Round 2

I'm back. Nearly two years of no posts and I'm finally bringing this blog back from the dead for use during my year in Japan beginning September. I'm studying at Hitotsubashi University in the west of Tokyo, reasonably far from where I was before but still close enough to visit good ol' Oji with ease whenever I fancy.

I figured for a picture, this was fairly fitting - 18 years old, sat in Colombo airport in Sri Lanka, waiting for the transfer flight to Tokyo, preparing for a year on the other side of the world. I'll be in that position again soon but in Moscow, or Italy, or somewhere else instead - and hopefully not the ridiculously long waits we had in Sri Lanka.

Soon. So soon.

Japan Round 2: BEGIN.

The Speech

I've now been home for a few months now but I realised I never posted my goodbye speech up here. The one I had to give to every student and teacher in Junten... in Japanese. It'll be nice to have this to look back at in a few years and see how much my Japanese has progressed from when I did my gap year.

みんなさん、おはようございます。

今日は私が順天ではたらくさいごの日です。
一年間東京に住みました。そして来週イギリスに帰ります。

去年の９月から私はいろいろなことをしました。
はじめてのところにたくさん行きました。
新しいしゅみはじめました。
日本語をべんきょうしました。
でも、一番楽しかったことは英語を教えることでした。
あなたたちはとてもいいせいとでした。ありがとうございます。

りじ長先生と校長先生も、本当にありがとうございます。
先生たちもみんなしんせつでした。ありがとうございます。

私は帰国しますが、日本語をべんきょうして
二年後にまた日本に来ます。
あなたたちは英語のべんきょうをつづけてください。
あなたたちといしょに英語で話したいです。
がんばってください！

本当にありがとうございました！

さよなら

Grass... and Trees... in Tokyo!

So, last week I finished work and now I'm officially unemployed! Wooo! And Awww! at the same time. I'm going to miss the students, and working in general really. Apart from the really long hours, working was so much fun - I really loved teaching English, but sadly I'm not sure if teaching is in my future. Couldn't hack teaching in England.

During these past few weeks I gave plenty of goodbye speeches, I even gave a few in Japanese (but I was reading from a prewritten one on my phone =P). I gave a speech to most classes in Junten, and I gave some to the PTA, the ex-PTA and also to my evening classes, but they were nothing compared to what's to come. My final speech, and my final day of 'work' to do for Junten, is on the 24th when I will give a speech to every student, every teacher and every passerby... in Japanese. That means well over a thousand people in total, all standing before me and watching me speak my awful (at best) Japanese, while I shake in total fear. It'll be interesting... not fun, but certainly interesting.

Anyway, on with less depressing news! I went to the gardens around the Imperial Palace for the first time at the weekend. I hadn't noticed yet but the cicadas are out in force in some places! I love the sound of the cicadas, its one of those sounds that will always remind me of when I first arrived in Japan. If you don't know what they are, they're these bugs that live in trees and make quite alot of noise in the summer.

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Needless to say the gardens weren't so bad. They are in the Emporer's grounds, after all. Some really nice quiet areas (apart from the annoying american tourists) and lush grassy and wooded parts. Wish I went there for hanami back in the spring, I can imagine that it'd have been a pretty amazing place to get drunk underneath cherry blossoms.

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One thing that was really highlighted by the gardens, and hopefully by each of the photos here, is the amazing juxtaposition of old and new in Japan. Old meets new, East meets west, ...Skyscraper meets traditional Japanese building...? Ok, I ran out of ideas, but I'm sure you can see what I mean. It's something that's became hugely apparent in my time here - although Japan is very modernised (and some might say quite westernised), it also maintains alot of tradition. With young people going out in the summer wearing yukatas, traditional buildings in the middle of skyscraper districts and robots who can do tea ceremony, its easy to see where its desires lie, in a crazy mixture of maintaining the past while keeping ahead of the future. It's something that makes Japan a really special country, different from the rest.

The boat trip. For Matt's farewell party a bunch of us went on a cruise around Tokyo bay. An all-you-can-drink-for-two-hours-costing-only-£15 cruise around Tokyo bay. Amazing sights, seemingly free drinks and a giant lit up life-size Gundam replica in Odaiba, pretty much the best boat trip you could ever ask for. If anyone, and I mean anyone, comes to visit me in my exchange year here in 2011, they'll be treated (by treated I mean I'll organise it but they can pay for themselves, of course) to this cruise - its an awesome experience. Some of the best photo opportunities of the year, its just too bad I was too busy trying to tank more than my money's worth of free drinks to take many pictures. It just means that people will have to come on it with me to see for themselves!

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With about 2 and a half weeks left I still have a few plans for my time here. By a few I mean far too many to actually do, but I will try. I'll keep you updated on what I get upto (hopefully).

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Laters

Taikusai - The amazingness which is...

Well, the Junten Taikusai (sports festival) was today, and it was amazing. Nothing like sports day back in St.Aidans. It was held almost like an olympic event with speeches, tons of ceremonial activities, fanfare (supplied by the band) while the Japanese and Junten flags were raised, handing over of team flags, some crazy jogging military march (ichi, ni, shichi, SO-RE - or some such) by the student judges, and, ending the longest sentence ever written, even student 'staff' who took their jobs ridiculously seriously.

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All formality was soon dropped, although dropped doesn't really cover it... maybe dropped, spat on, set alight and then thrown down the well of informality and unadulterated crazy only to slowly die a painful death at the jaws of insanity. Or something like that. Merging that with the fact that this is Japan can only mean one thing - the opening event was a dancing show meant to warm the audience up, featuring crossdressing male maids, schoolgirls with horses heads and pikachu. The most awesome opening to a sporting event ever.

I essentially spent the entire day lazing around, talking to students, getting people to sign my 1-6 class t-shirt with crazy messages and watching kids (in official sporting events) beat each other over poles and hats. Class, pure class.

Here's a few descriptions of events to give you an idea of how a typical Taikusai might go:

Kibasen - Piggyback 'horse riding' event. Teams ride fellow classmates into battle to steal someone's hat. Basically, 3 people carry you, the hat wearer. Now go and steal the enemies hat, use fists if you have to. Some pics:

Tower-defence - Two teams. Two giant poles. Twenty students defending each pole. Twenty students attacking each pole. Simultaneously. Flying kicks allowed... no, mandatory. Oh and helmets also mandatory. Why allow needless injuries in mindless bloodsport? It's immoral.

Club races - Practice your sport with a partner for a minute. Now run to the starting line, carry your partner in your arms for 50 metres. Carry them on your back for 50 metres. Now switch to wheelbarrow mode. Now go for some good old 3 legged racing. Baseball and basketball teams seemed to win every time. Shorinji? Last. Good old Shorinji.

Yokasoi - Traditional Japanese dancing. Unless you're a third year senior in which case you dance to some crazy club remix of a traditional Japanese song.

Team skipping - 26 people on one skipping rope. Awesome madness.

Tug of war - not so interesting really.

Relay - ditto.

Martial Arts, Musical Instruments and Taikusai

A picture taken a little while back, just after my Sakura post maybe, when a few of us travelled to Gunma prefecture to catch some Sakura after they'd finished blooming in Tokyo. Could've blogged on that in the last post, never mind.

Part two of the June catchup. Just a little (a little... haha) on how its going over here in rainy Tokyo. Rainy season's started recently and we have the Junten Taikusai (sports festival) tomorrow. Why they couldn't have planned it, say, last month when it wasn't rainy season I will never know, but it should be good fun. We've been setting it up and rehearsing at Shinden campus today and yesterday, which for me consisted of doing nothing but chat to students (and some fun fights involving bandanas and me getting lashed in the eye might have taken place). Sadly the teams seem a little unfair - the entire school gets put onto either the red team or the white team. All of the english orientated classes (my favourite students by far), most of the english teachers and Erling have been put on the white team while, as you might have guessed from the build up, I'm on the red team. Should be good fun anyway, I'll just have to destroy Erling and Barney in the tug of war and the other teacher events.

I've finally got into gear and sorted out a martial art, although it isn't quite a traditional Japanese art. I've started Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, so if you go back 100 years ago it has its roots in Japan but as the name pretty much tells it isn't a Japanese martial art at all. Its quite expensive so I might be living on rice until pay day next month but it'll definitely keep me busy (and hopefully be worth the cash, although since I just got £100 from the Japanese government due to the recession its not so bad) since they have atleast 2 hours of classes I can attend a day - even more when I'm on holiday next month. After 4 training sessions my blue gi finally arrived today so I'll get to try it out on Sunday - I wanted the black one but decided that beginners in black gi's will just look like wannabe ninjas. Atleast now one of the three gi's I own isn't white! I'm really enjoying doing it but hopefully in a few more training sessions I'll be used to being choked every few minutes - I certainly wasn't the other night, and the armbars weren't so easy going either! Definitely alot of fun though, and the members are so welcoming, trying their hearts out to speak English and show me the ropes - even if the 'ropes' do involve being unable to move with someones legs in a triangle choke hold around my neck squeezing every last breath out of me. It's not dangerous, honest!

Another thing I haven't mentioned yet is that I have also been getting into the traditional Japanese side of things by learning to play the shamisen. It's a traditional Japanese string instrument - youtube it, especially the yoshida brothers for some contemporary shamisen music - and its so hard to play, despite there being so few strings. Rather than the plectrum you might use with a guitar, you use a hand-sized bachi and its not an easy case of strumming or plucking either. You have to use the bachi with the same motions you might use with a fan, you have to lift it back up after every note and hold it down on the skin of the guitar until the next note so that you get the full sound that you want. Great fun, I might not be able to keep it going when I get back but it's definitely worth it while I'm here.

Well that's what's going on in the life of me at the moment - I'll try to blog more before I leave, I'll have to see.

Sayonara

Wow I'm getting lazy with this...

Seems like its fairly difficult for me to be motivated to keeping this thing up to date. Anyway, my first update in a long time - and with less than a month and a half left in Japan! And only 3 weeks left teaching at Junten! Wow how time flies. It feels like it was only weeks ago I was in England soaking up the sun... no wait... and only days ago I was writing the exact same "it feels like" comment here at the 6 months in mark. I can't believe it's so close to being over - I know I'm definitely coming back for uni in a few years but it's devastating to think about this year, probably the best of my life so far, coming to a finish in a matter of weeks. So much I still want to do, and so much I'm just starting and won't get to properly finish here.

Anyway, to try to keep fairly up to date I'll quickly go over some things I've done in the past few months (as much as I can remember anyway) and then finish with a bit more detail on current happenings in the next post.

So, where do I start - I've done so much but when I try to think about what I've done to pen it all down its gone from my mind. Let's see:

The thai students - don't think I blogged about this. In April (I think, I really can't remember) 20 thai students came over to Junten for about a week. I did TONS in the week with them. Pretty much every activity they did, even. Disneyland - awesome, not as good as Paris due to the Frenchies having a much better Space Mountain; Flower arrangement - mine was ace; Tea ceremony - nice and sour tea; Kimono wearing - it's not a dress, no really; Goodbye party - thai curry is lush. Too bad i couldn't have blogged on this properly after I did, would've made for a good post.

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Mid year course - we had the 2-day mid year course in Ome which I don't think I've mentioned, maybe I have. We stayed in a really old Japanese house, maybe 300 years old, with paper walls, tatami floors, old Japanese armour and ceiling beams lower than the top of my head. Nice! We had a great time, 6 Japanese uni students, the 4 of us, Steve and Miss Nakaie. We cooked all the food (or I did my bit to help them cook the meals), had a good laugh, visited a disability care home, went for a nature walk and then finished up with an onsen trip (ergh onsen - far too hot for any longer than 5 minutes).

Enoshima - really nice place. Visited it with a few people - birds of prey, thousands of cats, pretty nice shrines, caves and jellyfish aswell as lots of nature. And then we went to the beach in Kamakura in the rain. Good fun - although I didn't get to see any of the shrines there which are supposed to be pretty amazing.

Thai festival - crazy festival in Yoyogi park. Curry, thai beer, muay thai fights, thai music, thai football (think volleyball/futsal but with only two people) and probably more that I've forgot.

Meal at Ten-Ichi - ridiculously expensive meal in a world famous tempura restaurant in Ginza. All paid for by a teacher from school, I swear I work with such nice people. Followed by a trip to a spanish bar and then an all night camping session outside of Hokutopia so that Yumi could get some comedian tickets - even though no one else was queueing, we had a good laugh watching breakdancers, drinking on the streets of Tokyo and heading to an empty mid-night Asukayama park for a go on the kids play area. Class.

Riverside drinks - really nice couple of drinks in a riverside cafe, literally on level with the river in Itabashi, as the sun sets. Followed by the necessary trip to a cheap Izakaya.

Barbecue - me and some people had a barbecue under a giant highway bridge by a riverside. There must've been hundreds of uni students doing the same thing and it was ace. Even when it started absolutely pouring down. Having 4 people hold up a blue mat to use as a rain shield has never been so fun. One lesson to be learned: only buy pre-prepared squid. When you buy a squid to barbecue (i.e. a fresh, full squid), when you cut it up brown ink will go everywhere. Not a nice sight and not a delicacy I intend to try again.

Dancing show - Kiyoka, one of my 2-7 students that I've taught since my first week at Junten was in a hip hop/house dancing show. Went along with some other students and despite the fact that I'm not into hip hop at all it was really spectacular, amazing show - and if she ever reads this, thanks for inviting me! It was really good!

Alot of karaoke.

Playing on my PS3 on a giant hi-def TV at Leon and Saori's house while Moro (the dog) tries to tear me to shreds, and nearly succeeded.

I'm running out of ideas now, but I've done ALOT! The most interesting few things will come in the next post though.

Laters.

Sakura

I forgot to post anything during the Sakura blooming season, and since its a few weeks gone now its a perfect time to look back and post some pics!

A cherry blossom is the name for the flower of cherry trees, also known as Sakura (Japanese kanji : 桜 or 櫻; hiragana: さくら) in Japanese. In English, the word "sakura" is equivalent to the Japanese flowering cherry.[1] Cherry fruit (known in Japanese as sakuranbo) comes from another species of tree.