2005 and Life

After re-organising my blog I was looking over some of my entries from 2005, its wierd how long ago that was and how many issues I had at the time. I guess working for practically no wage in the blazing sun, whilst been watched over every second of every day kinda gets to you eventually. However my experiences this time haven't been like that all, for a start I get paid a good wage, I have my own flat (as opposed to a room in a community hall thing) I am free to do whatever I like (as long as its not illegal or damaging to the school/country relations) and I have other english speaking people to talk to this time, so all is well so far. I guess one thing that ruffled some feathers last time was when I got my japanese girlfriend, but as my new girlfriend is all the way in England now its not an issue.

I am still up and down about staying 1 year though, as some days I feel like I want to get started in my design (or related) career as staying here longer could harm that, plus my girlfriend is all there and it would be nice to start a life in England with her. However, due to the recession and my enjoyment of Japan, it just seems like such a silly thing to give it up after just 1 year. I am pretty much like 90% sure that I will be back in England in August though, but I always get that naggling feeling everytime I think about it.

Here is a mini list of some things I miss about England and some things I don't:

Miss.......

My girlfriend and family (of course)
English chocolate
Tuesday's tea and cake with my aunties and grandma
Going to pubs (especially with my cousin, as we get a yummy takeaway after)
Ovens (Japanese homes dont really have ovens so you cant cook anything big)
TV (I dont watch much tv in England, though its nice to just turn it on and not see a group of crazy japanese people talking behind a desk about something that usually isnt funny)
Cars (I miss using my car, or should I say my mums. Also Japanese drivers suck)
Beds (Sleeping on a futon is all well and good but its annoying putting away and taking it out every day)
Libraries (I liked going to the library back in England to pick up a few new books or graphic novels, but here they are all in Japanese, of course)
Bitter and Ale (Japanese beer is pretty crap and insanely expensive, plus its very hard to find and/or additionally expensive to buy bitter/ale type drinks)

Don't miss......

Crime and Safety (I always feel safe in Japan no matter where I am or at what time, except the seedy parts of big cities I guess. In England its not like im scared all the time but there is always a bad stigma about many areas)
Unemployment I love getting a regular wage packet and probably the biggest issue I have with going home is that I will be unemployed!!
The Weather well this is abit of a mixed issue as Japanese weather is great in winter but extremely sucky in summer, whereas English weather is usually just dull.
Not having my own place its all good and well having someone to do things like washing and ironing your clothes, cooking dinner e.t.c, but its so much better having the independance of your own place.

Well im sure there are a lot of other things I can add to that list but I gotta go washing my clothes (Doh!)

Oh and just to add I will be putting up some pictures of my time in Japan, which may or may not have any relation to the post (Its just nice to have abit of colour I guess)

2011 - The rebirth

Well my attempt to regularily update this blog didnt work out too well as its January 2011 now and my last post was about in September talking about August, but oh well lets not dwell on past mistakes as its a new year and tradition dictates that we have a chance to start afresh.

Well since the Sakaide festival in August I have been to many more events (which I wont go into too much now as trying to backlog 5 months would be a tad overkill) such as:

Awa Odori (which was in Tokushima and involved hundreds of dancers doing the traditional Awa Odori dance through the streets, however I didnt take my proper camera so I missed some amazing shots)

The Tenmaya Beer Garden Party (the less said about that, the better)

Visiting Ritsurin Park for the first time (very beautiful at the right time of year)

Going to the speech contests of a couple of the students I helped train.

Going to numerous enkai's (very expensive work meal/drink events)

Visiting Naoshima, Shodoshima and Teshima to see the art exhibits for the Setouchi Art Festival.

Missing out on going to the Halloween party due to been ill :(

Going to the Marugame castle party (of which I am proud to say I managed to conquer the wall)

Going to an Onsen party at Justins (the onsen wasnt at Justins of course but we were there before and after)

Going to Naoshima Elementary School for the "Meet the World" event (very cute kids)

Going to Round 1 which is a place where you can do a crap load of stuff from trying out batting cages to rollerblading to riding on bulls and playing computer games (extremely fun)

And of course, my epic 8 day Xmas/New Year journey around Kansai with Thomas (more on that in depth in my next post)

Well there have been many more fun and exciting things and hopefully those that happen in this new year will be posted up here (hopefully consistently)

8th August - Sakaide Festival

Today was the Sakaide festival so I met up with Chris and the guys from Tokyo Orientation. Before the festival started we were treated to free beer and got many different looks from the japanese crowd considering foreigners have only been allowed to part very recently. The festival involved carrying a 2 ton shrine with about 30-40 other people a couple of miles to meet up with 10 other teams who were doing the same. It was hard work considering we had to go slow and low in some areas to avoid telegraph wires or in some areas we had to turn the shrine around to get through the tight streets. When we finally got to the meeting ground we were allowed a little rest and some ice cream and then we had to perform a lifting dance act with the shrine which really took the wind out of me, but It was all good fun. I managed to chat with so many different Japanese people who were in such good moods and the whole day was just great.

When the main event had finished we had to carry the shrine back to the starting point (which seemed to take 5 times longer than the original journey, most likely as a lot of people had probably given up by that point) When we got back we were treated to more beer and loads of udon and sushi which was definitely needed at that moment.

5th August

Today was the first day at Koto Junior High School which meant that I could not be late. Being late in Japan is a big insult and can determine how you are seen for the rest of your say. Needless to say I set my alarm for 7.10am so that I would be able to arrive on time for 8.30am. All was going to plan until I finally set off at 7.45am. My predecessor has graciously made me a map complete with highlighted directions and although I had had my quick overview of the journey by car without the map I would have truly lost my way. However that isn’t to say I went from A-B on the morning it came to testing out my orientation skills for I probably overshot the distance by around 2 or 3 miles at first by forgetting to turn right at a pivotal point. This left on a never ending road and although there were both houses and some shops around there seemed to be no people, so I carried on in the hope I would see something or something that would point me in the best direction. My first saviour was a lady outside what was either an office or a shop, who after showing her my map indicated that I was about 3 or 4 cm’s away from my intended destination. As time was ticking on I backtracked until I came across another cross roads and had to resort to asking a street worker for more directions who thankfully pointed me towards one route. I then came across the sign with the giant fish on (not a real one so don’t be afraid Emma) “hurrah!” I thought to myself as I knew it was not far from the school and I still had around 15 minutes left to spare. As I remembered that we passed a bridge in the car I followed another road until I again was lost. As I could not see that school from my vantage point I stopped a woman just before she was getting into her car to plead in the hope that she would be my final call before I arrived at the school gates. By this time it was around 8.20am and with temperatures rising both from fear and climate I knew that if I took another wrong turn I would be late. So back across the bridge I went until again I arrived at the giant fish. I took my time to survey the landscape and attempted to recall where we turned from that position on the day prior and then noticed the street that had eluded me previously. “Thank god its the school” I thought to myself as wheeled myself in dripping of sweat and sun tan lotion.

As for the actually work it involved me sitting around doing pretty much nothing for most of the day.... well not completely but i'm sure i've gone on enough in this post just talking about getting there.

Oh! and I got lost on the way home too and them got soaked when it decided to pour down....

2nd-3rd August

I won’t go on too much about orientation, as it was nothing special. Some of the classes were informative but the main point was that it allowed people to get to know each other and get ourselves ready to step into our jobs. Some of the main highlights were:

Having a room on the 30 something-th floor with an awesome view of the street below and hotel pool.

Going to the Skylight bar on the top of the Keio Plaza, from where we could see most of Tokyo.

Getting over my Jetlag

1st August - Travelling to Japan

After an exhausting 11 or 12 hour plane journey I finally touched down on Japanese soil. The trip was pretty exhausting and I think I only managed to get an hour’s sleep (which I believe was 1 hour before we landed and was subsequently awakened by the air hostess), The food on the plane was surprisingly good, with a choice of 2 meals, both of which were Japanese style and neither of which were brought back up, so a good result I would say. My seating position was unfortunately in the middle of 2 people, although there was no fat French man this time so it was more bearable, even so, I would have killed for a window seat as I constantly had to avoid napping on someone else’s shoulder.

When I got off the plane I could feel the force of the Japanese summer, but I just had to put my head down and work through it. Our first port of call was immigration and it was probably the longest I’ve have ever had to wait to officially get into a country. For a start the queue was never-ending and it literally took about 1 and a half hours to get to the main desk, where we were photographed, fingerprinted and stamped. I guess my plans of becoming a master criminal and escaping Japan undetected have been ruined. After I managed to make it down the stairs I had to pick up my luggage, which was graciously waiting for me beside the turnstile, a big relief I can tell you. Then off I went through the entry doors of Japan, minus a short bag inspection of course. As I passed through the doors I had a friendly greeting from some American Jet as she said “Welcome to Japan”, which was surprisingly said rather energetically even though it must have been the 1000^th time she had probably said it. I was then directed along a corridor of Jet helpers that made it practically impossible to wander in the wrong direction in my sleep deprived state. At the half way point for a short information stop I felt like getting a drink, however of course I only had a 1000 yen note and the vending machine gave to change. “Oh crap, I thought to myself” so I asked for change but no-one had the correct amount. Though as I was about to resign myself to the fact I wouldn’t have a drink for awhile, one of the Jet helpers bought me a bottle of green tea, it really made my first day in Japan a good memory and made up for the exhaustion from the plane and the airport, its just a shame I wanted a coke….

Once we left the airport on our jet bus we headed to the “Keio Plaza” hotel in the heart of Tokyo, well Shinjuku. We got to see the beautiful smog eclipse city of Tokyo as we crossed the bridge on the way in and although the majority of people were half asleep I tried to see as much as I could. When we arrived at the hotel we went through a pretty painless checking in procedure (everything along the way from the airport to the hotel was done perfectly by Jet and really helped everyone). As it was about 8.30pm by that time and everyone was confused as to whether we should be awake or asleep, I decided I would have an early night after some food, so me and my roommate Richard headed over to the nearby family mart (remembering every step we took so we could get back without trouble) and bought a bit of food before we headed back.

And so was the end of my first day in Japan (for the 2^nd time) aside from the fact that I got like 1 hour sleep if that and the rest of the time was spend staring at the ceiling wondering why the hell I couldn’t get to sleep.

31st July - Leaving England

There is going to be a load of writing here which dates back to the 31st of July so you can just skip by this if you already know of my adventures so far:

Waking from my travel lodge accommodation I set off on what was to be the final leg of my journey to Japan. I was accompanied by my parents who had brought me from my hometown of Hull to Heathrow from where I would be catching my flight to Tokyo. However as the flight was not until 7pm our first stop was to some beautiful stately Abbey, which was surely a true representation of how beautiful England can be. With acres of lands, interspersed with small monuments and overwhelming trees the abbey was more the size of a small town rather than that of what I guess would be classed as someone’s back garden. Through the antiques and grazing deer I was presented with what was to be my last taste of the English countryside, the start of where I would trade cows for rice fields, county manors for pagoda’s and a light rain for blistering heat.

Our next port of call was to be the town (city or whatever) of Windsor from where would experience both the elegance, hustle and kitsch approach of Britain’s historical ways. With a view of the canal myself and my parents sat with fish in chips in hand to savour another part of England’s famous delights. Savouring the taste of cooked cod and batter for what would surely be replaced by sushi and tempura I began to think more about all the things I would miss in England, the weather (on some occasions) the local events (which may at times be lacking but they do try) the British pint of ale and bitter from our local pubs, my home-cooked Sunday dinners with the accompaniment of my grandmother, but perhaps most of all I would miss my girlfriend, who after over 4 years has for some reason stuck with me. Through my bad habits, my time away at University, my laziness and my bad cooking, she had decided to love me and now in the most difficult test of our relationship we are parted once more. Through bad luck and timing she in fact left before I did to go on holiday with her parents to Canada, a nation ironically from where many of my new friends are from. It was almost torture to say goodbye to each other and even though I managed to stay strong I felt like I was falling apart inside. Perhaps we were fortunate to have said our goodbyes before I left so that there would be no tears at the airport, no last minute changes of hearts and no long ride home. Canada would keep her occupied for the time being and anymore tears can be said through a webcam.