Enough Ganbatte ?

Things in this part of Japan are returning to normality, but reminders of the wide range of problems the country is facing and will have to face for months to come, rear their head often. The upgrade of the nuclear disaster at Fukushima to level 7 and a 5.something earthquake yesterday very near to me have served to unsettle the people in my area again. This one was had its epicentre in Tochigi, only about 30km or so from my town and was the first since the 9.0 on 11th March in Miyagi to send things flying about in my apartment (another broken plate). I very much freaked out. The news has since said that this was officially NOT an aftershock of the Miyagi quake and has reminded us that other big earthquakes in various parts of Japan are an ever-present possibility (as they were before 11th March anyway). With these events still occuring, as resilient as the Japanese people seem on the surface, two drinking parties I have been to this weekend have shown how quickly the conversation turns to various concerns, once inhibitions are slightly lowered.

Understandably, people are very interested in what the UK government are saying and how many of my foreign friends in Japan have returned home. A couple of beers down and these sort of questions come thick and fast. Many people seem to have the impression that almost all foreign residents have fled to their home countries, which is grossly inaccurate if my friends are anything to go by. Even the people I know who did leave at first, have all returned to Japan as far as I know.

Last night, whilst at an open-air restaurant and drinking party in the name of charity for the people in Tohoku, I had a very interesting conversation with some of my Japanese friends about the word 'Ganbatte.' Without a doubt, this is one of the first pieces of vocabulary I learnt after my arrival in Japan. It is used all the time, with reference to work, sports, lifestyle, study... It is used when things are going well, or when things are going badly and need to be turned around. I like the translation 'to do one's best,' but Japanese people often translate it as 'to fight.' This is perhaps a little strong (but nice and pithy and easy to say for the Japanese), but I think it does often have slightly more persistent and tenacious connotations than simply to 'do one's best.' In a more negative situation, 'hang in there' may also be appropriate. It is used in so many situations, that it is probably a bit difficult to pin it down to one set English equivalent.

The Japanese media is currently flooded with adverts, speeches by politicians and celebrities and posters telling Japan, as a nation to 'ganbatte.' I have always thought it a fairly positive phrase and quite fitting for this sort of circumstance, but, many of my friends last night said that they found it a bit patronising to be told by the media to 'ganbatte.' The dictionary form of the verb is 'ganbaru' and 'ganbatte' is a sort of command form, so it is effectively saying to people 'do your best!' Friends' comments revealed that they felt they were doing their best anyway, what more could they do, they didn't need a politician or a pop star to tell them to do their best, as they would naturally do that anyway. Given how often the phrase is used in normal conversation, and having never picked up on a patronising tone to it before, I was surprised, as were some of the other Japanese people at the table, but, it was by no means just one person who shared the sentiment. They seemed to prefer 'ganbarou' which indicates that the person speaking is doing their best too, so that we should all do our best together. Maybe it's just been slight overkill, or that in such a serious state of affairs, it doesn't apply, but, for whatever reason, it is getting some people's backs up. I have also noticed that the term has been used in the foreign press a lot, such as the Independent front page on March 12th. I wonder if it has become a famous phrase in other countries in the past month? I don't think anyone would find it patronising from a foreigner though, as the sentiment alone is so appreciated.

With my level of Japanese, I can't understand all the connotations of the word, but, as most people seemed to agree that ganbarou was far more fitting, I will stick to that.

Japan, let's all do our best together! 日本！みんなでがんばろう！

Fuss Of The Day 5

1st April is a time for change in Japan. It's the first day of the new school year, and a bunch of new teachers start at every school. It also means that you have about a week of meetings following the 1st April, in which opinions do the rounds, time slows down and fuss abounds (TV Burp Poetry Corrrrnerrrr - I love Harry Hill). One such fuss was a 15 (no exaggeration) minute discussion about where we dispose of our paper. Many teachers gave very long monologues about where they used to put it at their old school, generally pissing all over Ita-where's system and how rubbish it is. I thought for the whole time that they were complaining that Ita-where doesn't recycle its paper, which, as a school with a hell of a lot of waste paper, I also find slightly ridiculous, so I was listening intently to the many teachers giving their ten pence worths. Slightly confused by the final decision which was 'we'll put paper in a box in the room with the photocopier in,' I asked the nurse, who sits next to me, where they would actually start recycling it and was told that the entire 15 minutes hadn't been about recycling at all, but rather about a new seperate bin for paper, because there is so much paper that the bins might fill up a bit too quickly (??)...another quarter of an hour of my life wasted, thank you very much staff fuss meeting.

BLANK Of The Day 6

An un-blank this time. I walked into one of my junior high 2nd year classes (14-year-olds) to find two girls singing to each other and jumping around in excitement. I said to them 'AKB48?' (anything longer than one word and they get lost). AKB48 are a ridiculously popular J-Pop girl group with about 75 members who all prance around in cheerleaders outfits and bikinis looking about 12, singing or chanting songs with 3 word English titles that still manage have mistakes in them. Sorry, went a bit Victor Meldrew then. Anyway...they said 'no...aburu labein.' I thought, I haven't heard of them before, they said the title was 'What The Hell' and thinking that that was incredibly accurate English for a J-Pop group, it dawned on me that they were saying Avril Lavigne!! All the most famous music artists in the world that these kids BLANK on, but they KNOW and LOVE Avril Lavigne!! Even to the point of them knowing a newer song by her than I do (not that I am exactly a big fan of the little weasel but still). Anyway, finally I have some kudos with my kids for being able to sing and understand some music that they like! This is what I was expecting right from the start of arriving in Japan, can't believe it's taken a year and half (except for I'm a Scatman)! So, I have fully jumped on the bandwagon and am a total Avril sellout, putting her on my English notice board and downloading the truly awful 'What The Hell' to play on the school radio soon. I am thrilled that Avril Lavigne is motivating my kids to like and learn English, but, I am slightly unsure as to how much of the lyrics of 'What The Hell,' a song that appears to be about not caring, sleeping around and being an annoying little weasel no matter what anyone thinks, I should explain to them...what a role model!

New Aftershock

7.4 aftershock off the coast of Miyagi again at about 11.30 tonight. The information on the news says that it was about a minute long - it felt about that long here (I ran outside and met the new neighbour who was doing the same, but he was also mid brushing his teeth and the ground was shaking so not easy to make polite conversation). It says that there are some power cuts in the Sendai area and that some trains and shinkansens have been stopped. TEPCO are still checking the Fukushima nuclear power plant. There are strong tsunami warnings in Miyagi and smaller ones up the Eastern coast as far as the tip of the island in Aomori and as far down as Ibaraki (not as far as Tokyo). Just for your info, peeps, I am totally fine.

Happy Tanjobi To Me!

Enough of radioactive earthquake talk. Let's go pre-quake, when all in Jappy was still happy. At the start of March, I was particularly happy, as (aside from having to confront the depressing fact that I am now TWENTY FOUR meaning that next year I will be half way through my twenties, meaning that old age is a stone's throw away) I had the chance to celebrate my birthday! I think it's fair to say that birthdays aren't as big a deal in Japan as they are in the UK, but, I thought, poo you Japan, I am gonna celebrate it and I am gonna bloody well celebrate it in style. The celebrations were not one, not two, not three, but FOUR FOLD. Go me.

Celebration 1 - Pre-birthday cinema. Two of my lovely Japanese lady friends took me to the cinema and for lunch on the weekend before my birthday, buying me a set of postcards by 18th-19th century Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai, paired with a sushi pen with the names of all of the sushi written on it (useful in so many ways...that's actuallly not supposed to be sarcastic) and a truly horrible egg sushi keyring, which I now have to use as I see them all the time. They already plagued my phone with the most effeminate, impractically shaped, loud ringy belly mobile phone strap I've ever seen in Japan, with a design surely aimed at Ann Widecombe or someone equally awful old-lady fashion-y, which refused to break for about 6 months and they have now done something just as tacky to my keys...will it ever end? We saw "Hereafter" with Matt Damon (incidentally now off screens in Japan due to the graphic tsunami seen - that scene was horribly realistic anyway, I didn't enjoy the film much to be honest). Then we went for lunch at an Italian restaurant, where I had the traditionally Italian sweet French crepe filled with dry salad...Nigella eat your heart out.

Celebration Number 2 - On the day celebrations. My boss text me as it turned midnight on my birthday and asked me what I was doing in the evening, so that she could bring me a present. I told me I would be in, and then she said that she would take me out instead. So, we went to an izakaya with her husband and another colleague of mine. I hadn't been there since my first month in Japan, so it was so nice to see how much I understood now compared to the last time! We ate an awful lot, drank some "local" beer, which turned out to be from miles and miles away and generally had a lovely old chinwag. They got me a mug with the Japanese flag on it and I also somehow wound up with the rest of a bottle of sweet potato shochu (a Japanese spirit) that we couldn't finish on the evening (still in the fridge a month later, I might add).

Celebration Number 3 - Party Time! My lovely ALT friends and I, who spend our whole lives sticking out like sore thumbs in our respective rural dwellings, came together in Tokyo, to stick out like two big fat sore hands. Present-wise, I got the biggest set of bright purple blankets off of my crazy friend, who somehow managed to smuggle them around without me noticing until she whipped out the biggest package I've ever seen...not quite sure how that happened, plus some manga, some funny sticker things that you can stick on your phone or material too that will make me look super-cool (as if I don't already) and a ticket to a football match. I got more than I got when I was at home in the UK!

In the way of celebrations, I managed (not without a large helping of fuss) to book a ridiculous bargain in the centre of Shibuya, one of the young fashionable night-out districts in Tokyo on a Saturday night. It was in the izakaya where everything on the menu is 270 yen, not sure if I've mentioned it before, but I love the place. It's a chain that always seems to be full. It has a computer menu which you use with a touch screen pen and also has an ENGLISH BUTTON! Woo! This particular branch is full of young people on Saturday night. It's the one near Tokyu Hands, if that helps anyone that knows Shibuya, but it probably doesn't because you are falling over those chains once every 3 steps there. Oh, it's the one by Outback Steak House. A pretty cool branch if you ask me. For 2,480 yen each (about 20 quid) we got 8 different types of food, including big nabes (huge Japanese broth type meals) and 2 hours all-you-can-drink. BARGAIN. We played silly animal and pointy drinking games, the rules I can't really recall and then some of us went out to Club Asia around the corner.

It was my first time there....main impression is that two people were sick on my leg in the space of about 10 seconds. I was literally mid-schock at the first sick episode and, before I'd had a chance to even tell my friend next to me what had happened, it was happening all over again. Apart from that, it was a club with a nice atmosphere, a lot of dancing, and, more than one room, allowing you to change when you got bored, or when you got sicked on. The night was called "Flash" and involved lots of Japanese people pretending to be cool and love electro and house music all night (including a lovely song in English that clearly only we understood, about needing the toilet) but then giving the biggest reaction of the night to the new cheesey K-Pop band Kara (see left). I ended the night with a kebab, a Japanese style breakfast, a sleep in a manga cafe and then a McDonald's and a Starbucks ham and cheese panini and painfully sweet sakura cherry blossom latte (I think I let out a groan at the sugary taste, when will I learn?). However, in my defence, it was my birthday and I did have two people's vomit on my favourite pair of jeans. Thank you friends for a wonderful evening in spite of various fusses and impracticalities!

Celebration Number 4 - More Food and Drink. Rather inconveniently scheduled on the evening after my big night out in Club Asia, i.e. on the same day that I'd been trapsing around Shibuya in sick jeans with a hangover, eating junk food, was a dinner and drinks with three Japanese friends in Tatebayashi. We went to my Taiwanese friend's Taiwanese restaurant. What I thought would be a simple and small affair, especially given that not a huge fuss is usually made in Japan for birthdays (just for things like choco chip pan and broken magnets), turned out to be truly one of my best evenings since being in Japan. My lovely lovely friends had invited more people (some that I knew, some that I didn't), making a total of 10 or so, I receieved gifts of handkerchief things (very common in Japan), a bath bomb from Lush which was shaped as a frog and turns into a prince when it goes in the water (yet to try it...sounds interesting to say the least) and, a VERY cool and for the first time since I've arrived in Japan, NOT tacky strap made of leather, and, indeed, made BY the friend that organised the party as he is a leather thing maker. I love it. Love love love. I am so cool now and I wear my phone so that it comes out of my pocket and everyone can see how cool I am. So lucky to be in Japan and not in the UK where doing that would lead my phone to get nicked as quick as the second sick episode followed the first. My Taiwanese friend gave us champagne and my friends had also had a cake made with my name on it. It was all just too nice for words, I actually didn't quite know how to react. I thought I was going to cry! But I didn't...that wouldn't have been too cool. I also got a two parcels sent to me, one from my friend at home with WINE GUMS and one from my parents with various chocolatey things and some money in my account from my family, which was spent on various clothes in Harajuku at Uniqlo and We Go a week before it was my birthday...so much for saving for travelling in South Korea in May :(. Everything I bought was on sale, and, what can I say, I'm weak. Embarrassingly, we had been studying birthdays in sixth grade at primary school, and in practice conversations I had been telling people my birthday at school. One of the teachers remembered and, on the day, had the kids sing happy birthday to me, and one of my kids from another school remembered from about three weeks before and that class sang to me the following day (the closest day that I was at that school). Lovely kids. Lovely friends. Lovely Japan. I may have had my ups and downs with living in Japan, but this was a week that truly made me sorry to know that I'm leaving in the summer.

Japan Three Weeks On

The 9.0 Miyagi earthquake struck just over three weeks ago now. It's been a fairly uppy and downy three weeks, for want of a better expression. The death toll continues to rise and the situation is still dire for many people in Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima prefectures.

The atmosphere where I live has been tense but calm. Generally, people have done their best to carry on with life as normally as possible. I admit to being a little bit freaked out by radiation reports every now and again, mainly because I know nothing about radiation and quite literally wouldn't know a gamma ray if it hit me. I'm not glowing in the dark yet though, so I won't be using the iodine tablets the UK embassy has distributed to us "just in case of the worst case scenario" for the time being.

A friend of mine was supposed to be visiting me here over the last two weeks, but, unfortunately had to cancel, as much due to practicality of travelling at the moment as due to health concerns. I used some of the holiday and transport that we'd already booked to take long weekend trips/evacuations to Osaka and Kanazawa. A certain amount of panic stirred up by various media sources has led to quite a few foreigners leaving Japan, at least temporarily, but I am happy with my decision to stay. In Gunma, it's been a few weeks of empty petrol pumps, pretty bare supermarket shelves, scheduled power cuts, fairly hefty aftershocks and elevated (but perfectly safe) radiation levels (except for in our spinach and かき菜 kakina, a Japanese leafy vegetable thing to the left there whose existance I was not aware of, until its radiation became dangerous, so that has affected my life precisely 0%). How it gets into spinach and kakina but nothing else, I have no idea, but, I have asked and been told and failed to understand...I have learnt not to ask again. I do not care. End of.

Over the last week, however, radiation levels have dropped (maybe I will be able to try some kakina soon), aftershocks have significantally decreased, petrol is available if you are willing to queue and pay a month's wages for a tank, supermarket shelves are back to normal unless you want yoghurt, milk, or pot noodles (don't ask me why) and power cuts have been cancelled almost every day for the entire week and are also off tomorrow. People have been told to save power...some people and companies seem to be taking this advice much more seriously than others, (ie some of the train stations have their escalators off, others don't, some of the massive screens in Shibuya and Shinjuku in Tokyo are off, but some aren't, some department stores seem to have one lift operating, whereas some seem to just have one token one shut), but, whatever we are doing, must be working, because there has been no need to carry out the scheduled cuts! The area of central Tokyo (the central 23 "wards," it's not a hospital, but for some reason the translation is "ward") is not having power cuts. To be honest, I think all the escalators and lifts except for one should be off in all department stores, because unless you have bad legs or something, if you really want something on the 8th floor enough, you can bloody well walk up and get it!! Especially if it will save some poor person in the countryside of Gunma having to go without lighting for 3 hours, but still, at least some effort is being made everywhere.

We are starting to get refugees arrive in my town. I will be teaching some of them next year I imagine (the school year starts in April in Japan, so, by next year, I mean next week). Some have moved into houses here and some are in one of the community centres. I will also be working the desk where people can drop off donations of clothing, blankets and dry/tinned food as the Board of Education representative one day next week. I've sent some other bits and bobs and have given some money to charity (there are people collecting EVERYWHERE and most shops, restaurants and schools seem to have collection boxes, which is lovely). I suppose I should think about doing more but I'm not allowed any time off in April and I'm a bit wary of going up there and just being a nuisance. I think they will need help for a long time, so maybe I can go later. It's nice that my town has taken some refugees though and from a selfish point of view, it certainly reassures me that where I am is safe from radiation!

In the mean time, I am getting through by treating myself to an obscene amount of chocolate and watching the NHK evening news reports with my new favourite person 青山祐子 あおやま ゆうこ Aoyama Yuko. She is so calm and trustworthy, and FAR braver than the wusses in the helmets, who just make me feel more scared.

The best newscaster ever.

The most chicken hard-hat newscaster ever.

Bottom line is, things here are safe, and touch wood, returning to normal. Things up north are still bad, so please give to charity or send things if you can! Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!