Sunday, 29 May 2005
Friday, 27 May 2005
I can`t think of an interesting title
Well its been a pretty easy going time since the last post. My arm is almost fully healed and the nursery work is abit more fun (sometimes).
The main news is that Maggie Powell (the GAP representative) came to Nohgata last wednesday with David Busk to check up on my progress and sort a few things out. She pretty much left the issue of Yukari out as she said that it is not their responsiblilty to be concerned with that as I am 19, so it is my own private buisness (I wish the nursery saw my life like that). But I was told that the nursery weren`t happy that I turn offers down from parents, which according to them made it seem as though I had millions of offers, but the only offer I have got was from one of the parents for the golden week, which I turned down because I had another place to go with another family. So alot of what was said was an emphasised version of what really happens, so for most situations there was a 2 sided story, but David Busk said that, that the Japanese will have a tendency to see things worse then they really are. At the end of the talk I decided to ask about what would happen if I decided to leave the nursery and either go back to England or stay in Japan for the rest of my stay and she seemed to take the issue more calmly than I expected. She said that I wouldn`t be assoiated with GAP anymore so they would take away their responsibiliity and that it wouldn`t look very good on my CV. She also said that it would be extremely hard to find an apartment for a foreigner without a job and I wouldn`t be accepted well with the Japanese culture (something along those lines). But the apartment issue is almost sorted, because I know an available apartment in Muromi which isn`t too expensive and I`ve been told I can move in in June, so next saturday June 4th I am going to take a look at the apartment with one of my Japanese friends (Manami) and speak to the other people that share it (its shared with 4 people with a living room, dining room and kitchen).
I have almost certainly decided that I will leave by July at the latest, but what my plan is, is to stay until the 16th of July (which is when the nursery finshes), as apparently they don`t know what I will be doing after that anyway. Although that depends on what happens when I tell them I am leaving, which I will nearing the end of June, and although I plan to see Yukari, when she arrives back to Japan on July 8th, so I will need the day off then and I plan to spend my birthday with her and my friends, so I will see what they say and either leave on the 16th as planned or 1 or 2 weeks prior. I am really looking forward to leaving because everything here seems to be abit boring, with no-one to talk to and doing pretty much the same things in and out of work, also it will give me the chance to work more on doing practice design for University, because I don`t think I have benifited much for my work in the time that I have been here, because by the end of the day I am too tired and there is too much to do, with cleaning and all I want to do is to read, go to the gym (although I can`t at the moment because I have no money to get a new pass) and learn the piano. I`m not trying to justify why I am leaving, but to me I feel I will benefit more from it. I know thing would have been different if I didn`t get a girlfriend, but I am much more happier with than without and although at the moment she is in America I am still happy knowing that she will be back in July and I will live much closer to her without the restrictions of the nursery or the church.
The money issue is the only thing I am worried about. I am not sure of the exact amount I have in England, so I am trying to save every yen I can. The apartment is going to be 90,000yen total for the 2 months (about 450 pound) and then I have to buy food and travel expenses and entertainment and my flight back to Tokyo, so i`m looking at quite alot of money, but I am going to get a part time job when I get back to England and work as much as I can without taking up study time, so that I can pay off any money I owe and so I can save up to see Yukari in Japan, or England or another country.
Tonight im going to the church in Tobata, or somewhere like that (I went there about a month ago) to see some people and stay for the night. So I gotta get my stuff ready and sort out my washing because its partly drying. I hate washing day.
The main news is that Maggie Powell (the GAP representative) came to Nohgata last wednesday with David Busk to check up on my progress and sort a few things out. She pretty much left the issue of Yukari out as she said that it is not their responsiblilty to be concerned with that as I am 19, so it is my own private buisness (I wish the nursery saw my life like that). But I was told that the nursery weren`t happy that I turn offers down from parents, which according to them made it seem as though I had millions of offers, but the only offer I have got was from one of the parents for the golden week, which I turned down because I had another place to go with another family. So alot of what was said was an emphasised version of what really happens, so for most situations there was a 2 sided story, but David Busk said that, that the Japanese will have a tendency to see things worse then they really are. At the end of the talk I decided to ask about what would happen if I decided to leave the nursery and either go back to England or stay in Japan for the rest of my stay and she seemed to take the issue more calmly than I expected. She said that I wouldn`t be assoiated with GAP anymore so they would take away their responsibiliity and that it wouldn`t look very good on my CV. She also said that it would be extremely hard to find an apartment for a foreigner without a job and I wouldn`t be accepted well with the Japanese culture (something along those lines). But the apartment issue is almost sorted, because I know an available apartment in Muromi which isn`t too expensive and I`ve been told I can move in in June, so next saturday June 4th I am going to take a look at the apartment with one of my Japanese friends (Manami) and speak to the other people that share it (its shared with 4 people with a living room, dining room and kitchen).
I have almost certainly decided that I will leave by July at the latest, but what my plan is, is to stay until the 16th of July (which is when the nursery finshes), as apparently they don`t know what I will be doing after that anyway. Although that depends on what happens when I tell them I am leaving, which I will nearing the end of June, and although I plan to see Yukari, when she arrives back to Japan on July 8th, so I will need the day off then and I plan to spend my birthday with her and my friends, so I will see what they say and either leave on the 16th as planned or 1 or 2 weeks prior. I am really looking forward to leaving because everything here seems to be abit boring, with no-one to talk to and doing pretty much the same things in and out of work, also it will give me the chance to work more on doing practice design for University, because I don`t think I have benifited much for my work in the time that I have been here, because by the end of the day I am too tired and there is too much to do, with cleaning and all I want to do is to read, go to the gym (although I can`t at the moment because I have no money to get a new pass) and learn the piano. I`m not trying to justify why I am leaving, but to me I feel I will benefit more from it. I know thing would have been different if I didn`t get a girlfriend, but I am much more happier with than without and although at the moment she is in America I am still happy knowing that she will be back in July and I will live much closer to her without the restrictions of the nursery or the church.
The money issue is the only thing I am worried about. I am not sure of the exact amount I have in England, so I am trying to save every yen I can. The apartment is going to be 90,000yen total for the 2 months (about 450 pound) and then I have to buy food and travel expenses and entertainment and my flight back to Tokyo, so i`m looking at quite alot of money, but I am going to get a part time job when I get back to England and work as much as I can without taking up study time, so that I can pay off any money I owe and so I can save up to see Yukari in Japan, or England or another country.
Tonight im going to the church in Tobata, or somewhere like that (I went there about a month ago) to see some people and stay for the night. So I gotta get my stuff ready and sort out my washing because its partly drying. I hate washing day.
Saturday, 14 May 2005
I fell in a hole...
Before I continue with the past events I would just like to report on a little accident i had yesterday. To begin, I went for dinner at the Korean language teachers house with a woman from the nursery and some other people, but I didn`t know who they were. To be honest I felt too tired to be there, for one thing I had to leave my house at 5pm but because we were too early we had to wait until 6pm at some clothes store. After picking him up we drove to the house and pretty nothing happened until 9pm when we ate. The wait for the food wasn`t too bad because I wasn`t that hungry anyway, but the problem was that none of them could speak hardly any English, so they were having their conversation in Japanese, while I was pretty much falling asleep. I don`t want to sound disrespectful because I am pleased that I was invited to dinner, but this weekend I have been feeling really tired and when i`m doing nothing for 5-6 hours (we left around 11ish) it kinda gets to you. By the way the dinner wasn`t the accident :P The accident in question was after we left and went back to the car. I was waiting for the woman to pull the car out of the drive and I thought it would be a good idea to sit on the step that was below the pavement next to a big field, the only problem was that as it was almost pitch black I failed to realise that in between the upper and lower level was a big hole that travelled around the side. Unlucky for me I managed to go in the center, scraping my arm down the side of the wall and banging my knee on the edge, which left me with a big and very red graze on my arm, also I find it pretty difficult to walk without any pain.
Its times like this that you wish you just said no...
Now thats dealt with I can continue..
After kagoshima, which was from Tuesday to Thursday in Golden Week (its not really golden "week" its more like Golden three days, although technically its only 2 special days, one which is the death of an emperor on the 5th and one which is childrens day on the 7th, but for some reason if there are 2 holidays the day in between must also be classed as a holiday, dont ask me why)
Ok, now after Golden 2 days + 1 day = Week I went on a suprise trip to Haus Tein Bosch with Yukari. It was a suprise because she booked the trip and I either knew that we were going there or some other places we had looked at, but once we were on the train, the conductor kindly informed us on the tannoy. Haus Tein Bosch is like a section of Holldand that has been taken out of Holland and placed in Japan (if you have ever been to Epcot center you will know what I mean) although its kinda of like an emphasised sterotypical holland, but trust me im not complaining because it was a beautiful place, with great buildings, scenery, food and rides (the rides were like movie things, not rollercoasters). It was so great been there with my girlfriend, just walking about, going for cheese fondue and hiring a 2 seater bike, which was fun until the theory of woman been bad drivers came into effect and we went straight into a barrier and I went straight into the fake steering wheel, but no harm no foul.
The hotel we stayed in was amazing, we even had out luggage taken to our room and the view from the window contained all you could want, the sea, mountains, windmills, flowers, european houses. Also on the night we watched the fireworks from the window, which was the suprise of "the biggest flowers in the world". Every suprise that Yukari had planned was amazing and it was one of the best holidays ever, even though it was only for 2 days.
It was also a sad holiday because on the tuesday Yukari would have to go to America for 2 months, so it would be the last time I would see her for awhile. I think this is why things were alittle tense on the Sunday night when I had to leave because everything was getting to me, homesick, Yukari leaving and the nursery and I just wanted to have an extra day to think things through and talk with one of my friends, who offered for me to stay at his house. But as my Japanese isn`t so good and the boss of the nurseries English is 0 I had to have my friend ring to explain, but as she didn`t answer the phone we had to call Etsuko from the church, which ended up that I had to come home. The next day I had to have another exciting meeting about been bad and been told that I can`t go to see Yukari at the airport on the tuesday and that raised the temperature even more, because although I try to keep things as balanced as I can here it doesn`t seem to work and I was ready to pack my bags on the night and go stay with my friend for a few days and then try get an apartment with what I had, but after talking with Yukari we deicided that I would stay in Nogata because I didnt have enough money to leave right now. In July when she comes back maybe I will get my own apartment for the remaining 2 months, because now I feel uncomfortable some of the time and been with Yukari helps alot, its especially bad when I see her on the weekends then I dont get to see her again for awhile. If I do leave I don`t want things to end badly with the nursery so that it would be a problem for any other GAP placement following mine, but I am not the first person to leave, because about a year ago some GAP volunteer called Richard also left after only a few weeks. Im not saying what I want to do is justified, but to be honest there is no point in staying at the nursery if its going to make me unhappy and begin to cause alot of problems when Yukari comes back. In short its what I want to do even if things get better here, as my reason for coming to Japan was to have more freedom and experience new things and although in July they have summer time, which means I might have more time off anyways, I would rather be with my girlfriend and friends.
Saying that I can`t tell the future so maybe it will happen, maybe it won`t, so until it happens I can`t say if I will leave or not.... but its going to bloody interesting to find out ;)
Its times like this that you wish you just said no...
Now thats dealt with I can continue..
After kagoshima, which was from Tuesday to Thursday in Golden Week (its not really golden "week" its more like Golden three days, although technically its only 2 special days, one which is the death of an emperor on the 5th and one which is childrens day on the 7th, but for some reason if there are 2 holidays the day in between must also be classed as a holiday, dont ask me why)
Ok, now after Golden 2 days + 1 day = Week I went on a suprise trip to Haus Tein Bosch with Yukari. It was a suprise because she booked the trip and I either knew that we were going there or some other places we had looked at, but once we were on the train, the conductor kindly informed us on the tannoy. Haus Tein Bosch is like a section of Holldand that has been taken out of Holland and placed in Japan (if you have ever been to Epcot center you will know what I mean) although its kinda of like an emphasised sterotypical holland, but trust me im not complaining because it was a beautiful place, with great buildings, scenery, food and rides (the rides were like movie things, not rollercoasters). It was so great been there with my girlfriend, just walking about, going for cheese fondue and hiring a 2 seater bike, which was fun until the theory of woman been bad drivers came into effect and we went straight into a barrier and I went straight into the fake steering wheel, but no harm no foul.
The hotel we stayed in was amazing, we even had out luggage taken to our room and the view from the window contained all you could want, the sea, mountains, windmills, flowers, european houses. Also on the night we watched the fireworks from the window, which was the suprise of "the biggest flowers in the world". Every suprise that Yukari had planned was amazing and it was one of the best holidays ever, even though it was only for 2 days.
It was also a sad holiday because on the tuesday Yukari would have to go to America for 2 months, so it would be the last time I would see her for awhile. I think this is why things were alittle tense on the Sunday night when I had to leave because everything was getting to me, homesick, Yukari leaving and the nursery and I just wanted to have an extra day to think things through and talk with one of my friends, who offered for me to stay at his house. But as my Japanese isn`t so good and the boss of the nurseries English is 0 I had to have my friend ring to explain, but as she didn`t answer the phone we had to call Etsuko from the church, which ended up that I had to come home. The next day I had to have another exciting meeting about been bad and been told that I can`t go to see Yukari at the airport on the tuesday and that raised the temperature even more, because although I try to keep things as balanced as I can here it doesn`t seem to work and I was ready to pack my bags on the night and go stay with my friend for a few days and then try get an apartment with what I had, but after talking with Yukari we deicided that I would stay in Nogata because I didnt have enough money to leave right now. In July when she comes back maybe I will get my own apartment for the remaining 2 months, because now I feel uncomfortable some of the time and been with Yukari helps alot, its especially bad when I see her on the weekends then I dont get to see her again for awhile. If I do leave I don`t want things to end badly with the nursery so that it would be a problem for any other GAP placement following mine, but I am not the first person to leave, because about a year ago some GAP volunteer called Richard also left after only a few weeks. Im not saying what I want to do is justified, but to be honest there is no point in staying at the nursery if its going to make me unhappy and begin to cause alot of problems when Yukari comes back. In short its what I want to do even if things get better here, as my reason for coming to Japan was to have more freedom and experience new things and although in July they have summer time, which means I might have more time off anyways, I would rather be with my girlfriend and friends.
Saying that I can`t tell the future so maybe it will happen, maybe it won`t, so until it happens I can`t say if I will leave or not.... but its going to bloody interesting to find out ;)
Tuesday, 10 May 2005
Where to begin....
Well its been a busy few weeks since the last post. To begin with Golden week was pretty much sorted out and I went to Kagoshima with the Yamamoto family, it was a great holiday. We treked up mountains, had a barbeque, went to onnsen and saw some incredible views. I also got to meet Yoko Yamamoto`s cousin and her family, who were very nice people and spoke great english, they also had a daughter my age so it nice to talk to someone of the same age.
On the first day we went for a walk after arriving at mountain center and walked to the top (although it wasn`t steep, just long) and although it was great I unfortunatly had an extremely bad stomach ache just as we reached the top. Regrettably as we were at the top it was an extremely long walk (to be honest it was more of a hobble) to the nearest toilet, some 30 minutes away. Lets just say I have never been more excited to go to toilet. After that incident we drove to the campsite and took our luggage into our cottage. It was interesting to see the Japanese camping style, compared with the english. There were virtually no caravans or campervans in sight and due to the crowd of misplaced tents there was virtually no ground. Fortunatly our accomodation was, well, more accomodating in a nice quiet area surrounded by trees and the other cottages. Japanese camping is more like a quick fix and reduction of the english size. On the night we went to the local onnsen and had a tasy barbequed meal (japanese style)、which consisted of multiple things, most I knew, but with the added excitement of bowel.
The next day we had free time in the morning, for which myself, Emiko, Chikako and Rise spent playing card games and badminton, with the addition of Yoko. We then went to the onnsen, overlooking a pretty cool view, but I was slightly off put by the sulpher that coursed through the air. The barbeque on the night consisted of Curry Rice and a mixture of other things, but I can`t seem to remember what (maybe I had too much bowel).
The final day we went for a big walk up a big mountain, as I was more genki (feeling good) this day I decided to run most of the way with Rise (who lets just say made her best attempt). This mountain was abit steeper, but i found it to be more fun because it was a challenge. Once we reached the partial top area, there were 3 seperated ways to go, so off I went up one and was treated to a great view of the lake below and its surrounding mountains that gleamed with the glaring sun. After we rolled down the mountain (true in a way) we got back into the car for a drive to a nice posh restaurant for lunch and I had chicken and it was the best chicken i`ve had in Japan.
To finish off the day we had a long drive back and a stop off at the local Ramen shop for some yummy Ramen then a short drive back home.
And that was the first holiday.
The second holiday which was on the weekend I spent with Yukari and we went to Hause Tein Bosch (I`ll check the spelling later) . But I will have to write about that another time as I am going to the gym now and then having tea at the church. Also after the enjoyment of the holiday came the worst days ever, but thats got to wait maybe a day or two till I write about....
On the first day we went for a walk after arriving at mountain center and walked to the top (although it wasn`t steep, just long) and although it was great I unfortunatly had an extremely bad stomach ache just as we reached the top. Regrettably as we were at the top it was an extremely long walk (to be honest it was more of a hobble) to the nearest toilet, some 30 minutes away. Lets just say I have never been more excited to go to toilet. After that incident we drove to the campsite and took our luggage into our cottage. It was interesting to see the Japanese camping style, compared with the english. There were virtually no caravans or campervans in sight and due to the crowd of misplaced tents there was virtually no ground. Fortunatly our accomodation was, well, more accomodating in a nice quiet area surrounded by trees and the other cottages. Japanese camping is more like a quick fix and reduction of the english size. On the night we went to the local onnsen and had a tasy barbequed meal (japanese style)、which consisted of multiple things, most I knew, but with the added excitement of bowel.
The next day we had free time in the morning, for which myself, Emiko, Chikako and Rise spent playing card games and badminton, with the addition of Yoko. We then went to the onnsen, overlooking a pretty cool view, but I was slightly off put by the sulpher that coursed through the air. The barbeque on the night consisted of Curry Rice and a mixture of other things, but I can`t seem to remember what (maybe I had too much bowel).
The final day we went for a big walk up a big mountain, as I was more genki (feeling good) this day I decided to run most of the way with Rise (who lets just say made her best attempt). This mountain was abit steeper, but i found it to be more fun because it was a challenge. Once we reached the partial top area, there were 3 seperated ways to go, so off I went up one and was treated to a great view of the lake below and its surrounding mountains that gleamed with the glaring sun. After we rolled down the mountain (true in a way) we got back into the car for a drive to a nice posh restaurant for lunch and I had chicken and it was the best chicken i`ve had in Japan.
To finish off the day we had a long drive back and a stop off at the local Ramen shop for some yummy Ramen then a short drive back home.
And that was the first holiday.
The second holiday which was on the weekend I spent with Yukari and we went to Hause Tein Bosch (I`ll check the spelling later) . But I will have to write about that another time as I am going to the gym now and then having tea at the church. Also after the enjoyment of the holiday came the worst days ever, but thats got to wait maybe a day or two till I write about....
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