Not again....

Yes, it's happened again... I'm starting to think I might be cursed or something... Or am I just incredibly un/lucky?

Today I went wall climbing with my good friend Kanegon, as we've taken to doing every few weeks or so. Things were going well, I managed to climb a level 3 wall, quite a feat if I do say so myself, it was bloody hard but with some advice from the instructors I managed it. It's interesting, at first I thought it was about raw muscle strength, it partially is, but mostly it's about making the best use of energy that you already have, because in most cases, you already have the strength you need but it's about applying that strength effectively through balance and effective use of space. It's elementary physics in many respects too, which I do actually have a mild interest in despite my shunning of it post GCSE.

Anyway, I had moved onto this really great challenging new wall and I had got about half way up (maybe about 4 metres up or so, we routinely drop from heights of about 8 metres at the top, as there's loads of padding so it's fine as long as you land right.) I noticed kanegon was climbing up on my left side about as high as I had. The poor bloke was clearly struggling a bit, scrabbling at a fingerhold that was just a little bit to difficult to reach... Seconds later he gave me this look and I thought "yep, that's you gone" And sure enough a few seconds later he fell down. I thought not much of this to start with, especially as both of us and practically everyone else in the hall falls off relatively regularly.

A few minutes later I reached the top and dropped down myself, I noticed kanegon stretching his feet out, he looked a little uncomfortable so I sat down next to him and uttered a cheerful "だいじょうぶ " or "Daijobu" Which literally just means "are you alright?" Naturally being Japanese he told me he was just fine.

But he wasn't, two minutes later he was still grimacing stretching his legs and muttering "いたい itai!" (meaning "owch" basically). I asked him if he wanted me to get him some ice. In the end it turned out he needed a bit more than that. I gestured to the owner that I needed a bit of help, and he took the poor guy off to one of the back rooms, to look closer. At his point I just carried on climbing assuming he would be ok.

When he came back on crutches and with his foot taped up I decided something was definately not right. The owner recommended we dropped by a clinic "sometime" to have it looked at. Kanegon was looking a bit pale... and that horrible feeling started creeping back like last time. Now having worked in a hospital for a 3 months I'm no clinical expert. But when someone is quite unwell and in need of medical attention there's a "look" they have, and Kanegon had it right now. Drawing on my experience from last time, I gave Dr Takahama a call. His advice after hearing the situation was get to the nearest hospital, and quickly.

Of course here presented a problem. Kanegon could not put pressure on his foot. But he couldn't afford to call the ambulance. No one else at the centre could give him a lift. He turned to me and said... "can you drive me?" Now I really, really, really, wanted to say yes. The guy was really suffering. I don't have an international license or international driving insurance, I only passed my UK test back in June anyway... I've never driven anywhere in Japan except car parks and fieldsOutside it was dark, absolutely bucketing with rain and rush hour. . So I figured that balancing the risks, as much as he was suffering, he would be suffering a lot more if I took him through the front of his windscreen while trying to navigate one of Japan's deadly intersections. (Thank you very much A-Level Critical Thinking, I took away much more than just that D grade)

I told him this and thus followed the most agonising drive I've ever been in. Everytime the car had to brake Kanegon's face would contort into this awful scrunched up mess. I did my best to help by carrying everything, phoning all our contacts and his friends explaining the situation and of course navigating in the car, as neither of us had any idea at all where the bloody hospital was. As we were in Anjo City which I do not know at all. I told him to just focus on moving the car and I would watch traffic and naviagate. So at times there would be a lot of "stop!" "go!" "stop STOP!" etc etc. It would have been funny if it wasn't so horrible. Eventually we got to the hospital, and it kinda felt like a scene from a war movie. He was hobbling along though the absolute pouring rain with his arms around my shoulder, and me doing my best to support him. We entered the Hospital. God knows what they were thinking. But it's not everyday that one very wet Japanese in climbing clothes ,with his foot in a makeshift bandage-splint, and a very wet bedraggled and stressed foreigner stagger into the perfectly clean and uniform reception of a Japanese hospital and ask quite calmly if we can see a doctor. We got some looks, that's for sure.

In the end in turned out he'd broken one of the central bones in his foot, and it would take around two months to recover. It was kind of weird being sat in another hospital and ANOTHER X-ray room on my day off but whatever. The most important thing was that the guy had some help in getting to the hospital and someone to keep him company while he waited for the doctors to sort him out. Which did take ages. It's not all bad, in a way the guy's got the best Christmas present he could hope for. Two months off work!!!

On top of that other interesting things happened this week. I went to Dr Takahama's "party" but to my horror it turned out to be more of the Japanese equivelent of the W.I. Christmas party. Now it's pretty intense to walk into a very formal setting in England, knowing you have to watch your every move and word extremely carefully to set a good impression. Imagine it in Japan when the first thing is said to you is "I hope you speak Japanese, the other foreigner doesn't" No pressure. So I brought out my politest Japanese for all.

Of course these kind of people are quite easy to handle if you play up to their values. So I just mentioned my education credentials, goals and ambitions etc, pretty soon they softened considerably and even became somewhat friendly by the end. Crunch time came towards the end, when we were asked to make a speech in Japanese. Whoops.

But despite this it wasn't too bad, I had the advantage of someone going before me so I was able to see exactly what not to do or say. So, I just made a short 3 minute natter about what I do here, and how much I enjoyed it, and even managed to drop the hint that I was looking for potential more vounteer work in the future. What could have been a very embarassing social faux pas, ended up as an excellent opportunity to rub shoulders with some important people in the local community and get my name out. Most of the women there were either local franchise owners, or in the medical industry, such as running other clinics or small hospitals nearby. Iwas approached by a few towards the end, including such flattering remarks as "for someone who's been in Japan 3 months, your Japanese is excellent" (That's really not true, it could be so much better, if I could find the time and motivation to study PROPERLY) and "I run a maternity clinic, there are many midwives there, we could use a balance, you're a very charming man, I'm sure you could fit in" I just told people if they need to contact me they can do it through Nakazawa clinic. I doubt anything will come of it, but it's good practice regardless for the future.

So from medical emergencies to "high" society, what next for the ginger in Japan? Well, a week long pissup in Tokyo actually. I'm sorry if you were expecting something else noble and enthralling. I'm really looking forward to meeting my great Canadian friend Craig once again, it should be amazing fun bombing around the largest metropolitan area in the world, on the busiest holiday in the world.

The weirdest thing about all this, is I'm building all these contacts connections and friends just to lose them all in exactly two months and ten days. Things are progressing excellently but I feel a bit like government on it's last term, which is about to lose the election. You can change everything, but will it make any difference? Will you even be remembered after you leave? After that time I will be adapting something of a nomadic life, homestaying, travelling, travelling with family, backpacking, touring etc.

My only regret so far in this whole endeavour is that I clung to what was familiar for perhaps a little too long. If I ever return as a JET or something, time will no longer be an issue, and I can go as mentally ballistic as I like. The other thing about these last few months is I think I've finally found what kind of person I really am and what I can do, and what I want to do with my life. I'm never going to be able to live the same way again. I listen to the radio in the UK sometimes, and it's still really great to listen to, but many of the things that interested me before have just lost all appeal to me. I don't know... can I ever settle down to a nine to five and office job? The world's out there with so many opporunities and people. I met many people here, who aren't even 25 who are saying things like... Oh I can never go travelling now, I'm too old. I can't stop what I do now, that's just what I do, all I really want to do is settle down. Well it's a trap...if you want to do it... get out now, or you'll find yourself just like one of the poor old people in the secure unit one day, all their lives wanting to do something, but always letting more "important" things take their place. Isn't your innermost desire and dream something that's worth giving up everything you know for? Isn't "normal" life boring? So many people complain about hating their lives. Do something about it.

That being said, I would be lying if I said I don't yearn for the stability of home sometimes. And I am looking forward to starting my degree next year. Honest.

Thank you!!!

I have been really surprised by the popularity of this blog, I just checked the number of visitors and views.... It's over 1000! The youtube channel has had the videos viewed 800 times, and had 250+ unique visitors.

I'm really surprised and somewhat flattered that so many people have shown an interest in what I originally thought would only be a small site viewed by a few family and friends. It's the readers that make this site after all, so thank you very much!

Of course I can now continue to shamelessly plug my youtube channel, please go and take a look http://www.youtube.com/dryan5 If you haven't already

Ride on Japanese Trains

This is a video I put together about a month ago, showing all that's going on with the Japanese train system

Catch up post!

Well I'm really sorry if I worried anyone through my lack of communication, it's just I have been so incredibly busy I just haven't had the time to write anything half decent, I also had a period of personal life difficulty which was taking up a lot of my thoughts and time. I did write a really long entry in the middle of November (about 5000 words) But then I messed it up when I was trying to copy some pictures in it and lost it all. I was so disheartened it took me a few weeks to get the balls to write another one.

Things have changed a lot in the last few weeks, Including me physically, kind of by accident actually. I've taken to working out now more regularly, and have gone wall climbing with a Japanese friend of mine a few times. I'm trying to find the motivation to push ups in the morning too but so far not quite managed it. On top of that, instead of negotiating my way through a Japanese barber shop, a colleague at work offered to cut my hair for me, it was free so I wasn't going to complain. Unfortunately it was difficult to communicate the kind of look I wanted to achieve, so my new hair cut is a kind of weird hybrid of my former haircut and a kind of pseudo Japanese haircut look. To be honest after the placement I think I'm just going to say to hell with it, while travelling, and just let it grow, grow, grow. Same with shaving too, I'm not sure it's worth paying for razors and stuff when I'm travelling, so I'll probably just let it go a bit wild, and have something of caveman look to frighten everyone with when I return to the UK. It's not like I'm going to have to look reasonably respectable for an employer like I do at the moment anyway.

Other interesting things coming up in the next few weeks, I'm at the moment putting plans together to travel to Tokyo for New Year. This will be absolutely amazing if it all pays off. There are 3 main reasons I want to go. First off, New Year Party in the capital of Japan... what more can you ask for?! I'm hoping to be at Tokyo Tower new year street party with 10,000 other people to watch the release of a million balloons at midnight on Dec. 31st. Second January 1st is the day almost all Japanese travel to shrines all over the country to pray for good luck for the year ahead. It's an incredible atmosphere at shrines on Jan 1st, and particularly at the Meiji Shrine in Tokyo where over 1 MILLION people will pass through the shrine in one day to pay their respects. I hope to be among them. Thirdly on January 3rd Emperor Akihito will be became a public appearance at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. This is a very big deal. The emperor is simply not accessible to the general public at all. The Imperial Family is nothing like the British Royal Family, The emperor only makes about two public appearance a year, once on his birthday, and once on January the 3rd. Other members of the royal family are even less frequently seen. No one really knows what goes on in the Imperial Household, and Japanese get uncomfortable when talking about the emperor, even today. I have noticed this the few times it has come up in conversation. It's also one of the very few times when the general public are allowed inside the Imperial Palace grounds. It's also a highly unusual event as there is very rarely any public outpouring of emotion in this country. In my opinion an unmissable opportunity. On top of all the cultural opportunities, I'm planning on travelling to Tokyo with my good Canadian friend and fellow gapper Craig, who is currently working at the Osaka district hospital. I'm also planning on travelling with Thunusha, an American English teacher I met here in Nishio City. The three of us, plus Thunusha's boyfriend, should have one hell of a week. Even better Thunusha's good friends with some semi-famous band from the US, who are in Tokyo at the moment, so we've been guaranteed some places to stay and some interesting events to go to. But as always I've got a good selection of back up plans, because some things are bound to go titsup, that's just one of the laws of travelling. I might even get a chance to return to Akihabra which would be excellent, because I didn't really get a feel for it last time unfortunately. I remember it fondly because it was one of my first experiences of Japan.

Other things that have changed in the last few weeks, I've found that I've diverged quite significantly from my gap partners out here. I rarely socialise with them now, except through work. It's unfortunate, but we've just found that there is less and less that we agree on in so many areas. Things have unfortunately degenerated into arguments a few times. Cooperation between the three of us is not essential, but it's a definite plus. There are many points of conflict, I think the attitude they take to our employers is at times a bit insulting, given our employers generosity, some of the things they get up to I consider a bit risky, considering our situation. I'm all up for having fun, in fact I will do some of the most ridiculously stupid things at times (let's just say News Streaking is on my to do list ) but being here is not like at home, and so we have to make some exceptions. I think I will go into details into some of the difficulties we face post-placement, it's not in my interest to stir up feelings now. But as a note to anyone considering gap years, make sure you can work with the people your given, and if you can't. make sure you can deal with that too! I'm not the only one who's been in difficulty either, a few of the other gappers in other parts of the country have expressed frustration at some of the attitudes of their partners. But we knew when we signed up that we would likely be paired with complete strangers and asked to cooperate for several months. It was in black and white and we knew it was coming, so for me I will just see this a test and lesson in dealing with people with completely different attitudes to you. Perhaps if I handled this better there would have not been a degeneration into arguments at times, but that should just be considered a lesson well learnt.

Cooperation and working with people is especially important here. At home is you find you don't get along with someone, you just withdraw from their company, and move onto someone else. Out here, there is no such luxury. In three months I can remember every single time I have seen someone who was not Japanese in Nishio City, that's how homogeneous this society is. If you don't get on with someone, you can withdraw from their company but that leaves you in a very difficult situation. You can't just pop into the local pub and strike up a conversation with a stranger, because it just does not work like that here. Socialising in Japan is like an ever-increasing spiral. You meet a person, who will introduce you to their friends, and if their friends like you, then they will introduce you to their friends.... etc etc. So, as a foreigner with no natural contacts you can find yourself almost completely isolated, a few fellow foreigners here in Nishio have been expressing their feelings of loneliness that they have been experiencing, it's especially bad if you do not get on well with your employer, as many many many social connections are made through work, and it's one of the few places where the "don't socialise with strangers" rules does not apply... Now all of these feeling of loneliness are amplified by a million by the language barrier too. However if you are lucky/hardworking enough to be fluent this country is your playground. You have to enterprising, motivated and a bit brave to break into Japanese social circles as a foreigner with limited Japanese but it can be done.

Despite this however most Japanese are curious, but shy of foreigners. Everyday you will see people steal glances at you, and you know that they would love to ask you questions but never will. I would say some of my best friends here are Japanese. Some Japanese (especially those learning English) will be very pleased to meet you, and will seemingly lap up every word you say (You're British? How cute! You're a University Student? How amazing!) Many will ask to have a photo taken with you, which I feel kind of weird about because it's like being claimed as a trophy, to show off to friends, but whatever. Given my personality (an attention hog at the best of times, unfortunately) it's great fun at parties when you get a lot of attention from people (especially girls)

And don't even let me get started on Japanese women. In my opinion physically they are stunningly beautiful and so cute. But of course everyone knows that relationships with people need to be built on more than looks. Many Japanese girls would be very interested in having a foreign boyfriend, sometimes for the wrong reasons as it carries a certain Kudos in some sectors. Often foreigners are considered exotic looking and beautiful. Some girls will (very cutely) go all giggly when you talk to them, some will get very touchy feely, some will be flat out uninterested. And some are "Eigo Bandits" This is a nickname for a girl who may be very flirty with you, and give signs that she's interested in a relationship, like taking you out on dates. But is really only interested in learning your English ("Eigo" is the Japanese word for English). Now I have a few female friends here in Japan who I do only meet to practice English (and Japanese) with. Such as the girls in my English Class. As long as both parties understand that, there's not much scope for things to go wrong.

Getting involved with Japanese romantically is a potentially thorny area. It's aggravated by differences in expectation in culture. Here it's considered normal to be married off by 25, and making babies by the late twenties. In fact it's not just normal, it's the expectation. Marriage is not like marriage at home, in which the predominant motivator seems to be love. Here love is a strong factor, but financial compatibility, working preferences all play a much stronger role than at home. In a way marriage can be better understood by thinking of it as a partnership pact in which both parties will benefit massively from in their work lives. I sadly see a reflection of this in some of the children at the nursery, the youngest group contains babies that are maybe 9-10 months old. Yes that's right, 10 month year old babies that are taken to a nursery EVERY DAY five days a week. That's just the way it is, Japanese people don't love their families any less than western families it's just the work ethic is incredible. Most of my Japanese colleagues start work a the same time as me but finish much later. Public affection is also a big no no. I can't remember the last time I saw a couple embracing in public. Even couples rarely hold hands. In a way it's refreshing, because there's nothing worse than being single and seeing loads of happy couples together eating each others faces off. (hmm) But I think if I was in a relationship here, it would be hard to switch off my emotional desires and needs everytime we where in public. As a foreigner your stay in Japan is very often going to be temporary. Casual relationships are less common here, but they do occur. Your temporary status is often a big off putter for Japanese girls.

Japan is a country that is either going to shoot to new heights in the new century, or fall spectacularly behind, like the United Kingdom in the middle of the 2oth Century. The primary problem with Japan's development is rigid conservatism in it's political and business machinery. The Prime Minister is almost always over 70, firms rarely recruit from outside organisations, god forbid outside countries. Sony only recently appointed it's first foreign CEO, while groups in the West have been doing it for years (Arun Sarin in the case of Vodafone for example) these are just some points that are an absolute strength and an absolute weakness in Japan's economy. Without it's rigidity Japan would never have managed to achieve the world's number two economy, they would never have managed to dominate the electronics and automotive industries as effectively as they have. And there is no doubt about it. The Japanese produce amazingly sophisticated high quality and reasonably priced goods.

However the biggest threat it is the demographic timebomb. Japan's population is aging far more rapidly than it is being replaced. Birth rates are extremely low, and have been for two decades (perhaps a symptom of the social system?) the boom population of the post war years is approaching retirement, pension costs will mushroom. Care for the elderly is already a big business in Japan (In this respect, I'm on the frontline of this at the hospital). In 2005 the number of deaths exceeded the number of births.

Now we have the same problem in the UK. The birth rate is falling rapidly and the population is aging, although not quite to the same extent. But these shortfalls are made up for by immigration. Immigration is what keeps the United Kingdom prosperous, same with the United States. I am 100% certain that the US would not be a superpower if they had not allowed so much immigration in the past, and continuing today. Likewise had the United Kingdom not allowed migrants in the 1950's and 60's the country would most likely have vanished in a black hole somewhere from chronic labour shortages. Japan's government is just, only just starting to get the message on immigration. Starting in the 1990's the Japanese government invited many people of Japanese descent in South America (chiefly Brazil) who's families had been there two or three generations, back to Japan as full fledged citizens. This is the first time ever in Japan's history that there has been an major immigration programme initiated by the government. The reasoning being that because they had Japanese ancestry they would be easily compatible with Japanese culture right?

Wrong. 10 years on the Japanese Brazilians are still here and they speak Portuguese not Japanese, all over Nishio there are Brazilian import shops opening up and doing a roaring trade on Brazilian goods. It's impossible how to say how damn strange it looks to see a foreign shop in Japan. It looks so out of place. At the nursery I work at once a week about a third of the kids are of Brazilian descent and they are really very different to the other children. They shout more, misbehave more, punch kick and bite you more, talk more etc etc. This is just a cultural difference, or perhaps in stems from them feeling marginalised in a foreign country... I don't know. But most of the staff have absolutely no idea how to manage these wilder children. Only one of the staff can speak Portuguese. Japanese child management seems to work on the basis of "you don't cooperate, you miss out, your loss..." The staff never "punish" the children if they misbehave. Now I recognise that you can't chain a three year old to a wall and flog them if they misbehave, but you can do more than just say "that's not very nice, apologise" maybe a temporary forced exclusion from activities, or taking their food away when they refuse to eat it, when they throw it on the floor, instead of refilling their bowl. In short many Japanese, unfortunately including those in power don't really seem to know how to handle immigration, or the idea of multiculturalism. I think they will get it eventually and experience they are gaining from it is invaluable in the future development of the country.

This is not a slur on the Japanese nursery system either. The staff are hardworking and diligent and love their work. The children get an absolute mass of different things to do, going for walks, treasure hunting, organised activities, dancing to songs. Someone must spend a very long time organising all of this and doing the preparations. It is overall an excellent system.

Some of the difficulties I have experienced and the people I have met say a lot about the kind of people who go travelling. Many seem to feel as if they don't fit into their home culture and that they can make up for it by living in another country, some are using it as an excuse to behave completely out of character, not everyone who volunteers or travels abroad is doing it for the right reasons. And some people I wonder why they even bothered leaving. You also meet some people who honestly must be angels on earth. There are some people here who put others absolutely before themselves, they do not seem to have a selfish bone in their body. People like this are your greatest friends when you are new in a foreign country, like me. If the world was made up of people like that, there would be no wars. I'm not even joking.

There's much more I'd love to write about but I'd better get this out or it will never be published. Hopefully I'll be able to get some pictures up soon too!

My first month in Japan

This was the first video in the series

October

I've found a way to directly link videos to my blog, so it's better than having to go to youtube channel. So there you go!

I finished it.

Ok the videos finished and will be up in the next few minutes, youtube channel usual place http://www.youtube.com/dryan5 When I get the time I'll write a big long commentary right here to the video, so you know more of what's going on. But for now that's all from me.

Please leave comments on the video. Or here. Or write them in your toilet at home and post a picture to me of your comment.

I've stayed up way to late trying to finish this :)

You lucky people.....

Right, you lot are in for a bit of a treat, so long as I can find the time you'll be getting a big fat blog update and a new Video covering what's happened in the last month too, including such interesting things as work, more Takahama trips and frightful Halloween parties. I'm working on both at the moment. That's all from me for now, I always seem to have so many bloody things to do, I can never finish everything, days, weeks and months are just disappearing.

The video and blog update should land by Friday at the latest, if I'm feeling uber productive (and suffer from a sudden bout of insomnia) you might even get by tomorrow night, but don't get yer hopes up, I've got an English lesson to teach that night.

"Health is the most important thing in life, you can't buy it with money"

This saying was really put to the test this week. Without a doubt the last weekend was one of the most dramatic since we arrived. It started off normally enough, I decided to have another get together at my place, seeing as the last one was so much fun. People started arriving, music started playing, food started making it's way around and drinks were flowing- quite a cheerful, friendly atmosphere in general. One of my good friends was noticeably absent, he was out with Dr Takahama seeing a play at Nishio castle, planning to join up with us later. Around 20:30 we got a phonecall from Takahama saying that the play had finished, and he was going to get some food, while my friend went his own way to mine by bicycle. We agreed times, and food... The journey from Nishio Castle to my apartment should take about 10 minutes. After half an hour there was still no sign of my good friend or Dr Takahama. Then, quite suddenly around 21:00 I got a phonecall from Takahama, the first thing I heard was sirens.

Takahama told me my friend had been hit by a car and thrown off his bike, he also said he was with him in the ambulance, and needed the contact numbers of the family he was staying with, as my friend was not in a fit state to communicate much of anything. Quite shocked at what I was hearing, I told him I would do it as soon as possible. I immediately started going through my contacts and got him as many numbers as he could possibly need. I phoned him back and gave him the details, he thanked me then hung up. And that was the last we heard for several hours. I had the uneviable job of informing all of the partygoers at my place that my friend would not be coming... That was quite a difficult thing to do, but I was most worried about my friend.

Let's say the fallout from this incident has been huge, Let's just say I appreciate now, more than ever, the free-at-point-of-use healthcare service we are blessed to have in the UK, let's just say that I would never want to be left with the predicament of gambling my health on an insurance policy. And so this relatively small incident has caused me to think very carefully on some famous old sayings, Maybe you can't buy health with money, but out here, it certainly does help.

On top of that both my fellow gappers have health complaints, one is suffering from a terrible ache in his mouth, but it doesn't seem to be toothache, while the other is suffering repeated problems with his contact lenses, which have been semi blinding him in his left eye. On top of that has suffered broken glasses. So with all this disaster going on around me everywhere, I wonder when it'll strike me? Touch wood everyone will come through all right, and hopefully I won't end up being the next casualty. And I will always by health insurance whenever I travel for the rest of my life. That's a promise, the alternative doesn't bear thinking about.

Well although this all sound very depressing, thing are actually progressing quite well, I'm still really enjoying the challenges which each new day is throwing up, and at some point this year I might actually get to Nagoya. Hope everyone reading this is healthy and well.

Work, glorious work!

Ah work, it really is what I'll spend most of my time doing here, so I might as well enjoy it while I can. Not that I've ever hated the work here.... I've always enjoyed the stuff I do, even though some of it really is quite hard, mentally as well as physically. I didn't sign up for a picnic! This is a big thing for anyone who is thinking of going travelling like this, yes it's fun, yes it's life changing, but god is it frigging hard work, unless you happen to be super rich and you can afford to make it a year long holiday. But despite the fact I'm working the hardest I ever have (maybe even harder than A-Levels, if that's even possible) I rarely feel tired. I have no idea why that is.

In case you were wondering what we did last weekend, we went to the harvest festival with Dr Takahama, completely different to a harvest festival in the UK. In the video you can probably see the floats, they are quite impressive. But what's more impressive is that most of those floats were built in the 1860's! They've been incredibly well cared for. The festival was basically a massive street party stretching from one end of town to the other, lots of delicous food and people all dressed up, the evening ended with a fantastic firework display which really blew me away, although the video doesn't really capture the greatness of it.

Well the commitments are only going to mount up as I've decided to start giving English lessons on Wednesday evenings too. Which for some reason doesn't really scare me, I'm actually just looking forward to it. Most of the people there will be relatively good speakers already, and so I'll be able to do some fun stuff, rather than just sitting there going over the basics of a roman alphabet (to be honest, I'm not really qualified to do that). I'm thinking of picking up some things I used to use in my German classes not so long ago at College, and putting them to use here. Fun games like word tennis, crossword, and maybe I'll get to talk about fun stuff like English idioms (sayings like "It rained cats and dogs" phrases with no literal translation) There were some really funny german ones I learnt too. I hope that they enjoy it. A lot of my fellow gappers have asked me wy I'm doing, especially as I don't think I'm getting any rewards. But to be honest that's not the reason I'm doing it. The main reason I'm doing it is to meet new people and they can meet me, and we can talk for a few hours and hopefully I'll learn some more Japanese too! すごい！（Translation:"sugoi!" meaning "cool!" or "wow!") Maybe I could make some flash cards too, they were useful when learning stuff for exams.

Anyway some interesting things have happened this week, the most interesting was earlier today (thursday) I was working in the ward common area and I heard a scream of surprise from one of the nurses, I turned around and saw one of the patients a middle aged man, with his trousers down around his ankles, urinating in the middle of the floor, in the middle of the room, in front of everyone, and most amusingly in front of a new prospective resident. Unfortunately when he finished his "business" he started doing other "business" grinning at the nurses. Unsure of how to react to this extremely odd behaviour I just looked at one of the other nurses and mumbled "why?" in Japanese. After that was a flurry of tissues, and the offending patient/resisdent quickly disapeared, and I haven't seen him since. Strangely enough this didn't really bother me too much, as a lot of strange stuff happens around the Roken. Like the old lady on 3F who calls out in her sleep, quite loudly and violently, to "Okah-san" which I recently realised is the Japanese word for Mother.

Despite this, there are some absolutely lovelly residents, including Mie-san who I mentioned before. Now as well as calling out my name everytime she sees me, she also raises her hand expecting a high five, which is quite fun! Another old lady on 3F always asks me to sit next to her while she watches TV, and talks to me, much of which unfortunately I can't understand. Although she often wants to know more about where I'm from. She's funny because she seems in a very good state of health compared to the rest of them on that floor, and often seems to make jokes about the other residents, especially those with no teeth, Pulling faces and the like. They really are interesting chracters, and it feels really great to be helping out, in all aspects of my work, from delivering xrays, to feeding old people who can't feed themselves. That surprisingly is actually one of the most satisfying aspects of the work with the elderly.

Another scare I had on that floor is with Kazuo-san, an elderly man who is blind, and just says "Yes" to everything. Whatever you ask him the reply will be "HAI!" (yes) Sometimes he just goes crazy, and will call out "HAI!" every few seconds seemingly to himself. Around lunchtime, I was trying to give him his coffee, but found him to be asleep, I left him for a while but an hour later he was still hunched over in his seat completly silent and not moving. I tried shaking him to wake him, no response. I looked to the doctor for help and he told me to yell his name in his ear, as he was a bit deaf too. So I yelled "KAZUO-SAN!!" at top volume, right in his ear, quite startling the poor Mie-san, sat next to him. Still, no response. I felt his neck, it was cold, I fumbled for a pulse, and couldn't find it. Now extremely worried, I ran over to the Doctor's station gesturing towards Kazuo-san and waving my arms. The dotor ran over with a pulse monitor, and other equipment, looking really worried. He put his ear to Kazuo-san's mouth to check for breathing... and was nearly blown backwards of his feet from the loudest "HAI!" I've ever heard. Amazingly Kazuo-san had suddenly woking seemingly without any provocation, despite me shaking him quite hard, and yelling in his ear. Fortunately the doctor saw the funny side.

The only other vaguely embaressing thing happened in my first week, in the Xray room. I was a little bored as I hadn't had any patients through for a while. I noticed that the technician was getting out some ice cubes to put in the green tea (which is always served cold this time of year). Anxious to help out, I offered to break the ice cubes out of the ice cubes maker thing. I was pulling on it, and suddenly there was a very loud crack. I'd stretched the plastic too far and it had split in half firing Ice cubes all around the room at dangerous speed. The other technicians dived for cover all over the place, and a pinging noise like bullets, as the ice cubes ricoched off the various bits of (expensive looking) equipment. Afterwards there was a short, uncomfortable, pause, and then an enormous guffaw from the X-ray technician. Fortunately they all found it very funny too. And the X-ray technician's a great bloke, and does a mean Kareoke I've heard....

Among the bad things that happened this week, my phone battery went flat overnight and I was 45 mins late for work on wednesday, which is REALLY REALL REALLY bad, it's infinetly worse than it ever it could be at home. They will never forget it, and although not much was said, I knew I had broken the status quo. I was told quietly by one of staff who speaks english, that if I had been Japanese, I would definately be in the line for sacking. It's that bad to be late just once. Of course they make exceptions for foreigners. But I will make sure it never happens again because that felt so awful. Apart from that one incident relationships with my co-workers have been excellent and I've been told by a few that I am a "perfect man" meaning that I am a perfectionist. Although I don't think of myself like that. Either way I worked an extra 45 mins that evening to make up for it.


The Japanese work ethic really is a strong as reported. People think nothing of sacrificing their entire evenings for their company, A Japanese friend of mine often works from 8:30 till 20:30 and later. and she's not an executive or anything, just a graduate trainee, like what I'll be in a few years. The other interesting thing in Japan is, that the weekend doesn't really exist. Almost every job encourages it's workers to take two days off a week, but the can be any time. As a result my japanese friend will sometimes have saturday and tuesday off, or some other strange combination. A lot of people do this, it's pretty much a norm. Which is why Japanese companies seem to be able to maintain such amazing flexibility. And probably why they're succesful worldwide. It's also probably the reason that Japan has resisted de-industrialisation so well. Almost everything is still "made in Japan" On my way to work, I cycle past tea factories, welders, Motor supply factories, metal specialists, everything. They're always working when I cycle to work in the morning at 08:15 and they're always still at work when I cycle home at sixish. And they're always working at the weekend. Without fail. There's no concept of a "sabbath" day in this country unlike at home where religous tradition affects business on a sunday, the Japanese lack of christian roots means the whole idea of a "non-work day" just doesn't exist. It's kind of like what I always thought work would be like before I started working back home. It's really appalling thinking of some of the attitudes to working I've seen at home, compared to this. They didn't seem to be so bad back then, but compared to these guys... Even people doing really horrible jobs like cleaning, always seem to be cheerful. And you know what? It rubs off on you, because everyone else is working hard, you want to work harder to please them, and to not feel left out, or lazy. I will never take another British person seriously when they tell us we work the longest hours in Europe, these guys really work hard. Although I wonder if this is the reason why so many Japanese are quite shy and keep to themselves. The social scene is somewhat supressed, it's still great though. I do miss the UK's party scene and atmosphere.

This place is also the ultimate 24hour society. Almost everything is open all the time. Convienience shops never close, retailers never close, Roken never closes, net cafe's never close. But the trains stop at 23:30?!?! What the hell?! The buses in South Wonston ran later than that, and here I'm in the middle of a metropolitan district. Well at least they're always on time!

All the best

Video compilation is up (finally!)

It's taken me two weeks to get around to doing it but I finally finished the video compilation I was working on, suitably titled: "My first month in Japan". It's viewable on my youtube channel, which of course is http://www.youtube.com/dryan5

I'll probably make a blog update later on describing what's happened the last few days

Dr Takahama, and hippies

Hi everyone, sorry about the lack of updates.... busy week of work, and then one of "those" weekends, A lot to talk about.... and really hard to believe I've been here a month now....
Most significantly I feel really settled now, I don't feel odd cycling the streets anymore I still don't feel like a local, but I no longer really feel like a tourist, which is big step. I'm certainly getting the hang of many Japanisms. One of the things that really threw me here this week, was hand gestures. Sounds simple enough, but in reality all the hand signals have different meanings and they are all really heavily used, unlike at home, where the only really common gesture I can think of is flipping the bird. There's the peace sign which is REALLY popular here, just like in the stereotype, it's often used in photos or amongst close friends. It doesn't seem have any negative stigma at all, where at home it's a bit naff really. Then there's the "right" or "ok" sign (make a circle with your thumb and finger) which means "I understand" or "agree". There's the "wrong" sign (take two fingers from each hand and cross them) meaning "no" or "I don't understand" There's "follow me" (put your finger on your nose while talking) which I didn't get at first, and preceded to wander off, when people wanted me to follow them!!!! Then finally there "thank you" or "I'm sorry" (take your right hand with your thumb facing towards your face and bring your hand up to your head and kind of shake your hand) I'll make you a video so you can see what I mean... I'll put it on the youtube channel, as always. Along with that video compilation I've been promising to make myself for ages.


Well anyway last week, the inevitable happened. We were invited out by Dr.Takahama.
We were understandably quite anxious about this. The previous gappers left a book full of thoughts, and musings on life here in Nishio. One of the largest sections was talking about this Dr. Takahama, and to avoid him like the black plague, but didn't really elaborate why... From talking to people the general impression we got, was that he is quite a senior doctor at the hospital and has a real thing for foreigners, and that he's a bit eccentric.


He offered to take us out for a river boat cruise one evening, and a meal, all expenses paid. We accepted of course, out of politeness and curiosity. When we first met him he seemed to be a really nice bloke, everything seemed very normal. We got to the river got onto the boat, it was dark, and there was quite an atmosphere (I've included pictures and videos) a really beautiful traditional Japanese river boat, never really had a meal quite like it! Especially as the boat sailed up and down the river too. Although you can't really tell in the video.

Well anyway things with Takahama seemed pretty normal up to the point when he, completely out of the blue very randomly told us that he could teach us "The Japanese word for tits". Naturally we were all a bit taken aback by this random outburst and there was a few seconds uncomfortable silence until Taba (a good guy our age we met from Hawaii) rescued the conversation by stating "Yeah, in hawaiien its the same word as pregnancy" (whether this is true or not, or he just came up with it to stop the awkward silence I'm not sure) The rest of the evening was great and Takahama had some really interesting stories to tell, and was really excited about his recent trip to china. But every now and again, he'd come up with something really weird, like "hahahaha look at the name of that shop! It's Hard Off, that's really close word to Hard On, hahahaha" But he was an incredible generous man and very kind to take us out for what must have been a very expensive evening. (and he's offered to do it again two weekends from now). His heart's in the right place, but a little bit of an oddball, and I mean that in the nicest way!


Apart from that exciting trip with Dr Takahama I've discovered that the hippy culture that I observed at Doujin Bar a few weeks ago, goes a lot further than that. It's like a whole hidden world beneath "mainstream" Japanese society. The people I've met (and I'm not going into too much detail, as I would imagine some of them probably wouldn't want to be named) are really incredible, intriguing people. One person we've visited a few times, lives in an old coffee shop. The shop closed years ago, but you go inside his "house" and the first thing you see is an enormous rusty old icecream machine and cash register, mixed in with semi modern fridge, which acts as the kitchen, behind the old shop counter. Bits of old machinery and other equipment are scattered everywhere. A really amazing place. I wouldn't mind staying a few nights, but I probably wouldn't want to live there. There's so much more to this than there first appears.


At work I spent my first week on Roken 3F. The high security area for dementia patients. Even though at first the situation was a bit intimidating, and at times horrifying. (old ladies screaming in their sleep, a man who just says "Yes" to himself all day, old ladies screaming in terror because they don't understand that the staff members are trying to give them medicine, A woman who's face bone structure has collapsed, and just spits food in your face when you try and feed her etc) quite quickly I started looking past that, and seeing them for all their own little personalities and habits, and most importantly as human beings. It's still hard to really appreciate who these people really are with my limited Japanese, and I really want to know more about them. One of my favourites is a 98 year old women named Ai-san. She looks incredidbly spritely for a women of her age, and my favourite thing about her, is that whenever she sees me, she incredibly cheerfully calls out to everyone in a sing song voice, at quite a volume "DAVIDO-SAN DESU! DAVIDO-SAN DESU!!!!!" (It's Mr David, It's Mr David!!!!) This made all the staff laugh quite hard, and I found it quite touching, and enthusiatically returned the greeting, which she seemed to love. Unfortunately as she has senile dementia this little activity repeats itself about every 10 minutes, for the whole day. But the good thing is, if you don't return the greeting once or twice, she won't remember. The weird thing is, she never forgets who I am, she just seems to forget she's seen me.

There are so many things I could mention, but I should leave it there, as it's getting late and I have another exciting day in the X-ray room tomorrow.

PS I'm not being sarcastic either, I love working in there!!

Pictures from the last few days

Nishio Castle at night


Oddly named drinks


View from the 5th floor of Roken-Shisetsu (Hospital)


Another view from the 5th floor




The riverboat cruise ship-thing


Dinner on the boat, mmmm


The whole party (we don't know these people)


Views from the boat


More views from the boat

Video Maintenance

I've decided instead of uploading a mish-mash of videos covering all topics, I'm going to create a short film comprised of all the (interesting) video footage taken so far... it might take a few days to do this but as soon as it's live I'll let you know. The videos I mentioned before have been uploaded to the youtube channel of course, but I just want them to be better organised.

General updateyness and some more pics :)

I found this amusing as before I left my dad said something like "that's the last time you'll see a British car for a while" I thought he was right until I came here, and these Minis are EVERYWHERE! There are a few of the new Minis too.

Erm, not exactly sure when I took this, I think it was late one night after Karoeke but I'm not sure :)

One of many buildings in the centre of Nishio City. Nishio's busyish, but nothing on the scale of Tokyo

I'm sure I already mentioned that Japan is vending machine mad. Well I just found this the other day, it's a vending machine that sells... eggs.

This is just a simple Japanese shelf edge, stuffed to the brim with all manner of goods, as they usually are.

I don't know why I took a picture of this, except maybe to illustrate that everything comes in cute packaging!

Now you've seen the toilet of the future. Needless to say I've found out what all these buttons do. Sometimes by accident.... But that' a future story.

More vending machines...

Well, I'm really starting to feel a lot more comfortable with life here in Nishio. I think the main thing that has helped me feel more at home, is developing my language skills a bit more. Don't get me wrong, I'm still terrible and can barely say a few words. And I only stand a very basic number of characters, probably no more than 20. But then I haven't really had the opportunity to sit down and learn them properly, and have just picked this up mainly from my environment. When I get the time and sit down and learn in properly, it'll come a lot faster.

But compared with two weeks ago, when I knew exactly 0 characters, and about two phrases... I knew how to say my name and that was all. Now I can ask where things are, talk about my nationality, ask about interests, find people, book my meals, express my delight with Japanese food etc.... Now most of this is done in a very poor way, and a Japanese teacher would probably be quite shocked, and an A-Level teacher would certainly be unimpressed. But what I am slowly realising is, it really doesn't matter. Being able to speak even broken Japanese is better than not being able to speak Japanese at all, or pointing and grunting. I personally get a real kick if something I say or suggest is understood, beyond simple personal greetings. For example the other day I couldn't fins Rie-san, who I was supposed to be meeting at the hospital. I cheerfully asked one of the staff "Rie-san wa doku desuka?" meaning- "where's Rie?" I was dead chuffed when he understood exactly what I said, smiled then replied in Enlgish "Ford Floor" (meaning fourth floor). I'm starting to figure out the Kanji for days of the week, as well as a few kanji numbers... Completely different to the arabic numbers that are widely used across the western world, although they are still quite comon and easy to find. With the language here, just like the work, you get back what you put in.




Some other funny things have happened this week. As can only be expected, there has been some fascination with certain biological features of mine, that aren't exactly common here, Red hair, freckles and Blue eyes. It's not well known that no Japanese have blue eyes at all, it just doesn't exist in the genetics. (except the native Ainu, and there aren't many of them) So that's attracted attention. A nice old man in the Ward commented quite nicely on how "pretty" I was, I naturally blushed girlishly and returned the compliment. Yesterday a lovelly old lady in the rehab centre started stroking my arm, murmering to herself "what are these?" Unfortunately I couldn't really explain, in Japanese at all so I just acted out sunbeams hitting my arms, and I think she got the idea. Or she might just have been thinking "strange people, these British". Finally and most amusingly, I have been asked on three seperate occasions, what my real hair colour is. I'm not joking! Today in the X-Ray Room, my colleague asked me if my hair dye was expensive. He didn't believe me when I told him it was natural, so I just showed him my beautiful leg hair, his face was a picture I'll tell you! It's so nice being in a country where having hair this colour is seen as something exotic and special by almost everyone who's mentioned it. It actually does quite a lot fo self onfidence. At home I more often than not get abuse, and of course school wasn't exactly great at times either! and our society seems to have this really irritating and irrational negative obsession with it. Of course you have to run with the jokes, but it doesn't change the fact that it makes me uncomfortable. It would be like a bunch of people laughing at a person with dark skin and saying it's the colour of chocolate. And if that happened the people involved would probably be sacked, but not with red hair...From speaking to the Canadians, they said they weren't familiar with that behaviour at all, and that red hair was viewed in the same vein as blonde over there. It's strange that I'd never really noticed it that much before I came here. So I guess Britain is just a bad place to grow up ginger.




Anyway this is not supposed to be a rant about hair. Let's talk about FOOD!! We found the most amazing Sushi restaurant yesterday, when you sat down, to your side there was the standard conveyor belt containg various Sushi dishes, that you can lift off an eat. But the real special feature of this restaurant was that above the conveyor built there was a mini train line, and then above that there was a little touch screen. On the touch screen you go through the menus and pick the food you want to eat, then a few minutes later a little bullet train, comes along the tracks making all the authentic sounds of an actual train, with your food on the back!!!!! You take your food off and the train heads back to the kitchen, to be loaded up for the next customer. It really was the restaurant of the future. But I imagine it'll be years and years before we see anything like this at home. I've left some short videos on my youtube channel www.youtube.com/dryan5 .

On a historical note, the controversial tomb/shrine of Hideki Tojo (Imperial Japan's Wartime leader) is only 15 mins away from here by train. It's on top of a mountain and not often visited (unsurprisingly, it's the equivelant of a shrine for Hitler). But considering I'm in a country that despite the admirable place it holds in the modern world, has a very dark past. I should really visit this, especially as it is way off the tourist trail. When I get a proper free weekend, I will definately go.


Well anyway, lot's more has happened too but if I wrote all about that too the post would be very long and boring. And I know most people have things they need to be getting on with, so please enjoy some of these photos too.

Big fat post

Apologies in advance if this one is a little hard to read, I've written a whole load of stuff while my internet was down for two days (think my neighbour went away) So I wrote it in word, and well... it kind of piled up a bit! I've divided it up into two sections, first day of work and partying in Japan.

FIRST DAY OF WORK

Friday was my first day of work, I have come home exhausted, but feeling satisfied, even though I have a big bruise on my head. Now more than ever I appreciate the importance of communication here. Whether in English, Japanese or body language (lots of that going on hehehe.) Normally I work over at the hospital clinic/ care centre but I started on a Friday, which meant I was at the nursery, over at the other end of town. It’s strange how children the world over are so similar. I was put in to work with one of the youngest groups, the two year olds, and found that all the funny faces that work in the UK work on children here. The Japanese as a society are quite shy normally, so these active and noisy children were quite a surprise. It was also amazing that, despite how different I was to everyone else there, this didn’t seem to bother them at all, and was instantly accepted as just another member of staff. It makes me wonder what changes in growing children’s mind that makes them shy of foreigners later in life? Discipline was handled in a different way, the children had set activities to be doing throughout the day, which changed continually, from playing with toys in the morning, to going for a walk, to eating, sleeping, playing with toys, going outside again. If one of the children started getting toys out during food for example, they would at first be ignored and allowed to carry on, but after a few minutes if they continued would be given a stern telling off (by two year old standards) Other things that I found strange at first is that the staff just let the children climb all over them, they didn’t explain why.
Now about that bruise, after lunch I was told to go and play with some of the older kids out in the back garden, (which was really just a dusty playground, there’s not much grass here at all) Some children were practicing walking on mini stilts, I helped them, naturally as it was a part of my duties. While assisting a little boy called Yuji, one of the children behind me fell off their stilts, and the wooden stick collided rather forcefully with my cranium. That bloody hurt. As none of the staff had seen this happen, and not wanting to cause a scene, I tried to carry on as if nothing had happened, occasionally grimacing, but trying to work as before!
Another things that surprised me as the day went on, was that the language of football was also a universal one, being British I am naturally a genius at football ( as if!) and a small game of passing the ball between me and Yuji soon turned into a full fledged match between both sides of the playground, as more and more children expressed their curiosity. I felt quite proud of managing to organise this mini game and not causing a riot, but then again, it wasn’t exactly Southampton VS Portsmouth.
After work I spoke to my fellow gapper Tom, and it sounds like the work at Roken (the Hospital) is a lot easier than the work at the nursery. I loved working at the nursery but I think working there five days a week would probably kill me. Variety in work is very important I think. I also no have a much better understanding of the phrase “challenging but rewarding”. But then again it’s not like I came away here with any illusions that these six months were going to be easy anyway.
Two final random points, first off, even though almost every car round here is Japanese, the abundance of Minis is incredible! There are at least 3 dealerships round here selling original Rover Minis, and countless more driving around very noisily especially at night. There are few of the new type driving around too, but they don’t seem to be as popular. It just tickled me that my dad said when I left, that it would be the last time I would see a Rover for six months (or something like that) and it turns out there are loads. Jags and Range Rovers are also occasionally seen, I’ve seen more Jags than Fords, which is strange. Maybe this place isn’t so different to Winchester after all (joke!).
Second random point is that I’ve nearly been here two weeks, which seems really strange, some days it feels like I’ve been here forever and other days it feels like I’ve only just arrived. I’m looking forward to settling into a work routine anyway. Now I just need to start planning what we’re all going to do for Christmas.....

PARTYING IN JAPAN

Last night was a really wild and incredible one, I enjoyed myself loads but in a very different way than I would of at home. There is a small Gaijin and Gaijin-loving community here (Gaijin means foreigner, which is what I am) This community is essentially centred around a women called Amy who is a Kiwi out here in Japan teaching English. We met her early on shortly after we arrived in Nishio. She teaches adults mainly who are either learning English from scratch or are seeking to improve their spoken English. Most of them are real Anglophiles too. Anyway... It was Amy’s birthday last night, and so I got to sample a real bit of Japanese night life and partying. We went to a place called the C-Dome, which is essentially a massive dome in the centre of the City which houses a massive Arcade on the ground floor, and about 40 Karaoke rooms on the second floor. On a side note, Arcades in Japan are not really for anyone under 18 after 10 o’clock, in fact, anyone under 18 isn’t allowed in, this is mainly because as well as the usual arcade games we have in the West, they’re also full of untold numbers of gambling machines and slot machines, roughly organised inbetween all the shooting/racing games.
Anyway last night we went straight up to Karaoke room number 35. All the rooms are identical in size, about 9 metres long and 5 metres wide. This room was filled with about 18 people, drinks were everywhere, as well as party food, and a massive screen showing the words and music video to the current song being Karaoke’d. Karaoke here is different than in the UK. In the UK I always get the feeling that Karaoke is almost a competition, even though it’s just supposed to be a bit of fun, and you often seem to get a load of people taking themselves too seriously, the Karaoker is often asked to stand in front of everyone to perform their song too, which is just embarrassing. Here it was hard to describe the atmosphere, everyone always clapped when a song ended, and would pay complements to the singer, regardless of how awful their singing was, I must say my rendition of “Ruby” by the Kaiser Chiefs left a lot to be desired. Anyway, the atmosphere was very jovial and relaxed, and to be honest it was the first time I was really able to let my hair down in weeks. The microphones were wireless and you passed them around the room, which eliminates the cringe factor of having to stand up and sing in front of everyone. The other strange thing was that there was no drink bar, everyone had to buy their own drinks somewhere else, then bring them in. So we basically just stopped off at the local “Family Mart” and bought loads of drinks, then took them over. This jovial event continued until 1 am when the place closed. Unlike chucking out time in the UK, everyone quietly and meekly left exactly on time, and shuffled/staggered off home, which I found completely bizarre. At this point about half the party decided they’d had enough and bid their farewells. We were then told by Amy that she knew of a really good bar where we could continue the night, but if we “messed up the atmosphere” we would never go there again, or be let anywhere near it. My fellow gapers decided they’d had enough when they heard this (besides they had to get up early on Saturday to travel to Osaka on the bullet train). But curiosity got the better of me, and I decided to go along.
That was the best decision I’ve made the whole time I’ve been here.
The bar looked inconspicuous enough on the outside, inside the only way I can describe it was as “Japanese Hippy” I’ve never ever ever been to a drinking establishment anything like this at all, and I don’t think I would find anything like this at home. The floor was traditional Japanese matting, so shoes off at the front door, covered here and there by rugs, there were no tables or chairs, just sort of “floor seats”. The room was very green, with strange plants and other things hanging from the roof here and there. The proprietor was very welcoming and led us straight to our place, so relaxed and informal, almost like he was our best mate, he just scribbled down what we wanted to drink on his hand. I wanted to take pictures of the interior, but I had the feeling this wouldn’t be appropriate, so all I got was some snaps of the loo. It’s basically like this everywhere inside. Around halfway through our stay a guy who I can only describe as an actual “Japanese Hippy” came and sat next to us and just chatted randomly about the world and everything, and was especially interested in what I was doing in Japan. We eventually left at 4 am when I returned to my apartment and snuggled up into my futon, feeling very fulfilled.

I still can't believe it's only two weeks...

Sorting Rubbish in Nishio

While sorting my rubbish today I came across this leaflet, which explains how rubbish is to be sorted. Now in the UK we just have a simple two bag system, Recycling and general rubbish. Britons usually complain (including myself) when we go to Europe and have to deal with a simple 3 bags or so. Well try and negotiate this bloody massive thing. I never thought sorting rubbish could be made so complicated, and really highlights what a laid back attitude we have to rubbish in the UK, no wonder we have problems with landfill sites. (But at least they collect more than once a fortnight here!) Thought this would make a few people smile.

Pictures and Video

These are just an assortment of pictures that I've taken while I've been here. Below are small selection of images and videos from the past few days, including a tour of he flat/appartment where I am living now. NOTE: You will probably need to have realplayer installed for these videos to work. They are also quite choppy for some reason. There's a copy of the videos in much better quality on my youtube channel, all future videos will be put there instead, to be honest these ones look rubbish compared to youtube so please follow this link to my youtube channel and pick the video you want there http://www.youtube.com/dryan5 It's also faster there!

First off here's a tour of my home here in Japan

Here's a video of what its like in central Tokyo

This is the very start of the typhoon in Tokyo, shortly after this, we didn't dare open the window!

The Shinkansen! See what I mean when I said it looked like a plane?

Greetings from Nishio City!!!

My apologies to my readers out there that I haven't got back to you sooner, this is going to be one hell of a long post as so much has happened. Feel free to skip through to the bits you find interesting.

Well after a VERY eventful couple of days I am now finally settling in to my home of the next six months, Nishio City. I was amazed, when we arrived we were given a whole flat to ourselves, a mobile phone and a Bicycle. On top of that we get unlimited free meals at the cafeteria. And free Japanese lessons at the local City Centre.

Since the last post an unbelieveable amount of things have happened, the most siginificant being that we were in Tokyo when it was hit by a typhoon several nights ago, that was quite an experience. Windows were shaking and the rain was truly incredible, beats any of the storms we've had in the UK before I left. Scarily at about six o'clock police cars where driving up and down the streets telling everyone to return to their homes and not to leave again until six am the next morning. We spent another day in Tokyo, and again went to see many sights, like the Meiji Memorial Park which was a truly spectactular almost tropical jungle, right in the middle of Tokyo. We explored many shopping districts and saw some incredible sights, and really weird shops selling things that you couldn't possibly even imagine. Some stuff we didn't even know what it was. Over the time Japan has become a lot less scary and more welcoming, as I start to adjust to the different attitudes and values over here.



So after all of the talk about Japanese trains being perfect and on time, ironically we got to the staion to take the bullet train to nagoya, and all the trains were delayed due to the typhoon!!! I also tried a traditional Japanese "Lunchbox" which is basically an elegantly arranged portable sushi. We got the bullet train which was a weird experience, I have never travelled so far on land before in my life, over 200 MPH and the countryside just flies by, but the interior of the bullet train felt like it was designed by an engineer, not a stylist. The interior was quite spartan all sticky plastic and hard seats, although the legroom was fantastic!! It reminded me in many ways of being on a plane, right down to the rounded windows, and air hostess style clothes the staff were wearing.



In Nishio I have been lucky enough to be granted with a massive amount of space I've got a kitchen, a bathroom (with shower) a toilet, washing machine, and a moderately large lounge area. It seems our predecessors where a bit, er, lively. Several things have been damaged like the curtains, the sink (don't ask!), and the toilet door. My hosts seemed absolutely horrified when I told them about this, and immediately ordered in a professional cleaning team to sort out the problems!!! I couldn't believe the curtousy! Everything in Japan seems to have been designed with curtousy in mind, right down to traffic lights. When you press the button for traffic lights, instead of hearing beeping sounds when it's time to cross, you hear birdsong!!! I've been told this is to reduce "noise pollution" and also to make sleeping more comfortable at night for those who live near traffic lights....

Most interesting thing about the room however, is that I have no bed, I have a futon!!! It's quite odd because I have to get it out every night and put it down on the floor, kind of like when you sleep over at a friends house. Every week or so I have to hang it out outside to let it dry out, as it absorbs moisture, which is strange.

The weather here is still incredibly hot and humid reaching 33C most days and cooling to about 26C at night. I need to keep the airconditioning on in my apartment all the time (except when I'm out) to stop the place turning into an oven.

At night Nishio City becomes a ghost town. Everyone disappears after about 11pm, even my hometown of Winchester had people wandering around at night making a drunken nuisance of themselves, but here it's non existent. There seems to be quite a different nightlife culture here compared to the UK, it's just as lively but not as obvious, most night venues are underground hidden away from public view (apart from Kareoke bars, which I have yet to visit)

I get two japanese lessons a week, which is great because this language is something else. I thought German was hard but this takes the biscuit. This language has no alphabet, every single sound that you can make in the language has it's own character and a set of about 200 (complete different) characters make up a writing system, and on top of that there are three different writing systems! The most complicated one Kanji, has over NINE THOUSAND characters. Right now my Japanese speaking and writing is still extremely basic, but I can't wait to start to expand my vocabulary, particularly speaking vocabulary.

Aside from all the excitement we've also been given prelimenary introductions to work. The place where I work is more like a hospital catering specifically for elderly people than the care home I envisaged. I've been given my timetable which has a lot of very varied work, from X-ray room duties, to cleaning, to food delivery, to working in the rehab centre, to playing with children at the nearby nursery. The work is varied which is good, because I know from past experience that I can't stand repetitive work. My first day of work is this Friday.

One of the changes that I was not expecting was the impact that the new diet would have on my general wellbeing. I feel so much healthier, far less lethargic and much more engergetic and physically well. I have had fish and rice and some kind of seaweed varient every single day I've been here so far and probably will continue to until I leave. All the Japanese look extremely healthy too (well except for a couple in the rehab centre!). After experiencing this for a week, I'm not sure I could go back to the diet I had before. My parents always gave me the most delicious balanced diet, but I unfortunately ruined any positive efforts this may have contributed by frequently snacking on crisps and junk food! There is a KFC down the road and a few other western style restaurants here and there, but I have yet to visit them and don't plan to in the near future. The other thing about this country is it's the first place I have visited where Coca-Cola does not have a stranglehold on the drinks market, In fact the biggest foreign drinks maker here appears to be Lipton, of ice tea fame, although they don't actually seem to sell Ice Tea here. The most popular drink here is cold tea (nothing like Iced tea in the UK, far less sweet) and cold coffee. All fizzy drinks come in weird and wonderful flavours, my favourite so far being "Melon Cream Soda". Some drinks have bizarre names like "real gold".

Japan is ethnically, not very diverse. The only other ethnic "Gaijin" (foreigner) groups I have seen are Western Europeans/Americans (both quite rare) and Brazilian Japanese (more common, but still hard to find). It's only now that I truly appreciate how ethnically diverse the UK really is, and, I know a little how some of them must feel like being surrounded by British. At first I found this a little intimidating, but now I am completely warming to it. Most Japanese won't talk to you outright, because they don't want to interrupt you, or get in your way. However if you start talking to them, a barrage of questions will usually ensue normally about where your from and what you're doing in Japan. A lot of the time they use these opportunities to practice their English too. At heart many Japanese appear to be quite shy and not particularly outgoing. There's a Japanese saying that certainly rings true here "The nail which mosts stands out is easily hammered down"

That being said the mobile phones we have inherited from our predeccesors are full of contacts, some fellow Gaijin, others are locals. Quite early on I received a phone call from a mysterious Japanese man. His English was OK, and my Japanese wasn't going anywhere. At first I thought he might have been one of my co-workers wanting to go out on the town. But it soon emerged that he was an English teacher, and that he wanted to come round to meet us. Not wanting to be rude, I told him he could come over two nights from then. After the phone call I turned to my fellow gappers and explained the situation. We were naturally quite concerned, because we had no idea who this guy was at all, apart from what he had told us, and he wanted to come to our house late at night. On top of that when I mentioned this to the staff at the centre they had no idea who he was either. I was starting to think that this might have been the biggest mistake I had made so far. So for my protection I asked my fellow gappers Tom and Lee to stay at my flat that evening as a precaution. It turns out that our worries were completely without reason. The man arrived with his girlfirend and with some snacks to share, I invited him in and the five of us had a great chat long into the hours of the morning over glasses of Melon Cream Soda and Japanese pastries, about Japan the world and everything. Afterwards we exchanged email addresses and shook hands. It was a real experience, and one that convinced me that the Japanese are some of the friendliest people in the world.

If there's one thing Japan needs which the UK has it's a smoking ban. Smoking seems to be OK EVERYWHERE! Sat in an Arcade, people just light up and blow smoke everywhere. It's quite weird to be back in a smoking situation after the ban in the UK nd this has helped me realise what a massive step this truly is. Talking on the phone while driving is also completely legal here, and I nearly had a heart attack when Hosakawa-san (the guy responsible for looking after our wellbeing in the apartments) started chatting casually on the phone while driving us here.

I could talk about the virtues of this place for hours but instead I'm going to leave it there and try and get on with trying to organise my rubbish in to one of four bags: combustable, non combustable, glass, and plastic. Have a look at some of the photos I've uploaded of my flat and such. I hope everyone is well who is reading this and that everyone is getting along alright.

All the best

David.

PS I've added a link to a fellow Gapper Tommy, who is staying a few miles away from me in Nagoya. Feel free to visit his site.