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

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)

So I’d briefly mentioned about Love Hotels in my Kinky in Kinki post back in January, and definately wanted to see inside one at some point out of general curiosity. Being told various things like “the rooms have karaoke and game consoles in them” definately added to my curiosity. After finding a friend who was also curious about the goings on, we decided to check out one of them in Umeda.

For those that don’t know, in a nutshell a Love Hotel is a hotel designed for couples to enjoy some quiet alone time, and can be paid for by the hour or overnight.

I’d just like to take this moment to say that we did not do anything of an adult nature at the hotel. ಠ_ಠ

Before meeting up at Umeda Station, I had a nose around Umeda’s Love Hotel area looking at prices by the hour. Prices really varied depending on the grandeur of the hotel, and at times the rooms had different charges dependant on theme or popularity. The cheapest I’d found was 2,000 yen (£13.38) and most expensive over 8,000 yen (£53.51), with the common price being around the 3,000 yen mark (£20.06). Ironically the least expensive hotel appeared to be one of the less dodgy, but as I’ve seen many times in Japan appearances can be deceptive.

After having a bit of food we headed over to the cheapest establishment. We must have been there at a relatively busy time as we saw one couple leaving (satisfied smiles on faces), and another couple heading in (excited smiles on faces). Apparently the 2,000 yen room had been taken so we opted for the next cheapest room at 2,500 yen (£16.73). At this particular hotel (might be different in others), when you walk in there’s a large wall with pictures of the different rooms and buttons to make your selection (pretty much like a vending machine). It then prints you out a ticket and you head to your room; there’s a little flashing light above your door. When your time is up you pay at a window which is partially obscured to protect privacy, however the security cameras kind of make it directly inadequate. Perhaps it’s to give the customer peace of mind that they don’t have to look in the eye of the cashier.

We headed to our room, conveniently on the bottom floor, and after taking off our shoes we slid the door open to reveal a quaint Japanese style tatami room. Off to the left was the rather nice looking bathroom, complete with washlet and various accessories standard of normal hotels; shampoo etc. Through another door was a large bath and shower area (plenty of room for 2 ^_~), which had a window giving a view of the main bedroom and vice-versa. By flicking a certain light switch, the whole room went red. Romantic for some, this just seemed to remind me of many blood stricken horror films.

And then the main bedroom. A huge futon bed taking up the majority of the space that I could easily have just stayed in all day. Perhaps it’s because my dorm bed isn’t wanderful, but this bed felt great. The only thing that marred it for me was the knowledge of “I know what people have done in this bed” >_<. After flicking on the TV and getting a screen full of boobs and pixels (in Japan certain aspects of pornography are illegal, so those aspects are generally pixelated or blurred) using a series of complex remote controls we managed to flick through some of the other channels, trying to find the karaoke and games. Yes, we did have karaoke, and yes there was a game system; not a PS3 like I'd been led to believe, but perhaps that's in one of the more expensive rooms.

Generally the room itself was really nice, and had it not been for the condoms at the head of the bed instead of the customary chocolate mints, I'd have been none the wiser. But it was time to get to action and do what we'd set out to do by coming to this Love Hotel. I opened my bag, and pulled out my copy of Kanji in Context and cracked on with some revision. What? Did you forget I have an important exam on Friday? My friend also had some work she needed to do so we both got on with it for a bit.

Finishing the hour with a little karaoke we left the room; the room itself was probably very dissapointed with us.

Love Hotels are something I’ve only really seen or heard about in Japan. When I spoke to some people at home about them they instantly got the wrong idea, thinking of brothels or a hotel where people just did it any old where. To be honest I probably won’t visit another one during my remaining couple of weeks, and it’s doubtful I’ll ever go to another one. However, we were really curious about what the more upscale rooms or hotels would be like.

In other news, today is Children’s Day.

Everyone loves a sale right, especially ones with lots of variety and end up saving you a lot of money, right?

WRONG!

Today I learned the hard way that when you buy things cheap, lots of things, so much that you fill a (large) back pack and are still carrying things in carrier bags (pretty nicely made paper carrier bags) you actually end up still spending a pointless amount of money. Only difference is you have a lot more stuff … heavy stuff … stuff that’ll sting you in the arse once more when you’re trying to send stuff home and have to pay an arm, a leg and a left bollock just for the cheapest and slowest delivery. Rant over, moving on.

I’d walked past the まんだらけ (Mandarake) store in Shinsaibashi once before, but didn’t have time to go in. I’ve been in the Umeda branch a good few times so thought I’d have a fairly good idea of the layout, which in turn figured out to be completely different, and much larger than I’d anticipated.

Mandarake had the first of the day’s wonderful sales in a 105 yen sale, with a huge section cut down in price. On top of this they were also having a 3 for 2 sale, meaning (if my maths is right) the manga was 70 yen each (48p). By horrible (ish) coincidence I found a ton of Higurashi books that I didn’t have, so swiped them up at a bargain price. I saw “swipe”, but that was nothing compared to one guy who stretched rapidly across an aisle grabbed a book and shouted “ゲット” (getto, Get) in celebration. Honestly this is something I’ve only seen in anime and manga, so I’m glad to see it really happens.

After (almost literally) buying the whole sale sections supply of Higurashi mangas, we went to the stores own cafe on the same floor as the sale and the cosplay section, yes this was a cosplay cafe. Not technically a maid cafe, especially compared to the one we went to last time, this time it was a Mother Cafe.

To be honest with the way various websites are talking about them, you’d be forgiven for expecting a lot more “mothering”. When I went to the top floor and saw it I thought it was just the name of the place, and that the staff being in maid-esque (more like house-cleaner than your traditional maid) attire being due to the fact that they were right next to the cosplay section. It wasn’t until we’d sat down, ordered, were half-way through our melonade (melon soda) that I noticed a small sign acknowledging (that’s an ugly word isn’t it) the waitresses as ‘mothers’.

We did have a really friendly conversation with our ‘mother’ about a variety of topics. Ranging from how long we’d been in to Japan to why I’d bought so many frickin’ Higurashi mangas. It turns out she was a fan also. Both my friend and I agreed that before going back to the UK next month we want to pop in and see ‘mom’ again (whether or not it’ll be the same one we won’t know), but above all that I was thankful that she didn’t say that my Japanese was good (that’s the key to wipe my memory of any and all Japanese language skills I have).

From here we walked down toward Nippombashi, and after stashing my heavy-ass purchases in a coin locker at the train station, we headed off towards Den Den town. After a while my friend headed back so I went on around a huge selection of anime shops, manga shops, game shops, electronic shops, doujinshi shops, and shops I wouldn’t take my nan in. Yes folks I made sure to get a hellova good nose around today and went in many shops for the first and last time.

This is where things began getting tricky for me in buying manga that I didn’t have. Off the top of my head I could only remember a few holes in the collection, such as volumes 7 and 8 of Yotsuba, but, as I mention in the list, Higurashi is a pain in the arse and trying to remember which I have and don’t have is like trying to memorise the distinct features of 101 dalmations.

My original plan was to take a photo on my phone of what Higurashi’s I had, and check the list via my phones (meagre) internet connection about the others. Part one worked just fine, and in Mandarake I referred to this so that I didn’t buy more than I needed (wanted). The problem was checking the others. When I tested it last night it worked fine but today my phone just wanted to be a whiny little toe stub, not getting online at all, leaving me in the dark when I didn’t know whether I had a certain issue of Genshiken (I didn’t). I then hit a snag with my Higurashi plan when I realised with the 17 (or so) books I’d bought earlier now in a locker, I had no clue which I had and which I didn’t.

Buying only what I was certain I didn’t (all at prices in the margin of 100 to 200 yen or so) I conceded that I would make one final trip to Nippombashi soon, real soon. But not tomorrow, because I’m seeing Rie Fu in Nishinomiya Gardens … hopefully.

Today’s Shopping List

• DVDs
• Brave Story (2 disc edition)
• Heroes vol 1 (in Japanese of course)
• そのひぐらしのなく頃に (Sono Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni) – What appears to be a fanmade movie based on the Higurashi series. I don’t want to say it’s poorly made because I haven’t watched it yet, but the box seems very cheaply done >_<

• CD
• ひぐらしデイブレイク (Higurashi Dei Bureiku) – Original Sound Track (this is the soundtrack for a doujin game called Higurashi Day Break, based on the fames Higurashi franchise. I did see the game today, but that was a bit too costly)

• Sound Novel (games)
• ひぐらしのなく頃に (Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni)
• ひぐらしのなく頃に礼 (Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni Rei) (for those who are wandering what happened to 解 (kai), I’d already bought it)
• うみねこのなく頃に (Umineko No Naku Koro Ni)

• Art Book
• Erementar Gerad “Red” by 東まゆみ (Azuma Mayumi – Azuma being a family name)

• Manga (aka the big chunk)
• げんしけん (Genshiken) volume 2
• よつばと (Yotsubato) volumes 7 & 8
• 涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱 (Suzumiya Haruhi No Yuuutsu) volume 3 and a special edition of volume 4 that included a Haruhi figure
• Higurashi – both books from the 綿流し編 (watanagashi hen)
• Higurashi – both books from the 祟殺し編 (tatarigoroshi hen)
• Higurashi – both books from the 暇潰し編 (himatsubushi hen)
• Higurashi – both books from the 鬼曝し編 (onisarashi hen)
• Higurashi – book 1 (of 4) from the 罪滅し編 (tsumihoroboshi hen)
• Higurashi – book 2 (of 2) from the 宵越し編 (yoigoshi hen)
• Higurashi – from the previous anthology (where I had two random books, 12 and 13) books 2, 3, 4, 8, 10, 11 (out of 17 … *sigh*)
• Higurashi – (from a case-based anthology) books 1, 3, 4, 7, 9 (out of 19 … *even larger sigh*)
• Higurashi – (from a 4-panel based anthology) book 4 (of 14 … T_T)

Damn that Higurashi >_<

The seasons here seem to change with the subtlety and tact of kick to the groin and a pie in the face at the same time. Definately agreeing with Joshua about stepping off the plane into a wall of heat and water, turning to winter seemed to happen overnight with me being thankful that my AC would also function as a heater, and now that it’s warm again am thankful for the AC once more.

It’s going to get a lot warmer in Osaka, so I guess along with books and other things I’ll be sending back early, I’ll have to start thinking about my warmer clothes too and getting them home … the heavy buggars.

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

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

I (metaphorically) salute you.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To be honest when I crawled out of bed with a stiff neck at about 6:30 this morning with a stiff neck, I thought I was in for one of those days, but around 15 minutes later I found I suddenly a nice bout of energy. Breakfast wasn’t fantastic, fried egg with ham slices and salad, but the egg had a hard yolk (just the way i like it) and best of all, NO MAYO!

Setting off we soon encountered something we hadn’t in a good few months. The weather was nice. It was sunny, with a very gentle breeze and a temperature that was neither a sweltering heat wave, nor it a Japanese version of the North Pole. It was just … nice. This good weather lasting pretty much until I got back in through the door tonight.

Nothing particularly special at uni today. I had my usual tutoring session, being a Tuesday, so this accounted to my one time to really practice Japanese out of class I usually get a day. The conversation was good, it was funny and entertaining, and I managed to use some of the new grammar points we’d covered on class.

I left campus much earlier than usual today, mainly due to the fact that there were even less Japanese students about than usual. However, the Spring Break will end soon and speaking practice will resume. Leaving early meant that I got to enjoy sitting down on the trains back to Osaka instead of standing.

This day, and this feeling, could only have been made better if we had curry rice for dinner.

And so we did (pork curry rice!!! EPIC!). My simply perfect day (ish) has been complete. And so to leave you with a video clip. Here’s the opening sequence to Baccano. Even though it’s just the intro, it’s still pretty intense, so I hope you enjoy it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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