Taurus

My iGoogle daily horoscope told me this today- 'Don't be afraid of enjoying your own company, no matter what you are doing.' Of course being a highly reliable source and great guide to life I always take iGoogles advice very seriously, especially as horoscopes are so accurate... or maybe not. But this one really did make me think. It's something that I really do need to learn to do; be able to be by myself and not feel really bored, lonely and after a while, quite sad. I don't know if it's just that I am a really 'social' (i.e. can't keep my big mouth shut) person and love company or just that I have no idea how to spend my time if someone else isn't occupying it. It's probably a mix of both to be fair but from now on I'm going to try and learn to enjoy the time I have to myself because sometimes people are just too busy to so something. Like this week, where I have finished most of my work and everyone else still has exams.

Saying that though, I do have a pretty packed weekend ahead- I'm going out clubbing tomorrow night and then to Hakone to go to some hot springs on Saturday night and then I have to finish my report and presentation by next week sometime. So spare time to drive myself crazy in my room isn't abundant to say the least.
I'm really looking forward to having the time to go out and have fun without having to think about any uni work, meet new people and get to know the people I already know even better. It wont be long now, just two weeks I hope, I'm sure I can hold out for that long.

I decided on my new years resolution too- I always go for a nice vague one and it's the same this year- from now on I'm going to take every opportunity that I can. I feel like I've missed out on quite a bit here at Yokohama and also doing things in Japan in general so from now on I'm going to make sure I take every opportunity I have to do interesting and fun stuff here. No saying no to offers, no making excuses about lots of work; I forgot somewhere along the way that I did Japanese to have an awesome year in Japan having loads of fun, not just to get better at Japanese (albeit that is important too!). It's all about the experience and I don't want to waste my time in a tiny dorm room (Someone I know here who only goes out for lectures or to get something from the supermarket).
My opinion might change somewhat when I start all my hard classes next semester but then it'll be about balance I suppose.

That's all for my ramblings today; not got much to say, will write more after this weekend I hope

Snowboarding!

That's right, believe your eyes...it's me on a snowboard going down a mountain! A beautiful vision in red.
This weekend I went to Nagano, a mountainous region in Japan with one of the societies at my university and it was brilliant! I was so nervous about going, what with never having snowboarded before and being a little more than retarded at sports but everything turned out to be great.
The weekend started with a rather hellish night bus journey that lasted 8 hours, regardless of Nagano only being a four hour drive away. We spent the night on the bus instead of getting there quickly and having a nice bed. Japan does have it's ways of saving money. After only having one hours sleep we arrived at 7 in the morning and got on to the slopes straight away. I felt like death and wanted nothing more to be in a nice warm bed with a hot water bottle.
So, as I said before, not having any experience in snowboarding when I stood up for the first time and slipped about 1 meter down hill I was on my arse after a good 2 seconds. Not bad for my first try! Luckily for me I had my friend Lauren on hand; without her I don't think I would have had the will to keep trying. She taught me all the basics and by lunch time I was much further than I ever could imagine and was going down the best of the learner slopes (albeit falling over every ten seconds but at least I was getting to the bottom!). Half-way through the day and I was pooped, I really felt like giving up and going back to the hotel to sleep but my friends persuaded me to go up the mountain instead and give it a go. I'm so so so so happy that I did it! I was terrified at first, the slope was so steep but it was such an awesome feeling to get to the bottom.
After the first day my muscles murdered. I actually couldn't comprehend how I could do the second day because everything hurt so much.However, I don't know why but as soon as you stand up on a snowboard and get started you forget all those feelings and just want to bomb it down the mountainside. By the end of the second day, and the trip, I felt like I had achieved a lot (with thanks to all the people I was with who kept me cheerful, on my feet, having a good time and telling me how to do it :-) ), I had got some basic stuff down and was beginning to get to grips with being able to snowboard properly. I never learned how to turn properly but I did manage to slide down a mountain on a piece of plastic without breaking anything. something to be proud of methinks! I even enjoyed falling over all the time; I must say, I did spent about 60% of my time on the floor trying to get up again. Thanks to this trip I'd really love to snowboard again and I'm already planning a trip to France. Hehe!


I haven't blogged for ages now and ,again, I'm really sorry. What have I been doing? I went to Oz and had a surprisingly not so hot Xmas, been dealing with heart-break and trying to be on top of all my work; this month being even worse than the others... and this coming week is the worst yet as I have two exams and three presentations on top of all the usual stuff I have to do. But as is the way, life goes on and things will get better; some through hard work and others through the time. At the moment it can sometimes feel like everything is hard work, like being smiley and cheerful (my usual self I suppose), but I know that'll fix after a while, especially with the help of everyone here and at home. Thank you to those people- you know who you are!!! :-)

Tired of being sick

Today I came home early from class as I just couldn't stop coughing my guts out. It was pretty embarrassing as I had to leave the classroom because no-one could hear over me. Then, when I went to ask of it was o.k. to leave my teacher told me to anyway.

So here I am now, sat in bed with a spare hour to write my blog.

I've just had an excellent weekend but feel now that I have somewhat overdone it and am suffering the consequences through my poor health. I've been ill for quite a while now but I'm just not getting any better. Time for sleep and good food.

Anyway, this weekend....
It started on Friday with my dormitory's winter party (it was actually a Christmas party but with there being lots of people who aren't Christian living here it was named winter party for PCness). It was such a brilliant night; almost everyone that lives here came so I managed to finally meet everyone, as well as all the boys off my course even though they weren't actually invited.
The amount of preparation and effort put in to the party was impressive. The dorm had been decorated, gifts for bingo (including a DS) had been bought and beer and food was free and more important, plentiful! The party ended with a 'disco' which was so much fun as I finally got to dance my heart out. You've probably seen the photos on facebook anyway!
I spent Saturday nursing a hangover avec Jay who had come all the way from Kanazawa and then headed to Tokyo early evening to go out with some of my Hosei and Sheffield friends.
Again, it was really good to catch up with everyone. It makes me wish that I had more time to meet up with all my friends from last year and less time learning things such as how to say 'Dutch studies' and 'Autopsy'. You never know, I may meet a Japanese Doctor with an interest in Holland so I can wow him with my specialist vocab about how the dutch introduced the study of anatomy to Japan. Or not.
And then there was Sunday. Another mega fun day! I went to see Daft Punk in Tokyo with more Sheffield people and it was truly immense. The gig was excellent and I spent another day/evening dancing away.
That was the first gig I've seen in Japan so it was really interesting to see any differences... to be honest there weren't that many. I always thought that Japanese people would be relatively reserved at concerts but quite the opposite was true. Everyone was really getting in to it and having a great time. The only noticeable difference I suppose was that I could actually see the artist on stage because I wasn't the shortest person there like I usually am in England.

So that leads me to now... ill again so ready to have a long nap and hopefully feel better soon.

Sayonara!

At long last...

That's right, after a month of complete neglect I'm back at long last to write another entry. I don't think there is ever going to be a time when I don't start with an apology for not writing.

But, what have I been up to?

Well, November has been a crazy busy month and when I look in my diary I am astounded with how much stuff I have managed to cram in in so little time.
Last month I embarked in two part time jobs, resulting in some nice translation work (which I have yet had time to do!) and meeting a really nice girl who I teach English to. I also took Chris to Kyoto for his 21st birthday, an awesome weekend, spent another weekend in Tokyo with my friend Jay, went camping on another weekend, and attended an international high school festival. All the while doing numerous essays, quizzes, presentations and mid-semester exams. I'm tired just thinking about it all.

I'll start with the boring stuff- the school work.
The classes that I take that are in English are very simple but take up time with the amount of reading I have to keep up with. I never did anywhere near as much reading at Shef. Especially since reading only ever takes place the night before an essay is due.
The Japanese classes range from being difficult to nice and manageable. I did pretty well in all my exams for the Japanese classes so I'm pretty chuffed. I even managed to come top of the class in one, beating the Chinese and Koreans. (Just to explain, we have a general hate for them because they have a much easier time learning Japanese than us, what with having the same writing system and grammar. Jammy b*****ds.!)

The camp that I went on really wasn't a camp in the traditional sense of the word. Rather than sleeping in tents we had lush dorm rooms and instead of cooking over a good old camp fire we had use of a huge kitchen. Japanese just don't know the meaning of the word camp.
Anyway, the camp was run by one of Yokohama university's international societies which is aimed at the students who can speak Japanese. Because of this almost everyone was Korean or Chinese, with me and a 5 others standing out as the only western faces there!
During the camp we were put in to teams and spent a day preparing a presentation to give to the whole group the next day. I spent a lot of it pretty baffled but managed to do my (albeit very simple) bit.
It was a really good experience as I met loads of fun people and was a great opportunity to speak lots of Japanese.

I have got so much on in December too- most of it fun stuff to be honest! Lots of Christmas parties (hopefully I'll be able to get my first taste of clubbing in Tokyo), going to see Daft Punk on Sunday, and heading to Australia for Christmas with Chris and his family.
I'm looking forward to spending Christmas in Australia a huge amount. Not only will it be massively awesome to have a hot Xmas (it's freeeeeeezing here!) but it'll be nice spending it with Chris's family, being able to eat Christmassy food, but It'll be nice to have a break from the constant barrage of Homework and tests that I get.
Last time I was in Japan for Christmas, even though I spent it in Disneyland, it was a tad lame not being at home. Made me really homesick. Hopefully that wont be the case this year.

Well, it's one in the morning now and I have to be up at 7 so I really should go to bed even though I'm not in the slightest bit tired. I'll do some Kanji, that always swiftly sends me to sleep!


p.s. Some good news, I managed to make up with the pigeons in Kyoto. The ones here still hate me though

The Racist Pigeon

There were lots of issues about Japan that I really wanted to write about on this blog when I got time such as how irritating it is that Japanese people wont bend any rules no matter how menial or pointless they are but unfortunately I am going to have to save that rant for another day. You see, yesterday I had the most horrific and perhaps embarrassing moment of my life.

I encountered a racist bird.


So the story goes like this-

I was standing with my Japanese friend Yui outside of Yokohama Station, just chatting away whilst waiting for my friend Josie to arrive. It was a normal, pleasant day and I was talking about all the things that I want to buy whilst here but can't afford. There were lots of people stood around or passing through the station too.
We were minding our own business when I see from the corner of my eye a mangy pigeon. Next thing I know it's flapping in my face so I swipe it away thinking that'll get rid of the little bugger but to my horror it comes back for more. So there I am, in the middle of a crowd of Japanese people, having my face and eyes pecked by a bloody pigeon. And it wouldn't leave. There was nothing to do but flail my arms wildly, scream and run like a mad woman. It even followed me into the station.
At some point in my mad rush to escape death by flea-bitten bird the pigeon disappeared. Thank God. I was so shocked that all I could do was stand grasping my chest looking terrified. Whilst being stared at by about 50 Japanese people. Nice.
After being comforted by Yui we discussed why the pigeon was so intent on killing me. She said it must be because I have a nice smell. Bu I know the real reason. It saw my hair, my eyes, my face and thought 'bloody Gaijin (foreigner), get out of my country'.
Even the birds hate foreigners here. Sigh, that's life in a homogeneous, racist place.

I have recovered from the horror of it but I think from now on I am always going to be scared of pigeons. And all other Japanese birds. And going outside.

Lodging!

This weekend has been really good as I went 'camping' with Chris and all his friends from Rikkyo university. I use '' marks because it could only be loosely defined as camping since we stayed in a lush log cabin rather than tents.
The place we went to was called Okutama and it's about 2 hours out of Tokyo. Going there felt really bizarre because it seemed like the gray suburbs of Tokyo went on forever then suddenly we came out of the horrible gray mass of buildings into huge mountains that were covered in trees. It was very beautiful.
It made me feel really nostalgic because it reminded me of the village I lived in the first time that I was in Japan in Hyogo-ken. It makes me want to go back and visit all my friends that are there...

Everyone from Chris' uni seem nice and really fun. It was quite nerve-racking at the beginning of the trip as I didn't know anybody and everyone knew a bit about me through Chris. There was no need to worry though as everyone was chatty and wanted to know why on earth I was going out with Chris as he is so rude to them (joking. But seriously!).
The campsite was right by a river where everyone gathered to have barbeque's and drink. There were a few problems with lighting fires at first since nobody had a fire making qualification from scouts but after a heavy dosing of paraffin the fires soon got going. I didn't actually eat much of the food since the choice was either meat or meat. I snuck off to a supermarket to buy my dinner... good job I did or I would have ended up very drunk from lack of sustenance. Actually, I ended up very drunk anyway!
In the morning I got up stupidly early (8.00!!!!!) to go to a local onsen. I was too tired and hungover to even talk but at least I didn't smell of bonfires anymore.
Overall a really good trip.

So much to do, so little time!

Sorry about how irregular and late my blogging is already; it seems that even though I have only been here for two weeks my little schedule book is quickly filling up and finding time between studying Japanese, going out with all the other international students and harassing Japanese people to write my blog is really difficult.

This week is the second week of lessons at Yokohama and I think I am getting used to the regime already. Luckily for me, because Yokohama is a national university, the timetable isn't so difficult and quite different from the stereotypical view of Japanese working hard at all hours of the day.
University is a three year holiday for Japanese between the hell of Cram school when they are in High School and the ridiculous pressure of joining the working world. It's not so difficult for us international students on our year abroad; the 'Joy program' that we partake in here is nicely renamed the 'enjoy program'.

On the second day of being at Yokohama we were all forced to take a placement test... it was awful! From the test I got placed in an intermediate group which I was quite disappointed with to be honest but I gave it a chance and went to the first class anyway.
The class was horrendous- I had studied everything before in my first year (Kanji, vocab, grammar etc.) so was incredibly bored and inspired to complain about the level I had been put in. Anyway, it turned out that I had been marked down for the harder class as well (probably due to Maria, the exchange girls from Sheffield that was here last year) so I was allowed to change classes no problem.
The harder classes are so much better. They are actually challenging and even though I don't understand anything at the beginning I know what is going on by the end of the (1.30 hour long!!!!) class. Other than Japanese lessons I do some random modules taught in English which are very similar to those back at Sheffield so they are nice and easypeasy but difficult to stay awake in.

In my time off I either come back home and study Japanese as I'm quite behind after not doing any work all summer or go for lunch, dinner with friends.
I can see already that it is very easy to get into the habit of not speaking Japanese and clinging together with other international students so I am going to make an extra effort to meet more Japanese people and chat pointless crap.

That is a picture of my lovely little box room! I hated it when I first moved in because it was so empty and boring but I have bought lots of random stuff for it so it feels much more like home. The best buy is my massive rug so it feels like I have a carpet and can sit comfortably on the floor. Just need to buy more mugs so I can have people over for tea now...

Righto, I'm off to see Chris in Tokyo now, I promise I will write more often in the future!