March Photos

09/03 - Kanashima's Last Day
11/03 - Hokkaido Trip (Day 1)
12/03 - Hokkaido Trip (Day 2)
13/03 - Hokkaido Trip (Day 3)
15/03 - Graduation
19/03 - Shikanoshima
21/03 - Aikido Demonstration
27/03 - Holiday in Japan (Day 1 - Matsue & Tottori)
28/03 - Holiday in Japan (Day 2 - Kinosaki-onsen & Kanazawa)
29/03 - Holiday in Japan (Day 3 - Takagawa & Nagoya)
30/03 - Holiday in Japan (Day 4 - Kakunodate, Ichinoseki & Hiraizumi)
31/03 - Holiday in Japan (Day 5 - Matsushima & Sendai)

Holiday in Japan (Day 5)

We did not want to get up this morning, but eventually did at 7.30. We bathed in the communal bath downstairs: two showers and green water that was so hot I could only get up to me waist and only for a minute. James did not get further than the bottom of his left foot. Needless to say, we were not about to stick our hands in and pull out the plug.

We left our hotel and headed towards the information centre. Before reaching it, we found Godai-dō (五大堂 – Five person hall), which is a little temple across two bridges with every other plank missing. One theory is that it built like that to prevented kimono-clad women from crossing over. It was quite scenic and the temple itself had sculptures of the 12 Chinese zodiac symbols around its edge. We were hoping to see five statues of Buddha, which are brought out only every 33 years, including 2006, but it turns out that they are only on display for three days in August.

We made our way onwards and found Zuigan-ji (瑞巌寺), the main temple. It had some caves dug from the rock face outside it, with little statues dotted around. Inside the giant temple were lots of dazzlingly decorated rooms. There were rooms for different types of people, with themede decorations, e.g. the doctors’ room had flowers drawn on the walls, whereas in the samurais’ room there were eagles hunting cranes. There was a room where samurai of different clans were held in state after committing ritual suicide (切腹 - seppuku). In the room, there are now little death statues to each. Also included was a museum of various objects, which was interesting to wander round.

We left and found the information centre where we were given a map and various brochures. We crossed over onto Ojima (雄島) to admire the view. We made our way back, stumbling across Kanrantei (観覧亭), an old teahouse where we had a sweet and a cup of matcha (抹茶) on the tatami whilst various Japanese people stared at us. There was another museum associated with the place, with various trinkets of the Date clan inside. There was even a few English descriptions around that made it nice.

We wandered over to Fukūra-jima (福浦島) and paid the bridge toll that allowed us to cross the 252 metre bridge over the bay. The island is a natural botanical garden, with some good views of the bay. All around were oyster-pickers. We walked around the island for a while, despite the cold and the strong wind that seemed to worsen as we crossed back.

We caught the next train back to Sendai, the city of trees. The station had a funky escalator that went flat in the middle, which, unfortunately, was probably the most interesting thing about the city. We booked our next Shinkansen for the evening and set out to find some lunch. Through the wide main streets and thin back alleys, we found the place in the guidebook, but it had closed five minutes earlier (at 1.30pm!). Instead, we found another place in the same area. A friendly old couple served me with a tonkatsu and James with a tempura set that we both enjoyed. They could not, however, direct us to the castle, so we returned to the station’s information centre. We were directed to the city’s loop bus, called the “Loople,” but we decided its timetable required us to push back out departure by one hour. So, back we went to the reservation desk to rebook our train before heading to the castle.

Nothing remains of Aoba castle (青葉城 - aoba-jō), save a wall, which you could see from the bus, and a reconstructed guardhouse, which we never found. There is a shrine to some war dead and we liked looking at the little prayer cards hanging there, however the place has mostly been turned into a tourist attraction, with restaurants and awful music everywhere. There is a statue of Date Masamune (伊達正宗 – 1567-1636) – the masamune is a sword, and appears in many Final Fantasy games – and another giant eagle atop a tower, which were both cool. We walked back down the hill to the previous bus stop, simply to waste time, and returned to the station. After the now standard bakery stop, we left for Utsunomiya. Once there, we ran to make our connection within the necessary two minutes and succeeded with much time to spare.

We arrived safely in Nikkō and booked tomorrow’s trains. We then made the 20 minute trek to our lodging, stopping by the police station where there was a map on which different places light up and buzz when you select them! We left our bags at the hostel and returned to town. We planned tomorrow’s sightseeing tour back at the light-up board, before going for an Indian dinner in “Asian Garden.” I had a keema curry and nan, and James had a chicken dish, some nan and some saffron rice as a set meal. We were the only people in the place, and the waiter, who spoke to us in English, stood around awkwardly. There was a Japanese music programme on a wide screen television showing a countdown interspersed with old songs that the pop stars of the show’s panel had performed. It was interesting to watch though not always pleasant on the ears.

After finishing, we made the uphill, dark wander back before door locking at 10pm. We watched a little Lord of the Rings of TV before bed.

Holiday in Japan (Day 4)

It was a strange night’s sleep. I was restless and the bed was not particularly comfortable as I had no duvet and my bags were sharing my bed by my feet. I was up at 6.15, ready to get off at our stop, though it became apparent that the train was over an hour late. We have been crawling along most of the way, presumably to produce less bumps and to aid sleep. We finally arrived in Akita two hours overdue.

We attempted to book out next set of tickets, but a strange station worker greeted us, practically forcing his assistance upon us. This would have been fine if we had not known what we were doing, but though he had good intentions, he just delayed us. He spoke an odd dialect of Pidgin English, often inverting numbers and calling us “customer.” He booked one ticket for us and then pulled us away from the counter to explain (badly) what the ticket had written on it. We told him we would like to book a train after that (which we would have done ourselves at the same time if we had the opportunity) and he proceeded to join the back of the queue and repeated the whole process.

We eventually escaped and located a post office and a bakery. I had a chocolate muffin along with a chocolate-filled pastry. We both got a free slice of white bread with our order. We caught a train to Kakunodate, with the snow beginning to fall heavily on the way, where we went in search of some samurai houses (all that there was to see). Our search took us via a library, where the people helpfully pointed us in the right direction and drew us a map.

We entered Aoyagi-ke (青柳家) house, with its collection of armour, toys, paintings, and even an old gramophone section. There was a nice, snowy garden and some ladies were hand-making pressed-flower necklaces. We both bought a set of six chopstick holders in the shape of dogs/wolves that fit together in a circle.

We returned to the station (buying apples on the way) and caught our next train to Morioka. From there we took a Shinkansen to Ichinoseki, where we discovered that our connection was 40 minutes later than we expected, further pushing back our schedule. We ventured outside to the bus stops in the hope of there being a quick bus arriving soon. We asked one driver, who then drove us the 50 metres across the bus park to the correct bus stop!

We decided the bus was not worth it and instead went into town where we had a hot chocolate each at “Acorn Cafe – Handful of Acorn.” It came with a dollop of cream on the side and was tasty.

We returned to the station and caught our train to Hiraizumi, a pleasant, little town containing two famous temples. First, we went to the information centre, where we retrieved a map. Then we walked to Chūson-ji (中尊寺), stopping off at a ruined building, and taking a small detour up a hill to some place that we decided we did not want to pay to get in on the way.

Chūson-ji was about 1km up a hill. We had but 30 minutes in which to see the whole place before the closing time at 4.30pm. We found one large temple, before paying to get into Konjiki-dō (金色堂 – Golden Coloured Hall), the main attraction. Included was a short museum tour, all in Japanese, but there were some large gold-leafed Buddhas. We also liked some gold paintings on purple cloth. The main piece, and the first Japanese National Treasure, was in another building, housed in a glass case: a tiny temple completely covered in gold leaf, with a depiction of Amida Buddha surrounded by many other characters. It was interesting, but not particularly beautiful; it just seemed a little over-the-top.

At closing time, we left and headed for Mōtsū-ji (毛越寺) and its paradise garden: 浄土庭園 (Jōdo-teien). On the way, we passed down an avenue of yet to bloom cherry blossoms. We arrived five minutes after closing time, however, so, disappointingly, we could not get in. I think we are learning that one should see Japan in the morning. We had a peek over the fence, but what we could see was not that pretty.

We returned to the station, via a nature reserve containing a little pond with an island, though there was no visible nature. We caught an earlier train then planned back to Ichinoseki, which the conductor held for us as we crossed to the platform.

Back in Ichinoseki, we found a ramen shop for dinner: a set of chūka (中華 - China) ramen and a half-portion of chaahan. It was very tasty. Afterwards, we wondered about a little more, before catching a Shinkansen to Sendai and then onto Matsushima. We found our hotel easily and a little lady told us the rules: be back by 10 o’clock if we were going out, and do not take the plug out of the bath (Japanese style). We did not go out, and instead planned tomorrow and played some more cards.

Holiday in Japan (Day 3)

We rose at 5.34 and showered. James’ shoes were still wet from yesterday’s downpour so he put them in the tumble drier downstairs. When we went down to checkout, one of the staff had taken them out (presumably, because they were clanking around too much) and had placed them on a radiator. Another guest came over and began discussing drying techniques with James, even offering to take his shoes to her room and turn the air-conditioning up for a couple of hours. Unfortunately, we only had 15 minutes before our train, so we quickly checked our emails again and rushed to the station.

We were in time to catch the train to Toyama, from which we took a small two-carriage train, with doors you had to open yourself, to Inotani. I noticed a young couple, noticeably dressed in the latest Japanese fashion also on the train. We all got off together at a snow-covered station. We boarded a bus to Tsunogawa, which wound slowly along the snowy roads. The bus was half-full; nobody got off. At each stop, a figure emerged from behind a building where they were sheltering from the snow.

Tsunogawa was the cutest station I have ever seen. It had a tiny waiting room with rugs on benches and a warm heater awaiting those travelling on one of the eight trains leaving the station each day. Trains used to go back to Inotani, but now it is a bus route, though they still print a blank timetable.

The couple stayed with us all the way to Takayama, our destination: almost three hours of travelling. Once there, we followed the walking tour around many temples and a couple of shrines. Most had lovely gardens, which the snow made even better, though it twice fell on me. We had lunch in a nice little place: I had katsu-don that came with miso soup, and James had seiwan soba – local mountain vegetables with noodles. It was tasty and the free tea went down well.

After lunch, I bought a sarubobo, an odd monkey-like doll with no face, that is passed down the female family line in local families. We visited an old Tokugawa government palace, the only one of its type still standing in Japan. There were no free guided English tours today, although there were signs around advertising there existence. Interestingly, it turns out, Tesshu, a famous samurai and poet, used to live in Takayama. He is the “hero” of the writer of “Angry White Pyjamas” that I had just finished reading.

We caught the Wide View scenic train to Nagoya. The snow was lovely and I enjoyed some of the babbling rivers. I managed to get some sleep in, also.

Nagoya was big, but did not have much to do. We caught the underground to Atsuta-jingū (熱田神宮), the home of the kusanagi-no-tsurugi (草薙の剣 – grass cutting sword), one of the three parts forming the Imperial regalia. Unfortunately, nobody ever gets to see it, bar the emperor and a few head priests. The grounds were large and had huge wooden torii, but the shrine itself was unimpressive. We did notice a whole collection of some kind of alcohol containers.

We took the subway back to Ōsu-kannon (大須観音), a huge, “vermillion” coloured shrine. It sounded interesting to us, like the colour was special, but it turned out it was the same shade of red as every other shrine in Japan. One of the priests there was “singing,” though, which was cool.

We walked back to the station and on the way stopped for some food. We both had 五目チャーハン (gomoku chaahan), mixed fried rice. It was like a Chinese takeaway’s special fried rice, but with the addition of a few scallops. It came with a bowl of egg soup, and we drank about a litre of water between us.

We returned to the station in time to catch a Shinkansen to Tokyo, and then straight onto Ueno without leaving the station. Once in Ueno we hopped onto the overnight Akebono to Akita. This consisted of carriages containing bunk beds, four to a compartment. We could not reserve seats (beds) together but James and I were in the same carriage. I was with an unknown man who was already asleep when I arrived and a mother and daughter. We did not talk. I went to bed, drawing the curtain around my bottom bunk. My compartment talked in hushed tones, but a man down the corridor carried on talking late into the night.

Holiday in Japan (Day 2)

We were up early once again: 5.45, and caught a train to Kinosaki-onsen, as planned. It was a pretty, little town with quaint buildings, as opposed to the ugly monstrosities that one finds in most cities. A small river running down the centre of the main street added to the wonder, with small bridges at regular intervals, and trees, weeping over the water, added sparkle.

We walked to one of the many onsen, passing many yukata-clad people strolling down the streets, doing the same thing. We bathed for about an hour in the just-about-bearable, hot water before walking to Gokuraku-ji (極楽寺), a small Buddhist temple with a peaceful, miniature rock garden. I find the sound of trickling water very relaxing. After this, we began to climb a hill in an attempt to locate another temple, but we turned back after about 15 minutes when the path disappeared.

Instead, we found the cable car. We left our bags in the station (which for some reason was up a flight of steep stairs) and rode halfway up to Onsen-ji (温泉寺). This was an old, wooden temple with interesting architecture along with a tower-like structure up yet another staircase. We walked back down the hillside, along the ancient stone steps and cedar trees.

It took 2 hours 30 minutes to get to Kyoto, from where we caught a train to Kanazawa from platform 0. We had to stand most of the way, but we got seats eventually. At the station, we booked tomorrows trains, including the overnight one that we could not before!

We took a map from the information centre and ventured into the, now, rainy and windy weather. My umbrella buckled under the strength of the wind, but we arrived nicely soaked at another Tohoku-In. The ladies at the desk gave us both towels when we checked-in, so we must have looked a state. We left our bags, James purchased an umbrella from reception, and we ventured back out into the storm, determined to see the city. We made it to Oyama-jinja (尾山神社), where we took shelter under the main gate, but not before James had his umbrella turned inside out. We felt rather miserable.

When we arrived at Kenroku-en (兼六園 – Garden of Six Attributes), considered one of the “Three Great Gardens of Japan,” we were so completely soaked that the lady let us in free. We only had 30 minutes before it closed, anyway. It was beautiful, even in the rain and through rain-covered glasses, but I am sure that we could have appreciated it even more if it had been dry.

The garden’s name refers to a Sung-dynasty Chinese garden that required six attributes for perfection, namely spaciousness, seclusion, artificiality, antiquity, abundant water, and panoramas. We did manage to see some of the famous items in the garden, including the oldest fountain in Japan, and the Kotojitōrō (徽軫灯籠) lantern.

We caught a loop bus bound for the station, but we got off for food at a place the driver suggested. We were the only two onboard, and we were soaked to the bone. We entered a place, which turned out to be a yakiniku (cook-your-own-meat) place. We ordered the least disgusting-looking things on the menu – some beef and some pork – and merrily went about over-cooking them whilst our coats dripped in the corner. It was fun, but a little expensive for the amount we ate. At least they were showing the baseball on the television.

We caught a bus back to the station and returned to our hotel, where we hung our clothes to dry before making use of the free internet in the lobby. I think we annoyed some businessmen, who walked off after waiting a while, though we did not use it for that long. After that, we played a little whist in our room, drank umeshu, and watched some TV. There was a game show on with families doing tasks for money. They had to gamble on whether or not to try the next task by saying “check-in” (gamble) or “check-out” (take the money). Was quite strange, but it kept us amused. The families were strange, including one dad dressed in bright green spandex. I feel for his children.

Holiday in Japan (Day 1)

I dragged myself out of bed at 4.30, did my last minute preparations, and left Cambridge House with James to catch the 5.24 from Tempaizan to Hakata. James was slightly anxious about being recognised by one of the station workers, who might query the validity of our JR passes – the visitor-only all-you-can-travel railway pass we had both obtained on the sly – but there was nobody manning the station when we arrived.

From Hakata, we caught our first ever bullet train, or Shinkansen (新幹線 – literally “new trunk line”), to Okayama. It was sleek, comfortable, and fast, like riding first-class in an aeroplane. We had oodles of legroom, fold down tables, cup holders, deeply reclining seats, but enough space between rows so as not to disturb the person behind. We even had little coat hangars on the walls and overhead storage space. The outside world zipped past at unbelievable speeds, though the journey was smooth, without the normal noise of the tracks passing beneath the wheels. We raced through cities, including a giant industrial complex that reminded us both of Midgar from “Final Fantasy VII.”

Things started to go wrong in Okayama, however. The train times that I had so meticulously planned seemed to be in error. The online site that I used had not updated its times to the newly introduced timetable. So frustrating! In addition, upon trying to book seats on the sleeper train in a couple of days, two different people told us that we could not ride it using our JR passes. The man from the travel agency had said that we could, but he might just be someone who agrees with everything that you suggest, rather than checking it for a fact. We are not happy with him!

We wondered around the city, going into a new convenience store for us: a “sunKus.” It seems like all the rest of them! We made it to Matsue in the end and sat by the edge of Shinjiko (宍道湖 – Lake Shinji), the seventh largest lake in Japan. Across the shore, a girls’ choir began singing some warm-up exercises and a volume far louder than we thought possible. The lake had no beach and sand, but instead rocks, on which we sat and listened.

We strolled towards Matsue Castle (松江城 – matsuejyou), also known as the Black Castle due to its colour. An impressive building on hill overlooking the town, we went inside for a mysteriously discounted rate for foreigners. The inside was not as impressive, containing a collection of helmets and armour, though the tiny old and modern models of the town were interesting to see. From the top floor, we had a good view of the not-so-pretty city. We spoke to Maki-san from inside the castle: she has phoned the JR man and he has given us an alternative, not-at-all-helpful route that will get us to Akita for 11pm, too late for most hotel check-ins.

We ate our packed lunches on the grass outside whilst watching some children playing baseball with their mother and hordes of giant birds swooping down to eat food a woman was throwing for them. James has brought a “snack bag” containing a variety of goodies for our journey: a selection of crackers, cookies, and chocolate.

We walked partway down a forest stroll before a shrine that appeared to be dedicated to dogs, judging from the hundreds of little statues scattered around, sidetracked us. We visited a samurai house, where we got another mystery-discount from a hysterical cashier trying to speak English. The house was beautiful and peaceful with a lovely garden containing vivid plum blossoms.

We took a boat ride along the many moats left around the city. Matsue is obviously the place for foreigners to visit since we received another unadvertised, discount rate. It was just the two of us, coincidentally, allowing the guide to talk slightly more freely to us. He spoke Japanese, though we were able to understand some of what he said. It was nice just be able to have an overview of the city, as well as to have the experience of passing under a multitude of bridges. There were sixteen on our tour, four of which were low. Low such that he had to lower the roof of the boat for them, meaning we had to crouch down inside the boat. Each seemed progressively lower: by the last, our faces were almost touching the table between us.

We took a lovely stroll back to the station through a plum blossom garden. Once there, a station man told us that the train we wanted to catch the next day was not a JR line, so we could not use our passes. Despairing, we went on to Tottori, where we decided that we would stay the night in Kinosaki-onsen instead, but changed our minds when the travel agent in the station could only find a hotel for £75/night. Instead, they directed to a Toyoku-In, a £20/night business hotel, which we thought was much more reasonable.

We went out wondering for dinner and eventually came across a little yakitori place, where we had about twelve tasty sticks between us.

Preparation

Aikido this morning was fun. I am starting to feel like I am getting the hang of it: I'm finding my ki. I was there for 2.5 hours again, and am starting to make a few friends (I think). The English/Japanese language barrier is still posing problems, especially since Aikido has a very specific vocabulary.

I have spent the rest of the day not doing anything interesting. A little washing in preparation for tomorrow. We have finalised our journey plan and we have most of the accommodation sorted. For the other places, we will just turn up and ask around for a good place, of which there is likely to be one. I created a map of our journey plan for the next 10 days, which can be found here. The places with numbers in brackets after them are places we are stopping at, as opposed to passing through points.

TV Day

Today was uneventful with not much going on. Needless to say, I took advantage of this fact and partook of a small lie-in, although it was not as long as it could have been, simply because I went to bed so late.

I spent the day watching episodes of various programmes on my laptop: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG, Red Dwarf Series VII, and Bleach. In the evening I watched Akira with Rushen, which I rather enjoyed. It did not mess me up quite as much this time, as it did the first time I watched it.

Tea Things

I went to school just after 11 with James this morning, where we fretted over accommodation, though I could only stay a little while. We both went for lunch (ramen), and met Brendan there, before I went off to my tea ceremony. I think James has booked accommodation for most places now, apart from two nights, which we are going to try to sort out tomorrow. Then we will have the whole thing planned and ready to execute.

Tea was good fun. I think we got a lot more done than usual, though possibly it was because we had more time. I stayed for three hours today and I was on my own as Oh-san has gone home to Taiwan for a few weeks. (Supposedly she is so bored at home that she phones the reception here everyday to talk to one of the ladies!) We first did a cut-down version of the ceremony that can be done at a table with a kettle. That way I can do it in England without too much hassle and people will not have to sit on the floor. Then we did the usual full ceremony, complete with room admiring. In the middle, we had a break, as my knees were really starting to ache. She got out a million different tea things and asked me which ones I liked the best. She then wrapped these up in a bag and gave them to me! Some of them are quite expensive, i.e. £50. I think she is either completely mad or extremely generous, though she said she never used any of them. It is a secret though, since she obviously has not given any of the girls anything. So now, I can perform the whole thing at home. I just need to get some tea and a ladle-esque thing, since she’s given me a few bowls, a couple of tea pots, a ladle-rest, a little cloth, the whole bag of eating tools (including an ivory eating stick), etc. She took a few photos of me at her house before I left!

I went off to Linden Hall afterwards. I was with Ciarán and Brendan today, but since it was the last day, and there were only about five children (Momoko and Sakura from the 1st year, and Mariko, Mayu and Ryo for the 2nd year), we took them outside and played touch-rugby, and then baseball with them. We also got Liz out to play, so it was not any work at all. In fact, it was quite fun! I got the bus back on my own: it is very embarrassing commandeering a whole bus by oneself.

We went out tonight, to Tenjin for a drink. I was just leaving when Rushen appeared back at Cambridge House with his parents, and his girlfriend Akiko. Thus, instead of having to get the train, I got a lift instead. We met Ciarán, Brendan and Nami, James and his new-found friend Hei, in a bar called the Lockup. It is a strange underground, prison-themed place, where you are handcuffed to the waitress as she leads you to your cell, complete with bars on the sliding door. Halfway through your stay, they cut most of the lights, and start playing a strange "invasion" soundtrack. Lights flash, and the waiters come around suddenly rattle the cell doors. One even burst in with a giant, rubber mallet making threatening gestures, before hitting the ground a couple of times and running off. Brendan, at one point, was acting all calm that he wasn't shocked, until the next noise happened and he let out a scream like a girl.

Afterwards, we went on to Fubar, where Katherine works, though not tonight, for some more drinks. We mostly sat around, drinking and talking, before Akiko gave Rushen and I a lift home. I had made her promise earlier that she would, so that I didn't have to worry about a taxi home.

Bored

I really have done nothing today. I spent a while in looking at guitar tabs, this morning, though I always choose the hardest songs to attempt to play and, of course, I cannot. I just give up in the end or spend a while simply listening to it being played at me and gaining enjoyment from that. I think I am rather bored currently. I finished watching my anime series, though, which is both good and bad, since I enjoyed it. The good news it there is a second series, so I am looking forward to watching that someday. I watched four episodes in total and a few interviews with the makers, since I always have to watch the extra features.

I made myself another tuna and camembert toasty, along with a ham and camembert version. I am writing out our train schedule for the next two weeks, little by little. The website I am using for planning our journey has so much information on it, including platform number (sometimes) and even the train number. The only problem is that they seem to have forgotten about the site and, as such, you cannot select dates in April. That means that I can accurately timetable the first half of our voyage, though things get slightly less precise from April Fools’ Day onwards. Luckily, I know of another site, but it is not as detailed and is far less usable. I hope that it will be all right. Maybe they will update the page soon so that I can assure us of a trouble free passage. James is working on the accommodation, but is finding it slow going. He has gone into university twice now to try and book places with Maki-san’s help.

This evening, I ate dinner in the canteen as usual. There are suddenly many students around, though it turns our that it is the “Daiichi Kodai Baseball Team” from Kumamoto, who have come to stay for three nights and four days (三泊四日 – sanhaku yokka). I have spent about two hours talking to the people at reception downstairs: Fujita- and Toyokura-sensei. It is good practice for me, I think, especially since we do not have classes now and, as such, are not talking Japanese nearly as often as we normally do. I try to fit in as many different grammatical expressions as I can, but there never seems to be any use for some of them, so I tend to forget those. I hope I do not bother them too much, however. Whilst I was down there, I saw Ayaka (one of the tea people) who rushed off and came back with some castella cake for me from Nagasaki, as a souvenir. She was fulfulling the Japanese way: those who go away must bring back souvenirs for everyone, but I thought it was a lovely gesture nonetheless.

Always! What a silly name!

My day has been lacklustre; it is slightly depressing. I did manage to do ten more days in my scrapbook, though this only amounted to one half-page entry. I am up to November 11th now: such a long way to go. I should really have stayed on top of it better.

I went shopping for a little lunch: I bought tuna, and more cheese and bread. I watched anime over pizza, and a camembert and tuna melt. Yummy! Moreover, I am near the end of the series now, which means things are becoming a lot more intense and exciting. I now have the urge to sit down and watch all the rest of the episodes at once. There are at most only six more to go, though. After that, I have 50 episodes each of another two anime to watch.

I went in to Uni in the afternoon with Ciarán, where we pottered about in the office for an hour. I emailed a few people before going to Linden Hall. We played a board game, that Ciarán has developed, with the kids, who were pretty much well behaved. We had Yuu (the only boy today), along with Keely, Momoko, Yuuki and her twin Mizuki, Misato, Marika, Rihou, Konatsu, and Itsumo (which means “always” in Japanese… why?). Afterwards, Yuu made another 笹舟 (sasabune - toy bamboo-leaf boat), but then destroyed it.

We came back, and I ate dinner, before running off to cover for Binks. There were five of them today, all with one thing about what they did since last we met, and all with essays to be marked. Since we were running out of time, it was always going to happen that the essay-writing standard would reduce as we went along. I gave them half an hour free in the end, though I do not really mind. It only means that they paid me my usual rate per hour. They wrote about the growing gap between rich and poor in Japan; spring; cherry blossoms; the World Baseball Classic; and flying business class for the first time. They are an intelligent bunch, though three of them (the three from last time) are much older. Another was 33, had not attended since November, but had had a son in January.

Aikido Demonstration

Aikido was fun. I walked to the police station in the morning and Ogata-san arrived to pick me up. She had her two children, Ken and Ryo, with her as well as her husband. They seem like a nice family and the kids were good. Children do always natter on at you in their own language, as if you were fluent, however. I was given a bottle of water by one of the children along with the words “Here you are,” and they offered to buy me an onigiri at the convenience store that we stopped at. We found our dojo members easily, and then went to change into our uniforms. We came back and pottered about for a while. I spoke with someone called Sawake, I think, who is a highway maintenance engineer who started aikido at about the same time as me), and another guy, whose name I have obviously forgotten, from Hiroshima. I really cannot hold more than a couple in my head at once. We formed our lines, had a small practice, and then went to queue up for our performance.

Our quick two minutes of fame were fun. I was paired with a child about two-thirds my height, which meant I had to be gentle. Thus, I could do my moves slower and hopefully it looked like I knew them, but could not perform them due to the stature of my partner. I really had to duck down, as I had to twist under his shoulder. It was fun though, but over very quickly. We did seven moves: three with a knife (that is, a lump of wood), and only two where I had to defend. Attacking is much easier! Afterwards, we were given goody-bags, though I was not too surprised about this, since I helped put them together in the factory line that we formed last Sunday. I had a grapefruit sports drink, some potato sticks, and a pen on the end of a mobile phone chain. We changed back into our normal clothes, and the Ogata’s went off shopping. I stayed to watch some of the rest of the demonstration, though it was rather boring and I nodded off a bit. I think I am much more interested in doing, rather than watching.

I wondered around Tenjin in the rain after the demonstration ended. I went to Best Denki to look at camera prices, and I realised that the post office was shut today, since it is Vernal Equinox Day, a Japanese national holiday. It all sounds rather pagan to me.

Baseball

I have not really done too much today. I spent a few hours in the morning looking up train times for next week’s trip. I hope that I have done it correctly, though I guess if I have not then we can always just make it up as we go along. We have rail passes, after all. That took a long time, for some reason, though I also did a little research on some of the places that we are going to go. It all sounds very interesting, though I am slightly worried about having to fend for myself. Even with two of us, it is going to be nerve wracking. I am used to my parents sorting everything out when we go on holiday.

For lunch, I had a small pizza that I bought the other day from Cosmos. I got two for £1, which I thought was very reasonable. It was tasty, though I also had a camembert sandwich, as it was not filling enough on its own. I then went to Linden Hall, as I was working there today. There was a calm atmosphere when I first arrived, with the children all doing their homework quietly, though this soon changed when Brendan and I took over. We went outside with them and gave them clues about various objects around the grounds. It took a little effort to keep them all together and to stop them from running off to play, but we managed it without too much hassle, which was reassuring. We played baseball with them afterwards, and we drew 4-4, though not for want of trying. They were good.

Island Trip

In the morning I attended three hours of Aikido. I left earlier than usual, on my own, since Flick has gone off on holiday with her mother. At the end of the usual two sessions, I practiced a couple more moves for a while. We have a demonstration on Tuesday, so I was trying to make sure that I do not make a fool of myself, and, more importantly, that I do not let everyone else down. Though, it is not like they will care that much. Most of them are only 5 years old.

When I got back, I tried to flannel off a small, rust-coloured stain from the front of my dogi, but after a while I realised that I had simply succeeded in dieing it pink from the red dye in the flannel. I through the whole lot in the wash, which seems to have done the trick.

In the afternoon, Drummond, James, and I went on a road trip to a local island with Drummond's friends: Mina, Sawako, Shin, and Shingo, someone new that we met today. We took two cars, and drove for an hour to Shikanoshima (志賀島). We drove around the island's edge and stopped off at a beach. It has been a while since I have seen a proper one of these. We all played chicken with the waves, including trying to jump on a rock, but all of us eventually had wet feet.

We then drove to an observation tower, where we could see the whole island, including a myriad trees, as well as Fukuoka Tower and the rest of the city. It was all very beautiful. On the way back we stopped at supposedly famous hot-dog stand that sells 金印ドグ (kin'in dogu - Golden Stamp Hot Dogs). These were made of squid and steak, so I avoided it. We had to wait 50 minutes for them to be made, due to the places popularity, so we went for a walk. The Japanese bought dried squid pieces, we they loved, and which I did not think were too bad.

We stopped off at Maru-chan, a yakitori restaurant, on the way back home, where we ate, drank, and chatted for a couple of hours, before coming back home. It was a really cool day out. Drum commented that "this is the way that Sundays should be spent."

Recovery

I really did not do much today, apart from sleep and be nice on myself!

In the evening we watched "Memento". Many unanswered questions (i.e. plot holes) were asked by all. Still a nice little film.

Warming Brendan

It was the last day of school today before the spring holidays, but we did not do anything special. The others – Rushen, Flick and Katherine went out on the town last night, and were only just surfacing when we returned home – tried to convince Yoshimatsu-sensei that Ikehara-sensei had given her permission to take us all to a coffee shop for the lesson, but she did not buy it. The lesson was not too bad, though. In the afternoon, we wrote another composition, this time about our trip to Hokkaido. I managed to write a full page, which is a lot for me, since I do not normally know what to say. I could have written more as well, but I decided to stop.

I taught after school for Noriko again. Three classes of gradually improving English standards. I spent most of the three hours testing them all individually again: some are good, and some are worse. You can normally tell which ones are going to do well and which are not, but sometimes they surprise (or disappoint) you. The quiet ones tend to be better than the ever let on. The hardest part of the test was having to write comments at the bottom of each test sheet: what they could do to improve, etc. It was even harder than trying to mark there performance for each question on a scale from 0 to 3 (cross, triangle, circle, and double circle, though I was forbidden to use crosses) in the categories of "clarity," "memorisation," and "pronunciation." I eventually came up with a little system, though it rarely separated the good ones very much from the bad ones.

In the evening we had what was possible Brendan's new flat warming party. It was good fun; there were just the right number of people there. There was us, some of Nami's (Brendan's girlfriend's) friends, and Drummond's friends from the other night. Brendan's flat is big enough so that we all fitted in just nicely. We played drinking games, including beer pong, and 21's in Japanese. We sat around, chatted, listened to music, and ate (Shin, for example, bought some KFC chicken!). We had good fun, and I go to bed at 5am in the end.

Level 3

School today was just the Level 3 Japanese Language Proficiency Test. The teachers managed to mark it quickly, before we left. I got 68 in the listening, 57 in the grammar, and 81 in the kanji/vocabulary test, giving me an overall score of 65.75. The pass level is 60, so that is cool, no? I think most of us passed this time, though. James managed to get his usual sickeningly high scores. He did study languages at university, I remembered the other day, so my new excuse is that he knows how to learn a language quickly, and how to break it down into its important component parts.

After the test, I went to my tea sensei’s house with Oh-san, aka Big Bird. I enjoy my tea, and I am slowly learning it. I think I am going to forget a lot of it during my travels, which is a pity, since my teacher is seemingly looking forward to my family coming and me performing for them. I'm sure they'll be understanding to my mistakes, and to the pain I feel in my legs. They'll have seats, at least.

Graduation

I had an odd day today, not like any of the other ones that I have had whilst in Japan. The cleaners arrived in force very early in the morning, proceeded to clean every visible surface, and packed any left-out items away in the cupboards. Two big armchairs were brought up, flowers were arranged on tables, and places for 14 people were organised. This was all for the tea party that was occurring in the afternoon.

We all attended the graduation ceremony in our suits and best clothes. We sat in the middle of the sports hall, behind the graduands but in front of all the parents. This made for an awkward issue in knowing when to stand up or not. Sometimes everyone had to stand, and other times it was only those graduating. There were a few occasions when we stood up, only to sit down, looking foolish, a couple of seconds later. The ceremony itself was incomprehensible, though a few select students received framed certificates and shiny plaques. Not everyone went up, in fact most did not, and were graduated on mass. The students themselves were rather badly behaved: one of the ones in front of us was on his mobile phone halfway through, and they chatted openly during the process.

Tsuzuki and his wife were there, wearing Oxbridge-styled caps and gowns, with yellow trim. The master and bursar of Fitzwilliam College, University of Cambridge were on stage as well – the master gave a speech in English, translated by Seb, and ended it with the worst pronunciation of "arigatou gozaimasu" (thank you) that I have ever heard. He said it like the Queen might. We found it funny, though, surprisingly there were no sniggers from the Japanese: they were either asleep, or did not even realise that he had switched into Japanese.

They all looked smart though, with the boys in suits and ties, and the girls in kimonos of a style I had not seen before. The girls had much difficulty going up and down the stage stairs, having to take them sideways, one at a time. It was elegant, though, and they did not seem distressed by it. I suppose they must be used to the restrictions imposed upon them by their national dress.

At the beginning of the ceremony, the national anthem of Japan was sung, whilst facing the giant "Rising Sun" flag that adorned the stage. At the end, they sung the different universities songs: the economics, welfare, and nursing university. The nursing university has a slightly odd sounding name: the hoiku-tanki university.

Binks, Flick, and I could not attend the tea party back at Cambridge House with the Fitzwilliam master and bursar (hence all the cleaning) since we had to teach at Linden Hall. I do not think that we missed much, and we are all Oxonians so I suppose we did not care about meeting the Cambridge people much, either. On the way back from teaching, though, the bus driver gave us some intricate origami that he had made: two swans interlocked, and a turtle on the wing of another swan. It is all very complicated stuff.

Return to School

I had a long day today. I left as usual at 10am for school, where we had one Japanese lesson containing one kanji test. We studied a strange grammatical form that allows one to say that are doing something in the style of something else, for example, "Do as I do," and "Assemble it as in the instructions." It is slightly odd, and is another one of those constructions that I cannot see myself ever using naturally. I had lunch afterwards – a large portion of curry rice – and did my homework before catching the 3.15pm bus home.

I left again at 3.30pm to teach for Noriko. I had my usual four classes, though I spent most of the time testing the children individually as a kind of "graduation test." I still find them all cute, and I am really getting to know most of them. They seem less nervous around me nowadays. Most of them are better in the individual "test" situation than they seem to be in the class, especially some of the quieter ones who you always presume are not understanding what is going on. Since it is "White Day" in Japan, I took them chocolate from Hokkaido and let them have some each.

For the last class we went to "Joyfull" one of the 24-hour restaurant chains in Japan. I had a "Chicken Doria," which is like a chicken gratin, but with rice instead of pasta. There were only two students in the class, Shohei and Moe, so it was not a big party. They are graduating from elementary school, which lasts for six years, and are moving up to junior high school. As such, they are both going to cease coming to English lessons, presumably because they will start having them at school. I will not see Moe again (it is a little sad to lose a student!) but I will probably still see Shohei since he does Aikido with me. I got back in at 9.45pm, though I did have dinner paid for me.

Hokkaido Trip (Day 3)

We were up even earlier than yesterday, today. 5.30am to be precise, since we had opted in to an earlier morning "hike." This turned out to be a 20 minute bus drive to some other place covered in snow, followed by a 10 minute stroll, all of 50 metres and back, and then a return bus journey. We were given lovely orange boots, which sort of fitted us, and the place was really beautiful, so it was not a total waste! There was a little stream of running water and a couple of trees, which reminded me of "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe." The snow was very deep, as well, if you stepped off the trodden path, and some people ended up knee deep.

Breakfast was good again, once you avoided the strange Japanese parts. We made egg & bacon rolls, and stole croissants for lunch.

We set off once more at 8am, and passed various cow farms on our way to the next omiyage shop. Cows are rare in Japan, apart from in Hokkaido (as are horses) so the Japanese loved them! We did as well, since it has been a long time since we last saw one.

We arrived in a place called Nisshou, Tokachiheiya, with its souvenir shop. After racing around this, I broke away from the group and went to explore the outside. There was an edge to the mountain we were on, and below a vast expanse of trees and snow. I could see for miles, which is always really breathtaking, let alone when the view is beautiful. The girls managed to find a little tobogan/sledge run, which they enjoyed playing on for the 30 minutes we were supposed to be buying gifts.

Our final stop was yet another souvenir shop, though this had a few restaurants and was designed as a lunch break. Since it was 11.30am in the morning, some of us were not yet hungry and decided to go off walking instead. James, Ciarán, Katherine, Adriana, and I went off in the snow towards some buildings. We found a bridge with snow piled high on it, which we crossed. On the other side we found a small shrine, and a couple of residential blocks that looked like military buildings, complete with number on the side. There was even a bus stop, though there were only about six buses running each day. On the way back, Adriana suddenly fell backwards whilst crossing the bridge. She had hit her head on one of the overhead bars, since the snow had elevated our walking level. It looked really funny.

We arrived back at the airport and managed to get through customs without too much trouble, this time. On the plane there were a million school girls, who screamed when the plane took off. It is strange how it managed to put the fear in to all of us. What had they seen? When we landed, it was just as bad. The onboard monitors of the landing did not help much either. There was severe wind and you could hear the pilot struggling to wrestle the plane to the ground, with the constant noise of the setup of the plane being changed. From the pictures, it looked like we were performing a power-slide through the air, with the runway seemingly in the wrong place. We hit the runway with a big thump, accompanied by more screaming from behind. It must have been one of the most harrowing landings I have ever experienced. When the plane stopped, we noticed that there was snow flying horizontally through the air outside the aircraft. Having been through it, I now have a new found respect for the skill of pilots, even with all the computers aboard.

We were home, and we got back to Cambridge House safely on the underground. It was a good holiday: it was relatively inexpensive, and I would not have gone otherwise. I am glad I went, even though I will now have to have a few months of therapy to get that annoying Japanese chatter out of my head.

Hokkaido Trip (Day 2)

We awoke early in the morning: 6.30am and went to breakfast. It was a what the Japanese call Baikingu, or buffet-style. There were two tables with food; we walked down the first, scowling at the strange Japanese food on offer for breakfast (who seriously wants to eat white radishes for breakfast?). Then we discovered the second table: filled with croissants, rolls, potato wedges, sausages, bacon, etc. we were delighted.

We hopped back on the bus and were away by 8.00am. We passed by the famous Abashiri maximum-security prison, and then later the old Meiji-era's prison's gate. We arrived at a northern coast and boarded the Aurora II, an ice-breaking boat. However, our journey was impact free, the ice flows having not even made it down to Hokkaido this year (global warming was cited as the cause). We sailed straight north for about 30 minutes, before turning around and coming back. There were plenty of seagulls, though, that people delighted in feeding.

We went next to Tentozan, the Abashiri Quasi-National Park, where there was an ice museum. They had a cold room at about -15°C, into which they had placed drift ice recovered from the sea (why, I do not know). People were given damp flannels, which hardened when spun around in the chilling air. Also, in the museum, was an outdoor observation post. High on a mountain, we could see clearly for miles around, including one of the frozen lakes nearby.

For lunch, we were driven to a restaurant away from civilisation, presumably so that we couldn't escape, but were left free to sit on our own. I had crab gratin, which was delivered by a bouncy waitress. We then did a quick shop, a.k.a. sample grab, from the shop next door.

Our next stop was the highlight of the day. The Lake Mashuuko, inside the Akan National Park. We were struck by the locations beauty imediately: high up a mountain, overlooking a completely frozen lake, surrounded by snowy-mountains. It looked surreal, as if it had been a painting. Our initial enjoyment was cut short by the necessary "group photograph" by the lake, in the freezing cold air. However, after this was over, we were not simply herded back into the coach, as we feared, but were instead allowed to roam the area. It was hard to draw yourself away from the scene, however, despite the cold. Many a photo was taken.

We then drove onto lake Akan, another frozen lake. This one could walk on and there were people fishing through small holes in the ice, and riding snowmobiles. Kanashima, Notomi, James, Lauma, and I paid for a ride on a "banana boat." It looked like two inflatable bananas, side-by-side, on which up to six people could sit. We wore crash helmets and were dragged around by a rope attached to a snowmobile. We went over small bumps, and through small puddles. The second half of the journey - the return - was more adventurous, with the snowmobile propelling us into powerslides, through which, a strong grip was required to prevent falling off the banana. The others went shopping, and Katherine and Adriana found a real-life Ainu man who made a carving for them.

Our final stop of the day was to a "Cheese and Wine" producer, where we tasted a little cheese, some camembert cheese cake, and sweet, red bean soup. We then proceeded to the main shopm past there odd collections of old motorbikes, telephones, milk containers, and a photo collection of Chiharu Matsuyama, an Hokkaidan singer.

We arrived at the next hotel, where we were again greeted by a banquet. This time the main staple was crab, and lots of it: a whole hairy crab, half another crab, and two larger legs. These were eaten with the provided pair of scissors and metal prong. Some of us had fun performing "autopsies" on the creatues, though none of us could bring ourselves to eat the mushy insides.

We went to bed after another relaxing onsen session: not as many pools to choose from, but the outside one had large snow hills within arms reach. The room arrangements were the same as for the previous night.

Hokkaido Trip (Day 1)

Yay! We're going to Hokkaido!

We met at the airport at 9.30am. There were seven of us - all but Drummond, Brendan, and Rushen - as well as Katherine's friend, Adriana, Kanashima, and her friend Notomi. We all got our tickets and made our way to the gate, however Adriana got stopped since she had a knife-shaped corkscrew and a gun-shaped lighter in her bag, which she had to subsequently check-in. All was well, however, and we all safely boarded the plane and flew uneventfully to Hokkaido.

Upon our arrival we grouped by the lady with the correct flag, and were shuffled onto a tour bus. We drove to our first omiyage (souvenir) shop, where the Japanese tourists spent there money and we ate as many free samples of chocolate as we could get away with. We gawped at the endless white of snow all around us in the middle of nowhere, before clambering back onto the bus.

We drove on, with the tour guide still nattering on in Japanese with her random facts about Hokkaido: it's land mass, population, onion growing, etc. We soon came to realise that she was not about to relent in her fact giving, a truth that was hammered home when she managed to talk non-stop for 1 hour and 30 minutes. I was slightly envious of her ability to talk Japanese so constantly, but we all soon started plotting ways to shut her up.

After one more omiyage stop we went to an "ice town": a few huts and sculptures made entirely from ice. It was cold and slippery but an amazing feat. The huts themselves were rather plain, though each had a different ice sculpture of a cat or squirrelt inside. There was also a larger cave, containing icicles and a little window overlooking the rest of the site. We drank a strange , milky, "sweet sake" inside the onsite shop, though most of us could not drink it all. It was only 50p, however, and was interesting to taste. It appeared to have curdled milk as one of the constituent ingredients.

We finally drove to the hotel, where a banquet was awaiting us of weird Japanese food. It was obviuosly an expensive feast, of which I attempted to make the most of. However, there are only so many scallops that I can ea, even if they are drenched in cheese.

After dinner, we went to a samurai play, though we thought it was not very good so we left. We returned slightly later for some singing and dancing, though this turned out to be androgenous people waving fans around to strange 80's Japanese rock music. We left again.

We changed into our specially provided, large yukata dressing gowns and sat around near the front desk, drinking beer bought from one of the vending machines. We chatted for a while before we hit the hotel's onsen. Only James and I went together to the men's onsen, since Ciarán wanted to have another beer beforehand. I am becoming accustomed to the Japanese onsen lifestyle, having once vowed never to enter one. I think the trick is not to wear your glasses, since you cannot see anyone else that way, and you have no idea where they are looking either! There were three indoor pools of varying temperature, and two outdoor ones: a hot and a cool. The hot one was how I had always imagined a Japanese onsen would be like, and hitherto had been disappointed at not finding. James found the heat intolerable, though we both outlasted a couple of Japanese men who chatted to us for about a minute before bolting.

Us three guys slept together in one room, with Kanashima, Notomi, and Lauma in another room, and the rest in the final room. It was a Japanese-style room, which means sleeping on futons on the floor. It is more comfortable than you might imagine, though it was very hot since the controls on the heater were locked permanently on.

Tea at Home

My day has been slightly more interesting that yesterday. Again, we had two lessons, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. There was one word on a listening exercise sheet in the afternoon that we had not yet studied. This was senbei and is a type of Japanese cookie, or rice cracker. Thus, she brought some in for us all to have: an unnecessary action, but very welcome. They are made of various things, e.g. rice, but these ones were made from flour. They are not cookies, supposedly, since they are not made from batter (whatever that means!). These ones had peanuts embedded in them and tasted good.

I went to tea in the afternoon, at 3.30. Big Bird came along too as my translator, or maybe more for someone for the teacher to talk to! She showed us the flowers around her house; she has a little face on a wall whose mouth constantly spouts water into a little pool. It is quite calming, as I think it is meant to be. I seemed to have forgotten most of what I was meant to be doing, or maybe I was just disorientated. She made me change my socks before going into the tearoom! Next week I will take my own. She has a six tatami mat room, though she says most are even smaller, with the standard size being only 4.5 tatami mats. There is barely room to move! The one in Cambridge House is much bigger. I will count the mats next time I go, as there are too many for me to remember, but at least 12 mats.

Before I left, she gave me a book (in Japanese) on how men should perform the tea ceremony and a magazine with different pictures of the equipment for performing the ceremony. Also, she gave me my own little guest set: a silk cloth, some pieces of paper off which to eat, a fan, and an ivory eating stick. So many things, none of which I expected. She is very kind to me. I am getting a little better at the ol’ Japanese as well, which obviously helps with the communication. I can rattle of a few good sentences automatically now, though I still become stuck sometimes.

Goodbye Kanashima-san

Today was Kanashima-san’s last day, so we had a little party at lunchtime. We took her out to the English garden, where we sat on some wooden steps. One of Kanshima’s friends and her baby, Kishiki, were also there (they appeared last week as well), and she had brought some different kinds of bread: buttered baguettes, olive bread, fruit bread, cheesy bread, croissants. It was a nice little feast, though we had to skip our proper lunch for it. We also had a chocolate cake and a little champagne, though they did not last long at all. We took some photos, and we sang to her: Stand by Me. At the end we all signed one of the corks and gave it too her as a little momento.

Actually Teaching?

My day has been quite long, but quite enjoyable for the most part. We had a big review test in the morning, with listening and reading sections. I was impressed with my ability to understand practically everything that was said! I am not sure whether this tape was particularly clear, or whether I have become enlightened with respect to listening to Japanese. I hope it is the latter, but I suspect that it is the former. We also had a kanji test, which was easy since I did an hour’s learning this morning. I have forgotten them all now, however!

In the afternoon, we had Seb’s lesson on Japanese history. We covered the post-war occupation of Japan. We were so involved (well, me and maybe Brendan) that we ran over by 10 minutes. I think most people found it interesting, however. We discussed the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, which was basically a sham that resulted in a number of men being branded class-A war criminals. Some were even hanged. Even the allies admitted that the court was a farce, since the top Japanese generals simply took all the flack for the war to protect the Emperor. I watched a programme about it on Channel 4 before I came out, which was quite interesting. These Class-A criminal were not like the Nazi frogmen, sending whole demographics to their death, but were simply leaders in time of war. Some were even charged with plotting to conspire about maybe doing something. So, when the Chinese rant on about the Japanese prime minister visiting a shrine where Class-A criminals’ spirits are interred, you have to take it with a pinch of salt. The Chinese propaganda mill is always at work.

From next term, we are going to read a short novel in Japanese, and translate it into English. Seb studied the book in his third term of Japanese at university, though no doubt, even though we have been studying for an equivalent amount of time, we are far behind where he would have been. It is called "不意の唖" (fui no oshi) and can be translated as “Dumbstruck.” It is novel based on the life of the author (大江健三郎 – Ooe Kenzaburou) growing up in post-war Japan, and is supposedly a good eye-opener to the way of life of the time.

After that, I taught the second years at Linden Hall and Flick taught the first years. Both Rushen (yesterday) and Binks (today) failed to get cover for the Linden Hall lesson they were missing, so these last couple of days have been taught by just two teachers. My class went quite well: they were well behaved and did the work I set them. Some did it much better than others did, however. I had them draw their name in large bubble letters on a sheet of paper. They then had to draw a point and connect the edges of the letters to it to create a 3D effect. They were quite horribly bad at this, but I at least got Mayu to use the edge of her pencil case as a ruler. Keisuke did a standard 3D effect on each letter, and Mariko spend so long colouring in that she did not get around to adding graphical effects. The others just did it free hand and made a mess. After doing that and colouring it in, they had to write little sentences about themselves around the page, along with illustrations. Teramasa had “I like ginger ale,” for example. However, he takes the attitude that he cannot do it, and so never tries, scribbling everything down as fast as he can and then messing about.

I ate dinner in five minutes before running around madly trying to find a bike. Binks’ was not there for some reason, even though she is in Tokyo, so I stole Drummond’s in the end. I was about three minutes late for the class that I am covering for Binks, though they were already wondering where I was: the woman was hanging out the door and shouting “Edward?” down to me as I arrived! There were three elderly folk in the lesson, and another arrived a little later to observe. They introduced themselves to me, telling me a little about their lives. They spoke good English and I quizzed them on certain aspects. The three had each written a report on a subject of their choosing, one page long. Two had done it on the Winter Olympics, and the third was on Plum and Cherry blossoms (it used a lot of poetic imagery, though it turns out that she writes poetry as well). They each read theirs out, and I then read it back, correcting it. There was not that much to correct, though each had at least one sentence that needed major restructuring. I was glad that I had to spend time quizzing each on their intended meaning. Binks cannot teach again in two weeks time (it is a fortnightly class) but offered to do next Tuesday for them. They prefer their Wednesday slot, so asked if I could do it again for them, so, in effect, I stole one of Binks’ jobs. I hope she does not hate me too much. The pay is quite good as well: £25 for 1hr30.

More Hall

I had to teach Linden Hall again, like a fortnight ago, since Ciarán does not seem to be able to sort out his life and keeps double booking. It always affects me, however, since I am the only person who can ever do Tuesdays. At least I get more money, though! It was not too bad either, as Brendan and I took them outside to do a worksheet. Rushen, obviously, failed to get any cover for his shifts whilst he is away in Philadelphia, so it was only the two of us. Brendan had made a sheet for them to fill in called "Scavenger Hunt" with things that they had to find, such as things beginning with certain letters, and things that were hot, cold, etc. It took most of them a while and they had lollipops for when they finished.

Crazy

Today I had my lesson in the morning as usual. I gave Kanashima-san my JR Rail Pass and my passport to get them activated. We are leaving on the 27th March and the man from the travel agents has done us a schedule, complete with different overnight trains that we can take. That should save us money on staying places, which is cool, though there are still a few little bits that we need to sort out. Well, I say we, though it is more James that is doing all the hard work, and I am just tagging along. I feel a little bad about it and I hope that he does not mind. I am not going to get in his way, though. If he wants to go somewhere, then we will go there!

I taught Linden Hall in the afternoon with Brendan. It was quite a fun lesson, which went by quite quickly. We did describing things again, with us doing it in the first instance and then getting them to do it for the second part. We also punished them for speaking Japanese: taking points off them, nothing too drastic! At the end of the class we made them all line up quietly by the door before they were allowed to go to the gym. That was fun! I think it might be worrying how much I like the control. Oh, well.

I have not done anything much this evening. I sat with Big Bird (her name is Oh, really) at dinner as there was nobody else around, and I fancied practicing my Japanese. She is totally crazy and strange. The brilliant thing is that she says that she does not think she is strange. She is hard to talk to because of her weirdness. She asked “why?” when I said that I had never been to America. There is no reason I have not been, it is just a plain fact!

Wasted Day

I so have not done anything today. It is so shameful.

I did go to Aikido in the morning, which was great as usual. We have a demonstration on 21st March, which we practice for. Flick cannot go, though, as she is off around Japan with her mother. I am so bad though: we practice the moves for 30 minutes and then I simply cannot remember them afterwards.

We did balance moves today, or more specifically: seemingly effortless ways to push people over. Well, effortless if you can do it right, which invariably I do not seem to be able to do. There's even one where you throw your opponent into a roll, though I could never do the roll and just tended to fall awkwardly on the mat. I managed not to injure myself, though, which is a plus.

I have spent the rest of the day doing nothing. I have watched episodes of Scrubs, and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. I have listened to music, and I have done my kanji homework. I also filed my notes for this term, whilst watching American Idol (it really is a dire programme). I'm going to finish being unproductive by going to bed...

Sing-Song

I had fun today, and I think the others did too. James, Drummond, and I went to a party to sing songs. We only started practing yesterday. Brendan was supposed to have come but stayed out the night before and became very ill. He sent a text to Drummond about 30-minutes before we were supposed to begin saying that he was not going to come! It took just over an hour to get there, and Ikehara-sensei picked us up from Chikuzen-Maebaru station at the other end. It is near Karatsu, which has a castle and is in a different prefecture.

The place was someone’s house, but was also a small restaurant. It was next to the sea, so we went for a wander before starting. We found a little stretch of sand, and practiced for 20 minutes. It felt like being in a music video, with a gorgeous sunset over the mountains! A Japanese woman was walking along the beach and she came over to listen. We told her we were playing in a little place, and so she went and asked if she could come and join the party! They said yes, and so we experienced the power of advertising first hand.

We played five songs to start with, with Drummond on guitar. We sang to a straight-faced audience:

• Norwegian Wood, by The Beatles
• Northern Sky, by Nick Drake (Drummond did it solo)
• I’m With You, by Avril Lavigne
• Torn, by Natalie Imbruglia
• Time of Your Life, by Greenday
  

We then had a little break, in which we ate some food and drank some wine. There were oysters on offer, but I passed. We all had “clear soup,” which was chicken stock with some onions and carrots in it. There was also sushi rice – rice with a sticky vinegar – and also a really overdone egg with a chicken wing. The bits I chose to eat were quite nice and they filled a hole. The crowd warmed up for our second set, probably as they had been drinking. Some more people also turned up, including Hirata-sensei and her son.

• Hallelujah, by Leonard Cohen
• Under the Sea, from the Little Mermaid
• Runaway, by The Corrs
• Frog Princess, by The Divine Comedy (I did it badly all by myself)
• Songs of Love, by The Divine Comedy (I played the guitar again, the others sang)
• Kiss From a Rose, by Seal
  

I think everyone enjoyed it, and we did Norwegian Wood again at the end. Ikehara-sensei gave us all lift back to the station, and the woman whose place it was gave us £25 each. Not bad, since it only cost at most £10 for transport. We sang, quietly, on the train.

We all went to Futsukaiichi to meet some of Drummond’s friends and we went to a bar called “Bali Bali.” It was quite a quaint and cosy little place, where they sometimes come and shake the cocktails at your table. We drank and ate a variety of food (from potato wedges with cheese on top, to bits of octopus). We chatted about nothing in particular and learnt a few Japanese words. When all the other customers had gone, we had the music turned off, and we sang once again. We were in the mood and it is not often that we do it. The others seemed shocked, and just kept saying “amazing” repeatedly. We had fun though.

They paid for most of the bill, insisting that we had eaten any food (we had) and that they were older than we were (some of them were the same age). In the end, we only paid £5 each, but I know I drank £5.50 worth of drink, not to mention the food I ate. We got a lift home in one of their tiny cars, all squashed in the back.

Hinamatsuri

Today is Hinamatsuri or Girls’ Day, so the girls got given little oval-shaped, plastic boxes containing two Japanese sweets by Ohnishi-sensei. The boys also got a marshmallow, filled with bean paste. Yum, yum!

I went to Linden Hall briefly with Drum, and Flick after school. We are trying to put together an "After-school English" board for displaying the work that the children do. I could not stay for long as I wanted to catch the bus back (I ended up running for it), but I did manage to find the letters (in the letters box) to make the words "Look what we made in fter sc nls." I did not have time to finish it off with "after-school English" so hopefully they will manage that. The children were singing the hinamatsuri song that I put on my blog yesterday, and then had to draw the paper-doll display. It is a traditional layout, about which the song is all about creating.

The seven-tiered, red felt-lined display consists of the Emperor and Empress at the top, with ladies-in-waiting, court musicians, etc. below them. The origins of the day are from when people used to fashion paper-dolls, place them in a boat, and send them down a river, hoping that they would take the evil spirits with them.

Today is the 3rd of March, which in Japanese is pronounced san gatsu mikka. Now, with a little leap of imagination, and noticing that three can be said both as san and mi, we come up with the alternative title for today: mimi, meaning ear. Thus today is also Ear Day!

A Song For You All

Tomorrow is yet another festival day in Japan, though unfortunately, not a national holiday. Tomorrow is 雛祭 (hinamatsuri), or Girls' Day. As such, Ikehara-sensei gave us the lyrics to a song that is sung. I suppose tomorrow would have been a better day to post this, but this way you can practice it and be ready for tomorrow. You can download the tune here.

あかりを　つけましょ　ぼんぼりに
おはなを　あげましょ　もものはな
五人ばやしの　ふえ　たいこ
きょうは　たのしい　ひなまつり

おだいりさまと　おひなさま
ふたり　ならんで　すましがお
およめに　いらした　ねいさまに
よくにた　かんじょの　しろいかお

きんの　びょうぶに　うつるひを
かすかに　ゆする　はるのかぜ
すこし　しろざけ　めされたか
あかい　おかおの　うだいじん

きものを　きかえて　おびしめて
きょうは　わたしも　はれすがた
はるの　やよいの　このよきひ
なにより　うれしい　ひなまつり


akario tsukemasho bonborini ohanawo agemasho momonohana
goninbayashino fue taiko kyouha tanoshii hinamatsuri

odairisamato ohinasama futari narande sumashigao
oyomeni irashita neisamani yokunita kanjyono shiroikao

kinno byoubuni utsuruhio kasukani yusuru harunokaze
sukoshi shirozake mesaretaka akai okaono udaijin

kimonoo kikaete obishimete kyouha watashimo haresugata
haruno yayoino konoyokihi naniyori ureshii hinamatsuri


Let's light the lanterns, let's set peach flowers,
Five court musicians are playing flute and drums,
Today is a joyful Girls' Day.


Yeah... well, I cannot translate the rest very well, especially since I do not have the kanji for the song. It's about the setting up of the paper doll display that they do every year. There's one in Linden Hall at the moment. I'll work on this!

Ikehara also gave us some hina arare, which were tiny balls made of Japanese crackers. They looked like cerial, but were savoury. Children's snacks.

Seb's Back

I had my usual Japanese lesson in the morning, with Hirata-sensei. I cannot remember exactly what we did, but part of it involved learning how to say that we are determined to do something. For example, “I want to still be learning Japanese when I turn 40.” We had to write a little composition about our dreams for the future, obviously using the new grammatical structures that we have learnt.

In the afternoon, we had Sebastian for our history lesson. We have not had his lesson for about three weeks now, primarily due to the Chancellor turned up a few weeks ago, unannounced, and he has had to look after him and his entourage. Anyway, we studied the period from 1936 until 1945, when America dropped the atomic bombs. I am not going to tell you any of the details, as they are rather harrowing, but interesting nonetheless. However, according to American estimates, the dropping of the atom bombs saved about 700,000 lives that would also have been lost if America has invaded Japan.

Next week we are going to hear about the war-crimes tribunal that took place after the war, which should be very interesting, especially since the Chinese are always complaining that the Japanese prime minister is always visiting a shrine where “Class-A War Criminals” are enshrined.

On a lighter note, we have had a different bus driver this week from the last. He is totally crazy, greeting us in the morning with shouts of "OHAYOU GOZAIMASU" and "ITTERASSHAI." He also sings along to the radio. This all causes us to go into histerics. Finally, a happy smile, a wave, and a loud "OTSUKARESAMA" await us at the end of our journey.