Darlo's World

Since coming back to the UK I’ve felt my life has been missing something. A sense of Japaneseness? The chance to speak the Japanese language? Being able to talk and hang out with a Japanese person? Well I’m happy to say that today I has been my most ‘Japanese’ day since I came back home.

It started with me getting up at about lunchtime. Admitadly this isn’t something typically Japanese, but most if not all of my Saturdays would start with me awakening in my Osaka dorm room at about this time. I also didn’t get woken up to the sound of a little boy playing Animal Crossing on the Wii, but the nice warm weather coming through the window was reminiscent of an Umeda morning.

I started the day watching NHK World TV on Sky (channel 516) and enjoyed shows such as Science Zero, Earth Watcher, Newsline, My Private Tokyo, Four Seasons In Japan and Exclusive Gardens of Kyoto. Most of these shows were very short and in dubbed English, but still gave me a bit more insight into various aspects of Japan. I know that there are some shows aimed at learning Japanese language and culture, but I didn’t see those today.

This was followed by a trip to Shrewsbury to a shop called Setonaikai. Setonaikai is a specialist Japanese food shop with a wide range of oriental goodies. My family has been wanting to try takoyaki ever since I’d mentioned it in my blog, so we went here to get some ingredients. When there I was thrilled to have the chance to speak in Japanese again, something I’ve not been able to do since coming back (with the exception of when I saw my one teacher in Leeds). I can only compare it to being rescued from starving and being given a nice hot meal.

The speed at which these packages I sent from Japan never ceases to amaze me. I looked at my receipts from them today and looking at the dates sent and how quick the first box came, I came to the conclusion that it’d be another two weeks or so before I saw the next box.

That was until this afternoon when a Parcelforce van came by with not one, but two of my boxes. These two (the second and third sent packages from Japan) were sent on the 11th and 12th of May, arriving in just 1 month and 15 (and 14) days, half the time of the 3 months I was told when I sent them off. The next package I sent was two days later on the 14th of May, but because I’m incredibly pesimistic (and because it’s the weekend) I’m not expecting it to arrive in two days time. The next package is my Osaka version of Monopoly.

I’ve added another load of photographs from my time in Japan to the blogspot site and still have loads more to come (hundreds, possibly thousands) so be sure to keep checking them out.

Now if you think back my new year’s post I mentioned a very kind woman on a train who gave me and a friend a biscuit and a mandarin orange, and how if that had been England it would have been a very scepticle moment. In fact here’re my very words.

One thing I forgot to write about in the last entry is about the kindness of others here. On the train to get our hair cut, we were sitting across from and elderly woman wearing a facemask. Facemasks are a common sight here as people wear them to either try to stop the spread of any disease they have (or have been in contact with), or to try to help them avoid a common illness going around. As we were leaving the train she tapped me on the arm and held out a mandarin and a biscuit. I couldn’t translate what she said well, but she was giving them to us as a gift. We were stunned and had absolutely no idea why, but this kind of generosity back home would have caused a lot of scepticism.

Well one chap’s taken note of this act of kindness and a lot of other occaisions of people helping people on his own blog, Seeking and Sharing Stories of Kindness and I think it’s a brilliant idea. In a time where people are trying to sue each other for pointless things (I used to work in Claims Direct’s call centre and boy there were a few weird ones), it’s nice to see that there are still people about who are willing to look out for their fellow man. So far he has 6 posts of kind deeds, so if you have a story to add to the (hopefully) ever growing list, do let him know!

After watching an episode of ‘Are You Smarter Than a 10 Year Old’ on Sky One the other day, I thought I’d have a go at the online version just to see how I’d do. Admitadly up until today I’d not managed to complete the entire quiz, always falling at the final question where they throw a history or natural science question my way.

Well anyway, when I was playing I noticed something odd on one of the questions; a spelling mistake. Ironically a game to test whether you’re smarter than someone only a decade old had it’s only mental problems.

The question presented to me was “Near WHIOH of these would you find a lighthouse?”, and I could only presume that they intended to use the word ‘which’. The main thing that stumped me is if you have a look down at your keyboard, where is the ‘O’ key in relation to the ‘C’ key? Sadly enough I “hit the wrong button” and got the question wrong.

I had another moment of ‘eh?’ last night when I was flicking through one of my Japanese grammar books. Oxford Japanese Grammar and Verbs by Jonathan Bunt was recommended to me by a friend and to be honest it’s a very good little book. It’s explanations are clear and easy to follow. However it seems that even the Oxford University Press has it’s off days.

授業が早く終わったら電話電話します
Jugyō ga hayaku owattara denwa shimasu
If the class finishes early, I will ring

For those who don’t do Japanese you might want to just skip on ahead. For those that do, have a look at ‘電話電話’ which is apparently read as just ‘denwa’. If you have the book and want to have a nose it’s on page 134.

Just saw tonight’s Top Gear … my god! I mean I knew The Stig was a legend, but I can’t believe they actually got Schumacher!