Earthquake

I guess the upside of seismic activity in Japan is monkeys in hot springs, whilst the downside is the earth likes to ACTUALLY BLOODY MOVE every once in a while.

Recently people have been talking about earthquakes; people have been woken up in the middle of the night swearing they felt one, stuff like that. But today my phone started making an alarming siren noise and, whilst the message title was 'Earthquake notice', the rest of the message was helpfully in Japanese so I have no idea what it said.

A quick google led me to the Japanese Meteorological Society where, it turned out, 3 minutes previously there had been an earthquake somewhere north of Tokyo at 5.8 on the richter scale. Sweet huh?

Massive catch up

I haven't written here for a few days now and there's so much to write about! I admire Myra's blog, it's so up to date and concise (there's a link to it on the right). I could easily ramble on for pages and pages but no one would read it and I can't be bothered with that, so I'll stick to my list formula. I like lists, you know where you are with a good list. Just some disconnected points of things I've noticed or have happened to me recently.

• Long plastic umbrellas. When it looks like it's going to rain everyone has one hooked over their arm, even small school children. They do sell compact umbrellas but everyone uses the long ones. And outside lots of shops there's a stand with long plastic umbrella bags to put a wet umbrella into when you go in the shop to keep the floor dry. Good thinking, huh?
• Banks suck. Just give me my money! I guess I should have informed santander I was moving to Japan for a bit, and I guess some of the transactions done recently look hella dodgy, but still. Thank God that's all sorted out. Which leads me to...
• Skype rules. Seriously love being able to talk face to face with Q and Mum and Dad. Especially reassuring when instances such as those mentioned in bullet point 2 occur.
• Tiny tiny dogs. I guess they fit better into tiny Tokyo apartments.
• Walk on the left. There are ridgy flagstones down the centre of all the pavements to help you keep to the correct side.
• None of the rules apply to bikes. Seriously, why are bikes allowed on the pavement.
• Buying onigiri without being able to read Japanese is for the brave. I usually aim for the pinky orangey label which has lovely fishy tasting pink stuff in it, yum yum, alas today I picked up ikura which, as I learnt, is salmon roe. Not what I needed when I was feeling delicate.
• The honesty of Japanese people. Maybe I'm making sweeping generalisations here (at least it's a positive one) but stuff just doesn't get stolen here. David left his wallet on the bar of a dodgy club for 5 minutes and when he remembered it was still sitting there, untouched. Karan lost his brand new, less than 12 hours old mobile phone in a club. The lady who found it spent all night ringing his contacts trying to arrange for us to collect it and then agreed to post it to him the next day. Perhaps we've been lucky but seriously, how lovely is that.
• 100 yen shops are addictive.
• Fur lined ceremonial gowns aren't a good idea in 35 degrees and 60% humidity. Poor professors at the opening ceremony.
• Purikura is fun!  These large photo booths you go into, you have about 5 or 6 photos taken in really quick succession against a green screen, then you run out of the booth to a screen behind the camera where you can edit the photos. The program automatically edits it to give you massive eyes, small mouth and clear skin, then you can give them cute borders and stuff, and you print them out as stickers, infrared and/or email it to your phone. It's really fun and doing it makes you feel very Japanese.

kinda scary, kinda cute

I could have written so much more but this will do for now. Lots of photos to come too! Lessons finally begin for me tomorrow so I'm quite excited to see how that goes. My first class is Japanese so hopefully I can keep up - I'm in the lowest level so I guess I don't really have a choice. I'm also sort of squatting in my accomodation at the minute... I wasn't able to pay my rent to due to my bank card being blocked. Not exactly an ideal start.

Photo post

I can't be bothered to write loads so instead you get a photo post. :)

Some things I've bought:

A happy sweeper! There's a whole range of everyday stuff with smiley faces from the 100yen shop, super kawaii.

Tea in a bottle. Still not brave enough to try it yet.

Onigiri box, to stop your rice triangles from getting bashed

My Inkan, a seal or stamp you need for some banks instead of a signature. Mine says グラハムフィオナ which is Graham Fiona in katakana.

We went to an Okonomiyaki place on the top floor of an Electrics department store in Akihabara. You chose what type of meat and with or without ramen, then they heat up the hot plate in front of you and cook it. We were all starving when we ordered, it was torture seeing the food being cooked! In this photo is cabbage, potato, egg, ramen in one of them, and seafood or a type of meat mixed together. On top are fishy flakes that don't really taste but the heat made them all flicker and move. 

Here they are finished, with mayo and okonomiyaki sauce on it. It was like a strange twist on bubble and squeak, but very tasty.

The view from Takadanobaba station which is a 5 minute walk from our dorm. 

A street leading away from Shibuya crossing, looks like the channel 4 ident to me!

Lots more to come! Tomorrow we're going to the fish market and a tour to Ueno so I'll get snap happy then.

Day 2

Blimey, I've been here for less than two days and it's fantastic so far! I feel stupid knowing no Japanese, I will have to pick it up quickly.

So, since I arrived it's been busy busy busy. Yesterday was hectic to say the least; the plane journey was easy but boring and uncomfortable. Then getting from the airport to the halls was fine and would have been so much harder without the help of Japanese students, as I mentioned below.

Today I was met face to face with Japanese red tape, or at least their love of forms filled out neatly with no crossings out. We went into the university for 9.30 (everyone was late which, we were told by the dean, is very un-Japanese). Then we met some of the students from yesterday who were lovely and helpful who played some games with us. It was really funny, considering there must have been over 100 people in the room, to play these simple games en masse. The first game was 6 people stood at the front and each shouted a different word but at the same time and we had to work out what each person was saying. I was terrible at it, because I know no bloody Japanese, but it was fun. Then a different society got a group of 6 students to stand at the front, gave each of them a cream puff but some of them contained mustard. They would all eat them at the same time and we had to guess who had eaten mustard puffs just by their faces. Simple but very fun to watch!

Then we spent the rest of the day with a tour of the campus, some free sandwiches, lots of presentations about rules we should obey and that sort of thing. Then we spent aaggeess filling out form to do with health insurance and foreign registration. It was a bit of a nightmare but helpfully they went through it step by step with us in English. The big problems for me in the forms were 1) I can't read kanji which some of the forms were entirely written in, 2) it might be 2010 but in emperor years it's 22, 3) my accomodation is called 'Waseda University Nishi Waseda International Student House' which is a bit of a mouthful to say, never mind to write in small boxes on forms that have to be pristine.

So once that was all done I wandered home and had my first encounter with a Japanese supermarket. I know I'll probably look back on this blog in a few months time and cringe, but yeah, I found the supermarket a bit bewildering. It stocked many things I recognised but also a helluva lot that I just didn't have a clue. I was nervous to buy cooking ingredients because I havn't fully scouted out the kitchen yet so I bought some sort of pork bento box (rice with thinly chopped pork in a sauce with sesame seeds and some cabbage, I think it was cabbage) for my tea, plus some milk to make tea (yeeey) and croissants for breakfast. Really Japanese, that.

After this Jessi, Nicole, Haru and me for a wander up to Takadanobaba (a 5 minute walk away!) where we bought some stuff in the 100yen shop then went to a cheap bar where all the drinks were 380yen. I loved the bar; we had to take off our shoes at the entrance and walk around in bare feet and even the staff were just in socks. We were shown to a low Japanese style table with cushions around it. It wasn't very easy on the knees but it was fun. Plus, instead of a waiter taking your order, there was a touch screen with the menu on it - you simply select what everyone wants then send it to be made and they turn up 5 minutes later! Genius.

Tomorrow I get a lie in, thank god. I haven't even started unpacking yet, I need to start making this place more homey. Thanks to everyone who has messaged me or said good luck - I appreciate it!

iuedfubewfbofweo;bfeNIOFEWNIOFE

Blaarrrghhh! Brain melt, chocolate melt, melt melt melt. It's SO HOT and humid here. I was travelling for a good 20 hours or so and barely slept on the plane (I never do) but somehow I'm here in my little Japanese dorm room, with all of my luggage. Some extremely kind Japanese students met us at the airport and pointed us in the right direction and then some more even NICER Japanese students met us at Shinjuku station, took us (i.e. a little japanese girl in heels wheeled my 26kg suitcase) to Takadanobaba station where we took a bus then walked to the dorm. Then a very helpful man showed me how to use a key, where to keep my shoes and the extractor fan for the laundry rooms (I know a good joke about an extractor fan but this isn't the time) and bleerghh my brain has just MELTED with info OVERLOAD.

I seriously need a shower. Chronically.

THE PILLOW IS A BEANBAG?!

What I'll Miss/What I Won't...

What I'll miss:


1) A decent cuppa

I'm not seriously holding my breath that the local corner shop will stock PG Tips. Weep! Yes this deserves top of the list, it'll probably be my biggest challenge. Thank you so much to Hollie and Jen who have both given get packets of delicious tea.


2) The Obvious


Boyfriend, family, best friends, worst enemies. I'll miss them all. Don't want to dwell on it in the blog. OPTIMISM.


3) 'Shit' British food

Food porn

(Pinched this one from Lauren's not going to miss list). I like having two slices of toast and calling that a meal. I like fry ups after a night out, I like my Mum's Sunday roasts (which could in no way be given the adjective shit, they're unbeatable), toad in the hole, roast winter veg, shepherd's pie etc etc. Dear God, I hope we have an oven in our Halls. Do they even sell potatoes in Tokyo? They must. 


4) Being able to read signs/speak to strangers/understand everything


I'm looking forward to the challenge and I really hope being chucked in at the deep end will mean my Japanese improves quickly. However I am not naturally gifted at languages, even my grasp of English is wobbly. I only found out how to spell 'cagoule' yesterday! I must have spoken that word tens, perhaps hundreds of times but I've avoided spelling it because I just didn't know how. And now I do. And maybe learning how to spell 'cagoule' has just pushed the knowledge of one Japanese adjective or hiragana out of my tiny mind. Am I already regressing?


5) Home


This differs from no 2) in that I will miss the people I leave, but hopefully a few of them will be visiting me in Tokyo. Which is good. But I know from 1st and 2nd years at Uni that every two months or so I get a yearning to go home and sleep in my own bed, in my own room. I won't be returning home before February at the earliest. Boo. Just gotta man up.


What I won't


1) Lack of vending machines


24 hour access to used panties s'il vous plait, and the rest.


2) Dirty Leeds


I love Leeds and I think it's just perfecto for student life, however I hate the constant rubbish on the streets. It peaked around the bin strikes last winter when on some streets you had the walk in the road because the pavement was blocked with shit like plastic bags, fast food wrappers, sofas, rubbish bags, etc. I love leeds and I think Hyde park (the park) is gorgeous but really some streets are just disgusting. I hear Japan is impeccably clean and I look forward to it.


3) Lack of cuteness


Kawaii ^__^ !!! etc I can't wait! I love kitsch, cheapo, overly happy, brightly coloured crap. Even Japanese school uniforms are cute:


English:

Working the baggy jumper look

Japanese:

Hello sailor

English:

Everyone look happy

Japanese:

Battle Royale

The contrast is striking I think you'll agree.


Even the police are cuter!


English police:

Brutal

ピーポくん (Pi-pokun), the Tokyo Metropolitan Police mascot:

Kawaii!!

4) Monkeys out of hot springs.


They should pass a law, all monkeys must chill in hot springs

Chillaxin'

I think this entry is long enough now. Thanks for reading!

7 Days

I can't believe how it's crept up on me - at the start of the Summer it was all I could think about and I was wishing the Summer away, but now it's actually nearly almost here! Feeling lots of mixed emotions and have lots to sort and get my head around.


Saturday I had been my big leaving do with all my friends - I had a few round my house for a big BBQ and delicious puddings made by Mum, then we headed to St. Albans for one hell of a pub crawl. We made it to about 9 pubs in total, Eb got me shots to spell out Japan (Jaegermiester, amaretto, port, I don't remember, and aparently the N was nautical port which I also don't remember). I guess the memory gaps sort of show what sort of a night it was! We didn't get thrown out of anywhere, but it was a close call in the White Hart Tap when the guys lifted a picnic table up with me on it. I'm glad my leaving thing had such hilarious memories, much love to everyone who came!

Ay vay

 I think everyone had fun and it was so lovely to be surrounded by all my friends having fun. But Sunday evening I sort of had a reality check and got a bit upset about everything I'm leaving behind, my boyfriend, my family, my friends. I'm going to make the most of my last 7 days.


To do list:
-Order Tokyo specific guidebook
-buy some plug adaptors 
-pack (uuugghhh I haaattee packkinnggg)
-Hug everyone that I'm leaving so hard they have a year long imprint of my arms on their torso.