Osashiburi! Winter greetings to you

Osashiburi (long time no see). I hope you are in good health and cheer for the winter holidays. In three days I'm flying back to the UK for Christmas holidays, so I'm excited. I've already packed one suitcase - it's full of Japanese goodies for my nearest and dearest.

I'm not looking forward to weather in the UK - it's been snowing for the last month with temperatures hovering way below zero. Japan's chilly 4 degree evenings are kind of balmy in comparison. But I'm looking forward to the warm welcome that awaits at my parent's home, seeing my family and friends and sharing stories from the last year. Part of going away on an adventure is about the excitement of sharing it with those you love.

But where to begin when talking about what it's like in Japan?

I'd like to be able to sum up Japan in a pithy sentence or striking image; give those who have never been a real insight into life and culture here. But Japan isn't so easy to pin down. It's a country of contrasts; of mountains and skyscrapers; kimono and dress suits; sushi and hamburgers; technology and nature; welcomes and isolations; old and new; fashionable and unfashionable. It's all of those things and more. There are many, many moments where I feel I've experienced something 'only in Japan'. Only in Japan would my elderly neighbour offer to carry MY bag because it looked heavy. Only in Japan would they put the eco-bag you just bought into a plastic bag, without even asking. Only in Japan could you admire the beautiful red leaves of Arashiyama in Kyoto, while eating one of them deep fried.

So far this has been an amazing adventure. The Japanese government have granted me a three year visa, so it looks like the adventure is to be continued. Fantastic.

Over the last six months, I've been lucky enough to pick up some private students, giving me an opportunity to earn a little pocket money and teach English in a different environment using different materials. Yesterday I was talking with one about inspirational speeches, and he showed me this one - Steve Jobs talking to Stanford graduates in 2005. It's a great speech, and certainly the first part echoes a lot of my feelings about the reasons I came to Japan: you just have to follow your heart sometimes, even if it's not the beaten path.

If you've never seen it before, enjoy - food for thought as we chalk up another year and welcome 2011. What will the next 12 months bring? You decide. Have a great Christmas and New Year!

Six month photo special ^_^

This week I celebrated exactly six months of living in Japan. And what a week for it - April is the first month of the new school year at ECC so I've been busy as hell in the last few weeks, training, planning lessons, getting to know new students and adjusting to my new schedule. It hasn't been a smooth week, but I'm sure I'll settle into things as the month goes on. Because time really seems to fly out here! I've already taught hundreds of students, eaten loads of different flavour kit kats and learned lots of new Japanese words. I've also taken hundreds of photos, so this time I'd like to share 6 of my favourites with you.
1: Training time! Dotonbori bridge, Osaka

This was taken in October not long after I landed. These guys trained with me and I'm happy to say we've all kept in touch, sharing the ups and downs of Japan, and ECC, together.

2: Hello Kitty! Universal Studios, Osaka

Living here instead of coming on holiday means I have time to explore the cool and quirky places of Japan, and take my time about it. Universal Studios is an American import of course, but it has a very Japanese twist, like these Hello Kitty trees. I faced my rollercoaster fear here, and laughed my head off.

3: Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake memorial, Kobe

A big part of coming to Japan for me has been about experiencing life in another country with another culture. On January 17th, 2010 it was the 15th anniversary of a massive earthquake in Kobe. I visited the museum to learn more about it, and how it affected the community. It was a fantastic, moving experience.

4: Dolpa, Kyoto

So I have a love of expensive Japanese hobbies - manga, anime, cos-play and dolls. When the Volks doll party rolled up to Kyoto I was there like a shot, and made some new friends to boot. These limited edition dolls cost more than half my monthly wage... so these are the only photos I'll take of them ^^;

5: Sakura, Himeji castle

Himeji castle is a landmark of Kansai, with its beautiful white walls standing the test of time (unlike many castles in Japan that were destroyed by bombs or natural disasters). Right now it's under cover for restoration work, so this month was everyone's last chance to see it for a few years. I combined it here with the coming of cherry blossom, sakura. This was something I'd always wanted to enjoy in Japan, and now I understand why people look forward to it so much. Just beautiful, delicate and so fleeting - like life itself, as they say.

6: Nipponbashi street festa, Osaka

The whole 'den den town' street is closed off for 5 hours just so people can wear costumes and take pics of each other. Why? Why not. Of course I had to join in. A fantastic, fantastic day - one of my favourites so far.

That's it for this post, hope you enjoyed the pics! :)

Regressing a little...

“How long are you going to stay in Japan?’ Inquiring minds want to know.
‘As long as it makes me happy.’ Is my answer. Truthfully, it’s as long as I get a visa too, but that doesn’t sound as good.

It’s been almost five months since I chucked everything into the wind to come to Japan, and I can honestly say right now I’m loving it. I find joy in something almost every day. I’ve decided it’s like being a child (only with more pocket money). Here’s why.

My current Japanese language ability is about preschool. Probably less. I can understand generally what people are telling/asking me and I can read simple kana. I’ve just started to lean kanji, and I’m excited about being able to read more things (with a full on manga book being my goal!) I rely on simple words and lots of gestures though.

Putting that to the test, I’ve finally joined a karate club, which relies about 90% on body language: I watch my sensei and the other students carefully before I do anything. I remember my former teacher, Master Johnson, saying actions were more important than words in teaching martial arts and I can wholeheartedly agree: I can’t understand everything my sensei says, but because his movements are clear, I can keep up with the class, even when we do partner work or more complex combinations. Overall, the club have made me feel very welcome. There are about 6 or 7 women at the beginner’s level and we all have one tiny room to get changed in. Which makes pre- and post-class very sociable times for me!

For those who are curious, here’s how the lesson goes. It lasts an hour, with a short break to put knee and leg pads on. The first half is mainly warming up, and Godo-sensei drills us on punches, blocks, kicks and squats. After we’re padded up, we do more kicks, push ups and moving back and forth in front stance. Then we pair off for combinations. These usually involve one person grabbing the other, and a technique to get out of it (much like grabbing techniques in my old club). We also do a few exercises using pads. Godo-sensei sets a timer for 1 minute so we only ever kick or punch a pad for that each time. That’s the part when I really like to work up a sweat, because I know it\s only for a minute I can go flat out! At the end of class we sit on our knees, hands in fists at our waist, to meditate for a minute. From that position we bow to Godo-sensei and each other – every member of the class to each other says ‘Osu.’ This is like a Japanese dojo greeting/thanks/acknowledgement. Then we have to clean the dojo floor, with brushes and with cloths, before we can get changed.

At the moment I can only go once a week, which is the only downer, I’d love to go more often, but as my work is mainly in the evening when the classes are, it’s impossible. Still, it’s great to be back in a martial arts club, I get such a buzz after each class and I have a feeling I’ll make some good friends there.

Making friends is another thing that takes me back to being a child. It’s like being the new kid in school, coming to Japan. You have to really get a feel for what’s going on and who’s who before you start to feel a bit more settled. You’re the newbie, so you’re a novelty at first and you can get away with a lot – but not for long. Before I came to Japan I read up on culture shock, and it said ‘beware of living in a foreign bubble.’ That is, coming to Japan and only socialising with westerners. It struck me as a funny warning (why bother coming to Japan if that’s all you do?) but I can see how easy it is to do just that. There’s loads of ‘western friendly’ bars and clubs and a big social scene at ECC. You might say the job hours (finishing at 9pm and later and allowing plenty of time for a sleep in) practically encourage you to slip into the bar next door once you’ve clocked off. And the truth is, basically, you don’t need to speak Japanese to live in Japan. Which is kind of good at first, when you’re a baby with no language skills, but who’d want to stay a baby their whole time here?

If I wanted to hang out in western bars, drinking western drinks and eating western food, I could have stayed in England. I’m not saying that I don’t ever want to do it, in fact I think it might help cure a bit of homesickness. But it’s not what I want to do every weekend. So I’m keeping my adventuring spirit, that got me here, alive.

One of my best friends from the UK, Caroline, came to visit last month and we had a fantastic time. It was great to see my friend, and hear about the things at home, but as I took her to some of my favourite places – Ikuta shrine, Don Kihote, Harbourland – it was also great to see Japan through her eyes. She brought along a guidebook to Japan, something I couldn’t bring in my luggage, and I was just as excited as her to leaf through it, as we planned my days off. For one day, we settled on Hiroshima, a place ‘that for the saddest of reasons, needs no introduction,’ as her book said.

Hiroshima. You know it’s the place they dropped a nuclear bomb. You know lots of people died. You might even know there’s an eerie looking monument called the A-dome, a skeleton of a building left exactly as it was after the bomb struck. But visiting there is still an education. Everyone in the world should have to visit, and then maybe we’d dismantle nuclear weapons once and for all. The peace park museum, just minutes from the A-dome, is jam-packed with information, photos, personal items, stories, facts, scale models, figures… it’s overwhelming. We rented audio guides, and I only stopped listening as we got to a glass case containing a rusty-looking tricycle and helmet. They belonged to a three-year-old boy who was playing in the garden when the bomb exploded. His parents buried the trike with him, because they felt he was too little to be alone in the ground. Heartbreaking.

When you return to the Hiroshima of today, with its nifty trams and shiny buildings, and cheery people who chat to you on the way to the next stop, you really have a new respect for it. The city was destroyed, but the survivors rebuilt their lives. They rebuilt their city. They were told nothing would grow again in Hiroshima, but the peace park defies that with its bushy trees and flowers.

Every day thousands of them pass the A-dome on the tram, on their way to work, school, home. I saw a few of them lift their eyes silently as we passed the A-dome again on our way out of Hiroshima. I couldn’t help but look too. Everyone should.
At the risk of sounding gloomy, visiting somewhere like Hiroshima was important to me, in helping me understand a little more about my host country. The bomb may have been dropped on just one city, but it would have affected the whole country, and not that many generations ago to my own.

English people in general don’t know a lot about Japan, but we’ve all heard of Hiroshima. And now I’ve learned a bit more, I reckon that’s a good thing. The city wants to keep telling every generation across the world its story, in the hope it will never be repeated.

So, I don’t want to remain a child in my knowledge about Japan and Japanese people. But to say ‘I want to know about Japanese culture’ is too vague and wispy a concept. I’m seeing it just like a huge jigsaw puzzle. Sometimes I get a piece of information here, or have an experience there, and they fit perfectly: ‘ahh! That’s what it’s about.’ I don’t expect I’ll ever have a complete picture, but if I enjoy the process, that’s the important thing. That’s what I really came here for.

I enjoy going to the supermarket and not knowing what everything tastes or smells like yet. I enjoy looking for a new kit kat flavour or gashapon toy in every shop. I enjoy my Japanese teacher explaining a new word, and realising I’ve heard it before. I enjoy picking a random subway exit and not knowing what I’ll see at the top of the stairs. I enjoy peeking out of the window when I wake up to see what the weather’s doing. What did you enjoy today?

Sorry it's been a while!

Happy New Year from Japan! We’re already a week in and it’s cold, but as I can see from the snow-laden facebook pics of my friends, still not as cold as the UK.

The Christmas and New Year break was a difficult time for me, my first ever away from home. Although I’ve lived away from my folks for over ten years, I always returned home at Christmas, making it a special family time. So unsurprisingly I felt a bit sad on Christmas day, although I was cheered a lot by a little gathering held at a fellow teacher’s house. We ate traditional Christmas foods, played games and watched a film together, and when I got home I was able to Skype with my family which really made my day. New Year’s eve was similar – I spent a few hours with fellow teachers but then was on my own again for the big countdown, again something I’ve never experienced before. A few friends were online which was great, but it made me miss them all tremendously, so I’ve already decided I’ll be going home next winter vacation to spend it with them. (Unless I meet a beautiful Japanese man to keep me entertained here. Well a girl can hope!)

I made the most of my days off anyway, going to see movies, exploring nearby Kyoto and Himeji and in a real first for me, I went snowboarding. Although the journey to Nagano prefecture took 12 hours on a fairly crowded bus (O_o) it was worth the trip. Beautiful scenery, getting some exercise, and eating traditional Japanese food as well as my first taste of an Onsen (Japanese hot bath). Wow. So after a day of snowboarding, a dip in the onsen and a meal of Soba noodles, boiled pork and vegetables, rice and oolong tea, I was fast asleep by 8.30pm on the tatami mat. I slept really well, as the snow drifted outside the window. It was kind of magical.

I have a fellow teacher, Chris, to thank for organising the snowboarding trip. Chris is from Louisiana, and he loves cooking, and learning Japanese. He seems very much at home here, and I think it’s because he has got to the heart of Japanese culture: the language and the food.

Food was always going to be a challenge for me, being a vegetarian, and a picky vegetarian at that. So I’ve had to be brave. Try things I would never have tried at home. So I tried real Sushi at last in Kyoto; the lovely Saki took me to a fantastic, homely restaurant where we got a massive plate of sushi for 1,000 yen (approx £7). I tried everything on the plate, and discovered I liked Salmon. Which was lucky, as it turned up for breakfast a few days later in Nagano. I’ve discovered I love Soba noodles (thin, made from buckwheat) but not Udon (the thicker noodles most common here). Of course, I love the desserts here. Oh my. The cake and waffles I’ve had would put the IHOP to shame. Japanese cake is somehow lighter, fluffier than the UK fare, but by contrast the bread is also white, sugary and thick. Luckily there are a few French bakeries around that sell baguettes baked the traditional way, and my local supermarket (a Co-op.. yes really!) sells English muffins. Curry has been my other new delight: the Japanese curry is sweeter and milder than those in the UK, and while it’s not authentic Indian, I think it’s delicious. Finding familiar chains from home has been strange and wonderful at the same time. Starbucks is exactly the same as the UK but it has cinnamon buns like the US franchises, and sells a smaller cup size. McDonalds fries taste the same, but their burger menu is a little different and they have exciting additions like the bacon potato pie (like a mini pasty). Subway is my favourite find so far: the same breads as the UK, but they have an avocado and veggie sandwich as an option, and loads of different fillings you can add as well as your salad, for example egg, tuna, more avocado. As a side, they do potato wedges in different flavours, and best of all, melon soda. I’m a little bit addicted to the green stuff. There are other big chains here: KFC, Pizza Hut, Dominos and even Krispy Kreme in Tokyo, but time and money has prevented me from trying them so far. Pizzas particularly are expensive: a medium pizza costs about £25, although you get a lot of toppings for that – Pizza Hut’s cheese harmony pizza has whole wedges of camembert on it. I believe they are delivery only as well, which makes ordering one a whole new mountain to climb. Oh yes. Bringing me back to the language.

The Japanese language is challenging, no doubt about it, but not impossible for westerners to wrap their brains around. Twice a year thousands of foreigners apply to take the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, which measures your ability to read, write, listen and speak the language. Run by the Ministry of Education, the test is graded into 4 levels, and less than half of the 52,992 people who took the highest level test in Japan in 2008 actually passed it. So no doubt it’s tough.
Well I’m a long way off applying for that test, as my Japanese lessons have only just begun again. I have a two-hour session every week with Takahashi-sensei, a sweet older lady who has volunteered her time for free to help me get to grips with the language. We use a handmade textbook with no pictures and scary looking tables about conjugating verbs. I wanted a challenge, I got it. But I’m lucky: I’ve got free lessons, my teacher is pretty patient and smiles a lot while I try to make sentences. So I’ve made myself revision flashcards at home to try and study every day a little more. I’m also trying to watch as much Japanese drama as I can, so I can see the actor’s expressions and tones when they’re speaking, as opposed to anime. Thanks to a film release and a recommendation from my friend Robby, I’ve fallen in love with the live drama Nodame Cantabile, which I feel is improving my classical music knowledge as well as my Japanese… well, that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.

When I’m not watching drama, studying or working, I find myself drifting around on the internet a lot, nibbling Pocky. To try and combat this I resolved this week to find a new gym or karate club. And I’ve already had a small setback. A fellow teacher Sara kindly invited me to her circuits club, and while the staff member was lovely and helpful to me, trying out her English as I tried out my Japanese, Sara was later told by her boss that I couldn’t join unless I could read Kanji, due to the safety notices the club has. It sounds like a fair point, but what’s frustrating is Sara offered to translate for me, and they said that wasn’t allowed. I have to admit I was disappointed, and I felt a little bit like it was personal – like they just didn’t want the hassle of trying to explain anything to me, ever. I wonder if foreign residents of the UK have ever had to deal with that kind of situation? Anyway. My overall feeling is, if they clearly don’t want me there, I don’t want to pay to be there either. I’ll take my money elsewhere. It’s a little bit disheartening – will every sports club have some safety notes I can’t read? – but Sara has kindly offered to help me find somewhere else to go, so I guess I’ve got to just put it behind me. And tell anyone who moves to Sannomiya to avoid that club! (Bodies, next to ABC cooking school in SOL) :-P

Anyway, I hope that joining a club of some sort will help me improve my Japanese too, so I won’t be easily put off. Martial artists are made of sterner stuff! Just like the weeks before a karate grading, it feels like my mettle is often being put to the test in this country. So will I pass? It’s not for anyone to judge but me. And I’m damn well gonna give it my best shot. So thanks to everyone who supports me with facebook messages, care packages and skype chats… I’m doing it for you too!

That's all for now - have a pic of me with fellow ECC senseis Robby and Sophie ^3^