Getting Back into Blogging

Crikey, it's been a while since I've been here.

So yes, my hectic life in Japan got the better of me and my blog towards the end of the last term at ICU, but as I'm going to Germany to study for a term at the University of Leipzig in just over three weeks, I thought I ought to get back into the habit of writing this!

In the next few days I'll write a sort of summary post for my year abroad in Japan, and then after that I'll get cracking with all things German...stay tuned!

James

Money Problems

Er, yeah, I don't have any of it. And I'm ill. Oh dear.

James

ふぐを食べた! - I Ate Fugu!

First of all, I know the formatting and fonts are weird in this post, but it won't let me fix it for some reason, so I'm sorry about that...

Last week my friend Matt and I were in the pub in Kichijoji, and we thought it would be an excellent idea to get some drunken munch on the way out. Not in the mood for a kebab, ramen or gyoza, we headed up the street to a fugu restaurant.

For those of you who don't know what fugu is, it's a fish. But not just any fish; it's notorious for being fatally poisonous when not prepared properly, and known as Pufferfish in English. For a brief overview of the consequences of a chef incorrectly preparing it, I've taken this delightful extract from fugu's Wikipedia page: Fugu contains lethal amounts of the poison tetrodotoxin in the organs, especially the liver, the ovaries, and the skin. The poison, a sodium channel blocker, paralyzes the muscles while the victim stays fully conscious along with causing paralysis. The victim is unable to breathe, and eventually dies from asphyxiation. There is no known antidote.

Lovely.

Waiting for the fugu to arrive

After being seated at our table, we waited anxiously for our first course to come. Whilst generally the only people who die from eating fugu are untrained fishermen who catch and eat it without realising what is, and we knew that really we'd be fine as fugu chefs have to go through several years of tough training to be allowed to prepare it, we couldn't help but be a bit nervous, what with it having such a reputation. 

The first thing to arrive was a large plate of fugu sashimi (thin raw strips). I didn't take a photo of it as we'd already devoured most of it before I even thought to, but I did get a couple of photos of Matt and I  about to tentatively take our first bites.

It was really really delicious. I definitely recommend it! It's hard to describe the taste, though. The texture is like most fish, maybe a bit tougher, and the taste was light at first, but strong in the aftertaste (but not like mackerel). See how it's hard to describe? That's not helpful at all, is it. Moving on...

The second course was some more fugu meat (some of which was still twitching on the plate...), fugu skin (remember how apparently that has poison in it..?) and lots of vegetables and mushrooms to put into a hot pot which had been placed on a heater in the centre of the table, as well as other salad-y bits on the side. Along with that we got some different dipping sauces, and even deep-fried fugu!

Eating the skin made my lips tingle a little bit, which was a worry as I'd heard that that was one of the first effects of poisoning, but it turns out that apparently that's the intended effect. Yay. Everything was really delicious, and not as expensive as I'd heard. Matt and I split all of that, and it was under 2,000 yen each. I really do recommend it. If anyone's interested in going there, I don't remember the name of the restaurant, but if you leave from the Park Exit of Kichijoji Station and turn right, it's a couple of hundred metres up that street, on the left. You can't miss it; there's a huge tank of fugu swimming around on display outside. Even if you don't live near Kichijoji, there's bound to be somewhere selling fugu near to you. If you're reading this from the UK, sorry but fugu is completely banned in the EU!

Next time I eat something strange and delightful I'll be sure to write another blog post! The next one will be about my travels this Spring break, I'll hopefully get it done soon, but I'm very busy with revision at the moment; my big Leeds exam is in three weeks today!! D:

James

Registration for my Third and Final Term at ICU & Cherry Blossom Viewing

Yesterday I cycled into ICU for the first time in what felt like ages to register for my spring term classes. Having taken Japanese level 4 last term, I took level 5 for this one. I was originally planning to take Intensive 3, which combines levels 5 and 6, and takes up twice the amount of time, but as I need as much time as possible to study for my upcoming Leeds exam on May 7th, I opted to take level 5 instead. This also has the advantage of meaning that I'll be able to resume my job after the Leeds exam, as I would have finished too late every day to have made it to Shibuya in time for work, had I picked Intensive 3.

I had to take another course in order to have the required number of credits for my student visa, so I decided to study Middle English! This was the language spoken in England between roughly 1100 and 1500, and the precursor to early Modern English. It's something I've had an interest in for a while now, so it's great to finally get a chance to study it properly! It looks really interesting in its grammar and structure, and you can definitely see more Anglo-Saxon and Norse influences than are left in the language now. Below is a sample of Middle English, from Wikipedia.

Forrþrihht anan se time comm
  þatt ure Drihhtin wollde
ben borenn i þiss middellærd
  forr all mannkinne nede
he chæs himm sone kinnessmenn
  all swillke summ he wollde
and whær he wollde borenn ben
  he chæs all att hiss wille.

So I should have some fun with that! Another thing worth mentioning about going into ICU to register for courses yesterday is that we are currently slap bang in the middle of the cherry blossom season, so yesterday was a great opportunity to take loads of photos on campus, as there are hundreds of sakura trees on ICU's grounds. I've put the best ones below. Today I start my last term at ICU...wish me luck!

James

5 Things I Miss, and 5 Things I Will Miss

It's dawned on me recently that I really don't have all that much time left in Japan. I don't have an exact date in mind yet, but I'll be returning home at the end of June or the beginning of July. That's only about three and a half months. I've been here six and a half months already, but it really doesn't feel like it's been that long. This got me thinking about the things I appreciate or even take for granted in Japan, which we don't have in the UK, and that I imagine I'll miss once I've left. Whilst considering these I started thinking about the things I miss back home, and because it's been a while since I last blogged, I thought I'd turn this into a post.

Things I Miss

1. People

I suppose this is an obvious one, but I really do miss lots of people back home; my parents, friends and relatives. I also miss my dogs a lot, too! I know that they'll all be there when I get back though, so I don't really get down about it. Thank goodness for Skype, though! And going back at Christmas to see everyone really did work a tonic.

2. Yorkshire Grub

Oh dear. Whilst Japan's culinary peculiarities are varied and delicious, there are times when I could positively murder some roast potatoes and yorkshire pudding. However, I think giving up the diet of northern stodge for that of the Japanese is a big reason for me having lost so much weight since coming here, so I'll have to be careful not to indulge too much when I'm back home!

3. Being Able to Understand Everyone

Don't get me wrong; my Japanese has definitely improved a lot since coming to Japan, and I'm perfectly capable of holding down a conversation, but it's just not the same as a mother tongue. I've had to make a fair few phone calls in Japan, for things such as post redelivery or sorting out my (sometimes astronomically high) mobile bills. The fast-paced, high-level honorific language used by the people on the other end of the line makes such calls virtually impossible for anyone who's not Japanese. These calls are naturally much easier in the UK, even if everyone I speak to seems to be from Belfast, Newcastle or Mumbai.

4. Cheap Drinks

£2 doubles, £1 bottles, £2.30 pints, £15 cases. Oh Japan, why is 500 yen a cheap pint?!

5. Not Being Racially Profiled by the Police

Just because I am riding a bike does not mean I stole it.

Things I Will Miss

1. Konbinis

Ah, anything you would ever need right outside your front door. They're sort of like Spar, One Stop, or the shops you get attached to petrol stations back home - only much better. In the UK I'm a fan of shopping locally at independent shops, but I certainly wouldn't mind the odd konbini knocking around for emergencies.

2. Trains That Run on Time

To the minute. Except when someone's decided to throw themselves in front of one of them.

3. People (again)

I've made many, many friends at ICU and in Tokyo generally, from all corners of the world, and I'm dealing with the fact that it's extremely likely that I won't see the vast majority of them ever again after this year's up. Come to the UK, yeah?

4. Clean Streets

I hadn't thought that the streets of the UK were particularly bad until I came back to Leeds over Christmas; all I could see were thousands of pieces of gum, fag ends and dropped litter...come on, England!! In Japan every street seems to be spotless, despite the fact that there are hardly any litter bins anywhere. Japanese people take pride in the appearance of their country and cities, something which we're sorely lacking in back home; it's quite depressing.

5. Just Living in Tokyo

I will miss being here full stop. Tokyo is the most amazing, interesting and unique city I have ever been to. I'll miss all the different places you can go to, the things you can see and the people you can meet. It has an amazing vibe which is totally different to anything I've experienced before, and I'll really miss it. I can't see myself living here in the future, but I look forward to coming back as often as I can afford.

James

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

私の東京にある部屋

Have a look round my room :)

In other news, I've just finished packing up everything ready to come back to the UK! Tomorrow at 5am I'll get up, before going to Narita and flying home...so my next blog post will be from England!! It doesn't feel real that tomorrow evening I'll be back in my house..! Looking forward :)

James

A Busy Day of Pre-Flight Preparation

What a busy day it's been!

After having morning classes, I took the train to Tachikawa Station, before hopping on a bus to the Immigration Bureau to get my re-entry permit. I was going to write a step-by-step guide to acquiring the re-entry permit for anyone else who needs to go for one, but I really can't top Miles Davies' blog post which helped me no end when I was planning my trip. One thing I will add is that the Sunkus konbini right by the 多摩車検場前 bus stop sells the special stamp you need in order to get re-entry permit. Oh, and Miles said he had a two hour wait before being dealt with, but my wait was only about five minutes! I didn't even have time to complete my form before I was called up to the desk!

I was with Ashley, an Australian girl in my class (well, she was in my class last term), who went to get her work permit from the same bureau, but she only found out when she got there that she needed to have her passport with her in order to get it! Oops....

After sorting out my re-entry permit stuff, I got the bus back to Tachikawa Station, from which I went straight to Kichijoji Station and bought my ticket for the Limousine Bus, which will take me to Narita Airport from Kichijoji at 6:30am on Wednesday!

I got back home at about 5pm, and then had lots of work to do for uni! As I'm missing the last two days of classes, I'm getting all my deadlines sorted and ready to hand in tomorrow. After doing my work, I put some of the clothes I'm taking back in the wash, and started packing my main suitcase. It's now 3/4 full of other clothes I washed yesterday, and Christmas presents for everyone! 

Two more sleeps! Looking so so SO forward to coming home :)

James

JASSO Scholarship!

Whooop so I found out today that I have been awarded the JASSO Scholarship between January and March next year! It's such a relief, what with the ridiculous price of everything around here!

I'll receive 80,000 yen each month, automatically deposited into my Japanese bank account (Mitsubishi UFJ), so over the three months I'll be given around £2,000! I'm going to have to work hard and get good grades this year though, as it's a scholarship, not simply a grant! But of course, I was going to work hard and get good grades anyway ;)

Now that I have the money to do so, I'm hoping to travel outside of Tokyo during the Easter break in March and April. I'd love to go down to Osaka and Kyoto; that sort of region. It would be lovely to see some of the Leeds people during the year! And Kyoto in particular looks amazing; it oozes with traditional culture.

Happy days!

James

Back at ICU

So today was my first day of the Winter term! And goodness was it cold...about a week ago or so the temperature suddenly plummeted from pleasantly mild (for late November, at least) to bloody freezing! It was about 6 degrees and windy, but for some reason it felt so much colder than I remember that sort of weather feeling back in the UK...maybe it's because I'd got used to the humid subtropical climate here since Summer.  Whatever the reason for it seeming so cold, I still can't feel my fingers after the bike ride back from university.

I had my first J4 class this morning, and the level has stepped up from J3 considerably. We went over the first kanji (Chinese characters) to learn, and there are so many! I will be spending a lot more time at my desk this term I imagine. After 35 minutes of lunchtime, I had my first Japan: History, Art and Literature lecture. The professor said that the name was misleading, and we'd be studying more the modernity and relevance of Japan from an anthropological viewpoint, and using history, art and literature to see how those aspects were founded, which to be honest interests me more than I had expected the course to do so, based on it's title.

So that was my first day, and now it's the weekend! I've not really been blogging as much recently, but I'm going to make an effort to do it more from now on, starting with a proper post about Kichijoji, as well as a proper one about ICU, too. These are the two places where I spend pretty much all of my time when I'm not in my room, yet I've only mentioned them in passing so far in this blog, so I thought it was about time to write some dedicated posts. The Autumnal colours on campus at ICU are beautiful at the moment, so I'll take my camera in on Monday. I'll be doing the Kichijoji one very soon as I am in fact going there tonight! Stay tuned :)

James

Photo of the Day

People have been asking me what I cook in Japan so there you go; my standard meal

Another Term, Another Course Registration

Wow, December already!

This morning I cycled into ICU to register for this term's modules.  Having passed Japanese level 3 last term, I enrolled in J4 (I'm now officially an intermediate!), as well as Japan Studies: History, Art and Literature, which should be really good.  I've got the same hours as last term; Japanese for periods 2 and 3 (10:10-12:40) every morning, and then my other module takes up a super 4th period (1:15-3:00) on Wednesdays and Fridays.  This means that I can keep the shifts my job exactly the same!

Speaking of my job, I FINALLY opened a bank account with Mitsubishi UFJ in Musashi Sakai today, with the help of Ayaka.  I'm looking forward to getting paid within the next two weeks!  

Tomorrow I start my Winter term!  A blog post will be sure to follow over the weekend.

James

Picture of the Day

Me working hard in my new job

A Quiet Autumn Holiday

As I said in my previous post, I'm currently on my two-week Autumn holiday between the first and second term at ICU. I also said I was hoping to do lots of travelling around Tokyo and see some places I haven't been before.  Unfortunately, with my increasingly precarious financial situation (I'm already into my overdraft...) that's not really been possible at all. I'm going to have to live very frugally for the rest of the calendar year. The wages from my new job will come in during the second half of December, and I'm also waiting on the results of the JASSO scholarship which I recently applied for (80,000 yen a month, £670, which would be nice!), as well as applying for grant from Student Finance England. Even if I don't get the scholarship or qualify for the grant, with my wages from the babysitting job and the next instalment of my maintenance, I should be alright...things are just going to be a bit tight for a while!

So unfortunately my travel plans for this couple of weeks have had to be put on hold until the new year or Springtime. I've not really done anything noteworthy instead, besides rediscovering Age of Empires and The Sims! At least the virtual me has a good job and a nice income! 

A lot of friends I've made in ICU and in my guesthouse are only here for the Autumn term, and a lot of them have already left to go back to their various countries, which is pretty sad. Last night I had a final drink in Kichijoji with my American friend T.J.  In fact, as I write this, he'll be somewhere over the Pacific en route to North Carolina. A lot of other friends are leaving in the next couple of weeks; I just hope I have enough money for a last drink with all of them!

James

My first ever glimpse of Mt. Fuji

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.

My 20th Birthday in Japan

Yesterday was my 20th birthday! It's quite an important age in Japan; basically the equivalent of the UK's 18.  It was strange to come over in August and revert back to legally being a child, but now I've caught up again!  20's also the legal drinking age in Japan, but as a foreigner I never get asked for ID so not a lot will change there...

To celebrate, a group of friends and I went out to Kichijoji.  We started off at the Hub British Pub to catch the end of Happy Hour there, which is 5-7.  We ended up arriving at about 6:45, so ordered about 6 drinks to each of us whilst they were still cheap!  The Japan vs Tajikstan match was on the TVs, and the pub was full of lairy supporters, which did give it a good atmosphere!  Although I don't see how the Japanese can be so into football when their national team is so RUBBISH.  Anyway, we stayed there until about 8, when our drinks ran out.

By 8 o'clock we were all getting pretty hungry, so we went to an izakaya for some grub and more drinks.  We had a whole room to ourselves, with a big, long table for us all to sit round.  The table was traditionally low to the floor, and we sat on tatami mats.  The horrifying realisation that I would have to sit cross legged and lose all feeling in the lower half of my body hit me just before I noticed that there was space underneath the table to put your legs, just like a normal chair - phew!

The food and drinks kept coming throughout.  Without realising it, I ate whale and horse.  Hmm.  The whale (in sashimi form) was extremely fishy; not too sure if I liked it.  The horse was also in sashimi form; raw, with soy sauce to dip in.  Unfortunately all I could taste was the bed of sliced onions it was sat on, but I guess the texture was nice!  Just like a (very) rare steak!  There was plenty of other gorgeous food; I think I may have eaten my own body weight in gyoza. Mmmmm yummy.

The original plan for after the izakaya was to go on to a bar somewhere and have some more drinks, but we ended up staying for hours, and getting very drunk, and also people started having to get off home, so we called it a night!  Naturally, we had the usual encounter with drunk Japanese people on the way to the station, including two who liked to tell me I was very cool.

People were kind enough to pay for me, so it was certainly the cheapest night out in Tokyo I've had yet!  I should have birthdays more often!  Thank you everyone :) The TUFS lot also got me a couple of presents!  Certainly wasn't expecting that!  They got me some chocolate called Horn (no jokes, please, Kieran's already made them all), and a book!  I gave them to Max to put in his bag as I didn't have one with me, but he then disappeared into the night after popping to buy some fags in between Hub and the izakaya and wasn't to be seen again.  I guess I'll get them back off him on Monday at ICU then!

I've also been getting some birthday post at home!  So far I've got cards from my grandparents and parents, and a fair few other people have stuff en-route to me, and some relatives have put money in my account, too :) with the card, my parents sent me these amaaazing slouchy pants that Mum and Ayu picked out for me :) I love them so much - I really wanted some nice slouchies and these are just the sort of things I was after!  They're warm and soft and mmmm :)

Sally was also sweet enough to leave me a little birthday surprise!  I opened my bedroom door on Friday morning to go brush my teeth, and there was little bag waiting outside with a beer and a handmade card inside!  That was a nice start to my birthday morning :)  I put the card along side the other ones I've received so far, and had the beer before meeting everyone in Kichijoji that evening!

I love the 3D meerkat card from Mum & Dad hehe

Thus concludes my birthday!  It was a very fun day :) although, I did have exams in the morning...I'll make a proper exam post when I've finished them all next week, though.  It's a very strange feeling not to be a teenager any more! I really don't feel like a twenty-something :s

James

A Little Job Update

I've finally sorted out my shifts in my new job as a Babysitter!  I'll be picking a kid up from a British school in the centre of Tokyo, before taking him home to look after him for a few hours before his parents come home, during which time I'll help him with homework, play some games and chat to him.  This'll be every Monday and Thursday, about 6 hours per week in total, which will bring me a nice little income of about £240 a month!  Not bad hehe :)

I really need to get setting a bank account up!

James

P.S. No photo of the day today, I have to get snapping some more with my camera...sorry about that!

秋葉原 : Akihabara

Yesterday my friend Max and I headed to Akihabara, a district of Tokyo I'd heard a lot about.  It's the 'geek capital' of Tokyo, and the headquarters of the otaku subculture.  It's somewhere anyone interested (/obsessed) with anime, video games, cosplay or electronics should definitely check out.  Even if none of those things particularly interest you, as is the case for me, it's still worth a look.

The first, and perhaps most obvious thing I'll say about Akihabara is that it's very, very, very Japanese; I mean it's very Japanese.  All of the stereotypes people have about Japan and Tokyo can be found here.  We spent a good amount of time just walking around the area, taking everything in.  There's lots of neon, lots of J-Pop playing everywhere, lots of manga shops, lots of games shops, and even more electronics shops, selling both vintage 80s stuff, and many, many futuristic gadgets which I couldn't even work out the function of...what they say about Japanese gadgetry being years ahead really is true. On the topic of vintage stuff, there were several shops that bought up lots of old games consoles when they came out in the late 80s and early 90s, and are now selling them new.  If things get really desperate and boring in my room, I could always go down to Akihabara and buy a brand new Nintendo Super Famicon with Mariokart for £25...

Also extremely prevalent in Akihabara are Maid Cafés.  The waitresses in these wear cosplay outfits, generally as French maids but often also as anime or manga characters.  They greet their customers with "welcome home, master", and generally act as cute servants, decorating the food and drink, and even playing video games with the clientele.  Some cafés even go as far as having the maids spoon-feed the customers.  And then there are the ノーパン喫茶 (no-pan kissa); 'no-panties cafés', with their mirrored floors.  I don't think I need to go any further into explaining them. 

Out in force on the streets of Akihabara are the maids, offering passers-by the flyers of their cafés, in their horrible, screechy, fake voices. Honestly, I can't even begin to describe the 'cute' voices they put on, they penetrate your brain they're so....Japanese? I don't know how you'd describe them.  One maid started talking to me when I was outside a café.  We had an awkward conversation in English, and then a similarly awkward one in Japanese when she realised that wasn't working, and then after discovering she was Chinese, an even more awkward one in Mandarin.  After that I decided it was probably best to carry on exploring.

Max and I decided that it would be a waste to spend some time in Akihabara without having a couple of goes at a video arcade, and then we came across Club Sega.

There were five floors of crammed arcades, with loads of different games on offer, from shooters, to Tekken-style fighting games, to racing games, which we opted for.

Max overtook me right at the end after a really even race, and won. Boo.

Oh, and otaku Japanese are very into their PVC schoolgirl and nurse costumes.  How would I look in one?  I probably shouldn't go into the other things available for purchase at this shop.  I didn't even realise some of the things in this six floor *cough* shop existed.  Those geeks sure are adventurous. 

Thus concludes my trip to Akihabara. If you want to be freaked out by how weird some groups of Japanese society are, then definitely go have a wander around it!

After leaving Akihabara, Max took me for some grub and a few drinks in Koenji.  It was full of really nice little bars and vintage clothes shops, so I'll probably make a blog post about it later, after I've had a proper explore.  I did have some truely mind-blowing sashimi, though; it was delicious.

One week until my 20th birthday! :D

James

Photo of the Day

On a photo album. Sounds exciting to me!

I Got The Job! :D

Yessss so after a horribly long commute down to Yokohama (during which time my iPod's headphones packed in, grrr), I had a two-hour long interview with the head of the Babysitter company in a café near the station.  

For the first part of the interview, he went over my résumé with me, clarifying bits of it and asking me further questions, after which he explained exactly what the job entails, before giving me a test to see if I was suitable, which I passed!  

I could be starting as soon as Monday; it all depends on when the different clients need a babysitter.  He did say however that there is less demand in the western-Tokyo area, where I'm living, but that there are still a fair few jobs available along my train line (the Chuo-line).  Moreover, a couple of families have specifically requested British babysitters, so I'm not complaining!

The company is looking for more people to apply, as lots of their staff are leaving Japan, having reached the end of their visas and the like, so if you're in Tokyo or Yokohama and fancy this sort of work, have a look at their website here, or message me if you want any more information before applying.

Oh, and there are no classes on Monday, so I now have a four day weekend! Whooop!

James

Picture of the Day

Spotted outside a love hotel in Shibuya

Job Interview!

It says it all in the title really; having sent off my CV attached to an email, on Thursday I have a job interview!  The job I've applied for is an 'international babysitter'.  It consists of babysitting (obviously) the children of international (English-speaking) residents of Tokyo on a part-time basis.  The parents will want English only to be spoken to their kids, so if I get the job I won't have to engage in any awkward baby-Japanese conversations, which is a plus I suppose.

The pay is 1,750 yen (about £15) per hour for one child, with 50% extra for every child on top of that, and each shift is a minimum of 3 hours (if they want less than that they still have to pay you for 3 hours), and your transport is paid for, too.  You're not obliged to do any jobs, just the ones you choose to do, in quantities you choose, so it's nice and flexible.

I'm going to the company's head office in Yokohama, the city to the south of Tokyo on Thursday afternoon for the interview, when I'll find out some more information and whether or not I've got the job!  I shall certainly be updating this blog with a post on Thursday evening after I find out :) excited!! I could really use the money...better get setting up a Japanese bank account!

James

Picture of the Day

Because cheese is lovely

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'

フライドチキン - Fried Chicken: A Serious Review

Whilst I know this is not the highest thing on people's lists when they think of Japan and its cuisine, it is something which surprised me in its popularity when I came here.  Fried chicken, generally a fillet, is cheap (generally about 165 yen per piece, roughly £1.35) and plentiful in Japan, and all of the different konbinis (Japanese for convenience store, they sell almost everything you need under one roof, albeit in small quantities, sort of like a petrol-station mini-mart thing, but better) have a selection of yummy, hot, fried food by the check-out.  They have hot dogs and chips and chicken nuggets and all that, but the only thing worth getting is the fried chicken; it's SO good.

My standard fried chicken-eating face

In light of the popularity of this delicacy amongst both Japanese people and foreigners, as well as the competition between konbinis, I thought I would save anyone in Japan reading this the tremendous struggle of sampling each konbini's offerings, by reviewing the chicken of the five konbinis local to me and then giving you a recommendation; how generous am I?!  For comparison, I give KFC 8/10.

5th Place: Lawson 

Quite simply because they're the only konbini I know of that don't sell it!  I'm sorry Lawson, I know I do most of my weekly food & ingredient shop at you, but pull your finger out and sell some fried chicken for 105 yen a piece, like everything else in your shop costs. 0/10

4th Place: Familymart

The only konbini I've been to which sells it on the bone.  It's good to be different, but not when your chicken's dry and bland. 3/10

3rd Place: Mini-Stop

It was a nice twist to see some chicken with a squeeze of lemon on it.  It was a little dry, but the seasoning was alright (maybe a little too much lemon on). 6/10

2nd Place: 7-Eleven

Absolutely gorgeous. Nice sized portions, very juicy chicken, and always piping hot. The seasoning was nice, too. 9/10

1st Place: Sunkus

My definite favourite.  Pretty similar to the 7-Eleven chicken, with all of its positive points.  The deal-breaker is the slightly nicer seasoning, plus the inclusion of a little sachet of extra seasoning, in case you like it a bit more seasoned. They call it consumer choice; I call it an extra point. 10/10

Another thing in Sunkus' favour is the fact that it is on my route home from the train station, and it certainly does the trick after a sozzled evening out in Tokyo, with it being open 24/7.

So next time you're in a Sunkus (or a 7-Eleven), whisper the magic words to the cashier:  "フライドチキンを一つお願いします", Furaido chikin o hitotsu onegaishimasu; you'll like the result.  Just have 165 yen to hand.

James

Photo of the Day

Not the nicest place to put a drinking-water fountain, ICU