Cal Out Of Japan

Part Three! There's not much left to tell about my journey home - a taxi took me to some relatives with whom I spent the night (should you be reading, Mags, Tim and Jack, thanks again!), then next morning a train took me back to family and friends. In spite of all the trouble it caused me I can't deny that all the snow was very pretty. Frankfurt may have looked like a Christmas card with its blanket of snow, but the English countryside (and even cityscapes) made me feel like I was in The Box of Delights (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Box_of_Delights#BBC_television_adaptation).

My time at home so far has been enjoyable, though tiring trying to fit in time to see friends, work, see family, study, play et cetera. Only experienced mild Re-Entry Shock (it turns out I miss being greeted by a cheery "Irasshaimaseeee!" when I enter a shop), but had no trouble getting used to eating while walking, using pounds and being able to get around on foot fairly quickly again. I will admit, though, that speaking English in formal situations and eating Cornish pasties, sandwiches and so on took some getting used to, though the latter has been amply compensated by the high produced by drinking my beloved Relentless. I also attempted to make my own potato croquettes, a very messy but not wholly unsuccessful venture.

A brief respite, then the next big adventure is the Spring term, starting early January and ending late May. I'm feeling good about the next term; hopefully I can take use my experiences from this term and go in feeling a bit more comfortable and less afraid of offending people, getting lost, losing all my money and that sort of thing. I hope to do enough that will make interesting entries, so whether you've been with me from the start or only just dipped in recently, stick with me for more adventures, and whatever you do or don't celebrate at this time of year, I wish you a good time and good health, dear readers!

よく聞け！こうやって並べ!

Welcome to Part Two. I got to the airport again next morning in a free taxi, feeling full of hope. All seemed in order, I was in the queue to board, but mere minutes before I should have got on the flight was cancelled. Enter another queue from Hell. Two staff members attempting to help out a plane's worth or more of people. As aggravating as it was at the time (I waited four and a half hours before seeing someone), looking back it's quite amusing how people start to get chummy after sharing hardships. Also odd that in our age of high-speed information exchange the truth is just as hard to find as ever, and rumour flies perhaps faster than before:
"The plane's still on the runway. Why was it cancelled?"
"I hear they called it off because they thought it might snow in England."
"I 'phoned my friend and he says the sun's shining, and we would have been there by now."
"I hear they ran out of de-icer."
"I hear they're closing the transfer desk in fifteen minutes."

So, a new plan emerged for getting home - a train across the continent. One more queue later, however, I was informed that there were no trains going my way until Tuesday morning. At this point I seriously lost heart for a moment - I think the exact phrase I used to express my discontent was "Triple arse with fuckwit spunkbubbles!" Other people I had seen in the queues had strong shoulders to cry on, or soft lips from which to draw comfort, or just someone to be there for them and let them know they weren't alone. As for me I had no choice but to carry on doing all I could on my own, and hoping that good grace and the prayers of my friends and family might help the process along. At the end of another queue I made plans, and stayed the night at a different hotel, ready to give things another try the next day.

The monotony of my experiences on Monday don't make for particularly interesting reading. First queue - obtained "ground transportation voucher." Second queue - was informed there were no train tickets available for the rest of the week. Third queue - booked on a flight to Birmingham later in the day. I had about enough time to shoot back to the hotel and relax for half an hour or so. As the destined time approached I kept a close eye on the information displayed. Flights to London cancelled. Flights to Manchester cancelled. My flight to Birmingham - not cancelled yet. Looking back I think I must have been hoping for success, but even as I found the appropriate gate and waited there, even when boarding started, even when I was on the plane, I barely dared to dream that it would all come off until we were actually in the air.

After a short flight we touched down on English soil once again. However, it seems even the airport staff didn't expect our flight to make it, for our arrival took them by surprise and we were delayed on the plane for a little while. I was then delayed further in the luggage hall, for I wasn't even sure if my bags had made it here with me or if they were being sent on later. After two or three hours it came out that it was the latter. A little inconvenient, but I was satisfied enough that I was definitely, undeniably physically back in England once more. I was home.

This is not Birmingham Airport at night.

弾け、飛梅！

I've had a right old time getting here, but I am finally back on sweet Albion terra firma. Part One, as the next few paragraphs may be called, was mostly written while in Chubu International Airport, when I was still in a good mood. Stay tuned for Part Two and a shift in temperament!

At some point during Friday night I managed to drift off. I was in the middle of a corking dream about being at a party with friends, when my alarm rudely jerked me awake. Never mind, I thought to myself, the real thing awaits! Seeing as I considered it an hour at which no one should have business being awake, I was startled to find several housemates already downstairs, presumably in the middle of an "all-nighter." Still, it was nice to have someone to say goodbye to. Having double- and triple-checked that I had everything I could need, I trundled out the door, determined that nothing would go wrong with my trip home. I managed to lose my underground ticket between Irinaka and Kanayama (a few days later it turned up wedged between some cards), but a quick excess fare later I was on to the next leg of the journey.

This was my second time riding a Japanese overground train, and my first time buying my own ticket (which I didn't let out of my sight) and getting on without a guide. Perhaps because my schedule had altered since its first draft, I forgot about changing trains until I got to Aoyama station - a pleasant enough place, with a healthy smell of manure and mysterious digeridoo sounds in the crisp morning air, but nonetheless quite out of my way. Got back on the track alright, though, and had a pleasant surprise. On Japanese trains announcements of next stop etc. are made first in Japanese, then again in English, but on the service to the airport the English segment was made in an English (i.e. not American) accent. A refreshing foreshadowing of home!

Arriving at the airport I felt a surge of excitement. I still had plenty of time to spare, and I considered if the two hiccups so far were the worse that happened the situation would be quite satisfactory. When checking in (suitcase 18kg on the dot - not bad as I was only guessing the weight while packing) I was gratified that in spite of my obvious foreignness the lady behind the counter spoke to me in Japanese. I found the airport far more impressive in the bright morning with all its Christmas decorations than when I first arrived, tired and a little bit scared, way back in September. Suddenly I had a craving for coffee! So I found a café, relaxed over a cup and caught up with some writing for a while.

As anyone who has flown before will surely know, there's not that much to tell about the trip into the wild blue yonder. Sitting down for twelve plus hours and trying to keep occupied. All was going swimmingly until we arrived in Frankfurt. All internal flights and lots of international ones cancelled due to snow and such, and one hell of a queue to the transfers desk as everyone tried to work out what to do. Eventually I got booked on a flight to Manchester next morning and put up in an hotel overnight. Not an ideal situation, one admits, but at least it was on the mend... or so I thought.

This is the sky. It's what aeroplanes fly in.

期末

The fated day finally arrived! What can I say? I was up in good time and feeling ready to take on the last exam. This one took more time compared to the others, but I still got it done to my satisfaction. Questions included one section for writing one's opinion on education - specifically, where 'tis nobler in the mind to endure harsh studies in High School, with the promise of a laid back life at University (as in Japan) or the other way around (as in the West). There was also a portion for filling in blanks to demonstrate understanding of various grammar points. I was tempted to write humorous sentences, but in the end stuck with tried and tested examples that I knew would do the job. And with that the Autumn term came to an end.

Of course, there was much to do before the day was out! A few hours to relax, pack, paint my nails and put on my face, then off to the Farewell Party! A great number of people were gathered, for in addition to the usual suspects there were also dormmates, host families and even a few families from home to join in the celebrations. Some were dressed in finery, some bidding emotional farewells, but all in all a fine spirit of jocularity reigned. Food was consumed with great passion and gone before one knew it. I was satisfied enough, though, to have eaten karaage again and to have tried nikuman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikuman) for the first time.

Yet there were still more appointments to keep! Four of our number from Yamazato Koryu Kaikan were leaving us, so we had one last soiree, marred only slightly by most of us still being full from the previous party. It was good fun to be all together one last time, and looking back on what we've done together in these last three plus months really seem to have flown. As a gift everyone received a commemorative photo collage, and everyone wrote a message on each, though I must admit trying to think of something even vaguely thoughtful/insightful for everyone was unexpectedly difficult. Had to be up early to leave next morning, so tried to go to bed at a decent hour, though I doubted I would get much sleep for the excitement.

Th-th-th-th-th-th-that's all, folks!

You Promised Me Broadway Was Waiting For Me

My last week in Japan before heading back to England for Christmas has begun! No normal lessons this week, only exams - one (Classical Japanese) on Monday afternoon, the other (Japanese) on Friday morning. Obviously, then I launched straight into some revision on Monday morning... or something like it. Having been told what would be covered in the exam, to comb through relevant sections of the textbook seemed a reasonable approach, but not one that could last several hours. When the exam actually arrived I was surprised; I'd been expecting something more... well, something more. It was supposed to last an hour but I managed to finish in a third of this time. I shouldn't complain about lack of challenge, as I'm sure I got a few questions wrong, but that I could complete it to the best of my ability so quickly feels a little bit strange.

So, this left me with three full days to myself. Of course, revision has been top priority, but one needs a spot of variety in life. On Tuesday I made measures against my almost fatal lack of preparation and tendency to get lost, and scouted out the best route to the airport, as well as checking how long each leg of the journey should take. I don't foresee any big problems, but still crossing my fingers. I also went in search of a game not released outside of Japan, finding several game shops not known to me before, but alas, no Project Zero 4. The search must continue in the new year. Determined that sitting in front of a computer need not mean having my browser open to social network/imageboard of choice and tapping F5 in a vegetative state, I also read some of an article and learned a thing or two about the Buddhist concept of mara (delusion). Wednesday was considerably less conductive, Thursday was somewhere in between, and then...

Wild 'Tree ' Appeared!

忘年会

This weekend has been irregular, exciting and enjoyable. I felt quite a bit of relief on Saturday and embraced a few hours of lazy relaxation. But then! Social duties beckoned me outwards for my monthly meet-up with the Matsuos. December's get-together with the adoptive Aunt-and-Uncle was to take the form a New Years Party (or perhaps Year's End Party is more appropriate) at the building in which they live, out in Inazawa. This is not too far from Nagoya, a mere ten minutes by train, of course I did have to get an underground train to Nagoya station, a large and lively place where it's easy to get lost and not find the person you've gone there to meet. After the slight delay this caused, Squadalah! We were off.

A few thoughts first on Japanese flats, or if you prefer, tower blocks, apartment buildings or マンション. It doubtless says something about my as-yet narrow view of the world that I find it difficult to disassociate this kind of accommodation with ideas of a lack of space and temporary lodging while waiting for something better to turn up. Therefore it was refreshing and eye-opening to learn there are places where flats are as spacious and charmingly comfortable as any house, and even with a guest-room twice the size of my room at Yamazato. If ever I should once more find myself living in Japan for any extended period, to shack up in such a place would make me feel that I had "hit the big time."

On to the party itself! Food included sushi, pizza, various arrangements of chicken, onion-ring-like things except with squid instead of onions, and various crisps-and-chocolate style snacks. Also, I ate pig intestine and I liked it. Certainly, there were lots of introductions to be made, can't remember everyone's names. There was one character who kept calling me Charlie, and introduced me as a younger sibling of Takahiro's. He turned out to be rather knowledgeable about England, not that anyone believed what he said without confirmation from me. Another chap was quite up on rock music of the UK, USA and Japan, so we a had quite a bit in common. A few times I was asked what I thought of Japanese girls, whether these questions were posed in a purely curious or somewhat matchmakery way I'm not sure, but answered with a tactful "There's someone I like who's in England."

I stayed overnight, in the aforementioned large guest room, complete with futuristic toilet and tatami-flooring (not in the same room). During the night I had the classic experience of being taller than the average Japanese person and finding the futon a little bit lacking, but I still managed to be comfortable. The next morning I was kindly driven home, though we stopped first at a coffee shop to perk up a bit. I was much impressed by the level of technology in the car - there was a card that fit into a slot somewhere and handled the paying for toll bridges and the like, and a screen that had functions of GPS, radio and TV! So all in all, I was very glad to have seen various aspects of Japan I would not have experienced on my own, and much touched by Chihiro and Takahiro's generous hospitality. And with that, on to Exam Week!

Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May

The title of this entry has some relevance - I recently noticed some momiji leaves that had been so vibrantly red not long ago starting to shrivel up and die. Surely Winter is on the horizon, but Thursday and Friday were sighted off the port side! They were quite eventful this week, so sit down while I tell you a tale. Our traditional Thursday morning lesson speaking with Japanese student concluded in a party-like fashion, with various games, japes and demonstrations of divers talents. The Masters of Ceremony were two chaps from our class, I'll not namedrop just in case, but they are fair overflowing with charisma and style, and were a joy to watch in action. I think I have new ideas for Japanese TV-style games and hosting. People who were only here for one term also made farewell speeches; I'm sure they will be remembered fondly.

Friday morning brought with it the first written examination of the season, which included questions on grammar, reading comprehension, word definitions and speed reading. No problem for the likes of me! I saw it to its satisfactory conclusion quite early, though I was not the first to finish and leave (second, in fact). During my subsequent wonderings I was confronted by a classmate with the invitation "We're all going to karaoke tonight, you should come, too. Or I'll kill ya!" Disturbing, yes, but rather touching in its way. First, though, I was faced with a less agreeable responsibility - the deadline for my Japanese Religions Research Paper was that very day at five of the clock, post meridian. In a flash - more like a crawl, if I'm honest - I finished it, handed it in, so now may it never darken my door again!

End of term celebrations I promised you, dear readers, and now I can deliver! I found the place where we were to meet just about on time, and much to my surprise it was the same karaoke club I went to back at the start of November! We were there at a busy time, of course, so could only afford to stay for a comparatively short time, but I think everyone got a couple of songs in, and a fun atmosphere was surely created. Afterwards a few people toddled off homeward, while others of us continued on to an arcade to do Purikura.

I believe I mentioned these in passing before, they're sort of photo booths where you can go with friends, take some pictures and then change them around a bit - widen up the eyes, change skin tone, add cute pictures and captions, that sort of thing. The name comes from Purinto (Print) and Kurabu (Compare). I never saw the appeal before, but it actually was quite enjoyable! I think it's usual to have up to four people in one machine, but we somehow managed twelve. Achievement!

A fine souvenir of the Autumn term

Fin de Siécle

Here we are at the last Monday of normal lessons for the Autumn Semester. First off was a Listening Test, which was not too hard going; we'd be notified before what sort of content would be involved, so even with minimal revision I was able to do pretty well. That done there seemed nothing left to do but... talk about Karaoke? Apparently this one is quite popular, in a they-were-big-a-few-years-back-now-sorta-cheesy-camp-value sort of way: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nFvAq3sp80. The final Tea Ceremony was as good fun as ever, although one fellow who often makes mistakes was incredibly determined to do things right this week. The tension was almost unbearable, but he did well! I shall take away many fun memories of ceremonies in that class.

The final lesson of Classical Japanese was nothing to fax home about, one more grammar point I wasn't too sure about before properly confirmed. On the other hand, some of the things we'd be covering next term were hinted at, and I think I have gained some knowledge of the way both Classical and modern Japanese work, though admittedly not in a way that would come in useful. Most of the evening was occupied with essay writing, although I did have a brief trip out to the shops, for recently I have discovered at what time they start reducing food and am thus become able to pick up some quite cheap sushi!

Tuesday was sadly uneventful. Somehow essay writing didn't quite happen the way it should have. I did get some rather pleasing news, though - since next term I'll move up to the next level of Japanese Class, I was expecting this meant taking IJ600 with the same teachers I met earlier this year (see September entries). But no! All the teachers move up to the next level as well, so I get to stay with the ones I've gotten used to and get on well with. Except for one of them, who is in a delicate state. Writing of essay went more smoothly on Wednesday, and I also had an impromptu interview to apply for some scholarship or other.

Upon Wednesday evening there also occurred an event that may remain in my memory some time. I was on my way to the library and happened to glance down the hill on which Nanzan is perched. I saw the town and surrounding mountains in silhouette, looking like they'd been drawn in charcoal. The sun had already sunk beneath the horizon, and the sky was painted spectacular colours, reds and oranges in the west, blues in the east, all merging seamlessly with each other. At that moment I felt somehow that the troubles of life couldn't last for ever. This sentiment is more or less lifted from an episode of Stephen Fry's "The Dongle of Donald Trefusis," but it is quite genuinely how I felt. It gave me hope.

The Word "Whip" Occurs in the Old Testament No Less Than...

Apologies for lack of entries lately, dear readers. It's been a long old troublesome road, but this term is finally drawing to a close and I have a bit of time on my hands to write again. My last proper entry recounted the events of the 31st of November and 1st December, so I'll pick up the story with Thursday the 2nd. This was the day when our class's Project Work reached its final conclusion. Topics presented by this half of the class included the Computer Games, Manga & Anime, Sports, and Purikura (photobooths) of Japan. More well-known subjects than the last time around, but of course the interesting part was finding out what the opinions of Japanese people turned out to be -which sports are most popular, are games thought of as a bad influence and so on.

Later that evening I ate a whole swiss roll for the first time in ages. I also received a message from a classmate, relayed to me through the kind offices of my building's janitor. Not having a 'phone is not really such an obstacle to communication in the modern world. As for the message itself, it was in the nature of suggesting we meet up before class the next morning to rehearse the skit we due to perform as part of our oral examination. Though I abhor getting up early, I am glad that we did, for that extra practice came in handy. Our skit started off as a simple "two friends talking about what they did over the holidays" sort of affair, then toward the end an element of "will they won't they" and gossip was introduced to make it more interesting. We also had a quick-change moment, which went down well with the audience.

Part Two of the spoken assessment (individual this time) was more heavy on the improvisation - there were three scenarios of which we had previously made aware, one was randomly selected, then talk for about five minutes! Quick and painless, and when everyone had done that we relaxed somewhat by watching a TV adaptation of the short novel "Duke." Amusing and touching, to be sure. As for the weekend, I took a trip over to Osu on Saturday, during which I watched a street performer who was a dab hand at manipulation of dice and balloons, and saw a fellow who had a rabbit on a lead.

In general this week I feel like I've been "waking up" a bit. That is to say, from a financial (and to some extent emotional) standpoint coming to Japan is a lot like an endurance test, and my approach to dealing with it has been to try to restrain my passions, but as Christmas and my time at home draws near, I feel like I'm suddenly remembering who I am. Will I try a less suppressive method next term? Who knows. Rather jumping the gun thinking about that, but I hope you enjoyed this account of Thursday through to Sunday!

Workin' on the railroad.

Put it in the Curry

As I write my project work is finally all finished and I've thrown away anything related to it! Much relief. I went in on Tuesday morning feeling a little bit apprehensive, but somehow once we got started my performance-y instincts kicked in and I actually had fun with it. The fact that we were in a lecture-hall-type classroom and I got to speak through a microphone and use a pointy-stick to draw my audience's attention to pie charts probably added to this effect. Hurrah for toys! Apart from the group I was in, which talked about Fashion Sub-Cultures, I also saw presentations about New Year Gifts, Karaoke, Host Clubs, a brand called Comme de Garcons and mobile 'phone novels. Much of this was interesting, well presented and allowed me to gain knowledge on subjects I had little or no idea about before, so it was definitely worth showing up.

I spent most of the rest of the day wallowing in the satisfaction of completion of this worth-10%-of-final-grade-but-takes-over-a-month-to-do-for-some-reason milestone, mainly in my room vegging out while watching morning television on YouTube. Of course, since it was Japanese morning television ("Hello Morning" to be specific) it had all sorts of cute and bizarre humour, and I could vaguely justify it in my mind as being some kind of revision.

"But what about Wednesday, Cal?" I hear you ask. Once released from morning lessons I took it into my head to do something absolutely essential but that I'd been putting off for some time - getting a re-entry visa. To give a bit of background my student visa entitles me to stay in Japan until December 2011, but it gets voided if I leave before then, so I need special permission to come back after going home for Christmas. So far this makes reasonable sense, but unlike most things relating to living in Japan which can be applied for at a local ward office, re-entry visas are available exclusively from the Immigration Bureau, which is located way off the beaten track, almost in the sea, in fact. I suppose I can understand that mentality - immigrants sometimes arrive or depart from the port, so put the place dealing with immigration near there, but I don't see why there can only be one. Furthermore the nearest landmark to navigate my way there was the city's race track, and I can't imagine walking past shambling semi-corpses with that expression on there face of "If I back just one good horse I can get my life back on track" is really going to encourage people to settle here on a more permanent basis.

Now that you're familiar with my thoughts on the Immigration Bureau as a concept, I got there by taking an underground train to an overground train station, where the best thing to do would have been to catch an overground train to another station, then take a train on a different line to a stop not far from my destination. Or so I thought at one time. I could in fact have taken another underground to somewhere almost as close, but in fact I didn't do either of these, but tried to walk there, navigating with a map and the position of the sun. I got lost once or twice but managed to make it there, where the actual process for getting the visa was refreshingly quick, simple and painless. And since I'll never have to go back there I'd call the entire operation an unwarranted success!

In other news the electronic water heating device in our kitchen recently broke, so I have to use an old iron kettle on a hob to make tea now, which is surprisingly pleasantly nostalgic.

Some roadsigns are no help at all