Ohanami takes the form of a picnic (or similar) where groups of friends, families, work-colleagues (etc) have a fun time in a park with, often under, sakura trees. Often alchohol is drunk (sometimes in excessive amounts), but the atmosphere amongst the groups is usually friendly enough to keep all parties under some sort of control … bare in mind I did say usually.

Coming up in a mo, I talk about my ohanami experiences this week, but first here’s a video from Clark in Japan of ohanami in 2007, which will give you a better idea of what I’ve been talking about.

So I ohanami’d (can’t believe I made an English verb out of a Japanese noun … well, not a very good one) twice this last two days, coming away with two very different experiences from them.

My first ohanami was at the park of 大阪城 (oosaka jou, Osaka Castle) with three others; my French friend and two of our Japanese friends. I and one of my Japanese friends arrived late after deciding to walk from Umeda, not realising how far it was (and not realising we were going in the wrong direction). Along the way I bought a can of beer (Strong Seven), though this stayed in my bag the whole time (honest!). By the time we got there our friends had already drunk theirs, but the small number of us meant that we could really enjoy the moment, a real 一期一会 (ichi go ichi e, a moment to be cherished, link to Nakamura-sensei’s homepare as he taught me about it).

Many (3; English, French and Japanese) languages were spoken and a world variety of topics discussed as we spoke beneath the shade of a sakura tree, with past experiences being shared with one another. We enjoyed the scenery with all the other groups beside and around us doing likewise, and caught a few photos of the land-train that is not unsimilar to Telford Town Park’s own Teddy’s Train.

Walking through the park on the way back, we passed many different groups in the park also enjoying a moment of 一期一会. School sports clubs were together with each other enjoying the moment (not drinking … I assume). Work-colleagues of a variety of ranks were together enjoying some time together out of the office (drinking … I assume), and one group of foreigners were … well, they seemed to be enjoying a game of “that sign’s in Japanese, so it must not apply to us” (to be fair, maybe they couldn’t read it, I just don’t know), as they set up a smoke-spewing barbecue right next to a sign saying “no barbecues or fireworks”.

Today there was another ohanami organised by some of the exchange students at uni and took place in a park in 夙川 (Shukugawa). To be honest I didn’t have high hopes of enjoying this one, especially by comparison to yesterdays, partly due to the common behaviour of some of students who were expecting to attend but mainly because we’d been predicted pretty naff (aka usual UK) weather.

When I arrived, brolly in arm, there was a guy on the roof of the gazebo we seemed to have taken over and many empty bottles and cans. That being said everyone seemed to be in good spirits and having fun (in a non-drunken way). Strangely though we’d taken a spot where the sakuras could barely be seen. After about an hour and half fatigue caught up with me though, not to mention the annoying “stoppy-starty” rain started getting on my wick, so I headed home early.

Cliche as this will sound, and pretty much everyone with a vague interest in Japan will have heard this at some point, but there really is something special about sakura and I don’t just mean it’s scent (which is really nice by the way). The reverance they receive despite and possible because they are only around for such a short time, has given them a real imprint onto the hearts of those they touch.

I’ve also remembered that Telford actually has sakura within the Maxell Cherry Garden, so those of you back home can actually have a little ohanami of your own.

I’m going to end this entry with a song from Kobukuro called Sakura, a song so beautiful it takes the words away from the very man trying to sing them in their 2005 tour. You can see the non-live version here, and if you want to know what he’s saying the lyrics are below.

Japanese lyrics (Kanji)
Japanese lyrics (Romanized)
English lyric translation

Kanji version (from Corichan)
名もない花には名前を付けましょう この世に一つしかない
冬の寒さに打ちひしがれないように 誰かの声でまた起き上がれるように

土の中で眠る命のかたまり アスファルト押しのけて
会うたびにいつも 会えない時の寂しさ
分けあう二人 太陽と月のようで

実のならない花も 蕾のまま散る花も
あなたと誰かのこれからを 春の風を浴びて見てる

桜の花びら散るたびに 届かぬ思いがまた一つ
涙と笑顔に消されてく そしてまた大人になった
追いかけるだけの悲しみは 強く清らかな悲しみは
いつまでも変わることの無い
無くさないで 君の中に 咲く Love・・・

街の中見かけた君は寂しげに 人ごみに紛れてた
あの頃の 澄んだ瞳の奥の輝き 時の速さに汚されてしまわぬように

何も話さないで 言葉にならないはずさ
流した涙は雨となり 僕の心の傷いやす

人はみな 心の岸辺に 手放したくない花がある
それはたくましい花じゃなく 儚く揺れる 一輪花
花びらの数と同じだけ 生きていく強さを感じる
嵐 吹く 風に打たれても やまない雨は無いはずと

桜の花びら散るたびに 届かぬ思いがまた―つ
涙と笑顔に消されてく そしてまた大人になった
追いかけるだけの悲しみは 強く清らかな悲しみは
いつまでも変わることの無い
君の中に 僕の中に 咲く Love・・・

名もない花には名前を付けましょう この世に一つしかない
冬の寒さに打ちひしがれないように 誰かの声でまた起き上がれるように

Romanized version (from Megchan)
Na mo nai hana ni wa namae wo tsukemashou
Kono yo ni hitotsu shika nai
Fuyu no samusa ni uchihishigarenai you ni
Dareka no koe de mata okiagareru you ni

Tsuchi no naka de nemuru inochi no katamari
Asufaruto oshinokete
Au tabi ni itsumo aenai toki no sabishisa
Wake au futari taiyou to tsuki no you de
Minoranai hana mo tsubomi no mama chiru hana mo
Anata to dareka no kore kara wo
Haru no kaze wo abite miteru

Sakura no hanabira chiru tabi ni
Todokanu omoi ga mata hitotsu
Namida to egao ni kesareteku
Soshite mata otona ni natta
Oikakeru dake no kanashimi wa
Tsuyoku kiyoraka na kanashimi wa
Itsu mademo kawaru koto no nai
Nakusanaide kimi no naka ni saku love…

Machi no naka mikaketa kimi wa sabishige ni
Hitogomi ni magireteta
Ano koro no sunda hitomi no oku no kagayaki
Toki no hayasa ni kegasarete shimawanu you ni
Nanimo hanasanaide kotoba ni naranai hazu sa
Nagashita namida wa ame to nari boku no kokoro no kizu iyasu
Hito wa mina kokoro no kishibe ni
Tebanashitakunai hana ga aru
Sore wa takumashii hana ja naku
Hakanaku yureru ichirinbana
Hanabira no kazu to onaji dake
Ikite iku tsyosa wo kanjiru
Arashi fuku kaze ni utaretemo
Yamanai ame wa nai hazu to

Sakura no hanabira chiru tabi ni
Todokanu omoi ga mata hitotsu
Namida to egao ni kesareteku
Soshite mata otona ni natta
Oikakeru dake no kanashimi wa
Tsuyoku kiyoraka na kanashimi wa
Itsu mademo kawaru koto no nai
Kimi no naka ni boku no naka ni saku love…

Na mo nai hana ni wa namae wo tsukemashou
Kono yo ni hitotsu shika nai
Fuyu no samusa ni uchihishigarenai you ni
Dareka no koe de mata okiagareru you ni

English Translation (from Megchan)
Let’s name this nameless flower
There’s only one of it in the world
So it’s not battered by the cold of winter
So it can rise again when someone calls

A lump of life sleeping within the ground
Pushing aside the asphalt
Whenever I see you, we can share
The loneliness of not being able to meet, just like the sun and moon
Even the flowers that don’t bear fruit, and those that wither as buds
Are bathing in the spring wind
Watching your future with someone else

Whenever the cherry blossoms fall
Another unreturned love
Disappears with tears and a smile
And then we grow up
And the sorrow of always chasing after
That strong and pure sorrow
Never changes
Don’t ever lose it, let it bloom inside you – love…

When I saw you on the street
You seemed lonesome as you slipped into the crowd
Don’t let the swiftness of time
Sully the sparkle within your clear eyes
Don’t say a thing, it can’t be put into words
The tears you shed will become rain, healing the wounds of my heart
Everyone has a flower on the banks of their heart
That they don’t want to let go of
It’s not a sturdy flower
But a single flower, swaying fragilely
You feel the strength to live
In the number of its petals
Even when the storm rages and the wind flattens it down
There’s no such thing as a rain that will never let up

Whenever the cherry blossoms fall
Another unreturned love
Disappears with tears and a smile
And then we grow up
And the sorrow of always chasing after
That strong and pure sorrow
Never changes
It blooms inside you and me – love…

Let’s name this nameless flower
There’s only one of it in the world
So it’s not battered by the cold of winter
So it can rise again when someone calls

Good evening everyone and welcome to 春分の日 (shumbun no hi, Vernal Equinox Day), a national holiday here in Japan where people visit graves of departed family members and holding family reunions. And since I could do neither of the above, how did I spend my day eh?

Well to start with a nice lie-in was had (no food on holidays, you know the drill by now) as well as a day off from Uni. This in itself seems quite rare, as we normally (as exchange students) go in on most national holidays. Some of my Leeds friends at other Uni’s in Japan always seem somewhat shocked that we still have to go in during the Spring break.

Today I’d arranged with a couple of Japanese friends to go down to 日本橋 (Nippombashi) to look at the second hand manga shops and other anime related goodies. Like me, my friends arrived earlier than we agreed to meet so we could head off earlier. I love it when people are punctual ^_^.

After arriving at Nippombashi we headed in the direction of Den Den Town to first grab some food. Suddenly we came face to face with a barrier and a guard directing foot traffic. After crossing a road to where we wanted to go, we noticed a sign over a bridge saying that ‘something’ (not being able to read the kanji) was happening that day. According to my friends there was some kind of festival on, but even they weren’t entirely certain, suggesting it could be an Otaku Festival.

Sure enough the moment we turned the corner the street was jam packed with cosplayers, photographers and maids among other people. Voices could be heard over loudspeakers aswell as the excited calls of shop staff as they tried as hard as they could to entice people in to make a sale or two. After having a very brief nose around, we headed to the nearest McDonalds.

After chowing down we headed off down the road to the A-Too Media Recycle Shop, my favourite shop in the area. For my friends, this was the first time they’d gone to Nippombashi, so going in a shop that had manga starting at 10 yen (just over 7p at today’s rate) appeared to be a real treat. I too was astounded by the number of books that had been put down into the 50 yen and 100 yen sales. Picking up 7 books from the 100 yen section and a set of 6 books for 300 yen I headed for the till.

Now, either this shop was having an amazingly generous sale, they undercharged me, or both. Let’s just do a little math shall we? 7 books at 100 yen is 700 yen, plus the 6 book set for 300 yen, totalling 1000 yen (convenient number). Now when I was at the counter I heard one girl (there were two at the counter serving me) mention that the 100 yen books were now at 50 yen. This in itself was pretty sweet, so let’s change the equation. 7 books at 50 yen is 350 yen, plus the 6 book set for 300 yen, totalling 650 yen, right? ブー (buu, wrong (audible noise like a buzzer)).

I paid a total of 410 yen (£2.97) for my 13 books, giving an average price per book at just under 32 yen (23p) each. Get in! Checking the reciept later, they’d charge me just 60 yen instead of 300 for by 6 book set.

Shopping List: The 山田家 (The Yamada-ke, The Yamada House) books 1-6, 涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱 (Suzumiya Haruhi no yuuutsu, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya) books 1 and 2, and げんしけん The Society For The Study Of Modern Visual Culture (Genshiken (a word made from an acronym of) The Society For The Study Of Modern Visual Culture) books 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8. There is of course one big problem with buying manga at the moment at that has a lot to do with the fact I only have 2 months (ish) left, shipping this stuff home is going to be a heavy and expensive PITA.

After having a nice look around the area and in some other shops, we then headed to nearby Namba for some more nosing. One of the biggest differences between the two places was the vast difference in the kind of people that seemed to be in the area. Sure, both were full to the brim, but whereas Nippombashi was packed with people dressed in outfits of characters from Ace Hono to Zodd The Immortal, Namba had a more “commonly dressed” crowd, the two barely seeming to notice the fact that they’re right next door to one another.

Vistiting Namba Parks again was a nice little experience. We didn’t really go with a set plan or list of things we wanted to see, meaning we could freely wander around. Heading up through the restaurant section we were treated to a display where a chef was showing how cold soba noodles are made from dough. One person from his restaurant was then giving samples out so we could have a taste. Personally I’ve never been a fan of soba, but these were quite nice. I took a video of him cutting it with great care and attention, so that’ll be on the photo and picture blog soon.

After this we headed up to the top floor where there was a garden area. Performing on a staged area was a clown from America (I think he said his name was Dave or something). Don’t get me wrong, when I said clown I don’t mean he was some tosser arsing about, I mean he was actually performing clown-like things (well, we only got to see his finale, juggling knives on an elevated unicycle). Also fair play to the guy, his Japanese was pretty damn good (he slotted in English every now and then, but it seemed to work), so good in fact that it wasn’t until the end that he said he was from the States that I’d have believed it. Good show Dave.

Throughout the rest of the garden were handprints people who had achieved fame in Japan. We had fun comparing different people’s handsizes to our own and I felt a nice sense of acomplishment that my hand could compete with writers and athletes to name a few professions.

Parting ways in Umeda, I headed to Matsuya for my usual holiday meal of Curry-Rice.

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!

At roughly that time an earthquake occured in the Fukui Prefecture, and we felt it here in Osaka. Some people at Uni (living in Kobe) also felt the quake. Not a big one mind you, in fact with a lot of people sleeping through it and what appeared to be no mention of it on the news, you’d be forgiven for thinking that this never happened. But it did, my first earthquake in Japan and it barely made me budge. Not like the one in Leeds last year. So far I’m two-for-two then.

As part of my Education & Culture class, yesterday we went to a Japanese high school to both ask and be asked questions by students, and also to observe a homeroom period. The only times I’ve seen a Japanese school prior to this were from media resources, and of course they were fictional. Films such as Battle Royale and anime such as Myself, Yourself and Azumanga Daioh, had given me some insight and prior knowledge of what they might be like, but given this comparison you could also claim that you can tell what London’s like just from watching Eastenders.

The school building itself was ironically very reminiscent to those titles mentioned and I found myself liking the building and atmosphere more and more as time went by. It was rustic, there were cracks in the white, (well … dingy grey) walls, and due to a lack of a central heating system it was frickin’ cold, but they were some of the aspects I found quite indearing. Though truth be told I was thankful when we ended up in the AV room and found that it was warm.

Throughout the time there I spoke to four groups of 3-4 students in different environments. The first group took myself and another Konan student for a short tour of the site. Due to us having only ten minutes or so, I can honestly say that it was shorter than a stereotypical Japanese mini-skirt. However in that brief look around we did get to see areas such as the lunch room, sports ground (no grass of course, just gravel … goodluck there football goalies) and some of the class rooms also.

Everyone then re-assembled for a short period of general chatter. As well as finding out the opinions of the high-schoolers about their schools, I also learned a few things about my fellow Konan student.

The next stage of the visit was to break into other groups where we’d be interviewed individually by groups of three students about our experiences in Japan. During my interview sessions with the two groups I came to realise how little I’ve actually accomplished since landing in Japan, especially in comparison to things I’d wanted to. However, this is also countered by doing things that non of the other 留学生 (ryuugakusei, exchange students) have done, like the Okamoto to Juso walk for instance.

The final conversation was in a room with refreshments (woohoo! Fanta and biscuits!) where we chatted with three more students, only this time I was joined by another two Konan students. Again this conversation was quite open so we talked about whatever things popped into our heads. Unfortunately my dead goldfish in a sieve type memory means I can’t remember a lot of the conversation, but I do remember that we discussed that they liked, and were rather proud of, their uniforms, the fact that they’d all been to Taiwan … oh wait, that was the first group … and that there are some teachers they don’t like.

When compared to the UK, Japanese schools are very different, and since the visit I had the liberty of reading a little bit more about them. Unfortunately the only things I read were how they differed from North American schools, but from what I can tell one of the main differences is the number of years of compulsory education. In the UK, starting with infant school (or primary school if your infant & primary school years are combined) you have 11 years of compulsory education, with the option to leave (and hopefully get a job) when you’re 16, unless you were born later in the academic year. However, in Japan you don’t have to start school until you’re six years old, with the option of leaving at the age when British students begin their final year, giving just 9 years of compulsory learning.

Wanting to save myself a tidy 180 yen (£1.33) I chose to walk from the school to Okamoto train station, and put that money to my food on Sunday. The walk took longer than expected by about half an hour or so, but oddly enough I arrived home at the same time as if I’d have stopped in Konan’s Ajisai room until it’s closure at around six.

I’ll end this by saying that I didn’t sleep much last night. I was compelled to watch the end of Higurashi No Naki Koro Ni (Kai) (about 10 episodes I think), which kept me out of bed until about one. By which time I was in such a state of awesomely smily happy joy that even though I went to bed I kept running through various aspects of the story in my mind. Seriously folks, if you must watch any series for the sheer experience, this is the one. Won’t spoil any of it by saying what happens, so maybe I’ll write a review one day.

Oh and in other news I finally found my student ID … in my bag.

Waking up this morning, I managed to last … hmm … about 2 minutes before muttering in my native tongue. Blast my crappy memory. I picked up again but continuously slipped back into English throughout the day, my longest stint being the 5 hour period that I was in my room and didn’t say a single word. I gave up this evening and agreed I’d start again tomorrow, writing a note for myself to read in the morning to remind me.

As far as listening practice goes last night a friend and I watched the remaining episodes of 苺マシマロ (Strawberry Marshmallow – see the YouTube clip at the end of the last post) and both agreed that not only was Miu one of the most interesting characters we’d seen, but our understanding of spoken Japanese had improved. I am also aware of the sadness in the fact that two men living in an awesome city stayed in on a Friday night watching a cute cartoon.

For one of my Japanese culture classes here I’ve been reading The Japanese Mind (edited by Roger J Davis & Osamu Ikeno), and as far as books you have to read for class go it’s not half bad. It looks daunting (by my reading standards ¬_¬) at 270 pages but it’s chapters break the book up well into managable page durations, and doesn’t seem to be filled with excess filler and boredom. Yes unlike most books, I’ve been able to read this without it putting me to sleep, congratulations that book.

Finally I want to give a plug to a webcomic I found because they advertised on here, guess it worked. Optipess by Kristian Nygård takes the kind of weird, subtle and at times slightly twisted humour and presents it in a short 4 panel style comic.

I also want to give a shout out to a friend of mine who’s come over and is studying in Nagoya for a few months. Michael ‘Kriffix’ Kacar is a manga artist from the London, UK, who was a runner up in one of TokyoPop’s Rising Stars of Manga Contests. Welcome to Japan dude, I hope you enjoy your time here!

Recently the weather here in Osaka and Kobe has dropped, and even though it’s pretty much what Summer would feel like in the UK, it still feels pretty darn nippy. My aircon’s now become my heater and I’m now wearing long sleeved tops all the time instead of noth … um … t-shirts. I also heard from Telford that they’ve had a nice bit of snow lately. Typical eh.

So last Saturday (after writing up the journal) I noticed a package had come for me. Unfortunately the office wasn’t open so I couldn’t pick it up. After completely forgetting about it and going to head out for the night, I remembered about it just as I was about to step through the door. After being handed what can only be described as a Christmas Turkey in a binbag, I dropped it in my room and headed out.

After another fun night out at Gush, Okamoto, where we discussed different areas of the UK, the pound to yen exchange rate (which has been killing me as I have some money to bring over from home), and differences between English and American (language), it was time to call it a day and two of us made our way back to Osaka. That night we needed to make a change at Awaji station; we normally get a train from Juso to Kamishinjyou, but not tonight.

At Awaji we decided to try an experiment. We’d been curious for quite some time which of the two stations (Awaji and Kamishinjyou) were nearer to home. We’d always used Kamishinjyou, but judging from the layout of the track and the little time between the two stations, we couldn’t decide. So that night after getting off our train at Awaji, we decided to take a crack at walking it.

Having never done this walk before we decided to follow the track until a familliar point showed itself; a technique that aided areas of my walk from Okamoto to Sannomiya. Thankfully that wasn’t too long, and we soon arrived back at the dorm. Problem was that we never actually timed how quick the walk was. To be honest, we’ve not timed it from Kamishinjyou either. We got home more confused than we were before, and even today we’re still not sure which is faster. We plan one day to get a train back but one of us get off at Awaji and see who gets home first. We have roughly the same pace, so it shouldn’t be a race between the two of us.

So my package was from home (UK), Momma-Darlo was kind enough to send me a huge selection of sweets (photo to come), an advent calendar (little early, I know), a castle ornament (don’t ask), some books I asked for and a nice new coat. I’ve not yet worn the coat, but it looks warm and with the weather taking a turn you’ll soon see me strutting the streets of Kamishinjyou sporting a lovely number.

Waking up Sunday’s are always a feeling of ‘eh’. Yeah I don’t have to get up for University or breakfast, but living as I do every week I catch SDS (Sunday Dorm Syndrome). SDS basically takes control of your ability to speak on Sundays when, for whatever reason, you don’t leave the house. Normally in a dorm (well this one anyway) you only really communicate with the other students if there’s a valid reason (like you’re passing a message on, or want to tell them their goldfish is on fire) or if it’s a meal time (no food given to us on Sundays remember). Besides that, you might flash a "hi" or "ohayou" to anyone you pass on your trips to the bog, but that’s it. Unless you get a phone call, you generally spend the entire day saying less than 20 words.

Compare this to the homestay. Same scenario, you don’t fancy leaving the house. You’ll still get to chat with your familly at dinner, and no doubt a familly member will pop by your room to see how you’re doing, or check you’ve not killed yourself with your awesomely complicated Japanese remote control. The point is if you’re in a dorm and are trying to save money by not going out, and let’s face it everytime you go out you do spend some money, you’re not going to improve your Japanese that day. Stick to learning kanji and forget about those vocal chords would be my advice, accept your SDS and sod showering that day … no one will be around to notice.

Or maybe I’m just ranting on that one because the longer I’m here I notice the differences between dorm and what I’m being told about homestay-wise. Top that with the fact that dorm guys are actually paying more and it’s a bit of a shot to the pills.

Moving on.

On Wednesday I had an exam for my business module (Mergers and Acquisitions). I didn’t get much studying done for it as we’ve started the keigo (respectful) chapters of Minna No Nihongo and it’s new and a bit complicated. However I don’t think I did … that bad. I was a bit worried that I seemed to finish quite early (we had two hours and I was done after about half an hour) so I kept on rechecking over my answers until I saw someone else hand in their paper. We get the marks back in just over a week.

I re-watched over the Miss Dynamite animations/interactive comic a few nights ago in order to relax a little. Sirkowski’s currently making episode 24, for which an animatic is available to be seen, aswell as offering an incentive for Americans to vote for Obama. His site may be a little risque for younger internet users, but I still find it funny.

Remember in the last package from home how I mentioned getting my hair clippers? Well unfortunately for me they don’t work here. Why? Because not only did I forget that it wasn’t enough to merely change the plug pins (with an adapter), but I had also forgotten that electrical equipment in the UK generally needs more power than what a Japanese plug socket can dish out. This is something we discovered tonight when I went to cut my friends hair (with permission of course) and all I could get was a slight vibrating sensation. Either I was being electrocuted or the clippers were working at a speed not fast enough to cut through a fly’s wings, but either way it left me with no means of cutting my hair, my friends hair, shaving the box-dog down the road or someone’s teddy bear and sending it back fluff by fluff.

Well tomorrow’s halloween (one of the reasons my aforementioned friend wanted his hair cutting), and even though it’s not a big thing in my area of the UK (you try telling the shops that) some of the Americans here are making a bit of a song and dance about it. I wonder if they’ll think of us as weird when we try to blow things up on the 5th of November. So there’s a bit of a shindig involved where people are coming into Uni in costume followed by a night out in Sannomiya (Kobe). While it would be nice to have the ability to go out and spend money on something you’re only going to wear for one day without looking like a complete pillock, I have chosen to go down my own route costume wise and will merely be wearing a hat.

Not just a hat, normal clothes too of course. I’ll also put that Skeleton (Gaikotsu) that I won at the Kishiwada Danjiri Matsuri on my balcony; it’s about time I cleared the skeletons from the closet. I have noticed a huge lack of public decoration compared to England so I’m interested to see how the Japanese do halloween, and also how they find the American’s actions for the night >_<.

I haven’t decided if I’m going to go to Sannomiya with them or not yet, but I have decided that if I do go, then I’ll be walking there from Okamoto once again! That way I’ll save 180 yen and feel like I’ve really deserved that first drink.

For now though, I’ll leave you with a youtube video of how I probably sound to a native Japanese speaker (I sound like the guy in white).

So the day (yesterday) actually started with a bit of a lie-in. The Suntory Yamazaki Distillery was further towards Kyoto, so the train to get there conveniently went through Kamishinjou. This meant that whilst everyone was meeting at Okamoto for about 8:15, at that time I was having breakfast and kicking back a bit, before meeting the group on the train at 8:58.

The Suntory itself was quite impressive and I did learn a fair bit (thanks to the English audio guide, which by the way was done by a Japanese woman who had clearly studied English in the UK … thank you ^_^) including whiskey being totally clear when it’s first made. The tour was shortly followed by a tasting session and many parodies of Bill Murray’s “For relaxing times, make it Suntory time” speech from Lost in Translation.

After the Suntory we all went to a little jazz cafe for a snack and drink. I had some Earl Grey tea (for what I believe is the first time in my life … take that stereotype!) and what was called a Milk Crepe. Delicious as pancakes with milk-sauce are (and I mean that literally, it was damn good), it was a little tricky to read the katakana on the menu; mi.ru.ku.re.-.pu. So at first I didn’t know whether I was getting a Mill Crepe (which sounds quite nice), or whether I was going to be subjected to a Milk Rape, a thought that scares me. When it came though I soon discovered it was a joyful combination of the two.

On the train back I found out that some students were going to be doing an all-night karaoke in Umeda. It sounded good, and if I went to Umeda straight from the train I was on, I could hang out in Umeda, do a bit mroe exploring, and take some more pictures. That being said, I’m uploading some more pictures right now. Today’s ones are the animal pictures in a park in London. I also wanted to get some more pictures from up the Acty Building. I’d been up there before, but the weather wasn’t great so didn’t take any pictures.

After a hell of a lot of walking around, exploring the city, and a few phone calls, I met up with some friends (other than those I was to meet for karaoke). Soon we arrived at a destination that wasn’t originally on my ‘list’ but sure is now; a Pokemon Centre. Though it’s true I lost interest in Pokemon after a the number of monsters surpassed 151, it was still an interesting place. In essence it was just a large pokemon shop, but it also had areas set asside so people could play, trade cards, and generally mingle.

We then went off for a look at Yodobashi Camera, the biggest electronic shop that I’ve ever been to. To give people back in Telford a general idea of it’s size, imagine the New Bucks Head stadium, only twice as high, twice as long, and twice as wide … twice as big really (ish). A lot of people at Uni have nicknamed this the ‘cheap’ electronics shop, but to be honest the best I way could describe their prices is ‘meh’. Yeah it’s not horrendously expensive and there’s a humongous range, but I wouldn’t go so far as to call it cheap. That being said most of the people who have refferred to it that way are usually shopping on Daddy’s credit card, and easilly forked out hundreds of pounds on Denshi-Jisho’s (electronic dictionaries) without shopping around. Sod that, I’ll stick with my (old style) Nintendo DS with Kanji Sonomama and a good old book style dictionary. Maybe we should have a Jisho (dictionary) dropping contest and see how many people cry, hehehe. I don’t think we actually bought anything from YC, but it is a cool shop just to have a look in.

A trip to Den Den Town was had soon after, and had I known it was actually the same place as when a few of us went to Nipponbashi I probably would have stayed in Umeda. So for those who didn’t see my entry on Nipponbashi and are too lazy to look for it (don’t worry, I am too) it’s a large area of Osaka that caters for fans of Otaku culture and has been nicknamed the city’s version of Akihabara. Once again I mainly stuck to second hand stores, and after doing Through the Fire and Flames on normal to a small audience, went and bought some cheap manga titles. How cheap? Well the cheapest three I got were 50 yen each (see XE.com for exchange rate).

After we seperated I headed back for Umeda for some more exploring. I was meant to meet with the karaoke group at about 10:30 so took my time in having a good look around. After another yonk of a walk I ended up at Umeda’s 7th tallest building, the Umeda Sky Building. Note that I didn’t walk the obvious A-B or as the crow flies, but by an interesting curve around from the Acty building stopping off at a Softmap (what I would consider to be a cheap electronics shop) … tempted to buy a Wii for roughly 90 quid (second hand of course).

When I arrived at the building designed by Hiroshi Hara, I saw a notice which (I’m pretty sure) said it closed at 7:30. It was 7:50. I approached one of the doors and it opened. I obviously took this as an opportunity to become the stupid foreigner and walked right in. After taking a lift to the top floor, I was presented with no windows but instead an Indian restaurant. Going down a floor gave me a window and a perfect place to get some more pictures of the city at night, if only my camera wasn’t so cheap. T_T

After meeting up with the karaokers to make sure everyone was about, I then did something I hadn’t done since I first got to Japan; went to a random bar solo. I wanted, like before, to find a place that either had no other patrons or very few so that I wouldn’t get the ‘record skipping’ effect upon entry. Ironically on my way I passed a McDonalds and felt the thirst for an OJ. Buying a medium Orange Juice I kept on walking.

After finding a nice little place I kept on walking to find a bin and then intended to head back. The only problem seemed to be that Umeda didn’t seem to have any bins where I was, or where I wasking. After walking for about half an hour and ending up back at Hankyu Umeda train station I finally had a place to put my OJ cup. Now if I’d have bought a can or bottle from a vending machine then I’d have had no problem finding somewhere to put the rubbish, as most venders have bins for cans and plastic bottles.

So heading back to the bar I very nervously walked in, announcing my presence and enquiring if the bar was open; last thing I’d want to do is look like a complete tit by going into a closed place, or worse someone’s house that just looked like a pub! Thankfully it was open and eagerly awaiting someone to come in and buy a drink. Though me and the bar lady didn’t really talk much or for very long, I was thankful that at no point did she say something along the lines of “your Japanese is very good”, as that’s normally the key it takes for me to forget every Japanese lesson I’ve ever taken. After having a couple of (pretty damn good) beers, I was on my way and met up with the others.

Karaoke started shortly after 11 and ended at about 5 o’clock. There really isn’t much more I can add to the obvious; lots of singing throughout the night. For the record I did sing my usual Life is Like a Boat and Clubhouse Sandwich combo as well as an array of othertunes.

After seeing some of the guys off on their way, me and one other person stuck around waiting for McDonalds to open. After polishing off a Sausage (and cheese) Muffin and a Hashbrown (with that ol’ OJ favourite), I too headed home. It was roughly now I wished I hadn’t done so much walking throughout the day as my legs felt so angry with me it was taking all my might just to get my knees to function properly. I did fall asleep a couple of times on the train, but each time waking up as we approached a station, and I don’t remember much about the walk from the station to the dorm except for the fact that a dog was standing up in a car. The only real way I could remember that is because this dog (who we have nicknamed ‘Box Dog’) lives in a box inside a garage and never seems to leave it, occaisionally moving his head every now and then.

When I got back into my room I quickly swept everything off the bed put my head on the pillow and …

THE PILLOW!

That’s something I keep forgetting to talk about! My beloved new pillow! For those of you who are fans of Azumanga Daioh out there think back to when Nyamo buys a new Danish pillow and Yukari tries it out. Yes, that scene! For those of you who have no idea what I’m banging on about, a YouTube video follows this paragraph. Well I too have now bought one of those legendary pillows which has swiftly replaced my sack of rocks with a permanent central dent. It has really helped me sleep better, but it has worked a bit too well. Somedays instead of me getting out of bed at 7 for breakfast I find myself abusing the snooze button more times than it can handle, with it swiftly saying “sod it, i’ll have your breakfast instead of you, you lazy git”. But it can easilly be forgiven. My major plus side is that unlike Nyamo I didn’t pay 10,000 yen for it, but a mere 980 yen … the same price as my awesomely cheap trainers! So here as my way of saying adios for now … here’s an English dub of that particular scene. Enjoy!