Last Friday

Today is my last Friday in Japan and so I had my last lessons with Yoshimatsu-sensei and Ohnishi-sensei. We are still going at a rate of knots, but I think we are stuck like that until the end. It is all good though. Yoshimatsu-sensei had a copy of Wuthering Heights, as well as a couple of other books to illustrate “literature.” It was in both Japanese and English. I meant to ask her where she bought it. We started on the causative this afternoon, which translates either as “let someone do something” or “make someone do something.” It is a bit odd as in most cases both translations make sense. I guess it is a contextual thing, as a lot of language is. Ohnishi-sensei made me choose the colour for the front of the book she is making of all my compositions. She is doing everybody one, but, obviously, she has to do mine first.

After I got home, I relaxed for a little while before venturing out on my bicycle to the post office (again). On the way there, I passed a group of young schoolchildren, about 10 of them. They said “harro” as they often do, so I said “hello” back, before following it up with “Konnichi wa”. This set them off and they started chattering “‘Konnichi wa’ tte itta” (he said Konnichi wa). “Hai, ‘konnichiwa’ tte itta yo” (Yes, I said “konnichi wa”) I responded. By this time, I had passed them, so I gave them the classic “reverse wave” over my shoulder. I then heard this huge cry of “Bai bai,” and when I turned around, they had all stopped and were facing me, waving madly above their heads. That made me smile.

At the post office, I talked with the lady for a few minutes, discussing my options. I eventually gave up and just bought a big box. I intend to fill it with clothes and things before sending it home by sea. That might take a month to get home, but I hope that it should be cheaper. I shall see how much it costs and then decide. If it is not that cheaper, then I might as well have them back sooner. I also asked about sending books. I have to take them in and they will bag them up in the post office. We shall see. I will do the box first and then work out whether I need the extra space. Probably.

In the evening, I went to dinner with Brendan. Three girls had been staring at us from the moment we arrived, so Brendan went over to talk to them on the way out. We chatted for about 5 minutes about nothing in particular. There names were Yukiko, Manami, and Momo.

Afterwards, we were making our way to Cosmos, but Hachi-san stopped us with a tirade of questions at the front desk. He wanted to know how much I was being paid in my job, and what souvenirs I was going to take home. I did not answer either question. Nozomi and Akiko went by, heading for Cosmos as well, so we took our chance to escape and went with them. I got some umeshu as well as my normal Saturday shopping, as I do not want to have to go back again.

That has been my day. Brendan went to Nami's, so we did not watch any anime tonight. The World Cup starts very soon, so I will watch the start of the match. I cannot see myself watching the whole thing.

The Axeman Returns

It was a funny night last night, as, at about 1am, some strange alarm starting going off outside. It sounded like an air-raid siren and was slightly worrying. After a while, a whole entourage of police cars and ambulances went by, sirens wailing. I have no idea what was going on, but it kept me awake for a while. I thought there was going to be an earthquake or an air strike!

We had a different teacher this morning as Ikehara-sensei was away somewhere. She is not a new face, as we see her most every day, but we have never been taught by her before. I think that she normally teaches the Taiwanese students. It was refreshing, but hard as she went at an amazing pace. I think we covered all she wanted to do in about an hour, leaving 30 minutes spare. She did a lot of talking, though I understood most of it. She talked a lot about how fast we were going and that she was shocked that we never asked any questions (she barely gave us time to). She had even been practicing her English pronunciation in preparation for the class. The hardest word that came up, she said, was “delinquency”, though she said it rather well.

I ate far too much for lunch, as they have brought back donburi. So, I had that, but there was 20 minutes left, so I had a curry rice as well. I am not regretting it either. I stand by my intakes, especially as I had no breakfast this morning. One bowl of curry rice = two slices of buttered toast, don’t you think? We had Hirata-sensei in the afternoon and shot through more work. We are on lesson 47 now, with only 50 lessons in the book. The last three look difficult, though, but we will push through anyway.

I came home afterwards. It has been raining all day, quite torrentially at some points, so I did not really want to go out like I had planned. Eventually, there was a lull in the weather, so I ventured forth on my (newly repaired) bicycle. I went to You-Me town, where I wanted to but a CD and a couple of games, but they had nothing that I wanted. I then headed to the post office in order to buy some boxes, but they closed at 5.30 and I was 10 minutes late. So, I got wet for nothing, but maybe a little exercise. It was nice to get out, though, I suppose.

This evening, I have just been programming. I have done lots to my Japanese quiz machine tonight, adding support for vocabulary testing as well as kanji. It is still a little rough around the edges, so I cannot give it to anybody else yet, but I shall tidy them up soon. I shall try using it tomorrow (or later) to learn the vocabulary for the two tests that I have tomorrow to see how useful it actually is. I also played my guitar a little as I was falling asleep at my computer and needed a break.

Double Tutoring

I had a Japanese lesson this morning, in which we finished off a chapter and started on a new one. We also had vocabulary tests on two different chapters. The teachers’ motivation now seems to be to get me to the end of the book before I leave. Everyone else is wondering what’s going to happen once I have gone: “Are they going to stop teaching us when you leave?”

I had curry rice with Rushen for lunch. The others went off to another canteen, which serves Western food, but Rushen had to get the bus so I decided to stay with him. Afterwards, Seb turned up for his lesson, but had forgotten the vocabulary list for the lesson and so disappeared off again. We eventually started the lesson, which was good again. We covered another page and the story is getting interesting, though, it is slightly frustrating that we can only go slowly. Not much happens in the story each lesson, but we are steadily moving through it.

I had another tutor lesson after that. I had somebody different today – in fact, I had two people today. They had not prepared anything, so it was a little awkward at times, with gaps of silence, but we got through. I find it hard speaking Japanese. The easy things are ok, but every time that I want to say something interesting, I stumble over words and just generally talk rubbish. It was good though and they pointed out practically every one of my mistakes, which, though slightly depressing, was good for me. They were all mistakes I should have known better than to make and I should not fall into bad habits.

I taught at Linden Hall with Flick and Binks, playing 40-40 with the kids. It is like hide and seek but, whenever the person who is it sees you they can call out your name to get you out. The aim is to get back to base without being seen. Some of the kids liked it and others did not. Mai was there again, with her rather adorable over-confidence. She liked the game. After playing three times, we let them have free play. I provided a counter-balance for Mariko and Mai on their unicycles. They are getting better and better. Only one more Linden Hall to go now.

I have not really done much this evening. Somehow, I have wasted the whole evening doing nothing. I think I did some homework at least. I also watched more anime with Brendan. He likes it and keeps asking to watch more.

James' Song

I had my Japanese lesson this morning with Watanabe-sensei (the Time Mistress), though it was not so bad and I managed to keep my energy right through to the end of the class, giving spritely and chirpy answers. It was not so bad and we learnt the three different ways of using a kanji dictionary: hands-on. They are quite cool to use. You can look up kanji by reading (pronunciation), stroke count, or radical (kanji bit), which is useful in case you know some of them but not others. There are an awful many kanji as well. The books were quite big, bigger than the bible I have, I reckon, but printed on thicker paper.

After class I ate curry rice before coming home on the bus with Drummond. James has been a bit down, maybe, recently, frequently snapping at things and generally seeming devoid of purpose, so we decided to write him a song. We did that when we got home, which took only about 30 minutes. Drummond just invented the tune instantly; it was the lyrics that took the time, but they are truly beautiful. We also recorded us singing it on Drummond’s mini-disc player. We had a lot of fun doing that. I want to get a copy of that too.

I did some of my homework and also took all the postcards down off my wall. I had 51. I am not sure what else I did, but afterwards I went to tea ceremony. I did it twice today: one normal one and another ceremony using the tray that I can do back at home. The teacher also gave me a couple of pots of tea, as well as a whisk to bring back. On top of that, she gave me some photos of me doing the ceremony in her house and another DVD of some tea programmes and some kabuki from New York. I hope this one works, as I cannot get the other one she gave me to play. I am trying to hack the DVD to retrieve the data, but I think I may need to buy a program to do it for me. We shall see. Anyway, I also have her business card now, as well as a postcard on which she want me to write my address. It was fun making the tea again. Very peaceful. I realised this even more today, as Oh-san and I crept out for dinner halfway through (which we ate with Drummond as well) before returning and I could notice the change in atmosphere. I like it.

We finished reasonably early today, at about 9.30 as two of the girls did not come today. I came back upstairs with my bag of goodies. Drummond, Flick, and James were around, so Drum and I played our song to James. He laughed a lot, so I think he liked it.

Lament to James

Jamezu (Jamezu), Jamezu (Jamezu),
What’s wrong? (What’s wrong?)
Is it something to do with your life?
…Yes!

Lately, you’ve been acting kind of strange,
So distant, completely out of range.
So we’ve decided to write you a song…
…about…

A wonderful bird, feathers so bright,
But tainted by melancholy,
Trapped both by and in his shitty life,
Of oh so wasteful folly.

Poor Old Jamezu

Chorus
Everyday’s the samezu,
It’s such a shamezu,
His life is lamezu,
So devoid of aimzu,
But remember that namezu,
Cos he’ll find famezu,
And like a phoenix from the flamezu,
He’ll rise again, he’ll rise again,
He’ll rise again, he’ll rise again.

James, you’re like a piece of chewing gum,
That’s been spat out on the ground,
But you’ll be found.
Even though no one gives a toss who you are,
Remember that one day, maybe, possibly,
It’s a long shot, pretty unlikely, a miracle,
But you might just be renowned.
Maybe not, probably never.

Repeat Chorus

Last Monday at Linden Hall

I had my Japanese lesson this morning with Ikehara-sensei, though it was nothing special. We started a new chapter at least, though I think I was tired as I could not really be bothered to listen to anything. We received a newly revised timetable, as well, which pushes us on at a faster pace. We will finish chapter 47 by the end of the week, though I think I will not manage to complete the book. I should get onto the last chapter, though, at least. We are going to have a party in the English garden after the closing ceremony and before the evening class.

When I got home from school, I got out my suitcase, put it on the floor and have not touched it since. I did put in order my desk and most of my shelves. I have created quite a large rubbish pile. I also retrieved my books back from the various people I had lent them. My packing has started, at least, if only in a very small way. I am moving towards sorting my things out totally. I hope that by the end of the week I will have things in order enough to know what I should send back, which I can then sort out at the weekend.

I did Linden Hall with Lauma and Brendan in the afternoon. We took all 16 of them outside to play games, as the weather has been so lovely today. It is very hot, though, and the wind is virtually non-existent. We played a couple of games that I found of the internet: “Amoeba Tag” where you have to go around in pairs, and then add a third person when you catch them. Once you have four, you split off into two twos again and continue; also “SPUD” where you stand in a circle with a number. Somebody throws the ball up shouting a number, and everyone has to scatter. The person whose number was called has to hit someone with the ball, who then gets a letter from the word “spud.” Once they have the whole word, they are out. There were too many kids playing, though, so nobody got above S. We also played a third game Lauma knew, where you have to stand in pairs. Two people are cat and mouse, though the mouse can stand in front of another pair to force the one at the back to become the mouse. The kids seemed to enjoy it and lost track of time: we ate 10 minutes into their free play!

Tomoko can unicycle really well and Mayu has just about managed to get the hang of it. There were at least two there that I had not met before: Minami (a homophone for “south”) and Mai (a homophone for “every”) who speaks rather good English and who is learning French – an unusual pastime in Japan, but a good one. I was very sweaty by the end of it all, which slightly amused some of them, though they did not seem to be disgusted!

On the way back from Linden Hall, a couple of American missionaries started talking to us. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I just kept on walking, but they followed. We had a little chat before they asked if I knew what they believed. I think they were slightly put out when I said yes. Then I said “no” to whether we wanted to know more about what believed! They gave us a leaflet and left.

I have not done much this evening: I had dinner with Lauma and Brendan. Then I watched some anime with Brendan. I like converting people.

Aliens

I got up at 9 this morning, to discover that I could barely walk. My body was heavy and staying awake was hard, so, despite not wanting to, I decided not to go to aikido and instead went back to bed. The others were being noisy outside, so I did not sleep that well, but I eventually got up at just after 3.

I have not really done much today, given my frail condition! I did my homework though, which took me a couple of hours, for some reason. That is basically all I have managed to accomplish today.

In the evening, I went to Que Sera Sera, the curry place run by the Argentinian, with Rushen and Akiko. We sat outside and had a chicken tikka between us and an Indian Sandwich each. Halfway through, the owner came out to tell us that we could see fireflies if we went over by the river. I don't think I've ever seen fireflies before, but they were quite cool. They don't glow continuously, but fade in and out every now and then.

After our meal, we went to pay. There was a picture of a jellyfish that looked like an alien. The owner showed us it with glee, before going on to say that it looked rather like real aliens, which he had seen. Supposedly, everybody in Argentina and surrounding countries have seen aliens in the night sky.

Interesting.

My Last All-Nighter (I Hope)

I have not done too much today. I folded some origami in the morning, which was fun. I think I am getting into it. I will have to buy more origami paper from the 100-yen shop to bring back with me – it is coloured and comes in squares, which is useful. It gets easier the more you do, as there are certain “techniques” that are used in different designs, so it gets easier to remember what do to next. That is the theory at least.

I have also played a game of “Nell ball” with Rushen, Flick, and Drummond. Do you remember it? We play it like volleyball, in the corridor, using the white barrier that can pull across. It is great fun! We played for about 30 minutes, I guess. Afterwards, I watched some anime with Rushen and Akiko. We were going to watch “Kung Fu Hustle” on the TV, but the receiver was playing up, and it was in Chinese. They liked the anime, though, which made me happy. I like the irony of introducing anime to a Japanese person, as well.

I went downstairs afterwards and played pool with Nozomi, Humie, and Kaori for an hour. I am no longer any good: I think I potted about two balls. I spoke a little Japanese as well and sometimes understood what they were saying.

I played some more Nell ball afterwards, with Drummond, Flick, and Brendan. I went with Rushen and Akiko to Tenjin afterwards, where we met with their friends before going to a restaurant. There were twelve of us altogether, though I did not ever really catch anybody’s names. It was very posh looking and the food was all fish-based. We started with sashimi, followed by fish, battered fish, more sashimi, finishing with miso soup and rice. It was not too bad, in the end, and it was also all-you-can-drink, however, seeing as I could not really understand anything of what was going on, I just drank a lot instead.

Afterwards, when we were thrown out of the restaurant when it closed, we went to some kind of all-night restaurant, where we continued to drink, but at a price, so the amount reduced dramatically. Finally, we went to Sam & Dave’s, the club where we once sang Barbershop as part of one of their promotional nights. It was completely packed, this time, though. I settled down, and decided that I might as well have fun, despite wanting to go home and not being able to afford the taxi by myself.

We still came home in a taxi though, when we left, despite the trains having started running, since Akiko could barely walk! It was £30 all together for the taxi, so I was glad that we could split it. It was a good night, though, especially once I had had a few to drink as my Japanese just gets better. I am not sure why, but I seem to be able to say more and understand more. I am not sure how to explain it.