Tales From Japan

Osaka, Idle In Ugly Town.

2006-03-31T13:55:00.000+09:00

So tomorrow I fly home from Kansai airport, after three months, my adventure ends & its back to work, university & £900 of Japan induced debt.

Fortunately between Tokyo & Osaka, the trip has wound down to a lethargic tedium & I find myself desperately looking forward to go home. Don't get me wrong, were I still in Sapporo, I might never leave, but as it stands, the combination of heavily polluted air, ignorant assholes & utterly disgusting elderly men who really need a good slap, has managed to wear down my wonder, seemingly the only place that retains the spirit of Japan in a city that I have seen is Sapporo, I don't doubt that there are still places that I would love, but Tokyo & Osaka can suck lemons thanks very much.

So, what to do with this here blog? Well, turns out I can change the name & stuff, so I rather suppose I'll do that, & carry the thing on in another context. I'll be sure to post the new URL etc when I get around to figuring it out, thus giving anyone who reads it time to bookmark or whatever.

I am a procrastinator. I have work I could do, but I just can't be bothered to start it, stupid eh?

Well, I'll go try to start it now then, tata!

Osaka is Where the Rain is

2006-03-28T15:58:00.000+09:00

Today I arrived in Osaka, the self proclaimed gateway to western Japan.

Its a nice change really, getting here was so easy it nearly absolved my recent misadventures with Japanese inter-city transportation. (Though I have only posted regarding my trip to Tokyo, I have since gone to Kyoto, which saw me riding the most uncomfortable coach ever concieved by a human mind, but I'll get back to Kyoto in a bit).

I've decided to take today easy, after exploring a little around my hotel & visiting the oldest shrine in Japan (apparently) I took a trip to the top of a sightseeing tower in my area. That would be when the lightning started going at it, heralding a small downpour. Heading back to my hotel I realised just how tired I was, after more than 3 consecutive days of poor sleep & plenty of travelling, I decided to crash for the night, grabbing myself some microwave dinner from a convenience store to see me through the night.

I figure as I have 3 days, it should be plenty to see the sights I want to take in & stroll around the cities waterways, I'm just hoping the rain is a temporary thing.

Anyway, as I never got a chance to post regarding Kyoto, here goes.

I got an over night bus from Tokyo in the hopes of saving money both on accomodation & travel expenses, it was a good plan, which worked flawlessly, I just failed to get any sleep because my chair was very plainly not a bed, lots of people were snoring, & my seat was near the toilet, which had previously been used by a large American. Thats as much detail as I'll go into, it should suffice to say that my trip was markedly odorous.

Finding my hotel with ease I dropped my bags & immeadiately set off into Kyoto, taking in a variety of temples, shrines & assorted sights, before enjoying a great meal & setting down to bed. I only spent two nights in Kyoto & though my accomodation was nice, it was shared & therefore both nights were somewhat challenging when it came to sleeping. The first night saw a snoring contest played out, whilst the second was broken by drunken bag rustlers & early morning heavy feet.

Despite all that, Kyoto was great, you will hear much from people of how beautiful Kyoto is but be warned, on arrival you'll think the people who told you this were mad. To truely see the beauty of Kyoto, one must leave the center (though the rivers are being worked on & the areas of the center to the west of the river can be possesed of a certain charm) & head to the the surrounding mountains/large hills & the less developed areas that lie to the east of the main river. Here one can find a gold mine of culture & architecture, with a variety of old buildings, many shrines, temples, walks & even a Geisha district which is suitably quaint & cultured.

I spent my second day in Kyoto cycling the area to the east of the river & it was a great way to see the city, Kyoto is small as it is, but having a bike on a beautiful day really does give you a great feel for the place & is a very different way of seeing a Japanese city, certainly you'll need to work up the courage to cycle in Japanese cities, & Kyoto may just be the place to start.

That I suppose is that, Kyoto was very much a sight seeing thing for me & as I spent so little time there (much to my regret) theres not much more for me to recount.

Anyway, as I have said, I have three days to explore Osaka & then I fly out on Saturday morning from Kansai International Airport, after spending a few years in Secondary School learning about Osaka & in particular Kansai airport, it'll be interesting to actually be flying from there!

Well, I'm off to work on my presentation for University, so much for that day of chilling I'd planned eh?

Nice Face

2006-03-19T20:52:00.000+09:00

Today was a bit of an unusual one, well, it started out pretty normal, that is, normal for a foreigner, alone in one of the world's largest cities & just going for a look around...

I started out with a tube ride into Shinjuku, where I took in the main shopping areas, Time Square & Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. I also spent a good while exploring the Nishi Shinjuku Skyscraper district, including the twin towers of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building where I visited the observatory on the 45th floor & got some stunning photographs of Tokyo. It was when I began to walk away from Shinjuku, towards Shibuya that I became aware of the aching in my legs, after two days traveling with all my kit, & now two more days walking endlessly around Tokyo it seems my legs began to tire, by the end of the day I actually felt like the bones might pop through the skin on my shins at any minute...

After getting slightly lost on my way into Shibuya, I finally found myself on Omotesando, a long boulevard featuring many high end shops & a typically insane St Patricks day parade where a number of foreign voices could regularly be heard, many of them remarking in a wonderfully slack jawed way on certain aspects of Japan/Japanese Culture/The Japanese People. Really I'm just an old grumpy man trapped in a twenty year old's body, but there was one time in particular I felt like spinning on someone & laying into them for being so wonderfully close minded & ignorant, hmm, I can feel the blood boiling just thinking about it, onto something else!
Right, reaching the end of Omotesando I found my target of the last forty minutes walking; Yoyogi Park & the Meiji Jingu Shrine. The park was typical of Japanese parks, beautiful, with a wonderful juxtaposition of nature & futuristic skyline & the shrine was very impressive, I even got to watch a wedding parade.
On leaving the park I ventured into Takeshita Dori, a narrow street of "alternative lifestyle" some of the shops were extremely interesting, but it was the dress of some of those wandering the street that was most incredible, indeed, until then I had yet to experience the much talked about dress of the Japanese youth, though at times it is little different to that of any English teen, out to rebel or "be themselves" there were a few people who though I found interesting, would probably give hardened Marines a scare in a dark alley...
It was just before I entered Takeshita Dori infact that things got a little funny, as I finished crossing the road, I became aware of a quiet voice calling "excuse me", I eventually turned around, incase it was directed at me, to find a strangely dressed chap looking at me intently. No sooned than I had turned around, he asked me if I spoke Japanese, to which I replied "a little" (in Japanese), he then went onto to ask me if I would be interested in being part of a fashion show. Now thats not really my cup of tea (I don't really like tea) but I thought "what the hell, could be interesting" as I guess I was having an outgoing moment, anyway, I replied, somewhat confusedly that I would be happy to help, but I think he noticed my confusion & proceeded to explain why he had asked me; "nice style (pointing to my clothes), nice face (pointing to my face)", that was enough to make me go quite red & I did a good job of being very embarrased. However, as it turns out, the fashion show was to be held on April 6th, 5 days after I leave Japan, so after some pleasantries we went our seperate ways, me feeling quite surprised by the whole thing because I have never considered myself stylish & self depreciating though it might be, am not someone to think highly of himself physically.

Anyway, after checking out Takeshita Dori I walked south, into the heart of Shibuya, it occurs to me now actually, that I forgot in my achy state to check out Dogenzaka hill, I shall have to go back again. Oh what a pity! I took a good look around Dogenzaka, despite my legs actually feeling like they wouldn't take my weight for much longer & I think I may have finally found some clubs I might be interested in, I have Ropongi to explore tomorrow, maybe I'll find more places there, but so far I've been somewhat unlucky finding anywhere to meet people & practice Japanese/maybe make some friends.

That was pretty much my day, I did take a dip in the Japanese Bath that my hotel has, honestly though, it amazes me how few foreigners there are who can actually use a Japanese Bath as they were intended to be used, one guy just got into the damn thing without showering (a big no no) as well as putting his towel into the tub (also a big no no) & another guy tried swimming in the bloody thing, honestly, if the instructions on the wall weren't enough, you could just look at the disgusted & shocked faces of your fellow patrons & think "hey, maybe I'm doing something wrong here."

Now my legs require sleep, mata ne!

Super Hitachi My Ass

2006-03-18T17:20:00.000+09:00

I began my journey at 3pm in Sapporo, it ended at 8pm the next day in Tokyo, thirty-one hours no less, more than double the time I spent flying from England to Sapporo, Japan.

Things began pretty smoothly, almost pleasantly really, with Matt & Kyoko seeing me off at the bus terminal in Sapporo, from there it was a simple two hour ride to Tomakomai Ferry Port, with an easy switch onto the ferry. It should however be pointed out that “easy” forgets the baggage I carried with me, two back packs and a much bigger bag that easily weighs as much as myself, which to carry at all, I had to lift onto my shoulders and carry as I would a body down a ladder, were I a fireman or such.
Nineteen hours later, around 2pm the next day, my ferry docked at Oarai, mainland Japan, though before I forget I will relate this; I have been on several ferries in my lifetime, all have had the courtesy to be quite big, and as such resilient to all but the most stormy of waters. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for this ferry, though it easily accommodated a few hundred people and was quite tall, it was very, very thin, and as such for a good ten hours the trip resembled a prolonged ride on a big dipper. That probably wouldn’t have been a problem had every child on board kept their food in their stomachs, and had I not fallen asleep on my stomach, thus making for an uncomfortable few hours after I woke up, though I eventually shook it off with several walks outside and some noodles.
Anyway, despite the Oarai ferry port being bigger and far more modern than the Tomakomai port, it was far less well serviced, and after getting a little lost like most of those disembarking, I found it without bus or taxi. Why is it that when you want a taxi, there are none for a hundred miles, and yet when you don’t need one, when their breakneck speeds and reckless disregard for crossing signs and traffic lights are infact a danger to your health, there are streets of the damn things?
Well, the public transport deficiency meant I had to walk, carrying my very heavy collection of bags through several winding lanes and a few short excursions onto bigger roads, following a dubiously accurate map. After around half an hour, when I was really starting to succumb to the weight on my back, a car suddenly pulled up alongside me, and its driver offered me a lift, correctly guessing my target was Oarai station. It really couldn’t have come at a better time and just really picked me up, its people like that, and even the tiniest of kind deeds, that can make a person’s week. Of course, for every good person, there is a nobber out there, and I met one at the station in the form of the ticket counter operator. He wasn’t a particularly unpleasant fellow, but he seemed rather unhappy to be helping me, indeed, every time I spoke to him, he appeared to pull a face that I can only describe as the kind of face someone might pull were they constipated and quite confused by the fact, its funny now, but quite disconcerting at the time.
Fortunately, getting the connecting train from Oarai to Mito to catch the Bullet Train proved easy and I was very relieved to find the platform I arrived on at Mito Station to be the same platform that the Bullet Train or “Super Hitachi” would arrive at. Now, when someone mentions the Bullet Train, I think “fast” and so did my friends in Sapporo, alas, we were somewhat wrong. After arriving an hour late (never a good sign) the train proceeded to turn a one-hour journey, into a four hour journey, it would have taken half as long to take the standard train! We easily spent an hour just standing still at a platform somewhere in Japan, with the doors closed, not to mention that I ended up sitting in the on-board phone booth because there wasn’t even room to stand. Surprisingly I was very relieved when the train suddenly arrived at Ueno Station at around eight o’clock, thus giving me two hours to reach my hotel before they cancelled my booking. After all that, things were far easier, a simple subway ride and a short walk and I stumbled into the backpacker hotel lobby, never happier to arrive anywhere.
I’ve got eight days ahead of me, I had hoped to spend some of the night of my day of arrival looking around, but by the time I’d had a much needed shower it was around 9:30pm and I don’t think my legs would let me get up even if they were on fire, hell, I’m not even sure I could feel that right now.

So, that’s all for now, just to let you all know that despite the best efforts of the ever so super “Super Hitachi”, I am here, I am sheltered and I am tired, so very tired…

Bad Rubber Piggy

2006-03-15T19:52:00.000+09:00

Started packing today, many lessons have been learnt as a result.

Lesson 1:

If you're going to a foreign country for more than 2 weeks, you WILL purchase endless amounts of crap, unless that country is somewhere uninteresting, maybe Afghanistan, in which case crap may well be all that you can buy, & then you probably won't want it.

Lesson 2:

Bring far less than the bare minimum with you, maybe some underwear & clothes, but nothing else, seriously, you'll need the luggage space for the aforementioned crap.

Lesson 3:

If you are a sociable person, people will buy you things, these things rarely take into account luggage size restrictions & as such you will need to have lots of free room in your luggage, see Lessons 1-2.

Lesson 4:

Extended periods in foreign countries will see your luggage become obscenely heavy, you expected lots of junk to be coming back with you, but did you take in to account the weight of such junk? No you did not, now you have to either find a taxi or walk for half an hour to a subway station with 2 backpacks & a giant tube that weighs at least as much as you do, probably several stone more, unless you are rather heavy, in which case difficulties at the airport may arrise more often than if it were just your luggage that were heavy.

Thats quite enough of my entirely forced & inexplicably naff attempt at wit, on to an actual post.

I have a teeny tiny rubber piggy, his name will be... Uh, Reginald, yes, thats a good name for a tiny black & yellow piggy.This particular pig is most cute & indeed, quite endearing, I shall make effort to post pictures of him later, you would love to have such a pig.

Among the myriad of things I was given by generous people was also included a male kimono-thingy, its not called a kimono I'm told, but I can't remember the actual name, its really cool & just amazing that someone would buy me something like that, as soon as I can get some Jet Li trousers & Japanese sandal-thingies, you can bet thats all I'm wearing for at least as long as the novelty takes to wear off.

I also tried to pay my landlord tonight, seems these people don't WANT my money, they're never bloody around to take it! I can hardly complain, though I'm not entirely sure what to do if I still can't pay them tomorrow, when I have to leave...

Anyway, theres plenty I should be talking about, but once again, I've forgotten it all, so, till next time, sayonara.

I Hate Goodbye

2006-03-14T17:43:00.000+09:00

Just got dropped off at my dormitory by my sensei after my leaving party wrapped up, the party was nice, but idiot that I am, I just couldn't bring myself to really engage because I was feeling like crap, I've become really good friends with some of my classmates, language barrier regardless & saying goodbye took all my force of will to limit my emotional outburst to a renegade tear rolling silently down my cheek.

As if that wasn't enough, I've become really close to my sensei too, shes such a good person & in the time I've been here I've spent a lot of time with her & other people, & as such have come to see sides of her most people wouldn't normally see. The long & the short of it is that she has been incredibly generous, friendly & just plain nice & perhaps of all my friends, I'll miss her most because she is exactly that, a really good friend. So of course, when the jeep she drives pulls up to my dormitory, shes forcing back the tears wholely unsuccesfully which hardly helps me any.

So now I'm sat here, bugger all to do till I get to bed & though I'm happy for having had such a great time, meeting such great people & all the rest, I'm feeling pretty low, because if I do see any of these people, it won't be for a few years at the very least.

I take comfort in the fact that I have helped to bring a friend out of his shell & been lucky enough to get to call some of the people I have "friend".

Sorry for the utterly crap post, I could work at it all my life & never succeed in handling my emotions better, see you another time.

Graduate With Me

2006-03-14T08:32:00.000+09:00

I guess people wouldn't get it, but thats a play on "Gravitate With Me", perhaps obscure to those who like Rock & such exclusively, so ask another time & perhaps I shall educate you in funky lyrics & tasty sounds...

Anyway, yesterday was the big Graduation thingy-ma-doo, & it was really quite amazing, I mean, first of all, Laura & I have not graduated anything, we've just passed our terms here in Japan, so for them to take time out of a big & very important ceremony for the Graduate students to recognise us is just too nice of them, not that I don't appreciate the box of Ankoh & the Graduate Certificate & Gold Letter Opener that marks me as a Bisen Graduate (if not in qualification).

The ceremony was really nice & a marked difference from most English equivallents, a lot more speeches, a lot more formal recognition of our tutors & a lot of bowing, as well as some crazy girl in a top hat...

The after party was similarly nice, that is, after I went a funny shade of crimson whilst giving my "speech" to a crowd of hundreds. Basically, Laura & I had to give speeches in Japanese, which we were told to keep short, though Laura's ran for a page of A4, mine for a page of maybe A7...

Still, the food was great & it was nice to get to see some people properly before we leave, plus they even gave Laura & I a segment in the photo slideshow that they did to remember the students who have graduated, it was, moving.

The party will also be remembered for giving rise to a sudden explosion of people with my photograph. I hate photographs, I always seem to look like I may be chewing lemons or looking at a particularly interesting cloud. So you can understand my discomfort with being asked by around 10 giggling young ladies to have their photos taken with me. Be this a lesson to you, when they say that western guys who are unlucky in love can come to Japan & find things somewhat different, they ain't joking. That said, they are very respectful of the fact that I have a girlfriend already, so most of the excitement was limited to giggling & hand shakes, maybe even some Nose Touching. (if you take that wrong, please click the link, I was trying to be funny, yes, I know, I'm not good at it)

After all that a few of us went off to an Izkaya for drinks, we stayed so late we missed all the tube trains, but it was good fun, & again, a good chance to say goodbye to some people I'll really miss.

So, to today, my big leaving party with my class, should be fun, though I'm really gonna miss all of them, I don't relish the thought of leaving...

Anyways, I might well have no time or internet connection with which to update from now on, so check back if you feel like it, otherwise, there will be a final post around early April, then, who knows...

Genki de ne!

Bowels!

2006-03-12T22:50:00.000+09:00

Well, not to go into too great detail, but it would seem I am suffering the effects of an obscenely fast metabolism, not that I would complain, if this is the price I pay for eating what I like & not bloating into a living hot air balloon I'm all for it, that said, I do wish that what I ate would actually make a difference, so I could lessen the explosive force contained within, or the the fact that it feels like several small martial artists are attempting to break through my intestinal lining...

Anyway, now I've gone into way too much detail about something that should deffinately be left for the doctors office, onwards to today!

It was actually rather nice you know...

Meeting with my architect friend at around midday we had a good little chin wag about our work, before heading off to the main Hokkaido Shrine in Sapporo, its great that I got to go again, because it really is a beautiful place that truely captures the essence of traditional Japan. It was a bonus that my fortune slip was pretty much the best you could get & that it read well with regards to everything that I am about to do, not that it would have mattered to me had it not, but hey, a little wishful thinking can actually help you along sometimes...

Afterwards I got a good drive around some areas of Sapporo I hadn't seen until today, which was very nice, because its a truely beautiful place, especially in the mountains.

After that we picked up my friends ladyfriend & after several misadventures with different restaurants, enjoyed a pleasant meal & conversation about how funny George Bush & Kim Jolil are, also, Domo-Kun was mentioned.

Its late now, & tomorrow is my graduation ceremony, oh dear, I've just realised the shirt I was lent is a kind of off-white-beige-pink thing, with a hint of peach.

Good thing theres a suit to cover that really, I hate pink & similar shirts, black or white people, I don't care what you say, just because you CAN wear a pink shirt, doesn't make you more of a man, I CAN wear a pink shirt, however despite my abysmal dress sense & general fashion awareness, I wouldn't voluntarily wear such attire unless it was for the good of someone other than myself, why? Because it would take that much to balance out the severe silliness factor of anyone male or female, wearing a pink shirt.

Pink is a terrible colour, perhaps the only colour I could ever hate, were it in me to hate something so trivial, remember people, pink destroys lives & probably killed Lassy, I don't care for Lassy, but if you do then you'll know that such an act is surely a terrible thing.

Have I lost it? I think perhaps I've lost it, I'm fed up of the bloody "I" key on this laptop, well, actually the "shift" key, but it only seems to forget to work when the "I" key is pressed along with it. In other computer related news, I have actually kind of begun to think about Macs, I'm not sure why, but they sure are pretty, & maybe if I spent time with one I wouldn't pull my eyeballs out of their sockets due to the interface, which I'm told has improved a lot since my use of a Mac several years ago. Doesn't mean that i have to like one-button mice though...

Good night!

See You, Space Cowboy...

2006-03-12T12:43:00.000+09:00

No, I am not a Space Cowboy, or even a Cowboy for that matter, I just really really like a certain series of anime...

But the title was chosen with more than passing reference to the current situation, that being that this is my last week in Sapporo, in 4 days I'll be catching a bus to catch a ferry to ride a bullet train. Don't think I'm not excited about the last part of that journey, & certainly, 9 days in Tokyo sounds like a hell of a lot of fun!

However, that means that soon I will have left behind a city I have come to love like no other place I have ever been to. Sure, theres a whole world to explore, & I hope to do so, but damn I'm gonna miss it here. I'm planning on taking a trip to Asashiyama park on my last full day here, I figure watching the sun set over this city might well be one of the most beautiful things I ever get to witness, & sad though it'll be, it'll also be something to enjoy a great deal. Of course, I'm considering ways to get myself back here, & maybe one day I won't be leaving, but for now at least, I'm making the most of it.

Though I've been to all sorts of parties & what not this last week or so, I've had a fair bit of me-time, most of which I've squandered, but today I got a little drawing done. This blog isn't really meant for this kind of thing, but on the subject of drawing, I'm considering stopping, whenever I draw I feel completely inadequate, nothing I draw is as it should be, & all it seems to do is frustrate me. Its difficult, because I used to really love doing it, & on the odd occasion it goes right, I love it, but for some reason, I can't just doodle, I need a purpose, someone to give me something to draw or whatever, & though I love drawing for PDMod & such, no-one really asks me to draw anything...

I don't know, I'm probably just being an idiot, its not like I spend half as long as I should on some drawings...

Anyway, I'm off now to be taught another 3D Design program, though I think I'll always use AutoCAD, it can't hurt to expand horizons can it? Till next time, take care of yourselves...

Mr Friend KOROBEINIKOV

2006-03-09T09:20:00.000+09:00

Have you ever met a Russian? Have you ever met a drunk Russian, who stands over 6 ft tall, with shoulders wider than a mini-van?

I have, it was a profoundly frightening experience.

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against anyone of any race or creed, & I'm sure my friend is not indicative of all Russians, & hell, he was a nice guy too, he kept buying me drinks after all.

It all began with an innocent lesson in the game of Shogi, a Japanese kind of Chess, that is much, much harder & much more tactical & intellectual. After having my asswhooped by my Shogi-sensei 3 times in a row, I was wondering whether to stay at the bar, or head home for the evening & catch up on my sleep. Such thoughts were quickly put to one side when a conversation began between a Japanese lady & myself, as the hours wore on & my eyelids threatened to close, I prepared to wish her fairwell.

Thats when Andrei turned up, sitting to my other side, he ordered himself a wine & launched into a conversation with me. Truely it was most interesting, but my friend was not one to take a difference of opinion lightly & soon I found myself trapped, as he explained to me how much better New Zealand was than anywhere else in the world, not to mention attempting to buy copious amounts of alcohol for the lady to my left. Alcohol I eventually consumed myself simply to stop Andrei from flooding the poor woman with Japanese Beer, I hate Beer...

Fortunately, I managed to keep enough of my senses (truthfully I was barely even inebriated, somehow) to help keep the several minor situations that nearly arrose to mere debate, before Andrei finally looked to his watch, cursed & left, with only a lot of seemingly unwelcome hugs for the lady to my left to mark his passing.

Okay, so it doesn't sound like much, but trust me, when you're 5,9 & have always relied on your speed to save you, the prospects of disagreeing with a 6 ft+, drunk, barrel of a man are not the sort you might entertain for shits & giggles.

Then I was once again prevented from leaving as I was launched into another conversation with yet more clientel, this time, an American English teacher & a Japanese English teacher. They were great & gave me some great advice on the options open to me if I decide to come & teach English in Japan, something I am increasingly considering.

Despite my now heavily sleep deprived state, we have agreed to meet at the same bar tonight, along with some of my first aquaintances from the place, for some darts/cards (I won't be gambling of course) & a fairwell drink or what have you, as next Thursday I'm gone, Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, England.

Well, catch you all later, I'm off to curse at the sun for stopping me getting the sleep I so desperately need.

Abortive Communication

2006-03-06T20:45:00.000+09:00

It seems that whatever had my card being "refused by issuer" has been resolved, I tried my card again today without much hope for success, & was instead rewarded with some money...

A better man would appologise uncremoneously for his outburst, or even have avoided said outburst altogeather.

To this I say a disinterested "hmpff" it is possible the link between the banks was down, though frankly I find this unlikely given the circumstances...

Eh, whatever, I was wrong, or at least prematurely disposed of optimism for a swift end to the issue. I'm just glad I can continue to enjoy myself in Japan!

Till next spiteful, unwholesome rant, mata ne!

Barclays Bank & Birthdays

2006-03-06T09:52:00.000+09:00

So I guess that as of today I can finally term my birthday celebrations finished. It all kicked off on Friday (March 3rd) with a really great party held by the people from mine & Laura's classes, & involved much food, fun & even presents! Hell, I even managed to teach people the card game "Cheat", which has to be one of the more difficult games to explain in a foreign language!

After the cake had settled we then headed off to "Secret Door" a Jazz-bar I have become rather partial to, where we enjoyed ourselves, & also played some darts.

Darts is something I've always known I'd be bad at, & for the first 2 hours, I proved this to be the case quite aptly, however, shortly after Jun the barman realised that it had been my birthday (March 4th) for the last hour & had raised many cheers in my name, he partnered with me in a doubles dart match, in which we whooped the asses clean off our opponents (I call 54-0 & game ended without them closing a single section a whooping) & in which I was actually rather useful, as in many of my turns I hit at least 2 of my 3 darts in a scoring zone.

Now that was as far from Darts lingo as you can probably get, but the point is, despite my arm now feeling like someone is punching it every second of every day, I'm not all that bad at Darts, YAY!

With 3 & a half hours of sleep under my belt, I awoke to my birthday proper, spending the day looking for gifts for people in Sappor city center, followed by 5 hours just kicking back & doodling in an arty/designy cafe thing, which was rather nice!

Later Laura & I met with some more friends & went out for dinner, consisting of "you have 2 hours, eat & drink all you can for 3000yen", which was a lot of fun, though I didn't follow people to the club afterwards, as sleep was greatly needed.

Sunday began a little less spectacularly, actually it began with me nearly attacking an ATM machine...

You see, I bank with Barclays, why? Because my mother used to work for them. Will I bank with them in the future? Hmm, I'm thinking not, actually I'm thinking of expanding my vocabulary of Japanese curses, especially for them.

This is because they have seen fit to start declining my card, MY ONLY MEANS OF ACCESSING MONEY WHILST I AM IN JAPAN. Now, whilst I am trying to sort this whole situation out, so that the remainder of my trip does not come to a premature end, it has occured to me, the cards being declined is likely due to Barclays thinking it has been stolen. Fair enough, I appreciate that its better safe than sorry & they're just doing their jobs, but heres an idea, or three;

1) CALL ME YOU MAGNOMINIOUS RETARDS. Suddenly the whole situation is fixed before it ever arose because you engaged your higher cognitive functions.

2) Look at the insurance policy I have with you. FOR JAPAN.

3) If you have blocked my card because of unusual spending, why was it not blocked when I first started using it in Japan??? Hmm?

I'm not actually all that angry, as long as it can all be wrapped up by Friday, the problem is of no great inconvenience. However, if it can't be fixed by then, my wish to visit Tokyo, Kyoto & Osaka is well & truely up the creek without a paddle.

Fortunately, the remainder of the day was great, care of the manager of the Sapporo Dome, I was able to take myself & 3 friends to some really great seats in the first game of the Baseball season. We had a lot of fun & despite Sapporo eventually losing (they actually started out winning for the first half of the game), it was a really great experience, with lots of noise, banner waving & BB puppets...

Afterwards we dropped Laura off at the station for her snowboarding trip & continued on to have a very nice meal, followed by a visit to a Punk-Rock venue to watch a band named Comix (friends with one of my friends in Japan). The bands before Comix were pretty awful, screaming & poorly setup sound systems, but Comix were actually really good, very different with powerful & talented vocals, extremely impressive guitar & even a harmonica...

Today is of course the 6th, so my 3 days of birthday-ing are finally over & as my money situation is up in the air, I'm spending today walking around Sapporo city center & the nearby river, exploring & taking photos, this is something I haven't really had the time to do, so now I've got a week to myself, I'm taking full advantage, as well as getting a lot of Japanese learnt, I wish.

So thats that, great times, idiot banks.

Sayonara!

Tanjobi

2006-03-03T11:15:00.000+09:00

So, tomorrow I'm twenty, god damn thats scary, & it really only occured to me last night, hell, I'd pretty much forgotten it until last night!

Of course, it wouldn't be a birthday without some sort of noise & shin-dig, so today I have been invited to the class-workshops at around 2pm for the beginings of what I believe to be my party. I'm excited sure, but its one of those things really, these people are going to all this effort for me, & I just don't deserve it, we've only known each other for 2 months & it all just feels a bit like they shouldn't be doing all this for me. Of course I'm greatful, they've been amazing, everyone of them, I just hope my little parting gifts are appreciated, they're hardly anything amazing...

In other news, University has finally properly finished, so next week being my last full week in Sapporo, & also my first, completely free week, I have a variety of plans & am hoping to visit a glass workshop & try my hand at glass craft, which should be fun! As I type, the final parts of my Tachikoma are drying, it'll be great to have it all done, even though I'm not a great model-maker/painter (doesn't really interest me) I'm really happy with how it looks, even if I am worried about its future survival in my luggage when I travel Japan/return to England.

I'm sure theres more to tell, but I have no idea what that might be, so for now, I shall appologise for my continued failure to put up more photos & say simply, take care!

Paint Pots & Presentations

2006-02-26T10:18:00.000+09:00

Its been a little while since I updated now, so hopefully I'll have something worth writing!

I've been rather busy this last week due to the fact that my coursework deadline with Bisen Design College was set for Wednesday.
I actually pulled it all togeather & finished with a few hours to spare, which when you consider the volume of work produced, ain't so bad, the presentation went relatively well, I figure I probably passed, hopefully! I did the entire presentation in Japanese, nothing majorly fancy, I actually planned it all out myself, including hunting down a Japanese phrase that would do for describing "environmentally friendly" as no such word or set of words actually exists, not even "sustainable" if you believe my dictionary, though it must be said this particular dictionary does seem to have an unering ability to leave voids of content where one would hope to find useful words. Thank you Collins, your dictionary shall ever serve as a useful reminder that "Pocket Dictionary" means "Crap Dictionary".

What else? Well, Thursday Laura & I cooked for our classes, I made, would you believe, English Beer Batter Fish & Chips. I can't cook, never have, & yet I did & everyone myself included, seemed to find the result edible! Laura cooked pancakes, which I'm fairly sure I deffinately couldn't do! Of course I didn't have the fish of the fish & chips, being as I am a vegetarian (the chips were fried seperately) & instead fried some vegetables to get a taste of the batter. It was light & tasty, I'm thinking of opening a Fish & Chips shop in Japan...

Friday night Laura & I met with Kyoko & Matt (our Japanese language teachers) for a few drinks at an architects office come cafe. It was a really nice little place, very interesting architects office, always good to see I'm not the only one using AutoCAD as it does sometimes feel that way at University. I've been invited back to teach one of the Architects some English & he will teach me a 3D Design Program called Vector Works, Laura seems to know it quite well, but I've generally avoided such programs as AutoCAD does all the jobs that many different programs only seem to touch upon. That said it should be interesting, & a little more experience with a wider range of programs isn't going to hurt.

Saturday I met up with some classmates & we went into Sapporo City Center, where we bought a few things, including some paints for a Tachikoma model I started painting this morning, I'm not big on models, despite being a Lego maniac as a kid, but its a Tachikoma & is therefore up there with Evangelion models as being a must have! Afterwards we went to one of their homes where we played some Halo & Phantom Crash, despite having not played Halo in nearly a year, maybe even much more, I won with relative ease & lots of rocket whoring, it was good, I miss Halo, stupid Halo 2, ruining Xbox Live for everyone!

Today Laura & I are off to Matt & Kyoko's house to have "Doll's Day" dinner, its basically a Japanese tradition thingy & should be very interesting! Oh, speaking of Japanese tradition, I wore a male-kimono-y thing a few days ago. It was stupidly comfortable & rather warm, if they weren't around £200 or more in the shops, I might have bought one to go home with! Instead I had to settle with the complete Evangelion manga set for £10 ;)

So yes, Japan is fun, lots of fun, & I still can't wait for Tokyo!

Stars & Sake

2006-02-18T18:02:00.000+09:00

Friday marked the millionth time I have sat in a wood workshop & sworn blue I would never make anything that needed so much sanding ever again.

Of course I won't live up to that promise, which is just as well, I do like designing wooden furniture...

Fortunately I basically finished my woodwork project, with only the felt I bought today to be added to finish it all off, its great to finally have it all working & slotting togeather, its hardly perfect, but as an idea its nice & the aesthetic isn't all that bad either thanks to good wood choice & a little artistic flair, if I do say so myself!

Today we had our "introduction" to the previous Principal of Bisen Design College, which meant a very nice meal & a cosy chat with the current & previous Principals, both of whom are very suited to the role of Principal, as my Japanese teacher put it, moulded infact.

After that Laura, myself & the previous Principal (Kondo-san) took a trip to the nearby Sake Museum, which was very nice & I must say, though I usually hate alcohol, a taste is being developed within my palette for sake, which, though reminiscent of wine, is both more pleasant in taste & the fact it doesn't butcher my throat.

Laura & I then went into Sapporo city center so that I might buy some things for my project & presentation (Wednesday is exam day, fingers crossed all goes well! Laura is guaranteed to come top of her class, me, well, I'll settle for bottom as long as I pass!) we went to a huge 100yen shop, where everything is the equivalent of 50 pence, sounds too good to be true? Well it wasn't, they had everything, literally everything, that shops makes all other shops obsolete, hell, I even bought 6 writable mini CDs for an idea I've had, at 50 pence each, plus 2 square meters of felt, for 50 pence & 2 small bricks I will set my jewellery design work on.

I love 100yen shops!

We then found a pretty cool alternative music store, where I finally found an S*Creaters album, followed by a visit to Tower Records, where I found their "Final Live CD".

I can say naught but this; they rock mightily!

So thats me, £1 for a CD, can't be bad! The next 2 days I will attempt to force Japanese into my brain, I will likely fail, maybe even explode, but damnit, I gotta try.

What Feeling is in YOUR Skirt?

2006-02-15T20:25:00.000+09:00

Okay, so thats just about as dodgy a title as I could put without going totally overboard, but theres a reason, this reason actually...

A wonderful sign outside what I assume to be a brothel, Laura & I passed this on our travels through Susukino, whilst viewing the Ice Sculptures.

Though I must say, they don't seem that bothered in finding the answer to this question!

Anyway, back to our scheduled program & all that...

Asides from fighting the urge to smash my fist through my laptop (its not the laptops fault, broadband that acts like 56k is far from calming), today was spent visiting a city Center gallery to view the graduation work of the 2nd Grade Bisen students, as well as seeing my own little space.

At first it didn't seem that bad, then I walked into the gallery area & stood dumbstruck by the beauty, artistic quality & imagination on display. Seriously, in two years people have learned skills (in many cases) that would rival the work of many years of studying in some places. It was utterly incredible, I love a good drawing, & though I consider myself able, its stuff like this that makes me feel completely inadequate when it comes to pencil work, utterly beautiful does nothing to describe it & some of the furniture/pottery/interior & exterior architecture that was on display was equally mind blowing.

Anyway, enough of that, it was incredible & all the best those students, they deserve it.

On my way home I stopped into the tourist information center & booked my ferry from Hokkaido to Honshu (the main part of Japan), before coming home & booking my room at a hotel in Tokyo.

It feels great to have gotten that sorted, all thats left now is to sort out my flight & lodgings in Kyoto & Osaka, the travelling will be a case of visiting the bus station on the day. I'll try to fix that tomorrow, but I'll be very busy in university, & am then going to a hot spring afterwards, I can't wait! :D

So, pretty good day, was nice to see the first few pages of my comic in print, though no one paid Laura's or my space any attention, so feh to that!

To hotsprings! Yay!

Surrounded By Maps & Not a Boat to Sail

2006-02-14T16:56:00.000+09:00

So today was a nice little day off from University as the 2nd Year students are doing the whole graduating exhibition thingy. I'm involved too, but don't actually have to do anything, I just go along tomorrow & I assume, stand there & take photos of my work being presented & probably ignored in favour of the frankly incredible stuff these guys have designed.

Its okay though, because I basically get a free poster of my design out of the whole thing, heh, you'll have to wait for pictures to understand that one!

Last night Laura & I visited the local Jazz Bar to which I have become rather attached. I got some great pictures I'll try to upload soon, though I keep having to delete photos to regain space!

As today was a day off I figured it'd be a good chance to get the bulk of my end of March travelling arrangements fixed. It was a nice idea, a dream if you will, a nice dream that I should have expected to end in me swearing at things. Ah well, I did try!

Basically, I planned out everything I needed to say in the phone conversation I was to make to a ferry company to sort out the second leg of my 3 part travel to Tokyo. Of course I completely forgot that there was no way on this earth I was going to understand the person I was talking to, especially not if he was holding his phone at arms length from his face, which he was. Sod.

Anyway, much exasperation later (& irritation because I'm paying for a telephone in my room (not my choice) which doesn't work for some reason, thus requiring me to use the landlords phone) I figured I'd just sort the whole thing out tomorrow. As I'm going into town anyway I figure I can stop by the Information Center at some point & maybe get it all done, as well as hopefully picking up tourist maps/guides for Kyoto, Hiroshima & Osaka (I have PLENTY for Tokyo). If I can do that then all I should have to do is cancel my connecting flight from Sapporo to Osaka & arrange my accomodation, which, through much scouting on my part I have managed to narrow down to several potential locations, all with nice £12.50 a night style prices. (2500 Yen. That is of course assuming these places have vacancies, yay for uncertainty!

So yes, my room is a mess of Tokyo maps & guide books I have used to locate my prefered hotel & sites of interest. Including of course, Shibuya Terminal & Dogenzaka Hill. Yay!

So that has been my day, I had planned to work & study Japanese, but well, swearing at telephones is surprisingly time consuming...

Till next time!

Otaru City, Candle Light Glass

2006-02-12T21:27:00.000+09:00

So today Izuka-sensei took myself, Ritsuko & an ex-student to Otaru City, the ex-capital of Hokkaido. Its the first time I've seen the Japanese coast from the ground & it was pretty beautiful, pictures should be up any moment!

Otaru is famous for several things, including its many glass works & glass galleries. To say I was impressed would be an understatement, some really incredible designs in some of the galleries, very inspirational. Though we only have the slumping kiln available for glass work back in England, I've begun thinking of some really great stuff I might be able to do if I can get hold of some coloured glass powder & combine it with glass slumping, I'm really excited about that & just hope I get a good chance to do it back home, similarly I'm thinking I might look into trying to get involved with a glassworks over the summer holidays...

I got a fair few souveneirs for the family, & some ideas for more, I can't spend too much, as living here for 3 months is no doubt taking its toll on my bank account, but it would be remiss of me to bring nothing back.

When night fell we took a walk along Otaru canal, as at this time of year the candle festival takes place, whereby visitors write wishes on special vessels & mini-shrines, which they then add a lit candle too & place on the snow banks alongside the canal for the gods to look upon & perhaps answer.
It was really beautiful & though the pictures don't do it justice, very moving.

So another great day, especially designs wise! Hey, what am I doing here? I should be designing!

But before I go, today I discovered the true meanings of my first & last names...

Matthew: Maker of the stone seal (ie those used by the emperor etc)
Hyne: Wing Shadow

How awesome is that? My last name is Wing Shadow! You can bet I'm gonna start using that!

Naked Bathing - No Heavy Petting Please, We're English

2006-02-12T10:00:00.000+09:00

Okay, yesterday was officially, a damn fine day, it was also one of the scariest starts to a day I have had sine getting settled in here.

Basically it had been pre-arranged that Saturday, Laura & I would be taken by Owashi-sensei to a local hot-spring resort where we would enjoy a traditional Japanese hotspring. Why is that scary? Because the Japanese do the whole thing naked. Being English I'm pretty reserved about my nakedness & relaxing in an outdoor hot tub surrounded by snow, whilst naked, seemed like an awful lot to do in one go...

However, after a nice drive through the nearby mountains we arrived at what was pretty much a small restaurant, where we were ushered past the dinning area & into what looked like a chillout room really.

Here we went our seperate ways, Laura & Owashi-sensei being ladies they would not be bathing with the men, well, at least its a little less scary now, I guess.

Anyway, walked into the changing room, stripped off & stepped through to the next room, which was like a sauna, only with a swimming pool & showers you sit down to use. The people at the showers seemed to be taking a year or two to wash themselves, so I spent sufficiently long under the water so as not to appear smelly, before moving onto the inside bath.

The water was boiling, honestly, it could melt you, but having already been exposed to the sauna like environment, I was a little bit more prepared & managed to sit in the bath for a little while, before deciding it was time to move to the outside section.

Stepping through a door to the snowy mountain-side naked was most unpleasant, think a nice warm shower, suddenly going freezing, then someone slapping you with chunks of ice in the form of stupidly large snow flakes. I managed to get on with it though & eased myself into the water. I proceeded to spend close to 2 hours, just laying back, staring at the beautiful mountains, trees, sky & birds that were all around me & just plain feeling really, really relaxed.

By the time I had to go I just didn't want to move, few times in my life have I ever come close to feeling so, comfortable & chilled out, really, if you're ever in Japan, you must go to a hot spring, you won't have the first idea of what you're missing if you don't.

I can only imagine what it was like for Laura though, she didn't just have to be doing the whole thing naked, but naked with her teacher, she seems pretty okay about it & probably is, but still, theres quite a difference between exposing yourself around people you'll never see again, & those you see everyday!

After the hot spring we drove half way up Moiwa Mountain, the tallest mountain in Sapporo. We then boarded a Gondola which took us up even higher (that was pretty scary, I'm not afraid of heights so much, but my mind goes nuts with imaginging how things like Gondolas could snap free & careen down the mountain, thanks for that imagination), before taking a ride on a Piste-maker (think great big tank with a snow plow & a little less tank) to the very top of the mountain. The view of Sapporo was utterly amazing & I think some of the pictures will be quite nice, but despite being extremely well wrapped up, that peak was freezing.

I'll put up my photos later, right now I need to get ready to go to Otaru City (the old capital of Hokkaido, before Sapporo took over) with my classmates, which should be really good for pictures as they're having their candle festival right now, which is as far as I have seen, beautiful beyond belief.

So take care & be not afraid of nakedness, if you have a mountain & a really hot bath nearby!

Photos of the Festival

2006-02-11T10:02:00.000+09:00

So last night, Laura, her friend & my good self made our way into Sapporo City Center to view the 57th Annual Sapporo Snow Festival.

You can find many more pictures on my photo gallery, link to the right a bit, but for now, here is possibly the most impressive bit of Ice mastery I have ever seen, I don't know if you can make it out, but basically the form of this structure is not the limit of its detailing, as into every millimeter of its surface are intricate carvings of stained glass windows & such, really, it was amazingly beautiful, & the band were really good too!

I've finally had an idea for some self directed projects as well, to bolster the work I do here so that Plymouth University can't accuse me of sitting on my hands & eating rice!

First up I'm going to finish the prologue of the manga I've been working on with the tutoring of the manga & graphic arts classes at Bisen, this should hopefully show that I've been doing something & a little of my efforts to learn a variety of editing software.

Secondly I'm going to work on a design for a tattoo I have recently decided I would quite like, its a really nice idea, very simple, but due to the size, probably quite expensive, I've never really known what to get as a tattoo & have never been very bothered, but this idea came to me & I think it'd be really nice & tasteful, so fingers crossed!

Finally I'm going to begin taking pictures of everything urban & architectural, I've already been doing this a little, but now I'm really going to step up the pace & just photograph every building that interests me (which is most Japanese buildings) as well as the thousands of neon signs/displays, road signs, lights & overhead wiring (which through virtue of its sheer quantity is beautifully ornate). By the time I've been to Tokyo & Kyoto etc I'll have a very broad collection of many many photos, which I can use to not only inspire myself, but also some designs & maybe even get across to people why I feel the way I do about Japan.

This will hopefully lead nicely into my dissertation which I'm considering doing on myself (as was suggested we could do) as a designer & how I began with an interest in architecture & how that moved into design & all the little hobbies I have for designing things, which would then go into my trip to Japan & how that developed me & my work, how it forcibly kicked me out of the rut I was in back home & such.

Though the disertation idea is still very vague & I'm not really sure that its suitable content for a dissertation, so we'll have to see!

Anyways, I'm off to enjoy a traditional Hokkaido Hot Spring today, so, Itte Kimas!

Yet More Updately Goodness

2006-02-09T18:37:00.000+09:00

Congratulations to my only reader, Gunforhire! Who successfully determined my alterior motives for going to Dogenzaka Hill & Shibuya Terminal!

You win!

Nothing! Dems tha breaks!

Anyway, actual update time!

After University today, Laura & I were taken to the nearby home of a retired couple who are now proffesional musicians. Prior to being tuneful melodians (pretty sure I made that up) the husband of this couple was the Captain of a Merchant Vessel which he sailed around the world.

Turns out he even visited my home city of Plymouth!

The night was rather good, amazing to see some traditional Japanese instruments, & on that note (oh the wit) there are new pictures for you to gorge your eyes upon!

The house was beautiful, a strange mix of traditional Japanese & modern simplicity, very nice! We were given our third Tea Ceremony of our visit (most Japanese don't even go to 1) as well as being given a traditional Japanese doll, I'll take some pictures later, but they were made by the wife's mother so are extra special & very impressive!

I hate doing this, I write the main post, then completely forget the extra stuff I was going to say!

Ah, there we go!

I think that one of the following is true:

a) The Japanese see an Englishman & decide he is automatically a gentlemanly stud.
b) The Japanese are very polite & despite the individual being anything but studly, will say nice things of his studliness.

I'm going with B.

Tonight marks possibly the 100th occasion I have had to sit looking at my lap, blushing whilst people tell me what a gentleman I am & how handsome I am.

I mean seriously? Have they seen the same pictures??? These people! So polite its untrue! I'm not complaining, but I know you're just being mean when you tell me you're worried that my visit to the girls only dormitory for dinner will be a disaster because they will fling themselves at me.

I mean, come on! I'm not an idiot! I can tell when you're just trying to make me feel better!

Seriously though, everyone thinks I'm a gentleman & handsome over here, its crazy, I've even had guys telling me I'm rather stylish. Hello? What?

Its nice, but well, I'm over reacting I'm sure.

Tomorrow is Snow Festival Night! Woo! 20ft tall snow statues of Budda! I just hope no one burns any embassies over it! All that snow, there'd be a tidal wave...

A Proper Entry! Wooo!

2006-02-08T17:24:00.000+09:00

Well, maybe it'll be a proper entry, lets see how far we get at trying eh?

First things first, as I was reminded in the comments section, I am now an international celebrity, on a par with only the great Noel Edumnds impersonator himself, whoever that may be. By which I of course mean; some scary people working for Sapporo TV came & recorded my classmates & I, jumping in the air, shouting something in Japanese, with our Ice Scultpure behind us... It was magical...

On the subject of Ice Sculptures, pictures are now up! A little explanation, it was already designed when I arrived, basically its an abstract take on 3 Skyscrapers, wrapped in wind. I think it came out pretty good, even if I would have chosen to sculpt any of the following;

Domo-kun
Pikachu
Sonic the Hedgehog
A Tachikoma

Truely they would have rocked...

There are also some other Ice Sculptures in the gallery, some were pretty good, I avoided taking photos of the rubbish ones, of which there were many...
I will be heading into Sapporo City Centre soon & will hopefully get some pictures from the international competition section too!

Enough of that, more things!

I've been given all my final deadlines & information, nearly, next week I will have several A2 boards of my work on display in a gallery in the city centre, along with the work of the final year students, the week following I will be assessed on all that I have done, & fingers crossed, I'll get a pass! Its a bit of a push, I'm basically spending 8-9 hours in the wood workshop working on my main project now to get it finished in time, hopefully I'll manage, I think I have enough time!

Today my first batch of ceramics went into the kiln, if any come out in one piece I'll be happy! I should probably explain some of the pictures as well, basically, any pictures with wood are of my main project, which is a tablewares storage thingy, nothing special, it had to be small to get done in time, though the means of its manufacture are relatively clever, as it requires no glue or nails/screws at all, its all done with slots & a single wedge of wood.

I'll make sure to take some pictures soon, but in the mean time, I'll just tell you; I have a Tachikoma! Woo! if you don't know what a Tachikoma is, then you don't like anime, silly people. Its basically a car sized robot, its rather cute & pretty hard to get a hold of in the UK, so when a classmate found me one I was rather chuffed to say the least!

So, I'm pretty much speeding through this, my appologies, but theres plenty to be told that'll never get said at all!

I've also found out I have 2-3 weeks of free time at the end of March, so after the graduation ceremony I'm packing my bags, saying my goodbyes (which is going to be pretty sad in truth) & catching a ferry to Tokyo, where I will be staying for around a week, before moving on to see Kyoto, Hiroshima & Osaka, where I will then catch a plane back to England on the 1st of April. As much as I depserately can't wait to see Ali again, I just don't want to leave, I love this place, I really do, but Tokyo should be amazing, I'll try & get a nice cheap capsule hotel (photos will explain all ;)) & basically just spend every second I'm not sleeping, wandering around Tokyo. The first place I'd like to go is Dogenzaka Hill, via Shibuya Terminal, if you can guess why, post it in the comments & I'll tell you if you're right ;)

What else, hmm...

Oooh! This Saturday I will be taking a trip with Owashi Sensei & Laura to a hot spring, its going to be rather interesting, apparently these places are extremely hot & you have to bathe naked. The baths may be split according to gender, but its not like being around a bunch of old men is going to make me want to strip down to my birthday suit anymore than if it was a group of women & men, still, gotta be done I guess! The day after I will be taking a trip with my class to Otaru city, the previous capital of Hokkaido, its apparently very beautiful & will be my first true visit to the Japanese coast, I'm rather looking forward to that!

Learning of the Language...

Its going okay, my memory being the main barrier. I actually seem to understand how it works pretty well, infact I think I've got most of that nailed, but my memory being as rubbish as it is makes the learning of the words rather difficult, still, I do enjoy it & will keep trying!

Hmm, I can't think of anything else right now, though I know theres a lot to mention...

Ah well, take care, till next time!

Sleep. Now.

2006-02-05T09:26:00.000+09:00

Finally, I'm finished for the weekend, well, Sunday.

This week has been so busy I literally haven't stopped, its been Uni,Ice Sculpting, Sleep, Repeat for the last 5 days or so & I am knackered!

Before I go though, I will make a small update on my latest adventures!

The Ice Sculpting was amazing, I've had so much fun doing it & the end result is very pleasing, pictures will be up eventually! On Friday I started making my woodwork project which I feel is coming along nicely & should look really good in the end, hopefully ;) Earlier in the week I produced several items of glass jewelery & finished the wax model for a kanji ring I will cast on Monday.

I'm sure theres more that I'm forgetting, but I really do need to go! I know its now early morning here, but I need to try & get some more sleep to make up for the many hours I've lost this week!

Snowmen

2006-02-01T08:21:00.000+09:00

I've managed to steal a few minutes in between University, sleeping & hacking at a large block of ice to make a quick update so my family & such know I am still alive ;)

I am having an amazing time, Japan rocked before, now I'm doing Ice Sculpture I just cannot leave, ever. I love it. I don't even really care that we're actually carving something, I'm happy just knocking lumps or ice from other lumps of ice, what a child I am, but I just don't care, its too much fun!

We were at it for 5-6 hours last night, not once did I get bored, tired or even cold, I was too busy carving & having a great time, & I get to do that all this week, Saturday included for close to 12 hours!

Anyways, I must be off, gotta get to Uni!

Rarity

2006-01-30T17:59:00.000+09:00

This week updates shall be scarce to non-existent, the invisible none of you that visit will surely want to know why.

It is because I am sculpting a giant snow statue in the center of Sapporo with my class & shan't be back till late in the evening, by which time I will want nothing more than sleep, & lots of warm.

So in the mean time, I'm having fun & Japan rocks.

Sayonara!

Blue Prints

2006-01-27T16:48:00.000+09:00

Well, first off, this is kind of a two posts in one day thing, so feel free to go back & check the last one, I think I must have sent it as a draft & not to publish, what can I tell you? I am devoid of common sense, or the ability to find things in my cupboard.

Moving swiftly on to today;

Nothing spectacular happened today, I produced a blue print for my wood work design which is pretty neat, I've never had an actual, BLUE blueprint before, only those rubbish white ones with black ink, this is much more interesting!

Hopefully the wood for my project will be in next week, it should be a fairly straight & simple shot in the making department until I get to the final detail, the central pillar, which requires me to make a screw & cap for it amongst other things.
Whilst I was doing nothing much I tried to get some design juices flowing & came out with a few other designs I'm really pleased with, its a shame neither of them are particularly feasible, doesn't mean I won't try them out when I get back to England though!

This is really only a quick stop for me right now, as I'm not only swamped with trying to fill my sketchbook to keep the Uni back home happy, but I've been invited out after dinner tonight & well, I don't do the clubbing thing, at all really, but you know, got to make an effort!

Till next time!

Life & The Pythons

2006-01-26T22:25:00.000+09:00

So what have I done today?

Well, first off I was taught to use yet more of Photoshop & Illustrator in Japanese & began working on my presentation board, which my sensei seemed to approve of, which is always nice!

After that I had lunch with Laura, the Principal & our Japanese teachers, before catching several tube trains & a bus to the Hokkaido Historic Village, a literal collection of historical buildings from all over Hokkaido that were literally transported brick by brick, log by log to this new location & setup as a tourist attraction, it was really interesting to see some of the strange mixes of western & traditional Japanese architecture, but by far the highlight of the day was dressing in period costume for the entire duration of our visit. As a young man, it was for me to wear a black cloak & a very fetching Black hat, ala 1950's detective stories. It was extremely fun & as I was in a silly mood, simply heightened my stupidity to the point where much of my time was spent laughing uncontrollably.

It was fun.

Later Laura & I went to Karaoke with her class mates, it is fair to say they are not nearly as animated as my class mates, but we still had a lot of fun, also, I learnt that my rendition of Monty Python's "Look on the Bright Side of Life" is at least passable by some peoples standards as I appeared to impress Laura & her classmates. It was fun indeed, not least because I cannot sing a single note without sounding like a mistreated herd of high-pitched bovine.

Now it is bed time, as I must be up at seven in the morning again tomorrow, oyasumi nasai!

Ceramics

2006-01-25T16:26:00.000+09:00

This past week or so has been a lot of fun, maybe not as much in some ways as the previous two, but still, a lot of fun & its always good to hang with mates, even if they talk a different language & the only joke you understand is the one about the large guy named Todja, actually, that is the joke, Todja means father, it sounds like a lame joke, but the guy pulls it off in spectacular fashion!

Anyway, Tuesday I made two rings, only simple things, but it was great fun & its nice to have them, one for me, one for Ali, as they're really very neat & tidy & though cheap to produce, would still cost a pretty penny in most shops.

However, today has been the big one, Wednesday Ceramics class. I may have mentioned how interesting my last ceramics class was, well this was no exception, only, instead of producing anything meaningful, the best I managed was a 1:1 scale approximation of a ceramic dog turd. It wasn't meant to be such an unpleasant item, in fact it was going to be part of a double helix, yeah, making thin tubes on a pottery wheel is not for the people with less than two days experience, trust me.

My class have been great & even trodged all over town with me trying to find a store with a Tachikoma model left, turns out the damn things are so popular no one but Amazon has them, & as I can't yet read Japanese, thats not a great route for me to be going down!

Anyway, short & sweet really, some new pictures on photobucket, mostly of the area in which I live, because its just really amazing, look for the mountains in the background, when its snowy they appear dark blue, beautiful.

Catch Up

2006-01-22T10:17:00.000+09:00

Right, I've fallen behind, so here goes, the last 2-3 weeks of my living in Japan;

The first week saw a number of really kool trips & such, as well as daily Japanese classes in the mornings. On my first Sunday in Japan, Owashi-sensei took Laura & I to out into the country side to a village workshop where some pupils & staff were casting Copper & bronze statues, it was really interesting & seeing nothing but white for miles in every direction was really cool as well. On the way back we had to dig the car out of a snow drift which was pretty funny at the time, though I ended up very cold & wet as I did most of the pushing standing up to my waist in snow...

Later we went on to the Sapporo Dome, the venue for the famous England vs Argentina Fifa 2000 (?) match, where we were given a VIP tour of the entire building by the Director of the Dome himself, as well as getting to see the actual game-plan board that England cooked up for the match, I'm not big into football, but even I was pretty impressed!
The Dome is an amazing building, & obscenely clever too, it was really very interesting & you can see a number of photos of it on my photobucket account.

Tuesday saw us take a trip to a Zen Budhist temple as well as the Hokkaido Shinto Shrine. Both were very interesting, but I particularly enjoyed meditation at the Zen temple & the Tea Ceremony we later enjoyed, pictures of which are also on the photobucket account.

Wednesday we were taken to the top of the 20 story City Hall building, where we got some great shots of the surrounding city, but even more impressively, were taken into the specially built, traditional Japanese house that had been placed atop the tower. The facility is only used for foreign dignitaries of extreme importance, so we were really quite amazed to be taken there, but its an incredible structure & an excellent example of why I love traditional Japanese architecture.

Thursday & Friday we studied flower arrangement (Ikibana), a lot of guys might laugh at this, but to hell with you, it was extremely relaxing & like much in Japan that I have found, peaceful & very moving, this is the piece I created, which I'm told was very very good, even by intermediate standards, but they may have just been being nice ;)

Its crazy, theres so much to say that it kind of just blocks up my mind until I can't think of anything to say about what a great time I'm having, the city is beautiful, really, it may just be the snow, but I love it & to many people all the overhead wires & such may seem a bit antiquated, but I think it just makes the place a lot more intricate & fascinating, then there are the crows, many people seem afraid of them, as like British seagulls they will swipe food from the unwary, but their squawk just makes me smile everytime I hear it, its a sound I'm quickly coming to get used to & miss if I don't hear it often enough, strange I know!

Last week was my first set of classes, I'm actually with a single group of people (8 of us in total) who move around buildings each day to different subjects, this doesn't sound that odd, but trust me, it is, though its nice because you get to see a lot more of the people & University & get feedback from different sources.

My classmates are great, they're being so friendly & welcoming, its just amazing, we've already been to karaoke & yesterday we went shopping in the City Center, I'd hoped to find a Tachikoma model, but they were sold out, so I settled for buying an Eva 01 instead ;)

I'm really enjoying University as well, currently I study Woodwork, Ceramics, Jewelery, Painting & Drawing, CAD & Metalwork, but I have to pick two classes from Woodwork/Ceramics/Jewelery to continue with. At the moment I'm thinking of going with Ceramics & Woodwork, as though we have Ceramics facilities at Plymouth University, I've never enjoyed working with them as we're quite limited, but here its just so much more free & enjoyable, & I've had a great idea for something I can produce in Woodwork that will be small enough for me to keep & finish in the short time I'm studying here.

For CAD/DTP we have to use Adobe Illustrator & Photoshop to produce a presentation board on our work, right now its the planning stage, but having never used either of these programs before I was a little wary, however, even in Japanese they're incredibly easy & inuitive & I'm really looking forward to getting on with the work.

Its also been a big extra for me that everyone here is so interested in my other design work, outside of University I also dabble in website design & am a concept artist for Pdark-Mod. Normally I wouldn't mention this to most people as a lot of English people seem to look at it as something childish or what-have-you, but here they're really interested in what I'm doing & there are a lot of PD fans it would seem who are pretty interested too.
Another big extra for me is the inspiration I am getting here, sometimes in the UK I could really struggle to get an idea I was happy with, here I'm just knocking them out like a factory, maybe I just really needed to get away? At any rate, thats also really good for my concept art work, which I think is looking really great right now, I'm designing the remake of an old level for one of the mappers & I think its coming out great so far & Sapporo has a big hand in that, theres so much to draw on & so much that just inspires you to be creative, I love it!

Finally, learning Japanese, its hard, especially for someone like me who struggles with languages that aren't English, but I'm actually doing quite well I think, I've already learnt more Japanese than I managed to learn Spanish in 6 years of college, & I enjoy learning it, I really do, partly because I really want to learn Japanese, but also because most of the times I learn a lot, are by being social with people, I regularly find myself sat in the cafeteria at my dormitory, just chatting away with the landlord & other residents & having a great time.

So, I know I didn't really tell you all that much about whats gone on, theres just far too much already to ever write down, but just take this as a summary, I love Sapporo, & if I love the rest of Japan this much by the time my 3 months are up, I may not be away for long & I may even never go back to England once I do get back here...

Oh, Saturday last week, we went to a baseball game, free, thanks to the Director of Sapporo Dome & had a blast, no pictures, but it was my first game a lot of fun, the Director even gave Laura & I an official "Ambitious Sapporo" Baseball from the shop.
Thats one thing I wasn't prepared for, the kindness, generosity & friendliness of the people here, I knew that they were far more polite & social concious than many British people (something I admire greatly) but I wasn't expecting to be treated like a VIP & to just generally be so well looked after, its really nice & I know it can't last forever, but this is how people actually are here, constantly pleasant & kind, I'm not trying to bad mouth England here, but really, you have no idea of just how grumpy & nasty & rude people are, until you see people in Japan & realise that actually, there are still places in the world where there is no litter & where people think more for others than themselves.

Yeah I know, you probably all think I'm a jerk now, or that I just like to hate England, well I don't, I am proud to be English, but honestly, come to Japan, you WILL have the time of your life. I am!

Konichiwa!

2006-01-18T23:55:00.000+09:00

Well, here it is, my first post from Japan, sorry its taken so long, it took a week to get the internet, & I've since been bogged under with University (Which rocks). I'll be getting onto the subject of recounting my tales a little later, there are already far too many to begin when I'm just about to head to bed!

So anyway, I've now setup a photobucket account & am in the process of getting all my 60+ megabytes of photos on there, so many great memories already, check them out! In the mean time, heres a really easy one for you lazy people, you don't even have to click a link! Heres me, standing in 'Ramen Alley' a famous area of Sapporo city centre, where you can find all the best of Sapporo noodles! They're really tasty, I reconmend Udong noodles by the way, seriously, those things are REAL super noodles...

Nerves

2006-01-04T08:06:00.000+09:00

Well, tomorrow is the big day, at around 7pm my flight will be moving around Heathrow Airport with the very real possibility that the next time it touches terra firma will be 18 hours away & nearly as far from London Heathrow as its possible to get, unless it was to land in the Pacific Ocean, which would be silly as then it wouldn't be landing on terra firma at all.

Right now I'm kinda calm about the whole idea of being deposited in a far away land for 3 months, but I can feel the first tentative feelers of nerves creeping towards me, they've been at bay for a while now, but here they come, I must say, the prospect of 3 months in Japan is so exciting, but when you consider I've never really been so far from anyone or anything I know for such a period, well, it is a little scary...

Fortunately, my girlfriend is far more with it than I & my bags are all well & truely packed & arrangements made to have me at Heathrow in plenty of time, I guess theres really not much more to say right now, so I'll leave it at that.

Oh, & check out http://pressstarttoplay.lyfeforce.net/index.php, its a webcomic whose art is produced by my better half in the PDark Mod Concept Artist duo, me being the rubbish half, my friend being the talented half, go check it out, its getting good feedback from big comics & its got a very enjoyable style.

Anyways, catch you in the land of the rising sun...

Beginings

2005-12-31T09:30:00.000+09:00

Welcome to this, the first post of my little 'travel blog'. I think it needs a little introduction, so stick with me for a while, as I explain why this blog exists, & why after 3 months, it will be gone again, salving all conscience & leaving only a mildly bitter after taste.

I am a 19 year old Furniture Design student with Plymouth University & I am going to be living in Japan for 3 months, arriving on the 5th January 2006 & returning on the 1st April. Whilst in Japan I will be studying Design at the Sapporo University, Hokkaido, Japan as well as learning the langauge & culture first hand, of a country I have admired for most of my life, & always wanted to visit.

The purpose of this blog is to record for friends & family my experiences & stories, thus saving me repeating them several times a day in rushed phone calls due to prices & the looming threat of the time zones.

So, if you hang around, enjoy my disasters, as I'm sure there'll be a few, but in the mean time, yoroshku onegai shimasu! You'll hear from me again around the 4th/5th January.