As a mystery shopper myself, I’d definately say that Leeds has one of the best McDonalds I’ve been to as far as customer service is concerned. The staff at the St John’s Centre branch are normally polite and I have at times had a couple of good conversations with staff members without holding up the queue. In fact one time I entered the restaurant in a foul mood and left with a smile on my face.

Donnington in Telford on the other hand is a bit of a different case however, at least today anyway. On the way back from shopping we decided to pop through the drive through to get some food. There was already a bit of a queue when we got there, and soon other cars also joined the queue behind us. The first problem came to be at Window 1 (this McDonalds drive-through having 3 windows). On arrival the window was closed and the only staff member visible seemed to be chatting to someone at Window 2. As we had to wait there in the queue for sometime anyway, we presumed the reason they hadn’t opened the window and served us was because service would begin at Window 2. Unfortunately the same thing happened at Window 2, and as I looked back to see the car behind being served at Window 1 I knew that we’d end up having to order at Window 3.

Normally the only action to take place at Window 3 is the collection of food, so when we arrived at the window I had to explain that the food laid out for collection wasn’t for us and that we still needed to place our order. A member of staff (seeming to wear a more senior member uniform) came over and asked if we were paying by cash or card, and that if we wanted to pay by card we’d either have to come in the store, or drive all the way around and rejoin the queue.

After agreeing to pay in cash he then proceeded to take our order … in his own special way. I can appreciate that there was a queue behind us getting longer, but making us rush with your face right next to the car window won’t make us speed up at all. And yes we told him that. This (possibly) senior member of staff had one of the worst attitudes I’d ever seen when dealing with customers, especially considering there was a young child in the car. We told him what we wanted and he tried to memorise it. I’m presuming here that he would have to ring the order in at another till. He recited our order back, but seemed to add menu items. For example, part of the order was a hamburger, medium fries and a small chocolate shake. He referred to this as a “burger meal”. When I asked what a burger meal was, he said it was like a Big Mac meal, but with a burger instead of a Big Mac. We then asked if they actually did a burger meal, to which he said “no”.

Eventually, he took the money over to the till and came back with our change, at which I asked his name. This member of (possibly) senior staff didn’t even wear a name badge, though claimed his name was “James”. I also asked what this particular branch number was, as I knew I’d want to take this further. Rather than give me this, he did say I could speak directly with the manager (though he didn’t make it apparent if this was the branch manager or duty manager, I doubt it would have been the franchisee).

The manager by contrast to “James” was completely sensitive to what was going on and listened to exactly what had happened and appologised. She said she would send me an email to let know the outcome of the situation, so I’ll let you know how that goes by when I get it.

To be honest, this experience hasn’t put me off McDonalds totally (especially as I’m going to head back to Leeds soon), but I know this has put me off the Donnington branch. Though I wouldn’t say the training at that branch needs more focus on customer service (because I’ve not worked there and don’t know how the training is done), if the same experience we had was also experienced by other customers, this could have a much more negative effect to the branch.

Still have no idea why we weren’t served at Window 1 though, if we had this could have never happened.

To quote professor West’s lecture notes (to give you a very brief intro):

The Shunie-houyou 修に会法要 or Second Month Memorial Rite is an act of repentance keka 悔過 before the temple’s deity – Juuichimen Kannon 十一面観音. The priests, acting on the people’s behalf, carry out rituals of repentance for their sinse.

It takes place in Nara at the Nigatsudou which is a sub-temple of Todaiji. The Nigatsudou was established in the early 8th century by a priest named Jitchuu. There are many legends associated with the Nigatsudou and the Omizutori ritual and three of them are directly connected with Jitchuu.

The first great thing about this trip was that it was taken into account that people would find it inconvenient to travel all the way to Kobe, just to head back in the direction they came from. From the meeting time, I could easily have had breakfast and met up at Okamoto (on some previous trips I’ve had to skip the meal to make the meeting time, regardless of the fact we had to wait for late pillocks), but since we were going through Umeda station, I met the group there after having a nice extra bit of sleep and a casual walk.

This trip was joined by a few guests, which considering the small class size, didn’t make too much of a crowd. Joining us were another Konan exchange student, a fellow Leeds student who’d made a trip of her own down from Tokyo, and three students (British, Singaporean and Japanese) from Kwansei Gakuin University. Heading from here to the 御堂筋線 (midousuji sen, Midousuji line), we soon found ourselves on our train journey to the former capital of Japan.

The views alone from the trains were outstanding, and seeing a wide range of great 景色 (keshiki, scenery) from city-scapes and wide countryside to old building foundations, gave me a welcome change to my usual view from my usually poor view from my dorm window.

On arriving at Nara we all split up for an hour to grab some lunch. I say split up, but what I mean is everyone headed into the huge shopping centre adjacent to the station and I buggered off in the opposite direction. The side streets I initially walked down were full of a variety of shops, houses and happy faces, and since the weather was on our side (though a tad breezy) the walk felt even more enjoyable.

Walking past a local NHK TV station, I soon found myself at some parkland near the “Governer’s Official Residence” so took some nice photos (of the parkland, not the residence). How did I know it was that? The sign on the front in English kind of gave it away. I found the exterior walls to the ground to be quite interesting. They were white and had a ‘dark substance’ growing from the damp water residue falling from above, but from a distance these marks resembled a forest in Winter. To be honest when I first saw it on my approach, I was unsure if this was an actual painted mural on the walls, and it was not until I was close up I saw it for what it was. Perhaps that’s why it wasn’t cleaned off.

Walking back towards our meeting point I came across some wild animals that were roaming free in the park, with people going up to pet them and feed them specially sold biscuits. Very cute and friendly these hornless 鹿 (shika, deer) were, that parents were allowing young babies to approach them, though most often the babies and young children ran away terrified. Not wanting to be late to meet the group, I only stopped to take a few pictures before being on my way again.

Here’s a video clip from Lucky Star of Tsukasa Hiiragi getting the 鹿 treatment!

Arriving at the meeting point twenty minutes earlier than the scheduled time, I headed into the shopping centre and picked up some batteries and snacks from a 100 yen shop for later on. I also popped into McDonalds for lunch, had a nice walk around and still made it back five minutes before anyone else.

Walking back in the same direction as the cute little furry animals, we stopped off for a few moments of petting and feeding (the deer, not us), along with more photographs. To say that these deer are everywhere would be like saying that I can speak English. As we walked along the road during the day to get to where we needed to, you could almost put a guarantee on having at least one deer somewhere within your view. And yet at the same time I found it impossible to get sick of them. They seemed to bring a nice feeling inside, the kind you can only feel after really having your fill at your favourite restaurant in an all you can eat style and someone you don’t like footing the bill. It’s really something to see a deer bow towards you (I often found myself bowing back without realising). The deer here are reveered as sacred messengers from the Gods, and this is shown in their obviously unique personalities if by nothing else. I’m tempted to make a return visit to Nara just so I can have a day relaxing and watching the 鹿. Oh and because I know someone’s going to ask, probably Simon, yes I did see one having a poo.

Before arriving at Nigatsudou we made a couple of stops. First was the 奈良国立博物館 (Nara kokuritsu hakubutsukan – Nara National Museum) to look at the exhibit about Todaiji, Nigatsudou and the Omizutori. After the late people had caught up, we then moved on for a visit to the Todaiji itself, an amazing temple that again I could have spent ours at just admiring it. Also visiting Todaiji was a very large group of school girls,the manner of which again seemed very familiar to that particular Lucky Star episode. Ironically one of the stereotypes of a group of school girls here is the ability to sound shocked in unison. Well this was something that I used to consider pure cock and bull, until it was confirmed by my own ears “heeeee”. Watch this clip to see the kind of thing I mean, it happens at about 7 seconds.

As we approached Nigatsudou it became clear that it was going to be a busy festival as more and more people started to appear. We were getting there two hours before the festivals scheduled start time of 7pm in order to get a good spot, which we were very successful at. After which some of the group had gone off for some food, but as more people came it became harder and harder to keep ‘their spots’. It seemed as if a text I sent to them got through and after much carefully executed ‘shoving’, the group managed to make it back, though were soon scolded by one man for being too loud (to be fair, I think they could easilly have been heard from the back of the group of thousands of attendees).

As the festivities began and the lights went off, everyone was asked by one official not to use flash photography, to which the poor guy was ironically blinded by flashes. Throughout the night flashes were seen to go off, whether accidentally or not is something I don’t know, though my cameras flash setting did pop on once or twice before my battery supply diminished.

The festival itself involved the carrying of huge fire-lit torches up a staircase on one side of the temple (by one priest) and holding it at a great distance from a platform over the viewing crowd, of which we were almost at the front. The torch is then either shook or spun so that ash and embers fall towards the crowd. It is considered very lucky to have this ash fall on you, meaning my fire-scented backpack is now incredibly fortunate. This is repeated another 9 times, by which time I was thankful that I was wearing a hat.

Leaving the temple was where the real adventure began. Finishing at 7.30 (only half an hour after it started) we slowly and carefully made our way down the steep hill we were standing on, a hill that’s awkwardness could be compared (though not very well) to the Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake location. After reaching the bottom and checking to make sure if everyone was there, we checked the time. There was a train coming at about 8 o’clock, it was 7:35.

The race was on.

Everyone knew the drill; keep up or get left behind. Marching on like a team on a mission (finally, a group walking at ‘my speed’) we overtook groups, families, 鹿, small children, taxis, anyone that was an obstacle. We were also going a different way back so it was crucial to keep up with our proffessor, though the calls that could be heard in the distance shouting “sensei!” soon caught up. For a stretch we joined the road, the path being clogged with walkers, and even made an adrenaline swimming road-crossing which some students described as a “24 moment”. As we got nearer the station, another burst of adrenaline shot through some of our veins as we turned our ultra-powerwalk into a run, arriving at the station 5 minutes or so before the train was due to leave.

Ironically, I didn’t want to get this train but was too caught up in the moment to think about it. I knew we’d be getting back too late for dinner at the dorm, so my plan was to munch at McDonalds. Some people had to get on this train to meet families for dinner and so on (insert saracstic smily here), so a few of us, professor included, stuck around to make sure the straglers caught up.

On the way back I remembered something about the train pass that we were travelling on; it wasn’t my normal pass. It was a one-day travel pass that allowed travel between Kobe and Nara, meaning I could get off and on and change routes if I wanted. In other words, I could use this for some pointless free travel, well, for that day anyway. As we pulled into Nippombashi I said adios to the group and went off to see what stores were still open in Den Den Town (hoping to pick up the next couple of books from Yotsuba& cheaply).

I’m not sure if I was shocked, surprised or dissapointed to see that most shops were closed (this being at about 10pm), but when you think of a place nicknamed the Akihabara of Osaka, you generally have certain expectations. This being the case there were some shops (besides your usual 24 hour convenience stores) that were still open and appeared to go on through the night, though none had what I wanted. Walking past the maids and hosts I made my way back to the station.

I remembered a new bookshop (not really new, but one we’d only been in once about a week ago) in Umeda and since I had my little ticket for (almost) unlimited travel, headed north. I wasn’t really shocked that it would be closed, but I was shocked by the number of ‘pretty boys’ I’d passed on the way to get there. Obviously some of these guys were working for host bars, trying to get people in, but others were there for their hobby; nampa.

Nampa, to put it very simply, is where a guy hangs out on the street and tries to meet a girl with the intention of ending up in a love hotel. Apparently people have dedicated themselves to it with the same degree that someone would take up a sport, though it’s quite funny to think of girl-hunting as the new football.

I’d heard a few things about it from friends who’d been on the receiving of a few ‘invitations’ so thought I’d obverse for a few minutes outside the Hep 5 building, apparently a Nampa hotspot. Groups of well (and not so well) manicured men stand in line to the side of the path facing in. When one of them spots a potential (pardon my wording) ‘catch’ from a distance they make their way towards them. With all the power and lines they can muster, they have but a few moments to try and convince the girl to spend some time with them. Actually this reminded me a lot of the charity collectors (and so on) who dot themselves down high streets in the UK (I wonder if they’d collect more money if the night involved a trip to a love hotel). Of the few attempts I observed before heading off, not only was no one successful, but it appeared that one girl insulted the manhood-size of one nampa practioner – BURN!

With this I headed home back to good old 天神橋筋六丁目 (tenjimbashi suji roku choume, where I live). Before going to bed I checked my email. Since it had been my birthday recently (when exactly I seldom tell anyone) PKR, an online poker company I sometimes play free games on, invited me for a free-roll tournament involving 112 people. A few hours later I finished in 9th place and was awarded a $10 prize for my efforts.

Truly a wonderful day.

Oh, and I found 1 yen on the floor!

This has been by far one of (if not the) longest journal entries I’ve done, and if you’ve got this far thanks for staying awake. Please leave a comment to let me know you’re still alive! I’ll congratulate you with a little tune – Congratulations by Cliff Richard (gotta love the Austin Powers outfit).

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Why was I up so early? Well after re-watching the Sexy Vampire animation by James ‘Gosha’ Franzen, I felt inspired to crack on with the next page of the Lotaku webcomic. Didn’t get it finished mind you, but felt I made a decent enough dent in it.

Regardless of not having to go, I still went to Kobe this afternoon, to the same train station I get off for University. According to a couple of friends, a second hand book, game and CD shop is closing down soon and had put a lot of things on sale. Now this particular shop already had a huge 105 section (despite being second hand this is still a gigantic saving on what you’d pay for one manga in the UK), and it can be very difficult to find a specific title that you’re after. I ended up just buying 2 books but was tempted by some of the games and DVDs (DVDs in Japan by the way are incredibily expensive, and we thought anime was expensive in the UK!).

After a quick stop at McDonalds to grab a couple of hamburgers, I was soon on the train back home. It’s been well documented (I’m presuming, being too lazy to check of course), that the world is in fact small. Well anyway, on the train from Juso I was approached by a polite woman asking about my coat (in English). Like most day’s I was wearing my old PGL Staff fleece top; it’s nice, warm and has many 便利 (benri, convenient) pockets. It turns out that she herself had done some work at PGL at the Boreatton Park site. Where’s that you might be thinking? Well it’s only in my home county of Shropshire of course, herself coming from Birmingham. She’d moved to Osaka in January after working in Hiroshima, a place where we’re all due to take a class trip.

There were a few other mini-coincidences that we compared but here’s the clincher. When she moved to Osaka in January, she became a resident of Kamishinjyou! Just a month after I say goodbye, another midlander moves in (not into the mens dorm of course). It makes me wonder, does Kamishinjyou have a curse where it much always have a resident from central England?

So to play us out, let’s have that Sexy Vampire if you please…

Going no where in particular, with no real goal in mind, I wandered around the area of Umeda between the main town area and my home. Having a browse around various shops and looking in (non residential) windows, something hit me. Well, two things if you count a bicycle that got me in the back of the leg because I wasn’t paying attention.

When compared to prices of things back home, Japan is rather odd. Generally speaking, things can be classified as two kinds of prices (even second hand goods); “really expensive” and “just about normal”, with the rare anomaly of an actual cheap thing. It’s only recently since the high price of the yen (円高) kicked in that I started to notice that what I thought was cheap wasn’t actually inexpensive, it just looked that way next to it’s top class counterpart.

Looking back at my numerous visits to the 100 yen shop, the 99 yen shop, or buying from the 100 yen menu at McDonalds, I realise that I was neither getting ripped off nor getting a bargain (bar the exception of a few awesome finds at the 100 yen shop). Even going to our favourite ‘cheap’ watering hole, it occured to me last night that paying roughly £2.80 was a bit more than usual compared to back home. However, compare that with what appears to be the average price of a beer at £4 to £5 and it instantly looks like a bargain.

Since last week the price of the yen has come down a scoshie bit (no where near to how it was when we first got here mind you), but I’ve really been wanting to squeeze the pennies … or should I say ‘yennies’.

It’s a holiday from Uni this week as new University Konan students take their entrance exams. Good luck folks. Though the break is always well received, I’m not a big fan of time away from University here. Not only because it means not getting food at the dorm (this holiday isn’t a national holiday, which means we get food … well yesterday was), but because it takes me away from chances and opportunities to practice speaking. I did try to start up a conversation twice today with perfect strangers, and it went just as I expected it … very badly. Thankfully not too badly to get me deported, but a lot of confusion on both of our parts (and extreme shock from one guy) led to a very fast exit on both sides.

Anyone remember The Beets? Damn Disney breaking them up T_T

Through a rough combination of fatigue, procrastination and a general desire of not wanting to doing much I have put off writing up the blog. This could well be my subconcious way of trying to deal with the fact that since the change over to a new system of textbook I’ve not been retaining the information we’ve learned. But being honest this is something I cannot blame the book for, godawful as it is. I’ve realised that I’m having the same problem as I did with Minna No Nihongo; it’s new information.

For years I’ve had a problem with my memory and trying to recall things. So first time around studying Japanese I struggled to learn various things. When I started classes here at Konan because we were actually going over stuff that we’d already studied in Leeds I was able to remember it this time around … well, some of it anyway. But now that we’re onto new information I’m having that trouble once again. Despite the fact that I can try to put into context what we’re covering (for a couple of hours until I go home), it’s not sticking. So what does this mean? It’s going to take me twice as long to do my degree because I need twice as long to retain any bloody thing? God I hope not.

Ok, so here’s what happened since the “I don’t want to pay through the arse for a fish” section of the last entry, up until … well, as far as I get before I fall asleep (hence it’ll be a very brief version of events).

So one of the American guys and I headed off in search of the parks which were a short walk away (roughly Hadley Centre to Wellington Town Hall for those North Telford readers). When we reached the park we had a good look around to find it’s entrance. You see we arrived at the castle side, and of course castles come with high exterior walls, meaning we had a nice little extra walk around the perimeter. Once we’d arrived at (one of) the main entrance(s) to the park we were confronted with a sign telling us that the gates were closed for the evening (and that we’d have to pay to get in anyway ¬_¬).

Yeah in retrospect we should have had a closer look at the information we were given which did clearly say the parks opening times … oh well, diddums.

We decided to head back to town a different way as we hadn’t seen any cheap places to eat. Heading into town we passed a wedding (to contrast the funeral I’d seen earlier in the day) and also a group of very excited young girls cheering and dancing as they came out of a theatre. Maybe they finally cracked how to do some complex manoeuvre or something.

We found a nice restaurant in town that was reasonally priced and the food was good. As I chomped down my cheeseburger and McPork, I happily thought about how much money I was saving. Yeah, not the most adventurous meal ever but food is food after all. I wanted to buy some souvenirs the following day, so making a cut back was a reasonable way of doing so.

After dinner we went past an arcade, well, not quite an arcade as we’d think of it back home as this one is nothing but UFO catchers (or drop arm games, crane games, grabbers or what ever you call em). Anywho as we wandered around the arcade I explained to my colleague how these type of machines are, well, I won’t say rigged, but they’re designed to only allow a certain number of winners per players. Here’s how to be in with a better chance of winning on these.

First of all, make sure you have plenty of time. When you find the machine from which you want to win a prize, just wait there until someone else comes and wins. If you had to wait a while for that then you’re going to love this part. Keep waiting, but count how many goes people have until the next winner. Finally, continue to wait until roughly that same number of people have tried and lost. This gives you a greater chance of the claw actually grabbing the prize. Do be careful though, there’s still some element of skill to it and someone could still win whilst you’re waiting around. On that note some arcade places don’t like people lingering in there not spending money; fair enough right?

Then there’s the other method, the one that we used to win a pretty big Stitch (Lilo & Stitch) doll. Look around the machines for one where the prizes have been stacked quite high. You might be able to use the arm to push the prize down into the hole rather than actually grabbing it. There was a slight problem for us though. Stitch’s head was too damn big to fit through the hole. We called for assistance, expecting the staff member to explain to us that it didn’t count unless it came out the hole, but no, he opened the machine and handed over our new cuddly friend.

And then there were three of us.

So let’s start with Halloween. As I said in my last entry I did indeed walk again from Uni to Sannomiya. This time I was aided by the fact that I didn’t have to take a detour to avoid being associated with an obvious over-the-top western tourist and managed to complete the walk in an hour and a half, meeting up with everyone at a reggae bar in Sannomiya called Second Chance. This time it was a bit of a night walk … well, not quite night when I left, but it was when I got there. Before this there were many photo’s taken in the Ajisai room and many different costumes. I went down my usual cheap-ass route and wore a purple hat (which was part of my usual clothing) and borrowed a pair of white framed lensless glasses. Tonight Matthew I’m going to be … Spike Lee! Admitadly it was mainly the Americans who got it, but I didn’t really care much.

Oh, I and I did leave that Gaikotsu on balcony!

Coming back to the reggae bar for the time being, when I got there it was a happy hour so drinks were cheaper than usual. That being said, I think I have a strong feeling that Second Chance water down their drinks. I say this not because they tasted weak (in fact they were rich and full of flavour, but because I had quite a few without feeling any effect. Maybe I missed the sign that said ‘Alcohol Free’ at the door.

On the food side it was quite hit and miss. I ordered two plates; Garlic Fries and Fried Chicken. The garlic fries came with 3 dipping sauces (ketchup, mustard and a garlic sauce) and were legendary. The were called fries, but they were much more like a British chip: big, bold and potatoey. The sauces were also fantastic! Normally I hate mustard, but this kind had a strange appeal to it and I was able to easilly use all the sauces rather than just the traditional ketchup. However, the chicken was less than fantastic. I seemed to be very ordinary and lacked a lot of flavour. Did I mention it was also sitting in a big ass puddle of MAYONNAISE!!!

MESSAGE TO JAPAN – NO MORE MAYONNAISE PLEASE! T_T

After the reggae bar the large group split up a bit and I joined a group heading to a karaoke bar. As well as my usual repetoir I sang back up for a few of the others as we partook of an all you can drink offer. I don’t know if it was a Sannomiya alcohol selling code for that night, but once again the drinks were very weak (yet still full of flavour). After singing our hearts out and individually downing somewhere between half and a dozen drinks, our time was up and we were on our merry way. From the looks of some of the people we passed, some were merrier than others!

Upon getting back to the train station, we coincidentally met up with most of the others who we split apart from at the reggae bar. Because me, ‘the monkey’, the ‘army man’ and the Frenchman (no outfit, he’s genuine!) live in the same dorm, we took the same route going home together. The stares we got on the train were much more than we normally got (which by the way are now almost non-existant) and were also combined with some laughing. Still, it was always all in good fun. Kudos to the monkey for acting as dignified as much as a man in a monkey suit (literal pun) could act.

We had to get off the train a stop early, as it wasn’t stopping at our station. We could have waited for the next train, but instead we just walked from Awaji station to home. Many more stares were had and a few bike crashes narrowly avoided as the odd-squad went walking along. At the dorm I felt hungry so me and monkey went on to raid McDonalds for a burger. I could go on about the funny looks and stares we got, but I think that message is kind of embeded in the rest of the halloween entry. However at McDonalds something pretty amazing did happen. I only ordered one burger (that wasn’t the amazing thing), and was actually asked if I wanted a bag or if it was fine as it was (cue the "wow"). Seriously, everytime I’ve gone and just had one thing (and had it for take-out) I’ve ended up with more bags than produce. This was amazing.

On the way back I also felt like opening a new line to my Osakan food checklist by finally trying Takoyaki. Takoyaki is a fried octopus ball, and although I’m no stranger to octopus or food that comes in ball form, these were completely different to anything I’d ever tried. It was an interesting combination of creaminess and meatiness in one with a small air-pocket in the middle. It was nice, but don’t get me wrong I probably won’t be having Takoyaki too often.

Skip forward a day to the 1st of November. An old fortune says that if the first words you say on the first day of a month are ‘White Rabbits’ then you’ll have good luck throughout the month. Unfortunately I confused myself with a late night munching on takoyaki, so my first words came out as ‘Black Bunnies’. I hope that doesn’t arouse any old supersticions.

On this day I lost some money on a bet I placed before coming to Japan. I made a bet with my brother that my two nephews would pass their driving tests before he does (seperate bets, one for each nephew). My brother’s older than me and my nephews are 5 and 2. Congrats on passing your test dude.

Thanks to a friend from Konan, I was introduced to a show called Green Porno. It’s an …. I’m struggling to think of how to describe it. It’s a show that shows different mating rituals of various bugs and insects, but it’s told in a very kid-show style. By kid-show, I mean the kind you watch when you can’t even talk. There’re 8 short videos on the website, and also some extras including a making of.

With a friend from Uni, I went to Nishinomiya Kitoguchi. Clearly not feeling stared at enough, we both sat in a very public area with white-boards and just practiced kanji over and over again and again. It was actually quite fun, and when we could overhear people talking about us or reading the kanji that we were writing it was more inspiration to keep on going. I was quite tempted to put my hat on the floor to see if I could make a few yen, but I was pretty sure Japan had laws against busking, at least without filling in mountainous paperwork beforehand. I’m thinking of making this a regular thing, because not only was it interesting, I actually did remember most of the kanji I practiced.

2nd November was a Sunday. This would normally be a day where SDS (Sunday Dorm Syndrome) kicks in. However, today was different! Today I (and a dude from Uni) would have a host familly … for an evening. Konan had kindly arranged for dorm students the opportunity to have dinner with a familly, giving us the chance to be able to speak with Japanese people we didn’t know in a new environment. This basically bridged the gap between dorm and homestay students. The family that we went to were quite far up into the mountains of Kobe, and yet the train ride seemed to be surprisingly short. As a gift I gave them some British tea bags (Tetleys) and a cottage figure I’d picked up in London.

Dinner was wonderful. I can’t remember the name of the main dish, but it’s very similar to Shabu Shabu. A large pot of boiling water in the middle of the table is accompanied by a range of vegetables (some of which were home grown) with thin slices of beef, all arrange around the table. These were then piece by piece put in the water and we all helped ourselves. This was followed by American Upside-Down cake and some After Eights! There were also some Scandinavian sweets that we tried (the familly too tried them for the first time) and they were … different. We also tried (I’d never eaten so much in Japan before) some persimmons, a fruit which appeared to cross the boundary between orange, tomato and mango. In other words it was bloody good, all of it was bloody good.

Throughout the night we talked and listened and enjoyed each others company. I learned some new things about both Japan and America and in turn passed on some of my knowledge of England and Wales. It was a great 4 hours and I really appreciate everything that the host family had done in order to make it special. This is what it was like to have a host family.

9 o’clock came and it was time to say goodbye. We were driven back to the train station, but stopped on the way to see an awesome view of Osaka from the up a mountain at night, all lit up. I was going to take a picture, but unfortunately I knew my camera was too naff (not to mention I left it in the car). We arrived at the station and said our last thanks and goodbyes.

I went home with a smile.

I woke up on Monday 3rd November with a frown … no more than that, I was grumpy … no wait, I was just plain naffed off. To say that my smile from the previous night was upside down would be like saying Mount Fuji is just a pile of muck in the ground. It was a national holiday, Culture Day, and that meant I was starting my day hungry. Having not brushed my teeth the night before (out of shere laziness on my part) I could still taste the delicious repas from that night’s meal. I left for Uni in a slump, with my only sense of pleasure coming from the fact that most people would have the day off. That may sound odd, me being glad other people got the day off, but it meant that I could be assured of a seat on the trains rather than have to stand ‘sardine in a can’ style.

I stayed up late the previous night, despite still being shattered from my walk to Sannomiya, but I don’t even remember what for. I think it was just one of those nights of reflection (where I COULD have been writing a blog entry), but anyway I’m getting off topic. It meant that on the train I could get some sleep and try to forget about the rumbling in my stomache.

Arriving at University I headed straight for the shop. I could only feel I that I could partake a Ghana bar (a chocolate bar), so paid for it and headed to class. I offered pieces to my other dorm-hungered friends, who modestly turned them down. As usual one class member makes comments that he thinks are clever (if he’s clever then a baby learning 1+1=2 must be a genius), but I couldn’t feel the need for any of his crap today. After all, today was a reason that dorm students could take it out on others, even if they had it coming all along. So this being the case for every clever thing he said I quickly shot it down with a large dose of sarcasm and directness. He soon got the hint I think.

Monday’s are the day I tutor English, so after a quick lunch I headed up to the room. Being a holiday I didn’t really expect anyone to show up. But regardless I prepared the room, writing information on the whiteboard, including the British word of the day (to pop – I’m just popping to the shop). To my surprise … wait, that’s not the right word, to my expectation nobody came. Given that I was there for two hours, I used the time to practice kanji for this week’s quizes. I did have a couple of visitors come by the room; another transfer student and a Japanese teacher, but they didn’t stay long. Eventually, my two hours were up and I headed to the Ajisai room.

Feeling a need for a rest I covered my eyes with a giraffe scarf (also apparently known as a snood) and lay across some chairs at the side of the room. Even though I was awake with my eyes open looking through the tiny gaps in the fabric, my stillness must have given off the impression that I was sleeping as I overheard several people commenting on it. It’s amazing what you can here when you really listen. I won’t write them down here because I think that would be a little harsh to people who like talking about people behind their backs, then show a different facade when the person in question walks into the room.

One thing that did get on my nerves was when someone started moaning about their host family. They were giving it this and that about how they’re only eating Japanese styled food and how they can’t hang out with friends for every minute of the sodding day because the family wants to do things with them, like go to places and such. God, what a ponsey smarmy git! First of all consider yourself lucky to actually get food everyday (had it not been for my own home visit it would have been two days without a proper cooked meal), but you actually have a family willing to take your ungreatful ass to places you’ve never been to and are willing to help you learn Japanese. I won’t even go into the fact that you’re also paying less than the dorm guys … whoops, too late. Me being in my meditative like state at the time didn’t move or shout him down, but I was mentally picturing destroying him in an effort to calm myself down.

After a while I got up and just sat down, briefly including myself in the convestion that was going on around me. As it approached 5 o’clock I realised I’d already done the homework that was due the next day and had already memorised the kanji for the quiz. With nothing to really head home for and no desire to stick around, I proposed a question to the students sitting in my vicinity.

"How long do you think it’d take to walk to Juso from here? I wonder if I can get there before 9 o’clock."

After explaining my reasons why I’d be willing to do such a walk (those mentioned just above) I was on my way, leaving the parting words

"If I’m not in tomorrow, someone phone me to make sure I’ve not passed out in a ditch."

I started walking towards Okamoto station as I still considered just getting the train home. As I approached the station I had my pass ready to go through the turnstiles, but instead I turned left and just kept on walking. I put my pass back in my wallet, crossed the train tracks at a cross point and walked down an alleyway in the direction of Osaka.

At this time of day it was still quite bright out, so walking down the back alleys of Kobe wasn’t too bad. Not to mention there were plenty of people around. My plan was to stick close to the Hankyu trainline as I knew this would be a surefire way to keep on route. I decided to see how I felt at the next station and decide then whether to continue or not. This was the beginning of what some would call a long night, and leave a physical effect on me that would last … well, I still hurt.

When I hit Shukugawa station I soon realised that I wasn’t going to make it all the way to Juso by 9. I was feeling much better than when I left uni. I was more relaxed, I had fresh air in me, and I was having fun. Not wanting to call it a day I kept my assessment of ‘play it by ear’ and would decide at each station if to carry on or not.

To save giving an account of every step, I’ll just put it to you that I had three dead ends (right up to peoples houses), went into two awesome shops (one electronics that had things much cheaper than other stores, and a second hand book store with quite possibly the biggest 105 yen manga section I’ve seen so far), had to take a 40 minute detour to walk up and down the bank of a river (Japan doesn’t seem to let you cross rivers easily unless you’re on a train or in a car), passed the Hi-Chew factory, and discovered that a black guy wearing all black walking in the dark with no road lights must be a very spooky thing to see for many Japanese people.

According to Google Maps, the journey should have been 22.3km (13.9 miles) and should have taken about 36 minutes … by car. I of course am forbidden from operating a motor vehicle while here on my year abroad, and heaven forbid I actually follow google’s set out route. I had no map, no real idea of where to head, and no Sun (to navigate by … no compass either). At the same time I had no worries. At several times along the way I imagined headlines about worse case scenarios, but soon dismissed them as depressing. Oh, and as for the 36 minutes malarky, well … I didn’t make it to Juso by 9 o’clock.

Uni to Juso by car (googlemap)
Uni to Juso by train (almost my route) (googlemap)

Just as the clocks chimed for midnight I could be seen hobbling just down the road from Juso station. My feet hurt, my legs and back hurt, my eyes hurt, but man was my pride strong. I thought I’d really impress myself and jogged for the last few hundred metres, killing off my kneecaps in the process and nearly crashing into many drunken businessmen. I must have looked a right sight. I hobbled through the turnstiles and made my way to the platform … to see my trains doors close.

I said a few words that no one should ever hear.

My next train was in twenty minutes so I figured it would be a good idea to get a drink. After hobbling up and down my platform, and a second platform, I eventually came to the vending machines. I bought a lemon flavoured drink and noticed the Ice-Cream machine right next door. I figured that I deserved a treat, so bought a chocolate chip ice cream. When i bent down to take it from the bottom of the machine I noticed something odd. Well, two things really. Firstly was that I had no pain and seemed to have got my energy back. The second thing was that there were two ice creams in the pick up spot. I thought my luck was on the up.

It didn’t last long. After taking two steps away from the machine fatigue and pain set in heavier than before, leaving me trying to hobble back to my platform. You know it’s bad when you’re overtaken by a man with a zimmer-frame, but to be fair if he’s agile enough to be up partying past midnight then all respect to him. I found a seat on my platform and started munching on my chocolate chip ice cream. The second ice cream appeared to be a green tea variety. About halfway through the first ice cream, enjoying every morcel and getting energy and strength back, something caught my attention in the air. To this day I still don’t know what it was, but that lapse of concentration caused my delicious nectar of the gods to go tumbling to the floor.

( TT__TT )

I put it in the bin with a slight tear in my eye; partly because I had to stand up. I then moved onto the second ice cream, saving the drink for after. Now for those of you who this scenario may happen to (getting doubles on an ice cream vending machine), you’re better off leaving the freebie right where it is. For you see, ice cream does a little thing when it reaches a certain temperature for so long and it’s called melting. When you try to pull open an ice cream that’s been melting for a while, you tend to have a little accident. For me, it looked as if someone had thrown some 1990′s kid show gunge my way, as my ice cream (or should I just call it cream) splurted out of the packet. I picked up what I could and made another trip to the bin.

When my train came I’d been sitting down for a while and felt relaxed. Unfortunately for me, so did my knees. They did not want to be bothered when the train came and boy did they let me know. I compared the pain to when I first bent my left knee after getting a full leg cast reduced to a half leg one after snapping my shin bone in half. Yes … it hurt like hell. No … there were no seats on the train.

I got home just before 1 o’clock, roughly eight hours after first leaving the Ajisai room. I was in bed … not in a ditch.

I spent the vast majority of the next day either in vast amounts of achey pain, or sleeping in various places. I did well on the kanji quiz, 100% baby (10/10).

Yesterday, Wednesday the 5th of November, when actually when I started writing this journal! It was also a very special day in the calendar … Bonfire Night of course! Unfortunately because of the North American presidential election our British holiday seemed to be backshelved. Never mind Guy Fawkes, I still remember you … and how you failed. ^_^

In Japanese class we were presented with our new textbooks, having finished (again) Minna No Nihongo. Now we’re using ‘An Integrated Approach To Intermediate Japanese’. To be honest at first glance it looks like it takes the style of MNN’s various books, and combines it into one hefty hunk of a book. Even though I’m looking forward to the new grammar points, vocab and so on, I’ll definately miss Biji-san and co from MNN. Still, I’ll be looking back over those books when I start forgetting the simple stuff again.

After Japanese I took a trip with a friend to Nishinomiya Kitaguchi. I wanted to head back to that electronics shop (the one from the walk) as they had a Denshi Jisho (electronic dictionary) that was reduced from over 31,000yen to 19,900yen. I was going to get one of these anyway while I was here, so seeing this one was a bargain. To be honest, this month I was either going to end up getting one of these, or a bike. But to be honest, I don’t think I’ll be in the mood for much self-powered travelling for a while. My friend bought a significantly cheaper one (about 3,300 yen), which comes without all the gimicks and fancy things mine did, but it also didn’t come with a touch pad which helps when it comes to finding kanji that you don’t know the reading for.

My Denshi Jisho

Making my way back from Okamoto station to Uni, I soon came across an American woman looking very out of breath running with a buggy. As she ran past me our eyes met and she came to a screeching halt (minus the screeching).

"Are you American?" she shouts to me. I thought maybe she was in some kind of trouble and needed an English speaker.

"I’m British." I reply,

"Oh I guess you’ll do. Obama just won and I had to run and tell someone about it and give them a hug!" She shouts as she dives my way and hugs me. Regular readers to my blog will already know my dislike of the stereotypical American (and for the record not all the Americans on my course here fit that bill), so I just stood there with a look to say "yeah … and?". Don’t get me wrong, I understand the significance of the election, but since I’ve been here at times it’s felt like I’ve been in an extention of America rather than Japan. No offence intended to anyone, but America isn’t on my list of places to go in my life. But still, I’d like to thank this lady for giving me something to laugh over with my non-stereotypical American friends.

Because of the fact that I knew I would have my PE class today, I decided to take a bath last night instead of a shower to see if the hot water would help my muscles relax a bit as they were still quite achey. I woke up this morning with a lot less ache, but it was still there. I still haven’t had a full 7-8 hour sleep since before the walk to Sannomiya, so I’m really pushing it. I think I’ll catch up at the weekend.

Walking to Kamishinjyou station I was tired. Waiting for the train I was tired. Standing on the train getting squashed like poo under a shoe I was tired. Walking from Okamoto station to Uni I was tired. During class this morning I was tired. Taking a short nap during the 10 minute break helped a lot, but by the end of the class I was tired.

As I approached the changing room for PE I knew I’d be in for an interesting session and I wasn’t dissapointed. Though I was a lot weaker than normal on the treadmill and bike where I normally do quite an intensive cario-vascular warm up (ooh … big words), I managed to increase some settings on the weights machines. I did tell some people about my 7 hour stroll and the story was met with both shock and disbelief. Perhaps they thought I just used the wrong wording (I’m the only foreigner in the class), but it also gave me a bit of excuse for my naff performance on the treadmill.

After getting my mark back from my Linguistics exam (and slipping in and out of consciousness during the actual lesson … sorry sensei) which wasn’t good but still a pass, I headed home. I noticed my left knee starting to throb and felt like it was swelling a bit. Stopping off at Juso on the way back (I took the train before you ask), I bought some postcards and a knee support. If anyone wants me to send them a postcard then please ask me ^_^. I’ll wear the support tomorrow and see how I get on.

Well, I don’t think I’ve missed anything out, but we all know what my memory is like. If you’ve made it this far, then congratulations and thank you. As a reward, here’s an animation about 10 sticks!

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!

I’ve just got back from the Koya-san (Mount Koya) trip, and I’m incredibly knackered … but I’m still going to try and write an entry about it. Naked teachers, Japan’s best curry rice, and a trip to Higurashi will all feature in this journal … if I can remember it.

So it all started yesterday at god-knows-what-o’clock (about 6:30 … ish) when I got out of bed. Thankfully I’d packed the night before, and had also, efficiently, left a list of things to pack in the morning; toothbrush etc. Leaving the dorm just before 7 meant that I did miss out on breakfast, but this was soon substituted by a trip to McDonalds in Okamoto (Kobe). After meeting up with the group at … some train station whose name escapes me (this will be a common feature in this entry), we then proceded to go via the JR Line to Koya-san. With the exception of a few DS games and an 8 player tournament of Mario Kart (which I’m unmodestly proud to say I was the clear winner of ^_^), we arrived at the correct train station and went via cable car up the mountain. Bar a few comments about the cable car wire snapping, the trip up was quite mellow. It did have some awesome views and I think I got some pictures.

For the record, I will be uploading the pictures eventually… not today though ^_^.

Staying at the Ho-on-in Temple, we got to experience a more humble life, eating mainly simple vegetarian meals (which were mostly awesome) and sleeping on a futon in a tatami room, something I’d wanted to do even though I don’t think it’s on the list. After lunch, shortly after arrival, we headed by bus(es) to a large temple … maybe a shrine. I’m not going to lie to you guys, over the last two days I saw a lot of temples and shrines, so my descriptions and names (and memories) may not match the actual places to which they refer.

No … wait. We didn’t go to a shrine or temple (ish) but to the biggest cemetary on Koya-san. Lot’s of interesting pictures were taken, and I bought 2 Koya-sanvenirs (bad pun); a small statue, and a charm supposedly to help me study. I don’t think it’s working at the moment, seeing as I have homework due tomorrow (everyday), a kanji test, and here I am writing this up. It did surprise me to see how many Japanese companies had memorials for members of staff who had passed away. It was very touching, but then I come to realise that if members of staff aren’t living to retirement, perhaps I should avoid trying to work there.

After the cemetary we went back to the temple for dinner, a bath, and general chilling out. After dinner, and before playing various card games before going to bed it was time for a bath. For some students this was the first time using a Japanese style bath, so were quite nervous about showing their nakedness in front of their peers. I on the other hand was experienced with using the bath, so went in first. For a while I thought I was going to be the only one in there, until I was joined by one of our teachers. That’s right readers in the UK, a bath session with a teacher! *SHOCK* But no before you run to your phones and call the police, authorities and Tracy your neighbour, first thing to remember is that we’re University students, not 8 year old kids (and for the record there’re no ‘Chiyo-chans‘ here), and secondly things are done differently over here. Yes people do bath together, and yes it’s less boring because you can have a conversation. Not that there’s anything wrong with talking to yourself when bathing at all. Shortly after, we were joined by some other students … then photographed for the yearbook … in the bathroom … bathing … it’s going to be an interesting yearbook this year!

The next morning called for an earlier than usual start, roughly 6am, we were required to participate in a morning Buddhist ceremony. Whilst the participation didn’t physically amount to doing anything beyond meditation, it felt good to think that just a persons presence can attribute to a ceremony thusly. After breakfast (again, very tasty) we were to participate in an Ajikan, which is a sitting meditation similar to zazen. What’s zazen? Let’s ask wikipedia! Though my legs were tired, stiff and aching, I did try to assume the correct position. However, this lasted all of 6 minutes before I had to revert to the ‘at school’ cross-legged position. Although I’m not generally good at clearing the mind and focussing on my breathing, as is what I believe you’re ment to be doing when meditating, I did use the time to think about the new Lotaku project with The Withered One and so on. Still not releasing any spoilers yet, except to say I’m working on the possibility of a game. However for now I’m still leaving the old Lotaku site up.

Following the meditation, we went on to Kongobuji by foot. Kongobuji Temple is home to the Shingon Sect of Buddhism. That’s all I really remember, so click here for more information on it. After here we had free time for a few hours before heading home. I used this time to go off for a walk with a friend to take some pictures, and yes I took plenty of pictures! After some wandering we came upon a little place that really stuck out for me.

We found Higurashi!

Ok, so we didn’t find the village of Hinamizawa (though some of the mountainous areas we passed through on the train did look a lot like it), nor did we find the village of Shirakawa that Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni’s famous village is based upon (which by the way is on my to do list), but we found a cool little coffee restaurant that goes by the name Higurashi! Feeling hungry, we stopped off for some food. I can’t remember what my friend had, but I went with my old favourite of Curry-Rice. Now I’m no connoiseur when it comes to Japanese variations is indian dishes, but I have to say for a fact that Higurashi has the best damn curry rice I have ever had! It was so good that I ended up buying two servings, and would have gone for a third had we not been limited by time. With that being the case, I am going to proclaim that Higurashi at Koya-san has the greatest curry-rice in all of Japan!

The rest of the day wasn’t as eventful, except for me finally getting bitten by mosquitos (not that I wanted them) and someone getting left on a train, so that is where I will leave you. If I think of anything else to add, chances are I’d have forgotton it long before I can get back online.

Goodnight!