Perfect weather meant that there were lots of families enjoying their time in the garden area of Nishinomiya Gardens, the spot that “Nishinomiya Live” was (and has been) taking place. Kids were running through the fountains drenching themselves head to toe, older couples enjoyed spots in the shade, and even the litter pickers seemed to have a non-forced smile. As I made my way to the stage area and the sitting spot I could hear Rie Fu and the crew doing last minute sound checks to make sure everything was on and up to scratch. I took that time to whack out a sketchbook and started doodling. After a while I started to think more about the locations that I’ll be using in Lotaku, and started to try and draw pictures from my old school. My crappy memory aside, the weird shapes and layout of the buildings didn’t help much when trying to make a birds eye view pic.

As expected, Rie Fu’s set was awesome. I don’t see live acts very often (buskers being the obvious exception), so whenever I do go it’s normally a real treat. She opened with my favourite song of hers, Life is Like a Boat, which coincidentally was the first song that I sung at karaoke since coming to Japan. I did take a video of it, but was told off (I didn’t know you couldn’t film >_< ).

After the performance she was signing copies of various CDs, so I picked up a copy of her newest album, Urban Romantic, which also came with a DVD. When I was getting mine signed I hit a bit of a snag. In the few seconds we had to talk, rather than say something meaningful or anything relevant, I say the one thing that I myself always hate to hear; (in Japanese, and for me substitute one language with another) “Your English is really good”. Like a pro though she responded positively “you gotta keep trying, right?”, whether or not this is one of her song names I’m not too sure though. Either way I went and sat down feeling like a right plonker. After wards one of the camera guys asked me a few questions and although I tried to answer in my mangled Japanese, I don’t think I answered any of the questions the way he wanted.

As the second set (she was performing twice) was going to be the same as the first I headed off earlier. I’ve just had a look on Rie Fu’s blog and there are a few pictures up. In one you can see me looking like a plank, camera in hand, but seriously it was a great show. So to sing us out with a song from her new album, it’s Rie Fu and Present.

Strangely enough this is what actually happened today, as I was announced to be in the top two from my class (my speech follows this entry). I waited for the break to inform my teacher of my decision for minimal disruption of the class, though it came as a bit of a shock for her and the couple of students still in the room. One girl said that I’d be letting the class down after they’d “voted me in”, but this was quite ironic and funny for me to hear from a girl who’d spent the vast majority of that period asleep on her desk after arriving late.

On the way home I stopped off at Nishinomiya Gardens with a friend to pop into a book shop. According to a sign near the front of the lavishly expensive shopping centre, one of my favourite Japanese singers is due to make an appearance. On Sunday (19th April) Rie Fu will be making an appearance from 2pm to 4pm. Whether or not this is a free event I have no idea (didn’t have time to fully read the sign/ask my Japanese friend about the kanji I couldn’t understand), but either way I’ll be making a trip there this weekend. So to sing us out here’s Rie Fu with Tiny Tiny Melody (you can here my favourite of her songs, Life is Like a Boat at this older post). For my speech, just pop past the video.

ダーロのスピーチ (for those who don’t understand Japanese, there’s a very funny Google translation of this page available here).

母。 イックさん！朝御飯ですよ！起きなさい。
(Ikku-san! Asagohan desu yo! Okinasai.)
イックさん。 はい、行きます。
(hai, ikimasu)

ビンさん。 ちぇっ、目覚まし時計のばか。私を起きさせなかった。
(che, mezamashi tokei no baka. Watashi o okisasenakatta.)

イックさん。 お母さん、おはようございます。
(okaasan, ohayou gozaimasu)
母。 ほら、イクさん、おはよう。あのさぁ、昨日お母さんにマヨネーズが食べられないように言ったので、今からマヨネーズを使わないつもりです。
(hora, Ikku-san, ohayou. Ano saa, kinou okaasan ni mayoneizu ga taberarenai you ni itta no de, ima kara mayoneizu o tsukawanai tsumori desu.)
イックさん。 本当ですか？どうもありがとございます。とても嬉しい。
(hontou desu ka? Doumo arigato gozaimasu. Totemo ureshii.)

ビンさん。 今日も、朝御飯はマヨネーズでいっぱいだったので、焼いたパンしか食べなかった。明日食べ物をもらわない、大変。
(kyou mo, asagohan wa mayoneizu de ippai datta no de, yaita pan shika tabenakatta. Ashita tabemono o morawanai, taihen.)

母。 ところで、今は週末ね、予定があるの？
(tokoro de, ima wa shuumatsu ne, yotei ga aru no?)
イックさん。 まぁ、今日友達と三宮に遊ぶ事にしたんです。
(maa, kyou tomodachi to sannomiya ni asobu koto ni shitan desu)
母。 そうですか。明日は？
(sou desu ka. Ashita wa?)
イックさん。 明日は暇です。
(ashita wa hima desu)
母。 実は、家族の皆はUSJに行きますが、私達と行きませんか？
(jitsu wa, kazoku no minna wa USJ ni ikimasu ga, watashi tachi to ikimasenka?)
イックさん。 あっ！あの、私にご馳走しなくてもいいですよ。
(a! ano, watashi ni gochisou shinakute mo ii desu yo)
母。 知っていますが、日本人家族がいるのは、今年くらいかもしれません。それに毎年皆Host Familiesは留学生にご馳走してあげるんですよ。
(shitte imasu ga, nihonjin kazoku ga iru no wa, kotoshi kurai kamo shiremasen. Sore ni maitoshi minna Host Families wa ryuugakusei ni gochisou shite agerun desu yo)
イックさん。 そうですか？それじゃ、どうもありがとございます。
(sou desu ka? Sore ja, doumo arigato gozaimasu)

ビンさん。 じゃぁ、何をするかな。皆は三宮に遊ぶようですけど、私にとって三宮は遠くて、高すぎるもんですから、別に行けない。毎週末梅田に歩くことになっていたようだ。
(Jaa, nani o suru kana. Minna wa sannomiya ni asobu you desu kedo, watashi ni totte sannomiya wa tookute, takasugiru mon desu kara, betsu ni ikenai. Mai shuumatsu Umeda ni aruku koto ni natte ita you da.)

イックさん。 お母さん、質問があるんですけど、
(Okaasan, shitsumon ga arun desu kedo,)
母。 はい、何でしょう。
(hai, nan deshou)
イックさん。 この文法について、全然分かりません。私を説明させていただけないでしょうか？
(kono bumpou ni tsuite, zenzen wakarimasen. Watashi o setsumei sasete itadakenai deshou ka?)
母。 はい、もちろん良いですわ。
(hai, mochiron ii desu wa)

ビンさん。 この文法は全然分からないくらい難しい。どうすれば！寮に人がいないし、インターネットで日本人友達はOfflineだし、一番近い日本人友達は他の県に住んでいるし、絶望した！
(kono bumpou wa zenzen wakaranai kurai muzukashii. Dou sureba! Ryou ni hito ga inai shi, intaanetto de nihonjin tomodachi wa Offline da shi, ichi ban chikai nihonjin tomodachi wa hoka no ken ni sunde iru shi, zetsuboushita!)

皆さん、実は、寮に住むことはいい点があります。例えば、電気を気にしなくても良いです。でも、留学生はHost Familyの悪口を言うのを聞くたびに、私は怒ってなります。ある時、わがままな留学生は私に文句していました。彼のHost Familyは一緒に東京へ旅行してほしかったですが、その代わりに彼は神戸に友達と酔っ払って行きました。全く。
(minna-san, jitsu wa, ryou ni sumu koto wa ii ten ga arimasu. Tatoeba, denki wo ki ni shinakute mo ii desu. Demo, ryuugakusei wa Host Family no warukuchi o iu no o kiku tabi ni, watashi wa okotte narimasu. Aru toki, wagamama na ryuugakusei wa watashi ni monku shite imashita. Kare no Host Family wa issho ni Tokyo e ryouko shite hoshikatta desu ga, sono kawari ni kare wa koube ni tomodachi to yopparatte ikimashita. Mattaku.)

つまり、私にとって日本にいる一番イライラものは、Host Familyの努力を評価してくれない人です。
(Tsumari, watashi ni totte Nihon ni iru ichi ban iraira mono wa, Host Family no doryoku o hyouka shite kurenai hito desu.)

Setting off at about 3 o’clock, not too long after getting my lazy arse out of bed, I headed off in search of some lunch and an appropriate gift. After not too long I found myself in Umeda, under the bridge in the restaurant that I ate in on Monday, eating the same niku-udon. After giving thanks to the woman at the counter I headed towards the far side of the Umeda Sky building, an area I hadn’t yet walked around.

Passing a wide range of small factories and small businesses (including a lot of mechanics), I was reminded of Telfords own industrial areas, the kind of places a normal guy like me could work. Maybe not a fantastic job with a great pay, but work is work. I also pondered the possibility of working in a place like this after my degree. I also considered the average part-time job done by my fellow exchange students, and how all but a few seemed to be doing the well paid English tutor/teacher thing. But the people I really take my (metaphorical) hat of to are the guys working ‘normal’ jobs, like in a cafe, or in McDonalds. Yeah the pay isn’t as good, but this is the sort of job where you’re using real Japanese in a real Japanese environment.

I (metaphorically) salute you.

Coming from the other side of the Umeda Sky Building I soon found myself face to face with a nice garden area with waterfalls, walkways and awesome plant-life. If the weather would have been more Summery (I had to allow for the fact that it wasn’t summer), like when we first arrived in Japan this would have been a very tropical environment, similar to when we went to Jamaica‘s Dunn’s River Falls over 10 years ago.

On the walk back, walking a different way from usual (as usual) by chance I looked up to see a sign attached to a fire escape advertising an ‘anime and manga production and training school’. Now I know that I’m more likely to find one of these in Japan than in England but I really wasn’t expecting to actually see one. Walking around the corner I came face to face with it, so casually picked up one of it’s leaflet packs from outside (which came with a copy of one of the schools manga publications). As much as I’d love to go to 大阪アニメーター学院 (Osaka Animator School), it’s a bit expensive for me. Not to mention I’m only here for another 2 months.

On the way home I stopped at the Family Mart convenience store to pick up some chocolate. I decided to buy a piece for all the staff members at the dorm, let’s face it they’ve been pretty awesome, so I bought about 15 or so small pieces. When it came to giving them out, the staff member seemed to be really shocked at the gesture, but at the same time really greatful.

Seeing as I didn’t go out the night before last, I made a point of deciding I would without a doubt go out last night. Checking the schedule for Sam and Daves (once again I couldn’t be bothered to go to Shinsaibashi, wanting to stay in Umeda) they were going to be having ‘Playboy Mansion Party’ theme, so decided to go to that. Unfortunately trying to convince others to do the same wasn’t so easy, especially as I’d left it so late to email everyone. For the homestay students, it was understandable if they didn’t want to go (the same reason I seldom go with them to Sannomiya, it’s too damn far) and for the dorm guys they had other reasons ranging from illness to plans already being made.

“Sod it” I thought, “I’ll go solo”, and so I did.

As far as Playboy Parties go, with the exception of the barstaff wearing dressing gowns on top of their normal uniform, there wasn’t really much different to be honest. Non of the customers were dressed up (neither was I thankfully), so if it wasn’t for the fact I’d seen it advertised on the website I wouldn’t have been any the wiser. However, apparently there were bunny girls there before I got there.

Even though I went alone, by chance I met three people in the club who I knew; a guy who I study with at Leeds, a Japanese girl that he knew and I’d met a few times at Konan (despite the fact she goes to another Uni), and one of the guys I met when I did that 初めての日本 (hajimete no nippon, first time Japan) TV show a few months back (skip to the bottom of this entry to watch the show).

So throughout the night I managed to practice Japanese and also held the occaisional conversation in English as I met a few people wanting to learn the language. I did meet one very irritating American buggar though. Here’s a brief of how the conversation went

Him: Approached with a nod of the head
Me: 今日は (konnichiwa, hi)
Him: Yeah, I could speak to you in Japanese, but I save that for trying to score with the ladies
Me: Riiiight … good luck with that.

I was very thankful to see him then walk facefirst into a wall. Karma, you gotta love it.

So like yesterday, the majority of today was spent in bed due to the fact it was about 7 o’clock this morning I got home. Hangover? Meh, if that’s what this is it’s not doing a very good job, more like I ate something funny. And speaking of eating funny things, I now present to you my first (and probably only) television appearance in Japan. Enjoy! (The Room of Living Dolls is on the second video)

Today’s music comes from L’Arc En Ciel and is called Daybreak’s Bell. It’s a tune I’ve found quite fun to relax to, drive to, do homework to, clean to … honestly, I find it very open. Most listeners might know it as the theme tune from Gundam 00 (don’t worry not all the music I’ll be putting on here will be from anime themes, or always in Japanese).

So starting off at the Torikizoku (the everything 280 yen (£2.01) place), actually no, starting off at a convenience store, two of us bought a can of beer (each) to get the night kicking. In Japan it’s not uncommon for people to drink on the streets, but it still felt quite odd to be, especially as my alcohol wasn’t concealed by a brown paper bag.

Heading out in the direction of Osaka’s Hep 5 building, where we were to meet another buddy, I soon realised I should have worn more as a vicious wind blasted a shot of cold air right down my back. I can’t wait for the days of being able to just wear a t-shirt (and bottoms ¬_¬) again.

After joining our third amigo we then made our way to Torikizoku. Being a Friday night we’d expected for there to be a bit of a wait to get in, though to be honest this didn’t worry us. The central area of Umeda alone has plenty of branches, so if one had a hellova queue, we could have just headed to another. It’s not quite as bad as the number of Starbucks in a city center (in Birmingham’s Bull Ring you can see one easily from sitting within another), but there are a fair few. After endulging in many an over-sized glass of beer and assorted bits of a chicken (my favourite part being the heart), and an alcohol fueled conversation (of which I can remember very little of) we were soon on our way to Sam and Dave, a bar and nightclub in the area.

The rest of the night was filled with dancing to a good variety of music (this is the only place I’ve been to that had Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” followed by 50 Cent’s “In Da Club”), drinking (mainly beer and Malibu & Milk … yum!), and a lot of conversations (shouting to be make sure people could hear me and being shouted at for the reverse reason of course). Sam and Dave is a very international club. The bar staff were from all areas of the world with a mixed knowledge of Japanese, some customers (ourselves included) were also from abroad, and the Japanese customers who go there seem to use this as a good time for English practice as well as me for the other way around. For a while I was talking to one woman in Japanese while she replied to what I was saying in English. It made for a very interesting conversation.

We left at about 4 in the morning on some very wobbly legs and headed into a nearby Matsuya to complete the night. I couldn’t find Curry Rice on the vending machine, so picking a random button I ended up with a random meat-rice dish, of which I found I could only eat half. Matsuya also proved to be a good time to practice speaking as my trio conversed with two girls who had also been at Sam and Dave that night.

Coming back to the dorm, taking care not to wake anyone up, I turned off all alarms on my phone and put my head down to sleep.

I’ll always remember that the strangest hangover I’ve heard about happened to Dave Gorman when he did his Googlewhack Adventure, where his Texan hangover was in his arm (which turned out to be a very badly done tattoo). For me, waking up totally fine at about 4pm, with the exception of being a bit thirsty a hangover was no where in sight. Sitting at my desk, my stomach slowly started to dance on it’s own accord. It was as if a village of Hula Dancers were putting in the extra overtime. Since I had no orange juice and had skipped breakfast, I made my way (very tenderly) to the 99 yen shop to pick up supplies.

To spare you the details, shortly after arriving home and having some OJ, I found myself very thankful to the fact that I had something in my belly. The strangest part about this hangover, is that it wasn’t really much of a hangover. In fact, it was just like I’d caught a bit of the flu that has infected the majority of the dorm. Truth be told I wasn’t feeling too great before Friday night … hmm … yeah, that’s what I’ll put it down to. Trying to rest, I didn’t wake up (get out of bed) until 11 o’clock this morning.

So welcome to March, and for those readers in Wales happy Dydd Gŵyl Dewi (St David’s Day). I’ll be boning up on some kanji today for this week’s midterms, as well as making a start on tidying.

Also thanks to the family back home for the socks, jeans and chocolate I got through!

In Japan the tradition (in a nut-shell) is for girls to give chocolate to boys. There’re two kinds of chocolate depending on who you’re giving it to, and I don’t mean with nuts or without … although reading between the lines it probably does. First is 義理チョコ (girichoko) which you’d give to someone you feel you have a social obligation toward. This might be your boss, teacher, dorm manager, but not only people ‘socially higher’ than you, you might choose to give some to your friends and so on.

On the flip side to this is 本命チョコ (honmeichoko) which you’d give to your boyfriend, lover, husband or a boy that you fancy. Don’t worry girls, boys will come to return the favour next month on White Day, and for guys who got no chocolate, we can all get together and celebrate the Korean Black Day in April, but more on those days as they come.

My plan for today involved a trip to 日本橋 (Nippombashi) and Denden Town. If you remember my previous blogs it’s an area that’s known as the 秋葉原 (Akihabara) or Osaka, with plenty of manga and anime related stores, cafes and … stuff. So we headed downstairs (in the lift) and were greeted by the dorm manager. His wife had bought a small piece of chocolate for all the dorm residents (male dorm don’t forget). How kind of her; clearly this was girichoko (especially since it was her husband who gave it to us).

This wasn’t the only chocolate I received this year though. During the week some of my friends who frequent the Ajisai room had brought in their own home-made chocolate and biscuits and shared them around. Delish!

As usual Nippombashi was tons of fun and rumaging around the second hand book shops I found plenty of cheap manga, starting as low as 10 yen (about 8 pence by today’s exchange rate). As per usual DVD’s are expensive, though some stores here were considerably cheaper than the status-quo, and walking past the doujinshi covers you could see the usual ‘dripping’ images. Funnily enough afterwards I was talking with another friend about whether doujins are rated on some sort of ‘drip-scale’ or ‘dripometer’. Don’t get me wrong however, I did spot some of a non-sexual nature, and had I been interested in the series may have considered buying.

After my friend headed off home I stayed around for a walk and a wander. I was actually surprised how close Namba was to the area and ended up eating lunch at a Matsuya near Namba Parks. Though 95% of the time my self-navigatory skills are spot on without the use of a map, the cloudy day and the fact I’d spun in a few circles nosing around and exploring this new area meant I had no direction which way was North, and thus was a bit muddled. However (as all great men say at some point in their lives) I was not lost, I could have turned around and gone back the exact same way I had come from (something I usually find odd that people don’t do when they are ‘lost’), but prefer the fun way of walking and hoping until eventually passing out.

Thankfully I didn’t faint, but instead found a familliar sight in the distance. It was a large arcade (sega arcade I think), that I’d passed on the way. Keeping this to my right hand side I kept on walking and soon found myself on familiar ground.

On my way I found myself drawn to a particular retailer. The small table-top store was selling Monopoly … Osaka Edition! Now I can’t remember if my familly (we’re competitive when it comes to Monopoly) had asked me to buy one in Japan, but me here staring the the Osakan version of Monopoly took my by complete surprise! The only thing stopping me from buying it was the price of 4500 yen (£33.97 by today’s exchange rate). Even now I’m still umming and ahhing about it. I guess I’ve still got some time left here so I don’t need to make a rush decision about it.

To get to Nippombashi it cost me 230 yen (£1.74) on the underground, but me being me, the stubborn money saving twazzerk, thought “nuts to that” and walked home. Quite ironic when you consider my Monopoly incident. The walk (which according to google is just over 3 and a half miles) took somewhere between 1.5 and 2.5 hours. Due to complications with a watch and a phone call, I really don’t know.

It was actually on the way home that I made my biggest cock-up of the day, possibly the week (or longer >_<). When things are put ‘on sale’ in Japan, they might be marketed by a number of prices rather than the one you actually pay. To be fair this isn’t something that’s exclusive to Japan, just think of the times in shops you’ve seen £10 in huge letting next to something expensive only to look at the very small ‘off’ next to it. Well todays balls up was quite simple. I saw a sign saying 800 yen (£6.04) and jeans. Due to an unfortunate split in one of my pairs of bottoms I’ve been left juggling between a few pairs as of late.

Anyway, after nosing through the rail which was out the front of the store, I eventually found a pair that matched my size. Smiling like an idiot at the thought of picking up a bargain, I take my new jeans into the store and head for the desk. Something struck me the moment I entered the shop, and it wasn’t the low signage by the door. This was a nice looking shop, the kind where it looks like all they need to do is sell one thing in order to cover all their overheads, the kind of shop I never (like to) enter!

Being served by two very well dressed well mannered young men felt somewhats off-putting, me standing their in an old work-uniform coat, a University club jumper and jeans that … well, they’re almost as holy as the Pope. When it came for me to pay I stuttered and stammered. I had misread the sign outside, and the jeans were 800 yen off, not 800 yen. A total of 2800 yen (£21.14) for the jeans was paid, 2000 yen over what this idiot had thought they were. To be fair (trying to justify stupidity is something that can seldom be done well, but I’ll give it a go) even at 2800 yen, compared to other shops I’ve been here they were pretty cheap. A lot of people may say that Uni-Qlo is Japan’s cheapest clothing store, and about as close to Primark (oh beloved Primark) as you can get, but in my eye it’s still expensive. Perhaps it’s all these years of buying Tesco and Asda jeans that have conditioned my mind.

Oh, and yes Nippombashi has maid cafes … no, I haven’t been in one … yet. ¬_¬

Which brings me to dinner. Entering the dining room the trays were not where they usually were. They’d already been prepared including a small nabe pot and a small bowl; the nabe pot being incredibly hot as it is. Nabe (鍋), or nabemono (鍋物) to call it by it’s full name, is a general term for a meal which can be referred to as a one pot meal. Anywho, on to the egg.

Back in England I’d only ever eaten eggs that were cooked (be they fried, boiled and so on) or included as an ingredient (say in meringue for instance), so seeing a raw egg waiting for me in the small bowl took me by surprise. Don’t get me wrong I knew that they were eaten this way in Japan, but this was a new experience for me. I’d eaten egg here, but like home it was always cooked, usually fried.

Tastefully wrong as I thought it was, I knew that I just had to experience it even if it was just the once. However, I was faced with a slight dilemma. Just … how was I supposed to eat it? Was I supposed to knock it back like a shot, hoping the yolk wouldn’t cause me to gag? Was I supposed to pour it over my rice or nabe? Or was it in fact just a decoration? I had no idea! Both myself and my fellow foreign friend just couldn’t think of how it was done, so we began to scour the room looking for someone else chowing down.

Just as I finally caught a glimpse of someone dunking a chunk of meat into the egg, thinking to myself that indeed it wasn’t to be eaten raw straight from the bowl, we were joined by some of our friends from France. I asked my French amigo who could speak Japanese very well just what to do with it, and was surprised to learn that they all had different ways of eating it. In France it is quite common to eat a raw egg.

One took the yolk and spread it across his rice, and the other two beat it, mixing the white and yolk, and poured it onto their nabe, drinking the leftover right from the bowl. I followed this inspiration and mixed my egg also. Well I say mixed, but I soom came to realise that chopsticks don’t work as well as a fork in this department, leaving me with a concoction of what can only be described as “I wish I hadn’t done that”.

Unfortunately for me I’d already finished of my nabe, rice and miso so had nothing to pour it over. Giving me only one option I hold the bowl to my mouth and take a very big sip of the clear and yellow gunk. The flavour can be described as very weak milk with the odour and texture of milk that has gone off. Living by the old motto of “I’ve started so I’ll finish”, I down the rest of the substance and quickly follow it by some ocha (お茶), Japanese tea.

I’m happy to report that I’ve yet to vomit and still have my vision, so I don’t think raw egg is deadly. However I did brush my teeth fairly soon afterward.

One of the main problems with living in a dorm compared to a homestay is the lack of information you are given or have access to. Had it not been for a lesson on popular Japanese religeon yesterday, I wouldn’t have known that there was an Ebisu Matsuri at the Nishinomiya Shrine today. I didn’t go for various reasons, but had it not been for my own complete and utter boredom and looking for a certain 100 yen shop, I wouldn’t have found out that a shrine somewhats near the dorm was also having an Ebisu Matsuri. Why didn’t I go? Well, I walked around a little but I don’t know, I guess I didn’t really feel the mood.

It would be easy to say that if you want to experience things like this just ask around and turn up to things. Trouble is, how would you drop it into conversation? “Oh by the way, are there any traditional events or festivals coming up” I’ll say to a friend out of no where while they’re trying to work. Or walking past a temple or shrine I see activity and decide to tag along, only to realise it’s a private funeral function as I’m being ushered away. Not having ‘an introduction’ doesn’t limit itself to things like this. There are a lot of small bars and restaurants in my area but without wanting to get the skipped record effect there’s no possible way to go in. At least with a host familly, a member could go with you on your first time to help people get used to you. I have done it (gone into a random place) and at first it’s always an incredibly tense and awkward feeling. Sometimes that tension eases, sometimes it does not. I’ve yet to go anywhere a second time.

Since it’s the weekend and I have no plans that involve me actually going anywhere and/or spending money, I’ll be sure to upload some more photos.

Ladies and Gentlemen welcome to December. Yes, it’s a slightly late welcome I’ll admit that, but the truth is when you move home things generally get a little sidetracked … especially when it’s not in your native country. We (myself and some other exchange students) bid our farewells to Kamishinjyou on Saturday, leaving behind the place we first called home in Japan. This of course is not counting the hotel we stayed at for the first few days.

Everyone’s reasons for changing dorms varied. For me it was mainly because of the location of the other dorm that the university’s exchange students reside in. As some of you know I’m a fan of city life much more than town-esqueness. Kamishinjyou was fun to a degree but when you have to walk 10 minutes to get to the train station when sit for another 20 or so to get to the fun area of Umeda (admitadly Juso isn’t bad but … meh) and to top it all off you have to pay 150 yen to do so then I’d rather just stay in home and faff about, which in fact is how I ended up spending a lot of my weekends.

The move itself went really well. I’d made a few visits to the new dorm at Kita-Umeda beforehand so I could deliver some things and make the last day of moving much easier. This in turn saved me the embarrassment of having too much stuff to fit into the taxi on moving day, though I was still bringing a fair amount of stuff.

As a way of thanking our former dormitory manager I gave him a box of Earl Grey tea (though I really didn’t have the heart to tell him that I don’t know any British people who actually drink the stuff) and some flowers. My fellow movees also offered gifts. We had some staff members from the University come down to help out with the move, they also brought a gift of thanks. Though it was a simple handing over of the keys, it still seemed to be somewhats ceremonial … ish.

For the record, although my room was untidy for over 99% of my time at Kamishinjyou, I left it spotless ^_^.

As for my new room? Well … it was clean when I first came with my first load of things, then it became … um … personalised. It’s not that it’s intentionally untidy, I’m just still in the process of unpacking.

So what of my new area? I love it here. With Umeda a 15 minute walk away (compared to the 10 minute walk from Kamishinjyou dorm just to the station), I don’t feel as isolated here. Also the moment you step out of this dorm you’re right in a busy city atmosphere, and I love this kind of buzz. It’s exciting. I went into one shopping centre about 4 minutes walk away, and it was looooooong. Apparently it’s the longest in Japan, but I’ve not checked wikipedia yet to confirm that.

Unfortunately all of the above along with my usual load of work and attempts at preparing for the end of semester exams has left me with not much time to keep you guys in the loop.

The showing of the TV show that I was on went well. I wasn’t featured as much in it as a lot of people here thought and made it out to be, but you do see me screaming in the Room of Living Dolls. Scary as it is I do love that place. But yeah now that it’s been shown I could tell you what we did … but I’ll wait until it reaches YouTube first.

In creative news I’ve finally started to edit episode 2 of Gyamball, but because of the fact that next week’s pretty busy, it probably won’t be until New Year that it gets to be online.

Finally, remember my pointless 7 hour walk to blow off some steam? Well, I’m planning on going one better. One? Hmm … maybe 8 or 9 better actually. I’ve come to the realisation that I’m not going to be able to do the majority of my ‘When in Japan‘ list, so I might as well go all out and have a hell of a lot of fun doing just one thing.

On my list was a visit to the village of Shirakawa in Gufu prefecture. My reasoning was it was the village that Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni’s village (Hinamizawa) was based on. An odd reason as it may seem, but for me it’s worth walking the 190 miles to go there.

… *pauses for a moment so reader can get up off the floor* …

Yes, since I had no plans for Christmas and no familly to spend it with, I wanted to do something exciting. Why not get the train you say? Well, I’m planning to get the train on the way back, but I noticed on the walk from Okamoto to Juso that you can see so much more if you make the effort to travel manually. Yes it’s going to take much (MUCH) longer than the train, which normally takes 4-5 hours, and I’m estimating it will take around 10 days for me to get there. On route I’m planning on sleeping at hostels, so don’t worry I won’t be sleeping in bus stops and what-not. Also if things do get too tough, then the train awaits.

I realise in the end it’s going to cost me more going this way than getting the train, due to hotel fees and such, but since I’ve come to terms with the fact that I probably won’t be going to Tokyo and other things from The List during my time here I think it’s well justified.

And on that note, I’m off for a drink … of good ol’ cheap water.

So yesterday was pretty cool. After a nice lie-in I met up with a couple of friends at Uni and proceded to tackle the last day of the school fayre. As usual we dove head on into the aggressive sellers, only this time we were accompanied by our old English friend … rain. Not only was this the day that I’d left my brolly at home, but it was also the day that I’d decided not to bring in my washing that was hanging out.

Balls.

Growing weary of the fayre, and full of random food (including a fried potato coated in some kind of sauce (name forgotton >_<) and yakitori (skewered chicken)) we decided to head to karaoke for a couple of hours, and then afterwards head to Sushiro, a sushi restaurant where food is on conveyor belts.

Karaoke was great fun, as is the norm. We booked two hours, and since there were only three of us, we tried a lot of songs that we’d never done before. For example I took a shot at Nantoka Nare and Hito Toshite Jiku ga Bureteiru amongst others.

Needing to kill some time before heading to the restaurant, we took a trip to Nishinomiya Kitaguchi. Not really much happened here, as I said we were mainly killing time. So forgive me while we skip on ahead.

One thing I will draw back to is my introduction to an anime series that’s … odd. Oruchuban Ebichu was introduced to me by one of my fellow foreigners and despite it’s general crude, animal abusing, blood-dripping, sex filled content, I found it to be quite funny. Possibly because of the fact that it’s cute appearance is a tremendous contrast to what is actually happening.

I’m not going to ruin it by telling you what goes on (I have a feeling your curiosity will have got the better of you by now anyway), but I will explain that there is a long running joke throughout the series where a certain word is used. I’m not going to say what the word is nor will I write down it’s English quivalent, so I’ll use an English word it is similar to … Mango.

The reason I explain this will come to light shortly.

The restaurant was really nice, and a very relaxing place. On our arrival it was almost empty, giving us a good 4 seater area (one seat had all our stuff). There are two methods of getting food at Sushiro, both very easy. The first method is to sit there and watch all the different foods go by on the conveyor belt next to your table, then grab whatever you want. Alternatively you can press the call button on the table and order something. This itself comes on the conveyor belt on a marked dish so that no one can grab your goodies before it gets to you. If you order it you do need to be able to do it in Japanese; I know I said both methods were easy, but I think that pushing a button does indeed fall into that easy category.

As most of the plates were 105 yen each (and by that I mean I hardly saw any that were any more than that … maybe one or two), not only was it an inexpensive way to try lots of different styles of food you’d not normally get to try, it was also very easy to keep track of your spending. After chowing down on a plate’s food you stack it at the end of the table. If you’re with a group and want to pay seperately, you just have to stack your plates individually. Feeling full at 7 plates I called it a day. Don’t get me wrong, the plates are not massive, like our dinner plates back home, but 7 plates more than qualified as a good meal.

But why bring up Mango? Well, when the food comes down on the conveyor belt there is (normally) a sign in front of it saying what it is. At numerous times throughout the night a mango pudding came around (an ACTUAL mango pudding). Seeing the sign for this had us in stitches, and many bad jokes about mangoes were told, including how we’d always munch on a mango during the summer!

Last night whilst on the internet I noticed something. Staring at an empty beer can I took a piece of crappy plastic and starting hitting the two together. Unsurprisingly it made a noise. I then took the plastic, put it between my fingers and started swirling it like a mini electric-fan. The beer can was then introduced to this whirlingness and a continuous clacking sound came about. Yeah, once again no big surprise. However, then cogs in my head started whirring, and I started to remember being young, making similar annoyingly noisy things.

From when I was a kid I’d remember annoying the hell out of people by constantly doing things that I’d just learned, practicing it and getting it down to a tea … before getting told off for being an irritating buggar. Anyway, it came to me that i could perhaps use this inspiration in learning my grammar and use whatever grammar point learned as much as I possibly could.

That’s what I did today.

Yes, I was annoying, yes I wasn’t making much sense to the context of conversations, and yes I did confuse many Japanese people (and some of the upper-group exhange students). However, yes I was remembering the grammar, yes I learned how to use it better from friends correcting me, and yes it was funny for all of us.

Here’s an example of the kind of thing I was doing:

Person A: “I went shopping at the weekend and it was fun.”
Darlo: “So in other words, you mean to say that apples are delicious.”
Person A: “Um … well, we did buy apples yes. And after that we went to the cinema.”
Darlo: “So in other words, you mean to say that Person B has become better at playing tennis.”
Person A: ” …… “

Today was … interesting. As is always, I’m pretty tired. As is always, I’ve done something different to make me tired. It probably started last night as I went to bed late due to hunting all of the afformentioned Bud Light commercials. I went into Uni nice and early but couldn’t remember the Kanji for the test. No big difference there, with the exception that all I could think of was “Real men of genius” being sung on a continual loop.

During the lesson we were talking a little bit about cultural differences between Japan and America (I reference back to a previous entry about my hatred of the current textbook for this). Our discussion was about how bragging about your familly or ‘inner-circle’ is considered bad and arrogant here (apparently it’s not in the States). I brought up the topic of Cinderella Syndrome, much to the confusion of people in the room.

Cinderella Syndrome is literally when you brag about something because the opposite is true. In Cinderella the step-mother bragged about her “beautiful daughters” and cast out Cinders as the tramp, when (at least according to the Disney version) it’s it the opposite which is in fact … fact. Fast forward to the end of the lesson and my one teacher asked me about any problems I’d been having, explaining that my written work, especially sakubuns (essays) had been awesome but my speaking and listening weren’t great, which was especially emphasised by a lesson of aweful contributions from me. After explaining Sunday Dorm Syndrome and the minimum conversation practice we get in the dorms.

Fast forward an hour or so and we find ourselves at ABC (aka Asahi TV). That’s right, me and Japanese TV have made a link. There’s a show called Bebop High-Heel and on it is a segment called Hajimete No Nippon (First Time Japan … ish). It’s basically a show that shows foreigners trying new Japanese things for the first time. Not only was this a good way to learn and experience some new Japanese cultural aspects (let’s face it, I don’t do that in a dorm) but also a chance to learn a bit more about Japanese media directly … I thought as I was conversing with the other participants in the ABC annex.

I won’t go into the details about what we did, I wouldn’t want to spoil it. The show’s being broadcast on the 27th of November at 11:17pm, though I doubt I’ll be watching it. The only TV in the building is in the dining room, which gets locked off at 10pm.

Going on a class trip tomorrow to Kanazawa, but I leave you with an episode of Hajimete no Nippon from YouTube.

Oh! Before I go I just want to say that the Room Of The Living Dolls at the arcade in the Hep 5 building in Umeda (Osaka) is freaking awesome, and everyone should go!