Snowed under in Manchester

So, here I am in Manchester.  Been doing this intensive course for two weeks now, and it has been just that.  I've steamed through a lot of homework. And managed to keep pretty well on top of it.  Until today that is.

My landlord for the house I'm renting phoned me this morning and asked if I'd mind swapping to one of his other properties because he has a family of 6 that need a place. I'm the only person in this 4-bedroom house paying for the price of a room, so it makes sense for me to move to another place so that this place can be used to accomodate a family.  I don't mind so much.  But what it meant was that I had to spend much of the day doing housework instead of homework.

And then he came round to tell me that he'd rather if we moved my stuff tomorrow morning at 10 instead of tonight, and that he has a cleaner coming in tomorrow.  So all that time I spent doing housework could have been spent doing homework.

To give an idea of the amount of homework I've been getting and how I cannot afford to waste even one day, this is how behind I have become due to one day of not getting any homework done...

It's 2:30 am and by 1pm I still have to: write a letter to a Japanese teacher, do the readings and answer the questions for chapters 20 and 23 of Genki, do another reading from a booklet of reading material she gave us, do the kanji practice for chapters 19 and 20 of Genki workbooks, write a self introduction, do an exercise called 'memo' that ive totally forgotten what she wanted us to do, do a double-sided A4 sheet of questions about causative-passives (or was it Keigo, I've forgotten) and come up with a plan for a presentation.
Oh and, I still have to write yesterday's and today's diary entries.  And this isn't even taking into account the class reviews and checking my homework corrections that I've been getting into the habit of doing.  And to make matters worse, I'm FUCKING SLEEPY, and im supposed to be moving into a new house at 10 am.

I bet most people couldn't even be bothered to read that list, let alone actually do all the things on it.

What sucks most is that I know for a fact im not going to get it all done... I also know for a fact im going to have to get some sleep tomorrow... which means I won't have time to catch up on the things I didnt get done tonight... and I'll get at least another 5 or 6 tasks tomorrow which will be due for Friday.
and to rub salt into the wounds, I'm pobably not gonna have internet to help me for the next few days.

And while I'm at it, I've got an earache too.

It's confirmed...

I'm officially spending the rest of my 'year abroad' in Manchester.  After being so close to having my visa in my hands it was decided by those who know best that in order to get me to the level I need to be at, I should take the intensive course in Manchester.  From June 1st to July 29th I will be cracking on like I've never cracked on before.

I'm gutted that I won't be going back to Japan any time soon.  Getting back has been my number one priority for the past ten weeks, but now too much time has passed.  It's no longer about getting to 'see the south', it's about not messing up my degree.

I do intend, funds permitting, to retun to Japan in August, for a week or two.  I already have a flight home from Tokyo booked on August 21, so I only need to book a one-way ticket.  I might look at going to SummerSonic if I can get a ticket.  I would also like to pop to Korea, but again that depends on fundage.  On top of that, I have a bunch of money sitting in a Japanese bank account that I can't retrieve without actually going there.  Which is kind of good really, because it means I won't spend it over the summer.  And the best part is, I won't be bound by Newcastle's ridiculous insurance policy and I can go whereever the hell I want, so I might even pop back to Akita just because I can.

Bye for now x

Hiroshima!... or Manchester?

It's been a while since my last update.  This is supposed to be my 'Japan Blog', but here I am still stuck in the UK.  Shortly after my last post I recieved the bit of paper I had been waiting for in order to apply for my visa. This document is a 'Certificate of Acceptance' from Hiroshima University.  It's basically a letter confirming that, yes I will be a student there until such-and-such a date.  Another document exists called the 'Certificate of Eligibilty', but I had been told on the phone that I wouldn't need this particular peice of paper.

I received the CoA the day before the Royal Wedding and resulting 4-day bank holiday, meaning I had to wait until the following Tuesday before I could go to the Embassy and apply for my visa.  Then, I was led to beleive, it would be another five days wait until I would get my passport sent back to me with a visa in it.  Alrighty then.

But, of course, noing is that fucking simple, is it.  Apparently there was some query.  They had to ask their chums in Tokyo a couple of questions before they could process my visa.  One question being the posibilty that I might be able to use the visa in my old passport (which I had previously had sent to me from Akita, where I had left it).  This would save me the 40+ quid it costs to get a brand spanking new one in my new passport.  I told them I'd rather just pay for the new one (my uni would be covering the cost anyway), but they said they still had to ask Tokyo anyway.  I said okay, and then I thought to double-check whether or not I would need to provide the Certificate of Eligibility they had already told me I wouldn't need.  She smiled and confirmed I would not need it, as these were 'special circumstances'.

The other catch was that Golden Week was just starting.  Golden Week is basically a week long public holiday in Japan, meaning nobody in Tokyo would be able to respond to the Embassy's queries for a good few days.  In fact, those few days turned into two weeks.  I got a phone call and it turns out Tokyo's answer was 'no', I would have to reapply for a brand new visa in my new passport.  Which is exactly what I intended to do in the first place.  What a waste of two weeks!  But, oh well, we're nearly there.  They can just make me up the visa in the normal five day period, right?  Well, actually no... I would also need my Certificate of Eligibility...

You Fucking What?  I genuinely could hve murdered someone, and it would have felt so good.

As it happened, that very day, Hiroshima had sent the CoE to Newcastle, and they were swift to forward it to me.  The document arrived this morning (or yesterday morning as it's gone midnight) and I'm planning to go to London first thing in the morning.  I could very well have my visa by the end of tomorrow, because he said they could rush it through for me and I wouldnt have to wait the normal five days due to the 'special circumstances'.  I'm sure you appreciate why I'm a tad skeptical, but it would be great to finally have that bloody visa in my bloody passport.

Hooooowever...

While all this was going on, one of my teachers, the lovely Moretti-sensei, who I have yet to meet in person, had been enquiring about an intensive summer course run by the University of Manchester.  The idea being that if the whole getting-back-to-Japan thing ended up taking too long or falling through altogether, I would have a back-up plan.

So, last thursday I travelled to Manchester, found the right building and looked for room S3.16... I couldn't fnd it though.  I walked up and down the corridor, S3.19, S3.18, S3.17, throught the double-doors, past the ladies', past the gents', S3.14... wait, what?  I was sure I was mistaken, but it seemed like S3.16 was the ladies' toilet.  Was this some kind of joke because I'm from a rival university?  I went to the office to find out, and it turned out I had misread the email... I was after SG.16.

So I went downstairs and met Iwakami-sensei, who was very sweet and very polite despite my complete faliure of her placement test.  I had pretty much totally messed it up and it was painful for both of us when she painstakingly went over the papers listing all the mistakes I had made.  Nevertheless, we did get a little bit of dialogue going in Japanese and that felt nice.  I left her, feeling quite embarrassed as a representative of Newcastle.  I felt like I had let the side down.  I met up with my friend Sarah, who lives in Manchester, for a swift pint in the station before catching my train home, where due to a lack of lifts and 4 duff taxi numbers, I had to walk for over an hour (about 30 mins of which was in utter pitch black) before I was recognised by a fellow Ticehurstian who stopped and drove me the rest of the way.  Thanks Nick.

Today, I got an email from Moretti-sensei informing me that by some miracle, I had been accepted onto this class in Manchester.

Which, assuming I get this visa tomorrow, leaves me with two choices.  Do I finally go back to Japan, to Hiroshima, after a continuous two-month barrage of obstacles and set-backs, or do I spend the next couple of months in Manchester?  At the end of the day, my Japanese is the main priority, and I have asked my teachers to advise me as to whether or not Manchester might in fact be the wiser decision academically.  The last thing I want is to be unprepared for beginning Stage 4 in September.  I don't want to be failing and dragging my classmates down with me.  Hiroshima is still my first choice, but at the moment I think I could be persuaded by the Manchester option if my teachers think it is a better option.

Sorry for the boring block of text with no pictures.  Hopefully there will be some Hiroshima pics withing the next couple of weeks.  If not, then how about some Manchester pics?  Hmmm.  We shall see.

Bye for now x

This sound puts the willys up me...

Last night I found a sample of Japan's Earthquake Early Warning sound. This sound is played on Japanese television and even on mobile phones, moments before an earthquake occurs, giving people precious few seconds to brace themselves for the shaking.

It is played every time there is a quake or an aftershock, so the guy who wrote it must be rolling in royalties following the recent quake.


It's an innocent enough sound on its own, but it has become the grim, nerve-jangling soundtrack to the lives of millions in Japan. I have been back in the UK for a month now but hearing that sound again last night brought back tense memories of sitting in the hostel in Tokyo on the night of March 11 wincing and saying 'oh fuck, when's it gonna stop' every time that sound played. And I presume it's still being played fairly frequently, because the aftershocks are far from over.



Click Here for more info about the Earthquake Early Warning System

The saga continues...

It has been a month since the big-ass quake of 2011, and while Japan is continuing to be battered and shaken by aftershocks, I'm continuing to be battered and shaken by some seriously bad decision-making. After returning to the UK on the emergency passport (the palaver mentioned in my previous post), I have since had to apply for a brand new passport, and am still waiting for a document to arrive to allow me to apply for a brand new visa.

My university have no told us that they are happy for us to return to Japan. Good news right? But as if my their decision to haul us back to the UK hadn't caused enough of a faff, they have now decided to make things even more difficult for me by telling me I am not allowed to return to AIU

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Big-Ass Quake 2011

In my last post I mentioned I was about to travel down to Tokyo for a bit and then maybe head further south. I spent the first week in Tokyo, meeting up with friends, drinking, eating and generally pissing about. Much interesting stories came out of that week and it probably would have made a readable blog post in itself - but then, on Friday 11th March at 14:46, the ground below my feet started shaking. The rather unsnappily named "Tohoku Region Pacific Ocean Offshore Earthquake" had struck.

I was walking along the street in Waseda with my friend Ina looking for a decent coffeeshop, when we became aware of a shaking sound coming from one of the shops we walked past. An old lady was standing in the shop's doorway looking up. My eyes followed her gaze and I realised the taller buildings were swinging backwards and forwards. Then I became aware of the ground beneath my feet shaking and lurching. By this point, cars had stopped and people were coming outside to stand in the street.

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Happy [belated] New Year!

Jesus, has it really been nearly 3 months since my last post. Ooops... Oh well, bygones and all that.

I'm officially on spring break and this time tomorrow I'll be on a night-bus heading for Tokyo, and then I'm considering a little excursion to the south of the country.

It suddenly occured to me that I still haven't blogged about my Christmas travels, so I'll breifly chat about that now. I went to Sendai, Tokyo, Ise, Osaka, Kyoto, and Niigata, spending 2 or 3 nights in each place before coming back to AIU.

Sendai
Getting to Sendai was a pain in the arse. I was already using the 'Seichun 18 Kippu' (a cheap train ticket that requires you to take the slowest route possible, travel all day and make 5 or 6 changes per journey), then 'high winds' meant that one of the trains didn't move for over an hour, and hen we got herded back and forth between about 3 more trains in as many stations before finally moving again. By the time I reached sendai I was about 3 hours behind schedule.

Sendai was awesome, though. I'd been told to try the famous 'gyutan' (cow's tongue), so I decided to do that as soon as I arrived (the station alone has a good half a dozen gyutan restaurants), but the queues were too long and the prices a bit too high for me, so I found a bar that was selling gyutan stew at a much more reasonable price.

After some walking aroun to get my bearings I found an internet cafe and holed up for the night. Internet cafe's in Japan are at the same time awesome and vile. Awesome because it's a cheap room for the night with free internet access, free soft-drinks and ice-cream and even a shower. Vile because... well I don't wish to describe some of the noises I heard coming from some of the other cubilces. I feel sorry for the cleaners.

The next day I went to Sendai Castle. It's actually just the base of a castle, but from there is a pretty spectacular view of the city... and a rainbow:


I'm a sucker for high views of cities. Especially at night, so that evening I found a tall building and went as high as I could get:


Tokyo
My friend Anna, from back in Newcastle, kindly offered me room at the inn over Xmas, so I didn't have to sleep in a barn. On during the day we met some Newcastle chums, Henry, Ina, Cesca, as well as my AIU friend Qwen, for a Karaoke session in Shibuya. Of course, being Xmas, Slade was essential. It was awesome to be able to spend Xmas day in the company of friends.


I hadn't been too fussed about being away from home at that time, but I was glad not to be spending the day alone. In the evening, after a delicious dinner of tomato ramen with Qwen, Aishah and Qwen's mum, I returned to Anna's and had a short but sweet Xmas skype session with my family.

Ise
My friend Mariko, who had been on exchange in Newcastle last year, invited a few of us to her house in Ise, Mie prefecture. Mariko, Nao and Emma met me off the train and we drove to Mariko's house. The house was gorgeous and her family were very kind, and kept us well fed with all manner of delectable food. The next day we went to Ise-jingu, a huge labyrinth of shrines, paths and bridges and the last place I'd expect to bump into a fellow AIU student. It was such a surprise when a girl came up to me out of nowhere saying "What are you doing here?" that it took me ages to realise who she was.

After that crazy random happenstance, we went for a wander round the shops and had some expensive but delicious Tekone-zushi, a kind of sushi for which Ise is famed.


Osaka
When I arrived in Osaka it was getting late so I found a nice high vantage point, The Umeda Floating Garden. This place was full of couples, and I felt like a bit of a lurker wandering around on my own, but I did that the opportunity to treat myself to some ridiculously expensive food:



That night I found a sports bar near the hotel and managed to convince the very attractive girl behind the bar (in Japanese, I might add) to change the channel so that I could watch the Spurs V Newcastle game while slowly getting drunk before stumbling back to the hotel via McDonalds at 3 in the morning.

The next Day I met up with Emma who was stopping of in Osaka for the day on her way back to Hiroshima from Mariko's place. We visited Osaka Castle, which atually had a castle on it this time, and rode on a giant ferris wheel for some more nice views of the city:



Then we ate Okonomiyaki (which Osaka is famous for apparently - it seems every town in Japan is famous for one dish or another), and wandered around for a bit to kill time before Emma had to catch the bus.

Kyoto
The next day I mooched around in Osaka for a while before catching a train to Kyoto. It somehow took me more than two hours to even work out how to get out of the station and to the hostel I had booked. But we got there in the end. I dumped my stuff and then met up with Eri, another friend who was studying abroad in Newcastle last year. It took us ages to find an Izakaya that wasn't turning away customers. This was the New year weekend, so everywhere was packed to the rafters. We finally found a place, had some food and a drink and then went to a purikura.

Purikura is short for 'print club', those very girly photo booths that let you edit the pictures with hearts and stars and all things pink. They are so girly in fact, that men are forbidden from that floor of the building unless they are accompanied by a lady. So, I was allowed to be there... but not everyone plays by the rules, apparently, because hanging around on his own was... I wouldn't even call him a cross-dresser. He was a man in a skirt... with a 5 o'clock shadow. He'd put no effort whatsoever into trying to look female, but I guess that's the machine's job.

After I parted ways with Eri, I headed back to the hostel, and the next day I woke up late, looked out of the window, and Kyoto was covered in snow. My footwear isn't exactly up to par, and depite living in Akita, which is famous for its snow, I've still managed to avoid buying a new pair. But after a couple of hours of geisha-spotting in Gion (I didn't spot any geisha) my feet were soaking wet and I couldn't feel my toes to the point where I nearly couldn't walk.



I decdied to go shoe shopping before the New Years Celebrations kicked in. There were plenty of shoe-shops to choose from, and the sales had kicked in, so there were some good prices, but there was nothing in my size. So, knowing that I'd be spending the rest of the night standing in the freezing cold, I decided to wear my a plastic bag between two socks on each foot. It made a horrible noise when I walked but my feet stayed dry :-)

It was time to go back to Yasaka shrine for the New Years Celebration... it was fun, even if it did involve standing in a crowd of thousands in the freezing cold, a crowd which collectively managed to miss midnight because nobody could hear the famous tolling of the bells that were supposed to mark the turning of the new year. Still, it was a good night, and I did get the chance to eat heart-disease in a bun, the fattest burger I've ever eaten, complete with fried egg, bacon and cheese. Heavenly!


The next day I headed to the famous Golden Pavilion and the lake around it was frozen. For some reason, I'd always expected it to be bigger, but it was still impressive. Although I would call that yellow, personally.:


I found out my friend Ina was in town with her sister and parents, so I went to meet them, and we wandered around in search of ramen. After dinner I said good bye and headed back to sleep.

Niigata
Kyoto to Niigata on the Seichun 18 ticket takes the best part of 12 hours. I was only staying one night, and by the time I arrived there wasn't much time to do anything. I had secured a couch for the night courtesy of the awesome Ryoko (through Couchsurfing.org), who kept me well watered with sake and shared her osechi with me, which is a special kind of bento box given at New Year's.

The next day, Ryoko drove me to the station, taking me to several places on the way, including her workplace, which happens to be a tall building with an alright view of the city, and the market, where we ate some delicious meat and fish for breakfast:


And then I was on the next train back to Akita (well, 5 trains).

So that's that long-awaited post out the way. Other noteworth stuff has happened since then, but they can wait for another post.

Bye for now! x