.

Eventually I found myself in China, where the first thing I noticed was a difference in quality of the air. It took me a moment to realise that this was not pollution or exhaust from the planes, but just that it was hot. Still more eventually I found myself on the plane to Japan, but we were delayed by - as far as I could perceive - rain. Chinese rain looks a lot like the stuff we get in England, at least that's how it looked through the window. My first sight of Japan was a similar criss-cross of lights, but less ordered than those I left behind, and with more spaces in between. And the moon, our same moon, shining in the sky!

Getting through customs felt a little less than pleasant, but maybe that was more the result of stress from long travel and sudden change in climate rather than some kind of "screw your rules" or "Ow, my privacy" kind of feelings. Was met by my dorm leader, Uchi-san (haven't told him about the 'doommate' story yet) and we got a taxi to the dorm, Yamazato Koryu Kaikan. At this point it was past midnight, so after finding my room I more or less threw off my clothes and got into bed. I wanted to sleep, but the Japanese summer had other ideas. I don't have any numbers on hand to express the temperature, but it was much hotter than I had been for a while, and jet lag didn't make for a very peaceful night. Still, I had reached my destination, ready for new experiences, and at least I didn't have to worry about falling out of the sky anymore.

Outside View of my Dorm