Une petit update

One more Japanese lesson before I'm on Christmas holidays. Although I'll still have the few business lessons, the next Japanese lesson won't be for a few months. Slackers. I'll be celebrating Christmas on the 24th and hopefully going to a nice restaurant :)

Been quite cold recently (I should have brought a coat really...) and we haven't done much of note. Christmas shopping, watching 24, class play, etc.

I've attached a random picture. It's where the majority of my lessons are based; in a place called Ochanomizu. Meaning 'tea water'.

Random Update

Been a while since I wrote anything on here. I haven't particularly done anything of interest. Just going round random places, eating random things. I've also been ill with (possibly) food poisoning. Ho hum.

I think I'm coming to the end of my first term at Meiji. Well, at least the Japanese classes. I have 3 weeks left of those and then I break for Christmas on 24th December - cutting it fine. I still have business classes after that but I only have 3 of those. I'll basically be on holiday for a few months before I go on real holiday...

I also have a new found irritation concerning Japanese people and cameras. The photo I've added is from a place called Koishikawa Korakuen; a small park in central Tokyo. Now the one photo I took was enough for me but Japanese people seem to take a photo every 5 steps. At the beginning I was considerate and waited while they took the photo before going past them but now I don't care and just continue on walking.

Odaiba, Imperial Palace

Went to Odaiba and the Imperial Palace this weekend. We've got about 5 places to left to go to before we're truly out of ideas and just spend every day sitting around...

Odaiba is a man-made island type thing around the Tokyo Bay area. Generally not that much there to do bar from walking around and looking at 'proper Tokyo' from the other side of the water. Seemed to be the place to go if you want to walk your dog too. On a side note I've started noticing people doing photo-shoots of their dogs, with some dressed up in strange dog clothes. It's weird.

The Imperial Palace is near the main Tokyo station. (Yeah, smooth segway) A note about train stations: whereas in England a big train station will consist of a few platforms and maybe a Starbucks and WHSmith, in Japan it's possible to go to a train station and never actually set foot outside it. Supermarkets, restaurants, hairdressers etc. can also be found in them.

The area surrounding Tokyo Station is fairly posh with designer shops and branch headquarters (I think) of the big Japanese companies. And there's a palace. Which is also quite posh. Innit.

Tomorrow I'm revisiting Yokohama. If it doesn't rain.

Mt. Takao

Went up Mt. Takao for a bit of fresh air. Takes about half an hour on the train - luckily we're fairly near to it.

We were lazy and didn't do the main hiking part which is stupidly steep. There's a cable car/cable ski lift thing which can take you up 2/3 of the way so we opted for that. Once you get that far up it's basically a nice walk to the top.

There's a smattering of autumn leaves about but I think we were a bit too early. The adverts on trains have a lot more of it on show...

Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden

Went to Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. It's my new favourite place in Tokyo. Maybe this is because I'm fed up of the endless streets, train tracks and back alleys found in Tokyo. Concrete buildings get boring.

It was 200 yen to enter and this makes all the difference. The small price prevents the crowds coming in and ruining the place. Even though it was a sunny Sunday afternoon there were not too many around the park considering its size and it was very quiet. Perfect.

There were a couple of themed gardens in the park. One of them said it was an English style garden. However, it looked to us like a big field. Maybe my dog had eaten all the plants?

The Japanese garden was really nice though. All the Japanese seemed to be just interested in the new chrysanthemums (got that right in one, thank you very much) which I don't understand. They're ugly as sin. If you're reading this and thinking of sending me flowers: send tulips. Cheers.

Meiji Festival

This weekend is the Meiji Festival - celebrating 130 years since the university was first founded. It's supposed to run over the weekend for 3 days but it has been raining pretty much all week - until today!

There were lots of little food stalls outside offering (mostly) horrible looking food. Inside were classrooms filled with each of the University club's showcases. My favourite was the 4 strange guys in the train circle who were obsessed with trains.

I left after 20 minutes or so because I felt ill. I seem to have picked up every single cold going in the last few weeks and the current one is pretty bad. Not as bad as man flu though. Worse than child birth, so I've heard.

I prefer the school fairs in the days of Sandridge primary school. There was a fire truck and everything. I think...

China Town, Hirabayashis etc

I haven't done an update for a while for the simple fact that I haven't really done anything of note recently. However, people keep asking me to update this so...

Went to China Town in Yokohama with Penny a week or so ago. It's basically the same as the one in London except its a bit more than a novelty street. This one is about 5 novelty streets. Not sure what I expected really. There was a big panda shop though. Afterwards, we walked all the way back to the main Yokohama station and slowly got home in the rush hour.

Last Sunday I went to the Hirabayashi house to say bye to Makoto. Also saw the brother for the first time this year. He's working pretty much everyday (even on Sundays) like a good little Japanese employee but took the evening off. The Wii got dragged out after a while and I thrashed everyone at Mario Kart. The mum beat me at Wii Tennis though...

Other than these things, I can't remember anything else apart from the usual lessons. It's been raining a lot here and apparently there is a typhoon on the way. Hooray.

Jiyūgaoka

Me and Penny decided to go to somewhere new on Saturday. Went to a place called Jiyūgaoka. It's about halfway on the line between Shibuya and Yokohama.

It's probably the most European place you're gonna get in Tokyo. It was a nice place to walk around, with lots of little shops and not many people. It even had a Next... Seemed to be a posh area too. Saw a few Ferraris etc.

Also went to a traditional style tea house place there. I don't drink tea so I ordered strawberry milk like the toddler I am :)

Hirabayashi House

Went to the Hirabayashi house yesterday. It was the first time I'd seen the parents without anybody to back me up and help me with the Japanese. But I managed ok :) Had some yakiniku. With the rare Japanese treat of fruit and vegetables. I've hardly bought any here because of the prices. For example, a single tomato is about 90p...

It's quite a long journey and on the way there I had to wait on a train for about 40 minutes at a station. I'm not sure why it stopped; the announcements were all in foreign...

Week...4?

I think I'm in week 4 now. I hope so anyway as I've nearly run out of the money I brought with me which was meant to last a month. I haven't particularly done anything special this week to warrant an individual post so I'll just try and remember what I've done... Some people write about what they had for breakfast. Tip: nobody cares.

Had my first Mass Media lecture on Tuesday. Was actually alright. A few of my classmates were taking it too which I didn't realise when I first picked it. The lecturer apparently appears on TV and spent a while complaining about the price of housing in Hong Kong. We seem to be learning how backwards the Japanese media is.

I have 2 other business things. One is a seminar which is in Japanese. Each week someone does some research and brings in a few sheets of paper for the class to discuss. I understand about 5% if I'm lucky. The teacher is American though and sometimes translates a bit for me. Afterwards, the Japanese girls in the seminar invited me to go drinking with them sometime next week. I only realised this later on though. I just say 'yes' to everything without really fully understanding it at the time.

Other than classes, in my spare time I've been learning loads of new vocabulary and kanji. The picture attached is what I wrote down in today's class. Not sure when exactly I'm going to say 'development project' or 'adversity'. I don't think I've ever said them in English.

Oh, and for breakfast I had a jam on toast.

Yokohama

Went to Yokohama yesterday to see Babbs and Pete. It's fairly easy to get there (train to Shibuya, then a train to Yokohama) and only around ￥600. Unlike Tokyo, Yokohama seemed very spacious and reminded me of Germany or Holland for some reason...

Sadly we didn't see the big China Town. Will go there next time.

(yeah i can't really be bothered to write these)

Japanese Class

I've had 2 Japanese language classes now but they've both been done in the usual 'introduce yourself' style. Pretty pointless as everyone in the class has known each other for 2 or 3 weeks before the class...

I'm not sure what a proper class is going to be like, but going by the amount of work we need to do for next week, it'll be hard. At Cardiff, we usually get 15-20 kanji a week and complain. Here, we've been given 80 to learn in a week...

Classes

So I've finally chosen my classes now. I've managed to get away with 3/4 of the business ones being in English. I went to a Japanese lecture beforehand to see what it was like and just sat there blankly, not understanding anything.

I get Monday off but I have early starts on the days where I do have classes. That means I need to leave about 8 and get crushed to near-death in rush hour on the Tokyo trains. Not fun.

Gyoza

Went to Makoto's house the other day to see the family again. We made about 80 gyoza (dumpling things), mine were obviously the best.

Haven't really done much lately. Just waiting for classes to start. I did go and get my Japanese placement test results yesterday though. Got put in the class which Cardiff University wants me to be in. So can't complain.

Inokashira Park

Today I had a day of shopping and walking with Penny around Kichijyouji (吉祥寺） and Inokashira Park (井の頭公園); my favourite part of Tokyo :)It's one of the rare bits of Tokyo which has some of this rare green plant called 'grass' in it.

Today was a national holiday in Japan, so there were alot of people around and rowing in the lake. I remember when I tried rowing there last year I was scared in case I hit one of the ducks with the oars. However, the Japanese seemed intent on trying to kill them all. Luckily I didn't see them get any...

If you ever need a cheap day out in Tokyo, Inokashira is a good place to come. There is also a zoo in the park, but I haven't got round to going in it yet. Maybe next time...

Phones

One of the first things you need to get when you're going to live in Japan is a phone. After the important things like a bank account and foreign registration card of course....

I've had my phone for 2 days now and it has been very handy in allowing me to meet up with my friends without fear of relying on a designated meeting place. Shinjuku station is very big and should be a convenient place to meet up as many train lines go through it. However, the damn thing is a maze and its easy to get lost...

The phone didn't take too long to get, we just walked up to the shop opposite the local station and picked the colours we wanted and got a reasonable contract. I got an orange/yellow one and its pretty striking.

The best thing about it though is the little symbols you can send along with texts. In the UK you can only send smiley faces made up of mathematical symbols, but because these Japanese phones use HTML, you can send loads of different pictures. I like ending all of mine with a penguin. Just because I can.

Accommodation

I've been here 5 days now and I'm getting used to everything. I now don't really pay attention when walking to the local station and back. It takes about 10 minutes to walk to my local station (Meidaimae) and there I just hop on the Keio line and can get to Shinjuku in under 10 minutes. Pretty convenient.

I live in a Meiji University-run halls for international students. Lots of different flats in one building. There are 8 people in my flat but I've only met 2 of them - I think everyone just wants to do their own thing. I've attached a photo of my room. Its quite posh but that means its also quite expensive. We have to top up the machine to use the shower and air con but it doesn't seem to drain down too quickly. I have 2 showers a day and use air con alot and its only got down by 200 yen so far.

It seems like a good place to live for the year. Could've been alot worse.

I've landed in Japan and finally had a good sleep.

The plane journey was ok. Luckily I looked at the in-flight movies before I got to the airport and saw that I had already seen all the films or that I was never going to (Sex in the City 2? No thanks.) I bought 2 books; Frankie Boyle's autobiography My Shit Life So Far and a journalistic book on North Korea which I haven't touched yet as I was addicted to Boyle's book, which I finished on the bus from Narita airport to Shinjuku Station.

I'll do a post later on how my room is and how I unintentionally worried the Meiji students.

Tomorrow I leave for Japan. Am I scared? Yes. But only of the phone call I've got to make when I land. I hate talking Japanese on the phone...