Darlo's World

Yesterday, after shaving the remainder of my beard some eight hours and several weird glances later, I headed off to the shop in search of munchies for today. Once again I let my eyes guide as I wandered down a new road and a new shopping area. I grabbed a few supplies and headed back home.

Breakfast (aka lunch) was at a place down the road called Matsuya. I’d been wanting to try the food their for a while, so today was the perfect opportunity. Buying food is quite simple. You go in, head to the vending machine, and buy a ticket for what you want. You then grab a seat and give your ticket to a member of staff. Just after I’d got settled (put my coat away) my food was ready and waiting. Seriously, it was fast! I ordered the Curry Rice, no shock there, and it did taste good. However I still hold out that the best curry rice I’ve had so far was when I went to Higurashi.

I made plans to get a hair cut today, thus completing my head shaving for a while. We went to QB House in Nishinomiya Gardens, the place that cuts your hair for 1000 yen in 10 minutes. Needless to say we were somewhats worried by the fact that they advertise by giving away plasters. Put two and two together and you wander what they sacrifice in order to make it in ten minutes. Ears?

Truth is QB House gave me an awesome hair cut in record time. Yeah it wasn’t an adventurous style, just my usual head-shave, but I was still amazed. The location was clean, equipment kept sterile, staff friendly … for what I wanted, everything was perfect. Oddly enough this was another location where a vending machine was used to take payment rather than a staff member. I’d definately recommend QB to anyone needing a quick cut, my friends took a mere 8 minutes. I didn’t time mine, but it was definately fast.

Tonight we’re off to a Japanese night club. We’ll let you know how that works out.

Oh, I’ve also updated various missing sections of the site, such as the manga and comics section and the Olde Darlonian Sayings. Feel free to nose around a bit ^_^.

I’ll leave you with a clip from an awesome Japanese prank show.

This isn’t going to be much of an adventurous entry like some of my previous ones. Reason because I’ve barely left my room. Unintentionally (mainly due to the cold weather, a lack of money, and generally not really wanting to go anywhere), I have been experiencing a bit of a Hikikomori lifestyle. The only exceptions being where I popped to the shop to stock up on orange juice, and going down for meals (of which there was non yesterday and because of New Years there won’t be for a few days).

It’s had it’s high parts. Because of the cold I had I really think staying inside in the warm has helped me on the road to recovery, and what used to be a succession of snot filled sneezes has died down to a sniffle. Likewise I have saved a lot of money by not venturing out into the world, as I discovered it’s very hard to actually go anywhere and not spend anything … unless you’re very boring (ironic yes). I’ve also managed to make a dent in my essay which is due for Leeds, stopping just short of the half-way mark before i felt a sudden urge to stare at a strange mark on my ceiling. On the scope of studying I did also manage to put a dent into the kanji we’re going to be tested on in the first week back. This again came to a hault when I stumbled across a chocolate bar I hadn’t seen in a few weeks. Artwise as well I managed to put a start on the Lotaku project, but soon stopped. Why I’m not sure.

It seems the majority of the low parts of my shut-in lifestyle consist of me quickly growing bored of whatever I’m doing and getting a desire to do what could be considered even more mundane. Right now whilst writing this entry I’m also playing a game over poker online (not gambling of course, that’s illegal here). Not to mention of course, my sleep pattern. It’s been well documented that my sleep pattern is as smooth as 80 year old skin, but this last couple of days I’ve been going from the dead-tired to the super energetic in an eye blink. I didn’t sleep last night, going to bed at around 10 o’clock this morning, getting up about half an hour ago.

Remember a few entries ago (scroll-down if you don’t), I said I was considering doing the half-beard? Well, guess what I did!

So Christmas Eve was spent doing my usual last minute Christmas shop, but it seemed very different this year. Obviously I was in a new country and so things would inevitably be different, but what struck me was the fact that people weren’t fighting each other to get that last toy on the shelf, or turkey in the freezer. It was pleasant. Though the gifts I’m sending home won’t get there before new year (and probably my older sisters birthday … crud, forgot about that), I did manage to finally get some postcards sent. It’s definately an interesting feeling going to the Post Office on Christmas Eve.

I spent Christmas Eve night in my favourite (aka cheapest) bar, the 280 place. That isn’t it’s real name, but I tend to forget it’s real name everytime I go to say it and make something up for it instead. Ironically that’s how I get by in a lot of the Japanese I speak; if I don’t know a word, I make one up and occaisionally I get lucky. I was quite gutted at the fact that I couldn’t seem to drink two giant beers as I normally would, but I’ll put that down to the slight cold I’ve got.

On Christmas Day I woke up bright and early (7.30) and went down for some breakfast. After which I then proceeded straight back to bed. Oh the life of a single man is truly a tough one. Emerging from my pit I did a ring around (via text message) to see who else fancied a traditional Japanese Christmas lunch at KFC. No, I’m sorry, I still can’t type that (let alone say it) with a perfectly straight face. Anywho, moving on.

Three of us in total went into Umeda to get some chicken and share the season with one another. I also took the opportunity to try something American that KFC served, a biscuit.

Now don’t start lighting pitchforks declaring the only true biscuit is along the lines of a Rich Tea, Custard Cream, or the debatable Jaffa Cake. What the Americans consider to be a biscuit is totally different. It’s like a Jamaican fried dumpling, only lighter and less crispy. Why they’re called this I have no idea, and why Japan’s KFC has one with a hole in the middle stumped my one friend, but tastewise they’re really not bad. KFC also gave us some maple syrup with the American biscuit (which again confused my one friend) but we tried an experiment.

Ladies and gentlemen boys and girls. Maple syrup goes amazingly on KFC’s chicken. Yes that’s right, we’ve found a way to give it even more calories and even more flavour. Don’t believe me? To be honest I don’t blame you. From the sounds of it you’d think we were drunk and had nothing better to do. Well, we weren’t drunk that’s for certain. It’s the kind of flavour that you’ll either enjoy or dislike. It’s not as comparable as the love it-hate it relationship which Marmite (hate it) has, but it’s probably not for everyone.

After saying goodbye to one friend, off to get his hair cut, my other friend headed off to The Room of Living Dolls. He hadn’t seen it, and I wanted to see it with my eyes open. It was while we were waiting in the queue we realised something that had been muttered to us earlier. Christmas in Japan was more a time for couples, especially young couples, and as we looked around all we could see were couples holding hands or being romanticy (probably not a real word). Here were were, two foreign men with identical hair (mine being a lot shorter) going to one of the scariest attractions in Osaka. I’m pretty sure we recieved a few unheard comments.

Christmas dinner was an amazing curry, but I felt I loaded my plate too high as it took me around 50 minutes to get through the whole thing. I’m not going to say it’s better than Christmas dinner would have been at home, but it was definately comparable.

Which brings me to Boxing Day … that’s it. With the exception of making a new forum for the guys who’re studying at Konan, I’ve slept most of the day away. I wish I could have more exciting things to bang on about … but really, that’s all. So here’s a video explaining how takoyaki is made from Cooking With Dog!

No your eyes aren’t deceiving you, it really is morning. Which means it’s about 11:41 last night back in England. Today’s Christmas Eve, but it’s business as usual in Japan.

Without breakfast yesterday, with it being the Emperor’s birthday and all, I did enjoy a nice lie in. I’d made plans before hand to meet with friends in Umeda and head to the Umeda Sky building to see the German christmas market. Yes, what better thing to do on your first (and hopefully not only) trip to Japan than visit a German Christmas market … the exact one (though a different branch) that came to Leeds!

My friends enjoyed the delicacies like Glue Wine (yeah that’s spelled wrong for sure) and sausage, while I took up my usual hobby of photography. Unlike Leeds, this market had a staged area with live performances. It was both entertaining and good listening practice. After a trip to Yodobashi Camera where we tasted Mango wine, we said farewell and parted company.

Going to bed last night I wished that I’d wrapped up warmer, as my nose was beginning to block and my throat began to feel groggy. Well, at least if I get sick now I’ll have some recovery time.

I’ve made a start on the main Japanese page of the site, which ties in well with my agenda for today … kanji practice!

There’s a lot to be said for going home the long way. Yesterday I took a trip to a huge 100 yen shop. To be honest I didn’t intentionally go there, I was looking for a bookshop which was totally over shadowed by it. After having a nose around looking for Christmas gifts to send home (which will probably arrive sometime in 2009, hopefully before I do), I started heading back to the dorm.

I reached a set of shingou (traffic lights) and had to wait. I then realised that I could cross the road (a crossroad) another way, due to the priorities that were given. I took that way and instead of crossing again to get to my originally desired location, proceded to walk down the road.

My area, Kita-Umeda, is without a doubt very big. I could have chosen better words to describe it there, but no I’ll stick with simple (he says reaching into the fridge for a cold can of Clear Asahi beer). The way that I went home had me walk past an array of temples, small shops, random things thrown away (including a large Stitch cushion … had it not been raining I’d have probably taken it with me) and was a genuinely pleasant walk.

Today one of the Konan teachers held a Christmas party at his home so we walked there. It took a while to get there from a combination of slow-ass walkers and the fact that we didn’t really know where we were going, but his house was awesome. Lots of food was eaten ranging from pasta to pizza (it wasn’t all Italian), many songs were sung with the accompanying music from the piano, and many different (and I mean that in all shapes and forms) conversations were had.

When it was time to go I walked with a friend to Hankyu’s Mikage station, and decided to walk to Okamoto (saving 150 yen). After about 30 seconds I started to feel a bit energetic so decided to push myself. I started running. It was a cold day and I’d been into uni that day, so I was wearing many layers and was carrying a back pack, and here I was running through the dark. I’m somewhat surprised I didn’t have the police stop me to be honest.

I reached Okamoto station 13 minutes later dripping with sweat just in time for the train to arrive. If Wikipedia’s measurements are to be believed, Okamoto is 2.2km away from Mikage, thus I was running at an average speed of 10.2 kmph (6.34mph). Which brings me to why I’m now going to bed. Tomorrow’s the Emperor’s Birthday (a national holiday) so I won’t be getting food from the dorm again, but at least I’ll be getting a nice lie-in.