November Photos

03/11 - Yagyu Shinkage-ryu
06/11 - Gaijin Party
13/11 - Dazaifu Walk
17/11 - Concert
19/11 - Saturday School Festival
20/11 - Sunday School Festival
21/11 - Mount Aso
23/11 - Walk
24/11 - Sunset
26/11 - Sumo

Big Test

Today we had "Big Revision Test No.2", though beforehand we wizzed through some new kanji.

近 (near, recent), 遠 (far, remote), 速 (speedy), 遅 (slow, late), 道 (way, street), 青 (blue), 晴 (fine, clear up), 静 (silent, still), 寺 (temple), 持 (hold), 荷 (load), 歌 (song). Kanji count: 157.

After not taking any of those in we then had a A3 page of listening exercises followed by a four A3 pages of writing exercises. I only just finished before lunch.

We had Seb's lesson in the afternoon for the first time in three weeks. We looked at the Sengoku Period (Warring States period) which was basically 150 years of all out, free-for-all war in Japan.

I taught at Linden Hall again in the afternoon, with Binks. We had the kids make Christmas cards, which kept them quiet. They seemed to enjoy it as well, and they all drew really nice Christmas pictures on the front.

Tea & Interview

The Japanese tea ceremony is a vastly underated thing. It's so peaceful and relaxing, but it is also a strangely good feeling serving tea to somebody. I played tea master for the second time today (everybody had a go), and complete the ritual in but 20 minutes. A vast improvement on my original one hour ceremony!

Everytime I do it, though, there are always new things to consider. Today it was feet placement when turning. I have also become concerned about what I'm supposed to be saying at different parts of the ceremony. The teacher said she would photocopy from her book, so that should be helpful... as long as it isn't all in kanji.

I had my Deutsche Bank interview this evening as well. Not sure how well it went. It was a total flop, like a UBS one that I did once, though I hadn't done any preparation for that at all. Wasn't the world's best one, though. There's was definately more preparation I could have done, although it's so difficult trying to preempt competency interview questions. I did ask some good questions at the end, though. Hopefully that should be a plus point for me. I found them on the internet... ah, Google!

Japanese Musings

Nothing much interesting happened today, apart from Rushen, Binks and played a little pool in the evening, something I haven't done for a while. I lost of course. Instead I thought I'd write a little about my impressions on Japan.

It is always said that the Japanese are xenophobic; in fact it is a Japanese stereotype. I was braced for this before arriving since every guide book and etiquette manual makes mention of the staring and comments that every foreigner will receive, not to mention the pointing and downright rudeness. Whilst this is true to a certain extent, it certainly isn't as derisive as I had been expecting. They're more of a curious people, with foreign-looking people more of a rarity in this part of the world. I think we often take our multi-cultural western world for granted and it's not until you get here do you realise how different it is.

Japan in recent years has come to embrace western society - a loss, in my opinion - which now influences everything from music to their poorly written slogans and shop titles (take "Cafe Nostalgic Baby Face Planet's" for instance). Even models in hairdresser windows and on magazine front pages are of western origin. Thus it is not surprising that in a world of Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, etc. a westener will turn heads.

Having been here almost three months now, I have never truly encountered a single case of racism. There have been occasions when sitting on a train, a person will move down the carriage and squash themselves into a packed row rather than sitting in an empty space next to a foreigner, however these are isolated incidents. I have found, and I think the others will agree, that the Japanese have been highly accepting and willing to help us. The number of parties we've been invited to (admiteddly due to our ethinicity) is vast, all containing free food and drink, and there are vast swarms of people queueing up to get to know us and be our friends. Rushen and Katherine were the victims of one attack with two girls coming and sitting with them in the canteen and shouting "Friend? Friend?". Brendan has himself been swarmed by girls eager to swap phone numbers, after which his evening is spent receiving poorly worded emails asking for his "continued assistance". Even when Flick and I met Yoko about a job she was more concerned about us being her friends than whether we wanted to work for her.

Overall, I think the Japanese people are misunderstood and undersold. Maybe this isn't other people's experience, but mine has been one of acceptance and friendship. I think, however, that the Japanese are extremely proud of their vast history and language, especially the older generations, but I think they know that we will never truly understand them. Perhaps that is how they would prefer it?

Barbeque

After Aikido, we went into Gojō where we met Ikema-sensei. He took us to the house of... well, somebody, where there was a barbeque happening. There were a few other Japanese people there when we arrived, none of whom I knew, or even know now. They were friendly, though, and chatted with us. We ate beef, corn on the cob, chicken legs, sushi etc. Some people even had oysters, but I declined.

They put on a little tea ceremony, which I enjoyed as I got to show off my skills of a tea guest. The tea was made by one of the men in another room, though, so after drinking tea, I went and sat with him and some for a while, discussing the finer points of the ceremony. Well, they did. I didn't understand most of the time. It was fun, none the less. I was even given a packet of kaishi (the little sheets of paper off of which you eat the sweets).

A little while after a woman had finished doing some random flamenco dancing, I was called back in, whereupon I was dressed in the tea-master's kimono and hakama. Very crazy. I was then paraded around, whilst people took photos of me and one man kept saying "Last Samurai" and "Tom Cruise". All very strange and weird. It was fun trying it on for size (it was a little small), but I had it taken off me pretty soon afterwards; I couldn't take too much abuse, plus I didn't want to damage or spill something on it.

We moved inside later in the evening, where more food was lavished upon us: chicken pieces, cabbage bits, popcorn, etc. We chatted more and one lady gave us each a copy of a fantasy novel she had written about a Japanese hermit. Maybe we might be able to read it along with a dictionary by the end of next year. It's good to have goals, no?

Before we left, we were each given a bowl of crab miso soup, which had a half a whole crab dumped in it. I couldn't bring myself to suck the insides out, so after drinking the soup, I gave it away. We went home with two Japanese students that we met there who live in Cambridge House: Mieno and Yasu. The host's brother also tagged along until Futsukaichi, who'd been talking to us all day at a rate of knots. He kept randomly bursting into a verse of "London Bridge is Falling Down", which he thought was a Scottish song!

Aikido

Felicity and I cycled to the police station in Chikushino City this morning at 9am. When we got there we had a police officer show us up to the third floor where the Aikido practice was taking place. We sat against the wall and watched as children arrived in their white keikogi (simple trousers and a wraparound jacket) and different coloured belts. Two of the children turned out to be students of mine: Shohei and Eri. Should be interesting when I teach them again in a couple of weeks time.

The teacher came over and spoke to us in a mixture of Japanese and English. We said we'd like to watch and maybe join after Christmas, to which he invited us to join in. We had been expecting just to watch, or even to be told that we couldn't join as we were too old, or foreigners, or something. Thus, it was a really nice surprise to be asked to join in. They made us feel really welcome. So we spent 30 minutes doing various (often painful and embarassing) streches, whilst all the while Eri stared at me and babbled in Japanese.

Afterwards the class split into different groups and we joined the very beginners to learn the basic moves. We did some basic movements that gradually got harder. He kept coming over to correct us after each practice, though, which was slightly embarassing, not least as we were holding the class up. Afterwards we did some forward and backwards roles (well, I mostly failed to do them) and then did some walking along on our knees. Then we did a little sparring. I had a little man that I was still taller than when I was kneeling down, though he knew his stuff and kept repositioning my hands and showing me what to do. We did two moves, both of which started with the attacked doing a standard "karate chop" like action. The first move countered by following them through and down on to the ground, whereas the second span them around on to the ground. Both ended with the attacked on the ground whilst leaning on one of his arms. I felt like I could snap it so easily with only minimal effort - it was rather worrying. I didn't want to hurt the poor fellow.

After that we did some counters involving kendo sticks. Basically the teacher lunges at you and you side step and strike his wrist. Afterwards we did some jumping over the stick.

The teacher, whose name I quickly forgot, said that we could "watch" for about a month before joining after Christmas, which is cool. I'm definately going to go every week. We watched a little of the next, adult class before we left.

The Ring

Brendan brought two of his friends back home in the evening, one of which couldn't speak any English. So, we watched the Japanese version of Ring, with subtitles for the rest of us who can't yet understand the language. It's reassuring that I understand some of the things they're saying, at least.

Sumo Wrestling

Today, we went to watch Sumo wrestling at the Fukuoka International Centre. I got there first, along with Drummond and Rushen, at about 1.30pm and the others trickled in later. Chip even showed his face for about an hour. We were at the very back of the arena, but that meant we had seats. Everyone in front of us had blue mats to sit on, but a better view. Even our tickets were £25, so who knows how much a front row ticket cost. Hopefully it came with health insurance as the wrestlers rolled into the crowd on a few occasions.

Sumo is a highly traditional and ritualised sport, which makes it interesting to watch (at least to start with). Before each match, a man stands in the ring and sings something. I presume he was announcing the players. The wrestlers then enter the ring, bow, and start performing their warm-up rituals. This involves raising each leg in turn high in the air and then stomping it down. One guy even managed the splits like this, much to the audiences delight. However, I think he showed off a little to much as he promptly lost his bout.

After the warm-ups they go back to the centre of the ring and crouch down. When they are ready they place both hands on the ground in front of them. As soon as they are both ready they pounce on each other and the fight begins. The interesting thing is the out-psyching they try and perform on each other by repeatedly standing up and walking off to do more warming up. This is allowed to continue for four minutes before they must fight. The amazing thing is that this time limit is a newly created thing, and the first time limit imposed was for 10 minutes! The whole show must have used to carry on well into the night!

The fights themselves are most often very short-lived, often over in a matter of seconds. There is the occasional deadlock, though, which makes the bout last a few minutes. A wrestler loses when any part of them falls outside of the ring, or if any part of them apart from the soles of their feet touch the floor. Mostly, people won by pushing the other out of the ring, but there were a few topples; some even slipped and fell of their own accord.

The best fight were at the end, between the big names. An up-and-coming Bulgarian fighter of 6'7" threw his opponent within two seconds, and the grand master was victorious after a little struggle.

All-in-all, a very enjoyable day, but take a friend, if you ever go, to talk to between bouts.

Electronic Dictionary

I nipped into Tenjin this morning with Lauma to visit "Bic Camera", a store that sells, on certain days, things at a discount. Today, for one day only, was the turn of a nice electronic dictionary (denshijishou) to be going for song. Reduced down from £200 to £50, it seems like quite a good bargain. We were there before the shop opened and went straight for the display as soon as we were allowed in. Whilst examining one of the only four boxes there, two men pushed in front of us and took one each, so we took the last two. I think the whole stock sold out within 5 minutes of the shop opening, so it must be a good deal.

It's quite a nice little toy containing more functions than I'll ever be able to translate: it does English to Japanese (so hard to understand), Japanese to English (most useful), and also English to English and Japanese to Japanese. There is also a spell checker and various conversion utilities for no good reason. Hopefully it will come in useful.

We got back just in time for the lesson. We were slightly late but Yoshimatsu-sensei hadn't started the lesson yet. We beat both Katherine and Rushen, neither of whom made it in today. They stayed out after last night's little gig and didn't return until this morning. Rushen had only just gotten up when we got back from class in the afternoon.

We learnt more new kanji today, in 10 minutes again. Not exactly conducive to memorising anything, but I tend to learn them later anyway, normally. 広 (wide, spacious), 店 (shop), 度 (degree, frequency), 病 (sick), 疲 (fatigue, worn out), 痛 (pain), 屋 (roof, shop, house), 国 (country), 回 (turn, round), 困 (trouble), 開 (aku), 閉 (close). Kanji count: 145.

Taught again for Noriko this afternoon again. Only two classes this time:

1. Rio (6 F), Chisato (6 F), K~ (5 M), Daiki (5 M)
2. Mao (F), Shōgo (M), another girl, and two other boys

I preferred the first class for some reason even though the boys misbehaved slightly. There were moments of good teaching, though. I think I prefer younger children and smaller classes. I still liked the second class, though, it just wasn't as good as the first. I had to wait for another hour afterwards whilst Noriko taught another class, but it was alright as it took me the whole time to do my homework.

Voodoo Lounge

Today we learnt how to say such things as "May I sit here?" and "You must not smoke in that room!". So now I can tell people off. The Japanese also use the same form for describing actions that are happening at the moment ("It is raining."), describing things that occurred in the past but the effects are still continuing ("I am married"), and for habitual actions ("Supermarkets sell food.").
So, in Japanese then:

1. 雨が振っています。 (ame ga futte imasu)
   
2. 結婚しています。 (kekkon shite imasu)
   
3. スーパーは食べ物を売っています。(suupaa wa tabemono o utte imasu)

So there you have it.

This evening most of us went to Voodoo Lounge in Tenjin, where The Cream Tease did a grand 7 minute set. (Was it really worth it?) The point of this was to promote the upcoming Fukuoka Now anniversary party in two weeks time, with both Binks and Katherine dressed up in Fukuoka Now t-shirts and caps handing out flyers. I think people enjoyed it, though for the most part I think they were just totally confused.

Labour Thanksgiving Day

Today is Labour Thanksgiving Day, and although I have no idea what it is meant to represent we have a day off school and Linden Hall.

I spent some time pottering in the morning, before heading out at about lunchtime for one of my walks. I want to get to know what Japan is really like by going down the backstreets and seeing what's there. Of course I took my camera to document my journey.

The walk wasn't as pretty as my first one, as I'm gradually discovering that Japan isn't a uniformly beautiful place. Instead, there exists the very strange phenomenon of pockets of high-class, surrounded by dabs of rundown nastiness. For example, there was a path on my way made of bricks and looking relatively new placed between a main road and some shabby houses. It looked so out of place, as if it had been extracted from a longer path and dumped there. In the same vain, there are plenty of attractive looking houses, but they are always surrounded by ones that are less so. There never seems to be a "well-off" area and a poorer area as are so common in England. Both seem to be intermingled into one.

Upon my return to Cambridge House, I spoke with Hachi-san for about 30 minutes. I asked him where a nice place to go would be, but he couldn't think of any. Instead he concocted a day trip that he said he'd take me on. Beginning with orange picking, we would then go wine tasting. After which we would visit a doll's house and an historical building before eating eel for lunch. Hachi's such a nice guy, and he's always going out of his way for us. He even printed a photo out of The Cream Tease that he took when we rehearsed downstairs for each of us. I get slightly nervous though, sometimes, when people go too far.

The rest of the day was taken up with some pool, showing off my Japan photos and eating a not so nice dinner. Maybe we'll watch a DVD later.

Four Hour Job

Noriko picked me up 3.30pm after this morning's class, as usual. She seems to always buy me a bottle of orange juice and then gets surprised when I don't drink for the whole time! It's not like I have time to, since the classes are back-to-back.

I have four classes on a Tuesday:

1. Haruka (4 F) and Ryūki (7 M)
2. Four girls (Eri, and three others) and two boys (Kenta and Kiyoto)
3. Five girls
4. Shohei (M) and Moe (F)

Ryūki is badly behaved: he doesn't pay attention, doesn't sit properly, doesn't repeat anything and always talks in Japanese. Haruka is completely the opposite: she behaves, speaks English well and understands quickly. It's made cuter by the fact that she is only four, although she seems much older.

The second class is a little better, but they fool around little. Not too much though, however they tend to take a while to cotton on.

The third class is my favourite. They don't mess about and concentrate for the whole time. They pick things up quickly and above all they ackowledge my existence. It's nice to now that you're not a despised teacher and it's feels good when they say thank you and goodbye without having to be prompted.

Moe was ill today, so the last class was one-on-one. Shohei is good, but he lacks confidence. I don't think there was a single thing that I said to him today that he didn't turn to Noriko and ask for a translation. It would be nice if he tried to understand it with me. I can speak a little Japanese as well, you know!

Mt. Aso

We left early at 8.30am in a small, red Daiichi University bus with Kanashima-san. We drove for two hours to Mount Aso, through some beautiful valleys in the countryside. There's something very peaceful about acres and acres of green forests. Unfortunately when we got there it was belching out too much gas and we couldn't go up.

Instead we went for a walk around the plains and hills nearby. It was quite fun and I'm really beginning to appreciate nature. You so rarely get that sort of thing in England: it's so small that every inch is used for humans, especially near where I live. It's really nice to get away.

Afterwards we drove for another hour to Kurokawa ("black river") where we ate. It was possibly the best meal that I've had: I ate everything even the miso soup, which I don't normally like. It had suet dumplings in it that were lovely. We all sat around a pit of ash, with burning charcoal and some metal grills. We then each had a tray of two types of beef and some chicken which we cooked on top. We also had some raw horse meat which you dip into a little bowl of soy sauce, ginger and spring onions. It was quite nice. I also had three bowls of rice and some pickled things. Yum yum.

Then we retired to the onsen, in true Japanese style: naked. Obviously we had seperate baths for the boys and the girls, though they were next door to each other, which meant we spent a few minutes hurling water over the fence at them. It was a natural hot spring and so the water wasn't as hot as I had been expecting. It was warm, but I was looking forward to something more deeply soothing.

We drove on to a lake which looked wonderful in the sunset; there were even some noisy geese. We sat and had some cake and coffee, before heading home.

It was a lovely day out, and good to get away from Fukuoka again, though it was a shame to not be able to climb the mountain.

School Festival (Day 2)

We went into the university for 9.00am, which was far too early, especially considering that they weren't ready for us. I'm not sure they even knew that we were coming. What's ironic is that they were really pinickity over the details of the things we needed, etc. In the end we managed to get clip-on mics even though we weren't expecting to. Bonus!

We set up our stall selling three sandwich types, pancakes, Victoria sponge, and Welsh rarebit. Three items for ￥200 and an extra ￥100 for a cup of tea: a pretty good deal I think, and it seemed that the customers did too. We were soon doing a roaring trade.

We were second on of the performances, following the school band who were pretty good. I think it went well. There were certainly a lot of people who had come to see us: our teachers, Kanashima-san and husband, my Japanese friends, some Taiwanese people that I recognise a twice as many that I didn't recognise. Possibly in all there were at least 40 people watching. We some good rounds of applause, especially after our rendition of "Sakura, Sakura". There were even people singing along.

Afterwards, I went a-wandering with Nozomi, Akiko, Hitomi and Humie over to the Welfare University (fukushi daigaku) as per yesterday. We watched a karaoke contest with acts ranging from good to bad as one would expect. The first song I heard, I knew and I can definately sing it better than the guy that was, even though I don't know the words. It was "Rewrite" by Asian Kung-Fu Generation and it's from one of my favourite anime: "Fullmetal Alchemist," so I enjoyed that.

I tried some different types of food, including some hashimaki and some Hawaiian food called rokomoko, which was basically a bowl of rice topped with a fried egg, a hamburger, and something akin to Worcestershire sauce. It was rather nice. I was slightly harassed into it, though. I was initially a bit thrown when they knew my name already. They then challenged me to eat it with giant arms gestures a loud English cries, which I of course had to accept.

We sat indoors so I could eat at a table whereupon another lady sitting there began to talk to me. She already knew who I was aswell, as supposedly some of our teachers had been to an English conversation class at her school and had told her about me. Not sure if I like being known or not.

We returned to the stall until 4pm whereupon it was time to pack up. We tidied up and put the tent down. We then had to spray water over because there were fireworks being let off right next to it. James, Ciarán and I watched one of the bands performing on the stage since we had nothing else to do. After a few songs they started talking about the "foreign people", which we picked up on before turning to us and asking whether we understood! Nice of them to care so much. They then proceeded to sing a song about "natto", the revolting Japanese fermented soybeans, which was hilarious since the chorus was simply this repeated over and over again.

We went for a wonder and ended up at the ￥100 shop, before heading back. We received a prize for having the second best stall of the day: ￥10,000 in gift tokens, which was nice. We didn't understand when they were calling for us so it took us a while to go up and accept our prize. Afterwards followed "Bingo de bingo" - also known as bingo! We each got two cards for ￥100 and played along, though it took a tediously long time since the "bingo master" kept repeating all the numbers that had already been called. I think he was just filling time.

To end the day, I went with Flick, Brendan and Izumi to the English Garden (of which Izumi is the head gardener) where we had a little illicit alcohol. We then watched the fireworks from the other side of the lake: a rather beautiful location for a good fireworks display. I nice way to end a long day, I think.

School Festival (Day 1)

I arose at 7.30 this morning to discover the internet was no longer working, except for on one lone computer in the corner. I'm not quite understanding that, but the end result was that I could only MSN with Hannah. After that I attended breakfast with Lauma, where we had the pleasure of being served bread instead of rice.

We had a barbershop rehearsal at 9.30. I think it's going to be alright, though we practiced a new song today: it's in Japanese and I don't think I'm going to be able to learn it by tomorrow. I'm slightly nervous about the whole thing now.

I did my usual pop to Cosmos for some stocks. I haven't been in a few weeks now. I've been missing my instant noodles and plastic cheese. I came back and had lunch before cycling to the post office. It's much further than I thought. I even stopped on the way and asked where it was, only to discover that I hadn't yet gone far enough. So I posted my things there and had to cycled like the wind to get back in time for the bus. I signalled to the bus driver to wait just one more minute on my way passed, and he obliged. Very nice of him, though the others on the bus were giggling at my rushedness.

I wanted to go and see the festival today, for some reason. Not exactly sure why as it is on again tomorrow. I thought there might be some things going on on the stage, but it had all finished by the time I got there. I met up with Nozomi and Hitomi and walked around the place with them, gradually picking up more friends and being introduced to more people. I forgot that I had taiko until Nozomi mentioned it, and after a brief debate amongst themselves they decided that I had to leave straight away to make it in time.

As it turns out it wasn't really worth it. We found the place and we watched for a little while. They started off with some bizarre stretching exercises showing of their flexiness. Then they all banged in time together as a warm-up before performing a piece. It was great: so loud in a small room you shook. It made me want to do it anymore. As it is, though, they have 30 members already and only 9 drums so they're not taking on any new members, contrary to what their website says. Oh, well. We'd better try and find another place.

Binks, Ciarán, James, Flick and I left after 40 minutes to go and have a coffee, before splitting up to go shopping. I went with the guys and we bought plastic top-hats and red-striped aprons for the barbershop tomorrow. Flick's been writing her opening speech and spent half of one of her conversation lessons having it translated into Japanese.

I had dinner back at Cambridge House with Rushen and Katherine and some friends that they'd made who had basically came up to them and said "friend, friend". I also spoke with Yuu from Tea Ceremony.

This evening I did my IBM aptitude test (I think I did well in it) but the last page didn't work and told me that some "serious techincal difficulties" had occurred. Not sure what's going to happen there as I don't particularly want to do it all again.

This evening we had another barbershop rehearsal, but in dress this time. We look completely stupid. We went downstairs to the reception where we sung for Hachi-san. He'd given us the music to the new Japanese song called Sakura, Sakura that we're doing and we thought it'd be nice to show him. There weren't many people around, since they have to go to their rooms at 11pm, but we still attracted a little crowd of night dwellers. Hachi made some good criticism and I think he enjoyed it. The funny thing is that, although we look like complete muppets, the Japanese around barely batted an eyelid.

First Downs

The party last night was too much for some as this morning's class consisted of only six of us. Absent, and presumably still in bed, were Felicity, Ciarán, Rushen, and Brendan (who apparently was sick out of a taxi window).

People have been longing to skip classes for a while now. An attempt has even been made once before, though it failed when they managed to miss the last train in to Tenjin. However, possibly as a cruel twist of fate, today was possibly the worst day to miss in any of the days of lessons that we've had. We studied a lot of new vocabulary (including "Please come here.", etc. - polite imperative - and "It is raining.", etc. - present continuous), as well as new kanji.

宅 (house, home, residence), 客 (guest, customer), 室 (room), 家 (house), 英 (superb (for England)), 薬 (medecine), 会 (meeting, association), 今 (now, present), 雪 (snow), 雲 (cloud), 電 (electricity), 売 (sell). Kanji count: 133. I've noticed that we've now surpassed the minimum kanji requirements of 100 kanji for the Level 4 Japanese Language Proficiency Test.

Rushen managed to turn up after lunch, with Ciarán following halfway through the afternoon's lesson. Flick and Brendan were both no-shows, and Brendan was still in bed when I got home.

Jazz Concert

This evening we went to a Jazz concert in Hakata (an area of Fukuoka) courtesy of Izumi. It was a joint concert between the pianist Daisuke Iwasaki, and the double bassist Isao Fukazawa. It was a really amazing concert with some tear-jerking moments. The bassist even seemed to cry himself during their first encore of Amazing Grace.

First Half

Ombra Mai Fu (Largo) - Handel
Meditation (from the opera "Thaïs") - Massenet
Jazz Autographs (from the film "The Terminal") - J. Williams
Staring at the Sea - Daisuke Iwasaki
Prelude (from "Solo Cello Suite No.1") - J.S. Bach
Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring - J.S. Bach
2 Part Invention No.13 - J.S. Bach

Second Half

Cactus Plant - Zaitsu Kazuo
Sunflower - H. Mancini
Sophisticated Lady - D. Ellington
Sad Liquor - Koga Masao
Ave Maria - Caccini
Samba to Tomorrow - Daisuke Iwasaki
Cole Porter Medley - Cole Porter

After the concert I bought the pianists CD and had it signed: tt's really good. Lauma bought the CD of the two of them toghether, which is also good. Afterwards Izumi took us to her father's bar, where there was free food and drink waiting for us. It was rather generous of them to do so, I think. Some of Izumi's friends came along, and later the performers turned up as well! Our little barbershop group performed a few numbers (with actions even though it was completely cramped) to much applause.

All in all, it was a really nice evening. I came home early with Binks and Lauma, even though Izumi wanted us to stay. She even offered to pay for the taxis.

Highlight of the night: I ate a whole, dried, sardine complete with head and fins, and it was quite nice!

No Noh

Had our usual Japanese lesson this morning. We learnt how to say "I want to " which is cool. Means we can actually request things.

昼食を食べたいです。 - I want to eat lunch.
ビールをの飲みたくないです。 - I don't want to drink beer.

Seb's away on a business trip, so we didn't have his lesson this afternoon. Kanashima-san wanted to go to see an amateur Noh group this afternoon, but didn't want to take a day off work. Instead she invited us along to make it part of her work. Unfortunately I couldn't go as I had to teach the first years at Linden Hall with Binks. I think the lesson went quite well: we played "alphabetise the flash cards", which lasted most of the lesson. There are parents volunteering after school from now, helping with the "Christmas" production - which is going to be in February. It means that there are more children to look after in the playtime afterwards, but they don't come to the English lesson as they haven't paid the money. We also had to play outside, even though it had been raining and it gets quite dark before the end.

Had dinner in the canteen with Katherine, Lauma and Felicity, before talking to Nozomi, Akiko, et al. afterwards. Not really doing anything this evening. I've got more online tests to take for IBM in the next week, and Deutsche Bank are going to give me a telephone interview next Tuesday as well. I suppose I should prepare for that.

"No two days in bingo are the same!"

New kanji this morning as well as new vocabulary. We have a test on the latter tomorrow, as well. Intensive!

We had a barbershop practice in one of the classrooms after lunch, which went pretty well. Hopefully the concert is going to be alright on Sunday. Slightly nervous. I'm wondering how many people are going to be there to witness our debut.

Tea ceremony again this afternoon. There were five of us today: Yuu, Ayaka, Erika, and Rushen. Got to actually perform the ceremony today, which was cool. It was very slow though as I had very little idea what I was doing. I remember what it was like last time, but actually doing it is so different. The teacher said I did it well, but also mentioned that I was like a robot!

I got to play teacher as well, showing them how to do the alcove-viewing part. Basically you need to shuffle along the ground on your knees, using your fists! Then you go to the alcove and admire the flower and the calligraphy. It's slightly pointless but I think it adds to the fun. The suggestion is nice.

Think we're going to have another barbershop practice this evening. Maybe even downstairs in the lobby!

The quote is from a Gala Bingo job advert!

Kanji Lesson 11

Today we were introduced to radicals. A radical is a component of a kanji that expresses its meaning, e.g. relating to men, steps, water, etc. There are various radical types: left, right, top, bottom, upper left, enclosure, and lower left. Today's lesson consists of left-type radicals:

作 (make, produce), 泳 (swim), 油 (oil), 海 (sea), 酒 (rice wine, liquor), 待 (wait, hospitality), 校 (school), 時 (time, hour), 言 (say), 計 (measure), 語 (language), 飯 (cooked rice, meal, food). Kanji count: 121.

Today

Really haven't got anything to say. Had school and taught the first years with Lauma at Linden Hall. We played an opposites finding game, though both Louis and Takachika got bored. I expect, however, it was due to the fact they weren't very good at it! We managed to make it last 45 minutes, though, which took little effort on my part. We played dodgeball afterwards in the gym with Brendan.

Having another barbershop practice tonight. The concert's on Sunday and we've only done three songs properly. Need to memorise the others and make up some dances quickly.

Dazaifu Walk

Today I went on a walk in Dazaifu with Drummond, James, Felicity and Lauma. James and I missed the connecting train from Futsukaichi when we got caught up in a mob of women with hiking sticks. Still, we made it in time.

The first thing the man said to me was "cuuute", and then went into more detail about how he thought my nose was like that of a doll. Great. At least we didn't go round with him. We had some other people to show us round who were lovely. They were volunteers (or "blonteers" as they say) who spoke a little English from around the area.

First we went to the Kyushu National Museum (which we got into for free). This was like a mosh-pit or stampeding ground as the exhibition had only opened recently and wasn't on for long. Thus the normally sedate and polite Japanese were pushing and shoving their way roudn this museum. There were some nice exhibits but nothing that was overly jaw-dropping. I did like the old calligraphy and writings, though, as you can see how the writing system has developed over the centuries.

We decided not to visit the fourth floor exhibit as it is a permanent display and we thought it might be better coming back when there were fewer people. Plus we can use our tickets again, so it won't cost us anything extra.

Afterwards we had lunch near an old house. Bento boxes, though these are very hit and miss. I think today's was a miss. We were made to sit with people other than our friends, though only Drummond and I ended up on in totally foreign groups (you like the pun?). Chatted about nothing much, with me mainly not understanding. I found I'd provide the catalyst for conversation, saying something and then getting left behind in the ensuing blabber.

Tuesday is Shigosan (literally 'seven-five-three'), a day when boys aged three or seven and girls aged three or five dress up in kimonos and go to their local shrines to 'drive out evil sprit', i.e. have fun. However, Tuesday is not a national holiday so families tend to go on the closest holiday to it, which was today. Hence there were all these cute little kids dressed up in kimonos wandering around, oblivious to what was going on. Kids get given sweets called chitoseame (千歳飴), which is a bit like a stick of rock, but much more sticky and not quite so sweet. We got given these along with our bentos along with suitable warning regarding our teeth. I got two for some reason as there were extra ones.

After lunch James and Lauma left to go to a concert and the group seemed to disintegrate. The remaining three of us were shown round the local Buddhist temple by three Japanese volunteers, which was nice. It's got a couple of nice gardens: a stone one at the front, and a moss and sand one at the back that is really peaceful. We even went into the place where they put the bones of the dead. There were loads of little memorials to each person. All very peaceful.

That was the end of the tour. Walking back we were invited to the volunteers' houses whenever we want and I got given a buisness card (meishi). Drummond expressed his desire to do calligraphy and by chance (tama tama) one of the ladies had a licence to teach it and invited him to her house.

Relax

I got up this morning and spoke to Hannah before breakfast as usual. There was no bread today, though, which was slightly disappointing, but it was nice anyway. After that I went back to bed.

I finally got up proper at 3pm. I think that's my best yet. Didn't do anything much, though. Submitted my application to IBM and then did some pottering. Rushen and I had a little umeshu mixed with shochu whilst doing our homework, before going to dinner.

In the evening Rushen and Katherine went out on the town, whereas Drummond and I (and later Flick) watched a little "Who's Line is it Anyway?" before watching Princess Mononoke. It's a lovely film. I heartily recommend it, and you shouldn't be put off by the fact that it's animated.

Tkhetsikhe'tenhawihtennihs

Mega-teaching day today. I've not been looking forward to this day for a while now, but at least it's over. It wasn't too bad in the end, though I never feel like I'm giving good lessons. For once my favourite class was one of the all boy ones, as they didn't mess about, they all participated, and understood quite well. Or might just have been that since I was sitting on the floor for the whole time I was quite desperate for the toilet during the first three lessons, which I took care of before the last one!

I must thank my mother, though, who put a lot of effort in to trying to plan my lessons. I didn't really use them at all, though, since she changed what I was meant to be teaching! Stupid woman. She paid me at least, though, and wanted to know if I could come back again, which means I couldn't have been that bad.

Not sure that I want to though! On the one hand I'm nicely filling up my schedule with extra activities: Tea Ceremony, Taiko and Aikido, but I'll need money to pay for them somehow. Kanashima-san phoned the Dojo for us today, and the Aikido lessons are on Thursday evenings and Sunday mornings. We have to attend the latter of these, which is the beginners' class. However, it is also the kids' class, so should be fun.

Going for a sing-song now. Our first performance is a week on Sunday! Scary.

By the way: "Tkhetsikhe'tenhawihtennihs" means "I am bringing sugar to somebody" in Mohawk, a language in Canada and USA. See the BBC.

Getting Cultured

We did adjectives today: in the past tense, as well as the past negatiive tense. In Japanese, the adjective has to agree. Well, only i-adjectives, actually, whereas the na-adjectives behave normally.

For example, the word for warm is atatakai (あたたかい).
In the past tense this becomes: atatakakatta (あたたかかった).
In the negative it is: atatakakunai (あたたかくない).
Whilst in the past negative: atatakakunakatta (あたたかくなかった).
Such a tongue-twister.

Went into Tenjin with Flick after doing my homework (she went to help with Izumi's class). We went to Rainbow Plaza and got some information about Aikido dojos: there's supposedly one in Chikushino (where we live) which is cool since at the worst we could cycle there. We've got the phone number, so we will get Kanashima-san to phone them tomorrow!

We also got some details about Taiko classes. Seb also sent Binks an email saying there's a place that has a class every weekend for only ￥2000 a month (that's £2.50 a lesson), however he forgot to include the email addresse or web site. D'oh!

Went shopping afterwards. Well, I followed Flick round the clothes shops! Neither of us got anything. She had a conversation class, as well, so left whilst I carried on going round the Tenjin shops. I explored the underground arcade, but there weren't any really interesting places. Mostly clothes shops.

Had dinner with Nozomi and co. They invited me to play with them in the park, but I declined. Who can say what they do in the dark at 8pm...

Kanji for Time

Learnt yet more kanji today:

朝 (morning),昼 (noon, daytime), 夜 (night), 晩 (night), 夕 (evening), 方 (direction, way, means), 午 (noon), 前 (before, first, previous), 後 (after, later, back, behind), 毎 (every), 週 (week), 曜 (luminary day of the week). Kanji count: 109.

"I'll Try and Forget Something Cumbersome"

Yet another Wednesday doing Wednesdayish things. More chocolates in class, though these were given as prizes for winning the Concentration-esque game (matching the picture with the kanji).

In Seb's lesson we looked at the Muromachi period. During this time Japan took off, in terms of the arts, breaking away from copying the Chinese style and developing its own. This included Noh plays and the "peak" of the Tea Ceremony. Unfortunately, this all came to an end when the Onin War begun: two rival factions battled in Kyoto. Since Kyoto was mainly wooded, it was totally burned and destroyed and some of the periods best books and art was lost. The Shogun at the time, however, didn't do anything: he just sat about drinking tea and planning the Silver Pavillion to rival his grandfather's Golden Pavillion.

Linden Hall this afternoon teaching the 1st years with Flick. We played a few games with them: the first involved them memorising 12 animal cards and then saying which ones have been removed. The next was harder (since they won't sit still): everyone was given a card which they placed on their heads. They then had to guess which card they had (without looking). This segued into 20 questions for those who couldn't work out what they were. Poor Momoko at one point had the whole class in her face making "moo" noises, but still didn't say cow. Afterwards she just casually said: "I knew it in Japanese, but not in English". We ended with a few rounds of hangman, with Louis spelling hexagon as "hekagon". Close enough!

By the way, the quote is from an email to Binks from one of her students.

Tea Ceremony

The bloody receptionist man overode our speakers again this morning and woke us all up with an incomprehensible 5 minute speech.

We got given chocolates again in class today. I think they are trying to fatten us up, maybe for culling - I'm not sure. Ciarán didn't get one as he has gone to Kumamoto for Fukuoka-Now, though since he doesn't like chocolate on its own he wouldn't have wanted one anyway. The girls all got two for some reason.

Did some lovely online numeracy and logic tests for my Merrill Lynch application. I think they went alright. Took me about 45 minutes in total. Failed to answer three questions in the end as I ran out of time. Hopefully I answered the others well.

This evening was my first tea ceremony lesson. There were three of us plus the teacher. One was called Yu, and the other's name began with 'a', but it was longer than one syllable so I forgot it! Oh well. The teacher speaks no English but the girls speak a small amount which helps a little, though I got most from just watching and trying to figure it out myself.

The whole ceremony is highly ritualised, from the position of all the equipment, how to hold it, and even which hands to use. Even the guests (tea drinkers) have predefined roles and movements. It's very elegant and ordered (which I like as a mathematician) but it's a lot to remember. We did the ceremony three times, but I couldn't remember everything, plus each time it was slightly different, which confused me! We sat on seats for the most part until it was our time to perform at which point we went down on our knees. There seem to be a few running stereotypes of foreigners in Japan and one of these is that we can't sit on our knees for any extended period of time, which is right. It hurts after only a short time, and getting up just makes it worse!

As a guest, one sits patiently whilst the tea master brings the equipment in and lays it out, bowing at the appropriate points. You then help yourself to a Japanese cake by folding a sort of piece of paper (in a predefined way, obviously) and then placing the cake on it. The paper is bigger for men, as well. Eat that, and then the tea comes. You bring it infront of you, bow, then lift it, raise it up slightly, then rotate it slightly clockwise. Then you can drink it - all of it in one go. Then replace the bowl after having rotated it back, then look at the bowl - admiring it's beauty - then tilt it slightly to look at the front, then admire it again. Bow and then place it between you and the next person for them to see. Or something like that. I can't remember all the details, especially since even by this time your knees are aching.

The lesson lasted two hours, after which I was caught at reception by Hachi. He's a nice enough guy, but he comes best in small amounts. We talked about the tea thing a little, and were joined by Yu and A... He then proceeded to quiz me on my knowledge of Japanese cakes (which is null) before bringing out another little cake for me to try. I get worried when they all stare expectantly, like it's going to be horrible. It wasn't - tasted like the ones I'd just been eating - but he was again surprised when I said it tasted nice. I can't work him out. I stopped him from opening any more cakes for me to try, as I was caked out, and took my leave.

Mad Inventions From Japan

Here are some picture sent to me by Steve of some crazy Japanese inventions. The web site is at http://www.chindogu.com/ if you get hooked on these.






I've also just found http://uncyclopedia.org/ which is absolutely hilarious. Take a look at their article on Japan.

I am going to play pool with Rushen now.

Verb Kanji

Ikehara-sensei said that it was an enjoyable party, which was nice of her. We spent most of the lesson on counting things (now including flat things, and machines), and had to rush 12 new kanji in 7 minutes. Needless to say we didn't manage.

行 (go, conduct, line), 来 (come, next), 帰 (return, go (come) back), 食 (eat), 飲 (drink), 見 (see, look, view), 聞 (hear), 読 (read), 書 (write, book, document), 話 (talk), 買 (buy), 教 (educate, teach, religion). Kanji count: 97.

Haven't really been up to much, apart from doing my homework, which took ages. Went into Futsukaichi (二日市) after class: went to the ￥100 shop and got me some sweets, which was entirely pointless since when I got home a had a huge sweetie package from Hannah. She's too lovely to me.

Post Party

I was meant to go the "Baobab Autumn Concert" today at about noon. Other people went but I slept nicely through that. Oops. I hope they don't mind, since we were getting lifts there.

I have spent the day not doing very much. Did a little tidying, putting the TV back and setting it up (the most important thing!). We then watched "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" which was a nice time waster. The place is now almost resembling normal.

In the evening we ordered take-away "Indian Sandwiches" from Que Sera Sera (the same place and food we had last week). Brendan and I went to pick them up on our bicycles, which was a nice 20 minute ride. Not too hot and not too cold. They were lovely, as always. It was my third so far.

Party

Today is the day of the "Gaijin party". People are all busy preparing: cooking and decorating. I got up late and did nothing much to help. Played my Nintendo out of the way! I also submitted my application for Merrill Lynch. I hope it's alright.

The guests started turning up from 5pm onwards and seemed to like what we've done with the place. Then the drinking started and I can't remember too many details from then on! Sat around and chatted to Japanese people. I think my slide show went down well - if nothing else each picture provided a talking point. Flick made a small speech and then the food was unveiled. Pasta salads, fritatas and chicken. Nice.

The Cream Teases gave a sneak preview performance, which went down well, before we all headed downstairs to the karaoke room. We were all pretty drunk by then (I know I was), and I seemed to take on the role of MC, spouting out random rubbish in Japanese. Though people have been telling me that I'm very good and that I have "a feel for the language", despite talking nonsense. We were only supposed to have the room for one hour, but we ended up in there for two. Seb had some quite words with the porters to ok it. Many songs were sung, both English and Japanese, though I'd like to forget most of my performances. We did get the teachers singing, though.

Back upstairs, and the drinking games began. Carnage. Quite a few people had left by now! Some played games of Pyramids (something complicated involving cards), whilst others played beer pong - you have to bounce a ping pong ball into another person's glass, which they then have to down. I didn't play.

I hope the guests enjoyed themselves, for the most part, as the whole thing did turn into a bedlam of drunken English people. Though, I think this is one of the first parties for a long time that the students here have thrown. By all reports, none of the previous groups have all gotten along as well as we have.

Friday

Just another Friday. Two lessons of Japanese. In the second lesson we spent about 30 seconds learning the different names of the family and 30 minutes learning to count things between one and 10. The former we've never done before, but the latter we already know! At least we were counting chocolates, which we were given at the end of the lesson.

Haven't really done anything this afternoon. Felt like sleeping but played my game instead. The party's tomorrow, so everyone is frantically preparing... except me, cos I'm lazy. Trying to find generic photos of Britain and the like for my slideshow at the moment.

My computer destroyed itself earlier, but I managed to restore it to working functionality, luckily.

Culture Day

Today is Japanese culture day, so yet again we had another day of Japanese lessons. Instead, Rushen had a performance with his Yagyu Shinkage-ryu crew (tis sword-fighting, you know?). It was really cool. They did 1-on-1 set pieces, with sword-to-sword, sword-to-short sword, sword-to-metal-edged fan, sword-to-spear, and sword-to-walking stick. Rush introduced James, Drummond, Binks, and me to the other guys and afterwards we all sat and ate bento (for free!).

There were also some children doing taiko drumming. It looks and sounds amazing. I really want to have a go. It's not just about banging a drum, but also about stance and where you move your arms. But the rhythm is really driving and gets something going in me!

Rushen and I headed into Tenjin afterwards, where I bought another game for my DS! Daigasso! Band Brothers, also known as "Jam with the Band". It's another music game, where you take the part of an instrument in a song. It's got Japanese music, as well as computer game and anime themes. I love it! We then went to Pronto for an orange juice before meeting up with James and Binks again to come home.

When we got back the guys at reception invited us for Japanese tea, since me and Rushen (or so they think) are doing the tea classes. Fujita-san showed us some of the things it involves, like correctly folding a cloth to wipe the tools afterwards. It all looks highly complicated, even the wiping motions are prescribed. Should be fun, though!

We had another barbershop practice tonight. We're coming along, and we're learning our dances, but I'm not sure how ready we will be on the night. We've got three pieces learnt and the dances done so far. We learnt "Yes sir, that's my baby" tonight.

I've got a kanji test tomorrow on those ugly ones I posted earlier. I haven't looked at them at all yet. Breakfast tomorrow, methinks.

Quiet Day

I haven't done much today. Got up and went to breakfast, after which I talked to Hannah, which was lovely as usual. Then on to uni. We had our morning Japanese lesson, which I followed with a bowl of ramen. Then we had Seb's history lesson. Today we did the Kamakura period.

I taught at Linden Hall in the afternoon with Katherine. We sat in the room whilst the children did their homework on shapes. Paul was there and we had a little discussion about how many sides a circle has. The children have been taught that it has zero sides, as in it has no straight edges. I however say that it has an infinite number of edges since the circle is the limit of the regular polygons. We then talked about what a vertex was, though he stumped me with a particular shape. Turns out that there are two definitions of a vertex: one is about polygons, and the other about graphs. Fun stuff.

Quick quiz: Take a cone ad remove it's base so that it is hollow. Now cut down one edge of the open cone and flatten it. What shape is it? Answers on a postcard...

No Tea

Seems the tea ceremony classes don't start until next week. I'm rather intrigued about, though I'm worried as to how having classes on my own is going to work. Kanashima-san says it takes at least 10 years to become a tea ceremony master. I have six months!

We're barbershopping tonight! Should be fun.

We've just had our first visitors upstairs. Jun and Yoshi. Not sure they're supposed to be up here, though, since they live in Cambridge House.

I also remembered that I got my photos today of the Opening Ceremony. Cost me £3.50 for the full set, with which I got a free Hello Kitty photo album! Other people only bought one or two. I'm so extreme!

Adjectives

Today was again another Kanji day. These are a lot harder, since now they don't seem to have any relation to the word they are depicting. Even the book's given up on creating tenuous pictures and their evolutions and the "Kanji from Pictures" title has disappeared. Looks like it's getting much harder from here on in:

新 (new), 古 (old), 長 (long, eldest, chief), 短 (short), 高 (high, expensive), 安 (safe, cheap), 低 (low), 暗 (dark), 多 (many, much), 少 (few, little). Kanji count: 85.

Not up to much else today. Just all those damn annoying online application forms. I think I've written a couple of dissertations by now on how great I am.