Just a few different things about Japan.
You have to wear slippers around the house at all times EXCEPT when you enter a tatami room, tatami are woven mats that are laid on the floor, apparently in olden times rooms were measured by how many tatami it took to cover the floor. Wearing slippers is a problem for English people, at least for Ed it is, he forgets to put them on a lot and is often seen being followed around by one of the host family carrying his slippers to him...You can tell he is not swiss...
All toilets are high tech or low tech. If they are low tech you have to squat, this is mainly for public places but most modern building have high tech western toilets. How can a toilet be high tech I hear you ask, well for a start all seats are heated, even in public buildings, I personally find this a little disconcerting because i would prefer my toilet seat to be cold if you know what I mean. A lot of the toilets also have a control pad next to them where you can initiate all kinds of bottom cleaning and flushing. The first time you encounter one of these its good to know that the top button generally does the flush you are looking for. On no account press buttons at random when the seat cover is up, problems will ensue. A small thing that is actually very sensible is that the toilet tank fills up from a tap which pours into the cistern. What this means is that you can wash your hands with the water that will be used for the next flush, very eco friendly.
As I mentioned slippers are worn everywhere, including the toilet BUT not your normal house slippers, these you leave at the door to the toilet and put on the toilet slippers.
Finally putting a kimono on is not a trivial task, Stefania tried for over an hour on Monday night, you can see the pictures here
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Sunday, September 28, 2008
First week impressions
1 week gone by already so I thought I would write about general first impressions.
Somethings are really wierd, japan is just generally a bit grotty with some stunning pieces of architecture or gardens surrounded by factories or run down areas and buildings. Nothing really gets built up too high because of the threat of earthquakes and their are very lax zoning planning laws. The house I am staying in is beautiful and you would say this was a residential district yet next door is a garage and next to that is some kind of small scale wire wool factory..
If you sit down on a bus and there is a space next to you, no matter how full the bus gets no one will sit next to you, apparently there is a small stigma about gai-jin (foreigners), but the main reason they will leave the seat free is that they would be terrified you would talk to them and they would then have to say that they cant speak english. I was told that the gai-jin stigma thing was the reason that one of the other students despite being here 3 months already hasn't had a date yet so I am not 100% sure about the truth of this one...
Although the air seems clean enough its not uncommon to see people walking around with face masks on. Most of the bus drivers wear face masks and they all wear thin white gloves as do all the taxi drivers. Although japan is a rich country, Kanazawa is not where the money is, I havent seen one nice car since I have been here they must export all the good ones, maybe Tokyo and Osaka would be different so I guess I will have to wait till the next trip to find that out.
Fresh fish is everywhere, yesterday I ate smoked fish at the fish market absolutely no idea what kind of fish it was but I asked the guy if I could eat it straight away and when he said yes picked a couple up and started munching delicious. The fish market itself reminds me of the one in leeds but a lot lot bigger, probably how it was years and years ago.
In the centre of Kanazawa is its main tourist attraction, the kenkouku gardens, reputed to be one of the top 3 gardens in Japan, I have cycled round it and will visit it next week, its massive. Next to this is the museum of modern art which is interactive and has a great cafe, where I had tea (imagine a tea-latte) with new york cheesecake this afternoon. Also nearby is the Noh museum, this celebrates the traditional japanese stage play form "Noh". I intend to go into this when I can read some of the kanjii.
Just around the corner from the gardens and at the end of the main high street is Katamachi the entertainment district, basically this is where the karaoke bars and other bars are. Its all bright lights but very very small.
I know I said that Kanazawa wasnt where the money was but on the high street there is Gucci, Armani, Burburry, a couple of huge department stores, 9 floors each and a Louis Vuitton store is opening up in October, so I guess there is some money around just not to be spent on cars.
I am getting around on a bike I hired from the school, before I could take it I was treated to a stern lecture telling me to be extremely careful and to only ride on paths and to go slow. This is another feature there are signs for danger everywhere almost on every street corner, often I have no idea what they are warning you about, maybe that there is a road next to you so be careful. There are also descriptions on how to use everything. I bought a bottle of water from one of the ubiquitous vending machines and noticed there were instructions on the bottle telling me which way to turn the top. A lot of the vending machines can serve you hot tea and coffee in a can, or the same drink ice cold also in a can. I have discovered a new rule when I went to the lion costume museum on Tuesday. Vending machines are on every street corner, unless you have climbed up a hill 500 metres in which case there isnt another one for miles.
All in all a good week, learnt how to conjugate the verbs for the future, past and present tenses, how to negate them, how to use the possessive, tell the time, count and ask for directions, though if you have read my post on the business cards this doesn't mean the japanese necessarily understand everything i am asking for yet, but its been a good week. Roll on week 2.
Somethings are really wierd, japan is just generally a bit grotty with some stunning pieces of architecture or gardens surrounded by factories or run down areas and buildings. Nothing really gets built up too high because of the threat of earthquakes and their are very lax zoning planning laws. The house I am staying in is beautiful and you would say this was a residential district yet next door is a garage and next to that is some kind of small scale wire wool factory..
If you sit down on a bus and there is a space next to you, no matter how full the bus gets no one will sit next to you, apparently there is a small stigma about gai-jin (foreigners), but the main reason they will leave the seat free is that they would be terrified you would talk to them and they would then have to say that they cant speak english. I was told that the gai-jin stigma thing was the reason that one of the other students despite being here 3 months already hasn't had a date yet so I am not 100% sure about the truth of this one...
Although the air seems clean enough its not uncommon to see people walking around with face masks on. Most of the bus drivers wear face masks and they all wear thin white gloves as do all the taxi drivers. Although japan is a rich country, Kanazawa is not where the money is, I havent seen one nice car since I have been here they must export all the good ones, maybe Tokyo and Osaka would be different so I guess I will have to wait till the next trip to find that out.
Fresh fish is everywhere, yesterday I ate smoked fish at the fish market absolutely no idea what kind of fish it was but I asked the guy if I could eat it straight away and when he said yes picked a couple up and started munching delicious. The fish market itself reminds me of the one in leeds but a lot lot bigger, probably how it was years and years ago.
In the centre of Kanazawa is its main tourist attraction, the kenkouku gardens, reputed to be one of the top 3 gardens in Japan, I have cycled round it and will visit it next week, its massive. Next to this is the museum of modern art which is interactive and has a great cafe, where I had tea (imagine a tea-latte) with new york cheesecake this afternoon. Also nearby is the Noh museum, this celebrates the traditional japanese stage play form "Noh". I intend to go into this when I can read some of the kanjii.
Just around the corner from the gardens and at the end of the main high street is Katamachi the entertainment district, basically this is where the karaoke bars and other bars are. Its all bright lights but very very small.
I know I said that Kanazawa wasnt where the money was but on the high street there is Gucci, Armani, Burburry, a couple of huge department stores, 9 floors each and a Louis Vuitton store is opening up in October, so I guess there is some money around just not to be spent on cars.
I am getting around on a bike I hired from the school, before I could take it I was treated to a stern lecture telling me to be extremely careful and to only ride on paths and to go slow. This is another feature there are signs for danger everywhere almost on every street corner, often I have no idea what they are warning you about, maybe that there is a road next to you so be careful. There are also descriptions on how to use everything. I bought a bottle of water from one of the ubiquitous vending machines and noticed there were instructions on the bottle telling me which way to turn the top. A lot of the vending machines can serve you hot tea and coffee in a can, or the same drink ice cold also in a can. I have discovered a new rule when I went to the lion costume museum on Tuesday. Vending machines are on every street corner, unless you have climbed up a hill 500 metres in which case there isnt another one for miles.
All in all a good week, learnt how to conjugate the verbs for the future, past and present tenses, how to negate them, how to use the possessive, tell the time, count and ask for directions, though if you have read my post on the business cards this doesn't mean the japanese necessarily understand everything i am asking for yet, but its been a good week. Roll on week 2.
Karaoke Night
Well Thursday night I went out to Karaoke!! It was a lot different to what I expected.
Firstly you dont go into a bar and then get up and sing in front of the rest of the pub, my dad probably knows this kind of sing-a-long very well...What you do is rent a small room for a few hours; the room contains a tv and karaoke machine that you control with a complicated remote control that can dial up 1000's of songs. In case you are wondering the remote is in japanese so dont try this at home or you wont be singing for a good few hours till you manage to get a song selected.
The rooms for rent are in internet clubs, or at least the one I went to was, and each person who is in the party pays, for some reason girls pay less than men no idea why. The group i was with said we would go for the 3 hour special, I went along with it thinking I would be out of there within an hour but strangely I wasnt, even though I was the worst singer in the group it just simply didnt matter. Included in the rent of the room was free tea, coffee and soft drinks. The rest of the group bought beer at the "familymart" round the corner.
So once we were in there we were a group of 8 people sat in a small room with a tv set, a karaoke machine, some drinks and a dodgy tambourine. 3 hours later after having an absolute blast it was time to go home. If we tried this in Europe you would be laughed out of town but it was honestly a great night out.
Firstly you dont go into a bar and then get up and sing in front of the rest of the pub, my dad probably knows this kind of sing-a-long very well...What you do is rent a small room for a few hours; the room contains a tv and karaoke machine that you control with a complicated remote control that can dial up 1000's of songs. In case you are wondering the remote is in japanese so dont try this at home or you wont be singing for a good few hours till you manage to get a song selected.
The rooms for rent are in internet clubs, or at least the one I went to was, and each person who is in the party pays, for some reason girls pay less than men no idea why. The group i was with said we would go for the 3 hour special, I went along with it thinking I would be out of there within an hour but strangely I wasnt, even though I was the worst singer in the group it just simply didnt matter. Included in the rent of the room was free tea, coffee and soft drinks. The rest of the group bought beer at the "familymart" round the corner.
So once we were in there we were a group of 8 people sat in a small room with a tv set, a karaoke machine, some drinks and a dodgy tambourine. 3 hours later after having an absolute blast it was time to go home. If we tried this in Europe you would be laughed out of town but it was honestly a great night out.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Buying business cards
Spent a few minutes practicing how to find the business card counter, "meishi uriba wa doko desu ka?" and tootled off to the local department store to get some business cards printed, western on one side and Nihongo on the other.
Straight upto the information desk and proudly ask my question...then ask it again slightly differently...and then again..and again..and finally "Ah-soo Meishi uriba!" floor 5. So slightly deflated at my obviously extremely poor pronunciation of Japanese of I go to the fifth floor. There I find that I have been directed to the business card holder collection so yet again I have to inflict my Japanese on some poor unsuspecting soul. Whats interesting is the way they all look so scared when the Gaijin approaches then look so happy when I start to speak Japanese and then start looking confused as they realise they have no idea what I am trying to say. Anyway this guy takes me to the stationary department on floor seven and now the fun begins.
I explain I want them to make me some cards with Romanji on one side and Katakana on the other and i show them the text that I want. The katakana causes no problem but the western letters do cause a major issue. Apparently they only ever see Romanji in text books and so never actually see handwriting, what this means is that my very neat and tidy notes takes three of them to convert into exactly the same letters but in japanese writing style so that they can understand it. All the time the senior lady is bowing to me and speaking the shop talk that show proper deference. Then another girl arrives to explain to me that I should return on the 1st of October (we went to another part of the shop to get a calender) for the final proofs and that when everything is ok the cards will be ready on the 6th. Phew everything done and then I just have to go through the bowing, the senior lady has her head on the desk as I leave so hopefully she didnt notice me knocking over loads of stuff off the shelves....
Well lets see what turns up on the 1st of October...
Straight upto the information desk and proudly ask my question...then ask it again slightly differently...and then again..and again..and finally "Ah-soo Meishi uriba!" floor 5. So slightly deflated at my obviously extremely poor pronunciation of Japanese of I go to the fifth floor. There I find that I have been directed to the business card holder collection so yet again I have to inflict my Japanese on some poor unsuspecting soul. Whats interesting is the way they all look so scared when the Gaijin approaches then look so happy when I start to speak Japanese and then start looking confused as they realise they have no idea what I am trying to say. Anyway this guy takes me to the stationary department on floor seven and now the fun begins.
I explain I want them to make me some cards with Romanji on one side and Katakana on the other and i show them the text that I want. The katakana causes no problem but the western letters do cause a major issue. Apparently they only ever see Romanji in text books and so never actually see handwriting, what this means is that my very neat and tidy notes takes three of them to convert into exactly the same letters but in japanese writing style so that they can understand it. All the time the senior lady is bowing to me and speaking the shop talk that show proper deference. Then another girl arrives to explain to me that I should return on the 1st of October (we went to another part of the shop to get a calender) for the final proofs and that when everything is ok the cards will be ready on the 6th. Phew everything done and then I just have to go through the bowing, the senior lady has her head on the desk as I leave so hopefully she didnt notice me knocking over loads of stuff off the shelves....
Well lets see what turns up on the 1st of October...
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Lessons start in earnest
Well now have everything sorted at the school, I picked up a japanese mobile phone and I have a bike to get around kanazawa.
Also after discussing with the school cancelled my course and am moving to all private lessons, so this is 5 hours a day every day plus homework, its going to be tough but I am looking forward to it. Yesterday morning in the library and then the lessons in the afternoon and the day just flew by. In the evening as usual was treated to a feast of food, some vegetables (unknown), rice, cabbage, fish (unknown) and then went to the local shopping center on my bike to have a look around.
This morning breakfast was vegetable omelette, salad, potato soup, rice and crab sticks. Interesting breakfast but really tasty and sets me up for the day.
In the language I can now read and write the Hiragana, going to sort out the katakana this week, and then hopefully i will start to be able to read the books easier which makes the learning go a little quicker, I hope to start learning some kanjii as well in a couple of weeks. Done lots of basic stuff, and beginning to recognise some words that are spoken to me, not a lot though so its still a struggle talking to the homestay family, but they are really nice so we generally get stuff sorted out.
After the lessons today I am going to try and get some business cards printed up, should be interesting.
Right off into school now, another day another 4 sheets of homework to finish before the lessons start
Also after discussing with the school cancelled my course and am moving to all private lessons, so this is 5 hours a day every day plus homework, its going to be tough but I am looking forward to it. Yesterday morning in the library and then the lessons in the afternoon and the day just flew by. In the evening as usual was treated to a feast of food, some vegetables (unknown), rice, cabbage, fish (unknown) and then went to the local shopping center on my bike to have a look around.
This morning breakfast was vegetable omelette, salad, potato soup, rice and crab sticks. Interesting breakfast but really tasty and sets me up for the day.
In the language I can now read and write the Hiragana, going to sort out the katakana this week, and then hopefully i will start to be able to read the books easier which makes the learning go a little quicker, I hope to start learning some kanjii as well in a couple of weeks. Done lots of basic stuff, and beginning to recognise some words that are spoken to me, not a lot though so its still a struggle talking to the homestay family, but they are really nice so we generally get stuff sorted out.
After the lessons today I am going to try and get some business cards printed up, should be interesting.
Right off into school now, another day another 4 sheets of homework to finish before the lessons start
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
the first couple of days
Well I am still feeling tired but this is now because I have already done so much.
I walked around Kanazawa a little bit on Monday morning, completely missing all the shops and the huge park in the centre so I now have a map in English from the tourist information. I followed this up with 5 hours japanese in the afternoon, its soooo hard, i am finding it difficult even to learn simple phrases, I just done have anything to hang the words onto. Speaking to other students this is a common occurence so its something I simply have to get through hopefully in a week or so it will get better.
During dinner on Monday evening I mentioned that one of the things that I wanted to do was to visit a japanese bath house, a big discussion followed (none of which I understood) and suddenly we were in the car and going to a local one. It was a great experience, the baths themselves were very similar to spa's in Switzerland but the water was much much hotter and there was also 20 minutes of cleaning and scrubbing before you got into the water. Arrived home after this and went pretty much straight to bed, shattered.
Tuesday morning came and I went to visit Shishiku heights, which is a nature park/temple about 40 minutes away from Kanazawa by train. The temple was really impressive and the view from the top of the cable car was pretty good as well, I just cant get over how tree-lined all the hillsides are, I guess the reason they dont build on hills must have something to do with earthquakes.
Now I am about to spend a couple of hours doing my homework for tomorrow.
I walked around Kanazawa a little bit on Monday morning, completely missing all the shops and the huge park in the centre so I now have a map in English from the tourist information. I followed this up with 5 hours japanese in the afternoon, its soooo hard, i am finding it difficult even to learn simple phrases, I just done have anything to hang the words onto. Speaking to other students this is a common occurence so its something I simply have to get through hopefully in a week or so it will get better.
During dinner on Monday evening I mentioned that one of the things that I wanted to do was to visit a japanese bath house, a big discussion followed (none of which I understood) and suddenly we were in the car and going to a local one. It was a great experience, the baths themselves were very similar to spa's in Switzerland but the water was much much hotter and there was also 20 minutes of cleaning and scrubbing before you got into the water. Arrived home after this and went pretty much straight to bed, shattered.
Tuesday morning came and I went to visit Shishiku heights, which is a nature park/temple about 40 minutes away from Kanazawa by train. The temple was really impressive and the view from the top of the cable car was pretty good as well, I just cant get over how tree-lined all the hillsides are, I guess the reason they dont build on hills must have something to do with earthquakes.
Now I am about to spend a couple of hours doing my homework for tomorrow.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Arrived in Japan/Kanazawa
So first impressions of Japan, pretty much lives up to all its stereotypes.
The train was incredibly well organised, when you buy a ticket you have the choice of reserved seat or not, I took the reserved seat option which meant that when I had a change to make then my seats were organised so that I could simply step out of one train and into another (had to wait till another train had gone through though) Fortunately even if the signs weren't in English the trains run to the second so you can use the time of the train as a pretty good indicator that you are on the right one.
Just had my first real japanese conversation with the trolley lady on the train to Kanazawa, managed to get a black coffee by asking for it, she had to hold up fingers to get the right money off me but its a start!
Around Kansai airport into Osaka it was all pretty shabby housing and run down areas but as we left Osaka towards Kyoto everything became cleaner and more with traditional housing interspersed with high rise offices and flats. All the housing and streets are really narrow.
The train is running a lot along the coast line and here its incredible. The land is flat to the coast and then suddenly rises in mist covered mounds. As soon as the land starts to rise it is immediately covered with unbroken shrubs and trees.
Arrived at my host family house in Kanazawa now and "oh my Gosh!". They dont speak ANY English, which is great and also a little bit of a nightmare. As far as i can make out there are going to be 3 students staying in the house (but I could be completely wrong). They made me a meal as soon as I arrived and initially I thought she kept saying with meat but she didnt. For some reason I am not able to put my stuff in a bedroom yet, no idea something to do with another student who may or may not be stopping here but the lady told me to get a little kip on a tatami mat on a hard wooden floor. Yeah right I thought, so 3 hours of deep slumber later I have just woken up and found out they have broadband in the house :-). Her husband was in watching a GO game on tv but he took off soon after I arrived, possibly to do with how I smell, I need a shower after a hard days travelling but how to sort this out.
Going to go back downstairs now.
The train was incredibly well organised, when you buy a ticket you have the choice of reserved seat or not, I took the reserved seat option which meant that when I had a change to make then my seats were organised so that I could simply step out of one train and into another (had to wait till another train had gone through though) Fortunately even if the signs weren't in English the trains run to the second so you can use the time of the train as a pretty good indicator that you are on the right one.
Just had my first real japanese conversation with the trolley lady on the train to Kanazawa, managed to get a black coffee by asking for it, she had to hold up fingers to get the right money off me but its a start!
Around Kansai airport into Osaka it was all pretty shabby housing and run down areas but as we left Osaka towards Kyoto everything became cleaner and more
The train is running a lot along the coast line and here its incredible. The land is flat to the coast and then suddenly rises in mist covered mounds. As soon as the land starts to rise it is immediately covered with unbroken shrubs and trees.
Arrived at my host family house in Kanazawa now and "oh my Gosh!". They dont speak ANY English, which is great and also a little bit of a nightmare. As far as i can make out there are going to be 3 students staying in the house (but I could be completely wrong). They made me a meal as soon as I arrived and initially I thought she kept saying with meat but she didnt. For some reason I am not able to put my stuff in a bedroom yet, no idea something to do with another student who may or may not be stopping here but the lady told me to get a little kip on a tatami mat on a hard wooden floor. Yeah right I thought, so 3 hours of deep slumber later I have just woken up and found out they have broadband in the house :-). Her husband was in watching a GO game on tv but he took off soon after I arrived, possibly to do with how I smell, I need a shower after a hard days travelling but how to sort this out.
Going to go back downstairs now.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Singapore Air lets me down
Day 1 and it started so well with a great meal at an italian restaurant in Zurich Airport. Zero stress as I was there in plenty of time and was able to investigate that the best lounge for Lindsey and the kids would be the Bellevue Lounge near the gate, though they should arrive there early to ensure they get a seat because it gets really busy.
Started to board and was called back and asked to go to the singapore air desk where they downgraded me. Grrr there went my flat bed and plans for 8 hours solid sleep and I was back with a cramped seat, stiff neck and they didnt even have my preferred meal, why do they bother allowing people to specify meals on their site if they dont bother to load it. What I did get was an offer for 75% reduction on my ticket (not enough) and an on-board 100$ voucher, which cost me another 100$ because the special golf sunglasses were 200$. At least the service and food in economy was superb, really looking forward to finding out how good business is. Hopefully when SingaporeAir contact Lindsey to discuss the compensation she manages to get the money and some upgrades...
Just going through an 8 hour stop over in Changi-Terminal-3, its really superb here, great food in the lounge, excellent shopping in the terminal. Had my hair-cut and a long shower and shave and feeling human and ready for the next 6 hour flight to Osaka.
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