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!
