I've been having a fun and busy month since my farewell party. I had a 'fireworks party', a day trip to Kannonzaki (down the Miura peninsula), a trip to Disney Land, a 'video games party' (everything is a party in Japan ^_^), a singles party, and a looot of food. I've worn kimono, tried calligraphy, sang karaoke, and lit fireworks.
Just looking at my diary now, I see that from September 9 until now (October 1), I've met up with people for drinks or parties or coffee, 26 times. 26!! I've met up with 34 different students, 8 different staff members, 2 friends, and met a whole bunch of new people too.
It's been rather sad saying so many final 'goodbyes', but the more I do it, the more I feel ready to leave. I often find that after I do something, my feeling is different than before I do it. For example, before I announced to students I was going to leave, I felt really sentimental, like I hated to leave. After I announced it, I felt less emotional about it; it felt more like 'oh well, this is what's going to happen'. Before - and while - I was saying my last goodbyes, I felt sad. But now, I've been saying so many, I'm not feeling as badly over each one.
Today was a good day. I met my co-worker for breakfast, met two students for coffee, and another student for dinner. That student has just done a 7-week homestay in Japan. His English improved greatly. I felt very proud of him. ^_^
I did a fair bit of Japanese study until this week. I did three weeks of Kumon and completed about 30 worksheet sets; about 20 hours of study in total. I also took several private lessons with my old teacher, and started on a new textbook studying JLPT 2-kyuu grammar. It's quite tough.
Also, I was mooching around Kawasaki as usual, and went to LaZona - the department store near my house - and the Backstreet Boys were there! There were sooo many people. They gave a free show - 4 songs - to promote their new CD. That's pretty cool!
Tomorrow will be my big 'Moving Day'. Not very much looking forward to that. Naturally I have, over the last week and a half, been cleaning and disposing of stuff, sending packages back, etc. Last night I gave a lot of my cooking ingredients and tea and coffee to random people in the guesthouse.*
Today I took some books to Book-Off (I bought them for over 10,000 yen, and sold them for 320 yen... hahaha... I would have been annoyed, if I weren't planning to just throw them away anyway). Tomorrow I'll take my printer to the school to give one of my co-workers who wants it. I have to transfer money to my Australian bank account, cancel my phone, wash clothes, take a final package to the post office, clean out my room, etc.
*(Actually, I had only met one of the people in the guesthouse - just saying a brief 'konnichiwa' to others I saw in the hall or kitchen - until last night. There were four of them sitting around finishing dinner, watching TV, chatting. First time I actually saw people socialising in the guesthouse. One of them offered me a snack from Hong Kong, so I got out my bottle of umeshu and offered it around. I needed to use it up anyway. I ended up staying down there for about an hour; three of them didn't speak any English at all, so it was good Japanese practice. ^_^)
I am a bit disgruntled now, because when I came back to my guesthouse, I found that the large communal garbage bin - which until today was full to bursting - was empty, and taped up, with a big sign on it saying 'Do not use'. So... what am I supposed to do now? Where are the 20 or so people in this building supposed to put their garbage? There is no information to that effect.
I am moving house tomorrow. Nice timing!! Couldn't you have waited one more day to disable use of our garbage bin? I am going to have a lot of stuff to chuck!
I shall leave Japan on Saturday morning, and go to Singapore. I'm going to Langkawi for a few days and then will return to Adelaide on Friday morning. Ja ne!!
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Going back
Just letting you know I've booked my flights back to Australia and will be arriving on October 9th.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
My guesthouse
I'm staying at a guesthouse now. There are about 20 girls here, mostly Japanese.
I've been here a few days. I can't say I like it overly. The worst, for me, is the bathroom, or lack thereof. The toilets are Japanese-style (eg, a hole in the ground) and not very clean. There's no soap or hand towel in the bathroom. There is no mirror. It feels dirty. The only full-length mirror is on the ground floor. I am on the third floor.
It may be good for exercise; if you want to make a cup of tea or use a Western-style toilet or iron clothes or see your reflection, you have to go down to the ground floor. If you want to wash or hang clothes, you have to go up to the rooftop.
Everything in the house is written in Japanese, and there was no explanation of rules, nobody to take me around the house and show me around. So I am figuring things out bit by bit. (At the time of writing, I just put a load of dirty laundry - with washing powder and all!! - in the dryer. !!! I didn't realise what I'd done until I'd (wasted) my 100 yen coin, and the clothes started flying around and sending powder everywhere...)
On the other hand, the location is extremely convenient and I am meeting up with a lot of people.
(By the way, my farewell party was good. Today I counted the number of presents I had gotten. I have received presents from 37 different people. 37!!!)
I've been here a few days. I can't say I like it overly. The worst, for me, is the bathroom, or lack thereof. The toilets are Japanese-style (eg, a hole in the ground) and not very clean. There's no soap or hand towel in the bathroom. There is no mirror. It feels dirty. The only full-length mirror is on the ground floor. I am on the third floor.
It may be good for exercise; if you want to make a cup of tea or use a Western-style toilet or iron clothes or see your reflection, you have to go down to the ground floor. If you want to wash or hang clothes, you have to go up to the rooftop.
Everything in the house is written in Japanese, and there was no explanation of rules, nobody to take me around the house and show me around. So I am figuring things out bit by bit. (At the time of writing, I just put a load of dirty laundry - with washing powder and all!! - in the dryer. !!! I didn't realise what I'd done until I'd (wasted) my 100 yen coin, and the clothes started flying around and sending powder everywhere...)
On the other hand, the location is extremely convenient and I am meeting up with a lot of people.
(By the way, my farewell party was good. Today I counted the number of presents I had gotten. I have received presents from 37 different people. 37!!!)
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Done!
Yesterday was my last day of work. I was imparting a lot of information to the new teacher, and didn't actually have all that many classes myself, so it felt a bit atypical. I gave Tim Tams to every student for the last week.
A couple of former students - a mother and daughter - took me out to dinner after school, which was nice. They invited me to do a lot of things with them, and they gave me - I can't quite believe this - a real pearl necklace. !!! A real pearl necklace!! These are the same people who gave me souvenirs to take back to my family in Australia, and who invited me to see the daughter playing in an orchestra.
But a lot of students have been wonderfully generous, and I've been flooded with presents. Mostly, the students I've taught a long time, or whom I've developed a good relationship with, were the ones to give me things. So I am touched.
Here in my hotel room is a vase with a huge bouquet of pink and dusky purple roses; it must have cost over $50. The student who gave it to me is a guy I've taught for quite a while; he was fairly reserved and shy for a long time and only in the last few months have we begun to develop a good rapport. ^_^ One 6-year-old child made me a bracelet and drew a picture of my class. I got a picture from one of my 2-year-olds, too.
One lady, who previously gave me some of her homemade yuzu-shu and cherry-shu (liqueur), gave me a big bottle of homemade umeshu. Umeshu is plum liqueur - my favourite drink - and she said this bottle had been maturing for six years, so it would have a really good taste.
I'm having a farewell party on Saturday, and really looking forward to that. I love a good party. About 60 people are coming. ^_^
***
Right now I'm still staying in a hotel, but tomorrow I will move into my guesthouse. It's only a few blocks from here, so I'll spend a couple of hours tomorrow ferrying my stuff back and forth from my school and hotel to my guesthouse.
Today I joined Kumon. The approach is to basically do lots of worksheets and lots of reading and writing in Japanese. I am not very fast at them, though they are fairly simple for me in terms of grammar. For example, my communicative and listening ability is quite a lot higher than my reading, which is slow (and I can't read many kanji confidently). As for my Japanese writing, well...
The thing is, when I have studied Japanese previously, I have focused mostly on learning new grammar and communicating with it. Therefore, I've always taken notes in romaji (eg, writing Japanese words using English letters). I've done some textbook work in which I have written a fair bit of hiragana; therefore my hiragana is not too slow. But writing kanji and katakana is not very fast for me.
Also, knowing how to say something in Japanese doesn't mean I can always write it totally accurately. For example, 'hello' is 'konnichiwa'. But in Japanese characters, it's written こんにちは (konnichiha), as the 'ha' character is often written as 'wa' in romaji. Another example is that I know to pronounce 'coffee' as 'kohi', but when I actually write it in Japanese, I have to pause - are both sounds 'long' (eg コーヒー) or only one sound long (eg コーヒ or コヒー). I can often guess or remember it right, but when I've never or rarely written it before, I do need to think about it, or check somewhere. Hence, I am slow.
So I think this Kumon approach is just what I need - very concentrated practice reading and writing. I'm also going to have a few private lessons with my original Japanese teacher.
A couple of former students - a mother and daughter - took me out to dinner after school, which was nice. They invited me to do a lot of things with them, and they gave me - I can't quite believe this - a real pearl necklace. !!! A real pearl necklace!! These are the same people who gave me souvenirs to take back to my family in Australia, and who invited me to see the daughter playing in an orchestra.
But a lot of students have been wonderfully generous, and I've been flooded with presents. Mostly, the students I've taught a long time, or whom I've developed a good relationship with, were the ones to give me things. So I am touched.
Here in my hotel room is a vase with a huge bouquet of pink and dusky purple roses; it must have cost over $50. The student who gave it to me is a guy I've taught for quite a while; he was fairly reserved and shy for a long time and only in the last few months have we begun to develop a good rapport. ^_^ One 6-year-old child made me a bracelet and drew a picture of my class. I got a picture from one of my 2-year-olds, too.
One lady, who previously gave me some of her homemade yuzu-shu and cherry-shu (liqueur), gave me a big bottle of homemade umeshu. Umeshu is plum liqueur - my favourite drink - and she said this bottle had been maturing for six years, so it would have a really good taste.
I'm having a farewell party on Saturday, and really looking forward to that. I love a good party. About 60 people are coming. ^_^
***
Right now I'm still staying in a hotel, but tomorrow I will move into my guesthouse. It's only a few blocks from here, so I'll spend a couple of hours tomorrow ferrying my stuff back and forth from my school and hotel to my guesthouse.
Today I joined Kumon. The approach is to basically do lots of worksheets and lots of reading and writing in Japanese. I am not very fast at them, though they are fairly simple for me in terms of grammar. For example, my communicative and listening ability is quite a lot higher than my reading, which is slow (and I can't read many kanji confidently). As for my Japanese writing, well...
The thing is, when I have studied Japanese previously, I have focused mostly on learning new grammar and communicating with it. Therefore, I've always taken notes in romaji (eg, writing Japanese words using English letters). I've done some textbook work in which I have written a fair bit of hiragana; therefore my hiragana is not too slow. But writing kanji and katakana is not very fast for me.
Also, knowing how to say something in Japanese doesn't mean I can always write it totally accurately. For example, 'hello' is 'konnichiwa'. But in Japanese characters, it's written こんにちは (konnichiha), as the 'ha' character is often written as 'wa' in romaji. Another example is that I know to pronounce 'coffee' as 'kohi', but when I actually write it in Japanese, I have to pause - are both sounds 'long' (eg コーヒー) or only one sound long (eg コーヒ or コヒー). I can often guess or remember it right, but when I've never or rarely written it before, I do need to think about it, or check somewhere. Hence, I am slow.
So I think this Kumon approach is just what I need - very concentrated practice reading and writing. I'm also going to have a few private lessons with my original Japanese teacher.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Where I am now
Phew... I'm rather glad this week is over. Basically, I've moved the entire contents of an apartment by hand. Because I'm too cheap to use a transportation company, or even a taxi, every day I've been hauling huge loads of bags via the trains, lurching clumsily through every ticket gate, and leaving my stuff at my office.
This morning is the first morning I've neither had to move, nor work. I have a whole glorious day to do nothing. Right now I'm staying at a hotel, and I shall presently go down for a free lunch buffet. ^_^
It really is remarkable how much stuff one can accumulate in just over a year and a half. I sent a package of stuff back to Australia; I threw out about ten huge garbage bags of stuff, and I still had about 20 bags, and a very swollen suitcase, to bring.
Anyway, it's all done now. I expect to move into my guesthouse in a few days. Happily, it's only a few minutes' walk from my school and hotel, and I chose to move in one day before I have to check out of this hotel, so I can do quite a leisurely to-and-fro of bringing my bags in. My room is going to be really small - I mean, considerably smaller than the fairly small apartment I just left. So long as I can physically fit my suitcase in there, I guess it will be okay. I've never stayed at a guesthouse before. Hopefully it will have a nice atmosphere. I haven't even seen it, but I've signed up for one month.
Last night after work I went out for Nepalese curry with some students. After that, we went out to karaoke. We did three hours of karaoke, and I sang at least a dozen songs, and it was the first time I didn't sing *any* English songs. ^_^ Actually I think it may have been the first time I was the only foreigner among Japanese people. It was nice to be able to finish at about 3am, and just walk back to my hotel, without having to feel 'trapped' by my lack of train.
Tomorrow I and another teacher have been invited to lunch at the house of one of my students. She is my child student; the one I have taught the longest, and I really like her and her mum. So it's nice they invited us over. The girl was all 'onegaishimasu!', hoping we would come. ^_^
I've now been teaching my 'last' classes. That is, I taught my last Thursday, my last Friday, and my last Saturday. I will still teach Tuesday and Wednesday next week. So at the end of each class I've been giving everyone a Tim Tam. Several students have given me presents, which is really nice.
This morning is the first morning I've neither had to move, nor work. I have a whole glorious day to do nothing. Right now I'm staying at a hotel, and I shall presently go down for a free lunch buffet. ^_^
It really is remarkable how much stuff one can accumulate in just over a year and a half. I sent a package of stuff back to Australia; I threw out about ten huge garbage bags of stuff, and I still had about 20 bags, and a very swollen suitcase, to bring.
Anyway, it's all done now. I expect to move into my guesthouse in a few days. Happily, it's only a few minutes' walk from my school and hotel, and I chose to move in one day before I have to check out of this hotel, so I can do quite a leisurely to-and-fro of bringing my bags in. My room is going to be really small - I mean, considerably smaller than the fairly small apartment I just left. So long as I can physically fit my suitcase in there, I guess it will be okay. I've never stayed at a guesthouse before. Hopefully it will have a nice atmosphere. I haven't even seen it, but I've signed up for one month.
Last night after work I went out for Nepalese curry with some students. After that, we went out to karaoke. We did three hours of karaoke, and I sang at least a dozen songs, and it was the first time I didn't sing *any* English songs. ^_^ Actually I think it may have been the first time I was the only foreigner among Japanese people. It was nice to be able to finish at about 3am, and just walk back to my hotel, without having to feel 'trapped' by my lack of train.
Tomorrow I and another teacher have been invited to lunch at the house of one of my students. She is my child student; the one I have taught the longest, and I really like her and her mum. So it's nice they invited us over. The girl was all 'onegaishimasu!', hoping we would come. ^_^
I've now been teaching my 'last' classes. That is, I taught my last Thursday, my last Friday, and my last Saturday. I will still teach Tuesday and Wednesday next week. So at the end of each class I've been giving everyone a Tim Tam. Several students have given me presents, which is really nice.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Tokyo Photo Scavenger Hunt
I had a very fun day today. Pete organised a Photo Scavenger Hunt. Basically, you get a big list of items, and go off and try to take photos of as many items on the list as possible. The team with the most items at the end, wins. We were divided into three teams. I was with my co-worker Aya. ^_^
We spent most of our time running around Shibuya, Yoyogi and Harajuku. The race began and ended at Hachiko square. We were allowed to go anywhere, but due to time restraints, we stayed in the same area (we had five hours, which sounds like a lot, but we also had a lot of items to find).
Some example list items...
Someone waving with both hands. It's not all that uncommon to see this; particularly young girls at train stations. But we couldn't find anyone. So a few minutes before our 'deadline', we asked some random foreigner on the street if he wouldn't mind waving his hands for a photo. Hahaha...
A live cicada. Aya supposedly photographed one - I couldn't really see it in the picture she took - but I never saw one. I heard hundreds of them in Yoyogi Park, but they really are completely impossible to find...
Someone wearing leather pants. Even at Harajuku station, we couldn't find one. But happily, the Rockabilly club was out in Harajuku. These are the dudes who dress up like guys out of 'Grease' and dance to 50s rock 'n' roll in the park, complete with ducktail hairstyles and - black leather. Score! Actually, all three of our teams went to that park and got the same guy!
A kid laughing. And, a kid crying. So every time we saw any child go past, we looked at their faces. 'Oh, all the kids in Shibuya are not laughing,' said Aya.
Then in Yoyogi, there were a lot of happy kids, and we finally got one laughing. After that, we were scrutinising all the kids in Yoyogi to try to find a crying child. They were all too happy; we pondered how we could make one cry. Fortunately it didn't come to that, and we eventually found one outside a huge toystore. Hahaha.
A shirtless man. These are very easy to find in Yoyogi Park, and almost impossible to find in regular city streets in Tokyo. Today was pretty warm, but fortunately not as hot as the last few days have been (it was really humid and stifling). In fact, it was quite comfortable weather for our scavenger hunt. ^_^
Twins. I saw identical twin girls in identical dresses. My camera was permanently on, and in my hand, and in a second I had them. We had to keep a lot of different items in our mind at all times, looking around for people wearing crocs, and someone with a tattoo, and so on.
Disney ears. All of us, independently of one another, went to the Disney store in Shibuya. Actually we got quite a few of our list items in relevant stores.
A stuffed dolphin. We looked in a lot of stores for this one! Finally we were in Harajuku and I spied Kiddy Land nearby. Score!
A couple kissing. Anywhere but Yoyogi Park, this would have probably been quite tough. But I saw a foreign couple walking hand-in-hand, and they looked quite lovey-dovey, so I kept my camera trained on them, until - yes!! - they leaned in for a kiss.
Someone walking two or more dogs. If I were in Yokohama, down at the harbour, this would have been super easy. We had to actually go to the 'dog run' area of Yoyogi Park in order to find someone. A nice man was pulling a bulldog in a cart, and when Aya asked, he invited us to come with him to the area. (It was funny to walk with him; every single picnicker and couple and family sitting nearby turned to stare as we walked past, and most of them exclaimed 'kawaii!!' (Cute!))
A bald head, taken from above. We were in a large department store, going downstairs, when suddenly Aya did a u-turn and took off up the stairs, taking them two or three at a time. (This kind of behaviour was par for the course today, hahaha.) When I turned to see what she was doing, I immediately realised why - a guy with a fully shaved head was coming up the stairs past me. ^_^
A Louis Vuitton bag. This must be one of the easiest things in all of Tokyo to find. Hahaha! 'Let's look out for one as we walk,' I said, and within about thirty seconds we had a good shot.
A couple wearing masks and holding hands. Some people do wear face masks to protect against colds and flu; but this was a difficult item to achieve. So in a novelty store, we asked a random couple if they wouldn't mind wearing some children's face masks and having a picture taken. So we have a cute shot of Kamen Rider and Stitch holding hands. ^_^
87 different things to find. We got 59 of them (well, 62, but 3 were deemed 'invalid', for example instead of a picture of 'a shrine' we just had a picture of a shrine gate, etc). We got a few extra points for having 2 or more list items in the same picture, and overall our team came second, out of three. ^_^
Some of the items we *didn't* get: a cat, a couple both wearing crocs (and I looked SO constantly for this one!), a child using a vending machine, the 49th floor of a building, and the inside of a love hotel (the other teams got this!!!).
I'd love to do something like this again. Maybe I'll organise one myself some day. It really does seem better in Tokyo etc, than it would in Adelaide, mostly because people in Adelaide don't tend to run around with cameras, whereas in Tokyo you don't stand out much.
We spent most of our time running around Shibuya, Yoyogi and Harajuku. The race began and ended at Hachiko square. We were allowed to go anywhere, but due to time restraints, we stayed in the same area (we had five hours, which sounds like a lot, but we also had a lot of items to find).
Some example list items...
Then in Yoyogi, there were a lot of happy kids, and we finally got one laughing. After that, we were scrutinising all the kids in Yoyogi to try to find a crying child. They were all too happy; we pondered how we could make one cry. Fortunately it didn't come to that, and we eventually found one outside a huge toystore. Hahaha.
87 different things to find. We got 59 of them (well, 62, but 3 were deemed 'invalid', for example instead of a picture of 'a shrine' we just had a picture of a shrine gate, etc). We got a few extra points for having 2 or more list items in the same picture, and overall our team came second, out of three. ^_^
Some of the items we *didn't* get: a cat, a couple both wearing crocs (and I looked SO constantly for this one!), a child using a vending machine, the 49th floor of a building, and the inside of a love hotel (the other teams got this!!!).
I'd love to do something like this again. Maybe I'll organise one myself some day. It really does seem better in Tokyo etc, than it would in Adelaide, mostly because people in Adelaide don't tend to run around with cameras, whereas in Tokyo you don't stand out much.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Monday, August 10, 2009
Earthquake!
We had two quite big earthquakes in the last 36 hours. Here's a report on the ABC website.
Lee and I got woken at around 5am this morning; the windows were rattling violently. The floor was swaying back and forth between us. I thought 'it's a stronger quake than usual', and sat up and moved into the middle of the room (thinking to move away from any objects that could fall on me. Lee was also woken up by it (she's in Japan for the week, staying with me ^_^) and we both sat up.
Apparently it was a quake of magnitude 6.6! Fortunately we're not right at the epicentre so it was a little less powerful where we were. We didn't have any objects falling over or anything. But it was certainly the strongest earthquake I've ever felt.
Actually, there was another earthquake - during the day on Sunday - which was apparently slightly stronger, but I guess it might have been further away?
I hadn't felt any earthquakes for a few months.
Lee and I got woken at around 5am this morning; the windows were rattling violently. The floor was swaying back and forth between us. I thought 'it's a stronger quake than usual', and sat up and moved into the middle of the room (thinking to move away from any objects that could fall on me. Lee was also woken up by it (she's in Japan for the week, staying with me ^_^) and we both sat up.
Apparently it was a quake of magnitude 6.6! Fortunately we're not right at the epicentre so it was a little less powerful where we were. We didn't have any objects falling over or anything. But it was certainly the strongest earthquake I've ever felt.
Actually, there was another earthquake - during the day on Sunday - which was apparently slightly stronger, but I guess it might have been further away?
I hadn't felt any earthquakes for a few months.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Karaoke to ka
On Monday I went to karaoke. I sang a few Japanese songs. Now, usually I can only sing Japanese songs if I have properly memorised them beforehand. But this time, I was able to sing several songs that I know only fairly well. I haven't memorised them; I can't sing them without reading the words. But I was able to read the Japanese characters on-screen, fast enough to sing. I made quite a few mistakes - sometimes I couldn't get the right character quite quickly enough. But I could *mostly* do it!
I remember when I first sang Japanese songs in karaoke; I could just read the first couple of characters on the screen before the sentence was gone, and a new one appeared. There was absolutely no way I could have sung even a slow song just by reading it.
I am still a slow reader, but much improved, so I am happy. ^_^
One reason for this is that now my vocabulary has improved, I can often see the first couple of characters and 'predict' the rest of the word or phrase. Or if I'm reading a whole sentence, I can make sense of the sentence, and thus my brain will more quickly interpret the characters.
This is one reason my katakana has improved only partially. I can fairly quickly read common katakana words - system, campaign, campus, cappuccino, sawa (^_^) - I see these words on lots of signs and ads. But katakana can also represent names, company names, foreign words, etc, in which case I am sadly slow at mentally translating each syllable. Another problem is that you rarely see whole passages of text written in katakana - just words here and there. It's not like you can read a whole passage and get the gist of it. All the words are unconnected...
***
One of the nice things about having high-speed Internet constantly on tap here in my house is that any time I encounter a word or reference I don't understand, I can look it up on the 'net. There are a lot of pop culture terms and references which I have heard before but never really understood.
Two recent examples - read some article where they described this guy as looking 'like Ted Bundy'. I'd heard this reference before and always thought he was the hapless goof from 'Married with Children'. Then I realised, hang on, that's AL Bundy; and I looked up Ted and he was a serial killer!
Another example, today, was a reference to Rip Van Winkle. I know he had some connection to sleeping, from Gershwin's 'Bidin' My Time', but finally looked him up and found out who he was.
I remember when I first sang Japanese songs in karaoke; I could just read the first couple of characters on the screen before the sentence was gone, and a new one appeared. There was absolutely no way I could have sung even a slow song just by reading it.
I am still a slow reader, but much improved, so I am happy. ^_^
One reason for this is that now my vocabulary has improved, I can often see the first couple of characters and 'predict' the rest of the word or phrase. Or if I'm reading a whole sentence, I can make sense of the sentence, and thus my brain will more quickly interpret the characters.
This is one reason my katakana has improved only partially. I can fairly quickly read common katakana words - system, campaign, campus, cappuccino, sawa (^_^) - I see these words on lots of signs and ads. But katakana can also represent names, company names, foreign words, etc, in which case I am sadly slow at mentally translating each syllable. Another problem is that you rarely see whole passages of text written in katakana - just words here and there. It's not like you can read a whole passage and get the gist of it. All the words are unconnected...
***
One of the nice things about having high-speed Internet constantly on tap here in my house is that any time I encounter a word or reference I don't understand, I can look it up on the 'net. There are a lot of pop culture terms and references which I have heard before but never really understood.
Two recent examples - read some article where they described this guy as looking 'like Ted Bundy'. I'd heard this reference before and always thought he was the hapless goof from 'Married with Children'. Then I realised, hang on, that's AL Bundy; and I looked up Ted and he was a serial killer!
Another example, today, was a reference to Rip Van Winkle. I know he had some connection to sleeping, from Gershwin's 'Bidin' My Time', but finally looked him up and found out who he was.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Peru
Today Pete came back, so he and I and A went to a Peruvian restaurants that one of our students recommended. (The student is also Peruvian. ^_^)
It was really good! I've never had Peruvian food before; had no idea what it even was. But we got this appetiser which had lots of red onion, whole garlic cloves, parched corn, octopus, coriander, and half-raw tuna in it. It sounds rather eclectic, but it was very flavoursome and yummy. ^_^ There was a kind of soy milk noodle soup with beef, and a chicken curry, and Extremely delicious and tender roast beef and mashed potato, and some kind of rice dish with lots of beans and a strong coriander sauce.
Very good stuff. ^_^
It was really good! I've never had Peruvian food before; had no idea what it even was. But we got this appetiser which had lots of red onion, whole garlic cloves, parched corn, octopus, coriander, and half-raw tuna in it. It sounds rather eclectic, but it was very flavoursome and yummy. ^_^ There was a kind of soy milk noodle soup with beef, and a chicken curry, and Extremely delicious and tender roast beef and mashed potato, and some kind of rice dish with lots of beans and a strong coriander sauce.
Very good stuff. ^_^
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Total eclipse
Today we experienced the longest solar eclipse this century. A total eclipse could be seen in the south of Japan, but here in Kanagawa we were expecting to see about a 60% eclipse.
So of course, it was incredibly overcast, the kind of overcast where you can't even *locate* the sun in the sky, let alone see its eclipse!
However! I was lucky! When I left my house, there was nothing to be seen. But when I'd almost reached my school's building, the sun become visible for a couple of minutes. There was lots of cloud passing in front of it, but I could definitely see it. It was like a crescent moon, only it was far too bright to stare at. I took lots of very quick peeks, and a few photos. ^_^
Of all the people I asked today (about 30), only 1 or 2 had seen the eclipse.
So of course, it was incredibly overcast, the kind of overcast where you can't even *locate* the sun in the sky, let alone see its eclipse!
However! I was lucky! When I left my house, there was nothing to be seen. But when I'd almost reached my school's building, the sun become visible for a couple of minutes. There was lots of cloud passing in front of it, but I could definitely see it. It was like a crescent moon, only it was far too bright to stare at. I took lots of very quick peeks, and a few photos. ^_^
Of all the people I asked today (about 30), only 1 or 2 had seen the eclipse.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Holidays, hmm
Starting to think about what I'll do for my next holidays (mid-August). It'd be a shame not to do something, but what? I'm interested in going to see the high school baseball tournament in Koshien. Apparently it's a very intense scene. ^_^ Or, I wouldn't mind going to Hokkaido and seeing the countryside, now that it's summer.
Also toying with the idea of going overseas, but I am now conscious of not wanting to spend too much money. I'll be without much income for a couple of months...
Anyway, life is good! ^_^ Summer 'officially' started two days ago - the Meteorological Dept. finally announced the end of the rainy season. And it's like since that day, God has turned up the heat - suddenly, boom, the hot air hits you like an oven whenever you leave a building.
Also toying with the idea of going overseas, but I am now conscious of not wanting to spend too much money. I'll be without much income for a couple of months...
Anyway, life is good! ^_^ Summer 'officially' started two days ago - the Meteorological Dept. finally announced the end of the rainy season. And it's like since that day, God has turned up the heat - suddenly, boom, the hot air hits you like an oven whenever you leave a building.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Sign you've been in Japan too long (cont.)
In this post I mentioned some 'signs you've been in Japan too long' that I found on another website. I just wanted to expand on/explain some of them.
(By now I've written over 220 blog entries, so I've forgotten a lot of what I've written. If I've written about any of these before, please forgive me.)
...you see a gaijin get on the train and think "Wow, it's a gaijin!"
'Gaijin' is the Japanese word for 'foreigner'. (Though it's not such a polite word as 'gaikokujin', and in fact I generally don't use the word. If I'm talking about Westerners etc, I'll say 'foreigner'.)
Even though I often see several a day - and more if I'm in Tokyo - I still really notice every foreigner I see. Actually, Miyajima in Hiroshima had probably the highest concentration of foreigners I've seen in Japan, except maybe Harajuku.
...your idea of a larger home is an extra 10 square meters.
Actually, to be really honest, my idea of a larger home is an extra 3 or 4 square metres... after all, my whole apartment is less than 10 square meters... hahaha...
...you think the natural location for a beer garden is on a roof.
I went to a beer garden on a roof this week! It's on Kawasaki More's - it only becomes a beer garden in the warmer months of the year. Last year I was totally oblivious to its existence, so this year I was happy to have the chance to go. (It's really nice weather for sitting outside in the evening.) Better still, I went with one of my classes - four nice, cool guys, and me - lucky. ^_^
...you wait for the first day of summer to wear short sleeve dress shirts.
I don't do this but I have actually become more self-conscious and aware of this unspoken rule. I don't know the exact months, but until around April-ish, people almost always wear long sleeves; until the start of July-ish, people don't wear tank tops, but t-shirts or short sleeves (or still long sleeves). People often dress for the time of year rather than the actual weather.
Also, regarding short sleeves, it's true that Japanese girls seem to have no problem wearing really short shorts, that show off their whole leg, but tend to be a bit more conservative on the upper half of their body. You don't see that many girls with exposed shoulders or low necklines. If someone is wearing, say, a halterneck top, I tend to immediately notice them in a crowd. And if it's not the right 'season' to be wearing warm or cool clothes (no matter what the actual temperature is on the day), people might ask you 'aren't you cold?!', even if it's a perfectly warm day.
Anyway, as a result, I tended to feel more comfortable wearing t-shirts than wearing tank tops. I still wear tank tops (I always think 'well, I'm 'different' anyway, it's my prerogative') but I am a bit more conscious of not looking like the people around me. Not only because I wear tank tops, but because my weekend clothing tends to be a fair bit daggier and more casual than that of the people around me. Most Japanese girls are slim and wear clothes that look carefully put together.
...you have over 30 small, transparent plastic umbrellas in your entrance even *after* donating several of them to taxis and JR recently.
I still often get caught out without an umbrella. The weather here is quite changeable and it does rain a *lot* more than in Adelaide. Japanese people seem to have an uncanny prescience; it's rare to see anyone running without an umbrella; but I'm often borrowing umbrellas, taking them home from work, etc.
...you believe that the perfect side dish to eat with a juicy, deep-fried pork cutlet is a pile of raw, tasteless, shredded cabbage.
Seriously, if you go to a tonkatsu restaurant, that's what you get. And it's not just a pile, it's a huge MOUND.
...it doesn't surprise you that a case of beer has the same per unit price as a single can.
This is both a good and bad feature of Japanese shopping.
In Australia, three things are generally true:
-if you wait for a while, a product will often go on sale
-if you go to different stores, the same product will be available for different prices
-if you buy more of something, the price will usually be less per unit
However, these are not always true in Japan. For example, there was a popular book I wanted to buy, which was about 2000 yen. I didn't buy it at first - and I looked for it in four different stores. All the stores had the exact same price, and even now, almost a year later, it is still 2000 yen in every store. No store had any kind of 'sale' where they discounted the prices.
Another example is that when I went to Hiroshima, I booked a return trip. You would expect that if you booked a return train trip, the price would be less than if you booked two one-way tickets. But here, it's literally one-way price + one-way price = return price.
A third example was when I was buying cookies. I couldn't decide whether to buy one, or two packaged together (they had prices listed for one pack, or two). Then I realised that the price for the two packaged together, was just the same as the price of two individual cookies bought separately.
These things are bad because there's less chance to get a good deal. But they're good because it makes decision-making easier, and you don't have to trawl several shops looking for the best deal.
(By now I've written over 220 blog entries, so I've forgotten a lot of what I've written. If I've written about any of these before, please forgive me.)
...you see a gaijin get on the train and think "Wow, it's a gaijin!"
'Gaijin' is the Japanese word for 'foreigner'. (Though it's not such a polite word as 'gaikokujin', and in fact I generally don't use the word. If I'm talking about Westerners etc, I'll say 'foreigner'.)
Even though I often see several a day - and more if I'm in Tokyo - I still really notice every foreigner I see. Actually, Miyajima in Hiroshima had probably the highest concentration of foreigners I've seen in Japan, except maybe Harajuku.
...your idea of a larger home is an extra 10 square meters.
Actually, to be really honest, my idea of a larger home is an extra 3 or 4 square metres... after all, my whole apartment is less than 10 square meters... hahaha...
...you think the natural location for a beer garden is on a roof.
I went to a beer garden on a roof this week! It's on Kawasaki More's - it only becomes a beer garden in the warmer months of the year. Last year I was totally oblivious to its existence, so this year I was happy to have the chance to go. (It's really nice weather for sitting outside in the evening.) Better still, I went with one of my classes - four nice, cool guys, and me - lucky. ^_^
...you wait for the first day of summer to wear short sleeve dress shirts.
I don't do this but I have actually become more self-conscious and aware of this unspoken rule. I don't know the exact months, but until around April-ish, people almost always wear long sleeves; until the start of July-ish, people don't wear tank tops, but t-shirts or short sleeves (or still long sleeves). People often dress for the time of year rather than the actual weather.
Also, regarding short sleeves, it's true that Japanese girls seem to have no problem wearing really short shorts, that show off their whole leg, but tend to be a bit more conservative on the upper half of their body. You don't see that many girls with exposed shoulders or low necklines. If someone is wearing, say, a halterneck top, I tend to immediately notice them in a crowd. And if it's not the right 'season' to be wearing warm or cool clothes (no matter what the actual temperature is on the day), people might ask you 'aren't you cold?!', even if it's a perfectly warm day.
Anyway, as a result, I tended to feel more comfortable wearing t-shirts than wearing tank tops. I still wear tank tops (I always think 'well, I'm 'different' anyway, it's my prerogative') but I am a bit more conscious of not looking like the people around me. Not only because I wear tank tops, but because my weekend clothing tends to be a fair bit daggier and more casual than that of the people around me. Most Japanese girls are slim and wear clothes that look carefully put together.
...you have over 30 small, transparent plastic umbrellas in your entrance even *after* donating several of them to taxis and JR recently.
I still often get caught out without an umbrella. The weather here is quite changeable and it does rain a *lot* more than in Adelaide. Japanese people seem to have an uncanny prescience; it's rare to see anyone running without an umbrella; but I'm often borrowing umbrellas, taking them home from work, etc.
...you believe that the perfect side dish to eat with a juicy, deep-fried pork cutlet is a pile of raw, tasteless, shredded cabbage.
Seriously, if you go to a tonkatsu restaurant, that's what you get. And it's not just a pile, it's a huge MOUND.
...it doesn't surprise you that a case of beer has the same per unit price as a single can.
This is both a good and bad feature of Japanese shopping.
In Australia, three things are generally true:
-if you wait for a while, a product will often go on sale
-if you go to different stores, the same product will be available for different prices
-if you buy more of something, the price will usually be less per unit
However, these are not always true in Japan. For example, there was a popular book I wanted to buy, which was about 2000 yen. I didn't buy it at first - and I looked for it in four different stores. All the stores had the exact same price, and even now, almost a year later, it is still 2000 yen in every store. No store had any kind of 'sale' where they discounted the prices.
Another example is that when I went to Hiroshima, I booked a return trip. You would expect that if you booked a return train trip, the price would be less than if you booked two one-way tickets. But here, it's literally one-way price + one-way price = return price.
A third example was when I was buying cookies. I couldn't decide whether to buy one, or two packaged together (they had prices listed for one pack, or two). Then I realised that the price for the two packaged together, was just the same as the price of two individual cookies bought separately.
These things are bad because there's less chance to get a good deal. But they're good because it makes decision-making easier, and you don't have to trawl several shops looking for the best deal.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Jitsu wa...
Actually, the truth is, I'm not very happy about finishing my job, etc. Like, a few months ago I had to decide whether I'd renew my contract or not - I thought, well, I'll probably be quite ready to leave by then, I'll have done most of what I want to do in Japan, etc.
Now I'm kind of regretting my decision. I like my school *so much*. Recently, the classes which used to stress me out a lot, I've been able to take in my stride. I think I've improved a lot as a teacher, and my rapport with the students is the best it's ever been. I've even become pretty good at teaching kids, and the kids' parents like me.
I'm gradually starting to make friends with a few more students; twice this week I went out with different groups of students after work. I've had a few new students recently, so I feel bad about when I'll have to announce my imminent departure. That's the thing with this job - it's all about relationships; it's not like quitting an office job. All of my co-workers are really, really great. I like where I live; I like the location of my school; I like my lifestyle.
Basically, there's almost nothing I don't like, and so I'm really not feeling ready to leave. I wish there were some way I could stay on.
Now I'm kind of regretting my decision. I like my school *so much*. Recently, the classes which used to stress me out a lot, I've been able to take in my stride. I think I've improved a lot as a teacher, and my rapport with the students is the best it's ever been. I've even become pretty good at teaching kids, and the kids' parents like me.
I'm gradually starting to make friends with a few more students; twice this week I went out with different groups of students after work. I've had a few new students recently, so I feel bad about when I'll have to announce my imminent departure. That's the thing with this job - it's all about relationships; it's not like quitting an office job. All of my co-workers are really, really great. I like where I live; I like the location of my school; I like my lifestyle.
Basically, there's almost nothing I don't like, and so I'm really not feeling ready to leave. I wish there were some way I could stay on.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Quick update
Hi,
Just a quick update to let you know what my plans are. There is still nothing set in stone, but here's what I am *thinking*:
After I finish my contract, I might travel for 3-4 weeks, including going back to visit Adelaide.
Then I'll come back to Japan in early October and study Japanese full-time-ish for 1-2 months. I'll try to pick up a bit of part-time temp work.
After that, I might try to find full-time work in Japan so as to stay a bit longer.
At the moment I'm looking into options and working out the logistics. So plans might change. Just thought I'd keep you in the loop of what I'm thinking. Hope you're all doing well!
Just a quick update to let you know what my plans are. There is still nothing set in stone, but here's what I am *thinking*:
After I finish my contract, I might travel for 3-4 weeks, including going back to visit Adelaide.
Then I'll come back to Japan in early October and study Japanese full-time-ish for 1-2 months. I'll try to pick up a bit of part-time temp work.
After that, I might try to find full-time work in Japan so as to stay a bit longer.
At the moment I'm looking into options and working out the logistics. So plans might change. Just thought I'd keep you in the loop of what I'm thinking. Hope you're all doing well!
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Hiroshima and Miyajima, cont.
(Incidentally, today is Tanabata, the star festival. In Yokohama, I can report there is one star visible in the clear night sky.)
Day 2 - Miyajima
Day 2 started with another huge feast at the ryokan. I checked out and walked around Miyajima for a while. The rain had stopped, and as the morning progressed, the sun peeked out more and more.
If I'd been going hoping to see all the tourist draws, I'd have been disappointed. The aquarium and the ropeway were both closed. Fortunately I wasn't planning to see either of them. I went instead to Daisho-in temple.
Usually when I visit a shrine or temple in Japan, I don't have any strong feeling that it is a religious place. There are families there, giggling girls buying good-luck charms, tourists snapping pictures.
This temple was different. Its setting was quiet, and prettily green; it reminded me of Kyoto or Kamakura. And it was full of interesting religious objects. There was a mandala made of coloured sand, contributed by visiting monks from Tibet. There was a cave containing 88 icons representing the temples of Shikoku, with soil from each; it was said that if you go through this cave, you needn't visit the temples of Shikoku.
(There are 88 famous temples in Shikoku; one can visit all of them on a pilgrimage, in which case one is following in the footsteps of the founder of Shingon Buddhism. This temple in Miyajima is a Shingon Buddhist temple. One of my students, with her husband, took this pilgrimage when she lived in Shikoku. She showed me a picture of the two of them, many years ago, both clad in pilgrim's clothes.)
There are many collections of statues; there was one walk lined with 500 men, each with its own facial expression. There are also sutra wheels you can spin; spinning a sutra wheel once will will be equivalent to reading their text in full. A monk was beating a drum, which sound reverberated across the temple grounds. There was free tea for visitors.
One thing that did interest me was the 'cute' statues everywhere. Some of the statues were imposing; some were stately; some were dignified. But there were an awful lot of them that looked rather like cute, 'chibi' anime characters.
I usually don't really care for temples, but I liked this one. I also went to Itsukushima Shrine. This shrine is almost like a red network of piers, 'floating' on the water. When I went here in mid-morning, it was lapped by water. When I walked by a couple of hours later, half of it was dry. The tide was going out.
The famous red torii gate in the ocean can be approached when the tide is low; however I only saw it at high tide, 'floating'.
The little streets of Miyajima have a real old-style Japanese feel to them (most of the stores are souvenir shops). At night they're lit with lanterns. And there really are a lot of deer. Visitors are not supposed to feed them, but sometimes they will take matters into their own hands (an American woman, who took my picture, had a map with a big chunk bitten out of it...).
I walked around quite a bit. There were a lot more foreigners on Miyajima than I've seen anywhere in Japan for a long time. I always feel kind of excited when I hear an Australian accent. There were a few on Miyajima.
I bought the obligatory Miyajima omiyage of 'momiji manjuu'. Momiji is a Japanese maple - I believe Mum and Dad have one in their garden? and kind of a symbol of Miyajima. Manju is a kind of Japanese sweet, it's like a little cakey thing with bean paste inside. Some of the manju have different fillings.
In Miyajima there were a number of shops with big, manju-making machines, filling maple-leaf-shaped impressions with the manju mix, and cooking them. I bought a box for my school (they have gotten quite a bit of omiyage from me this year, with all my travels ^_^) and she threw in an extra, chocolate one, for makeweight. ^_^ I ate it on the train home.
(I still can't say I'm a fan of Japanese confectionary, though...)
The other specialties of Miyajima seemed to be iwagaki, fish cakes, and anago (conger eel). I'd tried conger eel at my ryokan - it was delicious - and fish cakes too. But nothing would tempt me to try iwagaki. I don't care if it's barbecued, broiled, stir-fried, whatever - no matter how you prepare them, oysters are *still* like eating a big wad of mucus. And I'm sorry if that's a disgusting mental image, but that's how they make me feel!!
After I was done in Miyajima - and it really was a nice place, especially as the weather cleared up - I took the ferry back. I couldn't believe that on such a nice day, I was the only person on that ferry who was sitting outside. Every Japanese person was sitting inside in the air conditioning, watching the TV screen or reading comic books, etc. So I enjoyed the fresh sea air in peace and solitude. ^_^
I took a streetcar back to Hiroshima city.
Hiroshima atomic bomb memorials
In Hiroshima I went straight to Genbaku Dome (Genbaku means 'Atomic Bomb'). This shell of a building was located very near the epicenter of the bomb blast and was one of the only buildings in the whole area to survive, albeit in a ruined state. As time went on, and other A-bomb-damaged buildings were restored, the people of Hiroshima decided to preserve this domed building in the same condition it was after the bombing.
Around this building is the peace park. By this time the weather was warm and sunny, and very nice for walking around the park. I had lunch at a little outdoor Italian restaurant by the river.
The peace park is full of various monuments and statues. One of them is the children's peace statue; its erection was motivated by the story of Sadako and was supported by her classmates. (Sadako is the girl who died of leukemia a few years after the bombing; she was famous for trying to fold a thousand paper cranes to make her wish of living come true.)
This statue is surrounded by masses of paper cranes, many of them arranged in shapes and pictures. When I came to the statue, a group of schoolchildren was gathered around its base, holding posters for peace. They sang a song together, and all bowed toward the statue.
There's also a peace bell, which you can ring. I had nothing to leave, but I rang the bell. There's an eternal flame, burning near the peace memorial museum. There's incense burning. Somehow I didn't like the idea of burning anything to commemorate the bombing. It seemed like there was quite enough burning already. I preferred the bottles of water placed at the front of the Genbaku Dome. They say that after the bombing, countless people, burned all over their bodies, cried out for water, but there was no water to be had. So now, 63 years later, people leave water in memoriam.
I went to the peace park museum. It has a lot of exhibits and information - about the science of atomic bombs, how Hiroshima looked before and after the blast, the events leading up to it, etc. The obvious, overwhelming thrust of the museum and its displays is the human cost of a nuclear attack - most of the victims of the Hiroshima A-bomb were innocent civilians, and most of the human mementoes and relics in the museum were of children. Burned clothing, bags, toys, a blackened shoe; sometimes they were all parents had to identify that their children had died. One mother had even saved part of their young son's skin and fingernail to show the boy's father when he returned from war.
These sad remainders were on display at the museum, accompanied by short footnotes, frequently, stories of love - so-and-so struggled to reach her family, and, despite her family's ministrations, finally died in her mother's arms.
Sadako's story was again told here, in more detail than at the children's monument. On hearing she had less than a year to live, her parents bought her a pretty kimono, which she was delighted to receive. At the museum they had some of the cranes she had made. Actually, they were really tiny. Some of them were about the size of a macadamia nut; she had folded the creases with a needle.
At the time of the blast, a lot of students and civilians had been mobilised into the streets for demolition work (to create fire breaks in the event of air raids). As so many people were outside at the time, that many more were killed or injured. 8:15 was the time of the attack; there were also pocket watches on display, blackened and mangled, which had stopped at that exact moment.
The museum also, obviously, strongly promotes nuclear disarmament. There were masses of copies of letters of protest by the mayor of Hiroshima to the heads and ambassadors of different countries with nuclear weapons (including his latest one, written to North Korea).
After I left the museum, I was sitting in the park, enjoying the afternoon sunshine, and an old man came up and sat beside me. He was 67 years old, he said, and he was 3 years old when the war finished. His father was working in Hiroshima at the time of the A-bomb attack, and was killed in the blast. His mother, thereafter, had to get a job to support the family; and so they were were poor.
He was a nice man. He said he was studying English conversation, and wanted to go to Cairns some day.
Soon after that I had to get going back to Hiroshima station to take my shinkansen home.
Day 2 - Miyajima
Day 2 started with another huge feast at the ryokan. I checked out and walked around Miyajima for a while. The rain had stopped, and as the morning progressed, the sun peeked out more and more.
If I'd been going hoping to see all the tourist draws, I'd have been disappointed. The aquarium and the ropeway were both closed. Fortunately I wasn't planning to see either of them. I went instead to Daisho-in temple.
Usually when I visit a shrine or temple in Japan, I don't have any strong feeling that it is a religious place. There are families there, giggling girls buying good-luck charms, tourists snapping pictures.
This temple was different. Its setting was quiet, and prettily green; it reminded me of Kyoto or Kamakura. And it was full of interesting religious objects. There was a mandala made of coloured sand, contributed by visiting monks from Tibet. There was a cave containing 88 icons representing the temples of Shikoku, with soil from each; it was said that if you go through this cave, you needn't visit the temples of Shikoku.
(There are 88 famous temples in Shikoku; one can visit all of them on a pilgrimage, in which case one is following in the footsteps of the founder of Shingon Buddhism. This temple in Miyajima is a Shingon Buddhist temple. One of my students, with her husband, took this pilgrimage when she lived in Shikoku. She showed me a picture of the two of them, many years ago, both clad in pilgrim's clothes.)
There are many collections of statues; there was one walk lined with 500 men, each with its own facial expression. There are also sutra wheels you can spin; spinning a sutra wheel once will will be equivalent to reading their text in full. A monk was beating a drum, which sound reverberated across the temple grounds. There was free tea for visitors.
One thing that did interest me was the 'cute' statues everywhere. Some of the statues were imposing; some were stately; some were dignified. But there were an awful lot of them that looked rather like cute, 'chibi' anime characters.
I usually don't really care for temples, but I liked this one. I also went to Itsukushima Shrine. This shrine is almost like a red network of piers, 'floating' on the water. When I went here in mid-morning, it was lapped by water. When I walked by a couple of hours later, half of it was dry. The tide was going out.
The famous red torii gate in the ocean can be approached when the tide is low; however I only saw it at high tide, 'floating'.
The little streets of Miyajima have a real old-style Japanese feel to them (most of the stores are souvenir shops). At night they're lit with lanterns. And there really are a lot of deer. Visitors are not supposed to feed them, but sometimes they will take matters into their own hands (an American woman, who took my picture, had a map with a big chunk bitten out of it...).
I walked around quite a bit. There were a lot more foreigners on Miyajima than I've seen anywhere in Japan for a long time. I always feel kind of excited when I hear an Australian accent. There were a few on Miyajima.
I bought the obligatory Miyajima omiyage of 'momiji manjuu'. Momiji is a Japanese maple - I believe Mum and Dad have one in their garden? and kind of a symbol of Miyajima. Manju is a kind of Japanese sweet, it's like a little cakey thing with bean paste inside. Some of the manju have different fillings.
In Miyajima there were a number of shops with big, manju-making machines, filling maple-leaf-shaped impressions with the manju mix, and cooking them. I bought a box for my school (they have gotten quite a bit of omiyage from me this year, with all my travels ^_^) and she threw in an extra, chocolate one, for makeweight. ^_^ I ate it on the train home.
(I still can't say I'm a fan of Japanese confectionary, though...)
The other specialties of Miyajima seemed to be iwagaki, fish cakes, and anago (conger eel). I'd tried conger eel at my ryokan - it was delicious - and fish cakes too. But nothing would tempt me to try iwagaki. I don't care if it's barbecued, broiled, stir-fried, whatever - no matter how you prepare them, oysters are *still* like eating a big wad of mucus. And I'm sorry if that's a disgusting mental image, but that's how they make me feel!!
After I was done in Miyajima - and it really was a nice place, especially as the weather cleared up - I took the ferry back. I couldn't believe that on such a nice day, I was the only person on that ferry who was sitting outside. Every Japanese person was sitting inside in the air conditioning, watching the TV screen or reading comic books, etc. So I enjoyed the fresh sea air in peace and solitude. ^_^
I took a streetcar back to Hiroshima city.
Hiroshima atomic bomb memorials
In Hiroshima I went straight to Genbaku Dome (Genbaku means 'Atomic Bomb'). This shell of a building was located very near the epicenter of the bomb blast and was one of the only buildings in the whole area to survive, albeit in a ruined state. As time went on, and other A-bomb-damaged buildings were restored, the people of Hiroshima decided to preserve this domed building in the same condition it was after the bombing.
Around this building is the peace park. By this time the weather was warm and sunny, and very nice for walking around the park. I had lunch at a little outdoor Italian restaurant by the river.
The peace park is full of various monuments and statues. One of them is the children's peace statue; its erection was motivated by the story of Sadako and was supported by her classmates. (Sadako is the girl who died of leukemia a few years after the bombing; she was famous for trying to fold a thousand paper cranes to make her wish of living come true.)
This statue is surrounded by masses of paper cranes, many of them arranged in shapes and pictures. When I came to the statue, a group of schoolchildren was gathered around its base, holding posters for peace. They sang a song together, and all bowed toward the statue.
There's also a peace bell, which you can ring. I had nothing to leave, but I rang the bell. There's an eternal flame, burning near the peace memorial museum. There's incense burning. Somehow I didn't like the idea of burning anything to commemorate the bombing. It seemed like there was quite enough burning already. I preferred the bottles of water placed at the front of the Genbaku Dome. They say that after the bombing, countless people, burned all over their bodies, cried out for water, but there was no water to be had. So now, 63 years later, people leave water in memoriam.
I went to the peace park museum. It has a lot of exhibits and information - about the science of atomic bombs, how Hiroshima looked before and after the blast, the events leading up to it, etc. The obvious, overwhelming thrust of the museum and its displays is the human cost of a nuclear attack - most of the victims of the Hiroshima A-bomb were innocent civilians, and most of the human mementoes and relics in the museum were of children. Burned clothing, bags, toys, a blackened shoe; sometimes they were all parents had to identify that their children had died. One mother had even saved part of their young son's skin and fingernail to show the boy's father when he returned from war.
These sad remainders were on display at the museum, accompanied by short footnotes, frequently, stories of love - so-and-so struggled to reach her family, and, despite her family's ministrations, finally died in her mother's arms.
Sadako's story was again told here, in more detail than at the children's monument. On hearing she had less than a year to live, her parents bought her a pretty kimono, which she was delighted to receive. At the museum they had some of the cranes she had made. Actually, they were really tiny. Some of them were about the size of a macadamia nut; she had folded the creases with a needle.
At the time of the blast, a lot of students and civilians had been mobilised into the streets for demolition work (to create fire breaks in the event of air raids). As so many people were outside at the time, that many more were killed or injured. 8:15 was the time of the attack; there were also pocket watches on display, blackened and mangled, which had stopped at that exact moment.
The museum also, obviously, strongly promotes nuclear disarmament. There were masses of copies of letters of protest by the mayor of Hiroshima to the heads and ambassadors of different countries with nuclear weapons (including his latest one, written to North Korea).
After I left the museum, I was sitting in the park, enjoying the afternoon sunshine, and an old man came up and sat beside me. He was 67 years old, he said, and he was 3 years old when the war finished. His father was working in Hiroshima at the time of the A-bomb attack, and was killed in the blast. His mother, thereafter, had to get a job to support the family; and so they were were poor.
He was a nice man. He said he was studying English conversation, and wanted to go to Cairns some day.
Soon after that I had to get going back to Hiroshima station to take my shinkansen home.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Miyajima and Hiroshima
This blog's turning into a travel blog... so far this year I've done short trips to Niigata, Izu, Seoul (South Korea), Okinawa, and now Hiroshima and Miyajima. Still on the list are Nara/Koshien (I want to see the baseball), Yakushima, and Hokkaido/Furano, in summer.
Day 1
There's always something exciting about setting off on a trip, and knowing that within a few hours, you'll be somewhere totally different. I was particularly glad to be eschewing airports this time; I like trains (and there's something very cool about getting on a train and hearing 'the next stop will be Nagoya', rather than 'the next stop will be Kozukue'). Even though the shinkansen was a bit more expensive than flying, it's worth it not to have go to the airport. Shin-Yokohama station is not so far from my house, so I was able to hop a shinkansen (bullet train) pretty conveniently.
Once I got there - and the scenery got increasingly overcast and gloomy-looking - I left the station, full of confidence. I thought to myself, every time I travel, I do less and less research before I leave. Today, I don't have a map, don't even know the names of Hiroshima's famous sites, and have no idea where to go after I leave the station or even what exit I should take. But now, I know Japan, and I can always ask someone in Japanese if I want to. It's nice to be a seasoned traveller and be able to get your bearings and enjoy discovering a new place from scratch!
With such congratulatory thoughts it was inevitable and predictable that I immediately set off and got very lost.
Even after asking at an information desk, and getting maps!! I really am a sad case. And the reason I didn't ask for directions was because I was *following* the street names and had no idea I was lost until I suddenly caught site of the name of the 'chome' and realised I'd walked in a very neat, 45-minute square around the station!
Very disgruntled to walk for 45 minutes and find myself back at the station entrance. >_<
What I had been looking for was 'Okonomi-Mura' (Okonomiyaki Village). As I've mentioned, every Japanese place is famous for some kind of food, and Hiroshima is famous for Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki. Okonomiyaki is a kind of vegetable pancake (usually with various meat/seafood too), and the Hiroshima variety is made with noodles. After failing so spectacularly to find Okonomi-Mura, I gave up and with a bad grace ate some okonomiyaki at a restaurant near the station. It was nice, but I was in a bit of a grump, as the afternoon was starting to wear on, the weather was still looking bleak, and so far I'd gotten nowhere.
Anyway, after this, I asked the information desk (who must have been surprised to see me back so soon) where the interesting shopping part of town was and took a streetcar (tram) to Kamiya-cho. Hiroshima has a *lot* of streetcars. In Kamiya-cho I immediately located the nearest Starbucks (^^;) and wandered around some shopping streets. I looked around a bit (I enjoyed it, but most major Japanese cities tend to look the same after a while...)
I noticed a large amount of Carp merchandise. The Hiroshima Carp are the local baseball team. There are a *lot* of Carp souvenirs, posters; even the sewer caps are painted with Carp pictures. You can buy Carp curry, Carp noodles, etc. I couldn't help myself; I bought Carp toilet paper. Some respect they show for their team!
I did think the sheer volume of Carp souvenirs was quite amazing, though. Like, surely most of the people buying Hiroshima souvenirs are people from other cities, right? And those people are highly unlikely to be Carp supporters, but rather, supporters of their own home teams, right? Why would they want to buy masses of their 'enemy' team's goods?
Well, whatever...
Anyway, I headed down to Miyajima. If you do go to Hiroshima, I recommend that you stay on Miyajima, and if you can give yourself a full day and two nights there, so much the better, especially if the weather is good. Hiroshima itself is okay - and I really recommend the Peace Park area - but for the most part it seems to be kind of an unremarkable, ordinary Japanese city.
Miyajima is an island in Hiroshima prefecture, a little south of Hiroshima city. It's a big tourist draw, and its most famous structure is the large red torii (shrine gates) that stand in the ocean as an 'entrance' to the shrine there, Itsukushima. The whole island is considered sacred. The plants and animals are all protected, so the island is full of nature. Most notable are the deer which wander all over the place, even in the shopping streets.
Miyajima is often described as one of the 'Three Most Beautiful Views of Japan'. As I took the ferry in, I couldn't agree. It was raining lightly; the whole sky was dark with clouds, and the island was dull and indistinct. The island was a huge mass of trees and greenery; thickly wooded; I thought that it would probably be very beautiful on a sunny day. I saw the famous torii from a distance and felt glum. (I spent quite a lot of money on this weekend trip.)
However! As soon as I arrived on the island, my bad mood finally stopped, and I super enjoyed the rest of my trip. For a start, I checked into my ryokan (traditional Japanese inn).
Now, there is nothing like a ryokan for relaxation. I love them. You come into your room and there's a hot teapot waiting there for you to enjoy some relaxing tea while sitting on the zaisu (floor-chair - a chair with a back, but no legs, so you are sitting on the floor). Tatami mats are comfortable under foot, and you know that later that evening you're going to have a multiple-course banquet brought out for you, and there'll be a hot, steaming Japanese-style bath you can enjoy. ^_^ And you can walk around happily in yukata and slippers.
The ryokan I stayed at had a little observatory room on the top floor - a cosy room full of comfortable chairs and 360 degree windows, so you could see the town from above, a mass of Japanese-style roofs, a tiered, red pagoda rising up behind them, and the ocean stretching out for miles.
Soon after I checked in I had dinner. The proprietress brought me dish after dish. I had raw salmon, horse mackerel and flatfish; conger eel; asparagus; sea bream in cheese and miso sauce; deep-fried tofu in soup; a kind of custard-y nabe; steak in blueberry sauce; miso soup; pickles; rice... and finally, mikan (tangerine) sorbet. Everything was sooo delicious. ^_^
After dinner I went walking on the island. By now it was night, and all the shops were closing; it was dark and very few people were around. I saw a shopkeeper's cat eating its dinner; the cat's owner came out to toss a few scraps to some deer waiting outside her door. I walked down to the torii, which was gently illuminated. The light rain stopped. In the darkness, it didn't matter if it was overcast. It was beautiful. The tide was high, and, peering into the ocean, I could see quite a few fish, as well as a manta ray, swimming.
I walked quite a long way, and there was nobody around at all, only a few deer; it was completely silent except for the sound of a running river, and the occasional frog.
Day 1
There's always something exciting about setting off on a trip, and knowing that within a few hours, you'll be somewhere totally different. I was particularly glad to be eschewing airports this time; I like trains (and there's something very cool about getting on a train and hearing 'the next stop will be Nagoya', rather than 'the next stop will be Kozukue'). Even though the shinkansen was a bit more expensive than flying, it's worth it not to have go to the airport. Shin-Yokohama station is not so far from my house, so I was able to hop a shinkansen (bullet train) pretty conveniently.
Once I got there - and the scenery got increasingly overcast and gloomy-looking - I left the station, full of confidence. I thought to myself, every time I travel, I do less and less research before I leave. Today, I don't have a map, don't even know the names of Hiroshima's famous sites, and have no idea where to go after I leave the station or even what exit I should take. But now, I know Japan, and I can always ask someone in Japanese if I want to. It's nice to be a seasoned traveller and be able to get your bearings and enjoy discovering a new place from scratch!
With such congratulatory thoughts it was inevitable and predictable that I immediately set off and got very lost.
Even after asking at an information desk, and getting maps!! I really am a sad case. And the reason I didn't ask for directions was because I was *following* the street names and had no idea I was lost until I suddenly caught site of the name of the 'chome' and realised I'd walked in a very neat, 45-minute square around the station!
Very disgruntled to walk for 45 minutes and find myself back at the station entrance. >_<
What I had been looking for was 'Okonomi-Mura' (Okonomiyaki Village). As I've mentioned, every Japanese place is famous for some kind of food, and Hiroshima is famous for Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki. Okonomiyaki is a kind of vegetable pancake (usually with various meat/seafood too), and the Hiroshima variety is made with noodles. After failing so spectacularly to find Okonomi-Mura, I gave up and with a bad grace ate some okonomiyaki at a restaurant near the station. It was nice, but I was in a bit of a grump, as the afternoon was starting to wear on, the weather was still looking bleak, and so far I'd gotten nowhere.
Anyway, after this, I asked the information desk (who must have been surprised to see me back so soon) where the interesting shopping part of town was and took a streetcar (tram) to Kamiya-cho. Hiroshima has a *lot* of streetcars. In Kamiya-cho I immediately located the nearest Starbucks (^^;) and wandered around some shopping streets. I looked around a bit (I enjoyed it, but most major Japanese cities tend to look the same after a while...)
I noticed a large amount of Carp merchandise. The Hiroshima Carp are the local baseball team. There are a *lot* of Carp souvenirs, posters; even the sewer caps are painted with Carp pictures. You can buy Carp curry, Carp noodles, etc. I couldn't help myself; I bought Carp toilet paper. Some respect they show for their team!
I did think the sheer volume of Carp souvenirs was quite amazing, though. Like, surely most of the people buying Hiroshima souvenirs are people from other cities, right? And those people are highly unlikely to be Carp supporters, but rather, supporters of their own home teams, right? Why would they want to buy masses of their 'enemy' team's goods?
Well, whatever...
Anyway, I headed down to Miyajima. If you do go to Hiroshima, I recommend that you stay on Miyajima, and if you can give yourself a full day and two nights there, so much the better, especially if the weather is good. Hiroshima itself is okay - and I really recommend the Peace Park area - but for the most part it seems to be kind of an unremarkable, ordinary Japanese city.
Miyajima is an island in Hiroshima prefecture, a little south of Hiroshima city. It's a big tourist draw, and its most famous structure is the large red torii (shrine gates) that stand in the ocean as an 'entrance' to the shrine there, Itsukushima. The whole island is considered sacred. The plants and animals are all protected, so the island is full of nature. Most notable are the deer which wander all over the place, even in the shopping streets.
Miyajima is often described as one of the 'Three Most Beautiful Views of Japan'. As I took the ferry in, I couldn't agree. It was raining lightly; the whole sky was dark with clouds, and the island was dull and indistinct. The island was a huge mass of trees and greenery; thickly wooded; I thought that it would probably be very beautiful on a sunny day. I saw the famous torii from a distance and felt glum. (I spent quite a lot of money on this weekend trip.)
However! As soon as I arrived on the island, my bad mood finally stopped, and I super enjoyed the rest of my trip. For a start, I checked into my ryokan (traditional Japanese inn).
Now, there is nothing like a ryokan for relaxation. I love them. You come into your room and there's a hot teapot waiting there for you to enjoy some relaxing tea while sitting on the zaisu (floor-chair - a chair with a back, but no legs, so you are sitting on the floor). Tatami mats are comfortable under foot, and you know that later that evening you're going to have a multiple-course banquet brought out for you, and there'll be a hot, steaming Japanese-style bath you can enjoy. ^_^ And you can walk around happily in yukata and slippers.
The ryokan I stayed at had a little observatory room on the top floor - a cosy room full of comfortable chairs and 360 degree windows, so you could see the town from above, a mass of Japanese-style roofs, a tiered, red pagoda rising up behind them, and the ocean stretching out for miles.
Soon after I checked in I had dinner. The proprietress brought me dish after dish. I had raw salmon, horse mackerel and flatfish; conger eel; asparagus; sea bream in cheese and miso sauce; deep-fried tofu in soup; a kind of custard-y nabe; steak in blueberry sauce; miso soup; pickles; rice... and finally, mikan (tangerine) sorbet. Everything was sooo delicious. ^_^
After dinner I went walking on the island. By now it was night, and all the shops were closing; it was dark and very few people were around. I saw a shopkeeper's cat eating its dinner; the cat's owner came out to toss a few scraps to some deer waiting outside her door. I walked down to the torii, which was gently illuminated. The light rain stopped. In the darkness, it didn't matter if it was overcast. It was beautiful. The tide was high, and, peering into the ocean, I could see quite a few fish, as well as a manta ray, swimming.
I walked quite a long way, and there was nobody around at all, only a few deer; it was completely silent except for the sound of a running river, and the occasional frog.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Random updates
Today I taught a class on 'telling jokes'. This class could really be subtitled 'ruining jokes', or 'explaining why a joke is supposed to be funny'.
It's a truism is that if you have to explain a joke, it probably isn't funny.
To me, the funniest 'joke' of the lesson - which had me, for some reason, laughing hysterically (to the bewilderment of my students), was in the answers to the listening section.
Some previous teacher had written the correct answers to the questions in my book - 'true', 'false', etc. The final question was: "listen to the joke one more time. Do you think it's funny?" According to my textbook, the correct answer is 'NO'.
***
It's often observed by bloggers that during your stay in Japan, you will be a) complimented on your ability to use chopsticks (as though it weren't something that could be learned in a couple of days), and b) informed that Japan is unique because it has four seasons (as though this weren't a quality shared by every non-tropical country in the world).
Score! In the last couple of weeks, I was complimented on chopstick use *twice*. Sadly, one of these came from someone who *knows* I have been in Japan for about a year and a half. If I could not use chopsticks by now you'd have to conclude I had some kind of debilitating condition, the kind you'd be taking medication for.
Also, last weekend, a student asked me how many seasons we have in Australia. I said four, and she asked me if they were similar to Japan's. Well, the winters are a bit less cold, and the summers have more variation in temperature, I said. She told me emphatically that Japan has four seasons.
I appreciated learning this. Thank you.
***
I'm going to Hiroshima this weekend. I bought some train tickets today. I'll stay on Miyajima. Several people have told me that Miyajima is considered one of the 'Three Most Beautiful Views In Japan', but to my amusement, nobody could remember the other two.
I went to the discount ticket counter in Azalea and asked them if their shinkansen tickets were cheaper than at the station; they said yes. So I requested tickets from Shin-Yokohama to Hiroshima. She said they wouldn't be available until tonight or tomorrow. So I said I'd be back after 9 o'clock. I came back and got the tickets; there was no time printed; when I asked, she explained that I had to go to the station to confirm a time.
So I went to the station, entered my tickets in the machine, and unintentionally bought two one-way tickets to Hiroshima, rather than one to Hiroshima and one return to Shin-Yokohama. So then I had to go to the counter, explain the situation to the man, and tell him what I wanted to change the ticket to.
The only reason this is of note is because all these exchanges took place solely in Japanese. Yay! ^_^
It's a truism is that if you have to explain a joke, it probably isn't funny.
To me, the funniest 'joke' of the lesson - which had me, for some reason, laughing hysterically (to the bewilderment of my students), was in the answers to the listening section.
Some previous teacher had written the correct answers to the questions in my book - 'true', 'false', etc. The final question was: "listen to the joke one more time. Do you think it's funny?" According to my textbook, the correct answer is 'NO'.
***
It's often observed by bloggers that during your stay in Japan, you will be a) complimented on your ability to use chopsticks (as though it weren't something that could be learned in a couple of days), and b) informed that Japan is unique because it has four seasons (as though this weren't a quality shared by every non-tropical country in the world).
Score! In the last couple of weeks, I was complimented on chopstick use *twice*. Sadly, one of these came from someone who *knows* I have been in Japan for about a year and a half. If I could not use chopsticks by now you'd have to conclude I had some kind of debilitating condition, the kind you'd be taking medication for.
Also, last weekend, a student asked me how many seasons we have in Australia. I said four, and she asked me if they were similar to Japan's. Well, the winters are a bit less cold, and the summers have more variation in temperature, I said. She told me emphatically that Japan has four seasons.
I appreciated learning this. Thank you.
***
I'm going to Hiroshima this weekend. I bought some train tickets today. I'll stay on Miyajima. Several people have told me that Miyajima is considered one of the 'Three Most Beautiful Views In Japan', but to my amusement, nobody could remember the other two.
I went to the discount ticket counter in Azalea and asked them if their shinkansen tickets were cheaper than at the station; they said yes. So I requested tickets from Shin-Yokohama to Hiroshima. She said they wouldn't be available until tonight or tomorrow. So I said I'd be back after 9 o'clock. I came back and got the tickets; there was no time printed; when I asked, she explained that I had to go to the station to confirm a time.
So I went to the station, entered my tickets in the machine, and unintentionally bought two one-way tickets to Hiroshima, rather than one to Hiroshima and one return to Shin-Yokohama. So then I had to go to the counter, explain the situation to the man, and tell him what I wanted to change the ticket to.
The only reason this is of note is because all these exchanges took place solely in Japanese. Yay! ^_^
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Doing stuff
Since my last post was a bit long I decided to continue on a new one.
Ghibli museum
On Monday I finally got to the Ghibli museum. I've been meaning to get there for some time now, and finally managed it. You see, this museum has a system whereby you have to book tickets from a convenience store, in advance. Last year I tried to go there during summer holidays; checked three weeks before, and every time slot on every day was fully booked. Going on a Monday, however, was a matter of going to the convenience store at 2pm and buying a ticket for 4pm...
It's a bit of a trek out to Mitaka but I enjoyed it. The museum is designed as a big, rambling house to explore - full of odd chairs and mysterious doorways and winding staircases, and so on. You could watch a 15-minute animated short, and see animation techniques, and so on. There was even a cat bus for kids to play on. ^_^
Muza
Recently I went to Kawasaki Muza. Muza is the concert hall in Kawasaki; it's right next to the station and one of the most recognisable buildings in Kawaski. I'd never been there for a show, but a student invited me; her daughter (a former student) was playing bassoon in a concert. (For ages, my student told me she played the 'faggot'. Until today I never realised what instrument she actually played. Now I realise that 'faggot' is the German name for 'bassoon'.)
We sat in the front row at the concert. After the show I went out with her family to a buffet restaurant. Unsurprisingly, I wasn't allowed to pay... it was very nice of them and I felt very well treated. ^_^
(BTW, Mum, the mother who invited me is the same lady who sent you the Japanese souvenirs as a Christmas present.)
Gym
Tomorrow I'm going to a gym near Kawasaki station. My co-worker had a free coupon for two people, so we're going together. I have never been to the gym in Japan... I'm in pretty poor shape, I think...
Hiroshima and Miyajima
I'm thinking about going on a weekend trip to Hiroshima and Miyajima some time in the next few weeks. I'm looking at accommodation options now.
It makes me realise how far I've come, though, since my first week in Japan, staying in the ryokan in Kyoto, and finding the food so impossible to manage. Now, I'm looking at these hotel options thinking I would probably prefer a Japanese-style breakfast to a Western-style one...
Ghibli museum
On Monday I finally got to the Ghibli museum. I've been meaning to get there for some time now, and finally managed it. You see, this museum has a system whereby you have to book tickets from a convenience store, in advance. Last year I tried to go there during summer holidays; checked three weeks before, and every time slot on every day was fully booked. Going on a Monday, however, was a matter of going to the convenience store at 2pm and buying a ticket for 4pm...
It's a bit of a trek out to Mitaka but I enjoyed it. The museum is designed as a big, rambling house to explore - full of odd chairs and mysterious doorways and winding staircases, and so on. You could watch a 15-minute animated short, and see animation techniques, and so on. There was even a cat bus for kids to play on. ^_^
Muza
Recently I went to Kawasaki Muza. Muza is the concert hall in Kawasaki; it's right next to the station and one of the most recognisable buildings in Kawaski. I'd never been there for a show, but a student invited me; her daughter (a former student) was playing bassoon in a concert. (For ages, my student told me she played the 'faggot'. Until today I never realised what instrument she actually played. Now I realise that 'faggot' is the German name for 'bassoon'.)
We sat in the front row at the concert. After the show I went out with her family to a buffet restaurant. Unsurprisingly, I wasn't allowed to pay... it was very nice of them and I felt very well treated. ^_^
(BTW, Mum, the mother who invited me is the same lady who sent you the Japanese souvenirs as a Christmas present.)
Gym
Tomorrow I'm going to a gym near Kawasaki station. My co-worker had a free coupon for two people, so we're going together. I have never been to the gym in Japan... I'm in pretty poor shape, I think...
Hiroshima and Miyajima
I'm thinking about going on a weekend trip to Hiroshima and Miyajima some time in the next few weeks. I'm looking at accommodation options now.
It makes me realise how far I've come, though, since my first week in Japan, staying in the ryokan in Kyoto, and finding the food so impossible to manage. Now, I'm looking at these hotel options thinking I would probably prefer a Japanese-style breakfast to a Western-style one...
Yokohama and irrashaimase
I'm still doing stuff most weekends.
Yokohama
Last weekend was the farewell party and all-night karaoke. After that, I didn't feel like doing much the next day, so I went to Yokohama.
I don't know why, but every time I go to Yokohama station on a weekend, I'm shocked by the number of people there. You'd think I'd be used to it by now. I mean, like, waiting in long lines to exit a building, walking in human 'lanes' of traffic, and in general, seeing the kind of crowds that you might see at the end of Sky Show when everyone gets up to go home. And it's just an ordinary Sunday in Yokohama.
These kind of crowds are not that rare in Tokyo, but because I consider Yokohama like my 'home' station, and I think of Yokohama as a smaller, less bustling place, it still surprises me. Generally I don't mind crowds, but if I'm in a grumpy mood, I sometimes get the urge to headbutt the person in front of me.)
Yokohama station is a major hub station - lots of different train lines stop there - so it's naturally busy, and it's also surrounded by a dense network of department stores, in all directions, including underground. I have wandered their mazes many a time, but I still don't have it quite straight in my head which department store has which food hall, for example. (Of course, the food halls are the only parts I am interested in, hahaha.)
Before, I described pachinko parlours as the 'seventh circle of hell', but I found a close contender for sheer awfulness - the Vivre building in Yokohama. (This is the building that has an 'all-you-can-eat' dessert buffet. ^_^) I went there for the Starbucks, and unfortunately had to use the bathroom. It's full of 'gyaaru' (girls with over-treated hair, pancake makeup, fishnet stockings, short shorts... in other words, scary girls). These gyaaru are sales assistants, shrieking out the specials.
A lot of stores hire people to stand outside and shout out the specials, or shout 'irrasshaimase!' (welcome!) to people*, but I can't convey the cacophany in Vivre. All of the ladies had very powerful voices, and some were using the aid of megaphones. I think there may have also been some unpleasant background music, but I can't remember. Since I hate clothes shopping anyway, I couldn't imagine anything worse than actually going into one of those and having to endure that kind of aural assault while sorting through hot pink 80s-style off-the-shoulder tops.
*(Almost all store clerks will say 'irrashaimase' when they see you. Of course, I expect it. If I'm in a store, and a clerk sees me, and they *don't* say 'irrashaimase', I kind of think 'oh, they're ignoring me'. However, in some cases, the 'irrashaimase' doesn't sound remotely friendly, and makes me want to leave the store quickly. If I didn't know what it meant, I might think they were telling me to GET OUT OF OUR STORE!!
A lot of girls have a very nasal 'irrasshaimase' going, and some gung-ho guys, like the electronics store or fruit seller guys, will absolutely bellow it in quite a scary manner. The best is in big 100 yen shops where everyone's 'irrasshaimase' sounds like an 'I hate my job and all my customers'.
One of my students works in retail, and she says she says it's one of the worst things about the job, being told to say 'irrashaimase' to everyone who walks past. In some stores you'll even see/hear sales assistants just randomly calling out 'irrashaimase' as they walk around doing their job - in this case, they're not even looking at you, and they say it at regular intervals just to cover themselves in case someone does walk past.
In Australia, the equivalent is 'hi, how are you?', so 'irrasshaimase' has the benefit/disadvantage (depending on your POV) of acknowledging a customer while not requiring a response.)
As usual I'm going off on rambling tangents... I decided to try to walk home from Yokohama to my house. The previous week I had tried to walk to my house from my second-nearest train station, and ended up 6km in the wrong direction, in Shin-Yokohama. This was a pretty poor effort. This time I made it without getting lost at ALL. It took me about an hour to walk home from Yokohama. ^_^
Yokohama
Last weekend was the farewell party and all-night karaoke. After that, I didn't feel like doing much the next day, so I went to Yokohama.
I don't know why, but every time I go to Yokohama station on a weekend, I'm shocked by the number of people there. You'd think I'd be used to it by now. I mean, like, waiting in long lines to exit a building, walking in human 'lanes' of traffic, and in general, seeing the kind of crowds that you might see at the end of Sky Show when everyone gets up to go home. And it's just an ordinary Sunday in Yokohama.
These kind of crowds are not that rare in Tokyo, but because I consider Yokohama like my 'home' station, and I think of Yokohama as a smaller, less bustling place, it still surprises me. Generally I don't mind crowds, but if I'm in a grumpy mood, I sometimes get the urge to headbutt the person in front of me.)
Yokohama station is a major hub station - lots of different train lines stop there - so it's naturally busy, and it's also surrounded by a dense network of department stores, in all directions, including underground. I have wandered their mazes many a time, but I still don't have it quite straight in my head which department store has which food hall, for example. (Of course, the food halls are the only parts I am interested in, hahaha.)
Before, I described pachinko parlours as the 'seventh circle of hell', but I found a close contender for sheer awfulness - the Vivre building in Yokohama. (This is the building that has an 'all-you-can-eat' dessert buffet. ^_^) I went there for the Starbucks, and unfortunately had to use the bathroom. It's full of 'gyaaru' (girls with over-treated hair, pancake makeup, fishnet stockings, short shorts... in other words, scary girls). These gyaaru are sales assistants, shrieking out the specials.
A lot of stores hire people to stand outside and shout out the specials, or shout 'irrasshaimase!' (welcome!) to people*, but I can't convey the cacophany in Vivre. All of the ladies had very powerful voices, and some were using the aid of megaphones. I think there may have also been some unpleasant background music, but I can't remember. Since I hate clothes shopping anyway, I couldn't imagine anything worse than actually going into one of those and having to endure that kind of aural assault while sorting through hot pink 80s-style off-the-shoulder tops.
*(Almost all store clerks will say 'irrashaimase' when they see you. Of course, I expect it. If I'm in a store, and a clerk sees me, and they *don't* say 'irrashaimase', I kind of think 'oh, they're ignoring me'. However, in some cases, the 'irrashaimase' doesn't sound remotely friendly, and makes me want to leave the store quickly. If I didn't know what it meant, I might think they were telling me to GET OUT OF OUR STORE!!
A lot of girls have a very nasal 'irrasshaimase' going, and some gung-ho guys, like the electronics store or fruit seller guys, will absolutely bellow it in quite a scary manner. The best is in big 100 yen shops where everyone's 'irrasshaimase' sounds like an 'I hate my job and all my customers'.
One of my students works in retail, and she says she says it's one of the worst things about the job, being told to say 'irrashaimase' to everyone who walks past. In some stores you'll even see/hear sales assistants just randomly calling out 'irrashaimase' as they walk around doing their job - in this case, they're not even looking at you, and they say it at regular intervals just to cover themselves in case someone does walk past.
In Australia, the equivalent is 'hi, how are you?', so 'irrasshaimase' has the benefit/disadvantage (depending on your POV) of acknowledging a customer while not requiring a response.)
As usual I'm going off on rambling tangents... I decided to try to walk home from Yokohama to my house. The previous week I had tried to walk to my house from my second-nearest train station, and ended up 6km in the wrong direction, in Shin-Yokohama. This was a pretty poor effort. This time I made it without getting lost at ALL. It took me about an hour to walk home from Yokohama. ^_^
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Rainy rainy
It's really the rainy season now. Last year, I mentioned, spring had very tiresome weather, raining every weekend, but come 'rainy season', it mostly cleared up. So last year, the so-called 'rainy season' was fairly mild and not all that rainy.
This year, we had a beautiful spring with lovely weather, but the rainy season is really living up to its name. It's been raining two days out of three for the last couple of weeks. It rained yesterday, and the day before, and the morning before that, and so on. I kept getting caught out at work without an umbrella. We've had thunderstorms, drizzle, all-day sousing rain...
And it's getting really humid. I've been busting out the shikke tori (de-humidifying pellets) again, and they are collecting quite a bit of water.
All the ajisai (hydrangeas) are in bloom and the greenery is so lush in every crack and small place it's able to grow; if this weren't a concrete jungle, it would be a phenomenal mass of plantlife.
This year, we had a beautiful spring with lovely weather, but the rainy season is really living up to its name. It's been raining two days out of three for the last couple of weeks. It rained yesterday, and the day before, and the morning before that, and so on. I kept getting caught out at work without an umbrella. We've had thunderstorms, drizzle, all-day sousing rain...
And it's getting really humid. I've been busting out the shikke tori (de-humidifying pellets) again, and they are collecting quite a bit of water.
All the ajisai (hydrangeas) are in bloom and the greenery is so lush in every crack and small place it's able to grow; if this weren't a concrete jungle, it would be a phenomenal mass of plantlife.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Oyakodon
I just made some delicious oyakodon, which is a chicken and egg mixture on rice. The name 'oyakodon' literally means 'parent child bowl' (which is kind of disgusting when you think about it). Actually, my oyakodon tasted better than a store-bought one, because I could ensure the chicken was good-quality meat (not with big pieces of skin, fat, etc -_-).
You can see what oyakodon looks like here on Google Images.
Here is the recipe. ^_^
This will make 3-4 servings.
Ingredients
lots of steamed rice
chicken breast/thigh (I don't know how much I used, maybe 300g or so)
1/2 leek (I used half an onion instead, frying it before adding it to the dish)
1 bunch mitsuba/trefoil (I forgot to buy this so I left it out)
4 eggs
1 1/4 cup 'dashi' stock
3T mirin
3T soy sauce
Method
1. Cut the chicken into small cubes. Slice the leeks thinly, diagonally. Cut the roots off the mitsuba and chop roughly.
2. Beat the eggs in a bowl.
3. Put the dashi stock, mirin and soy sauce in a saucepan, and bring to a boil. Then add the chicken, and reduce the heat to medium.
4. When the chicken is almost cooked, add the beaten egg, pouring it over the top with a circular motion.
5. When the egg is half-cooked, turn off the heat and add the leeks and mitsuba.
6. Put steamed rice in bowls, and put the 'oyako' mixture on the top.
I also seasoned it with a bit of salt and pepper.
おいしい！ (Delicious!)
You can see what oyakodon looks like here on Google Images.
Here is the recipe. ^_^
This will make 3-4 servings.
Ingredients
lots of steamed rice
chicken breast/thigh (I don't know how much I used, maybe 300g or so)
1/2 leek (I used half an onion instead, frying it before adding it to the dish)
1 bunch mitsuba/trefoil (I forgot to buy this so I left it out)
4 eggs
1 1/4 cup 'dashi' stock
3T mirin
3T soy sauce
Method
1. Cut the chicken into small cubes. Slice the leeks thinly, diagonally. Cut the roots off the mitsuba and chop roughly.
2. Beat the eggs in a bowl.
3. Put the dashi stock, mirin and soy sauce in a saucepan, and bring to a boil. Then add the chicken, and reduce the heat to medium.
4. When the chicken is almost cooked, add the beaten egg, pouring it over the top with a circular motion.
5. When the egg is half-cooked, turn off the heat and add the leeks and mitsuba.
6. Put steamed rice in bowls, and put the 'oyako' mixture on the top.
I also seasoned it with a bit of salt and pepper.
おいしい！ (Delicious!)
Changes
We're having some changes at work at the moment. This week was Pete's last week, and we have a new teacher, from Australia. Let's call him Dan. We had a farewell/welcome bash for them last night. Unfortunately Pete was pretty under the weather, so I don't think he could enjoy it as much as he would have... I'm going to miss having him around. He's one of the most positive people I've ever met. His next plan is to go hitchhiking, which is pretty cool.
It was a good party though. Afterwards, we went to all-night karaoke and I got home at 6am. Being at events like this reminds me of how much I like my school and all the staff/students in it. And it reminds me how much I'd like to do far more things with students; I'd happily go out three or four times a week if I could. But it can be difficult to organise.
So work is going fine but it's a little bit busier than usual; I've been doing more of the little random jobs like doing English tests with students, meeting new students, chitchatting in the lobby, etc. I realised I can do it quite well; even if things happen like materials going missing, or losing out on prep time, I find I have enough experience now to kind of wing things a bit more.
Basically, what it comes down to is I like my job - I like the job itself, I like my work environment, I like my coworkers and I really like the students. There are a couple of things I won't really miss - I still struggle a bit with things like crying children, and I do tend to get a bit stressed and nervous before kids' classes, though I don't think I show it.
But even teaching kids has some good points. I think I mentioned the time I was sick and my 11-year-old girl wrote me a 'get well soon' note, half in English and Japanese. Another, younger girl is often hugging me and saying 'I like you!' (She also asked me if I was in love with anyone, and if I was married, hahaha.) And last week I taught a private lesson to this 8-year-old girl. She was a lot of fun, and cute. After class she was following me around, and hugged me, gave me some snacks, and told the staff that we were friends.
Right now I'm feeling a bit ambivalent about leaving (my last day is September 2, but we are not telling students for a little longer). Now that Pete's gone, and we've done all the farewells, it feels like a familiar time has come to an end. I'm really now feeling conscious of counting down until I go. To make myself feel better about leaving, I have to remind myself:
I have a lot of nice people around me, but the nature of this job is that people come and go a lot. Actually, our core staff has been fairly stable, but various part-time teachers have come and gone; a number of students I've really liked or gotten along well with have left, and more will no doubt do so some day. So in that sense it's not like I have such a strong attachment to anyone, and I am used to saying goodbye to people, although I don't like it.
Similarly, I have made some friends in Japan now, but the truth is that most of them usually seem to be busy or unavailable to do things. The guy at Gaijin Smash had it right when he said that Japanese people often don't seem to want to do things spontaneously (or even with one or two days' warning). I find unless I 'schedule' something a week or more in advance, 90% of the time it's a 'no'. If you have, say, six different friends, and you meet up with each of them once every two or three months, well, it's not much of a social life; it's not what you'd call a really close friendship. I don't so much have a group of friends, either, unless you count my co-workers (who are good eggs).
So if I am honest, although I like the people here very much, and enjoy spending time with them, I know that realistically we are probably not going to be strong, lasting friends forever.
that although I feel comfortable and happy - like I'm in my element and get along with everyone - that I felt that way in my last job too, so there's a good chance I'll also feel happy in a new workplace.
my English *is* deteriorating somewhat. I think my grammar even on this blog has gotten slightly patchy at times. Sometimes when I speak, I skip articles ('a', 'the') or entire clauses, to make the sentence shorter and simpler. (I do try not to do this in class...)
I really do want to travel, and I really do want to try living in another foreign country.
For the record, I still haven't decided what I'll do after my job finishes - whether I'll go back to Australia, or get another job in Japan. If I get another job in Japan I ought to start looking. I guess even if I leave, if I want to, I can come back some day.
It was a good party though. Afterwards, we went to all-night karaoke and I got home at 6am. Being at events like this reminds me of how much I like my school and all the staff/students in it. And it reminds me how much I'd like to do far more things with students; I'd happily go out three or four times a week if I could. But it can be difficult to organise.
So work is going fine but it's a little bit busier than usual; I've been doing more of the little random jobs like doing English tests with students, meeting new students, chitchatting in the lobby, etc. I realised I can do it quite well; even if things happen like materials going missing, or losing out on prep time, I find I have enough experience now to kind of wing things a bit more.
Basically, what it comes down to is I like my job - I like the job itself, I like my work environment, I like my coworkers and I really like the students. There are a couple of things I won't really miss - I still struggle a bit with things like crying children, and I do tend to get a bit stressed and nervous before kids' classes, though I don't think I show it.
But even teaching kids has some good points. I think I mentioned the time I was sick and my 11-year-old girl wrote me a 'get well soon' note, half in English and Japanese. Another, younger girl is often hugging me and saying 'I like you!' (She also asked me if I was in love with anyone, and if I was married, hahaha.) And last week I taught a private lesson to this 8-year-old girl. She was a lot of fun, and cute. After class she was following me around, and hugged me, gave me some snacks, and told the staff that we were friends.
Right now I'm feeling a bit ambivalent about leaving (my last day is September 2, but we are not telling students for a little longer). Now that Pete's gone, and we've done all the farewells, it feels like a familiar time has come to an end. I'm really now feeling conscious of counting down until I go. To make myself feel better about leaving, I have to remind myself:
Similarly, I have made some friends in Japan now, but the truth is that most of them usually seem to be busy or unavailable to do things. The guy at Gaijin Smash had it right when he said that Japanese people often don't seem to want to do things spontaneously (or even with one or two days' warning). I find unless I 'schedule' something a week or more in advance, 90% of the time it's a 'no'. If you have, say, six different friends, and you meet up with each of them once every two or three months, well, it's not much of a social life; it's not what you'd call a really close friendship. I don't so much have a group of friends, either, unless you count my co-workers (who are good eggs).
So if I am honest, although I like the people here very much, and enjoy spending time with them, I know that realistically we are probably not going to be strong, lasting friends forever.
For the record, I still haven't decided what I'll do after my job finishes - whether I'll go back to Australia, or get another job in Japan. If I get another job in Japan I ought to start looking. I guess even if I leave, if I want to, I can come back some day.
Phones
It's interesting to live in such a high-tech world. I don't like the idea of being too dependent on technology, nor too 'connected'. I think it can reduce people's patience, require people to be constantly stimulated. However, there's no denying it does make life more convenient, and already it's hard to remember how life was five, ten, fifteen years ago.
For example, there was a time when, if you made plans to meet a person, and you got there, and they didn't come, well, there was really nothing to do but keep waiting, then go home (or find a pay phone and try to call their house). These days, if people are meeting, there's a 10-message preliminary exchange so that you don't really need to make concrete initial plans at all. ('I'm about to leave the station now', 'where are you at the moment?' 'I'm heading toward the restaurant, will prob be about 5 min', 'sorry, is it the restaurant next to Lawson, or the one near the park?')
I remember when I was a kid, getting books from the library, I would have no way to know whether the same author had written other books which weren't in the library, unless they were listed on the cover of the books I did have. If you did find this out, you could possibly go to Dymocks in the city and request they order it in, but this was a bit of a hassle. I remember a few years ago, I was on Amazon and discovered that my favourite ever children's book ('The Giver') had two sequels; with a few clicks I could order them and within days they were at my house.
And ten or fifteen years ago, if you went walking around the streets of suburban Yokohama, and you got totally lost (as is very common for me), and you finally found your way again... well, there'd be no way to find out exactly where you went, what mistake you made, where you should go next time, etc - unless you could procure and read a Japanese road atlas, in Japanese. I would be constantly going around and winging it, never knowing where I was.
These days, however...
I was just on diddlefinger, checking out maps of my neighbourhood, and of the surrounding suburbs, so I could see what convenience stores were where. Before I leave my house I do a quick check of Hyperdia to see when my next train will leave. I use both these sites constantly to check potential routes, work out exactly where I'm going or where I went on a particular day...
However, I'm still a bit behind the times, since a lot of Japanese people would use their cell phones for this purpose. Some people use, I think, a kind of GPS on their phone to get directions; they can check timetables; they can watch TV shows, download and read comics, take decent quality pictures (some phones; not mine ^_^), play games, whatever. People are using mobile Facebook, sending photos to friends, listening to music...
I don't know much about the latest gadgets, nor about the future of technology, but it does seem mobile technology is getting better; more pervasive; that it will be a dominating technology in the near future (as indeed it already is). People are demanding more functionality in their phones; phones are going to be used for so many different purposes that I think that the state of phones now is the tip of the iceberg; we're going to see significant design and functionality changes, breakthroughs, improvements.
As for me, I have no idea what my phone is capable of, since I'm too scared to play with it too much. I don't know exactly what my phone plan includes, but it's the cheapest sort, so I think any deviation from my 'included costs' - such as surfing the Internet - could potentially wrack up huge costs. That's probably the biggest problem at the moment - getting a service like just being able to watch TV on your phone, can cost you, I dunno, $80 or more per month. Compared to your free TV at home, it's got a way to go.
For example, there was a time when, if you made plans to meet a person, and you got there, and they didn't come, well, there was really nothing to do but keep waiting, then go home (or find a pay phone and try to call their house). These days, if people are meeting, there's a 10-message preliminary exchange so that you don't really need to make concrete initial plans at all. ('I'm about to leave the station now', 'where are you at the moment?' 'I'm heading toward the restaurant, will prob be about 5 min', 'sorry, is it the restaurant next to Lawson, or the one near the park?')
I remember when I was a kid, getting books from the library, I would have no way to know whether the same author had written other books which weren't in the library, unless they were listed on the cover of the books I did have. If you did find this out, you could possibly go to Dymocks in the city and request they order it in, but this was a bit of a hassle. I remember a few years ago, I was on Amazon and discovered that my favourite ever children's book ('The Giver') had two sequels; with a few clicks I could order them and within days they were at my house.
And ten or fifteen years ago, if you went walking around the streets of suburban Yokohama, and you got totally lost (as is very common for me), and you finally found your way again... well, there'd be no way to find out exactly where you went, what mistake you made, where you should go next time, etc - unless you could procure and read a Japanese road atlas, in Japanese. I would be constantly going around and winging it, never knowing where I was.
These days, however...
I was just on diddlefinger, checking out maps of my neighbourhood, and of the surrounding suburbs, so I could see what convenience stores were where. Before I leave my house I do a quick check of Hyperdia to see when my next train will leave. I use both these sites constantly to check potential routes, work out exactly where I'm going or where I went on a particular day...
However, I'm still a bit behind the times, since a lot of Japanese people would use their cell phones for this purpose. Some people use, I think, a kind of GPS on their phone to get directions; they can check timetables; they can watch TV shows, download and read comics, take decent quality pictures (some phones; not mine ^_^), play games, whatever. People are using mobile Facebook, sending photos to friends, listening to music...
I don't know much about the latest gadgets, nor about the future of technology, but it does seem mobile technology is getting better; more pervasive; that it will be a dominating technology in the near future (as indeed it already is). People are demanding more functionality in their phones; phones are going to be used for so many different purposes that I think that the state of phones now is the tip of the iceberg; we're going to see significant design and functionality changes, breakthroughs, improvements.
As for me, I have no idea what my phone is capable of, since I'm too scared to play with it too much. I don't know exactly what my phone plan includes, but it's the cheapest sort, so I think any deviation from my 'included costs' - such as surfing the Internet - could potentially wrack up huge costs. That's probably the biggest problem at the moment - getting a service like just being able to watch TV on your phone, can cost you, I dunno, $80 or more per month. Compared to your free TV at home, it's got a way to go.
Friday, June 19, 2009
You know you've been in Japan too long when...
I found this list on the website Thin Rope.
From that list, here are some I totally identify with...
You know you've been in Japan too long when...
...you see a gaijin get on the train and think "Wow, it's a gaijin!"
...you can't have your picture taken without your fingers forming the peace sign.
...your idea of a larger home is an extra 10 square meters.
...you think the natural location for a beer garden is on a roof.
...you wait for the first day of summer to wear short sleeve dress shirts.
...in the middle of nowhere, totally surrounded by rice fields and abundant nature, you aren't surprised to find a drink vending machine with no visible means of a power supply and when you think nothing of it when that lonely vending machine says
'thank you' after you buy a coke.
...you have over 30 small, transparent plastic umbrellas in your entrance even *after* donating several of them to taxis and JR recently.
...you believe that the perfect side dish to eat with a juicy, deep-fried pork cutlet is a pile of raw, tasteless, shredded cabbage.
...it doesn't surprise you that a case of beer has the same per unit price as a single can.
...you think cod roe spaghetti with chilled red wine is a typical Italian dish.
...you start to recognize BGM as a meaningful genre of music.
...walking into a crowded bar full of non-Japanese makes you nervous, because they "look dangerous."
...when you accompany your "no" by the famous waving hand-in-front-of-nose.
...you think that "Lets SPORTS yOUNG gAY CluB" is a perfectly normal T-shirt logo for a middle aged lady.
...you "gambarimasu!!" before every little activity you engage in.
...when it all seems normal.
From that list, here are some I totally identify with...
You know you've been in Japan too long when...
...you see a gaijin get on the train and think "Wow, it's a gaijin!"
...you can't have your picture taken without your fingers forming the peace sign.
...your idea of a larger home is an extra 10 square meters.
...you think the natural location for a beer garden is on a roof.
...you wait for the first day of summer to wear short sleeve dress shirts.
...in the middle of nowhere, totally surrounded by rice fields and abundant nature, you aren't surprised to find a drink vending machine with no visible means of a power supply and when you think nothing of it when that lonely vending machine says
'thank you' after you buy a coke.
...you have over 30 small, transparent plastic umbrellas in your entrance even *after* donating several of them to taxis and JR recently.
...you believe that the perfect side dish to eat with a juicy, deep-fried pork cutlet is a pile of raw, tasteless, shredded cabbage.
...it doesn't surprise you that a case of beer has the same per unit price as a single can.
...you think cod roe spaghetti with chilled red wine is a typical Italian dish.
...you start to recognize BGM as a meaningful genre of music.
...walking into a crowded bar full of non-Japanese makes you nervous, because they "look dangerous."
...when you accompany your "no" by the famous waving hand-in-front-of-nose.
...you think that "Lets SPORTS yOUNG gAY CluB" is a perfectly normal T-shirt logo for a middle aged lady.
...you "gambarimasu!!" before every little activity you engage in.
...when it all seems normal.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Weird food, episode 317
Lately, fewer things have struck me as strange about Japan. I'm getting used to things. This includes food. There are many things I no longer consider unusual (which is not to say I now like all of them).
However, last weekend was a new low. I went to this izakaya and the specialty of the house seemed to be raw chicken.
!!!
Pete and I were rather dumbfounded. I've eaten many raw things in this country - horse, beef, whale, oysters, fish, sea urchin, etc, etc. But, as we pointed out to our surprised Japanese co-workers, raw chicken is Not An Acceptable Item Of Food in Western countries. We are always told, and told again, to Cook Chicken Extremely Well. Even a hint of pink could result in immediate near-fatal salmonella.
(Then again, I seem to recall that in Australia, it is not considered especially safe to eat raw eggs, and I've consumed a fair few of those here in Japan too.)
Anyway, of course we ate the raw chicken, and it wasn't too bad. What really took the cake was the condiment. It looked like a bowl of clumpy, transparent, wobbling hair gel. The others were scooping small gobs of it and putting it on their raw chicken.
"What is that?" I asked.
Collagen.
They were putting collagen on their raw chicken and *eating it*.
I followed suit; it didn't taste that strong or offensive. However, when I tried just a little of the collagen on its own, it immediately triggered the gag reflex and I had a bit of trouble keeping it down. It was salty and, well, tasted like eating a gob of hair gel.
I wouldn't recommend it.
However, last weekend was a new low. I went to this izakaya and the specialty of the house seemed to be raw chicken.
!!!
Pete and I were rather dumbfounded. I've eaten many raw things in this country - horse, beef, whale, oysters, fish, sea urchin, etc, etc. But, as we pointed out to our surprised Japanese co-workers, raw chicken is Not An Acceptable Item Of Food in Western countries. We are always told, and told again, to Cook Chicken Extremely Well. Even a hint of pink could result in immediate near-fatal salmonella.
(Then again, I seem to recall that in Australia, it is not considered especially safe to eat raw eggs, and I've consumed a fair few of those here in Japan too.)
Anyway, of course we ate the raw chicken, and it wasn't too bad. What really took the cake was the condiment. It looked like a bowl of clumpy, transparent, wobbling hair gel. The others were scooping small gobs of it and putting it on their raw chicken.
"What is that?" I asked.
Collagen.
They were putting collagen on their raw chicken and *eating it*.
I followed suit; it didn't taste that strong or offensive. However, when I tried just a little of the collagen on its own, it immediately triggered the gag reflex and I had a bit of trouble keeping it down. It was salty and, well, tasted like eating a gob of hair gel.
I wouldn't recommend it.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Okinawa, part 2
Day 2
Day 2 we walked to Ocean Expo Park. This is the site of the famous Churaumi aquarium. It seems almost everyone who goes to Okinawa goes here. I read somewhere that it's the second-biggest aquarium in the world, but I don't know... I think the one in Hakkeijima is bigger. Anyway, they *do* have the world's biggest aquarium viewing window. It has a couple of jinbei (whale sharks) in it. And the aquarium cleverly located a cafe around it. So I had a cappuccino while watching mantas and sharks and fish swimming around.
It's pretty amazing, actually, that for the price of a cappuccino you can sit and watch such things. It reminded me of Yuzawa where we sat in the cafe with the million-dollar snow-covered mountain views.
Anyway, you can get around Ocean Park by little tour car. It was all very tropical, and such a nice day! We also went to a tropical flower park, and Emerald Beach. Emerald Beach was a corner of the park, and it was, well, a beach.
This beach was very sanitised and well-packaged. The next day we'd go to a normal stretch of beach, with horrible gungy showers and nobody around, but Emerald Beach was part of Ocean Park. Therefore you had the beach divvie'd into three sections - one for playing (beach volleyball etc), one for enjoying the view, and one for swimming. A voice would occasionally come over the loudspeaker (otherwise piping out pop music) reminding us of this. You could leave your belongings in a coin locker and then take the key, wearing the waterproof strap around your wrist.
The whole swimming area was kind of 'fenced in' with nets, and the deepest part was about waist-deep. I think this was to keep out jellyfish. Anyway, it made for a safe area, and there were a number of dads with little kids in inflatable beach toys. No mums, just dads. I don't know why.
Despite this kind of thing, and despite a lot of signs saying things like 'keep out of here', 'don't touch this', 'only swim here', 'be careful of this', 'don't climb', etc, I think Japan is generally a little less over-regulated than Australia. For example, you can drink alcohol in public places, like on the beach or in a park. I think this is *great*. You can buy fireworks - for children!! - in shops. You can ride bicycles without helmets, and generally nobody seems to care if you don't put your seatbelt on.
Of course, we should take care with all these things, but in Australia they solve safety problems with blanket bans on things. (The recent 'we can't give you a doggy bag in case you get food poisoning and we get sued' thing is a classic example.)
Although, I should mention that in the evening we tried to book a snorkelling boat trip for the next day. In the ad it claimed to be safe and fun for the family, and no problem if you couldn't swim, or had young kids, etc etc. The only problem was - we weren't allowed to go on it.
That's right, it's fun and safe, but not for foreigners. The hotel guy explained at length all the potential insurance problems they could get if I, say, touched some dangerous animal in the water. The fact that I work in Japan and have Japanese insurance didn't matter. No snorkelling for foreigners.
The next day we tried again - assuming this guy was just overly strict; after all, it would be ridiculous for an island whose main tourist draw is snorkelling and scuba diving to have a blanket ban on all foreigners participating - and got the same result. The diving shop also told us an unequivocal 'no'. I was pretty peeved, because I was *super* looking forward to snorkelling, not having done it for a number of years. I was pretty disgusted, really.
I still think we must have been unlucky; surely there are places on the island where they don't take this strict approach. But on our part of the island - and we didn't have time to go gallivanting all over to find another place - nobody would help us.
We had dinner at a place called 'Papaiya'. I interpreted this name as 'papa iya' which means 'papa doesn't like it'. But it actually meant 'papaya', the fruit... we ordered goya champloo (this is another local specialty; goya is bitter melon; it's stir-fried with egg and vegetables and spam) and tempura (including goya tempura - not very nice, really, it's *so* bitter), and taco pizza.
This taco pizza was horrifying. It was more like a taco lasagna. It came buried under a huge mound of melted cheese. After two small pieces, I felt kind of sick. Asami agreed.
Anyway, it was a very relaxing day. We finished by watching SMAP x SMAP. ^_^
Day 3
On day 3, we started the day with a Japanese-style set breakfast. This was slightly a surprise, since the day before it'd been a buffet*, and the breakfast had been advertised as such. We concluded that the hotel was not very full, so the buffet was not cost-effective.
(In Japan, a buffet is called a 'viking'. I don't know why. But I always envision a restaurant full of people wearing hats with horns and pushing and shoving each other to get the food.)
In the morning we went to Motobu Genki Mura, where we took a kind of glass window boat ride. We could see the coral reefs and fish through the windows. After, we took a taxi to Shiokawa beach; this was a quiet patch of beach which was unregulated. I could almost understand the snorkelling people's hesitation about letting us snorkel. I'd brought my swimming goggles, so I was able to swim about, and I found a *lot* of sea urchins (which are spiky and dangerous), and sea cucumbers (not so dangerous), plus eels, starfish, and other fish. So it was like a mini-snorkelling trip after all. ^_^
We'd planned to take the bus back to Naha, but our taxi driver offered to take us all the way there for 10,000 yen (about $120). It seems like a lot, but it would've saved us about 4 hours, allowed us to see more tourist spots, and only would've cost an extra $20 per person than taking the bus. Also, the actual taxi fare - if we'd paid the normal, full price - would've been more like $200.
So we took the taxi to Shuri castle, one of Okinawa's most famous draws. I realised that I really am not that interested in seeing castles and temples and shrines and whatnot. Like, it was nice, but I didn't know any of the history, so it wasn't that remarkable for me. I more enjoyed Kokusai-dori in Naha, where we went after.
Anyway, it was a very nice trip, and I'm going to be late for work if I don't wrap this up. I put pictures on Flickr. ^_^
Day 2 we walked to Ocean Expo Park. This is the site of the famous Churaumi aquarium. It seems almost everyone who goes to Okinawa goes here. I read somewhere that it's the second-biggest aquarium in the world, but I don't know... I think the one in Hakkeijima is bigger. Anyway, they *do* have the world's biggest aquarium viewing window. It has a couple of jinbei (whale sharks) in it. And the aquarium cleverly located a cafe around it. So I had a cappuccino while watching mantas and sharks and fish swimming around.
It's pretty amazing, actually, that for the price of a cappuccino you can sit and watch such things. It reminded me of Yuzawa where we sat in the cafe with the million-dollar snow-covered mountain views.
Anyway, you can get around Ocean Park by little tour car. It was all very tropical, and such a nice day! We also went to a tropical flower park, and Emerald Beach. Emerald Beach was a corner of the park, and it was, well, a beach.
This beach was very sanitised and well-packaged. The next day we'd go to a normal stretch of beach, with horrible gungy showers and nobody around, but Emerald Beach was part of Ocean Park. Therefore you had the beach divvie'd into three sections - one for playing (beach volleyball etc), one for enjoying the view, and one for swimming. A voice would occasionally come over the loudspeaker (otherwise piping out pop music) reminding us of this. You could leave your belongings in a coin locker and then take the key, wearing the waterproof strap around your wrist.
The whole swimming area was kind of 'fenced in' with nets, and the deepest part was about waist-deep. I think this was to keep out jellyfish. Anyway, it made for a safe area, and there were a number of dads with little kids in inflatable beach toys. No mums, just dads. I don't know why.
Despite this kind of thing, and despite a lot of signs saying things like 'keep out of here', 'don't touch this', 'only swim here', 'be careful of this', 'don't climb', etc, I think Japan is generally a little less over-regulated than Australia. For example, you can drink alcohol in public places, like on the beach or in a park. I think this is *great*. You can buy fireworks - for children!! - in shops. You can ride bicycles without helmets, and generally nobody seems to care if you don't put your seatbelt on.
Of course, we should take care with all these things, but in Australia they solve safety problems with blanket bans on things. (The recent 'we can't give you a doggy bag in case you get food poisoning and we get sued' thing is a classic example.)
Although, I should mention that in the evening we tried to book a snorkelling boat trip for the next day. In the ad it claimed to be safe and fun for the family, and no problem if you couldn't swim, or had young kids, etc etc. The only problem was - we weren't allowed to go on it.
That's right, it's fun and safe, but not for foreigners. The hotel guy explained at length all the potential insurance problems they could get if I, say, touched some dangerous animal in the water. The fact that I work in Japan and have Japanese insurance didn't matter. No snorkelling for foreigners.
The next day we tried again - assuming this guy was just overly strict; after all, it would be ridiculous for an island whose main tourist draw is snorkelling and scuba diving to have a blanket ban on all foreigners participating - and got the same result. The diving shop also told us an unequivocal 'no'. I was pretty peeved, because I was *super* looking forward to snorkelling, not having done it for a number of years. I was pretty disgusted, really.
I still think we must have been unlucky; surely there are places on the island where they don't take this strict approach. But on our part of the island - and we didn't have time to go gallivanting all over to find another place - nobody would help us.
We had dinner at a place called 'Papaiya'. I interpreted this name as 'papa iya' which means 'papa doesn't like it'. But it actually meant 'papaya', the fruit... we ordered goya champloo (this is another local specialty; goya is bitter melon; it's stir-fried with egg and vegetables and spam) and tempura (including goya tempura - not very nice, really, it's *so* bitter), and taco pizza.
This taco pizza was horrifying. It was more like a taco lasagna. It came buried under a huge mound of melted cheese. After two small pieces, I felt kind of sick. Asami agreed.
Anyway, it was a very relaxing day. We finished by watching SMAP x SMAP. ^_^
Day 3
On day 3, we started the day with a Japanese-style set breakfast. This was slightly a surprise, since the day before it'd been a buffet*, and the breakfast had been advertised as such. We concluded that the hotel was not very full, so the buffet was not cost-effective.
(In Japan, a buffet is called a 'viking'. I don't know why. But I always envision a restaurant full of people wearing hats with horns and pushing and shoving each other to get the food.)
In the morning we went to Motobu Genki Mura, where we took a kind of glass window boat ride. We could see the coral reefs and fish through the windows. After, we took a taxi to Shiokawa beach; this was a quiet patch of beach which was unregulated. I could almost understand the snorkelling people's hesitation about letting us snorkel. I'd brought my swimming goggles, so I was able to swim about, and I found a *lot* of sea urchins (which are spiky and dangerous), and sea cucumbers (not so dangerous), plus eels, starfish, and other fish. So it was like a mini-snorkelling trip after all. ^_^
We'd planned to take the bus back to Naha, but our taxi driver offered to take us all the way there for 10,000 yen (about $120). It seems like a lot, but it would've saved us about 4 hours, allowed us to see more tourist spots, and only would've cost an extra $20 per person than taking the bus. Also, the actual taxi fare - if we'd paid the normal, full price - would've been more like $200.
So we took the taxi to Shuri castle, one of Okinawa's most famous draws. I realised that I really am not that interested in seeing castles and temples and shrines and whatnot. Like, it was nice, but I didn't know any of the history, so it wasn't that remarkable for me. I more enjoyed Kokusai-dori in Naha, where we went after.
Anyway, it was a very nice trip, and I'm going to be late for work if I don't wrap this up. I put pictures on Flickr. ^_^
Okinawa
I've just gotten back from Okinawa.
Sunburn: BAD. ^_^
(I once said to a student: 'oh well, getting a sunburn means you had fun'. She responded very seriously, 'oh really?', as though I had just taught her a legitimate fact.)
So here's the lowdown.
Day 1
We flew from Haneda airport, and I can't tell you what a blessing that is. Narita is my bane. I hate it. Last week we did a lesson on 'pet peeves'. For a moment I couldn't think of any (which is astonishing for me, considering how many I have - the fake bird songs on train stations, train announcers who shout, the vacuousness of Japanese girls on TV, the people who lie in wait outside my department store building to try to get me to give money to earthquake appeals - how many months has this one appeal been running?! I've given to the same campaign three times over the last year and STILL they haven't left, people who smoke while walking in front of you and thus leave you in a trail of smoke, etc.)
Anyway, ahem, sorry. Narita sucks because it really is nowhere near Yokohama, and Yokohama has no international airport. If you live in the east of Tokyo, sure, it's not so bad. But the cheapest way for me to get to the airport costs about 1600 yen ($20) and 2 hours 28 minutes. Two and a half hours!! These days I generally just say 'stuff it' and come home from Narita via the limousine bus. It may be 3500 yen ($40) but it takes me directly to Yokohama station, without having to haul my suitcases on various train transfers.
By contrast, I got from my door to Haneda airport in less than an hour, including walking time.
I do like the fact that Haneda still calls itself an 'international airport', despite only having a handful of international flights (to Seoul, in Korea). If it's an 'international' airport, it has a rather poor selection of English books, magazines and newspapers (total number found after scouring entire airport: 0). Hahaha...
So anyway, I met my friend - let's call her Asami - at the airport. We flew to Naha and on arrival, had taco rice*. The airport was full of signs saying めんそーれー (menso-re-) which means 'welcome' in the Okinawan language. There were huge omiyage (packaged souvenir) sections.
*Taco rice is a typical Okinawan food, very easy to make. Just take the ingredients of tacos - taco meat, cheese, tomato, lettuce - and serve it, with taco sauce, on rice.
We began the journey to our hotel. We stayed in a hotel in Motobucho, right near the famous Churaumi aquarium. Okinawa is very much a car-dependent society, and neither of us could rent a car (Asami doesn't have a driver's license, I can't rent without an international license). To get there from Naha we had to take a bus and taxi, total trip about 2 and a half hours. Our taxi driver was friendly and talked to Asami the whole time, telling her interesting info and giving her tourist tips. I could understand a bit of it.
We took taxis a few times in Okinawa, and *none of them* charged us their full fare. The last driver lopped about $4 off the fare since 'the airport was kind of on his way home anyway'.
After we got to our hotel, we had a swim in the hotel pool. The weather in Okinawa was warm but not as hot as I expected; it was about 27 and humid during the day, but not super tropical hot; actually it wasn't *that* much warmer than here in Yokohama. Actually, the weather was really, really good our whole stay. Just perfect, and sunny. (And several people had warned us we would be going during the rainy season.)
(In Japan they have this idea of 'hare onna' (sunshine woman) or 'ame onna' (rain woman) - someone who brings good or bad weather with them. Last year I was convinced I was 'ame onna'. For example, it seemed to rain pretty well every weekend of spring (on my days off, that is; not necessarily on Saturday); it was cold and rather rainy while my sister was here; most of all, the night we climbed Mt Fuji was one of the most relentlessly rainy of the summer.
I came to have a very cynical attitude toward the weather, resenting the rain and constantly suspecting it would rain every time I planned something. However, this year I seem to have become Hare Onna, and I am delighted about it. Every time I've taken a trip *this* year, the weather has been lovely.)
After the swim, that we wanted to have dinner, but there was nowhere. I mean literally nowhere; it was 9:30 and everything was closed or about to close. Our hotel was on a dark road in the middle of nowhere; it was a long cry from being here in the city suburbs. Even in my quiet little suburb, if I walk for ten minutes I can pass at least a dozen restaurants that are open until midnight or later.
That was okay though, we bought some cup ramen (actually cup 'soki soba' - soki soba being a local specialty in Okinawa) and Blue Seal icecream (another Okinawan specialty) and retreated to our room. Our room was huge, had a great balcony, and had not only beds and a 'Western-style' part of the room, but a tatami mat 'Japanese-style' section, with flat seats on the ground. I think sitting on tatami mats at one of those tables, makes you feel like you are having a special treat, even if you're just eating instant noodles and icecream. ^_^
Actually, Okinawa has a lot of specialties, just like everywhere in Japan. Japan is big on local specialties. If you travel somewhere, you have to eat x and y. Thus, when you go to Okinawa, you should:
eat soki soba (it's a type of noodle unlike ordinary soba; it looks more like thin udon)
eat rafute (pork cooked in awamori)
eat taco rice
drink shiquasa juice (shiquasa is a fruit like a lime)
eat Blue Seal icecream*
drink awamori (the local shochu-style, *strong* liquor)
also try sata andagi (a kind of donut), fresh fruit, kokutou (black cane sugar), beniimo (purple sweet potato), etc etc
I did do all these things. I even tried taco pizza. It may surprise you to hear that this was not a good combination.
*(If you ever get the chance to try this, I can personally recommend the pineapple. It was one of the Best Icecreams Ever. It even had tiny little pieces of actual pineapple in it.)
Speaking of our hotel, though, we noticed a lot of graves around it; like little houses built from concrete. We could see a lot of them from our hotel room. I later heard this was because in Okinawa, traditionally, there haven't been many shrines or temples, so people would build these graves to house their family members. A lot of graves overlook the ocean, so the deceased can enjoy the ocean views.
Sunburn: BAD. ^_^
(I once said to a student: 'oh well, getting a sunburn means you had fun'. She responded very seriously, 'oh really?', as though I had just taught her a legitimate fact.)
So here's the lowdown.
Day 1
We flew from Haneda airport, and I can't tell you what a blessing that is. Narita is my bane. I hate it. Last week we did a lesson on 'pet peeves'. For a moment I couldn't think of any (which is astonishing for me, considering how many I have - the fake bird songs on train stations, train announcers who shout, the vacuousness of Japanese girls on TV, the people who lie in wait outside my department store building to try to get me to give money to earthquake appeals - how many months has this one appeal been running?! I've given to the same campaign three times over the last year and STILL they haven't left, people who smoke while walking in front of you and thus leave you in a trail of smoke, etc.)
Anyway, ahem, sorry. Narita sucks because it really is nowhere near Yokohama, and Yokohama has no international airport. If you live in the east of Tokyo, sure, it's not so bad. But the cheapest way for me to get to the airport costs about 1600 yen ($20) and 2 hours 28 minutes. Two and a half hours!! These days I generally just say 'stuff it' and come home from Narita via the limousine bus. It may be 3500 yen ($40) but it takes me directly to Yokohama station, without having to haul my suitcases on various train transfers.
By contrast, I got from my door to Haneda airport in less than an hour, including walking time.
I do like the fact that Haneda still calls itself an 'international airport', despite only having a handful of international flights (to Seoul, in Korea). If it's an 'international' airport, it has a rather poor selection of English books, magazines and newspapers (total number found after scouring entire airport: 0). Hahaha...
So anyway, I met my friend - let's call her Asami - at the airport. We flew to Naha and on arrival, had taco rice*. The airport was full of signs saying めんそーれー (menso-re-) which means 'welcome' in the Okinawan language. There were huge omiyage (packaged souvenir) sections.
*Taco rice is a typical Okinawan food, very easy to make. Just take the ingredients of tacos - taco meat, cheese, tomato, lettuce - and serve it, with taco sauce, on rice.
We began the journey to our hotel. We stayed in a hotel in Motobucho, right near the famous Churaumi aquarium. Okinawa is very much a car-dependent society, and neither of us could rent a car (Asami doesn't have a driver's license, I can't rent without an international license). To get there from Naha we had to take a bus and taxi, total trip about 2 and a half hours. Our taxi driver was friendly and talked to Asami the whole time, telling her interesting info and giving her tourist tips. I could understand a bit of it.
We took taxis a few times in Okinawa, and *none of them* charged us their full fare. The last driver lopped about $4 off the fare since 'the airport was kind of on his way home anyway'.
After we got to our hotel, we had a swim in the hotel pool. The weather in Okinawa was warm but not as hot as I expected; it was about 27 and humid during the day, but not super tropical hot; actually it wasn't *that* much warmer than here in Yokohama. Actually, the weather was really, really good our whole stay. Just perfect, and sunny. (And several people had warned us we would be going during the rainy season.)
(In Japan they have this idea of 'hare onna' (sunshine woman) or 'ame onna' (rain woman) - someone who brings good or bad weather with them. Last year I was convinced I was 'ame onna'. For example, it seemed to rain pretty well every weekend of spring (on my days off, that is; not necessarily on Saturday); it was cold and rather rainy while my sister was here; most of all, the night we climbed Mt Fuji was one of the most relentlessly rainy of the summer.
I came to have a very cynical attitude toward the weather, resenting the rain and constantly suspecting it would rain every time I planned something. However, this year I seem to have become Hare Onna, and I am delighted about it. Every time I've taken a trip *this* year, the weather has been lovely.)
After the swim, that we wanted to have dinner, but there was nowhere. I mean literally nowhere; it was 9:30 and everything was closed or about to close. Our hotel was on a dark road in the middle of nowhere; it was a long cry from being here in the city suburbs. Even in my quiet little suburb, if I walk for ten minutes I can pass at least a dozen restaurants that are open until midnight or later.
That was okay though, we bought some cup ramen (actually cup 'soki soba' - soki soba being a local specialty in Okinawa) and Blue Seal icecream (another Okinawan specialty) and retreated to our room. Our room was huge, had a great balcony, and had not only beds and a 'Western-style' part of the room, but a tatami mat 'Japanese-style' section, with flat seats on the ground. I think sitting on tatami mats at one of those tables, makes you feel like you are having a special treat, even if you're just eating instant noodles and icecream. ^_^
Actually, Okinawa has a lot of specialties, just like everywhere in Japan. Japan is big on local specialties. If you travel somewhere, you have to eat x and y. Thus, when you go to Okinawa, you should:
I did do all these things. I even tried taco pizza. It may surprise you to hear that this was not a good combination.
*(If you ever get the chance to try this, I can personally recommend the pineapple. It was one of the Best Icecreams Ever. It even had tiny little pieces of actual pineapple in it.)
Speaking of our hotel, though, we noticed a lot of graves around it; like little houses built from concrete. We could see a lot of them from our hotel room. I later heard this was because in Okinawa, traditionally, there haven't been many shrines or temples, so people would build these graves to house their family members. A lot of graves overlook the ocean, so the deceased can enjoy the ocean views.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Otsukaresama no kuni
One of my favourite Japanese songs is called 'Otsukaresama no kuni' ('Country of otsukaresama'), by Kazuyoshi Saito. You can see it here on YouTube.
"Otsukaresama desu" is a very common expression here in Japan. One says it at the end of the working day, to acknowledge the hard work of one's co-workers. It kind of means 'we've worked hard', or 'good job today'. 'tsukare' literally means 'tiredness', so you are acknowledging the effort of your co-workers. I say it many times in a day, because the staff in my department building all say it to each other whenever we walk past each other in the corridors, or are in the elevator together.
Watching this YouTube video, while hearing the words sung 'otsukaresama desu', it kind of gives me the feeling of the heart of Japan.
Since there was no English translation on the Internet, I decided to try to translate the song by myself. Despite all my Japanese, I still haven't done very well at it. If anyone stumbles upon this page from Google etc, I'd warn you not to take this translation as an especially accurate one... haha...
How many times do we repeat those words in one day?
Perhaps more often than "hello"
Putting 'o' and 'sama' around those people's 'tiredness'*
the voices sound out: 'otsukaresama desu' in our daily lives
*[In other words, 'Honouring those people's tiredness']
Kindly, and strongly, and with all our effort
That's what living life is like, but it's difficult
Love, and work, are important in your mind
We exchange the words "Otsukaresama desu" in our country
I understand painful things, but I don't understand them
There are sorrows that separate people; each person bears their own
I really can't say these things, so what I will say is:
Thank you; it'll be okay; otsukaresama desu.
Wanting to cry, and facing the uphill roads
You've taken so many times before...
I can't wipe away those people's tears, so...
Smiling, I'll say 'otsukaresama desu', in our journey
The heart isn't strong, but it isn't weak either
You have dreams you saw, dreams you'll never forget
Really, I don't want to say this, so the thing I will say is:
Thank you; I believe in you; thank you very much.
Life isn't just made up of bad things
The story still goes on, so, let's go
That dream, and your anxiety, and your struggles... so, from here
I'll try to say "otsukaresama desu" from myself
"Otsukaresama desu" is a very common expression here in Japan. One says it at the end of the working day, to acknowledge the hard work of one's co-workers. It kind of means 'we've worked hard', or 'good job today'. 'tsukare' literally means 'tiredness', so you are acknowledging the effort of your co-workers. I say it many times in a day, because the staff in my department building all say it to each other whenever we walk past each other in the corridors, or are in the elevator together.
Watching this YouTube video, while hearing the words sung 'otsukaresama desu', it kind of gives me the feeling of the heart of Japan.
Since there was no English translation on the Internet, I decided to try to translate the song by myself. Despite all my Japanese, I still haven't done very well at it. If anyone stumbles upon this page from Google etc, I'd warn you not to take this translation as an especially accurate one... haha...
How many times do we repeat those words in one day?
Perhaps more often than "hello"
Putting 'o' and 'sama' around those people's 'tiredness'*
the voices sound out: 'otsukaresama desu' in our daily lives
*[In other words, 'Honouring those people's tiredness']
Kindly, and strongly, and with all our effort
That's what living life is like, but it's difficult
Love, and work, are important in your mind
We exchange the words "Otsukaresama desu" in our country
I understand painful things, but I don't understand them
There are sorrows that separate people; each person bears their own
I really can't say these things, so what I will say is:
Thank you; it'll be okay; otsukaresama desu.
Wanting to cry, and facing the uphill roads
You've taken so many times before...
I can't wipe away those people's tears, so...
Smiling, I'll say 'otsukaresama desu', in our journey
The heart isn't strong, but it isn't weak either
You have dreams you saw, dreams you'll never forget
Really, I don't want to say this, so the thing I will say is:
Thank you; I believe in you; thank you very much.
Life isn't just made up of bad things
The story still goes on, so, let's go
That dream, and your anxiety, and your struggles... so, from here
I'll try to say "otsukaresama desu" from myself
Monday, June 1, 2009
オーストラリアからです。 (I'm from Australia)
When I meet any Japanese person 'on the street', their first question is usually 'what country are you from?'
On hearing 'Australia', they'll usually respond by saying some random word or sentence they know about Australia.
"Where are you from?"
"I'm from Australia."
"Ohh, Australia! Nicole Kidman!"
"Where are you from?"
"I'm from Australia."
"Oh, very nice! Great Barrier Reef!"
Usually it's because they don't really speak any English and are pleased to show something they know about Australia. ^_^ Often, if I speak to someone who isn't a student, who doesn't really speak English, they will speak Japanese with sudden, random English words thrown in, as they remember them. To be fair, when I speak to my co-workers, I do pretty much the same thing with Japanese... haha...
A couple of days ago I went to Minka-en, in Kawasaki. It's a traditional folk house open-air museum, with lots of old houses from around Japan, which were imported and reassembled in this park. There were some volunteers at this park, and as I sat down to rest by the hearth in one of the houses, we got to talking.
"What country are you from?"
"I'm from Australia."
"Oh, Australia! Honey! Honey!"
For a brief, confused moment I wondered if he was flirting with me (he was at least 60 years old) but he said something about Japanese farmers and Australian bees. Today I read in Metropolis magazine: "After Japan stopped importing honey bees from Australia in 2007 following a disease outbreak, farmers growing melons, cherries and strawberries here have been forced to pollinate their buds manually." That's probably what he was talking about.
The follow-up question to "where are you from" is usually "where in Australia are you from?"
When I say, 'Adelaide', the next question is: "...is that near Sydney?"
Mm... it's really not near anything...
***
I am very happy to report that I found a source of scones.
Now, scones are rarely to be found in cafes or coffee shops here. I've found two coffee shops in Kawasaki that serve them. Both of them are very much the kind of '$12 for a single cup of coffee' place, and I just can't bring myself to go in there.*
*(Incidentally, what's with that?! The first time I saw $12 cappuccinos was in Italy, and I thought it was amazing, but at least those expensive ones were at really prime locations, like in Piazza San Marco in Venice. You're not paying $12 for a coffee; you're paying $12 for the privilege of sitting surrounded by such beauty. Here in Japan, you're paying $12 to sit in some kitsch cafe in the corner of a random department store or underground mall.)
I also haven't found them in any bakeries here - and I have been looking, all the past week, because I've been craving them.
Anyway, I have found three places which sell fresh scones.
One of them is the store 'Mrs Elizabeth Muffin' which is in the Landmark Tower. It's a muffin shop, but they have some scones. I bought a couple last week. They weren't quite like normal scones though; they tasted a bit more like cookies, though scone-shaped. They were nice though.
The other two are in my very own suburb. The other day I was walking home via a different route, and I found something called the 'Yokohama Scone Factory'. Both times I've passed it, it's been closed, so I must try during the morning.
Finally, there's this little baking school shop just a few metres down the street from my house, where there is a small selection of scones in the window, and virtually nothing else. I've not bought there before since they close at night, but today I finally got some, and they taste good. ^_^
I am very, very lucky. I've been scouring every bakery and cafe I could find in Kawasaki and Yokohama; could not find a single scone; yet on my own street!!... A student gave me homemade strawberry jam, so I'm having a little scone party tonight. ^_^
Speaking of stores on my street, *directly across the street from my house*, they're opening a new supermarket. It won't be open for another month or two, but it's kind of funny. 300m down the road is an existing supermarket, but now I won't have to walk the laborious two minutes down the road to get to that one; I can pass one every day on my way to work. It will be nice, though it seems slightly unnecessary.
On hearing 'Australia', they'll usually respond by saying some random word or sentence they know about Australia.
"Where are you from?"
"I'm from Australia."
"Ohh, Australia! Nicole Kidman!"
"Where are you from?"
"I'm from Australia."
"Oh, very nice! Great Barrier Reef!"
Usually it's because they don't really speak any English and are pleased to show something they know about Australia. ^_^ Often, if I speak to someone who isn't a student, who doesn't really speak English, they will speak Japanese with sudden, random English words thrown in, as they remember them. To be fair, when I speak to my co-workers, I do pretty much the same thing with Japanese... haha...
A couple of days ago I went to Minka-en, in Kawasaki. It's a traditional folk house open-air museum, with lots of old houses from around Japan, which were imported and reassembled in this park. There were some volunteers at this park, and as I sat down to rest by the hearth in one of the houses, we got to talking.
"What country are you from?"
"I'm from Australia."
"Oh, Australia! Honey! Honey!"
For a brief, confused moment I wondered if he was flirting with me (he was at least 60 years old) but he said something about Japanese farmers and Australian bees. Today I read in Metropolis magazine: "After Japan stopped importing honey bees from Australia in 2007 following a disease outbreak, farmers growing melons, cherries and strawberries here have been forced to pollinate their buds manually." That's probably what he was talking about.
The follow-up question to "where are you from" is usually "where in Australia are you from?"
When I say, 'Adelaide', the next question is: "...is that near Sydney?"
Mm... it's really not near anything...
***
I am very happy to report that I found a source of scones.
Now, scones are rarely to be found in cafes or coffee shops here. I've found two coffee shops in Kawasaki that serve them. Both of them are very much the kind of '$12 for a single cup of coffee' place, and I just can't bring myself to go in there.*
*(Incidentally, what's with that?! The first time I saw $12 cappuccinos was in Italy, and I thought it was amazing, but at least those expensive ones were at really prime locations, like in Piazza San Marco in Venice. You're not paying $12 for a coffee; you're paying $12 for the privilege of sitting surrounded by such beauty. Here in Japan, you're paying $12 to sit in some kitsch cafe in the corner of a random department store or underground mall.)
I also haven't found them in any bakeries here - and I have been looking, all the past week, because I've been craving them.
Anyway, I have found three places which sell fresh scones.
One of them is the store 'Mrs Elizabeth Muffin' which is in the Landmark Tower. It's a muffin shop, but they have some scones. I bought a couple last week. They weren't quite like normal scones though; they tasted a bit more like cookies, though scone-shaped. They were nice though.
The other two are in my very own suburb. The other day I was walking home via a different route, and I found something called the 'Yokohama Scone Factory'. Both times I've passed it, it's been closed, so I must try during the morning.
Finally, there's this little baking school shop just a few metres down the street from my house, where there is a small selection of scones in the window, and virtually nothing else. I've not bought there before since they close at night, but today I finally got some, and they taste good. ^_^
I am very, very lucky. I've been scouring every bakery and cafe I could find in Kawasaki and Yokohama; could not find a single scone; yet on my own street!!... A student gave me homemade strawberry jam, so I'm having a little scone party tonight. ^_^
Speaking of stores on my street, *directly across the street from my house*, they're opening a new supermarket. It won't be open for another month or two, but it's kind of funny. 300m down the road is an existing supermarket, but now I won't have to walk the laborious two minutes down the road to get to that one; I can pass one every day on my way to work. It will be nice, though it seems slightly unnecessary.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Summer...??
It's now June 1st, which is the first day of summer, right? After all, it's the first day of winter in Australia, and our seasons are opposite.
But... maybe it isn't. This week I mentioned to a couple of classes 'only 3 days until summer!' and they looked baffled. No it isn't, they said. When does summer start? I asked. July, they all agreed.
...?
I asked Pete when summer starts. He said: June 21.
So, we have three different countries saying three different things. Shouldn't there be some kind of international agreement when it comes to something as basic as seasons??
Anyway, I asked my students:
"When does spring start?"
"The beginning of March."
"So... spring is... March, April, May, June...?"
"March, April, May."
"But summer starts in July...?"
"Yes, June is the rainy season."
"That's not a season."
In my kids' classes I frequently ask 'what's the season?' and then show the answer ('spring!'). I don't really know what to do there...
[Edit: Today, I asked Ryu. He said that summer starts in *late* July! And finishes at the start of September. So summer is less than two months, I asked? Yes, he said; spring and autumn are longer than summer and winter. Hmm...?]
But... maybe it isn't. This week I mentioned to a couple of classes 'only 3 days until summer!' and they looked baffled. No it isn't, they said. When does summer start? I asked. July, they all agreed.
...?
I asked Pete when summer starts. He said: June 21.
So, we have three different countries saying three different things. Shouldn't there be some kind of international agreement when it comes to something as basic as seasons??
Anyway, I asked my students:
"When does spring start?"
"The beginning of March."
"So... spring is... March, April, May, June...?"
"March, April, May."
"But summer starts in July...?"
"Yes, June is the rainy season."
"That's not a season."
In my kids' classes I frequently ask 'what's the season?' and then show the answer ('spring!'). I don't really know what to do there...
[Edit: Today, I asked Ryu. He said that summer starts in *late* July! And finishes at the start of September. So summer is less than two months, I asked? Yes, he said; spring and autumn are longer than summer and winter. Hmm...?]
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Keyboards
Using Japanese keyboards is really messing with my punctuation.
At work, I use Japanese keyboards; the letters are all in the same location, but some of the symbols are different. Apostrophes are now on the '7' key, the apostrophe is a colon :, the @ symbol is next to the P, etc.
At home, I have a MacBook I bought in Japan. On the keyboard are printed the Japanese keyboard symbols. However, I've formatted my keyboard so that it uses the standard English format. If someone who couldn't touch type symbols tried to use my computer, they'd be in for a lot of confusion. Pressing the " key gives you a @, pressing ( gives you a *, pressing ) gives you a (, and so on.
Anyway, I can usually make the mental adjustment, and hit different keys according to where I'm using a computer. But sometimes if I've been using the work computers too much, I come home and keep screwing up.
***
While on the subject of keyboards, I thought I'd explain how Japanese people can type Japanese. As you may know, the Japanese written language consists of three character sets - hiragana and katakana (which are phonetic - ka, ke, ki, ko, ku, etc), and kanji (the Chinese characters, of which there are thousands, and most kanji have several potential pronunciations, depending on what word they are in).
(You'll need to have a computer which enables Japanese characters, to see the next part properly.)
However, typing in Japanese is actually quite simple. You write using English characters, and the computer converts them as you type.
For example, let's say I want to say 'Nihongo o benkyou shite imasu' (I am studying Japanese).
I type 'ni', and after I finish writing the 'i', the text changes to the Japanese hiragana character: に
Now, I'm still writing the same word, so I just continue typing. ho becomes ほ, n becomes ん, go becomes ご。
にほんご (nihongo)
Now I have finished this word and I want it to translate it into kanji. So I press space.
日本語 (nihongo)
Space doesn't create a space; it changes the characters. If the computer has chosen the wrong kanji, you can press space again and it will give you a list of potential kanji for those syllables. This is a boon for studying Japanese, if you don't know how to write something in kanji.
Anyway, 日本語 is the correct kanji, so I hit 'enter'. Enter confirms a word and lets you enter another word. (If I hit enter a second time, I can go to a new line.)
So I continue typing my sentence, 'Nihongo o benkyou shite imasu'. I type 'o', enter, be n kyo u, space (changes to kanji), enter, shi te i ma su, enter.
日本語を勉強しています。
It's very cool, and it makes me feel like I can write kanji. ^_^ Actually, though, this kind of technology (and it's a similar process on mobile phones) has led to a lot of younger people being less skilled at actually writing kanji. It's so easy to get the computer to write it for you...
If you are typing a word that *doesn't* have kanji, but is a common foreign or 'loan' word, the computer will translate it into katakana. For example, if I write こーひ and press space, it will change to コーヒ (ko-hi, which is 'coffee').
If you do write something that isn't a legitimate Japanese syllable (for example, a random consonant not followed by a vowel), the computer will not translate it correctly. For example, Starbucks may come out as Sたrぶcks. (ta and bu are legitimate characters). For foreign words, you can press a key on your keyboard to leave them as English characters, or convert them into katakana.
It's nice having a proper Japanese keyboard, because I can immediately switch to Japanese mode at the press of a button. ^_^
At work, I use Japanese keyboards; the letters are all in the same location, but some of the symbols are different. Apostrophes are now on the '7' key, the apostrophe is a colon :, the @ symbol is next to the P, etc.
At home, I have a MacBook I bought in Japan. On the keyboard are printed the Japanese keyboard symbols. However, I've formatted my keyboard so that it uses the standard English format. If someone who couldn't touch type symbols tried to use my computer, they'd be in for a lot of confusion. Pressing the " key gives you a @, pressing ( gives you a *, pressing ) gives you a (, and so on.
Anyway, I can usually make the mental adjustment, and hit different keys according to where I'm using a computer. But sometimes if I've been using the work computers too much, I come home and keep screwing up.
***
While on the subject of keyboards, I thought I'd explain how Japanese people can type Japanese. As you may know, the Japanese written language consists of three character sets - hiragana and katakana (which are phonetic - ka, ke, ki, ko, ku, etc), and kanji (the Chinese characters, of which there are thousands, and most kanji have several potential pronunciations, depending on what word they are in).
(You'll need to have a computer which enables Japanese characters, to see the next part properly.)
However, typing in Japanese is actually quite simple. You write using English characters, and the computer converts them as you type.
For example, let's say I want to say 'Nihongo o benkyou shite imasu' (I am studying Japanese).
I type 'ni', and after I finish writing the 'i', the text changes to the Japanese hiragana character: に
Now, I'm still writing the same word, so I just continue typing. ho becomes ほ, n becomes ん, go becomes ご。
にほんご (nihongo)
Now I have finished this word and I want it to translate it into kanji. So I press space.
日本語 (nihongo)
Space doesn't create a space; it changes the characters. If the computer has chosen the wrong kanji, you can press space again and it will give you a list of potential kanji for those syllables. This is a boon for studying Japanese, if you don't know how to write something in kanji.
Anyway, 日本語 is the correct kanji, so I hit 'enter'. Enter confirms a word and lets you enter another word. (If I hit enter a second time, I can go to a new line.)
So I continue typing my sentence, 'Nihongo o benkyou shite imasu'. I type 'o', enter, be n kyo u, space (changes to kanji), enter, shi te i ma su, enter.
日本語を勉強しています。
It's very cool, and it makes me feel like I can write kanji. ^_^ Actually, though, this kind of technology (and it's a similar process on mobile phones) has led to a lot of younger people being less skilled at actually writing kanji. It's so easy to get the computer to write it for you...
If you are typing a word that *doesn't* have kanji, but is a common foreign or 'loan' word, the computer will translate it into katakana. For example, if I write こーひ and press space, it will change to コーヒ (ko-hi, which is 'coffee').
If you do write something that isn't a legitimate Japanese syllable (for example, a random consonant not followed by a vowel), the computer will not translate it correctly. For example, Starbucks may come out as Sたrぶcks. (ta and bu are legitimate characters). For foreign words, you can press a key on your keyboard to leave them as English characters, or convert them into katakana.
It's nice having a proper Japanese keyboard, because I can immediately switch to Japanese mode at the press of a button. ^_^
Monday, May 25, 2009
Ding-dong
Despite my earlier predictions, I haven't noticed any particular increase in mask use around Yokohama/Kawasaki/etc, despite that the H1N1 flu has reached Kawasaki. The vast majority of people on the street aren't wearing them at all. I think some of the fear factor has died down.
However, people's personal behaviour doesn't necessarily reflect what's happening in companies and schools. Since companies and schools have some kind of responsibility for their charges, a number of them have made mask-wearing mandatory. A number of my students have to wear masks when going out and meeting clients, etc.
***
Had a ridiculous 10-minute exchange with some Japanese guy at my door tonight.
It seems like when people come to the door here, they don't just give a decorous knock, wait a few moments, then ring, then wait again. No, it's pound-pound-pound and immediately ringing the bell twice, then pounding again, all before you've even had time to stand up. It gives you a real feeling of urgency, like there must be some kind of emergency happening, and you'd better get to the door QUICK!
So anyway, I got there and the first thing he asked me was how long I'd been living here. My immediate thought was 'oh no, perhaps he's one of my neighbors and he's going to complain about hearing noise from my apartment'. But I told him, and his next question was where I was from. I said Australia, and he said: "oh! Ian Thorpe!' I looked at him blankly (because I still had no idea who he was or why he was at my door) so he mimed some swimming strokes. He then said I was beautiful - bijin, kawaii. ...
The ensuing conversation consisted of him firing off very long sentences, followed by my blankly repeating the last 3-4 words of that sentence).
Him: blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah dekiru desu ka?
Me: ...dekiru desu ka... uh...
And when I did correctly understand him, I didn't know what he was on about.
Him: Can you read Japanese?
Me: I can't read kanji.
Him: When do you you think you'll be able to read?
Me: ?? (thinking I must have misunderstood the question)
Him: When will you be able to read? June? July?
Yeah, I should be able to master 2000 or so kanji in the next couple of weeks, no worries. Shouldn't take longer than that to master the entire Japanese written language, no worries.
Finally asked him 'um, sorry, but who are you?' Finally discovered that he was selling newspaper subscriptions. I find it very difficult to believe that he could persist in a 10-minute one-sided conversation with someone who understood not a lick of his Japanese, and imagine that I'd be interested in subscribing to a Japanese newspaper. He tried to persuade me I might be able to read some of it.
I don't know how to say 'I'm not interested' in Japanese, but I did latch on firmly to the word 'muri' (impossible), and after repeating it several times, he finally went away. >_<
However, people's personal behaviour doesn't necessarily reflect what's happening in companies and schools. Since companies and schools have some kind of responsibility for their charges, a number of them have made mask-wearing mandatory. A number of my students have to wear masks when going out and meeting clients, etc.
***
Had a ridiculous 10-minute exchange with some Japanese guy at my door tonight.
It seems like when people come to the door here, they don't just give a decorous knock, wait a few moments, then ring, then wait again. No, it's pound-pound-pound and immediately ringing the bell twice, then pounding again, all before you've even had time to stand up. It gives you a real feeling of urgency, like there must be some kind of emergency happening, and you'd better get to the door QUICK!
So anyway, I got there and the first thing he asked me was how long I'd been living here. My immediate thought was 'oh no, perhaps he's one of my neighbors and he's going to complain about hearing noise from my apartment'. But I told him, and his next question was where I was from. I said Australia, and he said: "oh! Ian Thorpe!' I looked at him blankly (because I still had no idea who he was or why he was at my door) so he mimed some swimming strokes. He then said I was beautiful - bijin, kawaii. ...
The ensuing conversation consisted of him firing off very long sentences, followed by my blankly repeating the last 3-4 words of that sentence).
Him: blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah dekiru desu ka?
Me: ...dekiru desu ka... uh...
And when I did correctly understand him, I didn't know what he was on about.
Him: Can you read Japanese?
Me: I can't read kanji.
Him: When do you you think you'll be able to read?
Me: ?? (thinking I must have misunderstood the question)
Him: When will you be able to read? June? July?
Yeah, I should be able to master 2000 or so kanji in the next couple of weeks, no worries. Shouldn't take longer than that to master the entire Japanese written language, no worries.
Finally asked him 'um, sorry, but who are you?' Finally discovered that he was selling newspaper subscriptions. I find it very difficult to believe that he could persist in a 10-minute one-sided conversation with someone who understood not a lick of his Japanese, and imagine that I'd be interested in subscribing to a Japanese newspaper. He tried to persuade me I might be able to read some of it.
I don't know how to say 'I'm not interested' in Japanese, but I did latch on firmly to the word 'muri' (impossible), and after repeating it several times, he finally went away. >_<
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