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.

JapanEasy is back again

Well after a 5 year hiatus I am now back in Japan and I'm pleased to say this time I have not been attacked by any wasps (where I seemingly ended my last blog of my time in nohgata/muromi) Also to speak of a positive, this time I am been paid real people money as opposed to the pocket money handout I received last time, oh and the improved freedom is a great advantage.

I have already been here a month and a half, however I only managed to get the internet a couple of weeks ago so I haven't had the chance to rejuvenate my blog but I figured better late than never so I guess its best to start at the beginning:

Japan: Round 2

Well I think that after a 5 year gap I figured it would be wise to update this blog rather than make a new one for my 2nd Japanese adventure.

Thats right, im back in Japan and once again I am back to school (although this time it is for junior students rather than toddlers)

Hachi mushi invasion

I forgot to say in my last post that in addition to getting a room I also got a free wasps nest, which had been built just outside my room. Fortunatly there wasn't much of a chance of them been able to get in because of the insect netting outside of the room. To be honest it was pretty cool and the wasps were only paper wasps so they are not very agressive, but today we got the bug spray and with pretty much 1 shot they were all dead and the baby larve were falling out of there nest. So no-one got hurt (except the wasps). I have a few pictures but I have to find a way to post them with this new computer (which is a mac, unfortunatly) but oh well.

Im free

Well I finally left Nogata on the 16th of July. I got all my things packed and got a lifft from Yukari's mum to my new apartment. Everything went perfect. It didnt take too long to unpack most of my things because alot of the stuff I could leave in the boxes for when I come home.

The day after I moved (Sunday) I went for a walk into tenjin which is the main area and it is quite far away. i think it took around 1 hour 30 to get there by walking, but it was a nice day, abit too hot and humid, but thats usual. I passed alot of nice places that I kept in mind to go and it seems that there are about a million and one things to do here, so hopefully I can do as much as possible before I come back to England. To be honest I wish I could stay here a few more months, but unfortunatly I can't work so I would be living off nothing. Although I am going to see what I can do to stay here a few more days, maybe an extra week because I want to stay here as long as possible (mainly because of Yukari).

Yesterday I spent the whole day at her house with her family, which was great because they are so nice. I guess I was abit nervous most of the time, but I guess they were too, except her sister, who is very outgoing.

At the moment it is about 11.30am and I plan to go to one of the parks to do some reading and writing and drawing for the day and maybe have abit off a walk to a museum or something. The only problem i'm having here is the weather because it is too hot and especially at night, because I don't have an electric fan or air conditioning, so i'm left to roast. But Yukari said I can have one of hers, unfortunatly I forgot to pick it up last night.

So as far as moving and living on my own, everything is going great and I am looking forward to the rest of my time here, short though it may be.

Birthday message

Well today is my birthday and since the last post, I have been to camp with the nursery. It was a pretty fun time, but very tiring and I`ll put the pictures on when I have more time. I`ll talk about it abit more later, but for now I have to go have my dinner at Etsuko`s who has made my tea. I was meant to go and see Yukari in Fukuoka, but she missed the plance from America to Japan, meaning that she will get here tonight at about 8pm, which is abit late.

Just to say, the main feature of the camp trip for me was when I caught a snake with my bare hands. I even held it by its head while I was holding it, so that it wouldn`t bite me (although it nearly did). I`ve never touched a wild snake before, so it was so cool.

Anyways gotta go. Thankyou to everyone who sent me a card and cash and chocolate and also thankyou to Christine an family for the birthday message on my website. (Note to everyone else) you can post things you know, it ain`t too hard :P

Oh my God　i`m 20!! im so old

OH MY GOD!!!

I can`t believe it, I cant bloody believe it!! ok I just finish posting about the stupid computer deleting my photo`s and then I decided to add some new songs to my ipod. So I load up the software and I find that all my songs are gone. GONE! thats over 1000 songs I had on this ipod, over 1000!!!! all and the cd`s for them are in England. Some I even had to rent to put on and now they are all gone. I swear to god I am so close to destroying this computer, it should be grateful that it isn`t mine. So now I had 2 albums on my ipod, the ones that I was going to add in the first place.

I feel like been sick right now. Those songs were everything to me, I listened to them everyday, and now they are all gone (they are still on my laptop in England, but thats like 2 months away) I am not joking or anything but this has really pissed me off. Now I have 2 albums to listen to at night and probably for the rest of my time here. I am so angry right now, I can`t even think of what to say. I`m just going to go now.

Pictures.... all gone....

The previous post of when I went to the kangaroo park is all that remains of my pictures from there, because I put them onto the computer, posted some onto here and then deleted them from my camera as I was running out of space. Today i decided to put some more on, but when I checked my folder practically everything had gone. This happended once before, but I found out that they had been moved because of low file space (after finding a note on the computer, which I found very rude, because they waited ages to put it there and they should have told me) but luckly all was ok. But this time it seems that they haven`t been moved and they have just been deleted along with alot of other things. Thankfully my parents have disks with my photos on (from previous) and I have my own disk, but all those that were recently put on will never been seen again. So thankyou "woman who uses computer" I really appreciate it, I`ll be sure to return the favour some time ;)

There were also horses at the park, which we could feed (with a shovel for some reason). There was also a horse that you could ride, but Emiko didn`t get very far on it.

Today I went on a trip with the Yamamoto family. We went to the beach (but it wasn`t exactly the best weather for swimming) and then we went for a great meal and then to the kangaroo park, which wa cool because I got to pet a kangaroo. I have seen kangaroos before but never petted one. I was going to ask the kangaroos if they wanted a boxing match and her is the picture after I won.

Mondays almost a go

I called the english speaking japanese woman today, to say about holding a meeting on monday and all seems well, so all I got to do now is to tell the boss tabout the meeting on monday and then I can finally tell them Im leaving. I will be so happy once I`ve told them, it will be like a big weight off my chest. There is only about 9 days left until my birthday and till Yukari gets back to Japan and there is just 16 days until I go to my new apartment. YAY. I just want it to be july 9th now. GAP said it might be a good idea to help out with some of the end of year cleaning at the nursery, which I will happily do, but I am not going stay past the 16th. Yukaris cousin will come and pick up my luggage on the 16th and take me to the apartment, so Iit would be abit stupid if I wasnt going with it.

I just want everyone to know that I`m leaving as soon as I can because I dont want them planning anything and then saying (before I tell them) "this is the camp you will be going to in august, you will have so much fun" and then I will go "erm umm". I have thought alot about leaving and its not like its a split minute decision because it is costing me alot to do this. For starters the apartment is costing around 350 pounds then theres food and extra, so my university saving will end up been pretty low, whereas if I stayed here I would have a nice little fund to cover most things, but at the end of the day, money is money, I can always make more, but I cant live on my own in Japan for awhile and be able to do whatever I want. So i`m going to choose the adventure :)

Stage 2 and a half complete. 1 more to go

Well I have let GAP know that i`m leaving and to be honest it went alot better than I expected. They are pleased that I have thought about it carefully and they feel that I have handled the situation very well. Though they say they are disappointed, they understand my reasons and as the nursery didnt set a program after the summer holidays it is understandable.

So now GAP knows and pretty much everyone else so all thats left is to tell the nursery. So I am going to call the English Speaking church woman tommorow and arrange for a meeting with the boss of the nursery for monday and then tell them of my plans and from there I will have just under 2 weeks until I move. So wish me luck (I have a feeling that I will need it)

Stage two complete

I have now sent off emails to the GAP people saying that I wish to leave Nogata, so it i`ve almost completed my "tell everyone im leaving" task. Hopefully they will get back to me by monday, and from there I can tell the nursery, which is the worst part im dreading. To be honest I would prefer just to leave and avoid all of that conversation, because I know whats going to happen. Everyone is going to say "but you only have until the end of august, is it really worth it" and "but you have a contract" or "japan is dangerous now adays is not a safe palce anymore you have to be careful". I know that they will try and talk me out of it, but my mind is made up and nothing is going to change it. I suppose the good thing is, is that when they find out and talk to me (most likely using the english speaking church woman to be a translator) I won`t have to worry about what they think of been worried that they have the power to send me back to England because I already have an apartment ready, money and a flight home, so all they can do is talk, talk, talk. Maybe shout, but I doubt they would.

I don`t really care that I will "no longer be under the auspices of GAP" because I can take care of myself and its what I mainly want to do here. Thinking back from before I came here it seems wierd because so much has changed, in England I would never have got in trouble, but here it seems that whatever I do is bad, or unsafe. Oh well. I have about 20 days left and only 13 until Yukari comes back, so there is alot to look forward to. All I have to do now is keep my head low and avoid there gaze once they find out, my mum said it will be like the time my sister decided to quit been an au pair and the family weren`t exactly please about it to say the least, but short of their *cough* God *cough* striking me down I can`t see what they can do.

And dont get me started on Religion. I just had to delete a page of writing about what I thought about it, so not to offend anyone. I will keep my views to myself. (maybe)

One last thing. On Friday I went to by some drink and bread and a few other bits and pieces at Halloday which is a 15/20 minute walk away and I was at the cash counter and saw the guy that I bought my suit off at (of course) the suit store. I said Hi (Konnichiwa) and then he said if I was on my bike but I said no because it has a puncture, so he offered to give me a ride back, which I accepted considering I was carrying a ton of things and it was already dark, so he gave me a ride home and said about going for a meal (I think that what he said) he was saying something about tempura and about monday or tuesday and about the phone, so I out 45 and 34 together and got whatever it equals (79 im not dumb) so this week I will most likely have dinner with my new friend the suit man (I think hes called Yoshikawa, but that might be his last name) . I was so suprised that he gave me a lift home, I`d only met him twice when I got the suit and again when I got shoes, but it just goes to show how nice some people are (there not all murders and thieves like the nursery wants me to believe).

Well for now I will go back and make dinner. I would have had eggs but I dropped the pack with all 8 in and only 1 survived, so that wasn`t the highlight of my day.

Oyasumi (goodnight)

Here are some wierd statues that I found on my big walk on saturday, in which I walked for about 6 hours but I didnt realy end up anywhere. Oh Well it was fun :P