...ugokanai...

Bleagh... I just got home after an hour and a half on a stationary train. Not sure quite what happened there. If I knew it'd take so long I'd've probably taken a taxi home from the station I was stuck at. But I was studying Japanese for a while, and I had a seat, so I didn't really care for the first hour. The guy next to me fell asleep and started snoring.

At around midnight I finally got fed up and left, but I didn't have change for a taxi, so was looking for some random item to buy at the convenience store when I heard an announcement from the station, and ran back in to catch the train leaving.

I did get to see a rare sight - a Japanese person losing their rag. Some guy suddenly jumped up from his seat, marched over to the train driver's window and started bellowing insults and a 'what the **** do you ****s think you're doing?!' type of tirade for a full five minutes. And I mean BELLOWING. Most of the other passengers looked kind of shifty-eyed and pretended not to be paying attention.

Ice skating

Today I went down to Minato Mirai (the Yokohama harbour area). We (five of us) went ice skating at an outdoor rink. It was really fantastic. It was outside Akarenga (the Red Brick Warehouse). When we got there it was still light, but we got to watch the sunset and then see all the night lights, as we skated.

It was really fun skating outside in the open air too; I've never done that before. And seeing all the amazing buildings of Yokohama by twilight... It was something I've wanted to do for ages!

After the skating we went to TGI Fridays, and had an enoooormous amount of food. ^_^

A nice day, in all. ^_^

January 26

Happy Australia Day! ^_^

This day last year I gave Tim Tams to all my students. This year, it's a Monday, so I have the day off.

Down the harbour

I've been sick all week and last weekend. Possibly it was the flu; I had some cold-like symptoms but also fatigue, acheyness and muscle pain. I didn't miss any work. I'm just starting to come good again now, apart from still having a clogged up throat.

Today I went down to the harbour. It was a nice, clear, sunny, winter day and it felt good to be out again, after spending the whole last weekend in bed.

For the first time I went to Rinko Park, behind the Intercontinental Yokohama Hotel. It was nothing special as parks go, though it really is *right* on the waterfront. You could quite easily lean over and reach out and touch the sea. It was a very functional park. There were loads of people with dogs, dads chasing their kids, children practising baseball, a dude practising juggling... The buildings around there are really stunning.

Tomorrow I'm going back down that way. There's a temporary open-air ice skating rink at the Red Brick Warehouse and I'm going there with Pete and Jess. I've never been ice skating at an open-air rink before.

I've been here quite a while now but there are still so many things I want to do! I want to go up north before the end of the snow season, and go snowboarding. I want to stay at an onsen on the Izu peninsula. I want to go to Hakone on a really clear winter day and see a GOOD view of Mt Fuji at least once! I want to go to a jpop or jrock concert. I want to go to the Studio Ghibli museum, and Disney Sea, and the beer garden at Ebisu, and many other places besides. There are so many places even around Tokyo and Yokohama and Kawasaki that I've never visited.

***

Work is going okay (though I hate working when I'm sick -_-). I have some really excellent, hard-working students. Actually I'm beginning to respect them all the more, especially the ones who've been studying for two or three years.

Truthfully, I'm starting to get really lazy with my Japanese. I'm less motivated to study, and I've already forgotten heaps of vocabulary. I felt really bad for my Japanese teacher when I had my first class after coming back from Australia. At one point in the lesson I had to ask her how to say 'last week'. Very shameful... -_-

To everything, its own use

I was just reading this book called 'Bringing Home the Sushi', by Mark Meers. In it, he comments:
Japanese housewives, for example, have a propensity for "using certain things only for certain purposes". A person wouldn't consider using a coffee cup for tea, or a tea cup for coffee. I don't mean usually, I mean never. You use chopsticks to eat Japanese food, but specifically don't use them if you're eating "foreign food".
...
You also don't use "eating" chopsticks in place of "serving" chopsticks, or kitchen curtains for living room curtains, or wicker baskets to put magazines in.

This made me think of three things:

One day, Pete was in a restaurant, eating some kind of meat and rice dish. As usual, the meat and rice were served in different, little bowls. So Pete put the meat on the rice and ate them together. A girl at the next table - a stranger - remarked 'wow, that's so interesting, Japanese people would never think to mix the meat and rice like that'. (She wasn't criticising him, just expressing surprise.)


You Should Never Use The Wrong Sauce. If you eat out with Japanese people, you will quickly learn that Certain Foods have Certain Sauces. If you start to use the 'wrong one', people will call out, with urgency, 'no! no! Not that one!!!' To again use Pete as an example, he often protests 'but it's delicious!' and experiment with different dishes and different sauces. No Japanese person would ever do this.


Japanese people have occasionally expressed surprise to see me or Pete wearing short sleeves in late autumn or winter. Even if we're inside and it's like 28 degrees inside (as it often is; a lot of indoor places are really overheated). "Aren't you cold?!" they'll say. But... it's not cold INSIDE... it's so hot we're sweating... yet the stifling trains are full of people fully bundled up in coats, scarves, etc. There seem to be unwritten rules for when and where you don or take off coats, and seasonal rules for whether you wear short or long sleeves, which are not related to the physiological consideration of 'am I feeling hot/cold?'

Cold

No snow. :( Just rain, and 4 degrees. -_-

It's a new year

So I'm back in Japan, and I am told there's a strong likelihood of SNOW tomorrow. This is great.

Right now it's omiyage (souvenir) season with a vengeance. In Japan it's very common, when you've been on a trip, to buy souvenir gifts for your co-workers or friends back home. Also, it being the New Year, it's a prime season for giving gifts. Our staff room is overflowing with ice cream, various Japanese sweets, pudding cookies, my chocolates from Hahndorf, castella cakes, and so on... it is not a time for diets, so it's a good thing I'm not into New Year's resolutions.

***

I think I've mentioned before that in Japanese stores and restaurants, when you hear an instrumental version of 'Auld Lang Syne', it's time to get out. Stores play this tune (in Japanese, 'Hotaru no hikari', or 'Light of the firefly') to tell you they're about to close. It continues playing until the last customer is gone.

Personally, while I think it's a delicate way to get your customers out on time without having to turn off the lights, I dislike it. Henceforth, the sweet and nostalgic air of 'Auld Lang Syne' shall be synonymous in my mind with 'get out! get out!'.

Pete thought it was pretty funny today when I revealed that we have a dedicated 'Hotaru no hikari' radio station at work. That's right, channel 80 plays nothing but the ponderous strains of 'Auld Lang Syne', on loop, forever and ever.

***

I recently learned via this blog that in Japan, your first dream of the year foretokens the kind of year you will have. In particular, there are three lucky symbols - an eggplant, a hawk, and Mt Fuji. If one of these appears in your first dream, you're in for a lucky year.

I just find the randomness of those three items vastly amusing. I don't know who decided that an eggplant was a lucky object, but probably someone who really likes moussaka.

Back!

I'm back in my apartment in Japan, having just finished my gyoza and fried rice. I don't have much to say and shall be going to bed rather soon, but just thought I'd post to say I got back safely and without incident. ^_^

Stopover in Brissie was fine after all, they have this great coach service which delivers you to your hostel door, don't even need a booking far in advance, and they picked me up at 6:20am the next morning too!

I came back hauling even more stuff (I think) than when I first arrived in the country and it took me close to three hours to get home. (They say they are building a new express train line from the airport into Tokyo. That will be good and all, but the current problem with all the faster options now are that they are *expensive*.)

I have a tonne of omiyage (souvenir gifts), clothes that were gathering dust in Australia, books (I'm sad to say I did buy more books in Brisbane), and some missed snacks. I also brought a wombat. It was an unnecessary expense at Brisbane airport but I was quite reckless and had some Australian dollars to dispose of. According to his tag, his name is Russell. I plan to put Russell in my classroom. Russell is very, very cute.

I felt a little sad leaving but I also felt glad to be back, which was a relief. I was worried I might have mixed feelings after having such a great trip and rediscovering how much I loved Australia. But I think I'm lucky to have two homes, two countries that I really like. It is about 8 degrees here at the moment, so a bit nippy.

I had a really excellent holiday and it was great to catch up with you all! Especially, thanks to my parents and my sister for letting me stay with them and for all your help with everything. Thanks to my friends too who were very kind to me too. I hope you all have a very happy new year. ^_^