I have just been speaking to a friend on Skype and it's official...I have been away from England for too long, and I am now scared of going back. Everybody in Japan is so nice all the time, I can't bear to think of going back to being suspicious and angry and having to listen to loud people talking and playing music on the train.
The last few weeks have provided many many examples of Japanese kindness, and, as I can't be arsed to structure this post in any way whatsoever, I am just going to bullet point them:
* Possibly the shyest lady in the world, the librarian from my junior high school, took me to and home from the enkai last week (YES I am totally in the loop!) and has asked me to go for drinks at her house with her and her husband.
* My new landlords (husband and wife) have just come round to help me fix my TV, but couldn't (as my TV is too old to connect to this new flat's digital whatever) so they have just GIVEN me a TV that they 'weren't using' (which has 2011 written on it, so it is not only new, it is from the FUTURE) in an unfurnished flat for free and brought me chocolates and biscuits too! HOW NICE IS THAT??
* When I moved three people from the town hall wouldn't let me pay for a van or anything, they all used the town hall's van things and spent essentially a whole day helping me take things from one apartment to the next...one of them paid for lunch too and just wouldn't let me pay even to say thankyou (I gave them some sweets instead in a pretty little bag which is definitely the Japanese way to thank people).
* The home economics teacher from my school who is lovely and who I speak to sometimes (I go to the cooking club sometimes) went to Kyoto and bought me a fan there! I don't know her that well so there was absolutely no need, and I totally bum fans, so that made me so happy.
* I have started up a new scheme at school where every week I choose a conversational English keyword, the sort that isn't in their rubbish textbooks (so far: week 1-long time no see, week 2-easy peasy) and if the students come and say five of them to me over a term, they can have a prize, and it has gone down so well! Everyone has been so supportive (the teachers I mean) and loads of kids are taking part even though they don't really know what the prizes are...that would NEVER happen in England. They are even allowing me to announce the keyword once a week on the school speaker thing ( you know like the ones you wee on American TV shows like Saved By The Bell) even though it's blatently not important enough for that. Eveyrone has been so nice happy to support me with it, I'm over the moon! (Oooo, that could be week 3's keyword).
* When we turned up at the football, 3 of us had tickets and one of us didn't, and the ticket and no ticket entrance was different. Instead of just sending my mate off with a point and a grunt as I imagine they would in England, this little old man in a fluorescent yellow jacket walked my friend all the way round the stadium to the other entrace, helped her buy the ticket and walked her all the way back to find us. Later on, we were trying to quickly pour some beer out of the cans we'd bought in the shop outside into our paper cups and this man came over...in England it would be to confiscate them, shout at you, possibly kick you out, in Japan...it was to offer us the can recycling bag, and just kept telling us to take our time pouring, he would wait next to us until we'd finished.
This list could go on forever.
I heart Japan.
Showing posts with label flat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label flat. Show all posts
Wednesday, 21 April 2010
Saturday, 27 March 2010
Good Luck Always Comes in...SEVENS!!??
Basically guys, I am so happy at the moment. This is why these two new posts have taken so long, because, the problem with a blog I am finding is, that when I have a life to write about, I have no time to write about it. When I do have time to write, it is probably because I have not life and hence have nothing to say....hmmmm the trials, tribulations and issues of being a blogger. Anyway, the reason I am so happy are seven-fold (or more really but seven that I can be arsed to write about, so here it goes...)
1. I had a wicked weekend last weekend. It was long weekend (apolgies of the overuse of the word "weekend" there. I went to a famous town called Nikko, which isn't that far from me but I hadn't previously got round to going. It is beautiful with lots of temples and nature to be seen etc. Then I went to Tokyo for a proper party weekend. I made some new friends and got to know some other friend better. I got to practice loads of Japanese etc. It was very Japanese partying...I did karaoke, purikura (which are these wicked photo booths where everything is cartoony and colourful in the background and you can add patterns and writing afterwards...google it), went to two izakayas, which is like a Japanese pub restaurant, erm.... and just spent the whole time with Japanese people to be honest. Saturday night was a leaving do for a Japanese mate, who is actually going to live in London ironically. It was in a really cool modern bar, owned by Fiat the car people, for some reason. On Sunday, one of my new Japanese friends was DJing at this bar called Hell's Bar, which had crazy decor and stuff. It was a wicked atmosphere and great music...I had a great time. Previously to that we sort of started a mini-party in the convenience store down the road, to save money on drinks. It had a little table and we asked the guy if we could drink our drinks there, and wound up staying there for hours and popping back in during the night (hence a huge hangover). Anyway....can you even imagine being allowed to drink in a Spa or something for a few hours in the UK? It must be illegal, and people just aren't nice enough to let you do things like that....I heart Japan.
2. Everything is changing at work for the better. One of my main English teachers is changing next year (as of 1st April) and I've found out that the new one is YOUNG! WOOO! Maybe he will actually understand the importance of English and maybe he will have covered in his training what he/she is supposed to use me for, instead of just ignorning me/making me read from the textbook. I will talkk about my frustration with English education in Japan another time, but let's just say, that my relationship with my juniou high school teachers really couldn't get much worse...so a new, young one will be a refreshing change...he/she has only just graduated from uni so they should at least bring an open mind with them.
3. Another change at work is that I am getting a new supervisor. My supervisor is sort of my boss I suppose and just co-ordinates everything and sorts all things out like my schedules and my taxes and stuff. I really really like my current one, so it's not that I needed her to change. But she can speak no English, which can be a challenge, when talking about taxes etc. especially, and the new one can speak really good English. and I already know her! She's one of my mates from the town hall. And with all due respect to Yamada-san, my current one, who is incredibly Japanese, in a shy, indirect, don't want to cause any fuss type way, the new one is kind of open-minded and a bit ballsy for a Japanese woman, so will probably more pro-active than 10 Yamada-san's put together.
4. I am moving appartment! Mine is horrible, dirty and expensive. No details yet, but the new one should be newer, cleaner and cheaper, if a little smaller, but bothered. I am OVER THE FUCKING MOON, if you'll pardon my French.
5. There are things called enkais here, which are work parties basically, but they are kind of more important somehow...I can't really explain it. Anyway, I am not exaggerating when I say that I do not know one other JET who doesn't get invited to their schools enkais (I'm sure there are a few somewhere), and in fact, nearly every single one I have spoken to had their own welcome enkai in their honour when they arrived. I had....nothing. I have been invited to....zero. I hope this is not to do with me, but to do with previous JETs here being a bit shit or rejecting them and them giving up, and also that I am in so many schools, nobody really feels that I am important enough or something....I have no idea why but it's actually bothered me a lot because I would love to get to know my colleagues outside of work, with some social lubricant in the form of beer etc. Anyway, all this has changed...I was invited to the West primary school's (ironically my least favourite school haha) end of academic year enkai! Woo!! I will report back with how it went later.
6. Almost unbelievably...literally, Japan is random but this takes the biscuit, I was also invited to my juniour high school's end of academic year enkai at the last minute!! I am SO SO SO thrilled...it's about fucking time though.
7. I have ALSO been invited out by some people at the town hall, which many other JETs are regularly, especially the ones at lots of schools, but I never have been. My current supervisor apolgised that it had never happened before and we are going out together at the end of April. How all of these things have happened at once I have NO idea, but I am asking no questions. I am so so happy! Woo!
1. I had a wicked weekend last weekend. It was long weekend (apolgies of the overuse of the word "weekend" there. I went to a famous town called Nikko, which isn't that far from me but I hadn't previously got round to going. It is beautiful with lots of temples and nature to be seen etc. Then I went to Tokyo for a proper party weekend. I made some new friends and got to know some other friend better. I got to practice loads of Japanese etc. It was very Japanese partying...I did karaoke, purikura (which are these wicked photo booths where everything is cartoony and colourful in the background and you can add patterns and writing afterwards...google it), went to two izakayas, which is like a Japanese pub restaurant, erm.... and just spent the whole time with Japanese people to be honest. Saturday night was a leaving do for a Japanese mate, who is actually going to live in London ironically. It was in a really cool modern bar, owned by Fiat the car people, for some reason. On Sunday, one of my new Japanese friends was DJing at this bar called Hell's Bar, which had crazy decor and stuff. It was a wicked atmosphere and great music...I had a great time. Previously to that we sort of started a mini-party in the convenience store down the road, to save money on drinks. It had a little table and we asked the guy if we could drink our drinks there, and wound up staying there for hours and popping back in during the night (hence a huge hangover). Anyway....can you even imagine being allowed to drink in a Spa or something for a few hours in the UK? It must be illegal, and people just aren't nice enough to let you do things like that....I heart Japan.
2. Everything is changing at work for the better. One of my main English teachers is changing next year (as of 1st April) and I've found out that the new one is YOUNG! WOOO! Maybe he will actually understand the importance of English and maybe he will have covered in his training what he/she is supposed to use me for, instead of just ignorning me/making me read from the textbook. I will talkk about my frustration with English education in Japan another time, but let's just say, that my relationship with my juniou high school teachers really couldn't get much worse...so a new, young one will be a refreshing change...he/she has only just graduated from uni so they should at least bring an open mind with them.
3. Another change at work is that I am getting a new supervisor. My supervisor is sort of my boss I suppose and just co-ordinates everything and sorts all things out like my schedules and my taxes and stuff. I really really like my current one, so it's not that I needed her to change. But she can speak no English, which can be a challenge, when talking about taxes etc. especially, and the new one can speak really good English. and I already know her! She's one of my mates from the town hall. And with all due respect to Yamada-san, my current one, who is incredibly Japanese, in a shy, indirect, don't want to cause any fuss type way, the new one is kind of open-minded and a bit ballsy for a Japanese woman, so will probably more pro-active than 10 Yamada-san's put together.
4. I am moving appartment! Mine is horrible, dirty and expensive. No details yet, but the new one should be newer, cleaner and cheaper, if a little smaller, but bothered. I am OVER THE FUCKING MOON, if you'll pardon my French.
5. There are things called enkais here, which are work parties basically, but they are kind of more important somehow...I can't really explain it. Anyway, I am not exaggerating when I say that I do not know one other JET who doesn't get invited to their schools enkais (I'm sure there are a few somewhere), and in fact, nearly every single one I have spoken to had their own welcome enkai in their honour when they arrived. I had....nothing. I have been invited to....zero. I hope this is not to do with me, but to do with previous JETs here being a bit shit or rejecting them and them giving up, and also that I am in so many schools, nobody really feels that I am important enough or something....I have no idea why but it's actually bothered me a lot because I would love to get to know my colleagues outside of work, with some social lubricant in the form of beer etc. Anyway, all this has changed...I was invited to the West primary school's (ironically my least favourite school haha) end of academic year enkai! Woo!! I will report back with how it went later.
6. Almost unbelievably...literally, Japan is random but this takes the biscuit, I was also invited to my juniour high school's end of academic year enkai at the last minute!! I am SO SO SO thrilled...it's about fucking time though.
7. I have ALSO been invited out by some people at the town hall, which many other JETs are regularly, especially the ones at lots of schools, but I never have been. My current supervisor apolgised that it had never happened before and we are going out together at the end of April. How all of these things have happened at once I have NO idea, but I am asking no questions. I am so so happy! Woo!
Thursday, 11 March 2010
Clubbing in Tokyo and Staying in a Manga Cafe
This weekend was a mega party weekend, in which I went clubbing on both Friday and Saturday night, staying at a manga cafe in between...a manga cafe sandwich if you will. A manga cafe doesn't really do what it says on the tin at all...there is manga, and there is coffee, but it's sort of like an internet cafe, but each computer has its own booth with a closing door (yeah...high tech I know, a door that closes) that you can sleep in, there is a shower room and then you can help yourself to as much free manga and as many free drinks (HOTTO and COLDO if you don't mind) as you like for the time that you're there. I paid 1,500 yen, about a tenner, for 6 hours, which with the free internet, drinks, and shower, is almost cheaper to buy than not to buy by my reckoning. The drawback is that you have to sleep on a sort of padded floor, instead of on a bed, but I've been thinking that in the cheaper hostels here, you only get a futon, and I sleep on a futon in my flat, so what is a futon if it's not just a moving padded floor right? I know you might be thinking that in Europe you can find hostels for that money and have the luxury of sleeping in a bed, but believe me, in Japan, you can't. This was right in the heart of Shinjuku, one of the main areas in central Tokyo too, and where I'd been clubbing AND you don't have to book them in advance, you can just roll in. Basically, I bum manga cafes and I think my friends here are starting to think that I'm working for their marketing department, the amount I bang on about them!
One other disadvantage is that they smell of smoke and you feel like SUCH a dirty stop-out the next day when you are leaving, looking like a train has just hit you, trying to wring kinks out of parts of your body you never knew you had, and some (relatively) normal people are arriving to use it for it's actually for, which is to read manga. But then, they are getting up at the crack of dawn (or maybe more like midday :D) to come and read manga in a smelly manga cafe, so let's face it, nobody is in much of a position to judge if they are in a manga cafe.
Anyway, on to the actual nights out. I went out in Shinjuku on Friday and Roppongi on Saturday (we saw SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO wooo!) and I had a great time on both nights...I've made some new friends, both Japanese and foreign, so it was a bit of a success all round really. Clubbing in Japan is so strange. The etiquette of clubbing in Japan is just amazing...it's so polite, it's unreal. Nobody is bumping into you all the time, you have space to dance, the queue is orderly and quiet, the bouncers are nice, there's no litter/broken bottles/sick all over the place inside...it's wicked! But I will probably be desperate for a dirrrrty night out when I get back to London, cos maybe the fun in a Japanese night club is just a tad too controlled, but still, at least you're not scared to bump in to someone in case they punch you and you don't arrive home (or at the manga cafe) with sick on your shoe!
One other disadvantage is that they smell of smoke and you feel like SUCH a dirty stop-out the next day when you are leaving, looking like a train has just hit you, trying to wring kinks out of parts of your body you never knew you had, and some (relatively) normal people are arriving to use it for it's actually for, which is to read manga. But then, they are getting up at the crack of dawn (or maybe more like midday :D) to come and read manga in a smelly manga cafe, so let's face it, nobody is in much of a position to judge if they are in a manga cafe.
Anyway, on to the actual nights out. I went out in Shinjuku on Friday and Roppongi on Saturday (we saw SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO wooo!) and I had a great time on both nights...I've made some new friends, both Japanese and foreign, so it was a bit of a success all round really. Clubbing in Japan is so strange. The etiquette of clubbing in Japan is just amazing...it's so polite, it's unreal. Nobody is bumping into you all the time, you have space to dance, the queue is orderly and quiet, the bouncers are nice, there's no litter/broken bottles/sick all over the place inside...it's wicked! But I will probably be desperate for a dirrrrty night out when I get back to London, cos maybe the fun in a Japanese night club is just a tad too controlled, but still, at least you're not scared to bump in to someone in case they punch you and you don't arrive home (or at the manga cafe) with sick on your shoe!
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