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.
