Alright, so I've been busy again recently. Too busy to even get on Skype with my dear old Mum, sorry Mum. In the next few days I'll endeavour to type up a few of my recent distractions.
Now, I'm sure you're all wondering what happened as a result of my visit to the dentist. Well, guess what Mum, I've had two root canals done now! Yes, after spending thousands on my teeth in the past year, they continue to be the single most annoying part of my body. I can definitely add this experience to the long list of insane experiences here that have surprised me by showing me my ability to handle difficult situations (particularly of a personal nature) are much better than I thought.
As luck would have it, one of the students at my eikaiwa (English conversation school) just happens to be a dentist. Best of all she is a lovely lady and was only too happy to help me out in my hour of need. Filling out the forms entirely in Japanese was as enjoyable as ever. I'm getting better at writing the characters for my street address here but I still have to look at a card in my wallet to get it completely correct. The receptionist spoke very little English so we had a great conversation in a mix of baby English and Japanese with a whole lot of body language and mime. Actually that's one benefit I can say for this experience, my Japanese vocab now includes such gems as "cavity", "tooth", "dentist" and "appointment" ("pain" and "painful" were already there, thankfully).
The layout of the dental surgery was very different to an Australian one. Consider a hairdressing salon minus the mirrors plus a whole lot of drills and lights and some low partitions between the chairs. The same dentist seems to be performing at least three operations at once, darting between the chairs. This was incredibly disconcerting at first but the army of incredibly polite and cute (as always) assistants were on hand to allay any fears and perform the menial tasks.
My X-ray revealed big troubles in little teeth. Not one but two would have to have root canals performed on them (which the Intertubes tell me is actually called a "pulpectomy"). The dentist delivered this news in a very friendly manner, devoid of any of the concern and condescension that I was so used to from my Australian dentists that I was completely nonplussed. Perhaps all that condescension was lost in translation. Perhaps root canals are pretty par for the course on people my age over here (entirely believable if you've seen the average Japanese person's not-so-pearly whites). Perhaps the Japanese believe politeness transcends the need for stern, frank medical advice. Whatever the case, the operation was under way before I had even had time to really consider the severity of my situation.
It wasn't until big, long metal wires were being thrust up through holes in my teeth right up into my brain (or so it felt) that I began to panic. It took the dentist three times the usual amount of anaesthetic to completely numb my two teeth (or so she said). In fact in the end she had to continue the operation while I still had a small amount of sensation in one of the teeth, an entirely terrifying experience. She only hit the nerve bang on once but it was enough to send tears streaming down the sides of my face.
Once the operation was over, the dentist hit me with the really really good news. I was going to have come back every Monday for the next four weeks in order to get the holes checked and cleaned. Hopefully on my fifth visit she can seal up the holes. So for those of you who maybe didn't put two and two together there, yes, that means I will be visiting the dentist on Christmas Day.
Anyway, continuing on, once out of the chair I proceeded to have one of my most lonely and scary moments in Japan. I used up almost all of the cash in my wallet paying for the day's festivities so I needed to find an ATM before I would be able to purchase the pain killers and analgesics I so desperately required. As luck would have it, my bank UFJ, did not seem to have an ATM anywhere within walking distance. The anaesthetic was beginning to wear off, it was a freezing 5 degrees outside, I was alone and in no state to be trying conversation in a foreign language. I tried my luck with the Post Office ATMs but the bastard machine kept telling me my card wasn't supported despite the UFJ logo being displayed above the keypad. I tried two other banks' ATMs and met with similar results. I was just about to cry for my Mum in the middle of Hiroshima when I bumped into a friend with great Japanese skills. Talk about lucky escape. Armed with his linguistic prowess we managed to retrieve money and aforementioned pharmeceuticals in short time.
The dentist had assured me that the analgesics she prescribed for me were the "strongest in Japan". If that's the case, I truly do weep for this country. Someone teach the government here the joys of codeine and ibuprofen ... and fast. I'd rather not give too much away here, but suffice to say a fellow Australian "helped out a mate" and so I was able to get some decent sleep that night.
So much for keeping these entries short!
I have to run off to work now, so I will leave you with a crappy haiku I typed into my phone one night while waiting for my food at a local restaurant.
I watched a man eat
udon. Slurping, he watched me
wait for mine to come.
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
When it rains it pours
I'm typing this while looking out on a spectacularly rain-soaked Hiroshima. I'm sure there are much more extreme climates for rainfall, particularly in the tropics, but at least compared to Melbourne this city is pretty amazing. The rain is so dense and the city's drainage systems so poor that it's only a matter of minutes before Hiroshima begins to feel like it is sinking back into the ocean from whence it came. (To the best of my knowledge the city is built largely on "reclaimed land". I assume this is why the rivers running through the city rise and fall at least a metre each day with the tides).
You might think this is another whinging update but the truth is far from it. I love a good downpour, especially when observed from the comfy couch of a cafe with hot coffee (I wish I could use "great" instead of "hot" but it is Japan after all). People of all walks of life continue to commute on their bicycles even when the rain is coming down so hard that it makes motorcyclists think twice. Women in business suits, high heels and burdened with LV handbags continue to pedal away with perhaps a thin plastic poncho their only protection.
If you're desirous of some resolution to my last post, I shall indulge you shortly. However now I must head off to work (at the leisurely hour of 3pm, oh yes).
You might think this is another whinging update but the truth is far from it. I love a good downpour, especially when observed from the comfy couch of a cafe with hot coffee (I wish I could use "great" instead of "hot" but it is Japan after all). People of all walks of life continue to commute on their bicycles even when the rain is coming down so hard that it makes motorcyclists think twice. Women in business suits, high heels and burdened with LV handbags continue to pedal away with perhaps a thin plastic poncho their only protection.
If you're desirous of some resolution to my last post, I shall indulge you shortly. However now I must head off to work (at the leisurely hour of 3pm, oh yes).
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
A dark place
Maybe it's the painkillers. Maybe it's the alcohol (an incredibly irresponsible combination I know). Maybe it's the fact that it's 2:30am and neither of the aforementioned seem to be doing the slightest to quell this throbbing, aching, agonising pain coming from my front right tooth.
This is by far my darkest moment in Japan thus far. I spent well over $2,000 on dentists before leaving Australia (removing wisdom teeth and other such maintenance) SPECIFICALLY to avoid situations like the one in which I am now festering.
"Everything looks good" they told me.
"Come and see us when you get back" they said, laying the foundations for my false hopes; that all would be merry in my mouthful of money pits.
Now, it wouldn't be so bad were it not for the fact that Japan is devoid of painkillers that do ANYTHING at all related to "killing pain". Not even when I went to the hospital with a busted ankle, gritting my teeth as my friends helped me limp in the door, did they give me anything strong enough to be even detectable let alone useful. There are products for sale with little pictures of stylised men clutching their heads and throats which I'm beginning to believe are more intended to indicate your behaviour post-consumption rather than pre.
"You've gotta take about 8 of them at once." one expat here told me. Thanks for the advice, dear, and while I may be stupid and reckless enough to mix my painkillers with whiskey, I won't go shoving half a packful of something down my throat when I can't read a single word on the packaging.
I really don't understand it. Maybe it's because Japanese have a lower average body mass and just like they get drunk quicker, the analgesics have more effect at lower dosage. Maybe it's a cultural thing, pain builds character. "The will of the samurai" or something like that. Whatever it is, right now I would sell a kidney for a crate of codeine and ibuprofen. Stupid cliche I know, but you really don't know what you've got till it's gone. Deprive people of their usual analgesics and I bet you'd have riots and/or a booming heroin trade before morning.
So tomorrow (well later today) I have to go and find a Japanese dentist. If you'd seen the average person's teeth here you would have to doubt their existence but luckily the Hiroshima city website insists they do. From what I can understand of my private health insurance arrangements I have to pay 100% of the private health system costs up front and then wait months and months for reimbursement. Oh rapturous joy. Still, being broke sounds like a piece of cake compared to this agony I'm in now.
I realise this entry is probably quite embarrassing, both for its puerile tone of self-pity and its utter lack of points of interest for anyone reading it. Well, consider this me jumping the shark. Or maybe I'll come back and delete it once I've returned to sanity's shores.
This is by far my darkest moment in Japan thus far. I spent well over $2,000 on dentists before leaving Australia (removing wisdom teeth and other such maintenance) SPECIFICALLY to avoid situations like the one in which I am now festering.
"Everything looks good" they told me.
"Come and see us when you get back" they said, laying the foundations for my false hopes; that all would be merry in my mouthful of money pits.
Now, it wouldn't be so bad were it not for the fact that Japan is devoid of painkillers that do ANYTHING at all related to "killing pain". Not even when I went to the hospital with a busted ankle, gritting my teeth as my friends helped me limp in the door, did they give me anything strong enough to be even detectable let alone useful. There are products for sale with little pictures of stylised men clutching their heads and throats which I'm beginning to believe are more intended to indicate your behaviour post-consumption rather than pre.
"You've gotta take about 8 of them at once." one expat here told me. Thanks for the advice, dear, and while I may be stupid and reckless enough to mix my painkillers with whiskey, I won't go shoving half a packful of something down my throat when I can't read a single word on the packaging.
I really don't understand it. Maybe it's because Japanese have a lower average body mass and just like they get drunk quicker, the analgesics have more effect at lower dosage. Maybe it's a cultural thing, pain builds character. "The will of the samurai" or something like that. Whatever it is, right now I would sell a kidney for a crate of codeine and ibuprofen. Stupid cliche I know, but you really don't know what you've got till it's gone. Deprive people of their usual analgesics and I bet you'd have riots and/or a booming heroin trade before morning.
So tomorrow (well later today) I have to go and find a Japanese dentist. If you'd seen the average person's teeth here you would have to doubt their existence but luckily the Hiroshima city website insists they do. From what I can understand of my private health insurance arrangements I have to pay 100% of the private health system costs up front and then wait months and months for reimbursement. Oh rapturous joy. Still, being broke sounds like a piece of cake compared to this agony I'm in now.
I realise this entry is probably quite embarrassing, both for its puerile tone of self-pity and its utter lack of points of interest for anyone reading it. Well, consider this me jumping the shark. Or maybe I'll come back and delete it once I've returned to sanity's shores.
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Kindness
Japan can feel like a cold country sometimes, especially for those who don't speak the language. Many expats here will be able to tell you what it feels like to sit on a train/street-car/bus and have people choose to stand for the whole journey rather than sit next to a foreigner. Stories like that are common so I've decided to post a positive little missive to provide contrast.
Less than 3 hours ago I was eating lunch with a friend in one of our regular little haunts, Nakau (click for photos). The food was cheap and tasty as usual although a group of 8 office girls in their early to mid 20's wouldn't stop staring at us and giggling which makes it a tad difficult to eat. We finished up and took off in the afternoon winter sunshine. A few blocks away we heard the sound of hurried footsteps approaching us from behind so we spun around. There in front of us was a very flushed Nakau staff member clutching 580 Yen in her outstretched hand.
"You left some money!" she told my friend in Japanese while politely bowing.
No sooner had my friend accepted the money when the staff bowed again and took off at top speed back towards the restaurant. It definitely gives you a warm feeling to know that people in this country will not only NOT take your money when given the opportunity, but they will run a good 300m or so to return it to you!
On a very related note, this same friend left their ipod in a netcafe connected to a computer. A staff member caught up to them a good 500m away from the netcafe while my friend was waiting to cross a busy street. Out of breath but no less polite, the staff member dutifully returned the ipod to my startled friend. I assume being a 185cm tall white woman certainly helps these staff members in tracking down forgetful foreigners.
Less than 3 hours ago I was eating lunch with a friend in one of our regular little haunts, Nakau (click for photos). The food was cheap and tasty as usual although a group of 8 office girls in their early to mid 20's wouldn't stop staring at us and giggling which makes it a tad difficult to eat. We finished up and took off in the afternoon winter sunshine. A few blocks away we heard the sound of hurried footsteps approaching us from behind so we spun around. There in front of us was a very flushed Nakau staff member clutching 580 Yen in her outstretched hand.
"You left some money!" she told my friend in Japanese while politely bowing.
No sooner had my friend accepted the money when the staff bowed again and took off at top speed back towards the restaurant. It definitely gives you a warm feeling to know that people in this country will not only NOT take your money when given the opportunity, but they will run a good 300m or so to return it to you!
On a very related note, this same friend left their ipod in a netcafe connected to a computer. A staff member caught up to them a good 500m away from the netcafe while my friend was waiting to cross a busy street. Out of breath but no less polite, the staff member dutifully returned the ipod to my startled friend. I assume being a 185cm tall white woman certainly helps these staff members in tracking down forgetful foreigners.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Autumn is stunning in Japan
I've uploaded a bunch of photos from my very recent trip to Sandankyo with my girlfriend, Yuki. The colours really were amazing, quite often so bright they seemed artificial. I'm beginning to feel pretty limited with my little Canon IXY70 but it's just so convenient and portable that I couldn't part with it.
Enjoy the red leaves over on my flickr account http://www.flickr.com/photos/sa-e-mo-n/
Enjoy the red leaves over on my flickr account http://www.flickr.com/photos/sa-e-mo-n/
Monday, November 27, 2006
Let's try something new...
Alright, so through careful consideration of the mountains of feedback I've received from all my dear readers (one skype call from my brother Nick) I have devised a new system here. For want of a better label we could call it "random musings". Yeah, hardly unique on the Internet. I'll still write up lengthy recollections of events and happenings but I shall intersperse this with much shorter musings on a more frequent basis. More accurately perhaps, I'll still intend to write those long posts and invariably fail to deliver. I think the shorter musings will have a much higher success rate. So without further delay here's the first:
Japanese highways.
Expensive.
Magnificent engineering feats.
I can still remember my bus ride out of Tokyo (much cheaper to get home to Hiroshima on the highway bus, 11 hours, than the bullet train, 4.5 hours) which left the very central Tokyo station and, after only a few city blocks, rose up onto a highway/expressway (I never know which is the correct term to use) and proceeded to glide out of Tokyo without having to stop at a single set of lights. Pretty incredible, although understandable considering it is one of the most densely populated cities in the world and there was no shortage of government money when they were trying to pull their economy out of recession.
For those readers of mine who have played any of the Need for Speed games of late (which I suspect is a worryingly high percentage) you can picture the highways of Japan as being very much like in that game. Huge concrete rivers that allow cars to whip around the city uninterrupted. The only downside is the insanely high tolls. Driving between Hiroshima and Kobe (about 450km I think) would cost you over $100 in highway tolls, or so I have been told by friends here.
The thing that really blows me away every time I travel across Japan is the enormous numbers of bridges and tunnels. The country, or at least Hiroshima prefecture, is so mountainous that the highways look like the engineers just said "fuck the mountains, we're going in the most direct route and that's that." They just draw an imaginary line between one city and the next and just dig tunnels or construct bridges to fill that line with highway. On a recent trip to Sandankyo (a small town in the NW of Hiroshima prefecture) we went through so many tunnels I lost count. One of them was at least 3km long according to my rough calculations. It all adds up for a pretty spectacular driving experience although it can feel strangely claustrophobic, especially in areas where the highway is bounded by enormous soundproof walls.
You would think that with all these amazing highways that you could get some nice high speed driving done. Well scratch that thought, the limit on all the highways seems to be 80km/h! It just doesn't make sense, the roads are in such amazingly good condition they could be 200km/h autobahns. Maybe its a conspiracy between the government and the Japan Rail companies that operate the shikansen (bullet train). Faced with the choice of a 11 hour drive to Tokyo that would cost me at least 200AUD in fuel and another 200AUD in tolls or a 4.5 hour train ride in big comfy seats with refreshments that costs about 200AUD I know which I'd choose.
Oh here's some highway vocab for those of you who care. "Intersection" in Japanese is インター which is "intaa" in katakana (the alphabet reserved for foreign words and names). It really is amazing how many English words the Japanese have adopted.
That's about enough for a random musing. Let me know if you liked it and I will keep it up.
Japanese highways.
Expensive.Magnificent engineering feats.
I can still remember my bus ride out of Tokyo (much cheaper to get home to Hiroshima on the highway bus, 11 hours, than the bullet train, 4.5 hours) which left the very central Tokyo station and, after only a few city blocks, rose up onto a highway/expressway (I never know which is the correct term to use) and proceeded to glide out of Tokyo without having to stop at a single set of lights. Pretty incredible, although understandable considering it is one of the most densely populated cities in the world and there was no shortage of government money when they were trying to pull their economy out of recession.
For those readers of mine who have played any of the Need for Speed games of late (which I suspect is a worryingly high percentage) you can picture the highways of Japan as being very much like in that game. Huge concrete rivers that allow cars to whip around the city uninterrupted. The only downside is the insanely high tolls. Driving between Hiroshima and Kobe (about 450km I think) would cost you over $100 in highway tolls, or so I have been told by friends here.
The thing that really blows me away every time I travel across Japan is the enormous numbers of bridges and tunnels. The country, or at least Hiroshima prefecture, is so mountainous that the highways look like the engineers just said "fuck the mountains, we're going in the most direct route and that's that." They just draw an imaginary line between one city and the next and just dig tunnels or construct bridges to fill that line with highway. On a recent trip to Sandankyo (a small town in the NW of Hiroshima prefecture) we went through so many tunnels I lost count. One of them was at least 3km long according to my rough calculations. It all adds up for a pretty spectacular driving experience although it can feel strangely claustrophobic, especially in areas where the highway is bounded by enormous soundproof walls.
You would think that with all these amazing highways that you could get some nice high speed driving done. Well scratch that thought, the limit on all the highways seems to be 80km/h! It just doesn't make sense, the roads are in such amazingly good condition they could be 200km/h autobahns. Maybe its a conspiracy between the government and the Japan Rail companies that operate the shikansen (bullet train). Faced with the choice of a 11 hour drive to Tokyo that would cost me at least 200AUD in fuel and another 200AUD in tolls or a 4.5 hour train ride in big comfy seats with refreshments that costs about 200AUD I know which I'd choose.
Oh here's some highway vocab for those of you who care. "Intersection" in Japanese is インター which is "intaa" in katakana (the alphabet reserved for foreign words and names). It really is amazing how many English words the Japanese have adopted.
That's about enough for a random musing. Let me know if you liked it and I will keep it up.
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Sheepish photo update
Yeah, so really, it's pretty ridiculous the amount of material I've had to write about but just been too distracted/unmotivated/lazy (take ya pick) to do so.
I've really forgotten just how much I've actually written up here, but as far as I can remember, the following has so far passed without record:
- I sprained my ankle badly during a tournament match with my soccer team and hence got to experience the Japanese hospital system first-hand.
- I had a really decent week-long trip to Tokyo with my sister, Eleanor.
- I've managed to hook up with a beautiful Japanese girl who just happens to have impeccable English.
- I visited the 3rd most famous landmark in all of Japan, Itsukushima shrine on the island of Miyajima (where I'll be heading back this coming weekend with any luck, to take in the breath-taking Autumn leaves.)
- I've had some really decent nights out, even got to see Adam F when he came through Hiroshima recently.
- I celebrated my birthday at a fantastic restaurant with a great group of friends and even got some presents to boot!
- I missed out on one of the most famous sake festivals in all of Japan (in Saijo, just east of Hiroshima city) because I was sick that weekend, major bummer :(
I'll get around to writing proper entries eventually. Hahahaha; seriously. In the meantime enjoy the 50 or so new photos over on my Flickr account. (The link is over on the right navigation bar, mum)
I've really forgotten just how much I've actually written up here, but as far as I can remember, the following has so far passed without record:
- I sprained my ankle badly during a tournament match with my soccer team and hence got to experience the Japanese hospital system first-hand.
- I had a really decent week-long trip to Tokyo with my sister, Eleanor.
- I've managed to hook up with a beautiful Japanese girl who just happens to have impeccable English.
- I visited the 3rd most famous landmark in all of Japan, Itsukushima shrine on the island of Miyajima (where I'll be heading back this coming weekend with any luck, to take in the breath-taking Autumn leaves.)
- I've had some really decent nights out, even got to see Adam F when he came through Hiroshima recently.
- I celebrated my birthday at a fantastic restaurant with a great group of friends and even got some presents to boot!
- I missed out on one of the most famous sake festivals in all of Japan (in Saijo, just east of Hiroshima city) because I was sick that weekend, major bummer :(
I'll get around to writing proper entries eventually. Hahahaha; seriously. In the meantime enjoy the 50 or so new photos over on my Flickr account. (The link is over on the right navigation bar, mum)
Friday, October 20, 2006
Happy Birthday... me!
Alright, so this bout of homesickness brought on by my birthday (October 19th fuckers, thanks for the inundation of messages) has brought me out of blog retirement.
In my usual style I've left it until the early hours of the morning when I am slightly soaked in sake and in no mood for writing.
I've uploaded two photo sets, one from Miyajima (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miyajima) and one from the first three days of my trip to Tokyo with EP. I'll go through the remaining 3 days worth of Tokyo photos and finish uploading the highlights soon.
Tiny summary until I come back and write properly: Life is going well. I cannot stress how enjoyable life is when you only work 20 hours a week and your hours are 5pm to 9pm. It's not the most convenient shift for socialising with people who work a 9-5 job, but ahh well.
It's funny, I always feared that life in the daily grind would kill my soul and that, until retirement, I would trudge zombie-like through my working days. Well fuck it, I don't need to be a rich man, I'm perfectly happy living modestly and enjoying loads of free time for doing interesting things in a foreign country.
Who knows, maybe I'll "grow up" in a few years and realise that 9-5 really isn't that bad. Until then, enjoy the rat race people, I'll have another sake for you and then sleep it off in the dappled sunshine under a tree next to one of Hiroshima's many beautiful rivers.
In my usual style I've left it until the early hours of the morning when I am slightly soaked in sake and in no mood for writing.
I've uploaded two photo sets, one from Miyajima (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miyajima) and one from the first three days of my trip to Tokyo with EP. I'll go through the remaining 3 days worth of Tokyo photos and finish uploading the highlights soon.
Tiny summary until I come back and write properly: Life is going well. I cannot stress how enjoyable life is when you only work 20 hours a week and your hours are 5pm to 9pm. It's not the most convenient shift for socialising with people who work a 9-5 job, but ahh well.
It's funny, I always feared that life in the daily grind would kill my soul and that, until retirement, I would trudge zombie-like through my working days. Well fuck it, I don't need to be a rich man, I'm perfectly happy living modestly and enjoying loads of free time for doing interesting things in a foreign country.
Who knows, maybe I'll "grow up" in a few years and realise that 9-5 really isn't that bad. Until then, enjoy the rat race people, I'll have another sake for you and then sleep it off in the dappled sunshine under a tree next to one of Hiroshima's many beautiful rivers.
Monday, August 14, 2006
SUMMER IN JAPAN IS TOO MUCH!
Enough fucking about, its high time I put some words on paper and i think this blog is going to lose its PG rating.
Apologies in advance to any relatives who would rather remember me as the young innocent teenage Simon, but the masses are emailing me and telling me they want more dirt. I will not be offended at all if you would rather not read on.
Summer here really is hell on earth. I don't know how the hell the Canadians and Scots put up with it because it's close to sending me completely mental. More than 5 minutes outside at ANY time of day even 4am will have you dripping sweat in no time. If I didn't like Hiroshima so much I'd seriously consider applying for a transfer to Hokkaido.
I went to the baseball yesterday evening on a whim and ended up drinking about 8 cans, sweating so much I looked like I'd just been for a swim and generally making a filthy mess of myself... Baseball is an awesome sport for just pissing away a Sunday evening with some friends, you only have to pay attention maybe 50% of the time and the Japanese lllove a good beer or 10 at the game. The Carp got destroyed by the Giants 11-6 with some of the worst pitching I've seen since I got here, including an accidental walked run... that pitcher didn't get pulled until 2 innings later!
Alright its been over a month since I last put anything proper up here... let me cast my mind back.
I've been on a few proper trips around Hiroshima prefecture now, once to Onomichi and once to Iwakuni. Japan is pretty damn easy for a traveller sans car especially if you have some basic travel-vocab down.
Onomichi is an incredibly picturesque little town on the Seto Sea about 75 minutes east of Hiroshima on the JR Sanyo line. I spent an agonisingly hot but beautiful 5 hours walking the temple trail through the town which takes you past at least 30 different temples and shrines. Didn't see one other gaijin the entire time in Onomichi which made it feel much more isolated. Despite going there with absolutely zero planning I managed to end up finding a "rope-way" (Japanese English for "cable car") to the top of the biggest mountain in the town where a supurb little lunch cafe served the town's speciality "tako ramen" (fried octopus with ramen noodles in a tasty broth) with panoramic views of the nearby islands in the Seto Sea.
Mt.Senkoji is beautiful in quite a peculiar way. It's not spectacular but it has some odd little magic moments. Clearly this is well known since at almost every one of these spots an artist was sketching/painting away.
While I think of it, odd observation time. Japanese tourist groups, as in Japanese tourists being lead around by Japanese tour guides, definitely live up to the stereotypes. They power along at a crazy pace with cameras going full speed. Normally there's a very attractive girl in a uniform with a tiny skirt and a neck scarf holding a flag/standard with the tour company's logo up the front of the group. They speak way too fast for me to catch much from my eavesdropping but they do seem to drop in a lot of "keep moving please, this way please"... time is money on these tours I guess!
I plan on going back to Onomichi sometime when its not so damn hot and riding a bike the entire length of the bridge that spans all the islands from Onomichi to the major island of Shikoku. I was talking about it with some British guys who run a bar here called Spud Love (yes they all have adorably cute Japanese wives, such is the way here) and they said its a terrific weekend plan. Cycle on Saturday, end up in Matsuyama which is right near Dogo Onsen (the most famous hot spa in all of Japan apparantly) and kick back all day there Sunday until you have to leisurely catch the ferry back to Hiroshima in the evening.
Time for another segue... how awesome is some directionless, unedited writing? self-indulgence thy name is "Internet Blog".
I've dropped my stupidly hostile behaviour of trying to avoid other expats here, sure you meet some morons but there are also some great people over here. I should explain, I got sick of hanging out with expats when a few of them began Japan-bashing in ridiculously cliched, unintelligent ways but I've since met enough great people to have my faith restored. I've met quite a few expats who run bars or nights at clubs here, they will not shut up about Hiroshima being the best city in Japan (they've lived in Tokyo, Osaka and Fukuoka amongst other places) but I'm still looking forward to making my own mind up first hand.
One great thing about this city (and living so close to the centre of downtown, with its gorgeous parks and rivers) is how many random encounters you can have just walking around on your own. I went to buy a Sega Dreamcast for $35AUD off a guy who advertised on Gethiroshima.com. I expected it to be a 2 minute exchange but it ended up (through pure chance) with him, two of his friends and I all drinking beer/chuhai and shooting the shit for about an hour in the muggy evening in the Peace Park overlooking the A-Bomb dome.
I've got to head off to the Yakitori place under my building now to meet up with a bunch of people. I've got heaps more I've started to remember that I'll try and put up here later tonight. I don't think this ended up being anything other than G rated again... mmmm too bad, maybe my mum and dad really did raise me with too many manners, or maybe I don't want to kiss and tell to the entire Internet with all those prying eyes...
You know what, if you're reading this and you want me to continute updating it (or you would like to give some constructive criticism - NO more requests for photos of girls, the internet has enough porn for you already) then please EMAIL ME. swfenton at gmail dot com.
Apologies in advance to any relatives who would rather remember me as the young innocent teenage Simon, but the masses are emailing me and telling me they want more dirt. I will not be offended at all if you would rather not read on.
Summer here really is hell on earth. I don't know how the hell the Canadians and Scots put up with it because it's close to sending me completely mental. More than 5 minutes outside at ANY time of day even 4am will have you dripping sweat in no time. If I didn't like Hiroshima so much I'd seriously consider applying for a transfer to Hokkaido.
I went to the baseball yesterday evening on a whim and ended up drinking about 8 cans, sweating so much I looked like I'd just been for a swim and generally making a filthy mess of myself... Baseball is an awesome sport for just pissing away a Sunday evening with some friends, you only have to pay attention maybe 50% of the time and the Japanese lllove a good beer or 10 at the game. The Carp got destroyed by the Giants 11-6 with some of the worst pitching I've seen since I got here, including an accidental walked run... that pitcher didn't get pulled until 2 innings later!
Alright its been over a month since I last put anything proper up here... let me cast my mind back.
I've been on a few proper trips around Hiroshima prefecture now, once to Onomichi and once to Iwakuni. Japan is pretty damn easy for a traveller sans car especially if you have some basic travel-vocab down.
Onomichi is an incredibly picturesque little town on the Seto Sea about 75 minutes east of Hiroshima on the JR Sanyo line. I spent an agonisingly hot but beautiful 5 hours walking the temple trail through the town which takes you past at least 30 different temples and shrines. Didn't see one other gaijin the entire time in Onomichi which made it feel much more isolated. Despite going there with absolutely zero planning I managed to end up finding a "rope-way" (Japanese English for "cable car") to the top of the biggest mountain in the town where a supurb little lunch cafe served the town's speciality "tako ramen" (fried octopus with ramen noodles in a tasty broth) with panoramic views of the nearby islands in the Seto Sea.
Mt.Senkoji is beautiful in quite a peculiar way. It's not spectacular but it has some odd little magic moments. Clearly this is well known since at almost every one of these spots an artist was sketching/painting away.
While I think of it, odd observation time. Japanese tourist groups, as in Japanese tourists being lead around by Japanese tour guides, definitely live up to the stereotypes. They power along at a crazy pace with cameras going full speed. Normally there's a very attractive girl in a uniform with a tiny skirt and a neck scarf holding a flag/standard with the tour company's logo up the front of the group. They speak way too fast for me to catch much from my eavesdropping but they do seem to drop in a lot of "keep moving please, this way please"... time is money on these tours I guess!
I plan on going back to Onomichi sometime when its not so damn hot and riding a bike the entire length of the bridge that spans all the islands from Onomichi to the major island of Shikoku. I was talking about it with some British guys who run a bar here called Spud Love (yes they all have adorably cute Japanese wives, such is the way here) and they said its a terrific weekend plan. Cycle on Saturday, end up in Matsuyama which is right near Dogo Onsen (the most famous hot spa in all of Japan apparantly) and kick back all day there Sunday until you have to leisurely catch the ferry back to Hiroshima in the evening.
Time for another segue... how awesome is some directionless, unedited writing? self-indulgence thy name is "Internet Blog".
I've dropped my stupidly hostile behaviour of trying to avoid other expats here, sure you meet some morons but there are also some great people over here. I should explain, I got sick of hanging out with expats when a few of them began Japan-bashing in ridiculously cliched, unintelligent ways but I've since met enough great people to have my faith restored. I've met quite a few expats who run bars or nights at clubs here, they will not shut up about Hiroshima being the best city in Japan (they've lived in Tokyo, Osaka and Fukuoka amongst other places) but I'm still looking forward to making my own mind up first hand.
One great thing about this city (and living so close to the centre of downtown, with its gorgeous parks and rivers) is how many random encounters you can have just walking around on your own. I went to buy a Sega Dreamcast for $35AUD off a guy who advertised on Gethiroshima.com. I expected it to be a 2 minute exchange but it ended up (through pure chance) with him, two of his friends and I all drinking beer/chuhai and shooting the shit for about an hour in the muggy evening in the Peace Park overlooking the A-Bomb dome.
I've got to head off to the Yakitori place under my building now to meet up with a bunch of people. I've got heaps more I've started to remember that I'll try and put up here later tonight. I don't think this ended up being anything other than G rated again... mmmm too bad, maybe my mum and dad really did raise me with too many manners, or maybe I don't want to kiss and tell to the entire Internet with all those prying eyes...
You know what, if you're reading this and you want me to continute updating it (or you would like to give some constructive criticism - NO more requests for photos of girls, the internet has enough porn for you already) then please EMAIL ME. swfenton at gmail dot com.
Sunday, August 06, 2006
Patience please!
I've just uploaded a stack of photos to Flickr.
I know I am really overdue for a proper update here, I'll try and set aside enough time to do so tomorrow before work.
For now you can enjoy some photos of Iwakuni (a town 40 minutes south west of Hiroshima), home of the famous Kintaikyo bridge. Also included are photos of August 6th's Peace Memorial Day activities. It's been quite a day, beginning with a speech from Prime Minister Koizumi at 8am and finishing with an unauthorised drum'n'bass party into the early hours of the following day.
I know I am really overdue for a proper update here, I'll try and set aside enough time to do so tomorrow before work.
For now you can enjoy some photos of Iwakuni (a town 40 minutes south west of Hiroshima), home of the famous Kintaikyo bridge. Also included are photos of August 6th's Peace Memorial Day activities. It's been quite a day, beginning with a speech from Prime Minister Koizumi at 8am and finishing with an unauthorised drum'n'bass party into the early hours of the following day.
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Where the magic happens
I know I'm well overdue for an update, but ever since I bought myself a MacBook the inspiration just hasn't been forthcoming!
Just in case you're curious, this is a photo of my new toy.
You can see there some of my favourite things here in Hiroshima when trying to live on the cheap. Big Cup Noodle, I don't think that needs an explanation. A can of Asahi is hiding behind the noodles. To the right of that is a 1L carton of delicious iced coffee with cream. To the right again is a Carona (normally I wouldn't go near them but they were so cheap the other night at Lawson's that I couldn't pass) that comes with a little sachet of lemon in true ultra-convenient Japanese style.
I'm really not feeling the creative flow here so I've just uploaded a whole bunch of photos. I'll put a proper update here another time when the brain worms are functioning properly.
Just in case you're curious, this is a photo of my new toy.
You can see there some of my favourite things here in Hiroshima when trying to live on the cheap. Big Cup Noodle, I don't think that needs an explanation. A can of Asahi is hiding behind the noodles. To the right of that is a 1L carton of delicious iced coffee with cream. To the right again is a Carona (normally I wouldn't go near them but they were so cheap the other night at Lawson's that I couldn't pass) that comes with a little sachet of lemon in true ultra-convenient Japanese style.
I'm really not feeling the creative flow here so I've just uploaded a whole bunch of photos. I'll put a proper update here another time when the brain worms are functioning properly.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
This update brought to you by Kirin
Well after a night of eating and drinking at a tiny 'mom&pop' izakaya that some friends and I found on a random walk through Naka-ku (the name of the downtown suburb in which I live) tonight, I've found myself in front of an iBook with internet so what better time to put up an update. 'Random drunken thoughts' shall be our theme for today.
Japanese food. It's a strange beast. Just when you think you're a little bit sick of rice and edamame (google it, salty snow-pea like snack in short) and miso soup, you discover 879463 new dishes. I had zarusoba (so named because of the plate "zaru" on which the soba noodles are served) for the first time last weekend and on a hot day there is nothing better. So simple, essentially just chilled noodles with a bowl of soy, spring onion and wasabi to dip them in before noisily slurping them down. Of course with Japanese food nothing is EVER really that simple. I'm sure the arrangement and the garnish took more time to prepare than you'd assume. The rice ball-esque dish served alongside (sorry, forgot the Japanese name) which had hints of plum and fish, made for a deceptively good feed.
Pocari Sweat has been replaced by 126Yen 1L cartons of lemon iced tea as my new favourite drink, consuming an obscene number per week at the moment.
Soccer is going well despite me putting in a shocking performance last weekend (one of the Japanese guys even out headered me, which he thought was hilarious) and Ive uploaded a few photos of some team members and the penalty kicks that decided last week's match. (ugh, penalty kicks... if I never have to see another one of them in my life I'll be happy). No World Cup talk this week, I'm thoroghly sick of talking about it with students at work.
While drinking at a bar a few weeks ago (I'm sure that's how a lot of stories are going to start on this here blog) I met a young bloke from Kansas who just happened to be employed as the mascot for the Hiroshima Carp baseball team. Fascinating story behind getting that job, but I can't put it up here. Anyway, he's a really nice guy and he offered to get me some free tickets to the baseball! So last weekend Jay and I went along and got seriously sunburnt, learnt some chants (and some foul Japanese), ate the most overpriced craptastic "Fried French" (French Fries, as only the Japanese could write it) and had a great day. Through a complete fluke we bumped into a Japanese woman that Jay had once taught and she kept feeding us tasty Japanese snacks all afternoon while she tried to teach us the chants for the Carp. Holy moley the Japanese baseball fans know how to chant! They have an entire makeshift brass band up in the stands and they blast out a variety of tunes all game. The entire crowd seems to know all the words and the noise level only subsides for short moments (they even have a song for ALL IN or SIDE AWAY).
It turned out to be a real nail-biter of a game. The Carp took an early lead when one of their big hitters smashed a three run home run in the bottom of the 2nd. The Tokyo giants managed to claw back two runs in the top of the 6th but the real drama came when they tied the game at 3-3 in the top of the 9th. Fast forward and its bottom of the 9th, nobody on base, 2 outs, the Carp Pinch Hitter at bat. He pops one over the shortstop and manages to make it comfortably to first. The next guy at bat smashes about 5 foul balls into the crowd when the PH steals second. The tag at second was so close (the second base player was actually airborne above the sliding runner) that the umpires had a conference on the mound for a good 5 minutes (this is when I got my lesson on Japanese curse words from the surrounding fans). The final decision was SAFU much to our delight. Next pitch and the batter smacks it right in the gap between right and center field, the crowd leaps to its feet and our hero PH runs home at lightspeed. The throw from outfield was awesome, but not quick enough, "SAFU" is the call and the Carp dugout rush out onto the field in delight. The fans were singing and chanting their hardest and the atmosphere was just spectacular.
It's a pity in a way, but I'm really starting to get used to life here. I say a pity because it's making it much harder to think of all the odd things that you would probably like to read about. I don't want this to turn into just another boring diary, it's where I want to record all the zany things about Japan. Habitualisation puts pay to that eh. Let me try and rack my brain (and not repeat earlier updates).
The humidity here really is hell on earth. It's not even the height of summer yet and already I start sweating in my shirt after only 5 minutes outside. Japanese people seem to think 28 degrees is the best setting for indoor climate control systems so I get no real releif there either.
I AM DYING WITHOUT MY MELBOURNE COFFEE! Seriously, the coffee here is just shocking. Starbucks is about the best there is, oh woe betide. I paid over $5 aussie the other day for a "ko-hi ra-te" (cafe latte) that was so bad I just had to start laughing to myself. Oh well, at least I got my $5 worth of ultra polite service with extra "arigato gozaimasu" thrown in on top.
I don't want to go into too much detail over it (you never know who's reading this 'ere internet thing) but I've been exposed to the somewhat savage side of my employer recently. It hasn't soured me all that much but it's certainly made me realise that "job security" is a luxury not many people enjoy over here.
My Japanese lessons are progressing but I feel like I've taken a bit of a step backwards since my teacher is forcing me to get my reading and writing up to speed with my conversation skills. It's so incredibly frustrating,l I feel like a five year old trying to write his first sentences at primary school. A conversation that would take me 30 seconds to say outloud takes me a good 30 minutes to write down and even then it has quite a few spelling errors (the difference between some Japanese words is an incredibly subtle vowel change, although English probably has more so I cant complain too much). I've got a Kanji dictionary too and I'm memorising them at a rate of about 2 per day. It's so unbeleivably liberating to be able to understand the basics like "hot" and "cold" and "exit" and "entrance".
Japanese food. It's a strange beast. Just when you think you're a little bit sick of rice and edamame (google it, salty snow-pea like snack in short) and miso soup, you discover 879463 new dishes. I had zarusoba (so named because of the plate "zaru" on which the soba noodles are served) for the first time last weekend and on a hot day there is nothing better. So simple, essentially just chilled noodles with a bowl of soy, spring onion and wasabi to dip them in before noisily slurping them down. Of course with Japanese food nothing is EVER really that simple. I'm sure the arrangement and the garnish took more time to prepare than you'd assume. The rice ball-esque dish served alongside (sorry, forgot the Japanese name) which had hints of plum and fish, made for a deceptively good feed.
Pocari Sweat has been replaced by 126Yen 1L cartons of lemon iced tea as my new favourite drink, consuming an obscene number per week at the moment.
Soccer is going well despite me putting in a shocking performance last weekend (one of the Japanese guys even out headered me, which he thought was hilarious) and Ive uploaded a few photos of some team members and the penalty kicks that decided last week's match. (ugh, penalty kicks... if I never have to see another one of them in my life I'll be happy). No World Cup talk this week, I'm thoroghly sick of talking about it with students at work.
While drinking at a bar a few weeks ago (I'm sure that's how a lot of stories are going to start on this here blog) I met a young bloke from Kansas who just happened to be employed as the mascot for the Hiroshima Carp baseball team. Fascinating story behind getting that job, but I can't put it up here. Anyway, he's a really nice guy and he offered to get me some free tickets to the baseball! So last weekend Jay and I went along and got seriously sunburnt, learnt some chants (and some foul Japanese), ate the most overpriced craptastic "Fried French" (French Fries, as only the Japanese could write it) and had a great day. Through a complete fluke we bumped into a Japanese woman that Jay had once taught and she kept feeding us tasty Japanese snacks all afternoon while she tried to teach us the chants for the Carp. Holy moley the Japanese baseball fans know how to chant! They have an entire makeshift brass band up in the stands and they blast out a variety of tunes all game. The entire crowd seems to know all the words and the noise level only subsides for short moments (they even have a song for ALL IN or SIDE AWAY).
It turned out to be a real nail-biter of a game. The Carp took an early lead when one of their big hitters smashed a three run home run in the bottom of the 2nd. The Tokyo giants managed to claw back two runs in the top of the 6th but the real drama came when they tied the game at 3-3 in the top of the 9th. Fast forward and its bottom of the 9th, nobody on base, 2 outs, the Carp Pinch Hitter at bat. He pops one over the shortstop and manages to make it comfortably to first. The next guy at bat smashes about 5 foul balls into the crowd when the PH steals second. The tag at second was so close (the second base player was actually airborne above the sliding runner) that the umpires had a conference on the mound for a good 5 minutes (this is when I got my lesson on Japanese curse words from the surrounding fans). The final decision was SAFU much to our delight. Next pitch and the batter smacks it right in the gap between right and center field, the crowd leaps to its feet and our hero PH runs home at lightspeed. The throw from outfield was awesome, but not quick enough, "SAFU" is the call and the Carp dugout rush out onto the field in delight. The fans were singing and chanting their hardest and the atmosphere was just spectacular.
It's a pity in a way, but I'm really starting to get used to life here. I say a pity because it's making it much harder to think of all the odd things that you would probably like to read about. I don't want this to turn into just another boring diary, it's where I want to record all the zany things about Japan. Habitualisation puts pay to that eh. Let me try and rack my brain (and not repeat earlier updates).
The humidity here really is hell on earth. It's not even the height of summer yet and already I start sweating in my shirt after only 5 minutes outside. Japanese people seem to think 28 degrees is the best setting for indoor climate control systems so I get no real releif there either.
I AM DYING WITHOUT MY MELBOURNE COFFEE! Seriously, the coffee here is just shocking. Starbucks is about the best there is, oh woe betide. I paid over $5 aussie the other day for a "ko-hi ra-te" (cafe latte) that was so bad I just had to start laughing to myself. Oh well, at least I got my $5 worth of ultra polite service with extra "arigato gozaimasu" thrown in on top.
I don't want to go into too much detail over it (you never know who's reading this 'ere internet thing) but I've been exposed to the somewhat savage side of my employer recently. It hasn't soured me all that much but it's certainly made me realise that "job security" is a luxury not many people enjoy over here.
My Japanese lessons are progressing but I feel like I've taken a bit of a step backwards since my teacher is forcing me to get my reading and writing up to speed with my conversation skills. It's so incredibly frustrating,l I feel like a five year old trying to write his first sentences at primary school. A conversation that would take me 30 seconds to say outloud takes me a good 30 minutes to write down and even then it has quite a few spelling errors (the difference between some Japanese words is an incredibly subtle vowel change, although English probably has more so I cant complain too much). I've got a Kanji dictionary too and I'm memorising them at a rate of about 2 per day. It's so unbeleivably liberating to be able to understand the basics like "hot" and "cold" and "exit" and "entrance".
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Rainy season brings the sads
Well, one month in and the homesickness has finally gotten a grip on me. The rainy season was very late this year but it's finally set in. I wasted most of this weekend feeling glum, reading books/magazines and listening to music trying to convince myself I was back in North Fitzroy as it was pouring down outside.
Still, it ain't been all bad recently... let's see if I can cheer myself up by typing up some of the good things I've been up to lately.
I went out exploring the backstreets of Hiroshima's downtown last Saturday after my Japanese lesson and stumbled across a punk record shop that doubles as a curry cafe. For just over $6 aussie I got a huge spicy curry, rice, side salad and tea. Not only that but the guy running the joint was incredibly friendly and chatty. He even slung me a free copy of his own band's CD. The mix of music was pretty bizarre, punk from every continent covered all but one wall which was a shrine to "new wave" and electropop records... strange.
Some friends took me out to this club, Jamaica, that didn't impress from the outside (I recognise that evil thump.... tha-thump-thump of R&B penetrating concrete) but inside was wall to wall girls; incredible girls. Someone built you a heaven, Jow, and lo it is "Jamaica" in Hiroshima. It didn't take me too long to get chatting to a lovely young thing by the name of Kimiko but that's where we'll leave that one. I will say that being a beginner in any language can lead to some questions coming out a hell of a lot more blunt than a native speaker would phrase them. The music took a turn for the better around 1am when the R&B fool packed his bags and was replaced by some seriously decent techno. Japanese people can outdance Australians to R&B, no doubt, but their efforts with the techno were pretty hilarious... still it was a really good vibe in there and I was wishing my clubbing buddies could have been there with me. Oh, odd thing about clubs here, they very rarely have a cover charge and if they do then you normally get the full value of the fee back in drink cards.
(Kav, I managed to find a 'glitch' night here but sadly it is pretty poorly attended. I stuck around till 3am when it headed into the 'extreme bangin tek' zone which I was in no mood for.)
I don't quite know how I did it but on less than 4 hours sleep I got up on Sunday and went with Akira (really nice Japanese guy I met) to his weekly soccer training & match. This was one hell of a new experience, not only were these guys much higher skilled than any team I've ever played with but they play on GRAVEL! A sandy, rough gravel that loves to rip skin off knees. I'm still trying desperately to heal my right knee which has been bleeding sporadically into my suit pants ever since, hooray. We did 2 hours of training in the ever increasing heat where it was decided that due to my height and uhh... "slightly lacking fitness", that I would be put up front and so I drilled headers from corner kicks and controlling long passes on my chest. I don't think I've worked that hard in a long time. When the game finally came around I was already drenched in sweat but the adrenalin kicked in and I had a great match, managed to contribute to two goals and narrowly missed curving my own long strike into the top right corner.
I must have impressed the team enough because they've asked me to come back next week and join them full-time. Time to improve the fitness and buy a proper soccer kit. Nobody wears knee pads or elbow pads yet none of them seem to bleed after falling over hard in the gravel, I need to learn their technique or I'm going to have no skin left on my legs. After the game Akira took me to a little ramen place where I finally had some SPICEY food. Weird how much I missed eating chilli, the Japanese just don't seem to dig on spicey things.
Later that same Sunday was my Welcome party with the Nova staff (both ex-pat and Japanese) with all you can drink and all you can eat. That shochu is powerful stuff. I'd write more if I could remember any of it ;)
I've been watching a hell of a lot of the World Cup but it's pretty dangerous letting people know you're an "ostoraria-jin" here at the moment... quite a bit of anger at finishing last in their group. I didn't get to watch the Croatia game because the Japan-Brasil match was at the same time and obviously took broadcast priority. I can safely say my arse will be planted in front of a big screen for the Italy game coming up this week.
Would love to write more but yada yada no laptop yet, SOON I promise. No photos this time because I forgot the camera but I haven't been very good at remembering to snap a lot of shots, it's taking me a while to get into the habit of busting out the camera all the time.
I can read hiragana and katakana faster and faster each day and I'm even able to remember some kanji now but conversational Japanese is still progressing slowly. I think there must be a tipping point, once your listening comprehension reaches a certain point it must get a lot easier (it better! I'm sick of asking people to repeat themselves slowly).
Quick little "odd spot" for you: my ability to use chopsticks continues to amaze the locals. I've had waitresses stare dumbstruck at me eating ramen and sashimi confidently with chopsticks. I don't know if it is genuine or if they just feign it to flatter the gaijin but they do seem genuinely suprised if you can use chopsticks and/or order food and drinks in their language. "mou ikkai, kudasai" is a useful one, "one more (or same again), please" I think is the rough translation.
I've got 1 on 1 Japanese lessons lined up now and I bought a text book which really helps with my reading and writing so maybe this "12 months and you can be somewhat fluent" advice from the recruiters wasn't all lies.
Oh one last thing, I hope this doesn't mean I'm going to hell but I have eaten the much controversial whale. The dish I had was part of a huge dinner at an izakaya and the only part of the name on the menu I could read was "bacon" in katakana, so I didn't think twice when my Japanese friends ordered it. I gotta say, it was pretty tasty with the mustard and raw onion they served it on. Please don't tell Greenpeace!
Still, it ain't been all bad recently... let's see if I can cheer myself up by typing up some of the good things I've been up to lately.
I went out exploring the backstreets of Hiroshima's downtown last Saturday after my Japanese lesson and stumbled across a punk record shop that doubles as a curry cafe. For just over $6 aussie I got a huge spicy curry, rice, side salad and tea. Not only that but the guy running the joint was incredibly friendly and chatty. He even slung me a free copy of his own band's CD. The mix of music was pretty bizarre, punk from every continent covered all but one wall which was a shrine to "new wave" and electropop records... strange.
Some friends took me out to this club, Jamaica, that didn't impress from the outside (I recognise that evil thump.... tha-thump-thump of R&B penetrating concrete) but inside was wall to wall girls; incredible girls. Someone built you a heaven, Jow, and lo it is "Jamaica" in Hiroshima. It didn't take me too long to get chatting to a lovely young thing by the name of Kimiko but that's where we'll leave that one. I will say that being a beginner in any language can lead to some questions coming out a hell of a lot more blunt than a native speaker would phrase them. The music took a turn for the better around 1am when the R&B fool packed his bags and was replaced by some seriously decent techno. Japanese people can outdance Australians to R&B, no doubt, but their efforts with the techno were pretty hilarious... still it was a really good vibe in there and I was wishing my clubbing buddies could have been there with me. Oh, odd thing about clubs here, they very rarely have a cover charge and if they do then you normally get the full value of the fee back in drink cards.
(Kav, I managed to find a 'glitch' night here but sadly it is pretty poorly attended. I stuck around till 3am when it headed into the 'extreme bangin tek' zone which I was in no mood for.)
I don't quite know how I did it but on less than 4 hours sleep I got up on Sunday and went with Akira (really nice Japanese guy I met) to his weekly soccer training & match. This was one hell of a new experience, not only were these guys much higher skilled than any team I've ever played with but they play on GRAVEL! A sandy, rough gravel that loves to rip skin off knees. I'm still trying desperately to heal my right knee which has been bleeding sporadically into my suit pants ever since, hooray. We did 2 hours of training in the ever increasing heat where it was decided that due to my height and uhh... "slightly lacking fitness", that I would be put up front and so I drilled headers from corner kicks and controlling long passes on my chest. I don't think I've worked that hard in a long time. When the game finally came around I was already drenched in sweat but the adrenalin kicked in and I had a great match, managed to contribute to two goals and narrowly missed curving my own long strike into the top right corner.
I must have impressed the team enough because they've asked me to come back next week and join them full-time. Time to improve the fitness and buy a proper soccer kit. Nobody wears knee pads or elbow pads yet none of them seem to bleed after falling over hard in the gravel, I need to learn their technique or I'm going to have no skin left on my legs. After the game Akira took me to a little ramen place where I finally had some SPICEY food. Weird how much I missed eating chilli, the Japanese just don't seem to dig on spicey things.
Later that same Sunday was my Welcome party with the Nova staff (both ex-pat and Japanese) with all you can drink and all you can eat. That shochu is powerful stuff. I'd write more if I could remember any of it ;)
I've been watching a hell of a lot of the World Cup but it's pretty dangerous letting people know you're an "ostoraria-jin" here at the moment... quite a bit of anger at finishing last in their group. I didn't get to watch the Croatia game because the Japan-Brasil match was at the same time and obviously took broadcast priority. I can safely say my arse will be planted in front of a big screen for the Italy game coming up this week.
Would love to write more but yada yada no laptop yet, SOON I promise. No photos this time because I forgot the camera but I haven't been very good at remembering to snap a lot of shots, it's taking me a while to get into the habit of busting out the camera all the time.
I can read hiragana and katakana faster and faster each day and I'm even able to remember some kanji now but conversational Japanese is still progressing slowly. I think there must be a tipping point, once your listening comprehension reaches a certain point it must get a lot easier (it better! I'm sick of asking people to repeat themselves slowly).
Quick little "odd spot" for you: my ability to use chopsticks continues to amaze the locals. I've had waitresses stare dumbstruck at me eating ramen and sashimi confidently with chopsticks. I don't know if it is genuine or if they just feign it to flatter the gaijin but they do seem genuinely suprised if you can use chopsticks and/or order food and drinks in their language. "mou ikkai, kudasai" is a useful one, "one more (or same again), please" I think is the rough translation.
I've got 1 on 1 Japanese lessons lined up now and I bought a text book which really helps with my reading and writing so maybe this "12 months and you can be somewhat fluent" advice from the recruiters wasn't all lies.
Oh one last thing, I hope this doesn't mean I'm going to hell but I have eaten the much controversial whale. The dish I had was part of a huge dinner at an izakaya and the only part of the name on the menu I could read was "bacon" in katakana, so I didn't think twice when my Japanese friends ordered it. I gotta say, it was pretty tasty with the mustard and raw onion they served it on. Please don't tell Greenpeace!
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
The sound of one Aussie clapping.
As usual I've wasted most of my session in this netcafe talking to people on msn and
replying to emails, so I'm going to be rushing to fit everything into this update. Oh, I
lost my last update a week ago when the computer in the netcafe crashed so that's why it has
been so long between updates.
Lots to cover, lets start with the World Cup, Australia vs Japan to be precise. Hot damn,
what a game. I watched it in a very busy pub right in the heart of Hiroshima. Myself, two
fellow Australians, one Yank and roughly 150 very blue, very noisy Japanese screaming
"NIPPON! NIPPON! NIPPON!" amongst other things. It was a very rough 80 minutes of soccer for me to endure, plenty of smirks and grins from the other people in the pub. When Cahill
finally scored there was a sudden silence penetrated only by my "YOU RIPPEEEEEEEEEEER!!!!!!". I realised all too late that it probably wasn't the best way to
make friends. I copped a few boos and hisses from some of the girls nearby but overall the
Japanese were quite friendly to me afterwards. A few business men gave me gruff handshakes
adding comments like "Australia... very rough team" or "Cahill... too good." There were
quite a few tears and seriously distraught looking fans walking home. A Hiroshima radio
station interviewed me for my "Aussie opinion" on the match, I hope I wasn't too drunk by
that stage during our little post-match celebration. I really appreciated the phone call,
Nick et co... it was really comforting to hear some fellow jubilant Australians after that
incredible game. Oh, they have VB stubbies here but they cost 700 yen ($8.50 or so) and taste nothing like the VB I remember so I won't be bothering with them again.
I had my first date with a Japanese girl. No kissing and telling on this here blog, but I
will say that the cultural and language barrier can make for some seriously awkward
situations. According to some friends here, I got off to a shocking start by kissing her on
the cheek (a serious taboo here) but hopefully she just thinks that's the foreign man being
foreign. After dinner I thought she was shooting me down in flames, but a long story short,
we have another date lined up soon (she wants me to cook her an "Australian dinner"... errr,
might have to bust out an easy pasta dish and hope she isn't expecting a kangaroo steak or
something.)
There's quite a few things about Japan that I still find really surprising, totally
contradict my expectations:
- There's hardly any anime on TV, maybe one or two shows per day and not a single one that
looks any good. No Samurai Champloo or GITS:SAC that's for sure. Naruto and One Piece a
plenty... yawn.
- I've only eaten sushi once since I got here. Japanese people just don't seem to eat it
often at all. I picked up a huge lunch pack for 500 yen at a supermarket, more than you'd
get in Australia for $10 and far superior quality with a much wider variety of ingredients
too.
- Public transport in Hiroshima isn't very packed at all. Maybe it's an unusual city by
Japanese standards, but I get a seat almost every time I travel (and I get my wonderful
buffer zone - Japanese people would rather stand than sit next to a gaijin.)
This is hopeless, I'm hitting a mental block now, I had heaps of things to write about! I
should keep a pen and paper journal so I don't get stuck like this...
Ah, I know, crazy English in Hiroshima! I saw two little kids walking with their mother (or
older sister, I'm so bad at guessing age over here) and they were wearing matching tshirts
that said "Fuck you, buddy!" and "Piss off!" in pink, yellow and blue with cute little
fonts. I had a good laugh then, but I've realised now that it's a pretty common thing to
have tshirts with really obscene and/or surreal, abstract, non-sensical English phrases.
Still, it makes me grin every time I see a good one.
I got to experience my first earthquake last Monday. It hit about 5 in the morning (and even
managed to wake me up) and the paper here said it measured 5 on the Japanese scale. I have
no idea how that relates to the Richter scale but I'm sure it couldn't have been more than
about a 3, since there were no reports of building damage and only a few minor injuries. I
vaguely remember waking up to the sound of everything in our apartment shaking and
vibrating, looking out the window (dumb move apparently, windows can explode and cut you up
pretty bad) and seeing all the streetlights shaking violently. Definitely a strange
experience, not one I'm keen to repeat but it didn't stop me from getting straight back to
sleep.
I've met some Japanese guys that play in an outdoor soccer team on Sundays and they invited
me to come and try out for their team so I'm pretty excited about that. They seem to expect
pretty big things from an Aussie, so I hope I don't seriously disappoint. There's some
English/Scottish/Kiwi expats that organise a friendly game every now and then too. They said
they'd give me a yell when the next game is on, so I should finally have an opportunity for
some serious exercise and a chance to meet heaps more people.
After three weeks here it's becoming harder and harder to think of things to type here as
the whole culture and city is starting to feel more and more like home. My Japanese is
reaching the stage where I can make chit chat with people I bump into in my building's
elevator but my lessons (reading and writing) are slow going. I can read Katakana and
Hiragana very very slowly, but even that feels quite liberating.
Most of the latest photos I've uploaded were taken at Hiroshima Castle and the Shukkien garden nearby. Both were incredibly beautiful and tranquil places. I regularly clear my head by just plonking my rump on a bench in the shade at one of the many parks and taking in the 'tranquility'.
Please keep the emails coming, I promise my replies will get more frequent when I finally
have a laptop.
replying to emails, so I'm going to be rushing to fit everything into this update. Oh, I
lost my last update a week ago when the computer in the netcafe crashed so that's why it has
been so long between updates.
Lots to cover, lets start with the World Cup, Australia vs Japan to be precise. Hot damn,
what a game. I watched it in a very busy pub right in the heart of Hiroshima. Myself, two
fellow Australians, one Yank and roughly 150 very blue, very noisy Japanese screaming
"NIPPON! NIPPON! NIPPON!" amongst other things. It was a very rough 80 minutes of soccer for me to endure, plenty of smirks and grins from the other people in the pub. When Cahill
finally scored there was a sudden silence penetrated only by my "YOU RIPPEEEEEEEEEEER!!!!!!". I realised all too late that it probably wasn't the best way to
make friends. I copped a few boos and hisses from some of the girls nearby but overall the
Japanese were quite friendly to me afterwards. A few business men gave me gruff handshakes
adding comments like "Australia... very rough team" or "Cahill... too good." There were
quite a few tears and seriously distraught looking fans walking home. A Hiroshima radio
station interviewed me for my "Aussie opinion" on the match, I hope I wasn't too drunk by
that stage during our little post-match celebration. I really appreciated the phone call,
Nick et co... it was really comforting to hear some fellow jubilant Australians after that
incredible game. Oh, they have VB stubbies here but they cost 700 yen ($8.50 or so) and taste nothing like the VB I remember so I won't be bothering with them again.
I had my first date with a Japanese girl. No kissing and telling on this here blog, but I
will say that the cultural and language barrier can make for some seriously awkward
situations. According to some friends here, I got off to a shocking start by kissing her on
the cheek (a serious taboo here) but hopefully she just thinks that's the foreign man being
foreign. After dinner I thought she was shooting me down in flames, but a long story short,
we have another date lined up soon (she wants me to cook her an "Australian dinner"... errr,
might have to bust out an easy pasta dish and hope she isn't expecting a kangaroo steak or
something.)
There's quite a few things about Japan that I still find really surprising, totally
contradict my expectations:
- There's hardly any anime on TV, maybe one or two shows per day and not a single one that
looks any good. No Samurai Champloo or GITS:SAC that's for sure. Naruto and One Piece a
plenty... yawn.
- I've only eaten sushi once since I got here. Japanese people just don't seem to eat it
often at all. I picked up a huge lunch pack for 500 yen at a supermarket, more than you'd
get in Australia for $10 and far superior quality with a much wider variety of ingredients
too.
- Public transport in Hiroshima isn't very packed at all. Maybe it's an unusual city by
Japanese standards, but I get a seat almost every time I travel (and I get my wonderful
buffer zone - Japanese people would rather stand than sit next to a gaijin.)
This is hopeless, I'm hitting a mental block now, I had heaps of things to write about! I
should keep a pen and paper journal so I don't get stuck like this...
Ah, I know, crazy English in Hiroshima! I saw two little kids walking with their mother (or
older sister, I'm so bad at guessing age over here) and they were wearing matching tshirts
that said "Fuck you, buddy!" and "Piss off!" in pink, yellow and blue with cute little
fonts. I had a good laugh then, but I've realised now that it's a pretty common thing to
have tshirts with really obscene and/or surreal, abstract, non-sensical English phrases.
Still, it makes me grin every time I see a good one.
I got to experience my first earthquake last Monday. It hit about 5 in the morning (and even
managed to wake me up) and the paper here said it measured 5 on the Japanese scale. I have
no idea how that relates to the Richter scale but I'm sure it couldn't have been more than
about a 3, since there were no reports of building damage and only a few minor injuries. I
vaguely remember waking up to the sound of everything in our apartment shaking and
vibrating, looking out the window (dumb move apparently, windows can explode and cut you up
pretty bad) and seeing all the streetlights shaking violently. Definitely a strange
experience, not one I'm keen to repeat but it didn't stop me from getting straight back to
sleep.
I've met some Japanese guys that play in an outdoor soccer team on Sundays and they invited
me to come and try out for their team so I'm pretty excited about that. They seem to expect
pretty big things from an Aussie, so I hope I don't seriously disappoint. There's some
English/Scottish/Kiwi expats that organise a friendly game every now and then too. They said
they'd give me a yell when the next game is on, so I should finally have an opportunity for
some serious exercise and a chance to meet heaps more people.
After three weeks here it's becoming harder and harder to think of things to type here as
the whole culture and city is starting to feel more and more like home. My Japanese is
reaching the stage where I can make chit chat with people I bump into in my building's
elevator but my lessons (reading and writing) are slow going. I can read Katakana and
Hiragana very very slowly, but even that feels quite liberating.
Most of the latest photos I've uploaded were taken at Hiroshima Castle and the Shukkien garden nearby. Both were incredibly beautiful and tranquil places. I regularly clear my head by just plonking my rump on a bench in the shade at one of the many parks and taking in the 'tranquility'.
Please keep the emails coming, I promise my replies will get more frequent when I finally
have a laptop.
Monday, June 05, 2006
Quick Update for 06/06/06
Well, still no laptop. Buying something that complicated when nobody speaks your language beyond "this... very fast... good... you buy!" is just a touch difficult. I've got some friends that can help me now though.
Been partying plenty, met heaps of new cool teachers at my proper branch. My branch is on the tenth floor of a massive depato called Fukuya opposite Hiroshima train station. The 10th floor is filled entirely with books and it is the most neat and well stocked bookstore Ive ever seen. MASSIVE. Decent English section too which is really handy.
I GOT A CAMERA! Yes, I sank 30,000￥ on a Canon IXY70 and a 256MB card. I got a mobile phone too, some sexy slim Samsung 3G number with a 2Mpixel cam in it. So photos should start appearing on my flickr account regularly now. You can check it out at http://www.flickr.com/photos/75765509@N00/ I think. Email me if this doesn:t work.
Ive been on a few huge benders now, met a bunch of awesome Japanese people. Last night I had guys shouting me rounds of beers and strange shots of crazy weird concoctions. I also met a few cute girls so that front has been going quite well. Its funny but when everyone is kinda drunk, the weird blend of bastardised japanese/english hybrid that we can speak... it seems to work. My Japanese is continuing to improve, Ive started free lessons at the Hiroshima International Centre where very patient (and cute of course) 20-somethings teach me basic Japanese.
The netcafe I:m in at the moment is enormous, 3 floors, with a huge manga library, free drinks (at least 60 types), cheap food, and pretty decent machines. However, still expensive!!!
The food here is incredible, I dont think Ive eaten at the same place twice yet. Ive started hanging out a fair bit with a cool teacher from the states and his buddies from scotland and other places. They:ve taken me to a whole bunch of awesome places including this really bizarre Japanese version of an Italian restaurant. I can safely say that Japanese garlic bread is some of the tastiest and most unhealthy stuff on earth. Imagine 10cm lengths of baguette covered in huge chunks of roasted garlic and litres of this strange-tasting butter.
So, its taken me maybe 10 days, but I finally feel truly happy here and can safely say Im having a ball. When I have a proper weekend (I worked overtime to start off on a good footing last weekend) Ill spend a good amount of time learning how to use this camera properly and take some photos of Miyajima (an island) or Hiyajima (a massive park in Hiroshima).
I was annoyed I missed the Aus v Greece and Aus v Netherlands matches, but hoooo boy this city is getting primed for the Aus v Japan match. I met some really awesome Japanese guys (who appeared to be around my age, and they assumed the same, turns out they:re around 27-30) who lllllllove to play Winning Eleven 10 on PS2 and will take me to a great bar to watch the game. The Japanese fans sound confident but they:re definitely not underestimating what is possible with Gus on the scene.
Been partying plenty, met heaps of new cool teachers at my proper branch. My branch is on the tenth floor of a massive depato called Fukuya opposite Hiroshima train station. The 10th floor is filled entirely with books and it is the most neat and well stocked bookstore Ive ever seen. MASSIVE. Decent English section too which is really handy.
I GOT A CAMERA! Yes, I sank 30,000￥ on a Canon IXY70 and a 256MB card. I got a mobile phone too, some sexy slim Samsung 3G number with a 2Mpixel cam in it. So photos should start appearing on my flickr account regularly now. You can check it out at http://www.flickr.com/photos/75765509@N00/ I think. Email me if this doesn:t work.
Ive been on a few huge benders now, met a bunch of awesome Japanese people. Last night I had guys shouting me rounds of beers and strange shots of crazy weird concoctions. I also met a few cute girls so that front has been going quite well. Its funny but when everyone is kinda drunk, the weird blend of bastardised japanese/english hybrid that we can speak... it seems to work. My Japanese is continuing to improve, Ive started free lessons at the Hiroshima International Centre where very patient (and cute of course) 20-somethings teach me basic Japanese.
The netcafe I:m in at the moment is enormous, 3 floors, with a huge manga library, free drinks (at least 60 types), cheap food, and pretty decent machines. However, still expensive!!!
The food here is incredible, I dont think Ive eaten at the same place twice yet. Ive started hanging out a fair bit with a cool teacher from the states and his buddies from scotland and other places. They:ve taken me to a whole bunch of awesome places including this really bizarre Japanese version of an Italian restaurant. I can safely say that Japanese garlic bread is some of the tastiest and most unhealthy stuff on earth. Imagine 10cm lengths of baguette covered in huge chunks of roasted garlic and litres of this strange-tasting butter.
So, its taken me maybe 10 days, but I finally feel truly happy here and can safely say Im having a ball. When I have a proper weekend (I worked overtime to start off on a good footing last weekend) Ill spend a good amount of time learning how to use this camera properly and take some photos of Miyajima (an island) or Hiyajima (a massive park in Hiroshima).
I was annoyed I missed the Aus v Greece and Aus v Netherlands matches, but hoooo boy this city is getting primed for the Aus v Japan match. I met some really awesome Japanese guys (who appeared to be around my age, and they assumed the same, turns out they:re around 27-30) who lllllllove to play Winning Eleven 10 on PS2 and will take me to a great bar to watch the game. The Japanese fans sound confident but they:re definitely not underestimating what is possible with Gus on the scene.
Monday, May 29, 2006
Look ma, me teachin English!
What a day... sorry this will be a really quick entry as netcafes are damn expensive over here and I have fellow teachers waiting to go get drunk and stuff ourselves full at an izakaya (Japanese pub.)
Well, I:ve taught my first lesson... or part thereof. What a rush! 4 hours preparation and there I was moulding the minds of tomorrow, hyuk hyuk hyuk. I had no idea teaching would be such a rush. The students (aged 13 to 27) were all so attentive and eager it was an absolute joy. The youngest, a high school girl, was a real crackup and by far the best with vocab. Don:t know what you:re always whinging about mum, with my 20 minutes under my belt now I reckon teaching is a breeze ;)
I finally went out properly at night on a bar crawl with some of the other staff. Hiroshima is riddled with Melbourne-esque bars tucked away in cool little places. As soon as I walk in any girls in the place that speak english tend to migrate towards me to test it out. I guess I must look like a good teacher or something... hoho. It was quite amazing how much more at home I felt once I had been out for a decent night on the sauce. Only shame is the Japanese don:t know what an *all day fried breakfast* is so I have to cram myself full of nutella toast.
Oh, for all the sneaker junkies out there reading this blog... hooooly crap get yourself to Japan. I stumbled across 5 stores each with over 1,000 different types of Gravis, Adidas, Converse, Puma, Asics, etc... all so cheap! Less than $49 if you don:t mind last year:s fashions (heaven forbid).
Would love to stay and type up more but really must dash. Love to all, thanks heaps for the emails I will endeavour to reply to them personally once I have internet on at home.
Sayonara!
Well, I:ve taught my first lesson... or part thereof. What a rush! 4 hours preparation and there I was moulding the minds of tomorrow, hyuk hyuk hyuk. I had no idea teaching would be such a rush. The students (aged 13 to 27) were all so attentive and eager it was an absolute joy. The youngest, a high school girl, was a real crackup and by far the best with vocab. Don:t know what you:re always whinging about mum, with my 20 minutes under my belt now I reckon teaching is a breeze ;)
I finally went out properly at night on a bar crawl with some of the other staff. Hiroshima is riddled with Melbourne-esque bars tucked away in cool little places. As soon as I walk in any girls in the place that speak english tend to migrate towards me to test it out. I guess I must look like a good teacher or something... hoho. It was quite amazing how much more at home I felt once I had been out for a decent night on the sauce. Only shame is the Japanese don:t know what an *all day fried breakfast* is so I have to cram myself full of nutella toast.
Oh, for all the sneaker junkies out there reading this blog... hooooly crap get yourself to Japan. I stumbled across 5 stores each with over 1,000 different types of Gravis, Adidas, Converse, Puma, Asics, etc... all so cheap! Less than $49 if you don:t mind last year:s fashions (heaven forbid).
Would love to stay and type up more but really must dash. Love to all, thanks heaps for the emails I will endeavour to reply to them personally once I have internet on at home.
Sayonara!
Saturday, May 27, 2006
Adventures!
Alright, so that seems to have worked.
On to my next adventures. Lee and I set off to the "Internationl Library" in the Peace Park Museum on Thursday morning. The Peace Park itself is quite amazing, had it not been packed full of school kids I:m sure it would be quite peaceful too. Quite a few of the schoolkids had obviously been given the task of interviewing any gaijin they could find. I obliged the first group that found me , but once it became obvious that we were about to descended upon by many many more groups we made a quick escape from the park. Heading directly west from the park we decided to navigate the little backstreets of Hiroshima until we reached the trees on the edge of town. This took a suprisingly short amount of time so we kept going up and up and up into the ever-steeper hills surrounding Hiroshima until the heat and humidity got the better of us.
Thankfully, even right on the edge of Hiroshima, one can find vending machines stocking my now favourite drink "Aquarius" in 500mL cans for ￥120. Quick aside, one thing that puzzles me enormously is despite the myriad vending machines dotting the city, you never seem to see anyone drinking! I see people buy drinks but then they rush off to somewhere... no doubt a secret drinking hall where no gaijin has ever been allowed entry.
On our walk up through the hills we passed a few shrines and other such interesting sights, but I:m afraid until I start work and get one of the Japanese-speaking staff members to accompany me, I won:t be able to buy camera and post photos up here. Stomachs grumbling we headed back towards the skyscrapers.
We had a brilliant bit of luck on our return journey through likewise tiny backstreets when we stumbled right into a tiny okonomiyaki restaurant (no idea what the Japanese would refer to it as, yet). We managed to order ourselves an okonomiyaki each and sat down at the enormous L-shaped bench which was 90% cooktop with the other customers (3 beer-drinking labourers and one cool-as-can-be 20-something guy reading manga). I really wish I could have taken photos of the chef as she prepred our lunch, it was quite an amazing spectacle, particularly since it all happens right in front of you. Once ready the chef simply drags it across the cooktop to you and you begin wolfing it down armed with a metal blade/spatula contraption. To say it was delicious is definitely an understatement. I am most certainly on a mission to try as many different okonomiyaki places as I can, now.
I'm about to be kicked out of the netcafe now, so a quick summary of other interesting things as I'm not sure when I'll be back online again.
Yesterday and today have been warm but very wet so I've spent most of my time investigting Hiroshim's galleries and museums. Seeing Dali's "Dream of Venus" was quite an experience.
I did my first big food shop at a supermarket 2 blocks from my appartment. This place was absolutely enormous and I recognised only maybe 5% of the goods. I'm definitely going to have to get a book on cooking seafood as it is so much cheaper than beef or pork or chicken. Bread is ￥300 for a 10slice miniloaf and Ballentine's whiskey is ￥１，４９０ for a 700mL bottle. I love this country. A tray of gyoza ready-to-cook is only ￥２４８ so I can see myself going through a huge amount of them.
I got to experience the downside of asking Japanese people for help while at the supermarket. "Sumimasen, chirisosu wa doko desuka?" (Excuse me, where is the chilli sauce?) I asked an elderly woman. She replied with a rapid fire answer that left me staring blankly. Before I could finish saying "Wakarimasen" (I don:t understand) she grabbed me by the hand and took me to the end of the aisle, pointing in the direction of aisle 6 she repeated "ROKU" slowly for my benefit then smiled and resumed her shopping. I made a mental note of where my chilli sauce could be found and resumed my own shopping but less than 30 seconds later the lady was grabbing my hand again and this time dragged me all the way to the chilli sauce and would not leave me until said sauce was in my basket. "Domo arigato gozaimasu!" (Thank you very much) I said and after we both bowed to each other she left with an expression on her face I am beginning to realise means "last time I help a bloody gaijin...".
Time for me to head off. I'm sure the many red-blooded males with a taste for Japanese girls that are reading this would rather I spent some time going into detail about all the cute girls I have met, but that can wait for another time.
Lee has organised dinner and drinks with some girls from work tonight, Saturday I'll hopefully get to see the baseball live with Wes and on Sunday Lee has his Nova funded welcome party with all you can eat all you can drink karaoke madness. Should be fun!
Missing everyone in Austrlia plenty. Feel free to email me at swfenton at gmail dot com. Would love to be kept up to date on the haps of Melbourne town.
For now, sayonara.
On to my next adventures. Lee and I set off to the "Internationl Library" in the Peace Park Museum on Thursday morning. The Peace Park itself is quite amazing, had it not been packed full of school kids I:m sure it would be quite peaceful too. Quite a few of the schoolkids had obviously been given the task of interviewing any gaijin they could find. I obliged the first group that found me , but once it became obvious that we were about to descended upon by many many more groups we made a quick escape from the park. Heading directly west from the park we decided to navigate the little backstreets of Hiroshima until we reached the trees on the edge of town. This took a suprisingly short amount of time so we kept going up and up and up into the ever-steeper hills surrounding Hiroshima until the heat and humidity got the better of us.
Thankfully, even right on the edge of Hiroshima, one can find vending machines stocking my now favourite drink "Aquarius" in 500mL cans for ￥120. Quick aside, one thing that puzzles me enormously is despite the myriad vending machines dotting the city, you never seem to see anyone drinking! I see people buy drinks but then they rush off to somewhere... no doubt a secret drinking hall where no gaijin has ever been allowed entry.
On our walk up through the hills we passed a few shrines and other such interesting sights, but I:m afraid until I start work and get one of the Japanese-speaking staff members to accompany me, I won:t be able to buy camera and post photos up here. Stomachs grumbling we headed back towards the skyscrapers.
We had a brilliant bit of luck on our return journey through likewise tiny backstreets when we stumbled right into a tiny okonomiyaki restaurant (no idea what the Japanese would refer to it as, yet). We managed to order ourselves an okonomiyaki each and sat down at the enormous L-shaped bench which was 90% cooktop with the other customers (3 beer-drinking labourers and one cool-as-can-be 20-something guy reading manga). I really wish I could have taken photos of the chef as she prepred our lunch, it was quite an amazing spectacle, particularly since it all happens right in front of you. Once ready the chef simply drags it across the cooktop to you and you begin wolfing it down armed with a metal blade/spatula contraption. To say it was delicious is definitely an understatement. I am most certainly on a mission to try as many different okonomiyaki places as I can, now.
I'm about to be kicked out of the netcafe now, so a quick summary of other interesting things as I'm not sure when I'll be back online again.
Yesterday and today have been warm but very wet so I've spent most of my time investigting Hiroshim's galleries and museums. Seeing Dali's "Dream of Venus" was quite an experience.
I did my first big food shop at a supermarket 2 blocks from my appartment. This place was absolutely enormous and I recognised only maybe 5% of the goods. I'm definitely going to have to get a book on cooking seafood as it is so much cheaper than beef or pork or chicken. Bread is ￥300 for a 10slice miniloaf and Ballentine's whiskey is ￥１，４９０ for a 700mL bottle. I love this country. A tray of gyoza ready-to-cook is only ￥２４８ so I can see myself going through a huge amount of them.
I got to experience the downside of asking Japanese people for help while at the supermarket. "Sumimasen, chirisosu wa doko desuka?" (Excuse me, where is the chilli sauce?) I asked an elderly woman. She replied with a rapid fire answer that left me staring blankly. Before I could finish saying "Wakarimasen" (I don:t understand) she grabbed me by the hand and took me to the end of the aisle, pointing in the direction of aisle 6 she repeated "ROKU" slowly for my benefit then smiled and resumed her shopping. I made a mental note of where my chilli sauce could be found and resumed my own shopping but less than 30 seconds later the lady was grabbing my hand again and this time dragged me all the way to the chilli sauce and would not leave me until said sauce was in my basket. "Domo arigato gozaimasu!" (Thank you very much) I said and after we both bowed to each other she left with an expression on her face I am beginning to realise means "last time I help a bloody gaijin...".
Time for me to head off. I'm sure the many red-blooded males with a taste for Japanese girls that are reading this would rather I spent some time going into detail about all the cute girls I have met, but that can wait for another time.
Lee has organised dinner and drinks with some girls from work tonight, Saturday I'll hopefully get to see the baseball live with Wes and on Sunday Lee has his Nova funded welcome party with all you can eat all you can drink karaoke madness. Should be fun!
Missing everyone in Austrlia plenty. Feel free to email me at swfenton at gmail dot com. Would love to be kept up to date on the haps of Melbourne town.
For now, sayonara.
Friday, May 26, 2006
Yes, it really is a crazy place
As I sit here drinking my free ice milk coffee from the enormous vending machines near the netcafe entrance and battle with this semi-broken keyboard littered with hiragana and katana and " where @ should be, I think I have found a nice analogy for my experience with Japan thus far. It is a country that at the same time manages to be both extremely helpful and convenient yet confusing, frustrating and lonely for the gaijin (foreigner.) (I guess those two sentences also give an indication of just how much of a minefield of bad grammar and poor spelling this blog is going to be.)
I'm still toying with ideas as to how I'm going to organise these postings, so it may change in the coming weeks.
[You:re going to have to endure : instead of ' and other erroneous characters, I cannot be bothered trying to learn to touch type on a new keyboard layout just yet.]
So, I:m living in Naka-ku which is, as far as I can gather, the ward that includes most of downtown Hiroshima. My appartment is small (duh) by Austrlian standards, but much larger than I had expected. It:s going to take a while to get used to paper (literally) thin walls and having no oven. The shower is huge (although the shower head is annoyingly low for 187cm tall people) and the bathtub is an enormous couldron like beast that I:ve not wanted to try out yet for fear that I will go crashing through the 9 floors below mid-bath.
My housemates are both very nice guys. Lee, 21, from Adelaide and Wes, in his 40s (I assume) from Toowoomba. They haven:t been home heaps, since they both work 38-odd hours a week. Lee did spend his day off and parts of other days showing me around which was really helpful. I speak the most Japanese out of the three of us (which isn:t much) but Lee has started lessons and I:ll go along too once I start work next week.
This is all sounding a bit dull so far... I think its going to take me a while to get the hang of what to mention and what to leave out. I have to keep in mind that my audience here on this blog includes my grandma, parents and other relatives, as well as friends and fellow japanophiles.
Lets rewind and try diary style for a bit...
The flight was pretty poor, 1st leg MEL to KUL was filled with noisy babies and hopeless dated films so I ended up watching various bits of Good Night and Good Luck 4 times. Malaysia Airlines had great staff though, and reasonably tasty food. The 2nd leg was staffed by some of the most gorgeous Japanese girls I:ve ever seen, even after being in Hiroshima for 4 days. I finally got off to sleep around 3am but was woken at 5am with an "OHAYO GOZAIMASU!" and the worst breakfast I:ve ever seen.
Osaka Kansai airport felt like a space terminal and since I:d only had ~5 hours sleep since Monday morning it felt a thousand times stranger. Before I realised I was through customs and standing in a huge crowd of Japanese people in the international arrivals. My first "wtf" moment of the trip came soon after when I attempted to do number twos only to be confronted with an odd trench in the ground where a toilet should have been. "Mmmm fuck that, I can hold it" were my thoughts, I believe.
I met up with the Nova staff, a very chipper British chap, and was pointed in the direction of the local train to Shin-Osaka where I would transfer to the Shinkansen (bullet train.) I got to test out my Japanese for the first time on the girls working at the Starbucks in Shin-Osaka. They greeted me in broken English and when I replied with Japanese they all began giggling and covering their mouths with their hands. Transaction completed, giggles and all, I waited for my coffee in the designated area. Despite my zombie-tiredness I did notice that the girls making the coffee kept peering around the machine at me. I took a stroll through Shin-Osaka's shops/market area and saw such sights as a Pokky the size of a baseball bat for ￥1,900.
The platform for the shinkansen to Hiroshima was a good km or so long. I had to walk the full length of it to get to the unreserved seats and in doing so passed about 300 schoolkids all waiting to board. Every single one of them stared at me and the more adventurous started yelling out "HARRO! HARRO!" while waving and grinning. I gave a group of them my best "G'day mate" and got a huge round of laughs for my troubles.
The shinkansen ride to Hiroshima took 1hour55minutes exactly (like they said it would). Those trains are seriously impressive machines, so incredibly smooth and fast. Sadly most of the journey was through incredibly long tunnels but the glimpses of country side that I got were gorgeous.
A Hiroshima Nova employee met me at Hiroshima station and escorted me by tram to my appartment. The tram conductor was this wonderfully camp bloke in his 20s who delighted at my confusion with the ticket machine (you pay to alight not to board). For a city of less than 1.5million people (from what I:ve read) it sure does feel far bigger than Melbourne. I guess that:s largely because the Japanese build up not sideways. Naka-ku is full of buildings well over 10 stories tall and all sorts of flashing lights. It wasn:t until my third day that I discovered the entire underground section of the city that contains even more shops and walkways.
I spent most of my first day walking around the city centre, getting stared at, failing to find a single shop with towels for sale and buying very cheap alcohol from the delightful old couple that run a small shop opposite my appartment building. ￥1000 for a 6pack of 500mL "Draft One" (5% alc) cans, awesome. Relaxing on the couch in front of a Hiroshima Carp vs someone Orix baseball game while downing those beers definitely put a grin on my face.
I:m going to upload this now as this netcafe machine is starting to do very strange things... this better work!
I'm still toying with ideas as to how I'm going to organise these postings, so it may change in the coming weeks.
[You:re going to have to endure : instead of ' and other erroneous characters, I cannot be bothered trying to learn to touch type on a new keyboard layout just yet.]
So, I:m living in Naka-ku which is, as far as I can gather, the ward that includes most of downtown Hiroshima. My appartment is small (duh) by Austrlian standards, but much larger than I had expected. It:s going to take a while to get used to paper (literally) thin walls and having no oven. The shower is huge (although the shower head is annoyingly low for 187cm tall people) and the bathtub is an enormous couldron like beast that I:ve not wanted to try out yet for fear that I will go crashing through the 9 floors below mid-bath.
My housemates are both very nice guys. Lee, 21, from Adelaide and Wes, in his 40s (I assume) from Toowoomba. They haven:t been home heaps, since they both work 38-odd hours a week. Lee did spend his day off and parts of other days showing me around which was really helpful. I speak the most Japanese out of the three of us (which isn:t much) but Lee has started lessons and I:ll go along too once I start work next week.
This is all sounding a bit dull so far... I think its going to take me a while to get the hang of what to mention and what to leave out. I have to keep in mind that my audience here on this blog includes my grandma, parents and other relatives, as well as friends and fellow japanophiles.
Lets rewind and try diary style for a bit...
The flight was pretty poor, 1st leg MEL to KUL was filled with noisy babies and hopeless dated films so I ended up watching various bits of Good Night and Good Luck 4 times. Malaysia Airlines had great staff though, and reasonably tasty food. The 2nd leg was staffed by some of the most gorgeous Japanese girls I:ve ever seen, even after being in Hiroshima for 4 days. I finally got off to sleep around 3am but was woken at 5am with an "OHAYO GOZAIMASU!" and the worst breakfast I:ve ever seen.
Osaka Kansai airport felt like a space terminal and since I:d only had ~5 hours sleep since Monday morning it felt a thousand times stranger. Before I realised I was through customs and standing in a huge crowd of Japanese people in the international arrivals. My first "wtf" moment of the trip came soon after when I attempted to do number twos only to be confronted with an odd trench in the ground where a toilet should have been. "Mmmm fuck that, I can hold it" were my thoughts, I believe.
I met up with the Nova staff, a very chipper British chap, and was pointed in the direction of the local train to Shin-Osaka where I would transfer to the Shinkansen (bullet train.) I got to test out my Japanese for the first time on the girls working at the Starbucks in Shin-Osaka. They greeted me in broken English and when I replied with Japanese they all began giggling and covering their mouths with their hands. Transaction completed, giggles and all, I waited for my coffee in the designated area. Despite my zombie-tiredness I did notice that the girls making the coffee kept peering around the machine at me. I took a stroll through Shin-Osaka's shops/market area and saw such sights as a Pokky the size of a baseball bat for ￥1,900.
The platform for the shinkansen to Hiroshima was a good km or so long. I had to walk the full length of it to get to the unreserved seats and in doing so passed about 300 schoolkids all waiting to board. Every single one of them stared at me and the more adventurous started yelling out "HARRO! HARRO!" while waving and grinning. I gave a group of them my best "G'day mate" and got a huge round of laughs for my troubles.
The shinkansen ride to Hiroshima took 1hour55minutes exactly (like they said it would). Those trains are seriously impressive machines, so incredibly smooth and fast. Sadly most of the journey was through incredibly long tunnels but the glimpses of country side that I got were gorgeous.
A Hiroshima Nova employee met me at Hiroshima station and escorted me by tram to my appartment. The tram conductor was this wonderfully camp bloke in his 20s who delighted at my confusion with the ticket machine (you pay to alight not to board). For a city of less than 1.5million people (from what I:ve read) it sure does feel far bigger than Melbourne. I guess that:s largely because the Japanese build up not sideways. Naka-ku is full of buildings well over 10 stories tall and all sorts of flashing lights. It wasn:t until my third day that I discovered the entire underground section of the city that contains even more shops and walkways.
I spent most of my first day walking around the city centre, getting stared at, failing to find a single shop with towels for sale and buying very cheap alcohol from the delightful old couple that run a small shop opposite my appartment building. ￥1000 for a 6pack of 500mL "Draft One" (5% alc) cans, awesome. Relaxing on the couch in front of a Hiroshima Carp vs someone Orix baseball game while downing those beers definitely put a grin on my face.
I:m going to upload this now as this netcafe machine is starting to do very strange things... this better work!
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