続きも来るで！There will be a Sequel!

Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

It's been a while, but I remember I said last time: "If all my dreams come true and I'm really lucky and get the JET CIR position"... well, I did!!!!!!!

Can't really say how over the moon I am about this (and also the great relief of actually having a job post graduation now!). This is something I've really wanted and worked very hard for, so I'm really really glad that I got it.

So, on the 30th of July I will be on my way to Heathrow airport once again to catch a flight to Tokyo! I don't yet know where I'll be sent to after that, but at the moment I'm just really too happy just to be going back to Japan (More rice and noodles!!!!!!!) to give that one much thought.

The End? Hopefully not.

Warning: This is probably going to be a horrifically schmaltzy, soppy and self-indulgent entry. You have been warned.

First up, I have to mention one of the running jokes of my blog: 東方神起 (Touhoushinki) split up!!!!!! Kuroki Meisa is still ok though it's not as bad as it could be...

Secondly, IRIS ended a while back but there's a sequel (ATHENA)! All rejoice!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGcsdFp30yc&feature=fvsr

(They even filmed a bit of it in Japan, in Tottori, not that far from where Yoo lives...)

Basically, I figure this is going to be the last entry here for a while at least, I'd do a proper "Farewell"/conclusion entry.

I decided to take JLPT 1 last December. I won't get the results for another month or two, but I think I actually did okay overall, though there were some tricky bits... If I pass then I'm legally fluent in Japanese (I personally wouldn't say that but hey, if the Japanese government wants to I'm not gonna stop 'em). To be honest, when I first went to Japan I never really thought I would get to the level where I would take the exam. I think a fair amount of credit is down to my 2nd semester Kanji teacher, Nakanishi-sensei, who always encouraged us to make JLPT 1 our goal. Anyway, even if I pass I still need to study some more...

I might have actually forgotten to mention this ANYWHERE on the blog, but just for the record if you go out into the countryside, Japan actually has a lot amazing number of actually stunningly beautiful natural scenic spots. That's something I never knew before I went...

So, it really was the most amazing year ever, and I really did fall in love with Japan. So amazing, I decided it wasn't enough so I've applied to got back as a CIR for the JET programme! I'd really really love to get this, and if I do I'd be working in a city hall somewhere as a "Coordinator for International Relations" from August this year! Basically I'd be doing translations, cultural promotion and helping out foreign residents living there. It maybe sounds kinda sappy to say this, but I really think that since I had such a great time out there it would be great to have the chance to help others have a similarly amazing time. I've asked to go back to Osaka, though I'm fairly certain that won't be possible.

On a related note, if anyone reading this is even just vaguely considering studying or working abroad I would absolutely 100% recommend it. Doesn't matter where you go (thought obviously Japan would be good!), I think you'll have an incredible experience.

I think the most important thing I can say about my year abroad is that I have no regrets about anything I did (except maybe eating those noodles at Stevie's leaving party...), only perhaps a small number of things I did not do. But even saying that, even given the chance I wouldn't change a thing.

I touched on this last entry, but I really think I did a lot of growing up out there, and I really have had a lot to think about these last few months since I got back in terms of where I go from here, what I want from life and where I want to be and particularly what that would mean. To be honest, I don't really feel comfortable sharing some of the conclusions I've come to. On the other hand, I think that the fact I've been able to think about this stuff at all has shown me how much I've developed as a person thanks to my experiences on my year abroad. I guess the truth is that whenever you learn something new about yourself there are good sides and bad sides to that knowledge, and most importantly there are consequences to every choice.

So I guess this is the end. For now at least. If all my dreams come true and I'm really lucky to get the JET CIR position (I might be a little biased but I do believe I would be an excellent candidate), I figure this might get a sequel... So maybe not so much goodbye, but hopefully "see you again sometime soon.

Thank you everyone for reading this!

P.S. If you have been reading these posts please tell me sometime, either a comment here or facebook or just tell me in person, I'm always so happy to find out it's not just my Mum! ( Note to Mum: Although you're always a very appreciated!)

Back in the UK - 3 Months On

So I promised I would definitely not do what I have in fact ended up doing, which was leaving this blog unfinished... sorry guys! I'm going to try to put this right now. So here I am, been back in the UK for 3 months now and finished my 1st semester of my (hopefully!) final year of uni. Since it's the beginning of a new year I just thought now would be an appropriate look over the most amazing year ever (last one) and get this finished off.

First up, arriving back in the UK wasn't such a bad thing really. It felt really nice to be back in some ways (seeing people again, eating cheese), all thought at the same time for a long time I had this really weird feeling like I was just "on holiday" in the UK and would be going back to Japan soon. Obviously this wasn't the case :-(

So, I thought it might be interesting to list a couple of the weird things that happened to me, silly mistakes I've caught myself doing and strange observations I've made as I've tried to readjust to the weird and wonderful place that is the UK

1) The UK is CHEAP!!!!!! I arrived back at Heathrow Airport and went to Caffe Nero for a coffee and a pastry. It cost me about £3.50. I actually said to the barista: "Is that all?"

2)I forgot how UK currency works... I literally was reduced to holding out a handful of coins and letting the shop assistant find them for me on a few occasions. Another time the sales assistant said £2.20 or something and I gave them £40 and asked "Is that enough?". This was obviously rather embarrassing...

3) The UK is kinda dirty... especially the bathrooms :-(

4) I have an embarrassing habit of bowing to people, especially lecturers when I say thank-you/ goodbye.

5) It took me a while to get used to being surrounded by people who all speak English... This let to a few cringe-moments where I would be telling a dodgy story a little too loudly like I'd been able to in Japan and all of a sudden everyone sitting round about would go very quiet... :-X

6) It took me about a month to get used to eating European food again... I spent about 5 weeks eating seeds, nuts, raisins and dried apricots and such like because I literally could not find anything I wanted to eat in shops... Japan definitely changed my tastes in food (well, not just food but those are other stories). I really miss rice... and noodles (ラーメン食いたい). Have developed a somewhat odd attachment to yoghurt and granola... I don't particularly care for pasta anymore. British Chocolate is far too sweet.

7) British TV has it's weird bits as well. I actually miss those Japanese food/chat-shows...

8) I get irrationally frustrated that my parents don't understand Japanese.

9) I've lost count of the number of people I knew before I went to Japan who don't recognise me anymore. Occasionally this comes in handy.

10) I miss rice and noodles everyday whenever I wanted them.

11) I miss Korean food. Luckily this is not impossible to come by here. The Korean Takeaway in Edinburgh needs to work on their チヂミ (I'm not sure if that just means make it more Japanese...) but otherwise is pretty good. The staff find it funny that I seem to be the only white person in Edinburgh that knows how to pronounce "jaepujaegh" or "doghbokgeh" semi-properly. I havn't had the heart to tell them I'm basically just ordering in Japanese (It seems to work just fine!!!)...

12) In contrast the Korean supermarket in Birmingham refuses to accept that yes, I really do want to buy that Kimuchi, and yes, I do like it.

13) Since I'm now doing my 3rd year classes, I'm in with what was the year-group below me in 2nd year. They're actually a really nice bunch! Anyway, since they didn't actually know who I was when I randomly appeared in their lectures in October, it turned out they just assumed I was an ERASMUS student, and started asking me where I was from in kinda slow, simple English which I thought was pretty funny. This got better when I found out about a month later that having introduced myself as "From Edinburgh and did a year-abroad in Japan", this had mutated into half the year group thinking "From Aberdeen and half-Japanese"... I was understandably more upset about the Aberdeen part... ;-P Do I really look Asian?????

Actually, I was pretty impressed they noticed it was Japanese I was speaking on phones etc, not just assuming Chinese...

14) I have caught myself using American English on occasion. I say "What's your major?" and "Cellphone". I blame Shin, Tony, Marina, David, Carlos, Andrew, Alek and Basim for this. Australian English has been mostly kept to a minimum. Thankfully.

That's most of the funny stuff that I can remember... To be honest, It's been easier to fit back in to life here than I expected. Not to say it's been easy... I really miss so many things and so many people, but I think the fact I've been so busy with 3rd year studies has actually helped... I've actually enjoyed this semester the most out of all my time in Birmingham. Oddly enough I think my Japanese has improved since I got back rather than forgetting it all...

Bye Bye Japan Part 2: Hong Kong

First up:

Dear the 2 random Japanese girls sitting next to me on the flight to Hong Kong: I thought it was very nice of you to do nothing except giggle at my funny accent or whatever when I translated what the Chinese flight attendant was trying to explain to you. I was particularly impressed by the gratitude you showed me by not even saying thank you when I tried to help you out of a situation your own ignorance created. I would also like to thank you for following this up with that "Shit, what do we do now we know that the foreigner next to us understands our entirely unremarkable conversation" act I grew to love so much. It was particularly nice of you to remind me of the thing I liked least about Japan while I was rather upset about having to leave.

I hope you have a lovely holiday in Hong Kong.

Oh, come on, did you really think I was going to let this blog go without a last rant :-)

So, Hong Kong! It was of course my luck that there was a typhoon on the one day I was there :-) And Tony was in America :-( sob sob...

It's pretty jam-packed and completely different from Japan. This was made clear to me pretty quickly when I got my ticket for the Airport Express into Central from the Airport:

Me: Hi, can I get a day return to Central please?

Station attendant: "Buy your ticket in Central. AND GET ON THE TRAIN NOW DAMNIT!!!!!

Hong Kong Dollars are pretty cool, although the coins are way too big.

I thought Central was a bit boring to be honest... Although if I happened to have loads and loads of money...

Went over to Mong Kok at Christina's suggestion, which was much more interesting. The Goldfish market really is something to see... about 4 solid blocks of fish stores... They like to stare there as well. Not like Japanese "I wasn't looking, honest" staring though... as in "walk right up to you and look you right in the eyes and then up and down for as long as it takes for the traffic lights to change" staring... They have Yoshinoya and 7/11 (complete with Pocari Sweat!!!! I'm gonna miss that stuff...) over there at well!

The Star Ferry was really cool as well. Perhaps best not to do that when it's blowing a Typhoon on the other hand. Oh, and I think I saw the SDU raiding the boat in front of ours in the middle of the harbour...

Overall I thought the place was pretty interesting, thought I'm not sure I'd want to live there... it's a bit like a dirtier version of Japan minus the politeness... On the other hand that does come with plus-points. Probably a good idea to visit on a day when there's no Typhoon as well.

Oh, and even though there was a typhoon chucking it down, it was something like 32C and humidity of 7 bazillion (worse than Japan!)

Oh, and they put my passport stamps on the same page as my Japanese ones (Just under my now cancelled Student visa) :-( Now it just looks like I have tons of Japanese stamps :-(

It was kinda strange to be back among so many westerners as well... Central seemed to be about 50/50 Chinese/western... Maybe that's why I liked Mong Kok more... Guess I'll have to get used to this again. Also, it was kinda hard to make sure I didn't speak Japanese to the Chinese people :-X

Oh, and I made the obligatory Starbucks visit... Final results: Japanese > UK = Hong Kong > Philippines.

Asia, I'll miss you X

Last few days in Japan. Part 1

So, I'm here in Hong Kong Airport again (Ironically about 2 gates down from where I wrote that post almost a year ago to the day last time I was here...), and as I promised here's the beginning of the "dignified" ending to my blog.... sob sob.

So I had a lot of goodbyes... the fun ones; Tanaka Sensei, who told me some HILARIOUS stories but swore me to secrecy about them (By the way, she still loves you Mark). All I'll say is apparently she went to Korea. And seems to have G-Dragon bought a Bentley... Pei, who is better at choosing cake than I am. Nanami and Yuusuke and the sheep up at Mount Rokko Farm (which is pretty much exactly like Nara-Park except with Sheep instead of deer...),

Yuuko. There aren't many people I will voluntarily got to Himeji for... Next time: Seoul! (with Eunbee)

The goodbyes I didn't actually get to properly make: Ryoko, Mikuru and a couple of others.

And the really really hard ones :-( Tsukasa, Ryota, Mayuko, Yoo and Takeo...

Oh, and special thanks to Ga and Ryuuka for helping me pack and taking all my stuff so I didn't need to throw ABSOLUTELY everything out :-) And particularly Ryota and Reiko for coming all the way out to Kansai Airport at 7am to see me off :-)

Rather ironically while I was on the phone arranging to have my electricity disconnected I had a final "I have absolutely NO idea what you just said" moment...

I've been in Japan almost exactly one year to the day, and I have to say staying on this extra month and a half was a great decision, these last few weeks really have been amazing.

I seem to be leaving :-(

First things first, the good news. I sort of thought that I'd only just passed the JLPT test but turns out I'd got the pass mark wrong and I actually did pretty respectably :-)

So yea, it kinda hit me the other night somewhat predictably while I was picking out onigiri in a Konbini (Convinience Store). I'm leaving next week... as in like, leaving leaving. As in end of year abroad...

On an unrelated note I feel the need for a disclaimer:

Mayuko and Ryota's recent English-vocabulary additions have absolutely nothing to do with me. I have absolutely not been teaching them naughty words. 100% True. And by true, I mean false. To be fair they asked. Sort of.

Anyway, to be honest, I've sort of been (fairly justifiably) more concerned with enjoying these last few days here to the max rather than writing about it here... I'll write something while I'm sitting around Hong Kong airport on the way back...

Oh, and packing is a bitch.

合格！

I passed JLPT 2 :-) Yaaaaaay

So, we had a rather nasty Typhoon the other day... ended up missing Kobe/Osaka (as usual) and smashed up Tokyo instead. Kanagawa-prefecture (southern Tokyo) got hit pretty badly actually. What was most shocking though was that THEY SHUT DOWN THE SHINKANSEN (Bullet-trains)!!!!!! :-O What the hell? This is Japan, this sort of stuff just doesn't happen!

On the other hand, rain! And not-unbelievably-sweaty-scorching hot weather for a change! Thomas likes.

So, we're at the less than 2 weeks mark here... Don't really want to talk much more about that.

I've been doing a lot of wandering around my neighbourhood recently, kinda doing a bit exploring. I'd always assumed I lived in the middle of nowhere up a mountain with absolutely nothing of interest. Turns out I live in the middle of nowhere up a mountain with absolutely nothing of interest.

Fair chance we'll get some more Typhoons coming through before I leave. Kinda want to see a big one... I live up a hill, I can just sit here and watch Osaka get flattened... It'll be like 日本沈没。。。

Japan tells me to take an English test.

So, I had a meeting with the international coordinator (Maeda-sensei) for the Economics department at Kobe University ("Hi. I really like your university/country. Will you please take me back in a year or two?").

Basically, in principal, I can was the answer. One odd thing. Apparently part of the entrance exam I would have to take for post-grad economics is the TOEIC exam* (Test Of English for International Communication). Everyone does this, including the Japanese students. Apparently they've just never had a native English speaker as a student, so we spent about 45 minutes calling round various people to figure out if they would make me do this (Rather surprisingly for Japan, everyone admitted straight up that it was rather pointless to make me do it.). At one point Maeda-sensei even asked "You're Scottish right? Is there any way you can claim Scottish as your first language?".

I actually had a look at some of the test questions later in a book store... There were a few I didn't know...

*TOEIC holds a somewhat bizarrely revered position in Japanese society. Not Kimutaku/Ichiro-level reverence of course, but you hear people talking about fairly regularly (actually it would be more accurate to say "you hear people talking about it when they see a foreigner"), and the English book sections of bookstores are sorted by "TOEIC-level X" shelves...

I need JLPT 1 as well (Yay! fun! Not to mention another 500 Mister Donuts points :-S). Actually, that's not 100% true. I would need to SIT the JLPT 1 exam. Apparently they wouldn't care even if I got 0 as long as I attended the exam. Actually I was planning to taking it this December anyway...

Somewhat depressingly, JLPT 2, despite being a perfectly respectable level of Japanese is in practice a rather useless qualification... It's kinda 中途半端 as Yume would say...

I have a cold :-(

I never really understand how you get a cold in summer, especially when it's still about 35C everyday here, but I guess it's probably something to do with the crazy cold air-con every building in the country has on every day (not that you'd want to be without it on the other hand...)

So yea, I have a cold. It's not really that serious, and wouldn't be a massive problem except it's screwing around with my voice... which is a problem when you try and speak to people in a foreign language where they won't understand you if you get a single syllable wrong*, when you already have a funky weird accent. (Think the Japanese sound weird when they speak English? Guess what...).

Example: I walked into a konbini today and asked for a ピザまん (Pizza-man; Kinda steamed bun thing with pizza sauce filling.), and got given a packet of cigarettes instead...

*I think it has something to do with having comparatively few non-native speakers. They've just never had much experience hearing anything other than perfect Japanese. I think English speakers (French/Spanish/German whatever) are much better at figuring what someone meant to say, even if it wasn't perfect.

I have just re-read that last paragraph. My god I sound like a 5 year old... I'm just gonna leave that there as a monument to... something. I forget what I'm supposed to say... Yea, maybe not such a bad thing I'll be back in an English-speaking country in 3 weeks (sob sob).

Anyway, what I meant was that since there are a massive number of non-native English speakers of competencies ranging from native-level to "can say 'Herro-'. Badly", we tend to be better at working out the general meaning.

Oh, and by the way: Special note, aimed specifically at Louise and Yume. This blog will not end randomly with "I'm just going out for some ramen tonight" or such like. I promise it a proper, dignified conclusion and maybe even a reflective entry in 2 months or so. :-P

Everybody's leaving :-( sob sob

So we've sadly come round to this point...

Good-Tony left this morning (probably sitting in KIX departure lounge at the moment...) to go back to America. I'm going to miss living down the corridor from Hong Kong film-star royalty... (Tony Leung hehe) (Coincidentally Bad-Tony also left today...)

Louise left last week (Granted she was only in Kobe for 3 weeks...), Alexis left Sumiyoshi a few mins ago to spend a few days in Tennoji before he goes back to France, and Chris leaves in a few days...

I'm leaving 5 weeks from yesterday... Seriously, what I wouldn't do for another year here...

Oh, we had お盆 (O-bon) this weekend. It's a Japanese Buddhist festival to remember your dead ancestors. Interesting task: Go ask Japanese person under the age of 30 if they know what it's for... lol.

So anyway, I went up to Fukui-ken to go see Yoo again. Met a couple of his friends at the 鮎祭り (Fish Festival?) who were pretty cool, one of whom had a truly amazing command of English swear-words hehe :-). Another one, assuming I couldn't speak Japanese*, was speaking to me in mostly-not-bad-English for about 10 minutes. I'm not sure if this was mean or not but I just let her keep going with that assumption (answering only in English) until Yoo "outed" me. Is this bad? I don't know, I kinda figure it's sort of what you get for not asking...

*Given Yoo speaks only Japanese and a bit of German, this really doesn't make that much sense...

Incidentally, Year Abroad lesson: No matter what language your speaking NEVER assume that nobody has a clue what you're saying.

Special mention goes to Louise, who shouted accidentally "Vagina" rather loudly in an Osaka Starbucks. The Japanese woman sitting next to us gave us some interesting looks...

Unless you're speaking in Danish. Not even the Danes understand that sh*t lol.

We were having a chat about how I don't really like how Kyoto is full of tourists who can't be bothered to learn a bit of Japanese, and they asked if that meant I didn't like Japanese people who couldn't speak English. Basically, the way I see it is the difference is, when Japanese people (actually this goes for pretty much all non-English speaking countries) go abroad, they don't try to speak their home-language to whoever they meet there. Japanese tourists aren't generally in the habit of waltzing into Starbucks in London and expecting the barista to understand "アイスチョコをクリーム抜きでお願いします". This is however, exactly what tourists do here. I think it's just rude to make your own laziness someone else's problem like that.

Oh, and we went swimming in the river next to Yoo's village, which was great 'cos it's still roasting hot here (and the water was as clear as glass). They say it'll get cooler soonish. I was here last September so I know this is a complete lie :-) hehe

Ryota seems to have become a fan of this foreign cinema over in West Kobe (新開地). It's a bit like the Cameo or Filmhouse in Edinburgh (This reference was put in for the sole benefit of my mum.). I have to question it's selection on occasion however... "Did you hear about the Morgans"????

Oh, and "The Karate Kid" is called "ベストキッド" ("Best Kid") here...

徳島 Tokushima

So I actually made it off Honshu Island for once lol.

About 15 of us (mix of Japanese and foreign students) took a little trip down to Kaifu at the very bottom of Tokushima Prefecture, Shikoku for a few days. In other words, pretty much the middle of nowhere. Was really fun! Got some rather itchy sunburn on my back though...

Oh, and I had NO idea what on earth anyone was saying there... Mind you, apparently neither did the Japanese lol... Where's Taichi when you need him... (In Birmingham actually).

Also, Louise arrived! She's here for 2 weeks for a Japanese language course Kobe University is running. Yay! (Judging by how everyone says the classes are "really fun", I think they must be getting different classes from the ones we did. :-P) . Oh, and I think I might be successfully converting here to the obviously far superior Kansai version of Japanese :-)

Speaking of Japanese, I heard this random foreign woman in a bar speaking Japanese (I think they were the Kobe JETs). She obviously new the language very well (better than me) but it was a little bit weird in that she didn't seem to know how to use it. By that I mean when she told us someone else was using the seats we tried to sit in, she told us exactly that, which is fine in English but came across as a bit rude in Japanese... I just thought that was interesting.

Oh, and I got my nose felt up by the waitress in a Korean restaurant in Kobe. (Incidentally, Eve, Elena, we're going to need to have a discussion about Kimchi in the fridge...). Literally I was sitting at the table and she came up and was like "Wow, your nose is really big!" And just started feeling it! Wierd... lol

Sad news: Yume and Mark are leaving in a few days :-( Stevie and Marina are already gone :-( sob sob

Bye Bye Kobe University :~-(

General update on the status of Japan: Hot.

I heard on the evening news that it got to 38C in Nagoya the other day. Poor souls, as if having to live in Nagoya wasn't bad enough already*... Apparently someone there left a spray-can in their car and it exploded, blasting a fair amount of their car interior to bits**.

* The position Nagoya holds in Japanese culture was once explained to me as follows: "Think of Birmingham of 15 years ago (I.E. Before they built all the stuff that makes it vaguely nice these days), with the population replaced with that of Essex."

** Yes, the top story of the national 9pm news was an exploding spray-can. Welcome to a country with approximately zero crime and zero interest in the outside world.

So, rather sadly I've reached the end of my classes at Kobe university, just got the Classical Mechanics exam left :-( (Incidentally, the textbook we use has a bad case of the Japanese strain of what I call "Ray Jones syndrome". Why write F=mv when you can write F=md2x/d2t?)

Off to Tokushima next week, which will be the first time I`ve actually been off Honshu Island... looking forward to it :-)

Oh, and I`ve been watching this Korean TV series lately (Iris. More or less a Korean version of 24/Mission Impossible. They showed it on Japanese TV back in April.). Weird side-effect of this is that last night I had a dream mostly in Japanese but with random people talking in what I`d have to call "Subconsciously-made-up-Korean"...

アルバイト Arubaito

German (Probably Danish as well...) speakers (I.E. Elena and Helen (and Sean)) will probably figure out what the title means, for the rest of you, it's the word the Japanese borrowed off them to mean "Part-time Job" (Note to the German speakers: Yes, they borrowed the wrong word... Or rather, not enough of it...).

See, it's not just English they borrow from... Portuguese pops up as well sometimes (パン- pan: bread). Incidentally 天ぷら(Tempura) is actually Latin...

Etymology lesson over. Anyway...

So, Kobe University has been hosting an international "Linguistic Pragmatics" conference this weekend which I've been helping out at as a receptionist/guide/etc. Been pretty fun and best of all I got loads of free food :-) (Most notably those massive Costco muffins you get. I didn't even know they had Costco in Japan...)

Incidentally: Japanese assumption that "Asian= Speaks Japanese/Non-Asian= Doesn't" becomes quite amusing when you have loads of Korean, Chinese and Thai visitors around... (Especially since about 70% of them were American anyway...). Special mention goes out to the Kobe University shop assistant I was talking to who ignored the "Kobe University STAFF" written on my T-shirt in big letters and explained everything I asked her about to the Taiwanese-American woman I was helping who didn't understand a word she was saying...

Oh, and celebratory declaration: Introduction to Earth and Planetary Science has no exam!!!! woo hoo

I've still got 2 months Tuesday left before I leave, but most people are leaving in 3 or 4 weeks and all this talk of going back home is kinda hanging over everything I do... weird feeling...

Sumiyoshi Zoo

I don`t think I`ve ever actually mentioned much about my halls...

Precisely one thing makes up for any inconvenience about them. My entire rent for 1 year has been less than ¥60,000. That`s about $450 (I mean pounds. Japanese keyboards...). In other words, about 1.7 months in Birmingham...

The wildlife certainly makes it interesting... Wild boars, foxes, monkeys, raccoons, MASSIVE spiders, even bigger hornets, Bats, massive butterflys and then what I can only describe as massive butterfly/bat hybrid things....

Oh, and it`s on top of a mountain! 20 minutes up a really steep hill from the nearest train station :-)

And best of all is the random people singing at all hours of the night. Really really badly. Last night I had the delights of the same 3 bars of "Eye of the Tiger" over and over and over again. At 1am. When I had to get up at 5am...

And who said Japan was wierd?

Gotta love the place...

Randomness

I bumped into Tanaka-Sensei (Supervisor/last term's 2nd Language Acquisition lecturer) today.

Apparently she's a fan of Korean Hip-hop/pop. She rather out-of-the-blue suggested I go listen to G-Dragon (From BIGBANG)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOXEVd-Z7NE

There's a youtube link.

So, while she doesn't buy me beer like Ogasawara-Sensei used to...

I'm sort of lost on what to do now that Sophie's gone (for another 3 weeks traveling around China...) and the JLPT test's over. Studying was pretty much my life for a month and a half... I don't really know what to do anymore. That said, my Kanji reading has gotten so much better now I'm kinda just carrying on... The day after the exam I went out and bought a new textbook...

I've kinda come to realise that in terms of learning a language, it really is more or less just the number of hours of study that count... the more you have the better you are...

JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test)

So, it finally came around... rather unfortunately for me it wasn`t a week earlier, in which case I could have got it over and done with and freely enjoyed Sophie's visit.

It was harder than I expected to be honest, somewhat worried that I may have failed on account of the vocabulary section...

Me and about 5-6 other Kobe University students took it over in Nishinomiya at Kwansei Gakuin University (Which a) has a really nice campus, and b) can't spell its name properly in ANY language, the Japanese name is 関西学院大学, which should really be read as "Kansai" but they call it Kansei for some reason). Incidentally, the people doing level 1 (I did level 2) got to do it in good old Kobe University... Anyway...

Having never actually been to Nishinomiya before we were a bit worried about finding the place... the enormous line of people speaking Chinese and Korean kinda helped...

They all stared at us :-( I will not print Marc's (hilariously non-PC) retort...

This years test was different from before. By that I mean harder. One change was they separated the marking into 3 sections (Vocabulary/ Kanji/ Grammar, Reading and Listening), which you have to pass minimum scores separately as well as an overall score (Stops deaf Chinese people cheating). On the other hand, I read somewhere (I'm not entirely sure if this is right) that the scores were 50/60 for Vocab/ Kanji etc, 30/60 for reading and 40/60 for listening...

Just to emphasise that, you are allowed to get HALF the reading section wrong but only make 10 mistakes in the first section...

I'm not entirely sure that it's accurate, though on the other hand given that "Can you read a page of text and understand what it means" is a much more practical, useful ability to have than "Do you know what 風俗 means", I would fully expect any average person employed in Japanese-language education to value the latter more hightly...

Anyway, I get the results in September...

Does not Compute

For some reason this has happened a couple of times lately...

Basically, I'm sitting somewhere (Starbucks, Kansai Airport (again)) minding my own business, reading something in Japanese (Usually Death-Note. On time it was A PLANETARY SCIENCE TEXTBOOK. Which said EARTH AND PLANETARY SCIENCE in really big kanji on the front cover.), when the Japanese people next to me start talking about me...

Usually it's just stuff like "Wow... he knows Japanese. I wonder what country he's from...", but still, do they honestly think there is even the slightest possibility that I learned to read a language to that level but not understand considerably simpler stuff when it's spoken 50cm in front of me? Dear dear...

I have occasionally called people up on this... I particularly bizarre one happened when the two 40-something women who were doing this started saying stuff like "Hmm, that's odd... your pronounciation is a bit foreigner-ish...".

I put this down to the (somewhat justified) belief most Japanese people have about foreigners not possibly being able to speak Japanese...Even in spite of the blatantly obvious they still sometimes can't get over it...

I did have a thought about a slightly odd double standard. It's sort of expected for Japanese (and pretty much every other non-native-English speaking person) to learn English if they are in the UK/US etc and no-one bats a eyelid when they do, but when we learn Japanese/whatever it's kind of "wow!"... not terribly fair...

Mayuko was saying that compared to 10 years ago there are many more Japanese-speaking foreigners, and maybe in another 10 years it will be considered perfectly normal... is there a fast-forward button on life?

Speaking of fast-forward... JLPT tomorrow afternoon. Back to work....

Oh, and incidentally, Prince Charles can now join David Beckham, Nick from the Backstreet boys, President Obama and Wentz Eiji in that most exclusive/infamous club...

Sophie`s Visit!

So after a crazy month long-cram for the JLPT test (This Sunday, i.e. 2 days!) off I went again to Kansai Airport to pick up Sophie! (Friend from Edinbugh)...

*I have to admit to having realises THE MORNING SHE ARRIVED that her follow on ticket to Shanghai hadn`t been payed for on time and had thus been cancelled... all was well in the end but I more or less flew to the airport on a cloud of panic... "Shit! I`ve stranded my friend in Japan!!!!"... all was well in the end...

**Incidentally, while on the phone with the sales assistant to re-book the flights she asked me how to spell Sophie`s name... When she got to "E as in England" literally all I could think of was "I`m sure イングランド (Ingurando) begins with an I..."

So, been having a great time showing her around Osaka, Kobe etc. We also hopped on the Shinkansen to Okayama, and Hiroshima/Miyajima for the weekend, which I`d always wanted to go to... For the record, I agree with Yume`s assessment of Miyajima. Although we could have done without the rain.

Hiroshima is an interesting place. As a tourist it`s sort of limited, but it looked like a pretty cool place to live. Felt a bit more like Tokyo than Osaka really...

The 原爆ドーム(Genbaku Doumu- the A-Bomb dome) is pretty horrific but the Peace Park is sad but at the same time kinda hopeful.

Sophie`s been laughing at my occasionally messed up English as well... :-( lol. "Lets go to Shinsaibashi, there`s various food...stuffs there..."

Speaking of Sophie herself, she`s bravely off to Tokyo on her own for a few days while I prepare for the exam... think I`ll be ok... as long as I stop writing this and get back to work...

I am a Japanese School Student. Minus the Sailor Uniform...

Is it bad that I found this hilarious? (sorry it's in Japanese)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv9YUH0cFNg&feature=related

Anyway, havn't written anything lately, basically because my life has been one thing for the entire month before Sophie arrived last week (yay!). That is STUDY...

Since I get distracted way to easily in my room, I've been camping out in various cafes around Kobe... In spite of my rotating around various places Starbucks have started preparing my order as soon as they see me in the door and I swear that "We may ask studying customers to leave during busy times" sign wasn't there in Mr Donuts 3 weeks ago...

(Just to put this into context, Kobe University's top level Japanese-writing class is currently now in its 3rd week of teaching us exactly where brackets are supposed to go in kanji-square paper. Helpful as ever...)

The Madness continues...

Do you remember AKB48? They're back...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYCmdkb5oZ4&feature=related

This is No.1 at the moment... I give up.

The two guys sitting in front of me in Earth and Planetary Sciences (This is the class where the only person who ever acknowledges my presence is the lecturer. By staring at me with a shocked expression.), randomly started talking to each other in English at the end of class. Sounded a bit like they'd learned their whole vocabulary from Mario Kart 64 to be honest...I don't really know have a clue if they were trying to impress me, make fun of me or try to get me to talk to them...

Things took a more surreal turn in Classical Mechanics (This is the class that talk to me from time to time. Usually to ask me if I'm French...). A photographer came round to get some snaps for the department prospectus... can you see where this is going?

So she asks if it would be possible to get some "action shots", like, people doing physics-y stuff. Like, maybe someone could write a problem on the board and the rest of the class look interested... someone like...

I didn't really feel that I could refuse, but I was pretty annoyed with it. I wouldn't care if they had me sitting around randomly in class (like I do normally anyway) in a kind of "look! We have foreigners as well!" way, but having me standing up front and center just looks ridiculous and contrived... And besides, my handwriting sucks...

So, JLPT in less than a month... Basically this means 4 hours of studying a day... fun times are being had here :-)

Oh, and I had 2 reports on Satellite Laser Ranging and the Indo-Eurasia plate collision to hand in last week. At least, I though we had 2 reports to hand in. When I stuck my 1000 character, thrice checked and fully referenced Laser Ranging masterpiece in the box I noticed everyone else had written 3 sentences on this tiny A5 scrap of paper... :-(