Now if you think back my new year’s post I mentioned a very kind woman on a train who gave me and a friend a biscuit and a mandarin orange, and how if that had been England it would have been a very scepticle moment. In fact here’re my very words.

One thing I forgot to write about in the last entry is about the kindness of others here. On the train to get our hair cut, we were sitting across from and elderly woman wearing a facemask. Facemasks are a common sight here as people wear them to either try to stop the spread of any disease they have (or have been in contact with), or to try to help them avoid a common illness going around. As we were leaving the train she tapped me on the arm and held out a mandarin and a biscuit. I couldn’t translate what she said well, but she was giving them to us as a gift. We were stunned and had absolutely no idea why, but this kind of generosity back home would have caused a lot of scepticism.

Well one chap’s taken note of this act of kindness and a lot of other occaisions of people helping people on his own blog, Seeking and Sharing Stories of Kindness and I think it’s a brilliant idea. In a time where people are trying to sue each other for pointless things (I used to work in Claims Direct’s call centre and boy there were a few weird ones), it’s nice to see that there are still people about who are willing to look out for their fellow man. So far he has 6 posts of kind deeds, so if you have a story to add to the (hopefully) ever growing list, do let him know!

I’d printed off the target kanji, vocab, grammar in such a way across 40 sheets of A4, giving me the challenge of learning one a day. This means in 40 days (I’m aware that the test itself is in 5 days, but I’m planning to make sure I can pass the resit having accepted the non existance of the aforementioned bungee jump scenario), I will have covered everything and still have time to go over it for a good revision session. The main negative part is obviously I won’t come across these words written in the street in daily life. Though to be honest the only time I saw the word 売春 (baishun, prostitute) since being here, was in the Kanji in Context textbook and anywhere I happened to be practicing writing it down (not in public this one).

I did manage to put another upload on the videos/photos of Japan section, though it’s only one today. However, tomorrow I’ll try to whack on even more. So here’s a video of part of my daily commute to Kobe; Juso to Tsukaguchi on the Hankyu line.

• Day 1 – Shinkansen, Hiroshima, Peace Talks, Someone Elses University
• Day 2 – The Island, The Bridge, The Discrimination
• Day 3 – Clapping, Caving, Cop-Out, ID?

Day 1

Shinkansen, Hiroshima, Peace Talks, Someone Elses University

Having a trip not going in the direction of Osaka meant that I didn’t have to be sour about having to skip breakfast; the previous 2 class trips had us go all the way to Kobe to meet the group then head back through Osaka (moments from the dorm) to get to the destination. Something also was different on this morning and that was the fact that because the dorm I’m in now serves breakfast from 6:30 instead of 7, I didn’t need to skip it at all, though with the amount of mayonnaise on the plate I just stuck with the toast.

On this trip we were taking the 新幹線 (Shinkansen, bullet train) a first for many of us, so timing was crucial. The meeting point was also at a different station to what we were normally used to, but because we left earlier than usual we didn’t feel much of a rush, knowing full well we’d be on time. I was thankful to see that all the other students also made it on time, knowing for a fact they’d get left behind (something that didn’t happen in previous trips, much to my dissapointment).

Passing a vending machine with a rather funny sign urging us to “drink tobacco” (photo taken of course), we boarded Nozomi 101 and took our seats and prepared for the trip. As expected from a train with an operating speed of 300kmph (186.4 mph), travelling to Hiroshima was incredibly fast, arriving in just one hour and 15 minutes.

In Hiroshima we met up with our very friendly, though a little nervous, tour guide. The bus seemed to be where most people felt at ease as the majority of us soon found ourselves falling asleep. This was a feature common throughout the whole trip, regardless of how much sleep we’d get at the hotels.

Stop one was lunch and for this we went to お好み焼き村 (Okonomiyaki Mura, Okonomiyaki Village) for some Okonomiyaki. Hiroshima, it seems, has become famed for it’s style of okonomiyaki, much to the same way my own home town of Osaka has for the same reason (read this short article for differences between the two). Our food was already ordered before we got there (the ‘speciality’ okonomiyaki) so unfortunately for me I had no choice in what went in it, meaning I couldn’t say “please … no mayo”, which has happened every time I’ve had okonomiyaki in the past. However this time it was different, no sign of that awful white gunk could be seen at all, and I managed to eat the entire thing getting a satisfyingly full stomach.

When I look back at the photos I took of and in our next destination, the 広島平和記念公園 (Hiroshima Heiwa Kinen Kouen, Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park), I feel … something. I’m not sure exactly what it is and I don’t want that to come across as one of the many generic “Oh my gawd I can’t believe we did that to those people”-type comments that I heard way too often from tourists when I was there, but something in the park definately had some kind of effect on me.

The only times that I’d seen the A-Bomb dome, the skeletal remains of the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall, a building that’s structure survived largely due to it being at the epicenter of the atomic blast, was from はだしのゲン (Hadashi no Gen, Barefoot Gen). Barefoot Gen by Keiji Nakazawa, is a manga (later an anime) which depicts the semi-autobiographical tale of a boy surviving the nuclear blast which, in itself, also had a profound effect on me. Perhaps it’s because I don’t know much about the war itself, or much of what happened either side of it.

My feeling of ‘something’ was further emphasised when we went onto the 広島平和記念資料館 (Hiroshima Heiwa Kinen Shiryoukan, Hiroshima Peach Memorial Museum). Seeing simple things like a watch which stopped at 8:15am (on the 6th of August 1945) and models showing before and after versions of the area that we were in were a bit too much for some, as they left the museum back through the entrance rather than see the whole thing. Perhaps that was a good thing. Had they reached the part of the exhibition that showed how people were walking with their skin dripping from their bodies and jumping into rivers filled with blood to cool down from the heat only to realise it was boiling, who knows how they’d have reacted.

After the museum, at the recommendation of one of my teachers I then went to the nearby 国立広島原爆死没者追悼平和記念館 (Kokuritsu Hiroshima Genbaku Shibotsusha Tsutou Heiwa Kinen Kan, Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims). Topped with a simple water feature, made with tiles from buildings destroyed 63 years ago, you are made to walk down a seemingly never ending hallway with information points along the way, until you reach the main hall. From here you get a 360 panoramic view of the area in ruins, again with a very basic water feature in the center of the room. In the next room was a wall covered in changing pictures of the people who had died and were being mourned for. There were also computer monitors if you wanted to look for specific people (no Darlingtons were on the system).

Back in the park I was treated to my first viewing of 桜 (sakura, Japanese cherry blossoms) in bloom. This is something that has been gradually getting earlier with lots of people suggesting global warming, however I can’t find any decisive sources to agree or disagree with that. So going into artistic cameraman mode i tried taking plenty of different shots with different angles and backgrounds and managed to get a few nice ones (as well as a heap of not-so nice ones). It was quite funny though as later on the bus one person commented that “anyone can become an artist by taking a photograph of sakura”. I laughed a little.

On that note there are still new photo’s of my time in Japan being updated daily.

We headed to the hotel and were joined by students from Matsuyama University’s English Speaking Society Club for a Peace Study Session. In this session we talked about the dropping of Little Boy on the city we were in, and whether any aspects of it could be justifiable or not. Arguements ranged from “It’s all fair in love and war” style comments to whether or not America was using the citizens of Hiroshima as “Human Guinea Pigs”, as they really didn’t know what would happen.

After this we were free to head out for dinner or whatever. The hotel closed it’s doors at midnight so our only limitation was to be back before then. I already had my plan for that night before we even left Kansai. Lately my inspiration has been yoyo-ing like the toy of the same name, so I wanted to see somewhere that inspired someone that I looked up to, and this being Hiroshima was my chance.

One of my Japanese teachers back in the UK studied in Hiroshima, so I wanted to get a photo of the university not only for my own inspiration increase, but also something to send back to say “look where I went ^_^”. After searching the best way to get there, wasting a couple of hours before the trip when I should have been packing, I eventually realised I was looking at the wrong university. Think of it as someone saying they studied in Leeds, naturally one would assume they went to the University of Leeds, but no, they went to Leeds Metropolitan University. That’s what I get for making assumptions.

Unlike the trip to Kanazawa, I couldn’t find anyone daft enough to join me on the trip which, according to googlemaps, would take just over an hour and have me walk over an unpathed, unlit mountain. However I changed the route to suit my need of being able to see where I was going. I had to take two trams to reach my walking starting line, but here I hit a snag. In Japan I’d only taken trains and taxis as public transport. I’d avoided taking busses from fear of looking like a complete burk, but it wasn’t until I reached the tram station I realised I had the same problem. I had no idea what to do.

Somehow I was at the front of the queue, so after letting everyone onto the tram before me, observing what they were doing, I got on and took and sat down. From there I had a few stops to learn how to get off and pay properly, unlike trains I couldn’t merely get off and go on the tram going the other way until I’d figured it out. Unfortunately for me from the next stop it got too busy for me to see what was happening, and thus when my stop came I simply muttered to myself “oh buggar”. I headed to the driver and simply asked “中電前からいくらですか。” (chuudenmae kara ikura desu ka, How much from Chuudenmae?), and whacked the appropriate amount in the slot, pretty much the same as busses in Birmingham … ish.

The walking section was nice and peaceful. It actually reminded me somewhat of walking from Okamoto train station to Konan University, only at night … and much longer … and up more hills … and I didn’t really know where I was going. I was also a little surprised at the number of police cars going past, lights flashing, but as long as it wasn’t me they were after I don’t mind. After finding the university, about a half hour walk away, I took a photograph of the main gate (I didn’t go in because it was a womens uni), and made a little video message to my sensei.

The walk home seemed to go really fast, and I did feel like I was more inspired to work my arse off. I think I’ll make similar trips to my other sensei’s uni’s (thank goodness they’re only in Osaka and Kyoto).

I chose to walk the entire trip back instead of taking the two trams so I could see a lot more of Hiroshima than the others, seeing a whole range of stores, restaurants, buildings and of course the local prison (Hiroshima Detention House). Passing a small arcade I tried to replicate the luck we’d had on the Kanazawa trip by winning a toy from a UFO grabber. Though I didn’t manage to get a huge toy like we did on the last trip (I still have no idea how I’ll be sending that buggar back to the UK), I did manage to win a small Doraemon keyring.

Buying a carton of hot chocolate from a vending machine (yes, that’s right), I headed on towards McDonalds before heading back to the hotel.

Day 2

The Island, The Bridge, The Discrimination

I’m guessing the song playing may have ended by now, so here’s 手紙 ～拝啓　十五の君へ～ (Tegami ～ Haikei Jyuugo no Kimi e ～, Letter ～ Dear 15 Year Old Me ～) by Angela Aki.

The problem with a buffet stlye breakfast is that if there are things you don’t like (or can’t eat) then you’ll soon find yourself with a very boring plate. Yeah it’ll piled up as much as possible, but a mountain of one or two things hardly excites the tongue. I was however really happy to see that the Aster Plaza Hotel (I’m not sure if it’s actually a Youth Hostel, but if it is then it’s definately one of the better I’ve seen by a long shot) also provided breakfast cereal in the form of Frosties and Choco-cornflakes. Man it’s been so long since I’d had either of those, definately a welcome break from all the toast I normally eat at breakfast.

After brekkie we headed further west to the island of 宮島 (Miyajima) by ferry (and bus, obviously). Miyajima like Nara, is home to a great deal of 鹿 (shika, deer), however unlike Nara where you are encourage to feed them, here tourists were warned not to do so, and to especially avoid any deer with antlers. Miyajima is also home to the 厳島神社 (Itsukushima Jinja, Itsukushima Shrine), a world heritage site that is popularly photographed with it’s 鳥居 (torii, Shinto shrine archway) partially underwater. Of course I also joined in this by taking a few shots. When we were there the tide was in, though some students were brave enough to try to walk out to the torii (despite waist high waters and no spare trousers) to try and touch it and get a photo.

At this point we split up for lunch, a few of use taking a walk up unto the hills where we found a fantastic sitting area and a small cafe with a hoard of blooming sakura trees. After finishing a bowl of udon I was back up with my camera. Likewise the walk back was full of serene views and excellent photographic spots, however because time was starting to go against us I just enjoyed them for that moment, rather than take a dozen pictures.

After arriving back on the mainland we then went even further west to 本州 (Honshuu, Japan’s largest island)’s most western (located, not necessarily styled) prefecture, 山口 (Yamaguchi). We were heading to the 錦帯橋 (Kintaikyou), an impressive bridge whose steep arches resemble snakes … or possibly Nessie, in the 岩国 (Iwakuni) area. In Japan white snakes are considered very lucky, and Iwakuni is no exception with many facilities and viewing spots dedicated to white snakes.

Taking a cable-car up the mountain, we headed to 岩国城 (Iwakuni Jyou, Iwakuni Castle), which was now an impressive museum of the area. It played host to a vast range of swords, armour and other artefacts and an amazing 360 degree view from the roof that was only marred by a couple of morons (sadly from my course) trying to convince one of the patrons to let them play with the swords.

Before heading back to the bus a few of us tried some ice-cream from one of the many (seemingly endless) ice-cream sellers. Given the time of year I tried Sakura flavour and to be honest … it was a flavour I couldn’t even try to describe. I’ll have a go anyway; it was bloody fantastic. This is my new favourite flavour ice-cream (sorry coconut, mint, choc-chip combo) and something I’ll be thinking about everytime I have an ice-cream when I get back to England … with a tear in my eye.

The Hotel Park Avenue (very posh sounding) was nice. Nothing magical, but nothing poor either. Having a TV with a 24 hour anime channel was nice, but to be honest I didn’t watch that much. Strangely enough there was also a channel which only seemed to play Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives.

Since I wasn’t planning on visiting anywhere random that night I went for dinner with a few friends. We headed down one road until we eventually came to an Indian restaurant called Ganesh. This is where things went tits up.

There were two factors that enticed us into this restaurant for dinner. First of all was the fact that they had a very nice student offer in the window, and we being students thought it just up our alley. Secondly it was somewhere recommended by some of the staff members that had come on the trip (and were already in there when we entered).

We flicked through the menu, as is customary despite knowing already what we were going to order, when a member of staff came over. We then (in Japanese) ordered the student deal for each of us, when he asked if we had student cards which we then brandished. He then asked us to wait a moment for another staff member, at the time I thought it might have been because he wasn’t confident in using Japanese.

When his friend came over we did the same again, same order, same language, to which we were told that the student offer was only for Japanese students (as oppose to foreign students). Urm … what? Yes that’s right folks. Here is our first real receiving of racial discrimination in Japan … and it came from an Indian restaurant. Even if this were the actual case (something I didn’t buy for a second), how did he know that we weren’t in fact Japanese? Believe it or not there are people who are of non-Japanese origin that are born in Japan, or even people who have been naturalised as Japanese. But it seems not in the eyes of Ganesh, where only 100% pure-blood seems to count. But no it didn’t stop there.

Opening the menus (which were written in English and Katakana … I don’t actually remember there being any kanji in there) our polite and very help fellow then asked (in English) if “we were having trouble reading” the menu. Now perhaps if we’d gone in speaking Danish, Italian, or one of the two languages that wasn’t printed in the sodding menu that would have been helpful, but when a group of customers come into your restaurant the last thing you want to do is insult their intelligence. To his comment one of my friends replied “I can read” (the first time an English word was spoken in the place by one of us), to which the restauranteur said “yes but it’s …”, “yes I can read” repeated my friend.

For me, I’d had enough. I told my friends I’d see them back at the hotel and that I was going elsewhere. Thankfully I didn’t have to go far. Right opposite that crap-shack was a nice little udon place. While I was looking in the window at the plastic display versions, one employee was heading back into the restaurant and gave me a smile and a welcome.

I ordered a cheap udon dish called うどんむすび (udon musubi), which seemed to be a basic udon (thick Japanese wheat noodles in soup) with tempura pieces and seaweed. It also came with a freshly made お握り (onigiri, rice ball), something I’d only ever eaten from a fridge wrapped in plastic. When in came time to pay I and the lady on the counter made small talk in Japanese, and soon I headed off. There were no other customers at all in the restaurant, but it had some great 演歌 (enka, traditional Japanese style song) playing so I could really enjoy my experience.

Ladies and gentlemen, if you find yourself on Ginza Street in Shunan in Yamaguchi (Japan), and want to be treated badly and like a complete idiot (and possibly even lied to and/or discriminated against), then go to Ganesh (here’s a link), but if you want to go somewhere nice, then head to the udon place opposite from them. And just so my Japanese friends don’t miss out on my little warning …

皆、もし（日本の）山口県の周南市の銀座通りにいたら、悪くて取り扱われたかったら（ばかのような人だ、多分あなたに嘘をついて、差別することをくれる）、ガネーシュに行くべきです（こちらはリンクです）。でも、良い所に行きたかったら、向こう側のうどん屋に行く方が良いです。
私は日本語が下手なので、失礼します。T_T

(on that note if anyone from Ganesh is reading this (that is if they’re capable of reading it that is … snide remark over) feel free to comment at the bottom)
(this topic has also been covered on Japan Probe.com)

Day 3

Clapping, Caving, Cop-Out, ID?

Day three’s music comes from The Who, and it’s that classic track Won’t Get Fooled Again.

Despite living in Japan the last time I had a Japanese breakfast was at New Year. Normally the Japanese option at the dorm doesn’t quite appeal to me as much as the toast I’d normally eat, but at this hotel it was our only option so I took it as a welcome change (though I was thankful orange juice was still available).

First on today’s trip was a visit to the 瑠璃光寺 (Rurikouji), a Buddhist temple best known for it’s 5 storied pagoda, which, I was told, was built as a symbol to show the wealth of the land owners (in 1442). In the area of the temple was a small outdoor stone staircase where if you clap or stamp your feet in front of it, it (the clap sound) turned into a strange kind of duck-like quack noise. Quite amazing really, especially with a group of 50 (ish) people all clapping or jumping at the same time. Perhaps it was built to show how quickly humans could be turned into clapping seals so easily.

A traditional Japanese lunch, served in bento form, was provided for us at a nearby souvenir store just ten minutes away, just enough time to get to sleep on the bus before being woke up.

After lunch we headed to the 秋芳洞 (Akiyoshidou), the largest cave system in Japan. On the coach I had a chortle as someone commented “I wonder if it will be cold in the cave, or if it’s one of those heated caves”. However my gigglation (love making up words) soon came to an end as we entered the came to a short warm blast of humidity. In the caves were lots of stunning rock formation that seemed to glisten with the run off of water coming from above, or perhaps that was just people’s sodding flash photography (yes I’m a hypocrite, I used my flash at times ¬_¬).

It was in the caves that I considered my own list of things I wanted to see/do/achieve while in Japan, and how I could actually do some of them by bending the rules slightly. For example, I wanted to take a photo of Mount Fuji, but can’t afford to get there. However, one of the rock formation in the cave was called Mount Fuji. Photo taken, job done. ^_^ Likewise I wanted to see live sumo wrestling, and conveniently enough there was an event in Osaka. But it was too expensive for me to go. However, I did watch a live sumo match on the TV. ^_^ Now I know you’ll be shouting “cop-out” at me, if not you, then certainly I’m shouting it at myself, right before I treat myself to another melon pan.

Our final bus trip was to the Yamaguchi station, where we said goodbye to our tour guide and driver. We were going to be riding part of the way on a steam locamotive 特急 (tokkyuu, limited express) train, something I found to be remeniscent to going on the Severn Valley Railway when I was younger. A lot of the group compared it to the Hogwarts Express (or something) from Harry Potter, but for me it was more like the Flying Pussyfoot from Baccano!

Changing at Shin-Yamaguchi station for the Shinkansen line, we were then given lunch of a sandwich bento and a juice carton. The juice was nice (orange), but I ended up just giving away the sandwiches. Once I’d discovered mayo in over half the sarnies I just gave up and instead went to the nearby udon place (believe it or not, I’m not addicted to udon).

The shinkansen trip home proved to be a relaxing (tiring more like) time for most of us, as it was a pretty quiet trip. I too had headphones in drifting in and out of slumber for the short trip. I did get up and go to the bog at one point and let me tell you this, standing up and going for a wee at 186 mph is not easy. I’m only thankful that I wasn’t on top of the train doing it >_<.

We arrived at Shin-Kobe and then headed our seperate ways.

After getting back at the dorm in just enough time to miss dinner, a friend and I went to the 99 yen shop for some food. Feeling the mood I also bought a can of beer. However something happened that hasn’t happened to me in Japan before, or anywhere else for a long time. I was asked for ID to prove I was over twenty! Wow, I wasn’t angry, just shocked for a moment. To be honest I’m glad it happened because it means that there are people in Japan who will ask you to show it, and since I had my 外国人登録証明書 (Gaikokujin Touroku Shoumeisho, alien registration card) with me, something we have to keep with us by law I might add, I was happy to show it and be on my way.

Ladies and gentlemen this concludes the story of my recent trip to the west of Honshuu. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading it (or bits of it), and welcome any comments. I’ll see you next time!

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.

Instead I took a walk towards Umeda where under a railway bridge was a very small udon place. From the outside it was really noisy with trains going by every ten seconds or so, traffic blaring (as it was also a busy crossroad), and the very common sound of ambulance and paramedic sirens. I figured that inside wouldn’t be quiet due to these factors but I was shocked to discover how wrong I was.

When I closed the door everything seemed to go quiet, the only real breaking point to the silence was when the woman behind the counter greeted me “いらっしゃいませ”. I ordered 肉うどん (niku udon, beef udon) from the vending machine, handed my ticket to the cashier and took a seat, stopping on the way to pick up a glass for some water. To give you an idea of how small the place was, I was the only customer and was taking up 10% of the occupancy.

My meal was 400 yen (£2.92), which is quite a bit more than I normally spend on lunch, but it was definately worth it for it’s flavour and size. Good grub! Speaking of good grub, here’s a dog trying (and failing) to eat food off his nose on command.

Today was my friend’s 24th birthday. Due to some tradition we heard on a trip to Kyoto, because he’s turning 24 it’s not a lucky year for him, especially for marriage. Whether or not he’s planning stuff like that is something I don’t know, but I’m definately glad to be turning 25 this year. Not that I’ve not had many sporadic luck moments as well as kicks in the gooch.

The plan was to meet in Umeda with some other friends and head to a maid cafe. Yes folks after cutting yesterday’s blog short …

“Oh, and yes Nippombashi has maid cafes … no, I haven’t been in one … yet. ¬_¬”
quote from Valentine’s Day Cock Ups

… we decided to celebrate my friend’s birthday in style.

However, doing a quick Google search indicated that there seem to maid cafes in Umeda, which was a bit of a pain. I don’t want to go on record by saying for definate that there are none at all, but we couldn’t find any. With that in mind we made a change of plan and decided to head back to Nippombashi.

I left the dorm first in order to make a trip to Softmap to buy my friend’s birthday present, unbeknownst to him of course. The DS game I intended to buy for him was ASH: Archaic Sealed Heat, which appeared to be a simple RPG, of course in Japanese. However I never made it to Softmap.

Following my usual routine of walking to Umeda in a new way, at a traffic light I, like everyone else, was approached by various people in vary elaborate Chinese clothing. She, and several colleagues, were handing out flyers for a traditional Chinese dance show that was happening in Umeda. She then took this as an opportunity to practice her Japanese skills as it appears we were on roughly the same level. As time passed and various elements of English and Chinese slipped into the conversation as well as us being joined by one of her friends, I had to try to break from the conversation so I wouldn’t be late to meet the others. I wouldn’t have time to go to Softmap.

Arriving at Umeda station I was a bit annoyed to see that only two of the other four were on time. After waiting for almost an hour, we were soon joined by everyone and on our way.

Arriving in Namba (after deciding to walk to the ‘maid area’ from there), I swiftly led the group of 5 (myself included) men from 5 different countries on a mini walking tour of the area, as I followed my own footstepsfrom yesterday. After doubting myself on a couple of corners and knowling walking in a circle, we found ourselves in the area where maids were handing out leaflets for their respective businesses.

This is where our day of complete confusion began. None of us, including our Japanese friend (for the record we were from England, Japan, America, Germany and Colombia) had been to a maid cafe before and had no clue how to spot ‘a good one’. After a little bit of fannying around I eventually went to go and ask one of the maids. It turns out that not all the people giving out leaflets for the area were from cafes, as the one I’d asked worked for a ‘maid massage parlour’ instead.

Meanwhile, one of the group was also enquiring with another maid, this time one who did work for a cafe. With a smile on her face and full of enthusiasm she took us down an alley and into a lift. When the doors opened we were greeted warmly by two maids who were already bowing. After being shown into the main room we could see various maids with various groups keeping up the enthusiam.

This is where we hit a stump. My group of friends and I clearly had no idea of what to do and what was going on as some of the girls did a short song and dance routine for us before joining us in our seating area. Added was the fact that none of us had ‘maid cafe experience’, and only one of us spoke Japanese to a fluent level; he also struggled to explain what was going on in English at times, but kudos to him for giving it his all.

From what we could all work out it basically comes down to this. When you’re there, you can buy a range of food and drinks (hence the ‘cafe’ part), but you can also pay for certain extras. Fella’s pull your eyes back into their sockets and pick your tongues off the floor. Services included them sitting with you for conversation, playing games (of which Uno seemed to be the popular choice) and having a photograph with them. Obviously for their own protection taking photos of the girls is forbidden.

Not really wanting to spend too much money we settled for a photograph, the cheapest service on the menu (yes, there was a menu for services on the back of the cakes menu). Unfortunately this led to another problem, and one that I don’t really know the outcome of. The cost of a photo was 800 yen (£6.04) for one polaroid. However, depending on how many maids you wanted in the photo the price went up. I’m not certain but I think it was also more expensive depending on your group size. We ended up with a photo with two maids and our whole group.

After drinking up my ‘Melonade’ (officially called Melon Soda, but Melonade sounds better don’t you think?) and casually distributing my cake to my friends (it was made of cream >_<), we let the girls know our intention to leave. Before being allowed to make our exit (after paying the bill), we were given another performance of singing and dancing.

The atmosphere of the maid cafe that we visited seemed to be very welcoming, but at the same time kind of tense. It could well have been down to the fact we were all first timers, the language barrier (good ol' scapegoat), and the fact most of the group towered over the girls height-wise, but it could also be that because we didn't fully understand what maid cafes were all about, the girls may have had trouble communicating in the subtle ways that they might have done with their regular customers.

I wouldn't chock this down as a bad experience, but I won't say that it was a great one either. I think once the girls had left us to our own devices after the photo we were able to relax a little more. Ironically it did feel at one point like we were the one’s ‘on show’. Walking back we did pass another style of maid cafe (which time forbade us to stop in), where it seemed to be a typically normal cafe, where it just so happened that the staff members wore maid outfits. Maybe next time.

On the walk back I wanted to make a detour. For you see I got in touch with home last night and I was right in that I was asked to bring back a Japanese version of Monopoly. So after heading back to the table top store I mentioned yesterday, which it turns out was a part of the huge toy shop it was in front of, I parted with 4500 yen in exchange for the Osaka version of the game.

Looking on the back Osaka Monopoly has a lot of the features I’ve come to associate with the city I love (obviously), such as the Glico Man replacing Mayfair as the most expensive land, £220 Fleet Street being replaced with the HEP Five at 220 “man-yen” (£16,588), and the ever faithful Old Kent Road swapping ironically with the Osaka Business Innovation Centre. Old favourites just as Free Parking and Go To Jail are still there in their original forms, and we were having a bit of a joke about how Jail should have been Kamishinjou.

After arriving back in Umeda I took a quick trip over to Softmap to pick up my friends birthday present. I have no idea if the game’s any good, but if it is I might grab one for myself at a later date.

Trains themselves can get really busy, particularly during rush hour (which by the way are longer than an hour) periods. Unfortunately for me, my usual travel time for coming from and going to University falls in these slots, so not only does the chance of getting a seat rest somewhere between zero and a rock, but often it’s a bit of a tight squeeze, occaisionally requiring station staff to push people into the trains. The rule of thumb seems to be something along the lines of “if a fly can get in there, then there’s room for more”. The YouTube video below shows how bad it can be.

Now although trains in Japan, well the Hankyu line anyway, are regular and you don’t normally have to wait longer than fifteen minutes for another to come by, many people are always determined to run and catch the current train if possible, possibly because they’ll end up being late for something or other. I’d seen people run and just make it to the train literally as the doors were closing and dive in Indiana Jones style, making it by the skin of their teeth. Others, not so lucky arrive just to see the doors shutting. Though I’d never seen anyone get wedged between the closing doors … until tonight … no it wasn’t me.

After Uni I boarded my train at 岡本駅 (Okamoto station), taking a standing position opposite the door due to the lack of available seats. As the doors began to close I saw a high school student in the distance sprinting up the stairs like his life depended on it. I thought to myself how annoyed he must have felt, having run all that way to have missed the train by a hair (something that happens to me on a regular basis at 淡路駅 (Awaji station)). I then noticed his pace change. He didn’t get slower but instead ran even faster in the direction of the door. Taking a dive that would make a world-class goalie look like a little girl playing hopscotch, I could only watch as I expected his face to soon be decorating the train window.

Squeezing through the narrowest of gaps, his body somehow emerged inside the train and promptly hit the floor, his leg stuck in the door. After squeezing his leg on the train I helped him up where, clearly embarrased (and relieved) he slowly hobbled down the train moving onto a different train cart muttering “痛い、痛い (ouch, ouch)”. I have no idea why he was that desperate to get that train, rather than wait ten minutes for the next, perhaps he had an important date, or his mom had cooked curry rice for dinner.

This morning I decided that if I was to spend the day catching up on reading for one of my classes I may as well get out of my stale smelling room and head somewhere. I packed my stuff together and headed for the train station. My decision was to simply ride the trains and enjoy studying at an average speed of over 60 kilometers per hour. What helped this idea was the fact that the trains stations are a lot like the London Underground where you buy your ticket and go through a turnstile rather than have someone come by on the train to make sure you’ve bought a ticket and are on the right train.

This meant that I could ride the train as much as I like and presuming I didn’t want to leave any stations, I could get back without having to pay for traveling as I have a commuters pass. Whether or not this is actually allowed or not I have no idea, but it’s a practice I wanted to experiment.

Despite the fact that Hanshin and Hankyu railways are now the under the same company, due to Hankyu buying Hanshin back in 2006, their train lines are kept seperated, so I started out thinking I’d only ride on Hankyu. I was wrong. Shinkaiichi station in Kobe, the last station of the Hankyu Kobe line, also links to Hanshin trains. Seeing this I hopped onto a Limited Express train and eventually ended up at Sanyo Himeji. To put it another way, I spent my entire day sitting on trains travelling all around … reading a book.

Who says I don’t make the most out of my time in Japan. I did try stopping through various other stations to see if I could make links back onto Hankyu and make a loop back home, but unfortunately it wasn’t possible unless I wanted to leave a station. Below is a map showing where I went, but this is actually a driving map. I tried to get google to do one showing the train routes, but it got a bit of a tummy ache. In fact, google wasn’t happy with having so many entries in it’s map so I’ve had to omit a few of my change over stations.

Total distance travelled (if I was in a car … and cut out some parts): 337 km (209.5 miles)
Total money spent: 240 yen on two cans of warm drink, and 136 yen on a (bloody awesome) cake; 376 yen (£2.82).

Darlo's Looong Train Ride (18th January 2008)

Link to map

Today on the whole was a really nice experience and although I said naff all and didn’t really practice my spoken Japanese, it was nice to be able to see a range of people and cheekily listen in to a range of conversations. Also seeing different ways people acted around each other as well as myself. One man on one train was sleeping, and although sleeping on a train is completely common in Japan, I don’t think it’s as common to sprawl yourself across the seat like a full length bed.

Speaking of which it’s time for me to be signing off … well, revise some more kanji before bed anyway.

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

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

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

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

MESSAGE TO JAPAN – NO MORE MAYONNAISE PLEASE! T_T

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I went home with a smile.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

( TT__TT )

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My Denshi Jisho

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

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

"I’m British." I reply,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Moving on.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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