Chotto kanashi des...*/ a brief pause in transmission

Today was kind of sad* as it was the last day of training, which meant all these cool new people I'd spent the last few days hanging out with returned to their teaching positions all over Southern Japan.
I, along with 3 other trainees had to spend an extra night at our current hotel due to how the company ahd planned things for us and the location of our teaching positions; and it felt so weird sitting at a dinner table, just the 4 of us where a big rowdy rabble of trainees usually sat.
Before that I had also managed to depress myself a little by looking at pics of my sisters and friends and wondering what they were up to without me.

But now all I can think about is what lies ahead- tomorrow I am meant to move into my apartment, get registered with my alien status, get a mobile (finally!), and other stuff I wouldn't be able to do without the aid of a fluent Japanese speaker. I am shitting bricks (I love that phrase) about what my life is going to be like once I leave the relative ease of hotels manned by staff who at least speak some English, and people around me to help translate.

Tomorrow my real life in Japan begins in
Tsuyama
My stomach is doing flip flops as I type...
I may not be able to update this blog for a little bit as I move in, unless the person who lived in the apartment before me had internet- internet cafes aren't as popular as most people have internet at home so there is no need; and annoyingly, setting my internet up will take quite a while- possibly weeks :( I can feel the withdrawal of the internet kicking in just thinking about it.

But yeah, I'm doing ok and will update this with pictures as soon as possible. Smell ya later- next time you read me I'll be a Japanese apartment renter...

What a difference a day makes...

I don't know- maybe it's the 4 or 5 cans of Japanese lager that are addling my brain as I type, or the fact that I just spent an evening taking part in one of Japan's favourite past-times, kareoke- or that I'm getting to meet more and more cool people; but today seems a world away from how I felt yesterday.

Even training today- which actually dealt with the business of teaching in Japanese schools left me feeling stimulated and motivated; aware that I have set myself quite a challenge in coming to teach in Japan, but stimulated and motivated nonetheless. I swing from extreme to extreme.

I feel like a puppy, like I've regressed somehow. I'm dependent on others being around to translate, to explain, to read things for me, to answer questions. As much as I feel a little frustrated at feeling so ignorant- at the same time I know I'm doing the best thing possible to beat that ignorance just by being here. So it's all good, baby....

Downtown Hiroshima at dusk

Finding something good to eat.

G from India, who is a honey- I've adopted her as my unofficial Japanese teacher, and Thomas from Maryland, US- a cheeky chappie who does a cockney English accent that makes me laugh.

With a nod to my mildly intoxicated state- today's Japanese phrase of the day is:
Bi-ru (bee-ru) o one-gai-shi-mas= I'll have a beer.

Cross the T's, dot the I's...

Today was our first day of training. Ho hum. Not feeling v.positive about it at the moment, possibly because I didn't get much sleep last night, or possibly because training went on from 9am to 4.30pm and felt a little too much like school, I don't know.
There was just so much paper work to go through- and all the do's and don't (by the way the don'ts soooooo outnumber the do's that it's unfunny) and so much to think about that my head feels like it was stuck in a tumble drier. I can't even really tell you all the ins and outs as I've signed a confidentiality clause- but it isn't overly interesting anyway.

I'm overdramatising somewhat- I lean towards doing that, but its possible that I'm realising that this task I've set myself is a lot bigger than I first thought.

Annie rocking the secretary look.

Karen poses for a photo Japan style.

Check out corporate San.

If I look less than entheused it may be due to the fact that I took this directly after the training let out....

Don't take this entry wrong- I know I'm going to have up and down days- and today had it's good points- I'm surrounded by creative and happy people who obviously love what they do, and that inspires me. Sure, I'm still working myself up to my 5 minute class presentation tomorrow (which I've yet to put together by the way) and trying not to be nervous, because this is what I'm doing now- Watashi wa kyoshi des= I am a teacher.
I just have to suck it up and get on with it. I'll let you know how that goes...

Something furui, something atarashi...

The weather is yucky today- all rainy and grey. I'm looking at the skyline as I write this from my new hotel room on the 10th floor (my third hotel since I've arrived, and not my last either). We met with some other assistant language teachers today and went second hand shopping to help them furnish their apartments.

The second hand shop was in this huge warehouse and sold pretty much everything- but not just second hand stuff either. There were a lot of goods still in their original packaging which must have been unwanted and sold on. The shopkeeper also gave us discounts on the items we purchased. I'll have to head back there once I work out what I'll need in my apartment (still yet to be seen).

Check out my breakfast/lunch. Sticky rice, bento noodles with egg and some sort of fish, tofu, some fried fish, some chicken, and a strange savoury egg custard with mushrooms and shrimps inside, plus a sweetish sauce with mustard in it and a paste for the fish. Strange new textures and tastes, but all quite yummy.

This is Barry, another assistant language teacher. He has the most gorgeous Irish accent, and like me, doesn't speak a word of Japanese.

This is Annie, she is Austrailian-Chinese, and is quite a chatty, bubbly person.

Since I'm back in my room, here's some sumo wrestling from my hotel tv.

Tomorrow we're on the move again as we head to Hiroshima for training which starts on Monday. Not sure if I'll be able to update as often, but I'll find the time.

Phrases randomly selected for today- in response to:
Dochira kara kimashta ka?= Where are you from?
Igirisu kara kimashta. = I'm from England.

Cultured San

Today we trekked, and I do mean trekked around Okayama's culture zone (google it).
We saw the Okayama Symphony Hall, the Okayama Orient Museum, the Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art, Korakuen Garden and Okayamajo castle- well the bits you didn't have to pay to see anyway!

I like this shot of one of the covered shopping streets- the shops go on forever.

Okayamajo Castle

Okayama's Cultural Zone

Today I feel... I don't know, maybe it's because I'm tired- or I'm just bored of waiting for training to begin in Hiroshima on Monday. I know I should be enjoying this lull before it all starts up and I have no time to myself, but I'm impatient for more...

Due to the spare time on my hands at the moment I am watching a lot of tv at the hotel; like sumo tournaments, (obviously not understanding a word of the commentary) but I prefer the more girly figure skating and synchronised swimming competitions that are also taking place at the moment. Last night I found this really funny, over the top drama with samurais and geishas swinging swords- again, didn't have a clue what was going on, but there isn't much else for me to do. Proves what I knew from back home- I really will watch anything!


Today's randomly selected phrase from my phrasebook:E-go no menyu- o o-negai shimas.
=I'd like a menu in English please. (Pronounce the 'E' as an 'A', so 'A-go...')
To be honest, they'll probably hand you one automatically- otherwise most menus have pictures so you can just point, smile and say Kudasai= give me (but more polite). Not that a picture menu will help you much as a lot of the food is unrecognisable anyway- just take a deep breath and pick anything.

Feed San

"Needing feeding" or "Feed San" are phrases that those who know me will often hear me say.
I love food- my rather over generously sized hips and arse are testament to this fact. So how am I doing in a land with a very different cuisine? Not too badly- it helps that I will pretty much try anything at least once.

Give praise for the ever present vending machine- I am working my way through the various options offered with a kind of random attitude- this morning I had Apple tea. I'd been whining that the machines on the streets didn't do snacks, but today I found one with jars of mini Kit Kats in them- a first as 99.9% of the street vending machines only do beverages or cigarettes, as eating in the street is kind of a no- no.

I'll admit I was tempted by the banana cream sandwich, but coffee flavoured sandwiches? Ick.

Random prepackaged sandwiches- we have peanut butter, egg, some fish paste looking thing(!) and they also have margarine sandwiches- mmm- tasty! ;)

Our cheap supermarket lunch. Is it bad that I can't tell you what we ate? I have no idea! Told you I'll try pretty much anything. But it all tasted fab. You can also get chicken skin on its own in a box, amongst other tasty treats (haven't tried it).

Today's Japanese phrase of the day chosen at random from my phrasebook:
Sumimasen, ichiban chikaku no ko-shu-denwa wa doko des ka?*
Excuse me, where's the nearest public phone?

(*Read as written, holding the letters with the hyphen after them a little longer than normal- as I am writing on a UK laptop I can't write the Japanese symbols.)

Stick a pic- Japan Styley...

Teeny tiny bathroom- with a toilet that can wash your bum for you-(and your front if you're so inclined). You need to stand in the bathroom to get how truly small it is. But compact isn't always a bad thing.

This is Maria from Washington State, U.S, a fellow assistant language teacher.

That bloody Katie Mellua song about there being 9 million bicycles in Beijing keeps playing in my head. There are bikes everywhere.

Me and Maria (or is that Maria and I?) decided to jump in one of the photobooths that Japanese kids seem obsessed with- they too are everywhere, and you can often see groups of school kids huddled together cutting out these mini photos.


This is my co-ordinator, Nakatsuka-San. She is lovely and an absolute gem. We have plans to go to kareoke soon. :)

P.s Annoyingly, since I'm in Japan and my laptop recognises this, on some pages English characters are not shown and instead are question marks. This is the case on this site so I'm finding it hard to edit this blog as I can't read any of the tabs! Grrr!

P.P.S- Food portions here are tiny- I'd better lose some weight after all this otherwise I'm going hungry for no reason!

P.P.P.S- Japan is porn paradise. Not saying it as a slight on my newly adopted home for a year- but the adult channel guide is three times the size of the regular tv guide in my hotel room. And before you ask, no, I haven't watched any- it's pay per view ;)

"Looks like we're not in Kansas anymore..."

I'm HERE!!
Here is currently Okayama, Japan. I'm walking around, all wide eyed and excited, looking like an obvious tourist, and despite the fact that my Japanese is even worse than I thought it was, and the constant lingering smell of stale smoke (Japan isn't as much of an anti-smoking country as I'd like it to be), and just general shyness- I'm loving it. All neon lights and tiny people bowing and vending machines everywhere.

The weepy me seems like someone else. Just stepping off the plane in Hong Kong, 5989 miles and 11 hours and 17 minutes away from Heathrow, London, for my transfer flight made me feel so much better. I can't lie- I love to travel. I love the unknown- the new sights, sounds, smells of a foreign clime- it's just the leaving people behind that I can't quite handle.

I still can't quite believe I'm here- but as the hours pass it feels more and more real. I will add some of the pictures I've taken so far of my mini hotel room and the people I've met later.

Renraku shimas= I'll keep in touch...

Sayonara...

Well, hours before departure and I'm sat in an internet cafe just grabbing some last minute info about my travel arrangements. This is after finally getting the packing done-which I hate doing at the best of times, but this time was not much fun at all- 20kg is NOT a decent luggage allowance- I've had to leave behind so much :(

Thank you for the last two days of Sayonara San dos- and for everyone who made the effort to see me before that as well. I feel very loved. I'll be putting the pics up on this blog and my msn space, and I will update this as soon as is possible.

Annoyingly I'm fighting back the tears as I type, I've been crying on and off intermittedly since yesterday night when it all finally sunk in that I was going, so right now I feel like crap but hopefully that should pass soon.

Gotta go- next time you hear from me I'll be in Japan...

To those who love me

I can't do justice to this entry- I just feel so loved by the amount of people who came to see me or got in contact with me to wish me well- that it makes me wonder why I was so negative in my previous (now hidden) entry about my life in England.
Thank you all...

18 days 'til Japan...

Way back in October I was sitting in my temping agency reception area waiting to be seen; waiting to be signed up for yet another shitty temp job.
Then I saw this random advert in the Guardian's jobs pages about teaching English as a foreign language in Japan of all places.

Fast forward past an embarrassing interview that was videotaped and saw me singing the rainbow song whilst waving handmade flash cards-
(if that tape ever emerges later on in life I think I'll curl up in a corner somewhere and die), and I'm on the verge of flying off to Japan to live and teach there for a year.

On the 18th of March I will be flying out to begin my life as an assistant language teacher- and even though I have known that this date was always going to come- it has still managed to sneak up on me like a stealthy trained assassin.

Anyone who knows me is all too aware of my ability to not think about things, even really important things until I really have to. Couple with that my tendency towards leaving things to the very last minute, and my interesting idea of what organization is- then you know how prepared for this life changing trip I really am.

As I type this- the list of things I still have to do is hanging over me:

• Book flight
• Go to the Japanese embassy to process my working visa
• Tell credit card people that I'm leaving the country
• Buy stuff to take
• Pack
• Arrange my leaving do
  
• LEARN JAPANESE

It will all get done- somehow- I am the queen of the last minute. But how do I feel in amongst all this?
I am shit scared- I cannot lie.

I have never been anywhere that I was completely unable to communicate with the people around me. Japan- its culture and customs are so far away from all that I have known that I am afraid that I will sink. I am afraid that I won't be able to drown out that nagging voice I have inside me that tells me that I am not good/smart enough, that people don't/won't like me, that the shyness that has always plagued me despite my efforts to act otherwise will kick in in a large, in-ignorable way, that I have made a huuuuuge mistake, and that I won't be able to cope in such an alien environment. I worried/worry about how I will be treated in Japan, both as a foreigner, and a black foreigner.

But all these reasons eventually became the reason why I had to go. I tend to challenge myself- to push myself out of my comfort zone- "See if you can cope, San", "Audition for that show, San", "Yes, I know you can't swim and are somewhat deep water phobic, San, but go scuba diving"- because who am I to decide what I am or am not capable of? I just might surprise myself...

And so the countdown begins...