Plan Changes

Today I'm writing the same thing in both English and Japanese. 今回英語にも日本語にも書きます！日本語がこの下です。

This blog post is procrastination. I'm just about to start reading a large Japanese book called "Sori Daijin Ozawa Ichiro" (Prime Minister Ichiro Ozawa) which is all about the politician Ozawa and his wishes to be Prime Minister. It's dissertation research but the prospect of starting it has in fact helped me get all sorts of other things done. 

Since my last post, basically everything has changed. I had my interview with the English Teaching company, and was told that I would need at least £3000 (plus plane fare) to be able to relocate to Tokyo, because of having to stay in a hotel while finding a place to live and the very very high fees you have to pay to find a flat. £3000 is a lot of money, and I don't have it, and I don't want to borrow it. So I decided, after a lot of thinking and one particularly humbling lecture from a surprisingly sensible (and brutally honest) friend, to ask to postpone the job application and work for a few months to try saving up the money. 

After I made that decision was when I found out what my friends and family really thought of the previous plan. It's like if your friends really hate your boyfriend, they won't say it until you've broken up with him, and then it'll be "Oh, don't worry, there's lots of much nicer people out there...". With me, it was "Well, yes, I'd say that's more realistic...", or "I think that's a sensible decision, mm...".  I know what they really mean is "yes, you were being an idiot before." Fair enough. It was more of a dream, to be honest. 

So right now I've put off the Japan applications and I'm applying for temporary office jobs and things for after graduation. I have an interview at Buckingham Palace, brilliantly, for a ticket sales assistant over summer when they open the state rooms. That's next week. Otherwise, right now I'm concentrating on passing my degree!

このブログは卒論の研究を始めないように書いている。この後日本語で「総理大臣小沢一郎」という本を読むはずだけど、読みたくなくて、読まないようにいろいろなことができていた。ｗ

前回から、企画のすべてが変わった。日本で英語教師の仕事を面接されたけど、いろいろなせいで東京に引っ越すために3000ポンド以上が必要だと教えられた。3000ポンドは相当なお金で、私が持っていないし、借りたくないから、無理だと決めた。結局、家族と友達の相談したうえで、日本に行くのが後にすることと、何ヶ月イギリスで働いてお金を貯めることにした。

実は、友達と家族が前の企画についての本当の思いが分かったときは決めた後だった。友達がきらいな彼氏ができたみたいだった。付き合っている間、友達はきらいでも何も言わないけど、分かれた後は「あ、心配しないで、彼よりもいい人はいるよ」のようなことを言うでしょう。私の場合は、「うん、このほうが現実的かもしれないね」とか、「これを決めたほうがよかったでしょうね」ということだった。でも本当に考えていることは「うん、前バカだったからね」ということが分かった。ま、それは本当だかもしれない。正直、夢のほうだったかもしれない。

だから今は、日本の仕事をとりあえず忘れて、卒業後のOLみたいな仕事とかを探している。夏の仕事のためにBuckingham Palaceの面接が来週あるけど、今は大体大学の試験を受けることに集中している！

Some Hope

I've recently applied for a job teaching businessmen (and possibly schoolchildren) English in Tokyo. I've got myself an interview, which was the first surprise, as I have no experience in teaching and no specific teaching qualifications. It seems to be a really respectable company, and the pay is probably better than what I'd get for a graduate position in England. 


To have a graduate job in Tokyo doing what I want to do, i.e. teaching adults, secured this early in the year would be unbelievable. Which is why I'm trying my best for it. It's just that, as I've found since the first time I ever applied for a part-time job in a printing shop back in London, I'm awful at interviews. I get nervous, freeze up and forget every word I ever knew. (You can imagine how I did in the recent Japanese language interview practice classes at university.) For this one, at least I won't have to speak Japanese, but even in English I have trouble. 


Also, the interview will be on Skype, which means I'll have to rely on the internet - never a good thing. 


Still, there's a small amount of hope building inside my head. And the very fact that I got an interview for this job is hopeful for others, if I have to apply again. 


So, in two weeks' time, I'll update you on how it went. Wish me luck...

New Ambitions

I left Japan from Hiroshima International Airport at 8am on the 13th August 2011. Two of my best friends came to the airport (one voluntarily, one following orders) to see me off. It was one of the hardest things I've ever done. 


I've never felt particularly drawn to writing about it, because I'd rather not recall the memories, but now there's a positive slant. 


Since the very day I left, I knew I wanted to go back, but I'm not an impulsive person (and I have a very level-headed family who think I'm a little insane), so I waited until I'd gotten back into daily university life to decide properly. Nothing changed. I still dream of Japan now in November as much as I did in August. So I made the decision once and for all, to try and find English teaching work in Tokyo for after I graduate this summer. 


It's quite a bad state to be in, but I don't live for the present right now. Everything I do is thinking ahead to getting back to Japan. And I know while I was in Japan before I didn't keep up my blog very well, but I'd really like to try and keep writing about the process of finding work, getting back there, and starting teaching. 


So those are my new ambitions, and I hope you can cheer me on! 

Hisashiburi desu...

The title means "it's been a while". Sorry about that. I don't get much urge to write about things.

Well, a lot has happened since my last post - most noticeably, I went to see my favourite band in the whole world ever, Radwimps, live, and words cannot express how amazing it was. I didn't think it was possible to love them more, but I was proved wrong.

It's nearing the end of the rainy season and it's been very, very hot and humid for weeks now. One thing I've noticed - you never see Japanese people sunbathing. Caucasian people try their very hardest to be darker, but Asians see white skin as beautiful and do everything they can to keep theirs as pale as possible. It's common to see women walking around with umbrellas up when the sun is out. Another thing is that the Japanese have developed a very heat-friendly fashion sense - in England when it's hot people wear as little as possible and show as much skin as possible, but the Japanese just go with light and loose. It's practical and protects against sunburn - there's still people walking around with long sleeves. I don't know why the West hasn't caught on to this.

Naturally, with only a month or so to go, we've all started thinking about leaving. We had a meeting today to sort out how to cancel our internet and phone, how to move out of the dorms, etc. It's all getting a bit more real. I'll not lie, there are things I'm definitely looking forward to having back: BBC iPlayer, Marmite, savoury bread, HP sauce, roast dinners, chips, being able to phone official people instead of making Japanese friends do it, Meadowhall Shopping Centre, London... actually, I've been steadily making the list in my head to convince myself going back won't be that bad. But the fact remains that whatever I miss from my home country, it's far less than what I will miss about Japan. To be quite honest, I could do without most things, but it's the people I don't want to leave. We've formed an amazing close-knit group of friends here and I can't, or don't want to, imagine being away from them.

As a result of this, the mood is slowly turning to one of impending doom. The words 「あ～、帰りたくねぇな」("Aa, I don't wanna go back") are heard at some point in every conversation. So right now, we're just trying to make the most of our last few weeks together. We're slowly getting through the "We Should Really Do That Before We Go" list, which mostly consists of restaurants we've seen/heard of but never gone to, or restaurants we've gone to but only once. Yes, a lot of eating is involved. No, I'm not complaining. I think the Japanese restaurant next to Japan Centre in Picadilly Circus will be my Mecca for the next few years until I can get back to eat the real thing.

And I will get back, I hope.

Music

It seems, unlikely, I know, but Japan's rock music industry is huge. Since I've been here the quality of the music is one of the things that's really struck me. Actually I've decided to write my dissertation on it next year. But anyway, what I wanted to do was introduce a couple of bands I've come to know, because really, if some of them had been born American, they'd be world famous. I find it a real shame that generally, if people can't understand the words straight away, they don't even try listening.

One thing - I know some of them have strange, messed up English names, but look past that. Anyway, here's a few bands I really recommend looking up on Youtube (most of them have official legal channels):

Radwimps

Well, I can go on about this band for hours, as my friends here know. One of the best bands, musically, I've ever heard. These guys have, over the course of six albums so far, covered almost every variety of music you can think of, all while keeping a distinct Radwimps sound, with picky guitar lines, genius lyrics, and most of all the singer's very unique high clear voice. The singer (Noda Youjirou), as it happens, is also the sole composer, writing all the music and all the lyrics. His voice isn't the strongest, I'll admit, but he knows how to use it, and he writes music for himself in that knowledge. And, best of all, I'm going to see them live in June *jumps around in excitement*.

Songs to look up: おしゃかしゃま (Oshakashama), セツナレンサ (Setsunarensa), 狭心症 (Kyoshinsho, 'Heart Attack'), 揶揄 (Yayu, 'Ridicule')... Well, there's a selection, but all the ones on Youtube are worth listening to.

ONE OK ROCK

These guys sound like a cross between about five punk-pop bands I used to listen to when I was in secondary school. They're brilliant. The singer, hilariously, was an original member of a cheesy pop boyband called Kat-tun, who are still very much at the top of the charts, but couldn't be more different to what he gave it up for. Thank goodness he did, though.

Songs to look up: アンサイズネア (Answer Is Near), 自分 Rock (Jibun, 'Self Rock'), Keep It Real.

シド(Sid)

Okay, this band are in the genre Visual Kei, which is an almost exclusively Japanese thing, and can seem a bit weird to people who haven't come across it before. Basically they have a very distinct look, which involves over-done hair, makeup and clothes. Actually these guys are pretty normal compared to some other ones I could name (cough cough Vidoll cough), and their music is really good. Also, it's worth looking up The Kiddie as well - they have a slightly different more in-your-face visual style (it's called Oshare Kei) but their music is also pretty good.

Songs to look up: 乱舞のメロディー (Ranbu no Melody), レイン (Rain). The Kiddie: Smile, Elite Star+.

Acid Black Cherry (ABC)

This is in fact less a band and more a vocalist with backing musicians. The vocalist in question, known simply as Yasu, was the singer of a very very famous and popular Visual Kei band called Janne D'Arc, and when they split up he went solo with new band members. He's one of the strongest Japanese male vocalists I've heard and he has one heck of a stage presence. The band's music is heavier, around the middle of the Visual Kei spectrum I'd say. One note: ABC rather like dressing up as their alter-egos, girls and geeks, and having very silly music videos.

Songs to look up: Black Cherry, 眠り姫 (Nemuri Hime, 'Sleeping Princess'), 20th Century Boys

Doping Panda

Stepping away from the rock for a minute, these guys are a bit different - punky electro dance pop, is how I can describe it. But they're fantastic. And mad. And they have a name which makes people on youtube find them accidentally while hoping to find a video of a panda on drugs. Not me, I'd like to point out, other people on the internet. Oh, they also write a lot of their stuff in English. Well, not perfect English, but you can forgive them for that.

Songs to look up: Beat Addiction, Miracle, Nothin'

I could come up with more, but I think that's enough to be getting on with. Oh, just one more thing - the song 'Tonbi' by Androp is absolutely divine, but unfortunately is their only notable track. Still very very much worth listening to, though. I had it on repeat for two days.

Lecturers

We started lectures again two weeks ago. Due to bad scheduling, almost everything I wanted to do clashed with something else I wanted to do, so I ended up with very little choice. Timetable wise, I have Wednesdays and Fridays free, with four lectures in a row on Thursdays and three spread between Mondays and Tuesdays. It's probably the worst timetable I've ever had. Yes, I have a lot of free time, which might sound fantastic, but in a tiny little country town like this, there's nothing else to do but go to lectures.

Apart from that, the lectures are much the same as last term: generally boring, with a few rays of sunshine here and there, and very very easy to pass. One of my classes requires 60 points to pass, and gives 60 points if you turn up to every lecture. As we've found, Japanese universities don't put too much emphasis on actually studying. It's bad for me; I've become very lazy since being here and going back to England is going to be a shock.

Grumbling aside, what I was going to write about was a trend we've noticed among Japanese lecturers. Basically, they ramble. I don't mean they go walking over moors looking at flowers, I mean they spend 90 minutes of a lecture talking about everything except the actual subject.

My level 4 Japanese language teacher is a fairly good example (he once spent twenty minutes at the beginning of a lesson teaching us about palm reading), but the worst I've experienced is my new Classical Japanese teacher. In the first lecture we had with him, we did around ten minutes of actual work, and spent the rest of the 80 minutes listening to him air his views on a range of topics. His name, as we learned, can be read both Tawata and Tawada, but is indeed definitely Tawata, and any poor soul who gets that wrong must beware the consequences. Korean characters, as well as Japanese ones, are also derived from Chinese kanji. The phrase "I think, therefore I am" is said in old-fashioned language in Japanese, English and French.

The second lesson brought us discussion on the stupidity of English plurals, particles in Russian, and Japanese puns. If the rest of the term is the same, I will come away with absolutely no knowledge of Classical Japanese, but a large range of fascinating and entirely random facts, mainly based on Languages of the World.

Well, it should be fun, at any rate.

Spring

Japan is famous for its cherry blossoms (sakura).

For the last four days in a row, I have been to four different sakura-viewing parties (花見, hanami, literally "flower watching") in the same place. My mother, on hearing this, responded with a sarcastic comment about the wild life of teenagers these days, so I felt it was important to explain the concept of hanami to those who are less in the know.

In Japan, the sakura obviously have a massive significance, although exactly what, I'd have to look into. Every year they all come out at almost exactly the same time; in fact, a friend told me that on our campus, the sakura trees along one particular road purposely all have the same DNA, and therefore flower at exactly the same time every year. So, couples, friends, families and other groups go to sit among the trees and admire their beauty.

I got the idea, from a rather rambling teacher, that traditionally hanami is quiet reflection, revelling in the beauty of nature, poem writing, that kind of thing. Nowadays, however, at least among young people, it usually involves a lot of alcohol, snacks and general merriment. I say among young people, but today while we were sitting there, a group of middle-aged men came and set up a barbeque right underneath a sign which said "Barbeques prohibited".

So I hope that clears things up for my mum.