Since coming back to the UK I’ve felt my life has been missing something. A sense of Japaneseness? The chance to speak the Japanese language? Being able to talk and hang out with a Japanese person? Well I’m happy to say that today I has been my most ‘Japanese’ day since I came back home.

It started with me getting up at about lunchtime. Admitadly this isn’t something typically Japanese, but most if not all of my Saturdays would start with me awakening in my Osaka dorm room at about this time. I also didn’t get woken up to the sound of a little boy playing Animal Crossing on the Wii, but the nice warm weather coming through the window was reminiscent of an Umeda morning.

I started the day watching NHK World TV on Sky (channel 516) and enjoyed shows such as Science Zero, Earth Watcher, Newsline, My Private Tokyo, Four Seasons In Japan and Exclusive Gardens of Kyoto. Most of these shows were very short and in dubbed English, but still gave me a bit more insight into various aspects of Japan. I know that there are some shows aimed at learning Japanese language and culture, but I didn’t see those today.

This was followed by a trip to Shrewsbury to a shop called Setonaikai. Setonaikai is a specialist Japanese food shop with a wide range of oriental goodies. My family has been wanting to try takoyaki ever since I’d mentioned it in my blog, so we went here to get some ingredients. When there I was thrilled to have the chance to speak in Japanese again, something I’ve not been able to do since coming back (with the exception of when I saw my one teacher in Leeds). I can only compare it to being rescued from starving and being given a nice hot meal.

So I’ve been back in Telford a week or so and it’s been … well to be blunt it’s been pretty depressing. I’d been keeping track of local news and so on via the Shropshire Star website while I was in Japan so I had a vague idea of how things were, but I had no idea that the recession had hit quite so badly.

Walking through Wellington shops were empty and even the atmosphere seemed to be quite gloomy. Also for some reason an automatic door has been installed on one of the market entrances; a bloody stupid door which halves the number of people that can enter/exit the building at anyone time and makes the market feel more restrictive and less open. In fact everytime I walked through it I did say “bloody stupid door”.

Telford Town Centre too had it’s own array of closed down shops despite works going on near the bus station. Whether or not this is due to the recession or the overall remodelling of the centre that was planned some time back I’m not sure, but I was shocked to see that Spencers Mall itself was closing down and the last few shops inside were neighboured by empty space.

I went into Telford Library to do some Japanese work but hit a huge stump. The computers at Telford Library have no idea how to read Japanese text without converting it into boxes. This isn’t just websites, but my own files were reduced to what resembled an empty chess-board when I tried to print off a list I planned on learning that day. When I asked a staff member about computers reading non-European text, he told me that none of them were capable of such a task. Flipping great. I then had a nose at the foreign literature section where I found a wide variety of books in different languages (can’t say it was a wide variety), but none in Japanese. I didn’t bother asking and just went home. I had the same problem at the newly built Hadley Learning Community library, only here the foreign literature section was completely empty (though the staff member here explained to me that they were “on the way”).

I sent Telford & Wrekin Council an email about the computers and they said they’d get back to me within 20 working days … which means 4 weeks … oh wait, there was a bank holiday in there … I’ll probably here back after I’m back in Leeds. If you’re wondering why I can’t just study at home, well the only real place I have the space to study is in the conservatory but with the fantastically hot weather we’ve been having lately I can only really refer to it as an oven. Not to mention we’ve had the patter (or thunderous roar to be more precise) of little feet in the house during the holidays so it’s been difficult to keep concentrating.

So what’s with the Beagle I hear you ask (Simon)? Well yesterday I was in Bolton with my sister and nephew while they were filming an advert for … I dunno, some bed company. I was mainly taken along to watch over my nephew while his mom was filming, but considering they spent most of the time filming together I couldn’t help feel continuously in the way. But towards the end of the day two Beagles arrived on set also for filming. Apparently one of them was in Eastenders as Ian Beale’s dog … or to rob a joke I heard yesterday “Ian Beagle”.

Today a friend and I took a(nother) last trip to my beloved Nippombashi and DenDen town, in a quest to fill in some gaps of various manga series and such before heading off home. Stopping in Shinsaibashi on the way, we stopped off at the Mandarake for a quick nose. Though I mainly raided the shops supply of cheap さよなら絶望先生 (Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, Goodbye Mr Despair), I managed to score two bargains for the Nintendo DS.

狼と香辛料 (Ookami to Koushinryou, Wolf and Spice (refferred to as Spice and Wolf in the UK)), is an anime I first saw at the Leeds Anime Society. I was mainly entranced by it’s storyline that wasn’t set in Japan, but old Europe, and the fact that it uses early economics and trading as a continual baseline. ¬_¬ Yeah that may sound dull and boring to you, but shush, it was great. So not only did I manage to find a copy of the game (that I didn’t know even existed), but I found a special edition box set. I just checked the Spice & Wolf website to find it has a price of 7,770 yen (£54.33), however I paid a measly 2,940 yen (£20.56). I’ve just opened the box and found a ‘Horo voice in a bag’, an audio CD, and of course the game itself. Not bad.

My other bargain was partially based on something I bought yesterday (but forgot to blog about). There are two Higurashi (yeah I know, lately I haven’t shut up about the series) games on the DS which I’ve been wanting to get since I first noticed them back in September, but they were just too expensive. Well yesterday after dropping a 13.8kg box of books at the post office (which will take about 3 months to reach the UK), I found a copy of the second game at a reasonable price (with a 200 yen coupon I had) of 2,280 yen (£15.94), so scooped it up.

Fast forward to today where I find the special edition (Angel Mort) boxed version of the second game for a meagre 1,890 yen (£13.22). The cheapest I’d seen this edition was in the region of 5,000-6,000 yen (£34.96-£41.95), so let’s open her up and see what she holds inside …

We have the game (of course), a framed Shion & Mion card in an Angel Mort stamp card (might take a while for me to read what it says inside >_<), 2 Angel Mort coasters (one written in English: “Dear Customer, Welcome to my cafe. How lucky you are to have chanced upon this place. A place that will make your dreams come true. Have you found your favourite angel? If not, don’t worry. Keep visiting us, and you’ll find your one and only. Please enjoy yourself to the full. We are here to serve you. From, shop owner”), 2 sticker cards, an Angel Mort flanel/hand towel, a paper Angel Mort apron, and an Angel Mort Drama CD. Quite a haul really. You can see a picture of what’s inside on this forum page, though for some reason they got an extra amulet thingy.

So in buying this I was left with the predicament of having two of the same game. My choices were simple. I could either keep both games, try and sell one on to a friend (or eBay), or try and take the more expensive one back to the shop. Despite not knowing how refunds were conducted in Japan or if any etiquette was needed on my part, I opted for the last option.

After quickly looking up the vocabulary for returning something to a shop 返送 (hensou) and refund 払い戻し (haraimodoshi), I headed to the shop (open 24-7, or as is said in Japanese 4-6 (四六時中, shirokujichuu, open around the clock, 4 x 6 = 24)) with the game, the receipt, and what I hoped was the same carrier bag.

Normally in the UK getting a refund isn’t a very simple process. Well, I guess it is (as long as you’re not a prick to whoever’s serving you), but normally the shop will want you to fill in a form, give your address, wait for a manager and so on and so on. With this in mind I was somewhats apprehensive about the whole thing, especially as I still take a good 10 minutes or so writing out my address. When I approached the counter I explained that “I bought the game yesterday as a birthday present for my friend, but he already had it so I wanted to return it” (my usual blatant returning product lie ಠ_ಠ). The staff member then popped to the back and returned with another member of staff. She then checked the amount with me and returned my money with a smile. No paper to fill in, no signatures to sign, that was it … done.

I think I’ll be leaving these two games for the plane trip back, but in the mean time, here’s what I bought today (these will be added to The List at some point, along with the ones I bought that day we went to the Mother Cafe.

• DS Games
• ひぐらしのなく頃に絆第一巻・想　エンジェルモートお持ち帰りBOX
• 狼と香辛料　ボクとホロの一年　初回限定版

• Music CD
• Moment by Vivian or Kazuma

• Sound Novels (games)
• うみねこのなくの頃に　第一話 (also came with a very funky metal bookmark
• うみねこのなくの頃に　第二話
• うみねこのなくの頃に　第三話 (I already had this, but couldn’t remember which of the three I didn’t have)

• Manga
• Genshiken – book 6 (series complete)
• Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei – books 10 to 16 (series complete … for now)
• The Meloncholy of Haruhi Suzumiya – book 5 and a one off special anthology
• Love Hina – book 0
• Akihabara Ichiman Chanel (1 off)
• Higurashi – the remaining books from the 罪滅し編 (tsumihoroboshi hen)
• Higurashi – the remaining book from the 宵越し編 (yoigoshi hen)
• Higurashi – コンプエース編 (comp ace hen)
• Higurashi – Book 1 of 5 of the 語咄し編 コミックアンソロジー (cohanashi hen comic anthology)

So yesterday I started to pack away the manga that I bought since arriving in Japan and made a list detailing it (you can see the list here). I planned on heading to Nippombashi today to pick up the one or two missing from a series and also to enjoy the fine weather. Calling around one of my friends was also up for it, but first we went to a manga shop in Shinsaibashi.

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 >_<

Some music shall we? Today’s tune is a 1972 recording of School’s Out by Alice Cooper. Why? No idea, it was playing on WinAmp.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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