Everyday for the last month, I’ve woken up and been reminded about how fortunate I am, and also how proud some people are of me.

Well folks, I’m back in Japan and (now that I have internet once more) will be updating you on all my little adventures as I talk to you from Takibe, a village in the town of Houhoku-chou, a mountainous town that in 2005 became a part of Shimonoseki-shi, the largest city in Yamaguchi Prefecture, the largest Prefecture on the main island of Japan, Honshu.

After a few days in Tokyo I headed West to start my new life, and since it’s been a good few weeks since that i won’t go into every single detail right now. But what I can say is that I have been to three festivals, danced in one of them, seen two awesome fireworks displays, rented a car, got a Japanese driving license, stayed in a cabin style capsule hotel, bought a stuffed toy to be my housemate, took a stroll in an inactive volcano crater, and engaged in an intense war on insects dwelling in my home (kind of an ‘I was here first’ vs ‘I’m paying the rent now’ battle).

My little house in the country

So lets start out with my house. It’s a great place and my little towns awesome too. It’s the complete opposite of the cities I’ve become used to, be they Leeds or Osaka (Telford? hmm … ), so everyday instead of traffic and other noise I here the sound of nature. Yeah, sometimes that nature can be pretty loud, particularly the cicadas!

On the topic of bugs, every few days or so I go to the local store for a top-up of strong roach spray. I’m determined to get these little buggers out of here (or at least make them pay some rent).

Bug bomb, I choose you!

One problem though is that insects & bugs are seasonal, so even if I wipe out all the roaches now, I know I’m doomed to have some other creature come winter. I’m also tackling the emerging threat of spiders. By the way, if you’re ever looking for an arguement for evolution, Japanese spiders jump (literally) out of the way when you go to whomp them!

Only way to be sure they're gone is to check every (tom) nook.

Living in the countryside a car is an absolute must. Doing my job I will be going to 13 different schools spread far and wide, so without a car my worklife would be almost impossible.

The car I'm renting.

On a recent overnight trip to nearby Fukuoka, home of baseball team the Softbank Hawks …

I saw these little guys sitting on the back of the bus.

I wanted to try sleeping in a capsule hotel. Unfortunately the one I found was a bit too expensive. However I stumbled across a ‘cabin’ hotel which has a similar concept. I’d describe it as sleeping in hostel dorms but with a lot more privacy (and pretty comfortable too!).

The cabin hotel. Yes I had lots of leg room.

Soon Yamaguchi will host a sports tournament and have one of the cutest mascots I’ve seen for quite some time. I couldn’t help but buy a stuffed toy of him. He’s become quite a reliable housemate.

'Choruru', named after a phrase in the local dialect, with a head representing the Chinese characters for Yamaguchi.

It took a little longer than I’d wanted to visit a shrine or temple since arriving, but I finally got around to it on a recent trip up to Hagi after getting my Japanese driving license (I’ll write a seperate blog entry for that later on).

The Shoin Shrine.

The first festival I went to was a fireworks battle between Shimonoseki city and Kitakyushu across the Kanmon Straights.

An awesome display of fireworks, even saw a couple of Pikachu fireworks.

My second festival was also in Shimonoseki City, the Bakan Festival (Bakan being the old name for Shimonoseki). I had to try and learn a dance for this festival, and since I lived too far from the practice classes, had to kinda go with the flow. I don’t think I did too bad … I hope, rather.

Let's Dance!

And finally last night was my local town’s (Houhoku-chou) festival. A lot of cool stage events, and lanterns to enjoy.

Lanterns made from plastic bottles.

And of course a fantastic fireworks display.

This was taken near the start, but the fireworks at the end were really stunning.

Well folks, that’s about it for a very quick round up. As I say now I’ve got actual internet I’ll keep you updated a lot more often. I invite you to check out my Twitter feed as I often update my smaller comings and goings on there. So, until next time!

Well after four long years, university has finally come to an end. I’m not going to lie and say it’s all been peaches and cream (though I probably could since I don’t like cream … peaches … hmm … they’re ok I guess), but I know there have been a variety of challenges I’ve had to overcome. I know for a fact that my final exam was a nightmare, so I’m hoping to have got by on my (equally bad) essay for that module.

For now all I can do is try to relax a little bit.

This cat gets it.

The placement information for JET still hasn’t been issued yet, however with the events that have taken place in Japan I can still hang by and wait patiently (still hoping for somewhere not that far North however. Remote island? Fine, just make it warm).

I’ve also gone back to Lotaku lately, updating another page and planning the next few. I’m happy I can finally get the time to do some more of my small projects without having to worry about kanji and vocab tests as well as vast amounts of unmemorisable readings. Guhh … I’m not going to miss academia.

So it’s January and that of course means it’s time for the end of Semester One Exams. Oh, and happy new year. So far I’ve had three exams (Japanese Writing, Japanese Politics and International Relations, and Japanese Literature), with one remaining on Thursday (Japanese Listening). I won’t beat around the bush, they’ve been pretty hard, with the most difficult still to come.

The most interesting one so far has been the literature exam in which we had to translate two Japanese texts into English. The first was a delightful story called ‘Kitchen’ by Banana Yoshimoto (translated version by Megan Backus available on Amazon UK & Amazon US).

The second translation was less friendly. It was a story that has yet to actually be translated (officially) into English by Osaka-born Yasutaka Tsutsui called Yumenokizaka Bunkiten (Dreamtree Hill Junction). To say it was difficult to understand what was going on would be a huge understatement, let’s just say it was like trying understanding why people people who love the muppets choose to wear their skin in the form of Ugg Boots.

In awesome news I’ve been invited to an interview for a job in Japan. The interview’s in London just after the exam period and I’m really looking forward to it (best go and get myself a suit eh).”

… is the kind of blog I’d wanted to write, unfortunately …

My bedroom window

Yesterday morning at the crack of dawn, I encountered the scariest moment of my life (so far).

At roughly 6 o’clock in the morning, while I was sleeping (having finally drifted off to sleep at about 2 in the morning), someone smashed through my bedroom window trying to get access to the property. The noise was horrific. In a ‘just-been-woken-up-by-broken-glass-flying-into-the-room’-like way I shouted and yelled “who’s there!?”, stumbling out of bed trying to whack the light on as quickly as I could. I was certain I saw a hand in the gaping whole, that was probably reaching for the handle, pull away.

At this point I was shaking all over, probably in part because it was a sodding cold morning and now cold air was getting into my bedroom.

Trying to keep some sort of composure, I called the police, and left all important messages about it on facebook and twitter (may have actually been the other way round, now that I think about it).

Throughout the day various police officers and community support officers came around, all of which were great and supportive, but more than anything else honest. I don’t like false hope or false reassurance about things, so I actually felt more relieved when they said that they probably wouldn’t be able to catch who it was. There were no direct suspects, CCTV had seen nothing (except for me stumbling about to check the damage from outside, discovering they’d also broken into the landlady’s shed), and due to the weather and the fact they had used bricks (which are unfingerprintable) fingerprints couldn’t be obtained.

We came to the conclusion that they didn’t think my bedroom was a bedroom, either a kitchen or lounge, and went with the intention of taking kitchen/loungy stuff. So when they burst through my window and I started up, they ran off.

I didn’t go to work, it took all day to get everything sorted out and I was still not quite all there when I went to bed that night. Up until recently my letting agent have been an absolute shambles, but started to turn their game around when I sent a letter to the landlady recommending that she change agency. I guess they way in which they handle this situation will be one of the major deciding factors to it (and whether or not I actively go out and unrecommend them or just respond to peoples questions about them).

Thankfully, I’m now feeling much better and nothing was taken (except a day’s work and the time I was going to have in bed … actually planned on having a lie in, bugger). I do want to say thanks to everyone who helped out, either by helping pick up glass, board up the window, talk with me over a cup of tea while watching Ghostbusters and eating Jammie Dodgers, or even people who just said “are you ok”. Thanks everyone.

My room didn't come with air conditioning when I signed for it. And wouldn't you sodding believe it, I'd only just washed those plates, pots and pans!

The hotel we stopped at was of the non-breakfast variety, but I actually got a good night sleep (and it was cheap) so I won’t knock it. Annoyingly we were blocked in by the hotel’s builder’s vans, so we had to wait a bit for them a budge over before we could head off on our way.

Metro Inns in Falkirk

Sax Quartet

A little classical music in a cathedral, Sebastian felt so Middle-Class.

I couldn't help feel that there was something slightly comical about this being in a cathedral.

Edinburgh soon became one of my favourite cities

Edinburgh Castle

"Dix in my Mouth", Sebastian couldn't get enough of it

Such a creepy chair.

It's creepy and it's kooky, but the food was bloody lovely.

For our final entertainment for the night before heading off was an evening of live jazz at the Guildford Arms. Although it got a bit busy and a bit packed, it was a very good night, but unfortunately my battery had died so I couldn’t take any pictures.

This brought an end to our Scottish adventure. We headed back to the car and set the sat-nav to take us to Hull, or as near to Hull as it possibly could. If anyone out there has trouble setting theirs to go to Hull, try instead Kingston Upon Hull, it seems to be the same place. We parked up sometime around midnight, quite literally at the England-Scotland border. I would have parked smack-bang on the border so one of us slept in Scotland and the other in England, but there was a big ass wall in the way.

203780 miles on the clock

My exams are finally over here at Uni, and that means I have a bit of time before I need to start panicking about resitting them. Hoorah pesimism. So what do I plan to do now that I have a bit more free time? I’m going to go back and work on some of long over-due projects that’s what.

The Lotaku webcomic is in drastic need of an update, and since I have a half complete page already I really should crack on with that. The last uploaded page was a dramatic shot of Simons mom being wheeled into the hospital.

On a similar topic, my should also crack on with my contribution to the Leeds Uni Anime Soc Manga Project. My section is going to be a part side-story of one of the Lotaku characters, but I won’t say much more on it just yet … mainly because I’ve not bloody decided.

I also want to do another animation this year for LSTV. At the mo, I’m thinking of doing one to this song, Funny Man by Rodney Carrington. So I guess if I start that during the summer I can get it in early. I’m also planning on doing a few more TV shows for LSTV this year; possibly remaking some stunning Japanese TV moments.

Finally, one thing I MUST do is upload the rest of my photos from Japan. Yes folks I know I’ve been really slack on it, but I’ve already posted a chunk on now. Go ahead, check them out. It’s already been scheduled to do another set tomorrow, so I’m planning (again) to get a new set up every day. I can’t believe it’s already been a year since I came back to the UK.

Oh yeah, need a house for next year too.

Fly Julien!

Here’s a few of my New Year ‘firsts’.

First Movie: Drop Dead Fred
First Trip: From Carley & Co.’s house to mine.
First Book: Urawaza: Secret Everyday Tips and Tricks from Japan
First Drink: Cheap Beer
First Meal: (Own brand) Shreddies cereal
First MP3: Gun’s & Roses by Paradise Lunch (the theme tune to the anime, Baccano)
First Website Looked At: Facebook
First Phone Call: With Viv
First Game: PKR (Online Poker)
First Song Sung: …

Between trying to pack my life into various boxes and send things home via the Japanese post office (an expensive, time consuming and freakin’ heavy task by the way), I’ve tried to fit in a few more of my “When in Japan” wants and desires including making a few new ones which did kind of jump on me spur of the moment. So I guess now with my big ass hefty bag packed and my smaller hand luggage missing a few things (this laptop, my PSP and DS which are charging etc), I should tell you how I’ve spent my last week in the land of the rising sun.

First off I’ve not been able to go into university at all this week which was really gutting. As I keep banging on, at uni’s one of the few places I can meet up with Japanese friends who happen to live in a different prefecture from me. It was not that I physically couldn’t go, it’s that at the moment a lot of schools in Kansai have been closed down since the breakout of the Piggy Flu in Kobe, which in turn has spread to my own Osaka. Thankfully no one I know has been infected, though a couple are nursing regular colds.

During the week I managed to get in a final trip back to Kyoto with two friends (European and Japanese). Between the three of us there were similar things we wanted to see, as well as our own individual interests to follow. Buying bus passes for 500 yen (£3.33) which gave us travel across the city, we set sail for 金閣寺 (kinkakuji, the Golden Pavillion Temple).

The only thing that was against us was the weather. It was warm, so definately t-shirts, but it rained. This meant that the nice views of the Golden Temple could have been spectacular views. Not only that but it’s a pain in the arse trying to take photographs holding a brolly. During our time in the park we came across an interesting vending machine which sold disposable cameras and film, though this was not the strangest vender of the day. Walking to the bus stop we passed a vending machine selling neck-ties (fair enough), and hoover bags. Yes … hoover bags. The thing you stick in a hoover.

Next on our group voyage was one for me, a visit to another one my Leeds based Japanese teacher’s universities, Doshisha University. Carrying on from my adventure in Hiroshima, this was the second of three universities on my list. After taking a video (where the sound didn’t record properly) we headed off for a quick lunch.

Altogether we then went onto the 銀閣寺 (Ginkakuji, the Silver Pavilion Temple). Although the building was under construction, well, renevation, the Silver Temple (though actually brown and woody) was still a nice site, and so was the park area that accompanied it. At this point we split up, and I headed Southward towards 清水寺 (kiyomizudera).

In English we have a saying about “taking a plunge”, in Japanese the equivalent is “jumping off the stage at Kiyomizudera”. An awesome temple that is supported by strong 13 meter high wooden columns, Kiyomizudera gave spectacular views and good photos despite the crappy rain.

Before going home I wondered the streets of Kyoto’s Kawaramachi area before eventually meeting a KFC Colonel Sanders (life size model) in a kimono and Happi coat.

On Wednesday we all got together again for a trip down the Hankyu line to the 中山寺 (Nakayamadera). Nakayamadera is a Buddhist temple in 宝塚 (Takarazuka), and is known as a temple to pray for an easy childbirth. Though none of us were expecting (wanting) kids anytime soon, the excellent weather compared to Kyoto made for a nice day out (and also this was the first temple I’d been to with an escalator). After a bout of karaoke, we then went our seperate ways.

Time Check … 02:08 … crap. Sodding distractions.

That night me and a guy from France went to the Speak Easy darts bar in Umeda for a final drink. Originally due to the fact I still had a lot of crap to sort out I’d only intended on stopping for one or two (much like how I intended on writing this entry a lot faster so I’d be in bed by now), but as one thing led to another we ended up staying until the bar closed at around 5 am; hello sunshine. It’s thanks to this darts bar that we’ve been able to practice spoken Japanese with native speakers outside uni (the bar staff), but also I’ve developed a taste for Soft-tip darts (though am still not very good at it).

So yesterday (Thursday) I managed to tick off two more things off my list. First of all I finally got around to going to a media cafe. Most of my fellow foreign students use these as a cheap(er) means of having somewhere to sleep when you miss the last train, but because I normally don’t venture far enough away that I couldn’t get back on Shank’s Pony I’ve yet to have the need to kip in one. Now I know that these vary from place to place and company to company, so I’ll just give a quick overview of the one I was in, Cats. Cats is a mens only cafe with shower facilities (at an extra charge I think). The room I got was small, but comfortable, with fast internet access, reclining leather seat and access to the plentiful DVD and Manga library. I wish I could say I nosed around a bit more, but I had something I needed to find online; the final university.

I was lucky in that my final teacher studied in Osaka, but I was unlucky that it was Osaka prefecture rather than Osaka city. I’d never taken the monorail here, but because it’s very similar (aka pretty much the same) to taking the regular train I didn’t have to worry. The Osaka University of Foreign Studies in the Minou area of Osaka, had merged with and became a part of the Osaka University in 2007, but remains in the same location.

After taking a video message at the university, as done for the others, I then walked the long way back to the train station exploring the countryside area. In a way it seemed to remind me a lot of various pictures of Shirakawa (Gifu) that I’d seen. I guess because I couldn’t get to Shirakawa this time around, Minou was a nice alternative. However for some reason every dog there seemed to get angry at me.

Which brings us to today (Friday), my last day. The time is currently 02:39.

First let me top up your background music. This is one of my favourites to do at karaoke, Anata by Akiko Kosaka.

Me and a couple of friends (the same 2 who I went to Kyoto with) had decided we’d head to Sushiro for lunch (sushi on conveyor belts). On the way we made an important stops though. I have a bank account here in Japan and since I’m leaving the country we (Konan exchange students) have been recommended to close them, unless we intend to return to Japan in which case we need to give the bank our home address. After a lot of explaining and mangled Japanese from me (and a lot of patience and understanding from the girl who served me) my address was changed and we headed off for lunch.

Not really much to report on as far as food goes in comparison to last time we went, except this time we got the worst table at the very end of the conveyor belt, meaning every other buggar got the best choice. Should I make a dorm/homestay comparison I wonder?

After lunch we popped into Softbank so that I could cancel my phone contract. Doing this early meant that I had to pay for the remaining period of time on there, but since I was quite smart at the start (smarmy buggar aren’t I) it was only a few thousand yen. From the sound of some of my friends because they went for more expensive contracts (some as long as 2 years, as well as actually costing more) they’ve had to pay up to £200 to get out of their contracts early. Now what to do with my Japanese handset. Ebay?

We headed back to Umeda for a wander around and ended up eating a crepe; mine being banana chocolate & strawberry, but soon parted ways with some tears.

Right … tonight … nearly done. Pachinko is a funny ol’ game isn’t it. Me and a European friend finally had a go on the game that holds it’s own popularity in Japan. Now because of the fact neither of us had a clue on what we were to do or how to play (other than the fact it used tiny balls pinging into a machine), we found a pachinko parlour that seemed to be quite empty and had a staff member easily visible (for when we cocked up). Splitting a bucket of balls between us we cracked on and after wasting at least half of them found out what to do (thanks to sed staff member). Our 1000 yen (£6.64) bucket was soon gone (after about 10 minutes), so we headed off. I guess once you know how to play and learn how to work the machine, you’re bound to get better.

For dinner a few of us went to our local 鳥貴族 (torikizoku, the 280 place) where after eating my usual Chicken Heart and drinking my huge glass of beer, I tried a black ice-cream. It tasted like burned bread.

We ended the day with a trip to a games arcade where I held my own in Virtua Fighter 5, but got my ass handed to me in both Tekken 6 and some tennis game.

So I guess this is it. The next time I write on this blog I’ll more than likely be in a different country and will have left the land that I have come to love. I want to thank every one that’s made this year possible (except for the jerks … you know who you are (if you’re reading this, you’re probably not one, so rest easy)) and really mean it when I say that I will come back if it’s the last thing I do; didn’t fancy quoting the Terminator.

So to sing us out, here’s Vera Lynn with We’ll Meet Again. T_T (finished @ 3:34 am)

The ceremony hall was full of students, staff members and host families. Initially two of our Japanese friends who had come were asked to leave/come back at 3 (when it finished), but after some convincing of the fact that dorm students had no one to be there with, they were let in. Lots of speeches were made and posh-nosh eaten. Mind you I popped into McDonalds beforehand so didn’t feel like eating. An award was given to the best Japanese speaker of the year, awarded on a range of scores, attendance, improvement yardy yardy yar, and it went to the person in the (almost) fluent class who won the Japanese speech contest (by giving the first bit of their speech in English explaining what the speech was going to be about).

For me though something good did happen, I got some money! Don’t mean for that to sound entirely selfish, it’s part of the initial lump sum we paid at the start of the year for textbooks; we all pay a certain amount at the start of the year and at the end the money not used is given back according to what classes we took (and what books those classes used). After the 10,000 yen we dorm folk were given in Hiroshima (I say given, but this 10k came from the textbook money) to help stay alive, I really wasn’t expecting to get anything back. From conversations with other students mine seemed to be one of the larger amounts given back. I put this down to the fact that I brought and used my own Minna No Nihongo books from home, saving some money.

There was an after party in Okamoto afterward which I skipped. Reason being (and I told this to anyone who asked me) I just don’t like most of the people who went. Harsh as it may sound most people on this programme are jerks or tossers, and a couple being a combination of the two with a pinch of git added in.

Moving on, tonight I hung out in Umeda with one of my Japanese friends who I probably won’t be able to see again before I take that voyage into the big blue. After nosing at a some business bags (laptop bags with enough room for lots of documents), we headed to dinner. I don’t remember the name of the style of meal, but it was like a “make your own tempura” style restaurant.

We had a 食べ放題 (tabehoudai, all you can eat) meal where you take what ever you feel like frying (pre-skewered), dip it in in batter and breadcrumbs and deep fat fry it yourself right at your table. It was a lot of fun, and thankfully the spitting fat didn’t get me too often. After eating we had a walk back and then said our goodbyes on a train.

After leaving my station I experienced (ish) my first car accident. I know this isn’t something to normally get excited about, but since I’ve been in Japan I’ve heard many a foreigner criticise Japanese drivers (and cyclists) and while I’d admit I’ve seen many close calls and horns blown, the cars involved have always just gotten away with it. So this accident (which I heard the crash on the way to the 99 yen shop and turned to reveal the incident in the middle of a busy crossroad near my dorm) confirms that even though it may seem Japanese drivers share a psyche in which they all know what they will do (to avoid crashes), it doesn’t always work.

And so before I sign off and head over to the Japanese blog to make an entry, I’ll leave you with Goodbye My Lover by James Blunt, as my way of saying goodbye to Konan University (though I’ll probably pop in before I leave Japan next week … T_T).

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

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

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

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