Saturday, 22 September 2007
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.
Sunday, 16 September 2007
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...
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...
Thursday, 13 September 2007
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.
Tuesday, 11 September 2007
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
Sunday, 9 September 2007
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.
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.
Wednesday, 5 September 2007
I MADE IT!!!
Just a quick note to tell you I've arrived in Tokyo alive, and will be updating in the next week as soon as I get the chance, but I'm not sure when that'll be.
Monday, 3 September 2007
Well this is it, the plunge
Hello everyone, I type this in the evening prior to my departure, I seem to be having some kind of mental block at the moment, I just can't seem to visualise 6 months of living abroad, it doesn't make sense! It's like my brain doesn't want me to acknowledge it or it'll go into meltdown!
Had some tearful goodbyes today, especially to my girlfriend of one and a half years, Cat Brown. I hate "Goodbye" I prefer "Auf Wiedersehen" meaning "Until we meet again". There'll be more goodbyestomorrow as I bid farewell to my family. Although that emotion will be tempered somewhat by the fact that they've decided to replace me with a Guinea Pig. No joke, I've heard that pets can be substitute children, but what does that say about me if my substitute is a Guinea Pig? That I'm small cute and furry? That I need my cage cleaned twice a week? Oh well! A bit of panic set in too as I try to complete last minute business, like selling the Xbox 360. (Well, that could of gone better, but never mind) So it's up at 6 tomorrow for the 7 am train, wooo.
I would make a longer post, but I'm still really busy, so God knows when you'll here from me next on this blog, but hopefully it will be pretty soon, I would be surprised if it takes more than a week.
Goodbye then from me, whether you know me personally, or are just stopping by.
Had some tearful goodbyes today, especially to my girlfriend of one and a half years, Cat Brown. I hate "Goodbye" I prefer "Auf Wiedersehen" meaning "Until we meet again". There'll be more goodbyestomorrow as I bid farewell to my family. Although that emotion will be tempered somewhat by the fact that they've decided to replace me with a Guinea Pig. No joke, I've heard that pets can be substitute children, but what does that say about me if my substitute is a Guinea Pig? That I'm small cute and furry? That I need my cage cleaned twice a week? Oh well! A bit of panic set in too as I try to complete last minute business, like selling the Xbox 360. (Well, that could of gone better, but never mind) So it's up at 6 tomorrow for the 7 am train, wooo.
I would make a longer post, but I'm still really busy, so God knows when you'll here from me next on this blog, but hopefully it will be pretty soon, I would be surprised if it takes more than a week.
Goodbye then from me, whether you know me personally, or are just stopping by.
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