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!
Sunday, June 25, 2006
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.
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