End of Term Two & Studio Ghibli Museum

Okay, I'm not going to write about the rest of my Christmas break as the memory has been somewhat bittered by subsequent events...I'll just say that it was really lovely, and seeing everyone was amazing.

Righty, I've just finished my second term at ICU! This one seems to have gone much quicker than the first...and it was a lot harder too! Last week I had my exams and I had to turn in a long paper for my other module, but now I have no class until April! I do have to study lots of Kanji for Leeds though, ugh...

I have no concrete plans for the Spring break as of now, but I'd like to go out of Tokyo. I'm thinking of going up north to Nikko, a really nice-looking mountainous city with lots of shrines and temples, and a stunning national park. It's also the home of the famous Three Wise Monkeys! A couple of friends have been there already, and said it was really good. It'd be nice to see some of traditional Japan!  Other than that I'd like to go southwest to the Kansai region, to Osaka and Kyoto. Naturally I'll keep up with anything I get up to on here! It's been a while since I've blogged isn't it...in fact I haven't really kept it properly since September...hopefully that'll change from now on!

Something I've wanted to blog about for a while was my trip to the Studio Ghibli Museum in Mitaka at the end of January. I'm not a fan of anime, but I do like the Ghibli films, such as Laputa: Castle in the Sky, Spirited Away and My Neighbour Totoro. 

I went there with my friend Amii, and I really do recommend it. To get there you take a train to Mitaka Station, and from there you can either get a short bus trip or walk along the side of the canal for about 10 or 15 minutes. You need to get tickets in advance, which can be bought from the Lawson chain of konbinis for 1,000 yen (£7.80).

You couldn't take photos inside (something that was very strictly enforced), so I guess you'll all just have to visit it to have a look! It's really, really nice. Very hard to describe though...nice and old fashioned, with a big iron spiral staircase, 1930s style lift, and about half of it was a mockup of a studio, with all the different paints and pencils and so forth set out. I'm not doing a very good job of describing it, am I? If only they'd let us take photos! There were little scenes from the different films dotted around, such as the food stall from Spirited Away where Chihiro's parents gorge themselves on food and turn into pigs, and a life-sized Catbus from My Neighbour Totoro! There was also a smaller Catbus for kids to play on, which I wanted to jump on as well but alas, it turns out I'm about ten years too old :(

After having a look around inside we went up to the roof garden, which was small but very, very peaceful and nice (apart from the large group of Chinese tourists getting in the way of almost EVERY photo I tried to take). 

Up on the roof was one of the robots from Laputa! It's my favourite Ghibli film, and the robot was just about my favourite character, so it was an unmissable photo opportunity!

After the roof garden we went down to the inhouse cinema to watch an unreleased mini Studio Ghibli film, about some Sumo mice...which was very entertaining and charming. It was also nice to see how my Japanese ability is just about at the level of a six year old, heh.

Following that we went down into the courtyard area, and I got just a little carried away on the water pump.

As we were leaving the museum we had to stop off at the big Totoro for a photo! He's pretty much the mascot of Studio Ghibli. It's a shame he was behind glass, I imagine squeezing him would make anyone happy.

And thus concludes my trip to the Mitaka Studio Ghibli Museum. I had a really, really fun time and heartily recommend it to anyone. Be careful of the gift shop though, it's insanely expensive, but lots of the things they sell are beautiful. A fun day out, all in all, especially with the subsequent walk through Inokashira Park to Kichijoji for gin and fish & chips.

Goodness, I never thought I'd speak so enthusiastically about anything anime related!

James

Exams & End of Term 1

Blimey, that went quickly!  It's strange to think I'm already a third of the way through my time in Japan (sort of)!  

Although the exam period doesn't officially end until tomorrow, my last exam was yesterday, meaning that I've now got two weeks of holiday before going back to start the Winter term on December the 1st.  I've now finished J3, too.  The course consisted of a fair bit of grammar that we covered in the second half of last year at Leeds, but there was some new stuff too, and going over the old stuff has really helped me; I wasn't comfortable using a lot of the grammar structures we learned towards the end of the first year at Leeds in any situation outside of a written context (where I had time to think about how to structure sentences) but now I'm happy using even the harder forms when speaking.  My Japanese has improved a lot already, but I think that's mainly from living here, to be honest.  Next term I'll start J4, which apparently is a huge step-up from J3...bring it on!

So I had my end-of-term exams over the past week, and they went well!  There were a couple of hiccups, though.  My main Japanese exam was scheduled for 8:50 on Thursday morning, so I set my alarm for 7:45.  For whatever reason, my alarm just didn't go off, and I was woken at 8:48 by my friend T.J. phoning to ask which room the exam was in.  Oh dear.  I fell out of bed into some clothes, brushed my teeth (forgive me for not giving them the recommended 2 minutes of attention on this occasion), and cycled into uni in the fastest time I've ever managed.  I got into the room at just after 9:05, at the end of the first section.  Unfortunately, the first section was Listening, so I couldn't exactly go back and quickly catch up on what I'd missed.  At ten past nine the Listening sections were taken off us and we were given the next part, and from then onwards the exam went really well!  I've done well in all my other tests and things over the term, so the consequences shouldn't be too bad.  

The grades and marks we get at ICU aren't transferred over to Leeds, so technically we just need to pass everything, and then Leeds set us assessed things at the end of the year.  This helped in the case of my English as an International Language module.  Let's just say I passed that (with not-so flying colours) so there are no worries there and it can be left at that!!

Being the lucky fellow that I am, I have just come down with horrible flu the day after my last exam.  So I've been staying in bed, drinking lots, and watching lots of Qi and Have I Got News For You online (no change from when I was well then, really).  Hopefully I can get well soon, because I'd like to see lots of Tokyo whilst I'm on holiday!  I'll do a blog post about each interesting place I go to, like what I did with my Akihabara post.  I'm planning to go to Koenji (again, to have a proper look this time), Ikebukuro, Ueno, Harajuku, Yoyogi, Shimbashi and Shimokitazawa.  If anyone knows of anywhere else in Tokyo worth going then please let me know!

James

Photo of the Day

I can't fit all of this onto a caption, so I'll explain it here.  T.J. and I went for a drink in the Hub British Pub in Kichijoji a few days ago, and they usually play good music, but absolutely nothing special was coming out of the speakers that night.  After a few gin and tonics I went to the bar and asked if they had any Libertines, hoping for maybe a song or two.  Two minutes later, the music went off, and all of the many TV screens around the pub, usually used for showing sport, came on.  We were then treated to the entire hour and a half-long Libs' set from Reading Festival in 2010!  And all I was expecting was Don't Look Back Into The Sun or something!  So I grabbed a little photo on my mobile as a memento.

Two Months In & Life in Tokyo

I've been here around two months now, so I think I can just about talk about what it's like to actually live in Tokyo on a day to day basis, rather than just as a tourist.

Firstly, Tokyo is an amazing, amazing city, and it should definitely be a priority to come and visit (please come visit me!).  Living here is pretty different to how I, and most other people, expected it to be.  From talking to people back home, I've realised that loads of people expect my daily routine to include things like chilling with robots, using space-aged toilets with built-in sound effects and seat warmers (okay, those are quite widespread, but anyway...), hanging around the neon-lit urban landscape munching on sushi for most of the day, and being stopped by rival teenagers for Pokémon battles on the way home from university.

Whilst some of those sorts of things are perfectly possible to do here, they're certainly not part of a normal day!  My local area, for example, is not the big, shiny metropolis that everyone imagines Japan to be.  The city centre areas like Shinjuku, Shibuya and Ikebukuro do fit that mould, but one thing in particular did strike me about Tokyo as a city.  Almost everywhere you go outside of the big centres, Tokyo has an incredibly town-y feel to it.  It's very low-rise, and seems just like a medium-sized town wherever you are.  The only difference is that this 'town' keeps going and going and going and going...it's almost like years ago there were hundreds of towns dotted around the area, which have grown and grown over time to the extent that they have expanded into each other, with no green areas in between them any more; it's a very strange feeling and quite difficult to explain, so I hope you understand what I'm trying to describe.

A typical Tokyo street

The video below was taken from my balcony during the typhoon season (until the battery ran out...), and shows that I don't live in the top of a huge apartment block only accessible by spaceship. 

That said, the major centres (and there are very many of them indeed) are exactly the frantic, neon-soaked, endless sky scraper skylines we are projected in the UK and elsewhere.  I have been to a number of leading world cities, like New York, London and Shanghai, and I can honestly say that Tokyo rivals them all (don't worry London, you're still my favourite, babes).  Below are a few pictures and videos of the cool central bits.  Despite what it looks like, I wasn't following the girl who walked past me in the last video.

So, in conclusion I guess you could say, Tokyo is a brilliant city, but not exactly what you'd expect...certainly worth a visit though!

Onto more mundane matters, my daily routine goes something like this: wake up at about half 8, have some breakfast, go to university (10:10-12:40 every day, plus 1:15-3:00 on Wednesdays and Fridays), come home, have a bit of food, watch an episode of something or other on the internet, do some work for university, have dinner, do a bit more work, go for a bike ride or jog, have a shower, sit on Youtube or Facebook for a while, then go to sleep.  Exciting, huh?  I guess day to day life is pretty much the same no matter which country you're in.  

Oh, except that Tokyo is very expensive indeed.  Over the past decade or so, it's consistently been ranked in the top 5 most expensive cities in the world, with about half of that time spent occupying the top place.  That'll strike you if you ever come; the sheer price of the most mundane things.  Thankfully, 100 yen shops provide an escape from that.  I'm lucky enough to have a Lawson 100 yen shop about 1 minute away from me on the bike, by the train station, which has a supermarket bit downstairs, and most of the products are the same price (it's actually 105 yen a piece with tax, about 85p).  I do most of my food shopping there, so at least that can be done cheaply.  The following are the sorts of typical things I'll buy whilst there, all for 105 yen; 2 chicken breasts, a pack of green peppers, 10 eggs, pack of 3 noodles, some pak choi, sugar snap pea, a bottle of soy sauce, pepper shaker, and so on...so it's not too bad!  Beer is a bit more expensive, about 200-300 yen for a 500ml can (£1.65-£2.45), but hour long all you can drink bars for under a thousand yen, or two hours for under 1,500 balances that difference out, I suppose.

Transport is one thing that is expensive here, at least on the trains, and clothing, books, and digital media are really pricey too. But I suppose that the overall message is that cheaper ways to live in Tokyo can be found once you get used to everything.

Now, I've rambled for far too long; well done if you made it this far!

James 

Photo of the Day

I wouldn't expect the best atmosphere in 'Cafe de Bore'

First Day of Lessons at ICU & Watching Shameless

So here I am, having just finished my homework after my first day of lessons at ICU!  The lessons were more fun than I had anticipated!  I had two Japanese lessons this morning, from 10:10 until 12:40 (with a ten-minute break at 11:20), as I have every day from Monday to Friday.

In the first lesson, everyone from level 3 Japanese was in the same classroom, where we each wrote a 作文 (sakubun, or creative-writing piece) on any topic we wished,  with a checklist of all the grammar we should have learned prior to level 3.  In the second lesson we split up into two groups, A and B, to do smaller group activity.  In group B, we did some self-introduction stuff, like 'I was born in X, grew up in Y,  Y is famous for Z, its climate is...', and learned some grammar on transitive and intransitive verbs.  

I'd covered all of this back at Leeds a few months ago, and I could understand everything the teachers said during the lessons, so I found it quite easy!  I might be speaking too soon, though, as it's bound to get harder!  But at the moment, it's all good revision.

I was all done at 12:40, so I went home, stopping off at my local konbini to buy some sushi for lunch.  This afternoon I watched the two latest episodes of Shameless online.  I was worried that I would miss out on a lot of new British programmes whilst in Japan, because BBC iPlayer, 4OD and the like are unavailable outside of the UK;  they don't even work through UK proxies.  But I found a way to watch all my favourite programmes through ahem, certain websites.  *Cough* Sockshare *Cough*.  A big thank you to the person who uploaded every episode of The Inbetweeners onto Youtube, as well!!

Tomorrow I have my two lessons of Japanese again, as well as English as an International Language, which is during the so-called "4th super-period", which is an hour and 45 minutes long and cuts into lunchtime.  

Tomorrow evening I'll be going with a few friends to a British pub in Kichijoji!  I was going to go on Wednesday, but everyone else ended up being too busy.  I'm looking forward to seeing Japan's take on our pubs!

James

Japanese Student Visa Application

I have applied for my Japanese visa!  It’s scary how I can tick off all these little things on my mental checklist before Japan, and each one brings me a bit closer to going.  Leave my job. Check. Apply for visa. Check.  Next on the list is to apply for my Takase Scholarship!  But anyway, I’m just a few lines in and already digressing, so let’s get back on topic; my visa application!

So to apply for a Japanese Student Visa, you will need the following;

·      A Visa Application Form (available online or at the embassy)

·      Certificate of Eligibility (authorised after passing the required modules at your home university, then issued directly by the Japanese government)

·      Letter of Acceptance from the Japanese university to which you applied

·      Photocopies of the Certificate of Eligibility and Letter of Acceptance

·      Passport

·      One Passport Photo

·      £43 (cash only)

Besides those I also took a pre-paid, self-addressed special delivery envelope so that they could post it back to me.  You can either go back to the embassy in person to pick it up, or do what I did if you live too far away from London to do that.  You get to the embassy, and after an airport-style security check (including showing them your passport) at the front door, you go through into a waiting area, and take a ticket with a number on it.  You wait for your number to come up on the screen, and then go to the specified counter where someone checks that everything’s in order and takes payment.  Very easy!  I applied on Tuesday, and it should all be processed by Friday, and sent out the same day, so I should receive it on Saturday morning! 

So I took the 9:45 train from Leeds to London Kings Cross, which arrived just before 12 o’clock.  In the station I then bought a day ticket for the zones 1 & 2 of the underground, before going a few stops on the Piccadilly line to Green Park.  From Green Park station it’s just a two-minute walk down to the Japanese Embassy.  From the front of the building hangs a big Japanese flag, which was quite useful considering I don’t know my way around London!  I could see the flag from the station!  I forgot to take a photo outside the embassy, so here’s one of Natasha Clancey there a few days ago ;) Oh, and yes, she really did wear a Hooters top to a serious government institution.

I happened to bump into Leeds students Amanda Brown and Paul Farquharson whilst I was in the embassy; I was wondering whether anyone I knew would happen to be there at the same time as me!

After all that I met up with Joe Holloway, who I’ve only seen a couple of times since we both left school (we both went to Bradford Grammar).  Despite some confusion as to which station we were meeting in, we eventually met up outside Charing Cross, near Trafalgar Square.  We walked up to Covent Garden for a spot of lunch, as Joe knew of a chain of restaurants called Fire & Stone.  Apparently it’s a southern chain, which specialises in pizzas with unusual toppings from around the world.  Have a look at the menu on their website here.  I had the ‘Lombok’ – seriously tasty!  And only £4.95 at lunchtime!  I'd never have thought hoi sin sauce would go with a pizza- but it did!  I guess it’s because there was no tomato sauce on the pizza base or something.  Joe had the ‘Marrakech’, which he clearly enjoyed;

After lunch we got the tube up to Camden.  The canal was, um, green.

Camden’s not as good as I remember if I’m honest :( I suppose it would still be good at night and not during the summer holidays, but it was just absolutely packed full of loud American tourists, bratty kids and tacky tat!  It had a few pretty bits still, however! It was about 28 degrees and humid by this time, and we were preeeetty toasty, so we decided to go and sit by the canal.

We then went to Cyberdog, which was interesting…I headed downstairs and was freaked out (those of you who know the place will sympathise, anyone else should look at their website).  Let’s just say, I got a chance to practice my Japanese reading with some of the products for sale downstairs.

After wondering round Camden for a bit, Joe had to go for an interview at Embankment, and I had to get back to Kings Cross, so after going to Covent Garden again for a while, we both walked our separate ways; Joe on to Embankment, and I walked back to Charing Cross to have another look at a statue of Oscar Wilde which had tickled me that morning.

After gradually getting hotter and hotter walking around London all day, it was nice to get back on the air conditioned train back to Leeds, which arrived (slightly late) back at 9:35. 

So there’s the story of my trip to London to get a visa!  Hopefully it was of some help if you are going to Japan and haven’t yet got your visa…it was a simple procedure, apart from having to get to the other end of the country that is!

In other news, I’ve done some more on the side bar of my blog; I’ve added links to the blogs of other people from the University of Leeds who will be in Japan at the same time as me, as well as the links of some good websites relating to my blog and Japan!  Oh, and have a look at the map I’ve got!  It’s been exiting (sad, I know) seeing how many people from all over the world have been visiting my blog!  Any flashing stars on the map are users viewing my blog at the moment.  Also, it’s now even easier to follow my blog (heh)!  I’d really appreciate it if you’d follow me, which you can do by clicking the ‘Join this site’ tab on the right side bar.  You can do it not only with a Blogger account, but with a standard Google one, as well as a few others.

That’s all for now, please stay tuned! 

James

Bye Bye, Rhythm & Booze

I have now finished my 18 months with Rhythm & Booze!  Working in an off-licence (or wine shop, depending on who I’m talking to) certainly had its ups and downs, but I’m actually missing it already!  I was quite upset when I got home this evening!

The people I worked with were great, and I got on really well with them all.  I suppose I will miss working there, or at least miss the regular income anyway!  Speaking of which, I’m getting quite concerned about money matters whilst I’m in Japan, but I’ll write another post soon about that whole deal (and the DS thing I promised in my last post!). 

I’ll also miss the staff discount!  The shop was pretty cheap anyway, for example 3 500-600ml bottles of lager cost £5.50.  But my discount meant I could have them for £4.95; always good to keep it under a fiver!  I won’t miss the rude customers, however.  Obviously the majority were fine, but there always had to be the select few to ruin your evening, you know?  Although at least I’ve developed a thick skin after working there!  Every cloud and all that.

I know this is only a short post, but there’s not really a great deal to talk about!  Now I’ve finished working there, it definitely feels like I’m a step closer to going to Japan.  Putting all my affairs in order and what have you. 

I guess I won’t be seeing this view for a while!

Okay folkies, time for me to pop off!  Not doing a great deal tomorrow, just writing an essay to try and get a scholarship for studying in Japan, and then seeing Ayu!  Then on Tuesday I’m travelling down to London to apply for my Japanese visa!  I’ll definitely be writing a blog post on that, so look out for it on Tuesday or Wednesday :)

Oh, and happy August everyone :)

James