Darlo's World

So yesterday started late, my body and soul (as well as my alarm clock) deciding I was due a nice lie-in. Yesterday was the 14th of March and that meant it was White Day. On this day in Japan men who received chocolate (or other assorted goodies) on Valentine’s Day, return the favour. I received a piece of chocolate from my dorm managers wife so I planned to buy some chocolate as an お返し (okaeshi, return gift).

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

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

I (metaphorically) salute you.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Today is Valentine’s Day, a day in which couples get sappier and singles get whinier, generally speaking that is. Being one of the latter it did mean that I was free to enjoy my day without the social obligations of meeting the missus. But that doesn’t mean I completely missed out on the tradition.

In Japan the tradition (in a nut-shell) is for girls to give chocolate to boys. There’re two kinds of chocolate depending on who you’re giving it to, and I don’t mean with nuts or without … although reading between the lines it probably does. First is 義理チョコ (girichoko) which you’d give to someone you feel you have a social obligation toward. This might be your boss, teacher, dorm manager, but not only people ‘socially higher’ than you, you might choose to give some to your friends and so on.

On the flip side to this is 本命チョコ (honmeichoko) which you’d give to your boyfriend, lover, husband or a boy that you fancy. Don’t worry girls, boys will come to return the favour next month on White Day, and for guys who got no chocolate, we can all get together and celebrate the Korean Black Day in April, but more on those days as they come.

My plan for today involved a trip to 日本橋 (Nippombashi) and Denden Town. If you remember my previous blogs it’s an area that’s known as the 秋葉原 (Akihabara) or Osaka, with plenty of manga and anime related stores, cafes and … stuff. So we headed downstairs (in the lift) and were greeted by the dorm manager. His wife had bought a small piece of chocolate for all the dorm residents (male dorm don’t forget). How kind of her; clearly this was girichoko (especially since it was her husband who gave it to us).

This wasn’t the only chocolate I received this year though. During the week some of my friends who frequent the Ajisai room had brought in their own home-made chocolate and biscuits and shared them around. Delish!

As usual Nippombashi was tons of fun and rumaging around the second hand book shops I found plenty of cheap manga, starting as low as 10 yen (about 8 pence by today’s exchange rate). As per usual DVD’s are expensive, though some stores here were considerably cheaper than the status-quo, and walking past the doujinshi covers you could see the usual ‘dripping’ images. Funnily enough afterwards I was talking with another friend about whether doujins are rated on some sort of ‘drip-scale’ or ‘dripometer’. Don’t get me wrong however, I did spot some of a non-sexual nature, and had I been interested in the series may have considered buying.

After my friend headed off home I stayed around for a walk and a wander. I was actually surprised how close Namba was to the area and ended up eating lunch at a Matsuya near Namba Parks. Though 95% of the time my self-navigatory skills are spot on without the use of a map, the cloudy day and the fact I’d spun in a few circles nosing around and exploring this new area meant I had no direction which way was North, and thus was a bit muddled. However (as all great men say at some point in their lives) I was not lost, I could have turned around and gone back the exact same way I had come from (something I usually find odd that people don’t do when they are ‘lost’), but prefer the fun way of walking and hoping until eventually passing out.

Thankfully I didn’t faint, but instead found a familliar sight in the distance. It was a large arcade (sega arcade I think), that I’d passed on the way. Keeping this to my right hand side I kept on walking and soon found myself on familiar ground.

On my way I found myself drawn to a particular retailer. The small table-top store was selling Monopoly … Osaka Edition! Now I can’t remember if my familly (we’re competitive when it comes to Monopoly) had asked me to buy one in Japan, but me here staring the the Osakan version of Monopoly took my by complete surprise! The only thing stopping me from buying it was the price of 4500 yen (£33.97 by today’s exchange rate). Even now I’m still umming and ahhing about it. I guess I’ve still got some time left here so I don’t need to make a rush decision about it.

To get to Nippombashi it cost me 230 yen (£1.74) on the underground, but me being me, the stubborn money saving twazzerk, thought “nuts to that” and walked home. Quite ironic when you consider my Monopoly incident. The walk (which according to google is just over 3 and a half miles) took somewhere between 1.5 and 2.5 hours. Due to complications with a watch and a phone call, I really don’t know.

It was actually on the way home that I made my biggest cock-up of the day, possibly the week (or longer >_<). When things are put ‘on sale’ in Japan, they might be marketed by a number of prices rather than the one you actually pay. To be fair this isn’t something that’s exclusive to Japan, just think of the times in shops you’ve seen £10 in huge letting next to something expensive only to look at the very small ‘off’ next to it. Well todays balls up was quite simple. I saw a sign saying 800 yen (£6.04) and jeans. Due to an unfortunate split in one of my pairs of bottoms I’ve been left juggling between a few pairs as of late.

Anyway, after nosing through the rail which was out the front of the store, I eventually found a pair that matched my size. Smiling like an idiot at the thought of picking up a bargain, I take my new jeans into the store and head for the desk. Something struck me the moment I entered the shop, and it wasn’t the low signage by the door. This was a nice looking shop, the kind where it looks like all they need to do is sell one thing in order to cover all their overheads, the kind of shop I never (like to) enter!

Being served by two very well dressed well mannered young men felt somewhats off-putting, me standing their in an old work-uniform coat, a University club jumper and jeans that … well, they’re almost as holy as the Pope. When it came for me to pay I stuttered and stammered. I had misread the sign outside, and the jeans were 800 yen off, not 800 yen. A total of 2800 yen (£21.14) for the jeans was paid, 2000 yen over what this idiot had thought they were. To be fair (trying to justify stupidity is something that can seldom be done well, but I’ll give it a go) even at 2800 yen, compared to other shops I’ve been here they were pretty cheap. A lot of people may say that Uni-Qlo is Japan’s cheapest clothing store, and about as close to Primark (oh beloved Primark) as you can get, but in my eye it’s still expensive. Perhaps it’s all these years of buying Tesco and Asda jeans that have conditioned my mind.

Oh, and yes Nippombashi has maid cafes … no, I haven’t been in one … yet. ¬_¬