November has flown by incredibly quickly. I can’t believe I’ll be in England this time next month. It has been the mildest November I have ever known, which seems ironic in light of the unusually cold November England is suffering from at the moment. One weekend I was cycling into the heart of Chiba prefecture in only my shorts and T-shirt and even now I haven’t yet turned the heating on.
So what have I been up to over the last few weeks? Well as I mentioned I went on a longish bike ride inland towards to the Pacific with Sam. I was surprised at quite how nice the Chiba countryside is beyond my concrete town. And with autumn in its full bloom (as it were) the shades and colours of the woodland were stunning. We cycled half way across the peninsula, without realising it and have agreed to attempt to cycle the whole thing in the New Year.
I recently went on my furthest excursion in Japan and spent a weekend in Hokkaido, visiting a friend I met at training. I managed to get a window seat on the plane there and back and had an amazing view of the Tokyo night sky on the way up plus a perfect view of Kimitsu (the town next to mine) on returning. Hokkaido was interesting. It the most unjapanese place I’ve been to in Japan. It was only settled a couple of hundred years ago and so there are no ancient shrines, castles or temples, that you’d usually find in most Japanese cities. It was also settled during a time when Japan was really opening up to western ideas and so they invited western architects and city planners to help create the cities there. So there are often very western-looking buildings that seem out of place but more often than not the architecture is very experimental. Because there is no tradition that needed to be kept on the island, it seems architects often tried something totally new and different.
Jenn lives a short drive from the airport but we went into Sapporo for a day and stayed around one of her friends in the city. I had fun exploring the city during the daytime, and did a little xmas shopping and in the evening we went to a restaurant called ‘Cheese Cheese’, which was one of the highlights of the trip.
This weekend was my Birthday weekend, so on Friday I went out for a meal with friends that live in the area and on Saturday I went out to Tokyo, to meet up with friends from further afield. The second night involved excessive drinking, which meant today was a bit of a write-off. I received some nice little gifts and cards, for which I’m very grateful.
Sunday, 28 November 2010
Friday, 5 November 2010
This doesn't feel like November
I’m really enjoying the weather at the moment, despite many of the natives constantly commenting on the temperature being cold. I cycled to work and spent the entire day in a T-shirt earlier this week. Something I could only dream of doing in an English November. For the most part I’ve still only been wearing one layer unless it’s raining, however this was the first week that I put a jumper on. Above all its just been really nice to get so much sunlight, something I’m going to miss when I get back to the UK.
As many may already know, I recently received news from Teach First that I’ve been placed in the North West region of the programme, which is good news because it was my first preference. I won’t know exactly where my school is for a good few months yet so I could be potentially teaching in Manchester, Liverpool or Burnley next year but given the ratio of schools, more likely, and hopefully, the former.
I’m just about to head off to the Design Festival, which a huge event that incorporates hundreds of Japanese artists and designers descending on a large conference centre in Odaiba. There are countless stalls where you can buy all kinds of arty artefacts. Meanwhile there’s also music, comedy, performance art and dance going on. I’ve been looking forward to it for a while and hope to come home with a couple of T-shirts.
As many may already know, I recently received news from Teach First that I’ve been placed in the North West region of the programme, which is good news because it was my first preference. I won’t know exactly where my school is for a good few months yet so I could be potentially teaching in Manchester, Liverpool or Burnley next year but given the ratio of schools, more likely, and hopefully, the former.
I’m just about to head off to the Design Festival, which a huge event that incorporates hundreds of Japanese artists and designers descending on a large conference centre in Odaiba. There are countless stalls where you can buy all kinds of arty artefacts. Meanwhile there’s also music, comedy, performance art and dance going on. I’ve been looking forward to it for a while and hope to come home with a couple of T-shirts.
Thursday, 21 October 2010
Kabuki, More Temples and the Largest Buddha in Japan. A very Japanese few weeks
For the last three weeks I’ve been attending 5 new schools, one of which I am still yet to visit. On the whole the transition to the new schools has been very positive. Now that I’ve been in Japan and working as an ALT for half a year, I’m much better prepared to know what to expect. My level of Japanese is so much better, which really helps for making good first impressions and getting on well with both the staff and the students. My two new Junior High schools are about the same distance as the last ones, about 20-30mins away by bike but a couple of the Elementary schools are miles out into the sticks. Although I must be grateful that my new schools in the sticks are in slightly more picturesque settings.
Some of the schools that now attending are really rather small. Nakago, one of my Junior High schools has an average of 15 students per grade. The students there do seems to have above average English proficiency. You can really see the difference that the student to teacher ratio makes. I have to say that on the whole the smaller schools are a lot friendlier. There’s some social psychological reason that causes groups of 50 adolescent boys and girls behave quite differently to groups of 12. I’ve also begun to play football with the 3rd grade boys, at lunchtime, at that school. I must be becoming quite fit, what with the half an hour cycle there too.
Two of the last three weekends I’ve been hanging around with Lois, an old friend from University and Alessi, her international singer songwriter friend, that I befriended about a year ago. Lois being a journalist that reviews theatre and music on top of her 9 to 5 suggested we saw some traditional Japanese theatre. And so we all attended a Kabuki at the National Theatre, next to the imperial palace. I refused to get a translation headset in order to improve my Japanese listening skill and as a consequence didn’t exactly understand all that was going on. Occasionally Lois would whisper an update of what was going on, which was helpful. I could understand a lot of the words. However, putting them together in a sentence where I seem not to be able to hear the most valuable information and process everything so quickly, I was at a bit of a loss. Nonetheless it was a really enjoyable experience and the sets were spectacular. I also feel its another Japanese cultural experience that I can tick off the list.
The second weekend we met up was in Kyoto, where Alessi was playing a concert. I arrived from a rainy day in Osaka with Anne’s old housemate Jamie and his girlfriend Helen (who it was delightful to see). And the first night we went out for Lois’s birthday; first to my favourite vegetarian restaurant/ cat café and then I took Lois and Alessi to an all you can eat cake restaurant, which they were over the moon about. Then on Sunday we spent the day being guided around Kyoto, by the promoter of the evening’s entertainment and met up with one of Alessi’s old touring partners, who’s recently moved to Japan. The concert was very intimate and at a really quaint little venue by the confluence of the river. A good evening was had by all and we were all sad to have to go our separate ways.
It was good to be back in Kyoto and early on the morning before I left I went to Sanjusangendo Temple, one that's been recommended to me by a friend. It has to be the best temple I've visited so far. It's a fair bit older than many of them and contains a series of over 1000 life-size statues, which are unbelievable. I strongly recommend it to anyone that visits Kyoto.
And for the last few weekends I’ve been meeting up with a New Yorker girl that I seem to be dating. Last weekend she came over to the ‘wrong side of the bay’ or ‘the peninsula of dreams’ (depending on how you view Chiba) and we headed down to Nokogiriyama, somewhere I’ve been meaning to visit since I got here. Just a few stops down the train line there’s a large park up in the mountains above the coast, with spectacular views and the largest Buddha in Japan carved into a cliff face. It really is quite spectacular. It was such beautiful weather when we were out there too and there’s a lot more to see in the park, including a trail with over 1000 Buddha statues on it and various other carvings into cliff faces that make you feel like you’re on an Indiana Jones set. It was really nice to get out into the country again. I had a really good weekend, good company, good weather and a spectacular day out.
Some of the schools that now attending are really rather small. Nakago, one of my Junior High schools has an average of 15 students per grade. The students there do seems to have above average English proficiency. You can really see the difference that the student to teacher ratio makes. I have to say that on the whole the smaller schools are a lot friendlier. There’s some social psychological reason that causes groups of 50 adolescent boys and girls behave quite differently to groups of 12. I’ve also begun to play football with the 3rd grade boys, at lunchtime, at that school. I must be becoming quite fit, what with the half an hour cycle there too.
Two of the last three weekends I’ve been hanging around with Lois, an old friend from University and Alessi, her international singer songwriter friend, that I befriended about a year ago. Lois being a journalist that reviews theatre and music on top of her 9 to 5 suggested we saw some traditional Japanese theatre. And so we all attended a Kabuki at the National Theatre, next to the imperial palace. I refused to get a translation headset in order to improve my Japanese listening skill and as a consequence didn’t exactly understand all that was going on. Occasionally Lois would whisper an update of what was going on, which was helpful. I could understand a lot of the words. However, putting them together in a sentence where I seem not to be able to hear the most valuable information and process everything so quickly, I was at a bit of a loss. Nonetheless it was a really enjoyable experience and the sets were spectacular. I also feel its another Japanese cultural experience that I can tick off the list.
The second weekend we met up was in Kyoto, where Alessi was playing a concert. I arrived from a rainy day in Osaka with Anne’s old housemate Jamie and his girlfriend Helen (who it was delightful to see). And the first night we went out for Lois’s birthday; first to my favourite vegetarian restaurant/ cat café and then I took Lois and Alessi to an all you can eat cake restaurant, which they were over the moon about. Then on Sunday we spent the day being guided around Kyoto, by the promoter of the evening’s entertainment and met up with one of Alessi’s old touring partners, who’s recently moved to Japan. The concert was very intimate and at a really quaint little venue by the confluence of the river. A good evening was had by all and we were all sad to have to go our separate ways.
It was good to be back in Kyoto and early on the morning before I left I went to Sanjusangendo Temple, one that's been recommended to me by a friend. It has to be the best temple I've visited so far. It's a fair bit older than many of them and contains a series of over 1000 life-size statues, which are unbelievable. I strongly recommend it to anyone that visits Kyoto.
And for the last few weekends I’ve been meeting up with a New Yorker girl that I seem to be dating. Last weekend she came over to the ‘wrong side of the bay’ or ‘the peninsula of dreams’ (depending on how you view Chiba) and we headed down to Nokogiriyama, somewhere I’ve been meaning to visit since I got here. Just a few stops down the train line there’s a large park up in the mountains above the coast, with spectacular views and the largest Buddha in Japan carved into a cliff face. It really is quite spectacular. It was such beautiful weather when we were out there too and there’s a lot more to see in the park, including a trail with over 1000 Buddha statues on it and various other carvings into cliff faces that make you feel like you’re on an Indiana Jones set. It was really nice to get out into the country again. I had a really good weekend, good company, good weather and a spectacular day out.
Thursday, 30 September 2010
All Change Please
Sumo wrestling is probably the most quintessentially Japanese sport imaginable and last weekend my town hosted a national championship. I was lucky enough to finish early at the elementary school I was teaching on Monday and I even managed to get a lift to the venue from one of my colleges, so I was treated to a good few hours of Sumo. All the prefectures were competing against each other and it must have been fairly early in the competition, as they hadn’t got to the knock out stage of the tournament. I was warned by a friend that had been to a Sumo in Tokyo, that it can be quite a slow sport to watch; it takes each competitor ages to get ready and then the match is over in seconds. However, because this was a national event and there were so many people competing (teams of three from each of the 47 prefectures) they had a lot of matches to get through, so it was actually quite fast paced. It was a nice and simple sport to become a spectator of. There seem to be very few rules other than no punching and whoever’s opponent hits the floor or is pushed out of the ring first wins. I just feel really lucky that I had it on my doorstep, and not only that but it was free! Usually you’d have to pay a lot of money and see a lot less action. I really enjoyed it and feel it’s another tick on the list of ‘things I have to do in Japan’.
I’ve had a few final days at some of my schools over the last couple of weeks. I’ve been really overwhelmed by the effort that’s been put in to see me off properly. At Iwane Nishi I was given a leaving ceremony that included a couple of speeches and the presentation of huge signed cards and some presents, all done in English purely for my benefit! Then I was taken to staffroom, where I was presented with flowers and a new hoodie for winter. I was utterly unprepared for all the fuss and was asked to give several speeches, which were a bit of a joke. So the next day I prepared a speech and brought some presents to give to the teachers in return and I was neither asked to give a speech, nor was given any presents. So it probably was right for me not to expect any fuss. It’s strange how different the two days were.
Every six months the Board of Education moves the ALTs around to new schools, which explains why I’ve had some final days recently. I’ll be off to a new school tomorrow, which I’m excited about. I’m quite optimistic about having a better time at the new schools because I think first impressions are very important, and I think now that I’ve learnt so much more Japanese (language and culture), I should be able to give a much better first impression and build a better relationship with the students and teachers. The change is also an indication that I’m halfway through my year here and after dreading that I’d either love Japan so much I’d never return home or hate it so much I’d leave early, feeling I failed, it would seem that neither happened. I’m happy here for the time being and am enjoying it but am also looking forward to returning to the UK. What more could I ask for.
I’ve had a few final days at some of my schools over the last couple of weeks. I’ve been really overwhelmed by the effort that’s been put in to see me off properly. At Iwane Nishi I was given a leaving ceremony that included a couple of speeches and the presentation of huge signed cards and some presents, all done in English purely for my benefit! Then I was taken to staffroom, where I was presented with flowers and a new hoodie for winter. I was utterly unprepared for all the fuss and was asked to give several speeches, which were a bit of a joke. So the next day I prepared a speech and brought some presents to give to the teachers in return and I was neither asked to give a speech, nor was given any presents. So it probably was right for me not to expect any fuss. It’s strange how different the two days were.
Every six months the Board of Education moves the ALTs around to new schools, which explains why I’ve had some final days recently. I’ll be off to a new school tomorrow, which I’m excited about. I’m quite optimistic about having a better time at the new schools because I think first impressions are very important, and I think now that I’ve learnt so much more Japanese (language and culture), I should be able to give a much better first impression and build a better relationship with the students and teachers. The change is also an indication that I’m halfway through my year here and after dreading that I’d either love Japan so much I’d never return home or hate it so much I’d leave early, feeling I failed, it would seem that neither happened. I’m happy here for the time being and am enjoying it but am also looking forward to returning to the UK. What more could I ask for.
Sunday, 26 September 2010
The Heat Has Finally Broken
After months and months of stifling heat, the winds have eventually changed and the temperature has dropped dramatically. Japan feels like a totally different country. I’m beginning to get nostalgic flashbacks of the month I moved here for no other reason but the fact that the weather is reminiscent of that time. The last two days, we’ve had fantastic weather; just the perfect temperature and glorious sunshine. I managed to get out and go on a long bike ride and a long run and it really has been the perfect conditions for both. Mount Fuji has also just poked its head out above the skyline of Yokohama, again. It's such a beautiful view, looking out over the bay on a clear day.
I've been doing a fair bit of recording on my guitar recently. There's been a couple of rainy days off work and so I’ve ceased the moment to do something a little constructive. It can be a little frustrating record with so little equipment but I’m slowly learning to maximise the potential of the software on my laptop.
I entered myself for the JLPT level 5 exam, the other day, which ill be taking in December. It’s giving me a good motivation to study harder and should hopefully mean that I come away from Japan with some sort of qualification.
In other news my sister was proposed to on a weekend in Cumbria, this weekend and is now engaged to Mr John Ashforth. So a big congratulations to them.
I've been doing a fair bit of recording on my guitar recently. There's been a couple of rainy days off work and so I’ve ceased the moment to do something a little constructive. It can be a little frustrating record with so little equipment but I’m slowly learning to maximise the potential of the software on my laptop.
I entered myself for the JLPT level 5 exam, the other day, which ill be taking in December. It’s giving me a good motivation to study harder and should hopefully mean that I come away from Japan with some sort of qualification.
In other news my sister was proposed to on a weekend in Cumbria, this weekend and is now engaged to Mr John Ashforth. So a big congratulations to them.
Monday, 13 September 2010
The Peninsula of Dreams
So its official, I live on the ‘peninsula of dreams’, or so the merchandise that’s advertising the Chiba games states. Its funny because it was also this week that I had a conversation with a friend that was arguing that Chiba is the ugliest prefecture in Japan, and what with it being one of the flattest, most suburbanised and industrialised, one can see his point. Nonetheless I do live on the ‘peninsula of dreams’, so I’m not complaining, and we’re hosting the national games this year, and my town will be hosting the sumo contest. I’m currently trying to figure how and when I can go but fret not, if I do manage to get to a sumo contest, I’ll tell you on here. Watch this space.
I’m currently reading Orwell’s ‘Burmese Days’, which is a lot to do with struggling to cope with the stifling heat and alienation of living abroad, which all seems quite familiar. It really reminds me of Forster’s “A Passage to India” unsurprisingly; the old Victorian’s clinging onto what is to the younger generation, a crumbling empire. I’ve also been able to take up running again, since the heats began to subside, and was thinking about entering a half marathon, although the one I was thinking off appears to be full up now. It’s really nice to be getting decent exercise again (not that I don’t cycle to school several hours a week but its not really the same). Now all I need to do is find a good swimming pool.
There’ve been several trips that have emerged in the last week that I’m really looking forward to. I should be going camping with a fairly big group of ALTs in Chiba, many that I’ve not met, at the beginning of October. I’ll be heading back down to Kyoto for the third time with Lois and Alessi (who’s come to Japan to play a gig there). Even though it’s my third trip down there are still countless shrines and temples that I still haven’t seen. I’d love to tie it into a trip to Osaka, somewhere I’ve only changed trains at but I very much doubt I’ll have the time. And in November there’s a potential trip to Hokkaido that I’d really love to do but we’ll see. Yes indeed lots to look forward to.
I’m currently reading Orwell’s ‘Burmese Days’, which is a lot to do with struggling to cope with the stifling heat and alienation of living abroad, which all seems quite familiar. It really reminds me of Forster’s “A Passage to India” unsurprisingly; the old Victorian’s clinging onto what is to the younger generation, a crumbling empire. I’ve also been able to take up running again, since the heats began to subside, and was thinking about entering a half marathon, although the one I was thinking off appears to be full up now. It’s really nice to be getting decent exercise again (not that I don’t cycle to school several hours a week but its not really the same). Now all I need to do is find a good swimming pool.
There’ve been several trips that have emerged in the last week that I’m really looking forward to. I should be going camping with a fairly big group of ALTs in Chiba, many that I’ve not met, at the beginning of October. I’ll be heading back down to Kyoto for the third time with Lois and Alessi (who’s come to Japan to play a gig there). Even though it’s my third trip down there are still countless shrines and temples that I still haven’t seen. I’d love to tie it into a trip to Osaka, somewhere I’ve only changed trains at but I very much doubt I’ll have the time. And in November there’s a potential trip to Hokkaido that I’d really love to do but we’ll see. Yes indeed lots to look forward to.
Tuesday, 7 September 2010
My First Week Back
It was really nice to be welcomed back by such a large group of fellow foreigners. Although everyone was out to welcome two new female ALTs, it was good to see so many familiar faces and I even managed to meet a few others that have managed to avoid me for the last six months. It seems quite strange to me, considering how small the gaijin community is, how so many people could be living on my doorstep that I was yet to have met. On Friday there were probably the largest number of gaijin I’d ever seen in my town. Many heads turned on our way to the Indian. I hope it's the way of things to come.
I had anticipated that I would return to some pretty hot and uncomfortable conditions but I still didn’t seem to be prepared for the weather I had in the first week back. All the schools are preparing for their sports festival, and one of my schools is teaming up with the local elementary school. During my first week back I’ve been asked to observe the preparations and rehearsals of these ceremonies. During one two hour session of the schools that have teamed up, I watched no less than three elementary school children get carried off the sports field after collapsing in the heat. Another fifteen or so were led away before this was necessary. Nonetheless, the show went on and kids continued to rehearse for the opening ceremony that was over a week away. They seem to take this event extremely seriously. Even I, who was not running around like the students, felt the initial symptoms of heat stroke for the rest of the day. It seemed to me to be an extremely Japanese moment. Although its not usually this hot this time of year, they’ve always been outside rehearsing for the ceremony at this time and so it's a tradition and traditions are incredibly hard to break in Japan.
Last weekend I had a really great time in Tokyo meeting up with some of the guys that I arrived here with. I also met some more new ALTs working for my company and enjoyed going to a Brazilian festival in Yoyogi park. Brazil is a country that has strangely close ties with Japan. The two societies seem quite at odds, one I imagine to be one of the most dangerous in the world, the other the safest, one has a huge gap between rich and poor, the other is has one of the smallest gaps in the world, one is really quite reserved, the other likes to party in speedos and flip flops. Anyhow, there was a lot of rum being served out by some very friendly, Brazilian/Japanese people, which can never be a bad thing.
I had anticipated that I would return to some pretty hot and uncomfortable conditions but I still didn’t seem to be prepared for the weather I had in the first week back. All the schools are preparing for their sports festival, and one of my schools is teaming up with the local elementary school. During my first week back I’ve been asked to observe the preparations and rehearsals of these ceremonies. During one two hour session of the schools that have teamed up, I watched no less than three elementary school children get carried off the sports field after collapsing in the heat. Another fifteen or so were led away before this was necessary. Nonetheless, the show went on and kids continued to rehearse for the opening ceremony that was over a week away. They seem to take this event extremely seriously. Even I, who was not running around like the students, felt the initial symptoms of heat stroke for the rest of the day. It seemed to me to be an extremely Japanese moment. Although its not usually this hot this time of year, they’ve always been outside rehearsing for the ceremony at this time and so it's a tradition and traditions are incredibly hard to break in Japan.
Last weekend I had a really great time in Tokyo meeting up with some of the guys that I arrived here with. I also met some more new ALTs working for my company and enjoyed going to a Brazilian festival in Yoyogi park. Brazil is a country that has strangely close ties with Japan. The two societies seem quite at odds, one I imagine to be one of the most dangerous in the world, the other the safest, one has a huge gap between rich and poor, the other is has one of the smallest gaps in the world, one is really quite reserved, the other likes to party in speedos and flip flops. Anyhow, there was a lot of rum being served out by some very friendly, Brazilian/Japanese people, which can never be a bad thing.
Tuesday, 31 August 2010
A Golden Summer in the Golden State
Today found out that Japan had it hottest summer since 1946. Japanese summers are usually unbearably hot, mainly due to the humidity. As I write up this entry, it is past 10pm, the sun went down hours ago and yet the temperature remains just over 30 degrees and the humidity it just about up to 100%. Its foul and in a few hours it’ll be September. After several warnings about how stifling the summers were here, I decided to spend as much time as I could in California, as I might as well since I was going so far. And so I spent 3 weeks of my summer vacation in The Golden State.
It was my turn to cross an Ocean and visit an old friend of mine, called Cortney, who I met in London through the Libertines in 2005. I also arranged to meet Kevin my old friend from University and former flatmate, out there.
Originally there were grand plans about hiring big American cars and driving up and down the West Coast all the way from Canada to Mexico but the vast majority of my three weeks was spent in San Francisco, where Cortney has lived for the last 5 years. Nonetheless we did get up to enough around the Bay Area including a trip up to the wine region, a days canoeing around Bodega Bay and a trip out to the university town of Berkeley. We also got up to our fair share around San Francisco. I had visited once before in 2006 but I cycled over the Golden Gate Bridge, volunteered at a soup kitchen for the homeless and hiked around Presidio National Park for the first time on this trip.
The biggest adventure outside the city took place on my first weekend there, when we hired a car and headed to LA for the weekend. I had a great time but still have very mixed feelings about the city. On the one hand the climate was fabulous and most of the people I met were very friendly, on the other, the city seems to be one big sprawling traffic jam and reflects some of American consumer societies’ most vulgar sights. The highlights would have to be cycling along Venice beach and Santa Monica, strutting around like James Dean at the Griffith Observatory and visiting the Getty Museum, which was a stunning and vast and a side to LA that I wasn’t expecting.
I have to say that having to leave such good company, climate, and Mexican cuisine to return to humid, hot, expensive Japan, in the rainiest season of the year, where I would have to start work immediately, I was a little bit downhearted. There was also a feeling that I was halfway home somehow, by spending so much time in an English speaking country. It was as if it would be regressing to be going back, rather than on wards to Europe. However, I shouldn’t dwell on such things. I had a fantastic summer and will remember it fondly for years to come.
It was my turn to cross an Ocean and visit an old friend of mine, called Cortney, who I met in London through the Libertines in 2005. I also arranged to meet Kevin my old friend from University and former flatmate, out there.
Originally there were grand plans about hiring big American cars and driving up and down the West Coast all the way from Canada to Mexico but the vast majority of my three weeks was spent in San Francisco, where Cortney has lived for the last 5 years. Nonetheless we did get up to enough around the Bay Area including a trip up to the wine region, a days canoeing around Bodega Bay and a trip out to the university town of Berkeley. We also got up to our fair share around San Francisco. I had visited once before in 2006 but I cycled over the Golden Gate Bridge, volunteered at a soup kitchen for the homeless and hiked around Presidio National Park for the first time on this trip.
The biggest adventure outside the city took place on my first weekend there, when we hired a car and headed to LA for the weekend. I had a great time but still have very mixed feelings about the city. On the one hand the climate was fabulous and most of the people I met were very friendly, on the other, the city seems to be one big sprawling traffic jam and reflects some of American consumer societies’ most vulgar sights. The highlights would have to be cycling along Venice beach and Santa Monica, strutting around like James Dean at the Griffith Observatory and visiting the Getty Museum, which was a stunning and vast and a side to LA that I wasn’t expecting.
I have to say that having to leave such good company, climate, and Mexican cuisine to return to humid, hot, expensive Japan, in the rainiest season of the year, where I would have to start work immediately, I was a little bit downhearted. There was also a feeling that I was halfway home somehow, by spending so much time in an English speaking country. It was as if it would be regressing to be going back, rather than on wards to Europe. However, I shouldn’t dwell on such things. I had a fantastic summer and will remember it fondly for years to come.
Wednesday, 11 August 2010
The Holidays Have Finally Arrived
My first week off from school has been pretty jam-packed. The week started with a couple of nights in Tokyo, being reunited with old friends, from my week of training and darting about Tokyo exploiting my rail pass as much as I could. Two of the highlights of time here so far followed, as I climbed Japan’s highest peak and most iconic monument, Mount Fuji ,then went on to a weekend at Summer Sonic, one of Japan’s largest music festivals.
Climbing Fuji was probably my most epic excursion to date. I’ve never done any mountain climbing before, only rambling over the Peak District, so I tried to gather as much information about the climb as possible. Reports weren’t good. One group of friends were soaked through on the ascent, suffered badly from altitude sickness and found little help from the lodges that positioned along the way, another endured freezing -5 degree wind chill factor in insufficient clothes. In comparison we were lucky, low wind, no rain and not too unbearable temperatures.
Fuji is the most climbed mountain in the world and it is traditionally climbed at night, allowing you to watch the dawn rise. You also need to climb at night because it would be almost impossible to bring enough water to climb up and down in the heat of daylight. I brought up about 3 litres and drank half a litre on the way up, in the dark and about 2 and a half litres on the way down in the baking sun. There are several courses up Fuji, none of which are lit, so we all had to wear headlights to guide our way up. It was quite stunning to see the queues of people walking up with these on their heads, making a zigzag of lights down the mountain, as you ascended over the moonlit mountain, with wafts of clouds below.
There were five of us in our team of climbers. Vicky, an ALT friend who lives near Fuji and who’s Birthday we were celebrating, Chris, her mate who was visiting for the week, Rus, who lives in Nagano and like Vicky is an ALT I met through orientation and Dom, an ALT from Hokkaido. We also bumped into a couple of Newcastle student who were on holiday in Japan for the Uni holidays, making us a group of 7 Brits.
There was so much hype about how strenuous the climb up Fuji would be, how bad altitude sickness is and how the trip was anything but a walk in the park. After preparing for the worst physically and mentally I have to say that the climb up, I found relatively easy. It was almost 6 hours of continual ascent, some of which was almost vertical but after the huge build up it was fine. We reached the summit at around 3am and so had a long wait in the cold for the dawn to rise but it was definitely worth the wait. We were so lucky with the weather, as I said, so visibility was more or less perfect. You could see the Kanto plain, urbanised and stretching out for miles and the intensity of the lights increasing around Tokyo. You could just about make out the bay and a row of lights that would be the coast of Chiba. You could just about make out where Kamakura was and just about make out the Landmark Tower in Yokohama but most importantly there was a really clear and beautiful view of the dawn rising above it all on the horizon, which gradually gave colour and detail to the valley below that shrouded in patchy cloud. It was an amazing experience that I’ll never forget.
A couple of days after Fuji I went to my first Japanese music festival. Summer Sonic, is probably best compared to the Reading and Leeds festivals, in that it attracts a similar number and calibre of bands and operates in the two main regions of the country Kanto (Tokyo) and Kasai (Osaka). Unlike the Reading and Leeds festival I arrived to Summer Sonic to find that most of it is air-conditioned, there are no porter loos and no screaming 16 year olds. One of the best things about the festival was the ability to get right up to the front at the last minute with no trouble at all. I just walked straight to the front of the stage for the Pixies, the Smashing Pumpkins and the Drums and with half of the stages being inside they really felt a lot more intimate, which I think is one of my biggest problems with festivals compared to concerts.
Some old friends from Hertfordshire happened to be playing on the Sunday and they managed to get me and my friend Sam a guest pass. So, the second day I was able to explore the hospitality guest area, where the Drums were having a photo-shoot, Sum41 were playing table tennis and me and Sam were mistaken for artist and asked to sign their wall. Needless to say we complied and I scrawled a tag just above A Tribe Called Quest. Strangely enough I also bumped into an old London acquaintance there, that I hadn't seen for years. Ed, the Art Brut tour manager, who I met through supporting Art Brut and various other London shindigs was there acting as tour manager for a really young band from Florida called Surfer Blood.
Now however, I’m in San Francisco California with darling Cortney and Kevin having a welcome break from sweltering, cramped and expensive Tokyo. I’ll get back with details once I’ve done a little more. Heading to LA tomorrow and can’t wait.
Climbing Fuji was probably my most epic excursion to date. I’ve never done any mountain climbing before, only rambling over the Peak District, so I tried to gather as much information about the climb as possible. Reports weren’t good. One group of friends were soaked through on the ascent, suffered badly from altitude sickness and found little help from the lodges that positioned along the way, another endured freezing -5 degree wind chill factor in insufficient clothes. In comparison we were lucky, low wind, no rain and not too unbearable temperatures.
Fuji is the most climbed mountain in the world and it is traditionally climbed at night, allowing you to watch the dawn rise. You also need to climb at night because it would be almost impossible to bring enough water to climb up and down in the heat of daylight. I brought up about 3 litres and drank half a litre on the way up, in the dark and about 2 and a half litres on the way down in the baking sun. There are several courses up Fuji, none of which are lit, so we all had to wear headlights to guide our way up. It was quite stunning to see the queues of people walking up with these on their heads, making a zigzag of lights down the mountain, as you ascended over the moonlit mountain, with wafts of clouds below.
There were five of us in our team of climbers. Vicky, an ALT friend who lives near Fuji and who’s Birthday we were celebrating, Chris, her mate who was visiting for the week, Rus, who lives in Nagano and like Vicky is an ALT I met through orientation and Dom, an ALT from Hokkaido. We also bumped into a couple of Newcastle student who were on holiday in Japan for the Uni holidays, making us a group of 7 Brits.
There was so much hype about how strenuous the climb up Fuji would be, how bad altitude sickness is and how the trip was anything but a walk in the park. After preparing for the worst physically and mentally I have to say that the climb up, I found relatively easy. It was almost 6 hours of continual ascent, some of which was almost vertical but after the huge build up it was fine. We reached the summit at around 3am and so had a long wait in the cold for the dawn to rise but it was definitely worth the wait. We were so lucky with the weather, as I said, so visibility was more or less perfect. You could see the Kanto plain, urbanised and stretching out for miles and the intensity of the lights increasing around Tokyo. You could just about make out the bay and a row of lights that would be the coast of Chiba. You could just about make out where Kamakura was and just about make out the Landmark Tower in Yokohama but most importantly there was a really clear and beautiful view of the dawn rising above it all on the horizon, which gradually gave colour and detail to the valley below that shrouded in patchy cloud. It was an amazing experience that I’ll never forget.
A couple of days after Fuji I went to my first Japanese music festival. Summer Sonic, is probably best compared to the Reading and Leeds festivals, in that it attracts a similar number and calibre of bands and operates in the two main regions of the country Kanto (Tokyo) and Kasai (Osaka). Unlike the Reading and Leeds festival I arrived to Summer Sonic to find that most of it is air-conditioned, there are no porter loos and no screaming 16 year olds. One of the best things about the festival was the ability to get right up to the front at the last minute with no trouble at all. I just walked straight to the front of the stage for the Pixies, the Smashing Pumpkins and the Drums and with half of the stages being inside they really felt a lot more intimate, which I think is one of my biggest problems with festivals compared to concerts.
Some old friends from Hertfordshire happened to be playing on the Sunday and they managed to get me and my friend Sam a guest pass. So, the second day I was able to explore the hospitality guest area, where the Drums were having a photo-shoot, Sum41 were playing table tennis and me and Sam were mistaken for artist and asked to sign their wall. Needless to say we complied and I scrawled a tag just above A Tribe Called Quest. Strangely enough I also bumped into an old London acquaintance there, that I hadn't seen for years. Ed, the Art Brut tour manager, who I met through supporting Art Brut and various other London shindigs was there acting as tour manager for a really young band from Florida called Surfer Blood.
Now however, I’m in San Francisco California with darling Cortney and Kevin having a welcome break from sweltering, cramped and expensive Tokyo. I’ll get back with details once I’ve done a little more. Heading to LA tomorrow and can’t wait.
Friday, 30 July 2010
Ane Anne etc.
So much has happened since my last post. I’ll fill you all in what I’ve been up to a gradually.
The highlight of July has to be the arrival of my sister and co. My sister came to visit with her boyfriend, and best friend/business partner, Kate, the other week. So for a week I was running up and down the country sightseeing and exploring new parts of Japan.
We were lucky to be greeted by the shrine carrying ceremony, when we arrived in my home ‘city’ of Kisarazu. It was quite lucky that the gang got to see something so quintessentially Japanesy for the first day. Day two was a trip straight into the big city. First stop we had the slightly disappointing visit to the Imperial Palace. Then onto a whistle-stop tour of Shibuya and Harajuku, where we met up with some old friends from Sheffield. Sunday, in Harajuku is famous for ‘Cos Play’; where people dress up as their favourite anime character or Little Bow Peep or few drinks before we headed to an izakaya.
High at the top of Anne & Kate’s list of ‘things to do in Japan’ was Tokyo Disneyland and admittedly I didn’t need much encouragement to visit the other Disney amusement park. Again we met up with Kate’s old friend Joe and her sister, who also happened to be visiting Japan. I actually preferred Disneyland to Disney Sea, which is always purported to be the more grown up, but actually Disneyland has a lot more rides and a lot more of the classic rides. It was quite nostalgic going on some of the rides I remember from Disneyland Paris, like Star Tours and Michael Jackson in ‘Captain EO’ (which I found hilarious). Other highlights include being told that we’re all too big gaijins that needed to be in the two-person carts alone.
After Disneyland we headed to Kyoto and then Nara. We were lucky enough to stumble upon 3 shy geishas in Kyoto, which really impressed the girls. This was my second trip to Kyoto and so I tried to encourage the exploration of districts I hadn’t seen, which wasn’t hard, there is so much to see in Kyoto. We ended up exploring the Higashiyama district, which has some of the most quintessentially traditional Japanese streets. After a portion of temple shrine and geisha viewing we moved on to Nara to gawp at the huge Buddha and stroke some very tame deer. Probably the most memorable episode of Nara was the Youth Hostel we stayed in, which had a very 1960s Scout hut feel to it. It was a very nice traditional room with tatami mats and futons but we were requested to check out by 8.00am, there were no real showers to speak of just a large, communal Japanese style bath and no breakfast. There was also an 11pm curfew. Nonetheless we had fun playing drinking games (which was against the no alcohol rules) in our traditional Japanese style room and had a lot of fun.
There’s a lot more to tell about Anne’s etc. time here, which I’ll hopefully update later. Needless to say I was very pleased to see everyone and enjoyed having them round and guiding them through my favourite parts of Japan.
I’ll try to update this soon. I have my friend Jenn down from Hokkaido with me at the moment and we’re doing a fair bit of travelling. We’ll be off to Yamanashi on Tuesday and hopefully climbing Mount Fuji on Wednesday. Can’t wait.
The highlight of July has to be the arrival of my sister and co. My sister came to visit with her boyfriend, and best friend/business partner, Kate, the other week. So for a week I was running up and down the country sightseeing and exploring new parts of Japan.
We were lucky to be greeted by the shrine carrying ceremony, when we arrived in my home ‘city’ of Kisarazu. It was quite lucky that the gang got to see something so quintessentially Japanesy for the first day. Day two was a trip straight into the big city. First stop we had the slightly disappointing visit to the Imperial Palace. Then onto a whistle-stop tour of Shibuya and Harajuku, where we met up with some old friends from Sheffield. Sunday, in Harajuku is famous for ‘Cos Play’; where people dress up as their favourite anime character or Little Bow Peep or few drinks before we headed to an izakaya.
High at the top of Anne & Kate’s list of ‘things to do in Japan’ was Tokyo Disneyland and admittedly I didn’t need much encouragement to visit the other Disney amusement park. Again we met up with Kate’s old friend Joe and her sister, who also happened to be visiting Japan. I actually preferred Disneyland to Disney Sea, which is always purported to be the more grown up, but actually Disneyland has a lot more rides and a lot more of the classic rides. It was quite nostalgic going on some of the rides I remember from Disneyland Paris, like Star Tours and Michael Jackson in ‘Captain EO’ (which I found hilarious). Other highlights include being told that we’re all too big gaijins that needed to be in the two-person carts alone.
After Disneyland we headed to Kyoto and then Nara. We were lucky enough to stumble upon 3 shy geishas in Kyoto, which really impressed the girls. This was my second trip to Kyoto and so I tried to encourage the exploration of districts I hadn’t seen, which wasn’t hard, there is so much to see in Kyoto. We ended up exploring the Higashiyama district, which has some of the most quintessentially traditional Japanese streets. After a portion of temple shrine and geisha viewing we moved on to Nara to gawp at the huge Buddha and stroke some very tame deer. Probably the most memorable episode of Nara was the Youth Hostel we stayed in, which had a very 1960s Scout hut feel to it. It was a very nice traditional room with tatami mats and futons but we were requested to check out by 8.00am, there were no real showers to speak of just a large, communal Japanese style bath and no breakfast. There was also an 11pm curfew. Nonetheless we had fun playing drinking games (which was against the no alcohol rules) in our traditional Japanese style room and had a lot of fun.
There’s a lot more to tell about Anne’s etc. time here, which I’ll hopefully update later. Needless to say I was very pleased to see everyone and enjoyed having them round and guiding them through my favourite parts of Japan.
I’ll try to update this soon. I have my friend Jenn down from Hokkaido with me at the moment and we’re doing a fair bit of travelling. We’ll be off to Yamanashi on Tuesday and hopefully climbing Mount Fuji on Wednesday. Can’t wait.
Thursday, 1 July 2010
Snakes on a Plane! (or rather one snake in my school)
This week I witnessed my first Japanese snake. I was quite impressed that I remembered what the vocabulary meant, after I heard yells of ‘Hebi’ ‘Hebi!’ and a few elementary-school-girl screams, from the stationary cupboard. I rushed over to the front porch to find a snake, as slim as two fingers and about 4 feet long, coiled up in the corner terrified of the 7 year old boy that was bashing the window from outside and screaming at it. For a moment I thought that I might be called upon as the only adult male present, to have to deal with it, despite having no experience with snakes whatsoever (a similar thing happened to my Dad when we were in Italy. There was Pakistani couple honeymooning nextdoor to us and a snake crept in while the newly wed wife was alone. She called on Dad to help, although she must have had much more of a clue what to do). Luckily the Vice Principal came to the rescue with the sasumata, the man catching device I mentioned in one of the previous instalments, and chased it out of the building.
The rainy season really hasn’t been as bad as I anticipated. Or rather the level of rain wasn’t quite as bad as I anticipated. Although it has rained fairly heavily, fairly frequently there has also been decent amounts of sunshine in-between. The main problem has been the heat and humidity, which has been quite unbearable on a couple of occasions. There was one hilarious moment when the Japanese English teacher asked me to drill the phrase ‘I’m really sweaty’. I had to do it three times and control my laughter as 30 Japanese school children replied in unison ‘I’m really sweaty!’.
It was a shame to see England get knocked out of the world cup earlier in the week. The match started at 11pm on Sunday, in Japan, and so what with having to get up for work at 6am the next day, I ended up watching it alone in my flat. Although it was sad to watch them loose after gaining so much of the possession and having a decent few chances on target, I couldn't help thinking that if they were to finally beat Germany in World Cup, I’d like to be in an English pub with English friends celebrating, rather than on my own in a flat in Japan. So I suppose that’s some consolation.
I can’t believe how soon it is until people arrive from Sheffield. It’s only really a week away now. I finally booked my tickets to California. I’m really looking forward to that too. It’ll be really good to see Cortney and Kevin and speak English to anyone in the street. It’ll also be good to get somewhere, if not a little cooler, then a little less humid. It’s going to a summer to remember.
The rainy season really hasn’t been as bad as I anticipated. Or rather the level of rain wasn’t quite as bad as I anticipated. Although it has rained fairly heavily, fairly frequently there has also been decent amounts of sunshine in-between. The main problem has been the heat and humidity, which has been quite unbearable on a couple of occasions. There was one hilarious moment when the Japanese English teacher asked me to drill the phrase ‘I’m really sweaty’. I had to do it three times and control my laughter as 30 Japanese school children replied in unison ‘I’m really sweaty!’.
It was a shame to see England get knocked out of the world cup earlier in the week. The match started at 11pm on Sunday, in Japan, and so what with having to get up for work at 6am the next day, I ended up watching it alone in my flat. Although it was sad to watch them loose after gaining so much of the possession and having a decent few chances on target, I couldn't help thinking that if they were to finally beat Germany in World Cup, I’d like to be in an English pub with English friends celebrating, rather than on my own in a flat in Japan. So I suppose that’s some consolation.
I can’t believe how soon it is until people arrive from Sheffield. It’s only really a week away now. I finally booked my tickets to California. I’m really looking forward to that too. It’ll be really good to see Cortney and Kevin and speak English to anyone in the street. It’ll also be good to get somewhere, if not a little cooler, then a little less humid. It’s going to a summer to remember.
Friday, 18 June 2010
Honeymoon Is Over
What with the rainy season coming into full swing, departed friends, a touch of the man flu and a badly executed, inspected, lesson, it really felt that the original buzz of being here has faded slightly this week. I’m still having fun and looking forward to exploring, experiencing and tasting more but I’m no longer here on holiday. Which is often how it’s felt over the last few months.
Anyhow it’s not all doom and gloom. As I said I’m still having a lot of fun and had a great final weekend with Kevin. Last weekend was much like Kevin’s first with a local night at my local Indian and pub followed by a night out in Tokyo, although no Elmo appearance this time. However, there was more Chu-Hi drinking in Yoyogi Park, followed by our favourite dirt-cheap izakaya. This time accompanied by the delightful Sam and a couple of token random Japanese, who proved to be very entertaining. Me and Kevin also managed a bit of sightseeing beforehand by taking a quick trip to Asakusa. Its one of the most famous temples in the Tokyo area and was packed but after a weekend at Kyoto it seemed fairly tame. Even so I did witness my first Shinto car blessing. You might think this ritual strange but it was a Toyota, so who can blame them, they need all the help they can get.
After the izakaya the three of us returned to Kisarazu to watch the England –USA match. It started at 3.30am, so I was struggling to keep my eyes open and called it a night at half time. Which was probably a good idea in hindsight, as it was a goalless second half. Nonetheless it was surprising to see quite how busy the bar was. I’m really lucky to have it on my doorstep.
Sunday and Monday I was treated to some of the best food I’ve had since being here. Sunday afternoon I was treated some very tasty Bavarian cuisine courtesy of lederhosen-clad Alex. He made some really delicious dumplings as well as several other, unmistakably European dishes that contained a decent amount of vegetables compared to their Japanese counterparts. Then on Monday I headed over to Rowena’s for some fantastic food, great company and even better entertainment (Prince nonetheless). It was the first ‘Monday Social’ in a while and really nice send off for Kevin. Rowena’s cooking was fabulous as ever.
Other than that I’m just looking forward to my sister etc. arriving next month and hoping that the rainy season’s gone by then. I’m also in the process of sorting out tickets to California. If the June’s weather is any indication of how the summer’s going to be, I’ll be glad to get out of here. I can’t wait to see Cortney and just hope I manage to save enough to go on some sort of road trip.
Anyhow it’s not all doom and gloom. As I said I’m still having a lot of fun and had a great final weekend with Kevin. Last weekend was much like Kevin’s first with a local night at my local Indian and pub followed by a night out in Tokyo, although no Elmo appearance this time. However, there was more Chu-Hi drinking in Yoyogi Park, followed by our favourite dirt-cheap izakaya. This time accompanied by the delightful Sam and a couple of token random Japanese, who proved to be very entertaining. Me and Kevin also managed a bit of sightseeing beforehand by taking a quick trip to Asakusa. Its one of the most famous temples in the Tokyo area and was packed but after a weekend at Kyoto it seemed fairly tame. Even so I did witness my first Shinto car blessing. You might think this ritual strange but it was a Toyota, so who can blame them, they need all the help they can get.
After the izakaya the three of us returned to Kisarazu to watch the England –USA match. It started at 3.30am, so I was struggling to keep my eyes open and called it a night at half time. Which was probably a good idea in hindsight, as it was a goalless second half. Nonetheless it was surprising to see quite how busy the bar was. I’m really lucky to have it on my doorstep.
Sunday and Monday I was treated to some of the best food I’ve had since being here. Sunday afternoon I was treated some very tasty Bavarian cuisine courtesy of lederhosen-clad Alex. He made some really delicious dumplings as well as several other, unmistakably European dishes that contained a decent amount of vegetables compared to their Japanese counterparts. Then on Monday I headed over to Rowena’s for some fantastic food, great company and even better entertainment (Prince nonetheless). It was the first ‘Monday Social’ in a while and really nice send off for Kevin. Rowena’s cooking was fabulous as ever.
Other than that I’m just looking forward to my sister etc. arriving next month and hoping that the rainy season’s gone by then. I’m also in the process of sorting out tickets to California. If the June’s weather is any indication of how the summer’s going to be, I’ll be glad to get out of here. I can’t wait to see Cortney and just hope I manage to save enough to go on some sort of road trip.
Thursday, 10 June 2010
Disney Sea, My first Shinkansen and Kyoto
Unfortunately I don’t get all that many holidays off at my current job. On the other hand, Japan has so many public holidays and I get several school holidays, so I shouldn’t complain. Anyhow, The one day I chose to take off, while Kevin was here, we decided to go to Disney Sea. It made sense to go on a weekday that wasn’t a public or school holiday, unless we wanted to spend the whole day in a queue. It was a fun little day trip. Disney’s theme parks (outside the US) are never the biggest or best but there really is an attention to detail that makes them a little more special than most. It was as if the theme park was designed so that the Japanese didn’t need to leave the country to see the world. They recreated a New York dock, a Middle Eastern square, Venetian waterways and a South American Jungle. After whizzing around on few measly roller coasters we headed into Tokyo for the fastest ride of the day, the Shinkansen. That is, the high speed Japanese railway line. The plan was to go to Kyoto, Japan’s cultural and historic capital.
This was my first experience of going on the Shinkansen, and for good reason, they’re pretty bloody expensive. It cost over £100 to get down to Kyoto and over £100 to get back. Nonetheless I’d sooner see a similar system put in place in Britain to reduce domestic flights. The distance between Tokyo and Kyoto, is comparable to London to Edinburgh and yet it doesn’t take much more than 2 hours on the Shinkansen. The carriages are fitted more like planes than trains with all the seats facing the direction in which you’re travelling. It was quite a scenic ride down, with the sun setting over the horizon and the various views of large rivers, seas and waterways. Part of me hoped I might see Mount Fuji but sadly it was not to be.
There are countless buildings across Kyoto that have qualified for the UNESCO world heritage status; more than anywhere in England and probably more than anywhere in the world, bar Rome. It’s impossible to do Kyoto properly in anything less than a week but it would also be rather tiresome to spend a week looking at all the shrines and temples. They all begin to look the same and a thus less impressive. Me and Kevin hired bikes at the hostel we were staying at to maximise our sightseeing potential (Kyoto’s quite a flat city so it was the perfect mode of transport). I think I managed to see around 10 temples and shrines, half of which were UNESCO and many of which were free. My favourites were probably the Shimogamo Shrine, at the confluence of the rivers, Kinkakuji and Fushimiinaritaisha Shrine.
I’d heard of Kinkakuji as a temple that my students had been to, on their trip to Kyoto but I didn’t realise quite how famous it was until I noticed it on the front of my Japanese phrasebook, and have seen it in several places since.
It’s covered in glittering gold and is something of an icon of Kyoto. Sadly like many of the temples and shrines, it has been re-built in the last 100 years, this time due to an arsonist monk. Around my region you will often find that temples and shrines have been rebuilt because they’ve been flattened in earthquakes. This doesn’t seem to be the case with Kyoto, probably due to the location of fault lines. Neither was it affected by American military bombardment. It would seem the main reason that buildings are rebuilt in Kyoto is fire. This would probably be much more the case of European churches too, if they were all built out of wood.
The Shimogamo Shrine was nestled in some woodland in between the two main rivers in Kyoto. The colours were so vibrant; the vermilion red of the temple and arches against the lush green of the forest and the deep blue of the sky. It really was breath taking, even after a day of shrine viewing. I saw the Fushimiinaritaisha Shrine on the Sunday. It grounds are huge and contain hundreds and hundreds of torii gates that lead all over wooded hillsides to various shrines, lakes and cemeteries.
However, what I enjoyed most of all in Kyoto, was riding the bikes down by the river. The weather really was perfect, the scenery; spectacular and there’s still some childish exhilaration that I get from riding a bike. Breezing downhill with the wind in your hair, it gives you such a sense of freedom. It was one of the few moments where you want to take a step back and appreciate how happy you are because you know it won’t last forever.
This was my first experience of going on the Shinkansen, and for good reason, they’re pretty bloody expensive. It cost over £100 to get down to Kyoto and over £100 to get back. Nonetheless I’d sooner see a similar system put in place in Britain to reduce domestic flights. The distance between Tokyo and Kyoto, is comparable to London to Edinburgh and yet it doesn’t take much more than 2 hours on the Shinkansen. The carriages are fitted more like planes than trains with all the seats facing the direction in which you’re travelling. It was quite a scenic ride down, with the sun setting over the horizon and the various views of large rivers, seas and waterways. Part of me hoped I might see Mount Fuji but sadly it was not to be.
There are countless buildings across Kyoto that have qualified for the UNESCO world heritage status; more than anywhere in England and probably more than anywhere in the world, bar Rome. It’s impossible to do Kyoto properly in anything less than a week but it would also be rather tiresome to spend a week looking at all the shrines and temples. They all begin to look the same and a thus less impressive. Me and Kevin hired bikes at the hostel we were staying at to maximise our sightseeing potential (Kyoto’s quite a flat city so it was the perfect mode of transport). I think I managed to see around 10 temples and shrines, half of which were UNESCO and many of which were free. My favourites were probably the Shimogamo Shrine, at the confluence of the rivers, Kinkakuji and Fushimiinaritaisha Shrine.
I’d heard of Kinkakuji as a temple that my students had been to, on their trip to Kyoto but I didn’t realise quite how famous it was until I noticed it on the front of my Japanese phrasebook, and have seen it in several places since.
It’s covered in glittering gold and is something of an icon of Kyoto. Sadly like many of the temples and shrines, it has been re-built in the last 100 years, this time due to an arsonist monk. Around my region you will often find that temples and shrines have been rebuilt because they’ve been flattened in earthquakes. This doesn’t seem to be the case with Kyoto, probably due to the location of fault lines. Neither was it affected by American military bombardment. It would seem the main reason that buildings are rebuilt in Kyoto is fire. This would probably be much more the case of European churches too, if they were all built out of wood.
The Shimogamo Shrine was nestled in some woodland in between the two main rivers in Kyoto. The colours were so vibrant; the vermilion red of the temple and arches against the lush green of the forest and the deep blue of the sky. It really was breath taking, even after a day of shrine viewing. I saw the Fushimiinaritaisha Shrine on the Sunday. It grounds are huge and contain hundreds and hundreds of torii gates that lead all over wooded hillsides to various shrines, lakes and cemeteries.
However, what I enjoyed most of all in Kyoto, was riding the bikes down by the river. The weather really was perfect, the scenery; spectacular and there’s still some childish exhilaration that I get from riding a bike. Breezing downhill with the wind in your hair, it gives you such a sense of freedom. It was one of the few moments where you want to take a step back and appreciate how happy you are because you know it won’t last forever.
Yamanashi: Psycho Lakes, Bridge Festivities and the Bat Cave
I missed last week’s blog but here’s a quick round up of what I got up to the weekend before last.
So, it was agreed that I’d come visit Vicky, with Kevin, for a weekend. She’s one of the other ALTs, that I first met in London, but then actually got to know on the orientation weekend. She lives in Yamanashi prefecture, which is out in the mountains above Tokyo and actually contains the highest mountain; Fuji-san, which she lives very near. I’m very jealous of her apartment not only because it’s four times the size of mine but also because she has no neighbours either side and so can make as much noise as she likes. The highlight of the first evening had to be the tiny karaoke bar, that Vicky calls her local. It was owned and run by a Japanese Tina Turner, who plied us with wacky Japanese snacks throughout the night. Although, Kevin wasn’t the keenest to get up and burst into song, he really enjoyed watching the old salary men belt out some tunes and after enough beers and some Elton John, well how could he resist.
On Saturday Vicky drove us up to one of the famous lakes near Fuji-san. Unfortunately the weather was overcast and although I promised this to be a trip where Kevin would get to see Fuji, it was sadly shrouded in cloud all weekend. Nonetheless, there was no short supply of postcards, pictures and souvenirs to remind us of exactly what we were missing. After a lap of the lake, we were ready to move on and were inspired by some signs to ‘Lake Saiko’ (pronounced Psycho in Japanese). But it wasn’t just the name of this lake that intrigued us. There were also signs to a bat cave. Well the decision was already made for us, what better an excursion for a Saturday afternoon than visiting Batman’s residence on a creepily named lake in the mountains of Japan. When we arrived at the bat cave, we were disappointed to find that it was not in fact Batman’s residence but a cave with bats in. And what was even more disappointing we didn’t see any bats. Nonetheless, we had fun crawling around igneous rocks underground with silly helmets on.
After heading back to Bicky’s (as the Japanese call her) hometown of Saruhashi we headed down to the bridge (which puts the ‘hashi’ into ‘saruhashi’) for a bridge festival. The bridge is a focal part of the town and has stood there for 500 or so years and was apparently built by monkeys, as I was told. Every year there is a festival to celebrate the bridge, as to some extent it is the raison d’être of the settlement. The bridge stands over a very deep valley that has flourishing lush green forest on each bank. It really is a stunning little part of the country. The festival consisted of some traditional drum performances, archery, children’s stories being narrated, a poetry competition and some more traditional music. We managed to find ourselves in a conversation with a guitarist girl, who was currently studying International Relations in Ibaraki. She then introduced us to her father who was a sculptor, who had trained and sculpted in Italy for over half a decade. What followed was a very surreal conversation in three or four languages. The sculptor would speak in a mixture of Italian adding English where he could and Japanese where he couldn’t. Although Kevin claims to know no Italian his exposure to it in Switzerland and maybe more importantly French gave him a decent guess at what the guy was saying. Even my limited French helped pick out a few sentences and words. Kevin tried to answer in limited Italian but occasionally stumbled into French and I used all the Japanese vocabulary that I could muster.
So, it was agreed that I’d come visit Vicky, with Kevin, for a weekend. She’s one of the other ALTs, that I first met in London, but then actually got to know on the orientation weekend. She lives in Yamanashi prefecture, which is out in the mountains above Tokyo and actually contains the highest mountain; Fuji-san, which she lives very near. I’m very jealous of her apartment not only because it’s four times the size of mine but also because she has no neighbours either side and so can make as much noise as she likes. The highlight of the first evening had to be the tiny karaoke bar, that Vicky calls her local. It was owned and run by a Japanese Tina Turner, who plied us with wacky Japanese snacks throughout the night. Although, Kevin wasn’t the keenest to get up and burst into song, he really enjoyed watching the old salary men belt out some tunes and after enough beers and some Elton John, well how could he resist.
On Saturday Vicky drove us up to one of the famous lakes near Fuji-san. Unfortunately the weather was overcast and although I promised this to be a trip where Kevin would get to see Fuji, it was sadly shrouded in cloud all weekend. Nonetheless, there was no short supply of postcards, pictures and souvenirs to remind us of exactly what we were missing. After a lap of the lake, we were ready to move on and were inspired by some signs to ‘Lake Saiko’ (pronounced Psycho in Japanese). But it wasn’t just the name of this lake that intrigued us. There were also signs to a bat cave. Well the decision was already made for us, what better an excursion for a Saturday afternoon than visiting Batman’s residence on a creepily named lake in the mountains of Japan. When we arrived at the bat cave, we were disappointed to find that it was not in fact Batman’s residence but a cave with bats in. And what was even more disappointing we didn’t see any bats. Nonetheless, we had fun crawling around igneous rocks underground with silly helmets on.
After heading back to Bicky’s (as the Japanese call her) hometown of Saruhashi we headed down to the bridge (which puts the ‘hashi’ into ‘saruhashi’) for a bridge festival. The bridge is a focal part of the town and has stood there for 500 or so years and was apparently built by monkeys, as I was told. Every year there is a festival to celebrate the bridge, as to some extent it is the raison d’être of the settlement. The bridge stands over a very deep valley that has flourishing lush green forest on each bank. It really is a stunning little part of the country. The festival consisted of some traditional drum performances, archery, children’s stories being narrated, a poetry competition and some more traditional music. We managed to find ourselves in a conversation with a guitarist girl, who was currently studying International Relations in Ibaraki. She then introduced us to her father who was a sculptor, who had trained and sculpted in Italy for over half a decade. What followed was a very surreal conversation in three or four languages. The sculptor would speak in a mixture of Italian adding English where he could and Japanese where he couldn’t. Although Kevin claims to know no Italian his exposure to it in Switzerland and maybe more importantly French gave him a decent guess at what the guy was saying. Even my limited French helped pick out a few sentences and words. Kevin tried to answer in limited Italian but occasionally stumbled into French and I used all the Japanese vocabulary that I could muster.
Thursday, 27 May 2010
Yokohama and all that jazz
After Kevin had had so many days out in Tokyo, we decided that we’d go and see Yokohama on the Saturday. Neither of us had been and it's a city the size of Paris that is more visible from my side of the bay than Tokyo. If Yokohama was in any other developed country it would be one of the largest cultural, financial and industrial hubs, but placed, as it is, next to the largest city in the world, it’s just a shadow of Tokyo. Its Tokyo’s little brother but it also has a lot going for it. It probably has the most multicultural history of almost anywhere in Japan and claims to have the largest Chinatown outside of China. Yokohama is the city with the second largest population and yet it seems to be vastly underrepresented in the guidebooks. I suppose it's a case of why have cotton when you can have silk? Why have Yokohama when you can have Tokyo?
Yokohama station was like all major Japanese railway stations; a vast labyrinth teeming with people. Kevin was on a mission to validate his JR pass and I was on a mission to find the popular import shop that Kathryn had spoken so highly of. I didn’t find any of the pickle that I was hoping for but I did find some quirky and banal English imports, such as Coleman’s Mustard and Lea and Perrin’s. It’s sad how these trivial familiarities have now become a novelty. After we met up with Kevin’s friend from Switzerland, we went on a whistle stop tour of Chinatown and the promenade, then took the worlds fastest passenger lift up what is currently the tallest building in Japan; the Landmark Tower. The view was the best I’ve had yet of Tokyo Bay and the bar at the top was remarkably underinflated in price, which was a nice surprise.
It was raining for most of Sunday and so we took shelter in the underground city of walkways in Shinjuku. There are literally miles of tunnels around Shinjuku leading to shops, cinemas, restaurants and the looming government buildings. There must have been millions of yen invested into these projects over the last few decades. You could probably spend a weeks underground visiting a different shop ever 15mins and you’d only run out of shops after 3 months solid. The network really is colossal. All I wanted was a Uni-Clo, which we found plenty of. I bought myself a nice new pair of trousers for school and they even readjusted the length to my request, free of charge. So much better service than you’d find in the UK.
Tomorrow I’m off to visit Vicky in Yamanashi, the prefecture with Mount Fuji in. Kevin’s currently in Hiroshima but he’s coming up to meet me too. We’ve been promised karaoke, lakes, festivals and Fuji-san. Should be a good weekend. Can’t wait.
Yokohama station was like all major Japanese railway stations; a vast labyrinth teeming with people. Kevin was on a mission to validate his JR pass and I was on a mission to find the popular import shop that Kathryn had spoken so highly of. I didn’t find any of the pickle that I was hoping for but I did find some quirky and banal English imports, such as Coleman’s Mustard and Lea and Perrin’s. It’s sad how these trivial familiarities have now become a novelty. After we met up with Kevin’s friend from Switzerland, we went on a whistle stop tour of Chinatown and the promenade, then took the worlds fastest passenger lift up what is currently the tallest building in Japan; the Landmark Tower. The view was the best I’ve had yet of Tokyo Bay and the bar at the top was remarkably underinflated in price, which was a nice surprise.
It was raining for most of Sunday and so we took shelter in the underground city of walkways in Shinjuku. There are literally miles of tunnels around Shinjuku leading to shops, cinemas, restaurants and the looming government buildings. There must have been millions of yen invested into these projects over the last few decades. You could probably spend a weeks underground visiting a different shop ever 15mins and you’d only run out of shops after 3 months solid. The network really is colossal. All I wanted was a Uni-Clo, which we found plenty of. I bought myself a nice new pair of trousers for school and they even readjusted the length to my request, free of charge. So much better service than you’d find in the UK.
Tomorrow I’m off to visit Vicky in Yamanashi, the prefecture with Mount Fuji in. Kevin’s currently in Hiroshima but he’s coming up to meet me too. We’ve been promised karaoke, lakes, festivals and Fuji-san. Should be a good weekend. Can’t wait.
Friday, 21 May 2010
Kevin has landed
I had one of the most entertaining weekends since I arrived. It was the first weekend with Kevin around and so we headed into Tokyo, for a 48-hour bender. After an evening in Roppongi, one of Kevin’s friends kindly put us up in his very un-Japanese sized apartment. He had a spare room that was larger than my entire flat… well almost. The sun was out and so we decided to have brunch in Yoyogi Park, then spent hours exploring some of the most fashionable parts of Tokyo; around Shibuya and Harajuku. Soon enough it was time to start drinking again and so we cracked open some chu-hi (what is fast becoming my drink of choice) and met up with some other gaijin in Yoyogi Park. Kevin couldn’t resist the temptation of buying a fancy dress, one-piece Elmo costume in Don Kihote and as darkness began to fall he was quickly persuaded to put it on. Elmo and I trekked around a Thai festival for a while, looking for dinner and were then invited to an isakaya with Kathryn et al. Once we met up Kathryn, she decided that Elmo was not appropriate for the establishment we were attending, then sure enough an hours drinking later Kevin was again convinced to put the costume on. The remainder of the night was a blur and I’m not entirely sure how we all got home but the train home with Elmo was probably one of the most surreal and hilarious train journeys of my life.
During Saturday night Kathryn had mentioned the Tokyo Design festival and managed to persuade everyone that that's where we were meeting the next day. It was being held in a huge exhibition centre called Tokyo Big Sight, that was on an artificial island in Tokyo Bay. We had agreed to be on our way by 10am, but realistically that was never going to happen. Me and Kevin arrived late afternoon and were not disappointed. The majority of the vast space was taken up by Spitalfield-esque independent arts, crafts, T-shirts, cards etc. artist’s stalls. There was a stage outside that had some unusual but very entertaining bands and in the central hall there were a performing arts stage, where we saw countless Japanese school children throwing some shapes. It had a really great carnival atmosphere and enough people dressed up in ridiculous outfits to keep us amused for hours
Kevin asked if he could come into school one day with me one day while he was visiting. I had a word with one of the teachers and Kevin came in with me on Monday. All the kids were as excited to see the gaijin visitor, as they were to see me on my first day. There were several questions about if we were related ranging from; ‘are you twins?’ to ‘are you brothers’ and the slightly less educated ‘are you sisters?’. We gave a little presentation about Switzerland to three of the classes, none of whom knew where Switzerland was or what languages they speak. The language question also generated some interesting responses. ‘What languages to they speak in Switzerland?’; ‘Chinese?’ ‘English?’ ‘Portuguese?’ and ‘Switzerlandish’.
One of the stranger discoveries of Japanese culture this week was finding out about what a ‘sasumata’ or ‘Japanese man catcher’ is. When Kevin was visiting school he asked me what this two meter long pole with a U shape at the end was. I hadn’t got a clue and hadn’t thought to ask because I assumed it to be something banal, an instrument to open high windows or something. However, a couple of days later I did ask and it turns out it's a ‘sasumata’, which traces its history to a medieval weapon that is used to pin an enemy down and restrain them. The archaic implement often had blades and barbs attached to it, luckily the one in school doesn’t. It would seem that after a few maniacs went into some schools and committed Dunblane style killings, decades ago, someone has managed to market these medieval weapons to schools. Each school has at least one at each entrance and several more outside the classroom. This seems a little odd, when Japan is more or less the safest country in the world.
I seem to have hit a wall with learning Japanese. This is something I was warned about. It all seemed fun learning all the kana and putting the sounds together and miraculously being able to read. Now I have the kanji to master, which is proving far more difficult. It’s an endless struggle and after the students were correcting several of the teacher’s kanji in class today, I feel like I might as well give up all hope. If the Japanese school teacher can’t get her head round kanji after who knows how many decades then how the hell am I ever going to be able to figure it out.
Today the weather was perfect. Roll on next week.
During Saturday night Kathryn had mentioned the Tokyo Design festival and managed to persuade everyone that that's where we were meeting the next day. It was being held in a huge exhibition centre called Tokyo Big Sight, that was on an artificial island in Tokyo Bay. We had agreed to be on our way by 10am, but realistically that was never going to happen. Me and Kevin arrived late afternoon and were not disappointed. The majority of the vast space was taken up by Spitalfield-esque independent arts, crafts, T-shirts, cards etc. artist’s stalls. There was a stage outside that had some unusual but very entertaining bands and in the central hall there were a performing arts stage, where we saw countless Japanese school children throwing some shapes. It had a really great carnival atmosphere and enough people dressed up in ridiculous outfits to keep us amused for hours
Kevin asked if he could come into school one day with me one day while he was visiting. I had a word with one of the teachers and Kevin came in with me on Monday. All the kids were as excited to see the gaijin visitor, as they were to see me on my first day. There were several questions about if we were related ranging from; ‘are you twins?’ to ‘are you brothers’ and the slightly less educated ‘are you sisters?’. We gave a little presentation about Switzerland to three of the classes, none of whom knew where Switzerland was or what languages they speak. The language question also generated some interesting responses. ‘What languages to they speak in Switzerland?’; ‘Chinese?’ ‘English?’ ‘Portuguese?’ and ‘Switzerlandish’.
One of the stranger discoveries of Japanese culture this week was finding out about what a ‘sasumata’ or ‘Japanese man catcher’ is. When Kevin was visiting school he asked me what this two meter long pole with a U shape at the end was. I hadn’t got a clue and hadn’t thought to ask because I assumed it to be something banal, an instrument to open high windows or something. However, a couple of days later I did ask and it turns out it's a ‘sasumata’, which traces its history to a medieval weapon that is used to pin an enemy down and restrain them. The archaic implement often had blades and barbs attached to it, luckily the one in school doesn’t. It would seem that after a few maniacs went into some schools and committed Dunblane style killings, decades ago, someone has managed to market these medieval weapons to schools. Each school has at least one at each entrance and several more outside the classroom. This seems a little odd, when Japan is more or less the safest country in the world.
I seem to have hit a wall with learning Japanese. This is something I was warned about. It all seemed fun learning all the kana and putting the sounds together and miraculously being able to read. Now I have the kanji to master, which is proving far more difficult. It’s an endless struggle and after the students were correcting several of the teacher’s kanji in class today, I feel like I might as well give up all hope. If the Japanese school teacher can’t get her head round kanji after who knows how many decades then how the hell am I ever going to be able to figure it out.
Today the weather was perfect. Roll on next week.
Tuesday, 11 May 2010
Golden times
The other week I came down with a serious case of the manflu. It really wasn’t all that bad fluy symptoms but as I’m a man it really was a big deal. It's a well known medical fact that the only equivalent to the suffering of manflu in womanhood is childbirth. Anyhow, I diagnosed myself with manflu the day before I had a class of 51 elementary (or junior school as we call them) children. It was by far the largest class I had had. I wouldn’t usually take a day off for such a trivial illness and I’ll make no exception in Japan. I had also been warned not to mention illness to the schools. Apparently they send you straight to the hospital for a check up and you have to take a day off as holiday.
It was my first day in the school with the 51 student class and so naturally I did my usual introduction lesson, where I shake every child’s hand as we introduce ourselves to each other. Then they all wanted a ‘high touch’ (or high five, as we might call them). Essentially, due to close proximity and ‘Westernised’ hand gestures, I’m pretty sure I managed to pass on my cold to every child in the town, as I had a class with every child in the school. Not only that but this was the day before the longest string of bank holidays in the Japanese calendar. Oh well.
Considering the fact that I was spreading disease throughout the community, I received one of the warmest welcomes of all the schools I teach in. The principal continually apologised for not speaking very much English and bombarded me with offers of drinks, snacks and help. She invited me in her office and seemed to expect me to use it as my own, when she headed off site for a meeting. At one point, at what seemed to be a welcoming ceremony for the 1st graders she burst into an English speech (with the help of her notes) and gave me a little introduction to the whole school.
The welcoming ceremony was also highly entertaining. It involved 1st years being paired up with older children to play games that always seemed to involve janken (rock, scissors, paper). And the grand finale involved 6 boys surging onto the stage in pink capes to demonstrate how the rest of the hall should dance to the track that had just begun blaring out of the tannoy speakers. No one battered an eyelid. This was apparently perfectly normal behaviour and within moments everyone in the hall was joining in.
Japan has a string of bank holidays around the beginning of May each year, which they call Golden Week. Unfortunately because the Japanese are all workaholics, many of the teachers and students go into school on these days off, mainly get a few extra sessions of club activities, such as baseball, music and soccer. Luckily they understand that I’m a lazy gaijin and so I headed off to a tropical island called Niijima but my first day of Golden Week was spent hiking in the Chiba countryside and visiting a monkey park.
The drive through the Chiba country-side was awe-inspiring. Although Chiba is relatively flat for Japan it would probably be one of the most mountainous regions of the UK. I caught a glimpse of the Tokyo Wan Kannon, which is this huge, white, Buddhist statue that stands proud over the bay. I didn’t really realise how nice some of the country side near me is, until I finally got there.
Our first destination was the monkey park and once we got there, we headed off in the opposite direction on a little hike, attempting to follow some impossible paths. Alex asked an old lady for some directions as to where the hiking route was. She said something about watching out for the river to which Alex shrugged off, seeing the little stream that had emerged down the path after all the recent rainfall. When we finally trudged our way to the bottom of the stream, we were met with a concrete gorge of a drop, which had a fast flowing river flowing about 9 inches deep, across the former path. After some umming and arring and consultation with the girls as to whether they wanted to go on, it was decided that the group wasn’t going to be beaten by a measly river. So one by one we climbed down the ladder and wadded through.
We were all a little exhausted from trudging through mud, streams and rivers and so the rest of the journey was a swift walk back to the car via a couple of lost looking cows. There was a suggestion of another walk that was quickly quashed and before we knew it we were in the Monkey sanctuary being heckled for food. Monkeys live wild across much of Japan and I was informed that these monkeys had a choice of leaving the sanctuary but wasn’t all that convinced by this statement, what with the 12 foot electric fences.
The rest of my Golden Week was spent on the island of Niijima. I had been recommended to go on this trip by some ALTs that went last year and really enjoyed it. I had asked the guys from orientation if they would be up for the trip and pretty much everyone was game. I told everyone I was putting my deposit down and a few days later it emerged that not everyone could afford it and so I had a choice of pulling out and losing half my deposit or going with a couple of guys I vaguely knew, and hopefully making some friends out there. Needless to say I went for the latter.
The island is an 8 hour ferry ride south of Tokyo. It was organised by a group called Tokyo Gaijins, that organise trips and extreme sports weekends for other foreigners that either want a little help sorting out there holiday or would just appreciate some English speaking company. It was very useful. I just paid my lump sum and they sorted out the tent, the bike hire, food and the ferries there and back. It also provided me with a network of English speakers to meet up with.
Strangely enough after waiting for the ferry for a couple of minutes I was approached by a chap that opened a conversation with something along the lines of ‘You’ve got a Sheffield vibe about you. Where are you from?’ I’m not sure if I would say that I’m from Sheffield but it was strange to meet a guy, on the other side of the world, whose parents live at the bottom of the hill from mine. It’s even stranger to think that I might have developed a Sheffield vibe. Anyhow, this chance meeting alone meant that the Tokyo Gaijin event had paid off. I’m pretty sure I’ll be meeting up with James, in Tokyo, in the near future and who knows I may even see him in Sheffield one day.
The 8 hour ferry ride there was very hazy. I remember watching the sun rise (vaguely) then I would estimate I had one hour sleep and then I had to get off the boat. After a very shaky cycle, half way across the island, to the campsite, I had a leisurely and very unproductive day. I experienced my first onsen (Japanese hot spring), which I found to be uncomfortably hot. But this wasn’t any old onsen. This one had the most amazing view of across the ocean with some really dramatic cliff faced islands.
The next day was a little more productive, lots of cycling, as I befriended some charming and athletic Aussies. We briefly visited the glass museum, one of very few cultural attractions on the island. We also headed around to the other side of the island, to a quieter bay, where I participated in a little sea swimming. Other than that the adventure involved mainly alcohol consumption and partying.
The most exciting thing that has happened since golden week is the arrival of my first guest, Kevin. I’m looking forward to a fun few weeks here with him. He’s only been here for a matter of hours so far but the weekends are already beginning to get crammed full of little adventures. I think there may be a trip to Tokyo Disney on the cards too.
It was my first day in the school with the 51 student class and so naturally I did my usual introduction lesson, where I shake every child’s hand as we introduce ourselves to each other. Then they all wanted a ‘high touch’ (or high five, as we might call them). Essentially, due to close proximity and ‘Westernised’ hand gestures, I’m pretty sure I managed to pass on my cold to every child in the town, as I had a class with every child in the school. Not only that but this was the day before the longest string of bank holidays in the Japanese calendar. Oh well.
Considering the fact that I was spreading disease throughout the community, I received one of the warmest welcomes of all the schools I teach in. The principal continually apologised for not speaking very much English and bombarded me with offers of drinks, snacks and help. She invited me in her office and seemed to expect me to use it as my own, when she headed off site for a meeting. At one point, at what seemed to be a welcoming ceremony for the 1st graders she burst into an English speech (with the help of her notes) and gave me a little introduction to the whole school.
The welcoming ceremony was also highly entertaining. It involved 1st years being paired up with older children to play games that always seemed to involve janken (rock, scissors, paper). And the grand finale involved 6 boys surging onto the stage in pink capes to demonstrate how the rest of the hall should dance to the track that had just begun blaring out of the tannoy speakers. No one battered an eyelid. This was apparently perfectly normal behaviour and within moments everyone in the hall was joining in.
Japan has a string of bank holidays around the beginning of May each year, which they call Golden Week. Unfortunately because the Japanese are all workaholics, many of the teachers and students go into school on these days off, mainly get a few extra sessions of club activities, such as baseball, music and soccer. Luckily they understand that I’m a lazy gaijin and so I headed off to a tropical island called Niijima but my first day of Golden Week was spent hiking in the Chiba countryside and visiting a monkey park.
The drive through the Chiba country-side was awe-inspiring. Although Chiba is relatively flat for Japan it would probably be one of the most mountainous regions of the UK. I caught a glimpse of the Tokyo Wan Kannon, which is this huge, white, Buddhist statue that stands proud over the bay. I didn’t really realise how nice some of the country side near me is, until I finally got there.
Our first destination was the monkey park and once we got there, we headed off in the opposite direction on a little hike, attempting to follow some impossible paths. Alex asked an old lady for some directions as to where the hiking route was. She said something about watching out for the river to which Alex shrugged off, seeing the little stream that had emerged down the path after all the recent rainfall. When we finally trudged our way to the bottom of the stream, we were met with a concrete gorge of a drop, which had a fast flowing river flowing about 9 inches deep, across the former path. After some umming and arring and consultation with the girls as to whether they wanted to go on, it was decided that the group wasn’t going to be beaten by a measly river. So one by one we climbed down the ladder and wadded through.
We were all a little exhausted from trudging through mud, streams and rivers and so the rest of the journey was a swift walk back to the car via a couple of lost looking cows. There was a suggestion of another walk that was quickly quashed and before we knew it we were in the Monkey sanctuary being heckled for food. Monkeys live wild across much of Japan and I was informed that these monkeys had a choice of leaving the sanctuary but wasn’t all that convinced by this statement, what with the 12 foot electric fences.
The rest of my Golden Week was spent on the island of Niijima. I had been recommended to go on this trip by some ALTs that went last year and really enjoyed it. I had asked the guys from orientation if they would be up for the trip and pretty much everyone was game. I told everyone I was putting my deposit down and a few days later it emerged that not everyone could afford it and so I had a choice of pulling out and losing half my deposit or going with a couple of guys I vaguely knew, and hopefully making some friends out there. Needless to say I went for the latter.
The island is an 8 hour ferry ride south of Tokyo. It was organised by a group called Tokyo Gaijins, that organise trips and extreme sports weekends for other foreigners that either want a little help sorting out there holiday or would just appreciate some English speaking company. It was very useful. I just paid my lump sum and they sorted out the tent, the bike hire, food and the ferries there and back. It also provided me with a network of English speakers to meet up with.
Strangely enough after waiting for the ferry for a couple of minutes I was approached by a chap that opened a conversation with something along the lines of ‘You’ve got a Sheffield vibe about you. Where are you from?’ I’m not sure if I would say that I’m from Sheffield but it was strange to meet a guy, on the other side of the world, whose parents live at the bottom of the hill from mine. It’s even stranger to think that I might have developed a Sheffield vibe. Anyhow, this chance meeting alone meant that the Tokyo Gaijin event had paid off. I’m pretty sure I’ll be meeting up with James, in Tokyo, in the near future and who knows I may even see him in Sheffield one day.
The 8 hour ferry ride there was very hazy. I remember watching the sun rise (vaguely) then I would estimate I had one hour sleep and then I had to get off the boat. After a very shaky cycle, half way across the island, to the campsite, I had a leisurely and very unproductive day. I experienced my first onsen (Japanese hot spring), which I found to be uncomfortably hot. But this wasn’t any old onsen. This one had the most amazing view of across the ocean with some really dramatic cliff faced islands.
The next day was a little more productive, lots of cycling, as I befriended some charming and athletic Aussies. We briefly visited the glass museum, one of very few cultural attractions on the island. We also headed around to the other side of the island, to a quieter bay, where I participated in a little sea swimming. Other than that the adventure involved mainly alcohol consumption and partying.
The most exciting thing that has happened since golden week is the arrival of my first guest, Kevin. I’m looking forward to a fun few weeks here with him. He’s only been here for a matter of hours so far but the weekends are already beginning to get crammed full of little adventures. I think there may be a trip to Tokyo Disney on the cards too.
Sunday, 25 April 2010
Oh the irony!
After moving half way around the world to one of the most volcanically active countries, to a town that is in sight of one of the most famous volcanoes in the world, it end up being my parents, and not me that is caught up in volcano chaos. This year was the first year that my father left Europe, to go on holiday to Egypt. He’s not a fan of flying at the best of times but I think it unlikely that he’ll leave Europe again after the adventure they had.
Unfortunately my Mum fell ill the day before they were due to fly back, which didn’t really help matters. They arrived at Cairo airport to find all UK flights cancelled. After some umming and arring they bought flights to Rome for the next day. It’s not exactly close to Sheffield but at least it's the same landmass and there are trains all the way, albeit already booked up ones. Once they arrived in Rome they befriended some Geordies who they shared a cab all the way to Caen (the north of France) with. My Dad offered them language help, which avoided them ending up in Canne, in return the Geordies provided iphone facilities; ferry bookings, tracking down someone’s number in Portsmouth etc.. They then stayed the night at Ian’s (Another Geordie) in Portsmouth and got the train through London to Sheffield the next day. So it would seem Geordies saved the day. While all this chaos was unfolding my sister was attending a chocolate course in Oxfordshire meaning information on the parents whereabouts and health was sporadic and slow. So I was a little worried about all that this week.
In the world of teaching, one of the classes this week involved the kids writing a profile on me, which I was asked to help them with and correct. This involved me correcting a girl’s work from ‘ He is cool than me’ to ‘ He is cooler than me’. Which may seem egotistical and self obsessed but it was what she was trying to write and she needs to learn.
Matsumura-sensei asked me to mark the papers after and I decided to write down some of my favourite corrections.
‘He is the best food’
‘He is like music’
‘He is like tempura’
‘He isn’t girlfriend’
‘Peter is the best tempura Japanese food’
‘My first impressions of him is that he has a long nose and he is tall’
(I was tempted to inform this girl that commenting on the size of a persons nose may not be seen as a compliment in the West. Nemoto-sensei assured me that this was a compliment.)
‘I will good soccer play. I want to go to Akihabara and England’
(I think he might just make it to Akihabara some day. There are trains that leave the station for Tokyo several times an hour after all.)
I spoke to a Filipino student, this week, who I hold the deepest sympathy for. She’s been in Japan for about a year and came here with no siblings, no previous experience of the Japanese language. She doesn’t seem to be unhappy or anything but it must be really really hard for her. It turns out her Mum remarried a Japanese man and her father lives on Manhattan. Her English is way ahead of the others (even if she did copy a load from Wikipedia about Sheffield) but her Japanese is, understandably behind. I hope I can help her out a bit with the English and get her to continually improve. She’s also proving to be a useful tool as a translator when talking to the kids.
Other than that I’ve just been having a really good time with the other gaijins out here. I had a trip to Mito for a friend Sam’s Bday, which was awesome. We went to some of the most gorgeous gardens in Japan and I tried plum wine, for the first time at the karaoke (which seemed to be unusually populated by Texans). I waded in the Pacific the next day as Sam surfed and lost his pants. He seemed to be suffering from hyperthermia after, so I’m glad I just waded and kept my pants on.
I had a bit of a drunken Saturday at the Pig yesterday. They had DJs, some guy on a guitar performing and an MC. Somehow I ended up centre stage for a couple of songs, which was fun. I’m so lucky to have something like the pig on my doorstep. Rowena, another Brit from Oxford/Manchester and my closest friend in KSRZ, got some great Polaroids of the night.
Monday evenings at Rowena’s is becoming to be something of tradition. Great food, great company and its nice to be able to speak English at the end of the day. It also gives me an excuse to visit the local patisserie, which is always welcome. I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s instalment.
Unfortunately my Mum fell ill the day before they were due to fly back, which didn’t really help matters. They arrived at Cairo airport to find all UK flights cancelled. After some umming and arring they bought flights to Rome for the next day. It’s not exactly close to Sheffield but at least it's the same landmass and there are trains all the way, albeit already booked up ones. Once they arrived in Rome they befriended some Geordies who they shared a cab all the way to Caen (the north of France) with. My Dad offered them language help, which avoided them ending up in Canne, in return the Geordies provided iphone facilities; ferry bookings, tracking down someone’s number in Portsmouth etc.. They then stayed the night at Ian’s (Another Geordie) in Portsmouth and got the train through London to Sheffield the next day. So it would seem Geordies saved the day. While all this chaos was unfolding my sister was attending a chocolate course in Oxfordshire meaning information on the parents whereabouts and health was sporadic and slow. So I was a little worried about all that this week.
In the world of teaching, one of the classes this week involved the kids writing a profile on me, which I was asked to help them with and correct. This involved me correcting a girl’s work from ‘ He is cool than me’ to ‘ He is cooler than me’. Which may seem egotistical and self obsessed but it was what she was trying to write and she needs to learn.
Matsumura-sensei asked me to mark the papers after and I decided to write down some of my favourite corrections.
‘He is the best food’
‘He is like music’
‘He is like tempura’
‘He isn’t girlfriend’
‘Peter is the best tempura Japanese food’
‘My first impressions of him is that he has a long nose and he is tall’
(I was tempted to inform this girl that commenting on the size of a persons nose may not be seen as a compliment in the West. Nemoto-sensei assured me that this was a compliment.)
‘I will good soccer play. I want to go to Akihabara and England’
(I think he might just make it to Akihabara some day. There are trains that leave the station for Tokyo several times an hour after all.)
I spoke to a Filipino student, this week, who I hold the deepest sympathy for. She’s been in Japan for about a year and came here with no siblings, no previous experience of the Japanese language. She doesn’t seem to be unhappy or anything but it must be really really hard for her. It turns out her Mum remarried a Japanese man and her father lives on Manhattan. Her English is way ahead of the others (even if she did copy a load from Wikipedia about Sheffield) but her Japanese is, understandably behind. I hope I can help her out a bit with the English and get her to continually improve. She’s also proving to be a useful tool as a translator when talking to the kids.
Other than that I’ve just been having a really good time with the other gaijins out here. I had a trip to Mito for a friend Sam’s Bday, which was awesome. We went to some of the most gorgeous gardens in Japan and I tried plum wine, for the first time at the karaoke (which seemed to be unusually populated by Texans). I waded in the Pacific the next day as Sam surfed and lost his pants. He seemed to be suffering from hyperthermia after, so I’m glad I just waded and kept my pants on.
I had a bit of a drunken Saturday at the Pig yesterday. They had DJs, some guy on a guitar performing and an MC. Somehow I ended up centre stage for a couple of songs, which was fun. I’m so lucky to have something like the pig on my doorstep. Rowena, another Brit from Oxford/Manchester and my closest friend in KSRZ, got some great Polaroids of the night.
Monday evenings at Rowena’s is becoming to be something of tradition. Great food, great company and its nice to be able to speak English at the end of the day. It also gives me an excuse to visit the local patisserie, which is always welcome. I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s instalment.
Thursday, 15 April 2010
I'm a real gaijin now
Finally getting to do some teaching this week has been fun. Not surprisingly the kids don’t know much about the UK, beyond Manchester United and David Beckham. I’ve been repeating a variation on the theme of a self-introduction. My favourite bit of the lesson, however, is the Q&A, where I am interrogated by all manner of inane and insane questions. Frequent questions are: ‘Do you have a wife?’ ,‘Do you have a girlfriend?’ and ‘How tall are you?’ which was worded as ‘How many centimetres are there in your beight?’ today.
Other favourites include:
'Do you like beatles?' to which I reply 'yes they're a good band'. 'No do you like beatles (gestures insects with hands)?'. 'Erm I suppose so'.
'Do you like the Backstreet Boys? I like the Backstreet Boys'. [I thought this one might be sarcastic trick but was actually asked by a very serious 2nd grade boy]
‘Which do you like more cat or dog?’
‘What blood type are you?’- Apparently this is a big deal in Japan
On my first day at one of the elementary school the lady looking after me, was the nicest person I’ve met since I arrived here. She must have read up on my profile before I arrived because she had specially baked some English style scones for me. Not only that but she also made a cup of black tea, that was ready for me, when I arrived in the staff room for break. I’ll have to bring some omiyage next week, especially after mentioning Anne’s shop in the presentations. Whenever I repeated my thank yous, she would point out what an English Gentleman I was too. She may be something of an Anglophile. She has visited the UK three times. Which is many for a Japanese person and especially for someone her age (around 50). Her English was slow but very clear and often she would say the Japanese slowly beforehand, which is really helpful to me as I am beginning to learn bits. She was very modest about her level of English too but then all Japanese people are modest about their English. No matter what level.
Today I went to City Hall, where I picked up my gaijin card. Making me a fully fledged member (even as an outsider) of Japanese society. I will have to carry my gaijin card around with me wherever I go and if I’m stopped by the police without it I could face a hefty fine, imprisonment or deportation. I’m not sure if this is a cultural throw back of the 18th century, closed state Japan, where foreigners could face execution for trespassing on Japanese soil, or maybe its just the backlash against the Americans after the occupation but either way it seems archaic and unnecessary. Its just another indication of what a monolithic society Japan is. There has been so little immigration here over the years.
I’m really happy how everything has finally come together. I applied for this job about a year ago now and I’ve been building up to it for a while. At the back of my head there were a lot of doubts about can I survive the culture shock? How will I find the language? Will I just end up alienated and depressed? can I cope with teaching? and will any of these cause me to retreat back home early? However, a month in and none of the doubts are relevant anymore, which is a relief. It was always going to be a bit of a mammoth task, relocating to Japan, but I’ve finally done it. I think this calls for a celebration. I’m heading to Ibaraki this weekend for a Birthday. Sounds like a plan.
Other favourites include:
'Do you like beatles?' to which I reply 'yes they're a good band'. 'No do you like beatles (gestures insects with hands)?'. 'Erm I suppose so'.
'Do you like the Backstreet Boys? I like the Backstreet Boys'. [I thought this one might be sarcastic trick but was actually asked by a very serious 2nd grade boy]
‘Which do you like more cat or dog?’
‘What blood type are you?’- Apparently this is a big deal in Japan
On my first day at one of the elementary school the lady looking after me, was the nicest person I’ve met since I arrived here. She must have read up on my profile before I arrived because she had specially baked some English style scones for me. Not only that but she also made a cup of black tea, that was ready for me, when I arrived in the staff room for break. I’ll have to bring some omiyage next week, especially after mentioning Anne’s shop in the presentations. Whenever I repeated my thank yous, she would point out what an English Gentleman I was too. She may be something of an Anglophile. She has visited the UK three times. Which is many for a Japanese person and especially for someone her age (around 50). Her English was slow but very clear and often she would say the Japanese slowly beforehand, which is really helpful to me as I am beginning to learn bits. She was very modest about her level of English too but then all Japanese people are modest about their English. No matter what level.
Today I went to City Hall, where I picked up my gaijin card. Making me a fully fledged member (even as an outsider) of Japanese society. I will have to carry my gaijin card around with me wherever I go and if I’m stopped by the police without it I could face a hefty fine, imprisonment or deportation. I’m not sure if this is a cultural throw back of the 18th century, closed state Japan, where foreigners could face execution for trespassing on Japanese soil, or maybe its just the backlash against the Americans after the occupation but either way it seems archaic and unnecessary. Its just another indication of what a monolithic society Japan is. There has been so little immigration here over the years.
I’m really happy how everything has finally come together. I applied for this job about a year ago now and I’ve been building up to it for a while. At the back of my head there were a lot of doubts about can I survive the culture shock? How will I find the language? Will I just end up alienated and depressed? can I cope with teaching? and will any of these cause me to retreat back home early? However, a month in and none of the doubts are relevant anymore, which is a relief. It was always going to be a bit of a mammoth task, relocating to Japan, but I’ve finally done it. I think this calls for a celebration. I’m heading to Ibaraki this weekend for a Birthday. Sounds like a plan.
Friday, 9 April 2010
My first week of school
So this was my first week at school and what a week it’s been. I was told that the week would probably involve a lot of waiting around the staff room, being asked to prepare for the 15 minute introduction that I’ll be giving to the students as my first lesson. I was told that there would be a lot of setting up and packing away for the opening ceremony and that although the teachers would refuse my help at first, actually they would really like me to get involved. These all turned out to be very accurate predictions.
I was lucky enough to attend two opening ceremonies in both my junior high schools. Opening ceremonies seem to be a bowerthon battle between the new students, the PTA (which they strangely call the PTA) and the staff. I’m not really sure of all the rules, as it was all in Japanese but even I had to go up to the front and help the staff team by bowing to all the new kids and parents. Its all very well organised and the kids march in alphabetically (counter alphabetically if you’re a girl) bow, stand up, bow and sit down. Then a register is called and one by one they shout ‘ はい‘ and then bow and sit down again. Who knows who won the bowing battle but it was good enough show for all the parents to want to take pictures after.
On the second ceremony I attended I got to witness a traditional Japanese drumming performance. That was quite fun but not as entertaining as trying to sight read the school song in Japanese. I can read music and I can read hiragana but both of them at the same time at speed isn’t what you would call music. It was fun having a go though.
At one point one of the teachers asked me what the equivalent to an opening ceremony in England was. I said we didn’t have one, which he seemed strangely surprised at. ‘But what do you do to welcome the new students?’.
We don’t have an opening ceremony in England because it basically comprised of a hell of a lot of bowing (You can’t shake each others hands for the same length of time), the national anthem (which everyone in England hates), the school song (I don’t think I actually had a school song) and a glorified register. Now we do do the register bit in England but it would be a bit lame to invite the parents and the rest of the school to witness a register, right?
Other than that, I have been constantly hounded by students shouting ‘HELLO!’ or ‘ピーター!’ and waving. When I try to develop even the most basic conversation they usually back down and claim to not speak any English. I am an object of amusement and fascination to the kids. Sometimes its as if they’ve not seen a white person before, and some of them have probably seen very few. At one point, when I went out to view the Baseball club girls were hanging out of windows on the 1st floor and shouting my name. Soon after the boys stopped their baseball and shouted some sort of salute, then all bowed towards me. I bowed back. There were even some girls that stopped their game of tennis after this and peaked around the corner to stare and wave.
So that’s school so far but I am yet to start doing any real teaching/ work. Which on the one hand is a little frustrating but on the other getting paid a full weeks wage for a bit of bowing, waving and colouring in isn’t too bad.
I was lucky enough to attend two opening ceremonies in both my junior high schools. Opening ceremonies seem to be a bowerthon battle between the new students, the PTA (which they strangely call the PTA) and the staff. I’m not really sure of all the rules, as it was all in Japanese but even I had to go up to the front and help the staff team by bowing to all the new kids and parents. Its all very well organised and the kids march in alphabetically (counter alphabetically if you’re a girl) bow, stand up, bow and sit down. Then a register is called and one by one they shout ‘ はい‘ and then bow and sit down again. Who knows who won the bowing battle but it was good enough show for all the parents to want to take pictures after.
On the second ceremony I attended I got to witness a traditional Japanese drumming performance. That was quite fun but not as entertaining as trying to sight read the school song in Japanese. I can read music and I can read hiragana but both of them at the same time at speed isn’t what you would call music. It was fun having a go though.
At one point one of the teachers asked me what the equivalent to an opening ceremony in England was. I said we didn’t have one, which he seemed strangely surprised at. ‘But what do you do to welcome the new students?’.
We don’t have an opening ceremony in England because it basically comprised of a hell of a lot of bowing (You can’t shake each others hands for the same length of time), the national anthem (which everyone in England hates), the school song (I don’t think I actually had a school song) and a glorified register. Now we do do the register bit in England but it would be a bit lame to invite the parents and the rest of the school to witness a register, right?
Other than that, I have been constantly hounded by students shouting ‘HELLO!’ or ‘ピーター!’ and waving. When I try to develop even the most basic conversation they usually back down and claim to not speak any English. I am an object of amusement and fascination to the kids. Sometimes its as if they’ve not seen a white person before, and some of them have probably seen very few. At one point, when I went out to view the Baseball club girls were hanging out of windows on the 1st floor and shouting my name. Soon after the boys stopped their baseball and shouted some sort of salute, then all bowed towards me. I bowed back. There were even some girls that stopped their game of tennis after this and peaked around the corner to stare and wave.
So that’s school so far but I am yet to start doing any real teaching/ work. Which on the one hand is a little frustrating but on the other getting paid a full weeks wage for a bit of bowing, waving and colouring in isn’t too bad.
Tuesday, 6 April 2010
Konichiwa!
This is the first of what I hope to be a weekly blog update on my progress in Japan. It should save hundreds of duplicate emails to friends on what I’ve been up to.
I’ve been here two weeks so far so let me give you a little run down on what I’ve been up to and my first impressions.
I have yet to set foot in a classroom and teach but that will all change tomorrow when I embark on my first day at Kaneda Junior High School. On my first week I spent several days at orientation in a hotel in Narita. This provided a valuable opportunity to make friends with other English speakers teaching in Japan. The lectures and activities did seem a little mediocre but I’m not sure that many of us were capable of much more academic, on account of our severe jetlag.
The Japanese have been very helpful, when one of the ICs was driving us to the Post Office, she asked for directions and before we knew it there were 3 old Japanese men queuing up to give her directions. Many people are willing to go to quite some lengths to help but it doesn’t detract from the fact that only a small portion of the population speaks any English. This can be frustrating at times but I’m hoping it will propel me into learning Japanese quicker.
I’m really glad that I managed to crack the Hiragana and Katakana alphabets before I came out. It puts me at an advantage over a few of the other ALTs that, like me, have no academic background in Japanese. Although I did a fair bit of work before I arrived, I’ve not really studied much Japanese here yet. I’m hoping that once I have a routine I’ll be able to incorporate some time for study during the week.
I’m quite schizophrenic about the cuisine here. On the one hand I love the variation and its exotic charm but on the other it is impossible to be a vegetarian, which I had anticipated. So far I am avoiding meat but tolerating it in small quantities, which I think is about the best I can do without treading on too many peoples toes. Its also odd getting used to the price of food. Eating out can be quite cheap but then some fruit and veg can be extortionate.
The exotic flora and fauna are a constant source of amusement. There are some beautiful little white stork-like birds that inhabit the paddy fields near me and I also caught sight of the most enormous and elegant bird of prey. It might have been an eagle, I don’t know. Whatever it was it was larger than a kite and certainly isn’t native to Britain. I’ve heard there are wild monkeys in the forests not far from me, in the hills. I’d love to head in and catch sight of them at some point. What’s funny is seeing all these new creatures next to others that are banal and familiar, like pigeons and sparrows.
Kisarazu was a really great location to be placed. Its an industrial town (which they call a city) on the Bay of Tokyo that is a little run down since the bubble burst and the Aqualine was built (a combined tunnel and bridge that crosses the bay to Tokyo and is the longest tunnel for vehicles in the world). It's mild grottyness is really a blessing as it keeps the rent down. While the Aqualine didn’t do the town’s economy much good, it does grant me excellent access to Tokyo. Something that so few of the hundred or so people I was training with in Narita have.
I’m also really lucky that there’s a decent gaijin bar nearby. There’s a place called The Pig that’s in staggering distance and where other English-speaking foreigners come to drink, and some travel a fair distance. The staff there are really friendly and so are the clientele. Kazuki, the owner of the bar, also seems to be quite into British music, which I like.
So far I’ve been into Tokyo 3 times but I hope that once payday comes through and my finances are little more regular, I’ll be spending every weekend over the other side of the Bay. Or at least I hope to become very familiar with Tokyo. There’s still so much of quintessential Tokyo that I haven’t seen. So far the only ground I’ve covered is a wander around Akiharbara, a night out in Shibuya and a glimpse of Harijuku and Yoyogi park.
One of my favourite places to go, so far is the ¥100 shop. Not only is it 100 times better than our £1 shops but its even cheaper currently being about 60-70p. The quality of the products is vastly superior and even the cheap tack is so much more appealing because its Japanese. I’ve bought a really nice tea set from there, a really useful map of my prefecture and Japan and there are endless random snacks you can get. I even went out of my way to visit the 7 story ¥100 shop in Funabashi. It was well worth the trek. Can’t wait to take guests there. They’ll just fill up their cases with the stuff.
I've survived and enjoyed the first two weeks. Now lets see what it's like working here.
I’ve been here two weeks so far so let me give you a little run down on what I’ve been up to and my first impressions.
I have yet to set foot in a classroom and teach but that will all change tomorrow when I embark on my first day at Kaneda Junior High School. On my first week I spent several days at orientation in a hotel in Narita. This provided a valuable opportunity to make friends with other English speakers teaching in Japan. The lectures and activities did seem a little mediocre but I’m not sure that many of us were capable of much more academic, on account of our severe jetlag.
The Japanese have been very helpful, when one of the ICs was driving us to the Post Office, she asked for directions and before we knew it there were 3 old Japanese men queuing up to give her directions. Many people are willing to go to quite some lengths to help but it doesn’t detract from the fact that only a small portion of the population speaks any English. This can be frustrating at times but I’m hoping it will propel me into learning Japanese quicker.
I’m really glad that I managed to crack the Hiragana and Katakana alphabets before I came out. It puts me at an advantage over a few of the other ALTs that, like me, have no academic background in Japanese. Although I did a fair bit of work before I arrived, I’ve not really studied much Japanese here yet. I’m hoping that once I have a routine I’ll be able to incorporate some time for study during the week.
I’m quite schizophrenic about the cuisine here. On the one hand I love the variation and its exotic charm but on the other it is impossible to be a vegetarian, which I had anticipated. So far I am avoiding meat but tolerating it in small quantities, which I think is about the best I can do without treading on too many peoples toes. Its also odd getting used to the price of food. Eating out can be quite cheap but then some fruit and veg can be extortionate.
The exotic flora and fauna are a constant source of amusement. There are some beautiful little white stork-like birds that inhabit the paddy fields near me and I also caught sight of the most enormous and elegant bird of prey. It might have been an eagle, I don’t know. Whatever it was it was larger than a kite and certainly isn’t native to Britain. I’ve heard there are wild monkeys in the forests not far from me, in the hills. I’d love to head in and catch sight of them at some point. What’s funny is seeing all these new creatures next to others that are banal and familiar, like pigeons and sparrows.
Kisarazu was a really great location to be placed. Its an industrial town (which they call a city) on the Bay of Tokyo that is a little run down since the bubble burst and the Aqualine was built (a combined tunnel and bridge that crosses the bay to Tokyo and is the longest tunnel for vehicles in the world). It's mild grottyness is really a blessing as it keeps the rent down. While the Aqualine didn’t do the town’s economy much good, it does grant me excellent access to Tokyo. Something that so few of the hundred or so people I was training with in Narita have.
I’m also really lucky that there’s a decent gaijin bar nearby. There’s a place called The Pig that’s in staggering distance and where other English-speaking foreigners come to drink, and some travel a fair distance. The staff there are really friendly and so are the clientele. Kazuki, the owner of the bar, also seems to be quite into British music, which I like.
So far I’ve been into Tokyo 3 times but I hope that once payday comes through and my finances are little more regular, I’ll be spending every weekend over the other side of the Bay. Or at least I hope to become very familiar with Tokyo. There’s still so much of quintessential Tokyo that I haven’t seen. So far the only ground I’ve covered is a wander around Akiharbara, a night out in Shibuya and a glimpse of Harijuku and Yoyogi park.
One of my favourite places to go, so far is the ¥100 shop. Not only is it 100 times better than our £1 shops but its even cheaper currently being about 60-70p. The quality of the products is vastly superior and even the cheap tack is so much more appealing because its Japanese. I’ve bought a really nice tea set from there, a really useful map of my prefecture and Japan and there are endless random snacks you can get. I even went out of my way to visit the 7 story ¥100 shop in Funabashi. It was well worth the trek. Can’t wait to take guests there. They’ll just fill up their cases with the stuff.
I've survived and enjoyed the first two weeks. Now lets see what it's like working here.
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