With a relatively full tank of petrol I turned out of my road enjoying a slightly jumpy tune on the CD player (thanks to a rather bumpy road), with Sebastian, my brothers’ travelling monkey, in the passenger seat.

Starting Mileage: 202521

Sebastian shows how he intends to drive while I sleep.

Though he may have a problem when it comes to reaching the pedals.

Mileage at the end of Day One: 202663

The graveyard at university really reminds me of A Christmas Carol.

The view from my bedroom. Last night this poor lamp post was hit by a car and a rubbish collection truck.

The road towards Leeds city centre looks a bit bleak.

Glad I wasn’t under any trees when they shed their loads.

Hyde Park was the deepest snow area I walked through, with areas of virgin snow coming to just a few inches under my knee caps.

In yonder distance yee can see, a humble snowman who hath yet to be.

These guys were making an igloo. On my way back it was really impressive, but I didn’t want to take my camera out as the snow was coming down heavy again.

I shall name him … (looks around room to found a random and somewhat obscure name) … Leopold.

This may look like a spherical sculture covered with snow, but I can tell you this … I don’t remember it being there a couple of days ago (recent … ish … google maps pic), and there was a mysterious looking trail of missing snow, grass and mud leading to it from the park.

Evergreen trees … the laziest of all.

This little house and garden area really go well with a snowy environment.

The Queen Vic.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To stay alive in Japan you need this little thing called money, and recently things had been looking up financially. My student loan payment was coming through and the exchange rate had been on the up, hitting 140 yen to the pound a few days ago. Fast forward to this morning when the cash was actually in my bank account and you’d be forgiven for thinking I would have been a happy and relieved chappy.

First task this morning was to give 67% of that to Uni leaving me with me “good luck living on that” loan. Second shot came when I went to check the exchange rate. It had sunk to 130.7 yen to the pound (right now it’s at 130.3). Companred to the 200 yen to the pound I had when I first got here. So once again I’m left in the dilemma of whether I withdraw money now, or wait a bit longer. Risky.

My walk to Shirakawa (aka the original Higurashi village) might be back on. In February we have a week off which would give me time to start the walk. Only trouble is (and the reason I said start) is that I think it’s going to take longer than one week to get there. I’m going to have a word with my teachers about the possibility of me missing a class or two should I take too long, as this would be my only real chance to explore anything away from a class activity, unless of course I get a nice lottery win … though I don’t do the Japanese lottery.

However, this may also be marred by the fact that I didn’t estimate how the weather in Japan changes. Up until now I thought we’d had the worst of the cold and come February it would start to warm up a little. According to my Japanese friends this is not the case. In fact, where we are is going to get even colder, meaning December probably would have been the better time after all.

I leave you with a video that somes up the cold and the irony – Ironic by Alanis Morissette

Making my way to the local shrine where the Ebisu Matsuri was being held (check the last entry for details on that), I gave a small offering and prayed to Ebisu, participating as much as I possibly could without having a clue as to what I was doing. I was happy to see some of the things I’d learned in my religion class in practice, such as the Kagura and why the shrine maidens were performing it.

I then went for a look around the usual festival stalls, as usual lots of different foods were on offer as well as a range of games and souvenirs for sale. Having known how most of these games ‘work’ I decided to try my luck at the shooting gallery. After shooting off a few light-boxes winning myself some sweets, I had a crack at the impossible stuff. I knocked over the marker for a Nintendo DS, but the rule is that it had to fall off the shelf rather than just fall over. I didn’t mind, of course, I had my sweets.

Winnings – 1 x Milky, 1 x Choco Ball (yoghurt flavour), 2x Fuppii Ramune

I then proceeded to walk south to meet some friends at Osaka Castle. I hadn’t been there before and only had a brief idea of where it would be, so this was definately another one of my fun adventures. Unfortunately for me the glorious sunny (yet frickin’ cold) weather that had been brightening the day went behind some clouds and the cold really started to kick in. From checking the temperature daily on google I knew that last night it was actually colder than back in Telford, but I wasn’t preparing for the snow that began falling from above.

Yes, this was the last thing I was expecting for Osaka. Hmm … well, maybe not the last thing, I’ve still not seen any … um … well, moving on. I rang a friend in Kobe and discovered that it was also snowing there, and from the sounds of it it might have been snowing heavier. Just as quick as it started though, the snow ended. Not even leaving any damp patches on the floor. This was a snowfall for the moment, for the memory.

I met my friends at Osaka Castle but because I decided to visit the shrine (and faff about on a website) beforehand, they’d already been up and around. Not wanting to spend money to run around it while they waited, I made myself pleased to be able to take some awesome photos. Even though this was the first time I’d been to Osaka Castle, it’s a walkable distance from the dorm so I can always come again another (warmer) day.

I decided to have dinner at Matsuya again tonight having with hands so cold they make ice get jealous made using chopsticks a nightmare. Thankfully a spoon was on hand as I’d ordered my old favourite, curry rice.

Going back for a second, I noticed when I was doing the new Lotaku site how easy and useful WordPress was. This being the case I’ve decided to make Darlo’s World a wordpress site. I don’t know when I’ll convert it over, I don’t know when I’ll have time, but the end result will definately be a nice touch.

So yesterday was pretty cool. After a nice lie-in I met up with a couple of friends at Uni and proceded to tackle the last day of the school fayre. As usual we dove head on into the aggressive sellers, only this time we were accompanied by our old English friend … rain. Not only was this the day that I’d left my brolly at home, but it was also the day that I’d decided not to bring in my washing that was hanging out.

Balls.

Growing weary of the fayre, and full of random food (including a fried potato coated in some kind of sauce (name forgotton >_<) and yakitori (skewered chicken)) we decided to head to karaoke for a couple of hours, and then afterwards head to Sushiro, a sushi restaurant where food is on conveyor belts.

Karaoke was great fun, as is the norm. We booked two hours, and since there were only three of us, we tried a lot of songs that we’d never done before. For example I took a shot at Nantoka Nare and Hito Toshite Jiku ga Bureteiru amongst others.

Needing to kill some time before heading to the restaurant, we took a trip to Nishinomiya Kitaguchi. Not really much happened here, as I said we were mainly killing time. So forgive me while we skip on ahead.

One thing I will draw back to is my introduction to an anime series that’s … odd. Oruchuban Ebichu was introduced to me by one of my fellow foreigners and despite it’s general crude, animal abusing, blood-dripping, sex filled content, I found it to be quite funny. Possibly because of the fact that it’s cute appearance is a tremendous contrast to what is actually happening.

I’m not going to ruin it by telling you what goes on (I have a feeling your curiosity will have got the better of you by now anyway), but I will explain that there is a long running joke throughout the series where a certain word is used. I’m not going to say what the word is nor will I write down it’s English quivalent, so I’ll use an English word it is similar to … Mango.

The reason I explain this will come to light shortly.

The restaurant was really nice, and a very relaxing place. On our arrival it was almost empty, giving us a good 4 seater area (one seat had all our stuff). There are two methods of getting food at Sushiro, both very easy. The first method is to sit there and watch all the different foods go by on the conveyor belt next to your table, then grab whatever you want. Alternatively you can press the call button on the table and order something. This itself comes on the conveyor belt on a marked dish so that no one can grab your goodies before it gets to you. If you order it you do need to be able to do it in Japanese; I know I said both methods were easy, but I think that pushing a button does indeed fall into that easy category.

As most of the plates were 105 yen each (and by that I mean I hardly saw any that were any more than that … maybe one or two), not only was it an inexpensive way to try lots of different styles of food you’d not normally get to try, it was also very easy to keep track of your spending. After chowing down on a plate’s food you stack it at the end of the table. If you’re with a group and want to pay seperately, you just have to stack your plates individually. Feeling full at 7 plates I called it a day. Don’t get me wrong, the plates are not massive, like our dinner plates back home, but 7 plates more than qualified as a good meal.

But why bring up Mango? Well, when the food comes down on the conveyor belt there is (normally) a sign in front of it saying what it is. At numerous times throughout the night a mango pudding came around (an ACTUAL mango pudding). Seeing the sign for this had us in stitches, and many bad jokes about mangoes were told, including how we’d always munch on a mango during the summer!

Last night whilst on the internet I noticed something. Staring at an empty beer can I took a piece of crappy plastic and starting hitting the two together. Unsurprisingly it made a noise. I then took the plastic, put it between my fingers and started swirling it like a mini electric-fan. The beer can was then introduced to this whirlingness and a continuous clacking sound came about. Yeah, once again no big surprise. However, then cogs in my head started whirring, and I started to remember being young, making similar annoyingly noisy things.

From when I was a kid I’d remember annoying the hell out of people by constantly doing things that I’d just learned, practicing it and getting it down to a tea … before getting told off for being an irritating buggar. Anyway, it came to me that i could perhaps use this inspiration in learning my grammar and use whatever grammar point learned as much as I possibly could.

That’s what I did today.

Yes, I was annoying, yes I wasn’t making much sense to the context of conversations, and yes I did confuse many Japanese people (and some of the upper-group exhange students). However, yes I was remembering the grammar, yes I learned how to use it better from friends correcting me, and yes it was funny for all of us.

Here’s an example of the kind of thing I was doing:

Person A: “I went shopping at the weekend and it was fun.”
Darlo: “So in other words, you mean to say that apples are delicious.”
Person A: “Um … well, we did buy apples yes. And after that we went to the cinema.”
Darlo: “So in other words, you mean to say that Person B has become better at playing tennis.”
Person A: ” …… “

So continuing our adventures from Kanazawa, we were walking along the town passing numerous restaurants, shops, bars and cafes (yes, they included Maid cafes before you ask), when we decided it was probably time to head back. Heading in the direction of the train station, an easy landmark to return to the hotel from, we had the pleasure of seeing a group of drunken men run into the middle of a crossroads whenever the lights were red to throw one of their mates up into the air. This itself was such a sight that many of the hundreds of people (it was a busy Saturday night after all) we were walking through didn’t notice the two out of place foreigners carrying an 18 inch tall Disney toy, well some did obviously.

After a while of wandering around with no eki (station) in sight, we had a look at our map. We located several buildings that were right near the eki and after hitting a river we eventually came to the conclusion that the trainstation must have been underground and we’d simply missed it when we were walking wildly (5w’s ^_^) in search of it. After another looong period of circling the area we eventually asked for help.

According to a karaoke room staff member, standing outside to try and draw in customers, the station was 30 minutes away and he offered to call us a taxi. Not quite believing it’d take us half an hour (5 mins tops) we asked him to point us in the general direction of it. After leaving him we came to the conclusion that he had a link to a taxi company and would probably have earned a commission from us tourists.

After another long duration of walking, my friend considered another possibilty. Looking at the map, we noticed that infact all the places we’d been seeing were there by the eki … but they were also there … on the other side of the town! Some how we’d got our bearings mixed up coming out of the park and instead of being in the town near the hotel, we were in fact in a different area of the town altogether.

Karaoke man was right!

After a vigorous walk back to the hotel, following the map from the correct point this time and stopping at a convenience store for some food incase we were hungry upon arrival (I bought some insta-noodles, a can of beer, and a jam-jar with clear alcoholic liquid called Fukucup … no idea what it is), we went to our rooms and relaxed. What we expected to be no more than a few hours out turned into us arriving back at about 11.30 at night. I’d been joking during the day about having a ‘walk’ about but really didn’t expect it to turn out this way.

After finishing off my beer, I went to another friends room, who was having a Matrix showing on their laptop. Following this I went back and thought I’d indulge myself in some television, after all I hadn’t really watched much TV since I’d arrived in Kamishinjyou. Flicking through the channels there was a nice range of shows in different genres and languages, many of which you could adjust the language to English. I stopped flicking through though when I hit one channel of a man being walked on by a woman in high-heels. This wasn’t a Japanese show though, it was an Italian one. “No more TV” I thought, and went to sleep.

After breakfast the next morning we checked out of our rooms and headed down to the lobby. Due to the fact that we’d only been there one night you’d have thought everyone would have been on time, not needing to repack everything and an elephant … right? Alas no, some daft bints still ended up being 15 minutes late for no general reason. I’m normally a believer of ‘the pointlessly late get left behind’ and this day was no exception! GARGH!

The group split into two from here. Half of the group went to the Kaga Yuzen Center to participate in a Kimono dyeing class whilst the rest of us went to the Higashi Chaya district. Higashi Chaya is a popular tourist area as it is famous for its Geishas. Unfortunately for us we got there relatively early on a Sunday morning, and because of the slight drizzle, none were out and about. Oh well, a European student and myself still went off for a nose around the area and took some really awesome photographs (which will be uploaded to Blogspot eventually) of various shrines, temples and areas that were generally nice to look at.

Getting back on the coach we took a short (so short it would probably have been faster to walk) to the park area we’d gone the night before. Even though during the day it was much nicer to look at, unfortunately the heavens had opened up and we were with rain once again. Thankfully I’d brought my trusty brolly along for the ride, but holding a brolly while taking pictures and trying to keep the camera dry was a bit of a challenge. The gardens themselves were very relaxing on the eye, and even though I didn’t understand a word our guide was saying (she was speaking in keigo – very polite Japanese), I did soak in the atmosphere … or maybe that was rain water.

After being challenged to and losing a game of Poohsticks by one of my fellow countrymen, we accidently split from the main group; them going right and we went left trying to catch up. FAIL. Thankfully someone from the main group came back for us, though after a while we were still slightly lost, only one person more. I forgot to mention that the park had a significant lack of sticks, so we had to play Poohsticks with leaves instead, but its fundamentals were still the same. If you have no idea what the heck I’m talking about, buy yourself a book by AA Milne.

We eventually met up with the group once more and were told where and when to meet up as it was now a bit of free time. I went straight to a couple of stores I eyed up on the way to get a couple of omiyage (souvenirs). I’d bought myself a paper umberella (and struggled trying to to get it wet … ironic really), and I bought Momma Darlo a Geisha doll. Let it be known I really didn’t want to buy this doll, especially after my trip to the Iki Ningyou No Ma (Room of Living Dolls) with TV show Bebop High Heel, but it was a bargain and knew it was something that she wanted.

After this I went for a walk to try and find something to eat. I headed back in the direction that I came from the night before, back to wards the hotel.

Something was wrong.

I knew this place, I recognised it clearly. This was NOT where we came through last night to get to the garden … but rather it was that mysterious town that we ended up in last night! How the fudge had I ended up here … again? Suddenly I found myself face-to-face with the McDonalds we went into, right accross from the arcade where we got the Stitch doll, and down the road slightly from the maid cafe.

Could this be the true power of Kanazawa?

I decided not to think about it too much, worried that I might anger some spirits that had lured me back here, and ordered my usual food from the 100 yen menu.

Meeting up with everyone at the appointed time and place (outside the Ishikawa Modern Literature Museum in Central Park), I spoke to my friend about our trip the night before. He was also in a state of bewilderment about the situation. I guess Kanazawa was indeed a more mysterious place than we first thought. Getting on the coach I thought to myself about coming back one day, and who knows, maybe I will.

On the coach trip back nothing too exciting happened really. We watched a couple of films (and horrendous and one at par-level), played a little Mario Kart and passed a few tall buildings I knew in Osaka, wishing that we could simply jump off the coach here. Diddums.

Home … bed.

To be honest with the exception of the usual commute-study-commute-sleep routine, nothing really happened until Thursday this week, which is where I’ll pick up from. Oh wait … on Tuesday we had a linguistics exam in which I did awfully, my only consolation knowing that had I taken it in Leeds I’d have passed it by the skin of my teeth.

So where was I? Oh yeah, Thursday marked the start of the Universitys school fayre, and is running up until tomorrow. It’s a method for various clubs and circles to gain exposure, and a little income, by selling a range of foods to anyone willing to buy it. Unfortunately I’ve found that a lot of their selling approaches are what I’d consider to be aggressively direct. It’s ok to go around with signs advertising your fare, but it doesn’t really come accross as polite when they’re shoved in yourface and you’re quickly surrounded by people calling out at you. But to be fair, as I’ve said time and time again, “not my country, not my rules”, so this is something I’ll have to get used to.

For those of you who like spotting this sort of thing, notice that I used ‘fayre, fare, and fair’ all in the same paragraph ^_^.

There’s also a stage area with a live band that’s been performing a nice range of music, and apparently everything changes everyday.

Friday marked the start of a four-day weekend. OH YEAH BABY! How have I spent it?

^_~

Relaxing!!!

On Friday I met up with a couple of Japanese friends and we enjoyed an hour at karaoke. It was a relief to see that I wasn’t the only one who did anime theme tunes, though I also threw in some English pieces also. Following our departure, they had to head to Uni for something … I can’t remember what though, me and some friends decided to go back to the Iki Ningyou no Ma. Well, for me it was going back, for them it was the first time.

Now in order to get the best experience from the room, you really need to understand Japanese, at least to a basic level. This point was really driven home to us by the staff members, each of whom asked us in great detail if we could understand Japanese. After eventually convincing them that we’d be ok (not too much of a challenge for the one actual Japanese person with us), we watched the starter video. It was here I realised that it was slightly different from when we filmed. We then proceded into the room, and it was much darker. I’d been told that because of the cameras they needed to leave on some of the lights, but DAMN! It was dark.

I’m not going to explain what happened, like before, but I’ll put it to you that it was much scarier for me this time around. After asking the others who came along, it was a frightening experience but was still a lot of fun, and definately worth the 600 yen entrance fee.

From here we went onto a Yodobashi Camera, that huge department store I’d previously mentioned. We had a good look around most of the place before calling it a day and heading home. But that was not before visiting the coin-capsule section and picking myself up a Komori Kiri (a hikikomori) keychain from Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (Goodbye Mr Despair).

Yesterday I admit I spent faffing about playing Gyakuten Saiban 3 (Phoenix Wright 3) and working on a newer easier to manage version of Shrotaku, and that brings me up to today.

After waking up nice and late with no alarms going off and no food waiting for me, I started writing up this blog. With distractions such as eating cereal and taking a shower, and doing a little bit of cleaning in the room, I have officially caught up. That being said, there’s stuff I’ve probably forgot to include … oh well.

This time next week I’ll be in a new home closer to Umeda, Osaka. Still a dorm, but much closer to what I’d consider to be a fun area. I’m hoping this will help me to get some communication practice at weekends (for the record today I’ve only said one word; konnichiwa), as well as give me better access to travel links; it’s a 15 minute walk from Umeda Eki.

And so, now that I’m all caught up, I’m going to head off and cook some food. By cook, I of course mean boil some water and stick it in a plastic tub filled with noodles.

Byee!

It’s cold back home in Telford, or at least it is according to various weather sources. Since my arrival in Japan I’ve been enjoying warm weather and only the occaisional spot of rain. This of course excludes the trip to Koya-san where things were a bit nippy. Unfortunately the weather has cooled down now and it looks like it is getting ready for the Winter. Last week it was only first thing in the morning that was cold, leaving us with the agonising “do I take my coat” question. If I went out with a coat it meant that by the time I reached Uni I was sweating like a pig. If I left my coat I’d freeze my nuts off so bad that they’d actually stay in bed. But now that’s changed, as I take a coat with me on a daily basis now. Those of you who are now checking the Osaka weather forecast and are about to bombard me with emails saying it’s not that cold, you gotta remember that it’s been really warm and has dropped suddenly … unlike the UK where it’s cold for most of the year.

So this weekend gone was the class trip to Kanazawa. Leaving University at 8.15 (well, we would have if it wasn’t for certain pillocks being late) meant that the dormies missed out on breakfast again as we had to leave early. I managed to pop in and grab a little bread, but not what I needed to keep hunger from striking on the LOOOOOOOONG coach ride. I felt sorry for those at the girls dorm as they had to leave even earlier. Our main annoyance about this was that if you look at a map showing the route we took, we go right by Osaka! It wouldn’t have taken much time to make a pick up, but I guess we have to play by the rules here; something I keep having to remind people … sometimes myself also.

Just like my entry about Koya-san, most of the names and locations of places have been forgotton, so bear with me.

So along the way a few of us managed to secure a spot near the back of our coach (there were two coaches), and various DS games were played including a pretty long Mario Kart tournament; I was glad to have brought my charger.

We stopped for lunch at Eiheiji at a traditional styled restaurant. I admit it. I made a dumb mistake. No one actually noticed me do this, but I write it to remind others to try and avoid following my footsteps. Upon entering the restaurant floor I took off my shoes and grabbed one of the few remaining pairs of slippers. I went into the room and sat on the cushion and admired the food that was already laid out. But something wasn’t quite right. It felt like I was sitting awkwardly. I looked around and noticed what was wrong.

The slippers! No one else was wearing slippers!

Gah! I’d put on the slippers that a member of staff had taken off when they came in the room. I managed to suavely leave the room and put the slippers back before anyone noticed, but you guys (and me) should be careful.

I’m going to have to cut this much shorter than usual, and I know I’ve not finished talking about the weekend, but the truth is I’m tired and want to go to bed.

G’nite!

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).