January 2011 draws to a close. Or perhaps it will already be long gone by the time I get around to posting, but this entry was started on the 31st, so in theory I can still reflect on this, the first month of the new semester and also of the calendar year. How has it gone? If I had to give it a theme or sum it up in one phrase, I'd say it's been a month of "re-acclimatising." Back at the start of the month I had to adjust my way of thinking to accept that I was going back to Japan, despite feeling like I'd been back in England for much longer than a few weeks. On my arrival I had jetlag to deal with, and though I fell back into the Japanese lifestyle easily enough, I'm still finding the rhythm of doing homework and dealing with occasional bouts of homesickness.
As to how I spent the last few days of this month, there we have a few points of interest. I began the weekend by wandering into Sakae, lured there by rumors of Chinese New Year celebrations, which proved false. Either that or I misread the location or date, then threw away the magazine I found it in so couldn't check. Anyhow, this wasn't a huge problem as Sakae is a fun place to spend time even when there aren't events going taking place. On this visit I found a shop stuffed with seven-ish floors worth of manga, CDs, DVDs and other such merchandise. I was just reflecting on how much of the manga on display featured pretty young male protagonists, when I noticed the sign saying "女性向き" and realised each different floor was arranged thematically. Funnily enough I saw gel mouse pads that looked like breasts even on the women's floor, so I suppose they have at least some consideration for different demographics.
I may have mentioned before that Nagoya's sister city is Los Angeles, and there is a park commemorating this union. While wandering around said park I discovered a replica Hollywood walk of fame. I'm not sure if I shall ever get around to seeing the real one, so it was quite enjoyable to look at some famous names.
That evening the housemates gathered for the delayed party (see previous entry), and there we did share drinking games from our various countries and regions. Three of us collaborated and mixed rules to create an international version of Ring of Fire, which we played two rounds of in total. I also learned games from Finland and Japan, which involved clapping and drinking and I'm not sure if they actually had names or not. As the more astute of you may have already guessed I got rip-roaringly drunk, and woke up on Sunday morning to face the first hangover I have had since coming to Japan. This put me in a tricky position as usually when I'm hungover I feel better after eating a fry-up, or a grilled ham and cheese sandwich, or indeed anything as long as it contains lots of meat and cheese and is dripping in grease. Those kinds of food are not easy to come by in Japan, so I was rather slow at recovering and indeed I felt so bad that I barely ventured out of my room all day. Saturday night had been great fun, though, so I'd say it was totally worth the price I paid!
