Sunday 25 October 2009

just another weekend

After badminton on Friday (had a great time partnering Monika from Hungary - who is very very good and got some pretty powerful smashes!), I rushed off to Umeda and met up with John, Marc, Jesse and Richard Harrison.

By the time we sat down at The Hub (a British pub in Umeda), it was already 2200, so it was pretty obvious that we wouldn't go home that night on the last train. We sat and drank and talked (including conversations with 3 Japanese pharmaceutical office workers) until 0200 when the pub closed.

It was kinda natural for us to go to the karaoke to spend the rest of the night/early morning until breakfast time. We ended up at Big Echo in Umeda (thanks to the bargaining skills of Harrison-sensei we only had to pay 2500yen for 3 hours of singing and drinking), sang a whole load of cheesy pop, Mancunian tunes and Japanese enka.

Then at around 0530 we went to search for breakfast around Umeda station. I really wanted something hot and filling like okayu (but clearly Osaka isn't Hong Kong). We ended up waiting for a McDonald's to open (everywhere else I've been in Japan the Mac is open 24hrs - except for this one!) at 0600. We rushed in (with the remaining energy we had) with about 30 other Japanese people who were waiting for breakfast, and quickly sat down with our coffee, hash browns, burgers and hotcakes.

I got onto the train at around half six, arrived at Kita-Senri at 7 but had to wait for another half-hour for the first bus back to the university. By the time I had a shower and gone to bed it was already 0900. Had about 4 hours of sleep (not a good 4-hour though) before I got up and did laundry, and got myself ready to go to Kyoto in the evening.

I met up with John (again - in less than 12 hours) and Dr. Peter Cave at the Kiyamachi/Shijo junction. We had dinner at a izakaya on Kawaramachi-dori. After dinner we went for a stroll around the Gion district, and managed to spot a number of geisha (or maiko - I couldn't tell the difference) in kimono and full make-up, sending their guests off onto taxis. That was rather exciting (in a subtle way, I didn't take any photos 'cause I thought it could be deemed as rude in a foreign-gaijin-tourist way) because the last time I was in Gion with Rachel and Cayley and John, we did see some "geisha" who were just tourists dressing up as geisha.

After grabbing some pumpkin-flavoured ice-cream at Baskin Robbins (John got a blue-and-black-looking mint chocolate flavour), I managed to get onto the second last train back to Saito-nishi monorail station.

Today I just stayed in my room, catching up on sleep, Grey's Anatomy and Ugly Betty :)

Tuesday 20 October 2009

食事

Today's lunch and dinner:


Monday 19 October 2009

"True English" 「悪口雑言辞典」

After dinner at the shokudo I went to the university bookshop to get some stationery. In the languages and linguistics section of the shop, a book caught my eye - "True English"「悪口雑言辞典」. It's a Japanese book written by a Brit - to teach Japanese "true" English, i.e. slangs and swear words.

Sebastian and I were hugely amused by the book to the extent that we both bought a copy.

The first chapter begins with "fuck", and the following explanation in Japanese was:
非常に複雑な語であり、別に1節をもうけて説明しています(78ページ)。
Turning to page 78, there's an entire chapter named 「四文字言葉ーfuckという語」, teaching the Japanese how and when to use the F word, as a verb, emphasis, adverb or adjective.

The next chapter lists words that could all mean 馬鹿 in Japanese, here's a selection:
idiot, numpty, prick, nob, dickhead, twat
And the following phrases all mean "go away" (あっちへ行け!):
I don't mean to be rude but please leave me alone.
Sod off.
Piss off.
Fuck off.
Get out of my sight.
Get off my back.
Back off.
Fuck off or die.
**********

This book is going to keep me amused for the rest of the year!

P.S. I love how in the alcohol/drinking chapter there's a photo of a Mancunian pub in front of the Manchester Wheel in Exchange Square.

Thursday 15 October 2009

Sweet autumn

The beautiful, warm autumn sun rays shine.

There is an incredibly sweet, honey-like scent in the air.
Not pungent, but soothingly sweet and adoring.

I don't know what kind of flower is giving off this scent,
all I can see in the trees are shades of green, yellow and red.

**********

I'm really looking forward to the season of autumn red leaves.

Wednesday 14 October 2009

21 years and 7 days

Sorry it's been a week since I last updated (on my 21st birthday). It's only been 2 weeks but it feels like I've been here for much longer.

I finally bought a mobile phone on my birthday. When the salesperson at au was putting in freebies (2GB microSD card, tissues), Ross strategically mentioned that it was my birthday so the salesperson got really excited, "oh I'm so sorry I didn't realise! Congratulations!..." (in Japanese of course) and gave me an extra freebie (a tissue box cover). It was pouring with rain and we wanted to go somewhere for a cheap dinner. We walked by a sushi restaurant so we thought we could have a look at the menu and check out the prices. As soon as we walked in I saw it was a 回転すし (sushi on a conveyor belt) and everything was 105 yen! I screamed with joy inside my mind. The quality was obviously very mediocre, and the マグロ (raw tuna) was untouchable as it looked more like a plastic slice of a transparent red pepper. Anyway we had fun with ordering things on a touch screen and seeing our order coming out onto the conveyor belt.







This is the Toshiba "biblio" phone I bought. It's quite pricey (60,000 yen) but I really wanted it and thought I could buy it for myself as a birthday present. The contract is about 2,000 yen per month, but because I'm also paying for my phone in instalments it's now 7,000 per month. Although now I'm quite sure that I've gone over the e-mail/internet limit and might be paying an extra 4,400 yen this month...there goes my scholarship! The phone is really cool though, it has an electronic dictionary, camera, wi-fi, touch screen and a QWERTY keyboard. I can even watch TV on it (so do many other Japanese mobile phones) for free.


So as I mentioned in the last entry it was raining on my birthday, but it wasn't till later in the evening that the typhoon landed. Very strong winds and heavy rain, although I'm pretty much used to the rain anyway (similar to Manchester). The wind was howling so loud throughout the night that I couldn't get much sleep. Even though there was a typhoon, the dormitory was like a party house, everyone enjoyed themselves with chatter, alcohol and gams as if we knew classes would be cancelled the next morning. I spent a couple of hours in my neighbour Jana's room chatting to a Croatian, a Slovenian, a Czech, a Romanian and 2 Bulgarians.

I also received a few birthday presents from different parts of the world. This is why I like living in this dormitory, it's a like mini-UN and it reminds me a little of GYLC. Fiona from Macau got me some Cantonese snacks and a magnet writting in both Chinese and Portuguese. Elena gave me a handkerchief with roses and "Bulgaria" embroidered on it. My Vietnamese neighbour gave me a little embroidered pouch. The madeleine cake in the top right corner is from Ross.

The next day we found out that the orientation stuff in the morning was cancelled. The weather was gloriously warm and beautiful that you couldn't see any signs of a typhoon aftermath. After lunch we had a library orientation, then afterwards we just couldn't help ourselves but to go out into town.

On Friday I played badminton with Jan, Fiona and Tommy - I hadn't play for ages! It felt good although it was just hitting the shuttlecock and nothing too tiring. I'm looking forward to this Friday's session already.

Later that night there was a huge party going on on the ground floor of the 会館. There were all the 留学生 and many Japanese students who live on (and off) campus. It was so chaotic I couldn't recognise 90% of the people. Jan got drunk over 2 cans of beers (can't believe he's actually Belgian); Ivan got his head shaved (privately, not publicly); and apparently there were some young Japanese girls (first years, only 18) who were trolling and hitting on the gaijin guys. According to Daniel, they just went up to him and asked if he had a girlfriend; he said "yes" and they just left and went on to find the next guy.

While the party was still going on I went down to the front gate to pick up Rachel and Cayley, who arrived at the university at 1am. Over the weekend we went out to Umeda, Nanba and Kyoto, and we met up with John and Paulina. Did all sort of Japanese things - karaoke, okonomiyaki, izakaya, Geisha-spotting in Gion, and had green tea in Kyoto.






After the extravagance over the weekend, I'm now struggling with expenses. The food and ingredients here are simply too expensive. I've been living on cafeteria food and okonomiyaki. Okonomiyaki is easy to make, tasty, and it's cheap. The food in the cafeteria is pretty good but they have too much deep-fried stuff there.

Tomorrow I have to go to the post office and pay 8,600 yen for internet for 1.5 months. Maybe I'll have to survive on bananas and instant noodles for the next 2 weeks until I get my scholarship. (Even then I'll have to pay 2 months' rent, mobile phone bill and 4,000 yen for a 2-day university trip to Wakanyama). I hope I won't have to use my UK bank account and pay those extra charges to get cash from a Japanese ATM.

A short photo tour of the university:

the bus stop outside the university (there's also one inside the campus)

the west gate

箕面留学生会館2号館

箕面留学生会館1号館

the kitchen on my floor - too small for 20 girls and doesn't have an oven!

Wednesday 7 October 2009

just another day.

Somebody is another year older.

My 21st birthday happens to be a miserably cloudy, rainy day. I have a 3-hour placement test this afternoon, and after that a medical check-up at a hospital nearby (I hate peeing in a pot).

After the medical check-up I plan to go buy a keitai. Fiona already bought hers yesterday so she's going to help me with getting mine today. My next door neighbour from Croatia (can't spell her name :S) gave me tiramisu as a birthday present :)

In some ways this birthday is very unusual because I'm in a country outside of UK and Hong Kong; I'm with people I've only known for a week. And yet it seems like just another ordinary day because I'm not doing anything special and having any celebrations or parties. But I think it's quite interesting spending a birthday with people of several dozens of different nationalities, it's like a mini United Nations! and we all have one thing in common - we all speak (some) Japanese.

Monday 5 October 2009

Essays...already!

Classes don't start 'till 13th October but we were already given homework to do! Had to write 2 essays over the weekend as part of the placement test; one about my expectations/aspirations about studying abroad in Japan, and one on a cultural/linguistic/historical topic. The personal one is obviously easier to write about, and the academic one I basically wrote a Japanese synopsis of my first year essay on the Jesuit missionaries in 16th century Japan.

日本の留学生活を期待すること
大学で日本研究を専攻しているので、日本に留学しに行くことの目的はまず最初に日本語を練習と勉強だ。どのように日本語が上手になる、あれは最も重要なことと思う。イギリスで二年間日本語を勉強したが、日本人と会話を練習する機会が少ないから、日本に到着したとたんによく勉強しないざるを得ない気分を感じる。一生懸命に新しい文法と語彙を習わずにいらない。日本語は得手になりたいから。大阪大学に着いた時、国際的な留学生会館がびっくりさせた。留学生たちは色々な国から来て日本語を勉強する。留学の一年間日本の文化に限らず、ヨーロッパ及びアジアなどの異文化も習える。さらに国籍を問わず頑張ったら誰も日本語をよく喋れることを示す。
日本語がよくなるように、日本人の学生に会って会話を練習するに越したことはない。大阪大学のサークルを参加するつもりだ。同じことに興味を持っている学生と大学の生活を楽しみたい。
大阪大学に来た前に関西でホームステイを二回した。関西に滞在した期間で関西の文化と方言に興味を持つようになった。お好み焼きとたこ焼きなどの料理はおいしし、人々は親切だし、関西弁は面白し、その結果大阪大学を選んだ。大阪大学で留学の期間で関西弁を習い始めたい。
その上に、日本と東アジアの隣国の国際関係に興味を持っている。特に日本と北朝鮮の政治的な関係は面白いと思う。先ほど鳩山総理大臣が率いられる内閣は結成された。新しい内閣と北朝鮮の神秘的な政府の関係は予測できないので面白いと思う。大阪府は在日朝鮮人と韓国人が多いと聞いたので、どのように両国の関係がそれらの生活に影響することを理解したい。そして日本のマスコミで北朝鮮をどのように描かれることも探求したい。来年イギリスに帰る時、本学で卒業論文を書かなければならない。日本と北朝鮮の関係をめぐって書くつもりので、大阪大学で留学の間に適切な研究をしたい。
留学とはよく勉強だが、暇だったら日本の色々な地域に見物に行きたい。関西以外の文化も知りたくて、なるべく日本をよく理解したいから。

日本の歴史について
今の日本には約1パーセントの人がキリスト教を信じる。日本のキリスト教は1549年に始まった。ザビエルは日本に初めてキリスト教を伝えた。
初めて日本に着いたアジア以外の人はポルトダル人だ。1543年ポルトガルの船は南九州に到着した。その後ポルトガルの海員と商人はマカオ経由で長崎に貿易しに行った。
薩摩の大名の許可を得て、1549年ザビエルは鹿児島に日本の最初の教会を設立した。そして、ザビエルは上京の時に地味な服を着けたし、贈り物を持って行かなかったし、あそこキリスト教を伝えられなかった。したがって、山口の大名を訪ねた時、盛装したザビエルはヨーロッパのみやげ物を贈った。その結果山口にキリストを伝えることの許可を得た。日本人の興味を引くように、ザビエルは聖職者のイメージを変えてあった。
1551年の末にザビエルが日本を去った。その後ほかの宣教師は日本に着いた。日本の風習に順応させるように、宣教師らは仏教風の説教をしたり、日本酒を聖餐式のワインの代わりに使った。その上、和風の教会を建たれた。
織田信長が京都を統制するようになった後、仏教徒を弱くするように信長がキリスト教を支えた。京都・大阪地域に教会を建つことを助けた。
いくつかの大名はキリスト教徒になったため、その大名の家来はキリスト教に改宗しずにはいらなかった。宣教師は学校を始まって、武家の息子にラテン語とポルトガル語、ヨーロッパの芸術とキリスト教を教えた。一団の学生はヨーロッパへ行って、ローマ教皇にお会いになった。
17世紀に日本のキリスト教徒は三十万人いた。同じ時に中国のキリスト教徒(リッチが中国人をキリスト教に改宗させた)は四百人いた。統計的に見ると日本の宣教師のほうが中国のより成功だったと分かる。
そして、豊臣秀吉と徳川家康がキリスト教徒と宣教師を迫害した。しかし、ある教徒が九州に居残る。統計的に日本の宣教師は改宗に成功したと言っても、キリスト教の原物を伝えなかった。それにもかかわらず、いくつかのキリスト教徒が迫害に耐えた。そして宗教の自由を回復した時にその教徒は説教することを再び続けた。

Sunday 4 October 2009

Photos!

I've only taken a few photos so far (shock)

Venturing out to Umeda on the Hankyu train (reminded me of the good times of Kobe!)


shopping in Umeda

waiting at the Minoh ward office for alien registration

the neighbourhood of 粟生間谷東(あおまたにひがし)- very quiet residential suburb.

my room! it's quite spacious. other dorms have en-suite but the rooms are much smaller.

the view of the campus from my room

Saturday 3 October 2009

the first weekend

I'm blogging from one of the academic buildings at Osaka University.

Finally, today I went out to Umeda and saw the quintessential Japanese city of Osaka, with all the neon lights and millions of pedestrians and giant shops and department stores. After completing alien registration at the ward office we decided to head to Umeda. It took us almost 1000 yen for a 2-hour return trip to Umeda. I bought a kettle from Yodobashi Camera, and on the way back we stopped by the 百円 shop (the Japanese equivalent of the pound shop) and bought more stuff. I also bought laundry detergent so now I can do laundry before I run out of clothes.

I'm convinced that I'll catch a cold sometime soon. Everyday we're exhausted because of many things and errands to do and run. The temperature is quite high during the day (25-27 degrees celcius) but it drops down to around 17 in the evening. I've only brought a few summer clothes with me so in the morning I don't really know how to dress for the day. Obviously I can some clothes here but I don't want to spend money on unnecessary things before I get my first scholarship payment. I'm not sure whether I have enough money left for the rest of the month.

Here's the schedule for next week:

Monday 5th: hand in 2 essays as part of placement test
Tuesday 6th: open bank account
Wednesday 7th: someone turns 21; placement test; medical check
Thursday 8th: placement test (interview); library orientation
Friday 9th: orientation on university life

Friday 2 October 2009

阪大生になりました!

I'm blogging from the computer room at the Centre of Japanese Language and Culture in the Minoh campus of Osaka University.

After getting picked up from the airport yesterday morning, I met 2 French, 1 German and 1 Brazilian students who got picked up at the same time. It took about an hour and a half to drive from Kansai airport to Minoh.

After checking into the dormitory (I've been assigned to 箕面留学生会館1号館) and unpacked a little, I ventured to the local supermarket with the same group of students and bought some toileteries and food. The food sold in the supermarket is quite expensive, but today I discovered the beauty of the university refectory (食堂), where cheap meals are sold. Unfortunately they only serve lunch (possible dinner as well, have to check that out) so I still have to cook in the weekends. The pantry on my floor is quite tiny (thus not qualified to be called a kitchen - for its lack of oven and kettle), there isn't even a table to eat on. Last night I had to eat my instant noodles (I was too tired to cook after a really long day) in my room whilst watching House on my computer.

I also completed alien registration and application for the national health insurance. Navigating and finding my way in the city wasn't difficult at all, but I feel like I'm always by myself...a little bit of loneliness leaking in.

It's been raining all day and my trainers and socks are soaked. I'd like to type more here but I'm exhausted so I shall head back to my room and rest.