Add and drop and picking up

This week started without a typhoon, so I had to get out of bed. How inconsiderate! Speaking and Japanese Journalism was on the menu for today and I was looking forward to seeing what they would be like. Speaking class wasn’t too bad, the sheer amount of sentence-fillers (aka ね(ne)) and friends) used at least made for an amusing hour and half. The theme of the lesson was basically telling restaurant of cafe staff that they did it wrong and to sort out their act, which was actually pretty useful because when I thought about it I didn’t have a clue how to express such things. Partnered up, with some Japanese students who kindly volunteered, we set down to business. Totally clueless, I asked our partner what she thought we should say. Then, we had to do a little role-play exercise going round the class. Observing everyone else’s performance I noticed conversations played out completely differently. No ideal way of saying it was given by the teacher only how improve it left me a little flat. My bad for not asking… whoops.

The next class I had high hopes for but that veneer was quickly shattered by the blow from the unnecessarily antagonistic lecturing style; the nonchalant dismissal of any deviation from his image of things and vague undertones of big brother little brother racism, dating back from the end of the second world. Like a collar that’s too tight it was an uncomfortable experience. To quote him, “I’m not going to be your friend.” 

The following, day after lectures had finish and being not quite so busy as the week before I ventured out to find to presents (to add to the insignificant two small things already in my possession) for a certain someone’s birthday. I’d like to point out I suck at present buying of any kind so this was quite the feat for me. That said I came prepared, when we were shopping  together before, strangely enough it was for me, I made a mental note of things outside of things I knew Sae to like for a secret return trip. Admittedly, the power of memory proved lacking when presented a wall of perfumes. I must of looked like a total idiot umming  and ahhing between two bottles of shower stuff which I thought were possibly of the right fragrance for half an hour. Turned out neither were right, not that it mattered in the end much to my relief. Success!

Wednesday was nothing worth mentioning, so swiftly moving on. Thursday. Gender, a subject that actually I’m quite interested in Japan. Kickboxing Geishas was the title of the excerpt up for class discussion. The class is mixture of foreign and native students who are all pretty fluent in English (how I envy you *shakes fist*) so I’m hoping to get a better insight on the topics this semester. This time, however, I don’t whether it was just shyness but mostly it was us exchange students doing the talking even in the part which was about the writer’s culture shock of working in Japan as a foreigner. Though what was said by the native students was, somewhat, invaluable. For example, one person mentioned a person who she used to know who participated in enjo kosai (sleeping with older men for clothing, shoes, bags, etc and money, typically high-school girls) and told quite candidly of her experience. 

Friday I tried out a lecture as a potential replacement for the aforementioned. Japanese Occult. Not really what you’d think what it is from the name but it seems pretty cool to me and the lecturing doesn’t care for exams which makes it even better. Not quite sure how it going to play out but I think I’m on to a winner. Come evening, the first ever official Nomihoudai (drink as much like (within a time limit)) Super Club  meeting. My lack of knowledge of Japanese and the country itself and no reservation on a Friday night for a group of 15 and growing made it look like it was going to be a total flop. Bad qualities for Pres 😦 A little help from my Japanese friends and a street promoter later and things were looking up. What a night it turned out to be though, despite  it being organised for shit. Experience points gained and leveled up, next time should hopefully properly organised and much less expensive! I think this could be the beginning of a beautiful thing 

 

 

Shopping for… classes

The week began as such; TYPHOON! A barrage of wet struck Japan for the most part of the day as it swept north. Classes, dorm-food and fun all ground to a halt. I had made a venture to the convenience store for the purpose of buying food and oh how foolish that was. The short space of time walking between my dormitory and the shop had granted me wetness wet enough to break the silence of the ever so politely spoken staff (the only words ever traded in such encounters are as follows; ‘yes’, ‘please,’ ‘understood’, ‘would you like me to warm that up for?,’ ‘… yen,’ ‘… yen received,’ etc). ‘You’re drenched aren’t you,’ stated a worker, swiftly returning to her re-stocking of the shelves. Smiling awkwardly and nodding, I paid and left in a daze, mind broken from a keigo (lit: respect language) robot conversing outside the script. Nothing to do, I chose sleep. I was previously unaware of how much I could sleep purely to pass the time. 18 hours was the grand total ( I was awake another 2 before sleeping all night). Not sure quite sure whether I should be proud or ashamed of that. Nevertheless, I managed to almost completely miss the excitement of the typhoon that day.

Shopping. Shopping for classes, or so they call it. Being unfamiliar with concept made the whole thing all the more interesting. My home experience of introductory lectures entailed 10-20 minutes of course regulation jargon, followed by getting straight into things. This, however, was rather different. In some cases it felt more like someone desperately pitching to a board of investors than a lecture, how they came to lecturing; their field of interest and research; an expansive outline of what they wished to cover, etc. In addition to this, ‘auditing’ classes was mentioned. A concept, perhaps, totally alien to British students like myself. Sitting in on classes essentially to rate it or learning for learning’s sake or just shits and giggles minus the all the bad parts, namely exams and essays. I must admit this system left a certain bitter after-taste, especially in the case of those so enthusiastically trying to win us over, as most of the classes outside Japanese language I had no real interest in taking, other than to fill my timetable and meet visa requirements.

As the weekend to drew to end I had pretty much made up my mind of what I wanted to take. Business socks off, I let the good times roll. I met up with some friends of mine who I had met during their stay at Sheffield as exchange students and my Merlin. Amazing food and nomihoudai (that’s all you can drink for those didn’t know), which we suitably raped to the max. Drunk on life (drinks were too watered down for the real shizzle), with a spring in my step, we headed down for some karaoke (completely different to the swarded affair of public humiliation known to the rest of the world, transformed into a relaxed friendly environment, Japanese do it booth-style). Many songs and deafened ears later we called it a night. Despite the short length of time, especially by English standards, the night had been partied and partied hard.

Things be exciting yo!

Well, I was too busy having fun to bother writing anything this week.

The week began with orientation followed by a placement test. My bowels had suitably prepared themselves for the shitting myself that may ensue, however, the test itself was actually relatively straightforward, increasing in difficulty throughout. I struggled on a couple of bits due to kanji and my creative ability. When I see a question that requires me to finish a sentence with anything I never know what to write and as such my answers were pretty basic and boring. Meeting all the other exchange students was really nice. I was surprised by just how many countries everyone came from. I set-up a group for us all to meet, Nomihoudai Super Club (All you can drink Super Club), which so far has over 50 members lolol. The next day was the aural part of the assessment, the part which was always going to let me down unfortunately. That said, despite my lack-lustre performance, I managed to make it into the second highest group. In part, I was kind of relieved whilst also disappointed.

At the weekend, I went to Tsukuba-mirai city to meet my girlfriend’s family. I was so nervous beforehand as I thought my inner-gehin (vulgarity) would arise and make me look totes awful. Apparently, I did good! Sae’s parents are so lovely, they gave there line (a japannese instant messenger) and phone numbers in case I run into any problems and cooked lunch for me and took me out to dinner. For lunch we had yakiniku (fried meat kebabs) with various accoutrements. After lunch Sae showed me her room and we started watching the shining. Later that day we went out for dinner with the parents. My god was it good. I don’t think I’ve ever had such delicious food ever in my life. Before me was plethora of raw fish, including whale, puffer fish and sea urchin. I ended up so full I could’ve given birth alien-style. I really look forward to seeing them again and getting to know them better. All in all it was an awesome first week.

Over to the other side of the world again!

My mum decided that she was going to be ill today. Free transport to the airport how could I say no?  The journey up to the airport was uneventful to say the least, however, my parents degrading sight and hearing, much to my amusement, got them into a muddle on numerous occasions. 

We arrived at Heathrow, refuelled with some tea and said our goodbyes. Usually going through airport security ends up with a hot sweaty mess of stress and finishes with a sexy pat-down and grope by their finest. Taking medication abroad always to be such a ball-ache but to my surprise this time it went without a hitch. Once through I had a long wait ahead of me, over zealously perhaps I’d arrived rather early , every passing minute seemed ever further apart as they stretched into hours. A limbo-state-of-mind had firmly planted its tendrils of boredom. When the gate for check-in had been posted, trying guess who was going on a student visa loosened boredom’s hold. The flight… well that was 10 hours I’m never getting back, the food was great and the attendants were very.. attentive but the lack of in-flight entertainment was kind of a deal-breaker made all the worse by the kimchi flavoured ass-clouds being pumped my way from the lady next to me at regular intervals. Stiff upper lip and all I powered through.

Transfer times. Incheon airport, Seoul was pretty cool as airports go. The amount of light that flooded in thanks to almost glass shell of the departure gates was a nice change from the casino lit cages for zombie trafficking at most airports. Flight number 2, I fell asleep almost instantly and  was awoken by the faint waft of beef tickling at my nostrils. Roused by lust for meat, I chowed down. It is really good, now that I think about it I don’t really get how some airlines manage to create such unpalatable ‘food stuffs.’ 

Narita! The long journey had come to an end. Got my residence card after a quick boop boop beep boop by the lovely people at immigration, for me this was such a relief. Anybody like myself who has ever had to get the old residency card will know the stress and general annoyance involved. Luggage collected, through customs and out. 

After a short while I could see the figure of my girlfriend approaching, my heart began to race, ‘they’ say a lot of things but distance makes grow fonder is certainly one of the more true ones. From that point on it was like that semi-waking state when  dream and reality become almost indistinguishable, I had to keep pinching myself to make it was real. Finally something direct. As we floated down highway on the bus, with every passing landmark memories came flooding back.  

To cut a long story short after the tour of dorms (the manager is an utter legend) and introductions, the night ended in sukiya with some beer and gyudon and just enough time to spare before the front door to the dorms was locked.