到着した！

I'm blogging from OSAKA :)

I've just checked into Kansai Airport Washington Hotel. It's a short bus ride (free shuttle bus between the hotel and the airport) from the airport. I was going to book the Nikko Hotel, but

my mum told me to look around and find a cheaper alternative. So I did - and

I'm glad I did.

I booked the room via internet, no deposit was required. The internet offer is 7,300 yen for a single room for one night, and the price includes:

• free internet (there's a LAN line provided in the room)
• breakfast
• a 300 yen Family Mart voucher (there's a convenience store on the 2nd floor of the hotel)

The room is small, but enough for one person. There's room to walk around, much better than the Green Hill Hotel Urban in Sannomiya, Kobe (stayed there last summer during the summer programme at Kobe University). The bathroom is quite small, as usual on the Japanese standard. TV, yukata, slippers, towels, fridge etc. the basics of a hotel room. I must mention the funky "kettle" though. It's not actually a kettle, but a hotplate with a metal mug on top of it!

I don't think I'll get much sleep tonight. Don't get me wrong, the room is very quiet even though the hotel is near the airport. I'm getting picked up by the university tomorrow morning at 0935 from the airport, and I have to go to the post office before that (and have breakfast and use the 300 yen convenience store voucher), so I've set my alarm clock for 0600.

I guess I'll have to rely on my adrenalin to get me going tomorrow.

taking off

I'm currently sitting by Gate 66 in the Hong Kong International Airport. The flight departs in less than 2 hours. I know I'm a tad bit early, but I had nothing else to do so I thought I might as well just come and chill at the airport, where there's free wi-fi.

there aren't many people sitting around me. maybe it's still early. or maybe the flight is just not that full. I can see some Japanese people, a few Brits (one old lady reading the Mail) and other caucasian-looking tourists. Sitting opposite me is a businessman (guessing from his suitcase) asleep and wearing a pair gore-tex boots.

Some random Chinese tourist (sounds like Taiwanese, but he could be from a southern province of China - except for Guangdong - I'm guessing from his mandarin accent) just asked me to take a photo for him, in front of the plane. Random. I love how he just assumes that I speak

Mandarin. Luckily my Chinese was adequate to cope with this photo-taking situation. This also happens in many East Asian countries. People have spoken to me in Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian, Thai, Shanghaiese dialect, and Taiwanese dialect.

But the most annoying thing I find is not being spoken to another language in East Asia, it's when some idiotic people in Britain comes up to me and very enthusiastically say "ni hao!". I'm like "piss off. We're in Britain, and I'm British, just speak English will you?".

this another random Chinese tourist (maybe about 50-60 years old) who is sitting next to me is now curiously staring at my computer screen. he seems fascinated with my computer and the internet. I hope he doesn't understand English and doesn't realise that I'm typing things about him right now. (He's speaking to his friends in a Chinese provincial dialect that I don't recognise) This is sort of creepy.

this is it.

yep. this is it.

I checked-in online yesterday afternoon, the flight CX502 departs from HKG at 1640 tomorrow, and will arrive at KIX at 2105. A three-and-a-half hour flight.

it's getting a bit surreal. I'M GOING TO JAPAN TOMORROW! Yes I've been there a few times already but I'm still excited =)

my departure for Japan also marks the end of my summer holiday, which began in early June (can't believe I've had a four-month summer!). *sigh* I'll have to force myself to get out of the holiday mood and go back to some serious study, especially when my Japanese is not really up-to-scratch right now.

I have a placement test next Wednesday, which happens to be my 21st birthday. Great. Before I knew I was going to Osaka, I had planned to go out to downtown Kyoto with John and Paulina, have some お好み焼き or 百円回転すし before hitting a 居酒屋, but now - I have no idea what to do on my birthday. I would have only known the people on my course for a week, and the university campus is in a suburban residential area, so I doubt there'll be any good place to hang out - by myself. It'll be my loneliest birthday, ever.

P.S. goodbye HK.

one more week

today the parcels I shipped from Manchester arrived. I knew the vessel had arrived in Hong Kong last week, but I thought it'd take longer to go through customs etc., apparently not. So £130 and 7 weeks later, 45kg of my stuff arrived.

I had decided to ship things to HK first, rather than directly to Japan, because of 2 reasons:

1. I still haven't got a Japanese address. I had considered using one of my parents' Japanese friend's address, but that will incur debt in favours (= Japanese social currency?).
2. I couldn't find a shipping company that would ship parcels from Manchester to Osaka by sea. I used Seven Seas to ship things from Manchester to HK (door to door) and it was £130; whereas it would cost over £600 to send parcels from Manchester to Osaka by air.
   

spent most of the afternoon unpacking things from the tattered boxes, and now trying to sort out which things I need most urgently when I arrive in Japan, and those that I probably won't need 'till the winter. my mother is already planning her next trips (note the plurality) to Japan so she can "bring me stuff" (in reality: sightseeing the places she hasn't already been).

my parents are actually going to Japan this week, but I won't see them when I arrive in Osaka next Wednesday. they are going to the Tohoku region of Honshu, Sendai to be exact. they'll stop by Tokyo and drop a couple of boxes of mine at a friend's place, then the Japanese friend will send it to my dormitory by 宅急便 (available at コンビニ) once I have the exact address. this way I can save some shipping costs, as takkyuubin is not very expensive.

my parents think I have way too much stuff to bring with me. but I don't want to spend all my scholarship money buying things that I already have in Britain. and as I only have 20kg luggage allowance, I have to find ways to get my stuff there. I had thought about using my mileage to get an extra 10kg, but my mother told me to save the mileage for flights, so I'm saving them for my North Korea trip (return flight from Kansai to Beijing).

right now I'm also trying to plan how much money I'll have to spend in my first month. my parents have only given me a bit of cash to survive for the first month, until I get the first scholarship payment. obvious expenses will include rent, utilities, mobile phone, food, transport, toiletries... a Japanese rice cooker (I left mine in Manchester - plus I've always wanted a fancy Japanese rice cooker with hi-tech functions and buttons :P). ooh and one night accommodation at the Kansai Washington Hotel.

hopefully I won't come to a point where I have to survive on eating なっとう on rice three times a day, as much as I love natto, that'd be quite miserable.

visa - the real thing

so this is how my visa looks like.

this is my first visa to be attached to the current passport. the last passport I had a Mongolian visa that I got when I arrived at the Ulaanbatar airport back in July 2006. the Mongolian visa was the first ever visa that I got. 'cause so far I haven't been to any places (except for Mongolia) that required visa on my passport (I've only been to a few countries in Europe, and a few in South East Asia, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and the States).

even though I've been to China many times, I've never needed a visa 'cause I never use my British passport to go there - all thanks to the fact that I was born and grew up in Hong Kong. All "permanent residents" (i.e. 7 years in HK) of HK can go to China with just a little plastic card, including the foreign expatriates.

one of my mother's Japanese friend had lived in HK for 18 years, then when she had to return to Japan, because she's already a permanent resident of Hong Kong/China, she could buy a Japan Rail Pass (only available to foreign visitors and not Japanese nationals) as a tourist.

H&M x Jimmy Choo

A preview of the much anticipated H&M x Jimmy Choo collection, which will launch globally on Saturday 14th November. (From ELLE Japon, October 2009 issue)

For H&M stuff the collection is quite pricey (the magazine pages show Japanese prices), probably about 50% off of the original Jimmy Choo (UK prices). I'm still pondering on the thought of whether to venture to Ginza (or Shinjuku, or Harajuku - a new store opening on the same day) for the collection. Or should I just save up a bit more and buy a real pair of Jimmy Choo?

From the pictures the heels look like sky-scraper height, which could pose a problem since I'm not so familiar with wearing impossibly high heels. And all the shoes (except for the fabulous-looking thigh high leather boots) have open-toes; I've never had a pedicure and I have bunions so my feet don't look great. Tamara Mellon has designed some fabulous bags though, which I'm more inclined to buy, including the zebra print clutch, and the studded hobo. The collection includes clothes (a first for Jimmy Choo) as well, but I'm more interested in the accessories.

visa

since I got the MEXT scholarship, I was supposed to go back to London and get my visa at the Embassy there. I can't be arsed to fly 12 hours back to London and then fly from there to Japan. The stubborn and old-fashion bureuacracy of MEXT means they won't pay my outward flight to Japan from Hong Kong (even though it's cheaper and quicker to fly from here - only 3 hours!).

Anyway, I booked a one-way flight from HKG to KIX, and will be flying on the lovely Cathay Pacific Airways. Currently it's booked for 30th September, but I might change it to 2nd October. I wanted to fly on the 1st but that's national holiday in China and Hong Kong so the flights that day are all fully booked. If I have to fly on the 30th (I'd rather go there earlier), I'll book a room at the Kansai Washington Hotel, opposite the man-made island where the airport is built on. They have a free shuttle bus service to and from the airport, and charges much less than Hotel Nikko and the ANA Hotel. Plus Washington Hotel is situated near the amazing Rinku Outlet Park - if I do stay there, maybe I'll have a couple of hours to do some shopping! but then I have to watch my purse because I won't get the first instalment of my scholarship money a few weeks after I open a bank account.

Okay back to the MEXT/Embassy/visa shizzle, the Embassy in London have kindly contacted the Consulate-General in Hong Kong, so that I can get my visa here in HK instead. So yesterday lunchtime, my venture to the Consulate-General of Japan was a lift ride from the 49/F (where the law firm I'm interning is situated) to the 46/F (the Consulate) of the same building. I had scheduled a meeting with a Consulate staff, and she went through my visa application form, told me things about bank account, mobile phone, national health insurance, gaijin card etc. The process was really quick, I just gave a passport photo, my passport and the application form, and I got a receipt which I need to bring with me to collect my passport. It only takes one working day so I'm going to collect my visa and passport this lunchtime! I didn't even need the Certificate of Eligibility 'cause the Embassy in London have informed them about my scholarship and place at Handai so that was it. Didn't have to pay either (have no idea how much the visa costs anyway) - woohoo!

Yesterday the typhoon came. It was signal no.3 throughout most of the day, and then it went up to a signal no.8 by the time I was finishing work. this morning it was still no.8 so I didn't have to go to work at the usual time. Instead I iced the banana and walnut cake I made last night (for the colleagues at the office 'cause today is actually my last day at work), watched the US Open men's final (Federer lost :'( but still happy for the 20-year-old Del Potro), took a shower, then left home at 1020 when the typhoon signal went back to 3.

[NOTE: in Hong Kong typhoons are graded according to their strength and power. The scale starts at 1, then 3 (nursery and kindergarten kids don't have to go to school), 8, 9 and 10 (8-10: no school or work).]

By the time I got to the office (the lights were on - the lawyer probably forgot to turn them off last night) it was 1100. I checked my e-mail; Matt (the partner of the firm) had sent me an e-mail saying that the office is closed. Oh well, I need to get my visa at 1330 anyway so I'm going to stay here and muck around. Need to tidy my desk as well. It's just a shame I brought my cake in and no one (well there's me and a temporary secretary) is here to eat it. Might just leave it in the pretty empty fridge (except for bottles of water and a jar of vegemite).

UoM Chorus pride

If you remember from my Chorus-related posts, or have attended one (or more) of our concerts, you might remember our wonderfully talented and inspiring conductor, Marcus. Our performance of Britten's War Requiem at the Bridgewater Hall could not have happened without him. That was his last concert as conductor with the University of Manchester Chorus. He has just finished his MMus in Opera at London's Royal Academy of Music, and will be entering the Academy's Opera School this autumn. We wish him best of luck in the future (he probably doesn't need luck, with his immense talent). It looks like he's already on his way to a spectacular career as a professional singer, with this win at the Wigmore Hall. You can watch Marcus's performance of A Poison Tree (also by Britten) at Plushmusic (http://www.plushmusic.tv/movies/25R/marcus-farnsworth---a-poison-tree-britten.html).

British baritone Farnsworth wins Wigmore prize

By Michael Roddy – Fri Sep 11, 12:08 am ET

LONDON (Reuters) – Singing songs on subjects ranging from death to drink, British baritone Marcus Farnsworth has won the top prize in the sixth biennial Wigmore Hall/Kohn Foundation International Song Competition.

Farnsworth, 25, was selected for the 10,000-pound ($16,550) prize on Thursday night by an international panel of singers and musicians in the final round of the four-day contest, which saw the field whittled down from 34 competitors to four finalists.

Farnsworth, however, accompanied by pianist Elizabeth Burgess, did not get the loudest applause from the famously demanding audience in the acoustically near-perfect London hall.
That was reserved for African-American fourth-place finisher Sidney Outlaw, from Brevard, North Carolina.

Outlaw captivated the packed hall with a program that ended with a moving setting of a text from the final sermon by the slain U.S. civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and a spiritual.

But Farnsworth, from Nottingham in the east midlands of England, got the jury vote with an engaging recital that mixed a Schubert lieder about death with settings by French composer Francis Poulenc of bawdy 17th century poems, one of which begs a hostess to pour more wine so that "I'm merry, merry, merry."

Farnsworth, whose mother is a dance teacher and father a pianist, said that despite the challenges of making it in the music world, the songs in which he specializes provide "a level of intimacy that cannot be achieved in any other art form."

He said he had chosen to perform the challenging mix of songs by seven composers in order to show "that those composers from vastly different fields can fit together."

Irish mezzo-soprano Ann Murray, one of the judges, said winning the competition "was like a springboard."

"It's like buying a house," she said. "You only need one person to be interested."

A New Life

So far 7 out of 15 of the Japanese Studies crew have arrived in Japan for the year abroad.

Here's a breakdown of who's going where:

Kat W., Ruben, Tom - Tokyo University of Foreign Studies 東京外国語大学
Rachel, Ania - Keio University　慶応義塾大学
Emily, Cayley - Meiji Gakuin University　明治学院大学
Stefano, Claudia - Rikkyo University　立教大学
Marc - Kobe University　神戸大学
Kat S. - Kansai Gaidai University　関西外国語大学
John, Paulina - Kyoto University　京都大学
Ross, me - Osaka University　大阪大学

I'm quite proud of the fact that out 15 of us, 6 of us have been awarded scholarships to finance this year abroad (5 JASSO scholars and 1 MEXT scholar). Pretty good eh?

It still hasn't really hit me yet, the fact that I'll be moving to Osaka at the end of the month. It's getting a little irritating, to see half of the people from my course has already arrived there and experiencing new things, settling down etc., and I'm still working as a legal intern.

Next Tuesday will be my last day at the law firm. Dunno if I'll miss it or not. I certainly like the fact that I've learned quite a lot about law this summer, but I'm just not very keen on all the commuting to work and sitting in an office for eight hours. The partner did mention maybe he can contact the Tokyo office and see if I can do another internship there. That would be quite fancy and exciting! Although that would mean I have to really brush up my Japanese over the coming year.

In the past few days I had been thinking about my dissertation. Some of my classmates have already decided the topic they'd like to write about and contacted their supervisors. Up until last week I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do. But considering that I'm interested in diplomacy, and the thought of touring North Korea keeps lurking around in my mind, I've decided to write my dissertation around the political relations between Japan and the DPRK. Dr. Cave has agreed to be my dissertation supervisor, and he said it sounds like a good, feasible topic. So - yay!

Apart from dissertation stuff, I've been researching on the Internet about settling down and the bureaucratic stuff I have to go through when I arrive:

- Alien Registration Card
- National Health Insurance
- Bank account at either the Post Office or Mitsui Sumitomo (have to do this one asap 'cause MEXT won't give me my scholarship until I have a bank account!)
- Mobile phone
- possibly a student credit card (for online shopping)
- Grocery/random stuff shopping to stack the fridge and things I might need in my room e.g. toiletries, stationery.

P.S. Will be going to the Consulate-General (46th floor of the same building as the office I'm working in now!) to apply for my student visa next Monday!

Deborah Voigt & Hong Kong Philharmonic

I should have written this last weekend...

Last Saturday (5th September) I went to the Hong Kong Cultural Centre for the Deborah Voigt concert with the Hong Kong Philharmonic.

This was my second time going to a concert by the American soprano. First time was this June at the Barbican in London, with the London Symphony Orchestra.

When I first heard her in June, I was completely blown away by the power and quality of her dramatic vocals.

Last week's programme was quite similar to that of the London concert. As a Wagner and Strauss specialist, in both concerts she performed the final scene of Strauss's operatic adaptation of Oscar Wilde's controversial play Salome, and the aria "Dich, teure Halle" from Wagner's Tannhäuser. In addition she sang "Liebestod" from Tristan und Isolde, also by Wagner.

Although Voigt sang beautifully last weekend, perhaps it was the crappy acoustics of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, or maybe it was the location of my seat (left side of the first row, right by the stage entrance), I didn't feel the same power of her soaring voice that I encountered in the Barbican (I was seated much farther away from the stage, on the balcony).

I think Hong Kong really needs a world-class concert hall (and theatre too). Considering the Hong Kong Philharmonic is a pretty good orchestra, they really need a good concert hall to add to their performance.

Another thing missing from HK's music scene is a professional opera company, and a theatre that goes with it. If I compare HK with Manchester - Manchester is a much smaller city (in terms of population) and yet there are three theatres (the Lowry, Opera House and the Palace), three professional orchestras (the Halle, BBC Phil and Manchester Camerata), and a 2000-seat concert hall (the Bridgewater Hall) with wonderful acoustics.

Hopefully when the debate and fiasco on the West Kowloon Cultural District project is over, they can finally start building something on the empty site...

回味

Things that I'll miss while I'm in Japan:

British/European stuff includes -

watching Wimbledon and the French Open on BBC
The Bridgewater Hall and the Halle and the BBC Philharmonic
London and its shops
Royal Opera House
London Symphony Orchestra and the Barbican
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal Albert Hall and the Cadogan Hall
Waitrose
Hampstead Heath
the V&A
National Portrait Gallery
the British Museum
Tate Britain and Tate Modern
the Hummingbird Bakery
the British accent - Received Pronounciation
and the Scottish accent (excluding Glaswegian accent)
Lyme Park
the Lake and Peak Districts
Marmite rice cakes and flatbreads
Sunday roast (with Yorkshire pudding please!)
Christmas lunch (with cranberry chutney and brussel sprouts)
Quavers

Nando's

the pub
Walkers Sensation crisps
Curry from the Curry Mile
Haggis
Deep-fried Mars bars

cullen skink
Laduree macarons
Fish and chips with mushy peas

Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Teen Vogue
H&M (they have H&M in Japan too - but only 2 stores in Tokyo)
ability to hop over to continental Europe on budget airlines
how quite a lot of things are cheaper than Japan

And the Hong Kong/Chinese stuff -

Shanghaiese food, especially 鸡丝粉皮，小笼包 and 素鹅
stinky tofu
Hong Kong/Cantonese desserts
Peking duck (not the British "crispy duck")
the cheap markets that sell every single specie of fruit and veg and seafood
Chinese soup (老火汤 - those that have been boiled for many hours)
the cheap, quick and efficient MTR (subway/train system)
close proximity with mainland China and its beautiful provinces
how (almost) everything is cheaper than Japan
the Octopus card (HK's equivalent of the Oyster card - the Octopus card is the first of its kind; issued in 1997 compared to Oyster card's 2003; Octopus is also used to pay in supermarkets, shops and cafes)
congee (rice porridge) and 炸两

my parents, Sam

this list will be updated regularly - as soon as I can think of things that I'll miss