For a change, I'm not going to make a diary style entry like last time. Simply going over events always feels a bit dull for me, and I feel that's reflected in what I write down. So, as I've had a few things on my mind lately, I'm going to comvey those instead.
So, yet again, I've been getting somewhat frustrated with my progress. I am speaking more and learning new things, but at the same time I don't feel as if I'm making any genuine progress. Coincidentally, during this time, I learnt how to say "one step forward and two steps back", so it's quite apt timing really. It's been especially frustrating when I meet Japanese people who are pretty proficient at English and respond to me in English even if I speak in Japanese. I've been here for almost two months now, and it was starting to feel as if I'm falling into the trap of not putting enough effort in.
So, due to this, I've started to try and change my behaviour. The main thing, and so far most successful, is to try and really put myself out there. I had been visiting places by myself, where I would end up using less English and exposing myself to Japanese, but progress with that method has been slow. Now, I'm making an effort to meet and speak to people who speak more Japanese than English. At the moment, this seems to be paying off. Forcing myself into situations where I have to speak Japanese seems like the most effective method at the moment.
Today, I was quite pleased to end up speaking to someone in an arcade. I've lately been playing some Tekken Tag Tournament 2, as the players for that seem a lot more sociable than the Street Fighter crowd. After speaking to one of the players today, he's offered to try and teach me some of the basics and play agaisnt me if we're in the arcade at the same time. As I'm not especially skilled at Tekken or Japanese, it's going to be a long road, but it really does seem to be paying off at the moment, and has put me in a really good mood as a result.
I've also had some potential progress on the job front, but I'll update about that when something solid actually happens.
Thursday, 27 October 2011
Thursday, 20 October 2011
Tourism
Last weekend, as I'd been to Yasukuni shrine earlier in the week, I decided to make a visit to Asakusa, which is a district in Tokyo that also houses a rather large Shinto shrine. I don't particularly subscribe to any forms of religion or spiritualism, so this visit was purely for sightseeing, which I soon learnt is the same case for many other people who visit the area.
As soon as I had arrived, I quickly realised that Asakusa seems to have the largest number of foreigners that I've seen in any one part of Tokyo so far. I had noticed a fair few in Shibuya on my previous visits, but nowhere near the amount in Asakusa. It almost encouraged me to try and speak Japanese more, to try and not be considered yet another tourist. I doubt it really worked, though.
I think the main point of attraction in Asakusa is the sheer size of the buildings and gates, most of which I struggled to contain in one photograph, which almost serves as a reminder to start properly looking for a new camera. But it's also worth mentioning that it's doing very well as a tourist trap, with the vast majority of items for sale in it's market area being little trinkets with the name quite clearly marked. This also extended to food and drink, as I ended up paying 700円 for a cup of tea and a small slice of cake in a little cafe, which would have been 500円 for the tea alone if I hadn't bought them as a set. Despite those little gripes though, it was a great place to go. I may be making a return visit for little gifts, as it wasn't expensive to get there.
Aside from that, it has been business as usual really. I'm going to be attending a baseball game between Rikkyou and Hosei at the weekend, so that should hopefully be interesting, as I've only been to a baseball game once before in the States, which somehow didn't seem to be of great interest to the people attending it.
As soon as I had arrived, I quickly realised that Asakusa seems to have the largest number of foreigners that I've seen in any one part of Tokyo so far. I had noticed a fair few in Shibuya on my previous visits, but nowhere near the amount in Asakusa. It almost encouraged me to try and speak Japanese more, to try and not be considered yet another tourist. I doubt it really worked, though.
I think the main point of attraction in Asakusa is the sheer size of the buildings and gates, most of which I struggled to contain in one photograph, which almost serves as a reminder to start properly looking for a new camera. But it's also worth mentioning that it's doing very well as a tourist trap, with the vast majority of items for sale in it's market area being little trinkets with the name quite clearly marked. This also extended to food and drink, as I ended up paying 700円 for a cup of tea and a small slice of cake in a little cafe, which would have been 500円 for the tea alone if I hadn't bought them as a set. Despite those little gripes though, it was a great place to go. I may be making a return visit for little gifts, as it wasn't expensive to get there.
Aside from that, it has been business as usual really. I'm going to be attending a baseball game between Rikkyou and Hosei at the weekend, so that should hopefully be interesting, as I've only been to a baseball game once before in the States, which somehow didn't seem to be of great interest to the people attending it.
Friday, 14 October 2011
Socialising
Once again, it's been a while since the last update, but I think that this is potentially going to be the rate of updates for the foreseeable future. I never really intended this to be a diary of day to day things, more a record of impressions from certain days, in which case things are going quite smoothly.
Yesterday marked the day I finally finished off my health checks. Back in Sheffield, I had to do a preliminary one of these, which wasn't anything particularly special, just a blood test, checking blood pressure and that kind of thing. The only thing I didn't receive was a lung x-ray, which is apparently something required of me if I'm to stay in Japan to study abroad. Nobody has ever explained why. What struck me about this though, was that my memory of the health service in Sheffield consisted of my first appointment being cancelled halfway through because the person conducting it realised they weren't qualified, which meant waiting a week to have a doctor do it, who then proceeded to complain about all the things he was having to do. To top that off, I was charged for the whole procedure, which I'm told I shouldn't have been. However, in Japan, the x-ray, which presumably takes a lot more time an effort than a blood test that the doctor in Sheffield was complaining about, was over and done with in little to no time, and with a doctor who quite happily chuckled the whole time, quite possibly due to a large number of bemused looking transfer students. The difference between the two really stood out to me.
Following that, while I've been to a couple of small shrines in the vicinity of my campus, yesterday we were taken on a class field trip to Yasukuni Shrine. Previously, I only knew of this because of the political unrest it causes whenever a politician visits the shrine, as there are a number of war criminals interred there. Obviously, considering I only knew that, I was surprised by just how grand the shrine turned out to me. The benefit of knowing a small amount of information, you could say. The main thing that caught me by surprise, having only been to small shrines in city, was just how big the Tori gates were. I attempted to get a few photos, but the sheer size of them meant I could never fit the whole gate into shot unless I was some distance away. I was told that there will be some form of festival next week, so I shall be making a return visit.
And then again, yesterday, I went with some friends to an izakaya for a fair few drinks. Thankfully the vast majority of people there were Japanese, and assisted by some Dutch courage, I felt relatively confident with speaking Japanese. It's maybe a bit silly, but I'm consciously aware of how much time I spend with other English speaking students and native Japanese people. I always have the fact that my year abroad is supposed to be to improve my Japanese rather than have a holiday, and events such as this help make me feel it's all worth it if I have fun at the same time.
Finally, having spoken to a very nice teacher at my university, I was asked which sort of clubs I was thinking of joining. At the moment, it's calligraphy, kendo and Ouendan, and she was quite surprised to learn of both of those interests. What surprised me though, was that several hours later in the same day, she found out which class I would be taking so that she could speak to me afterwards, to say that she had spoken to a few people to find out how I could join each of them. Definitely not something I was expecting, but it seems like it would be silly to pass up the oppurtunity to try at least one of them!
Yesterday marked the day I finally finished off my health checks. Back in Sheffield, I had to do a preliminary one of these, which wasn't anything particularly special, just a blood test, checking blood pressure and that kind of thing. The only thing I didn't receive was a lung x-ray, which is apparently something required of me if I'm to stay in Japan to study abroad. Nobody has ever explained why. What struck me about this though, was that my memory of the health service in Sheffield consisted of my first appointment being cancelled halfway through because the person conducting it realised they weren't qualified, which meant waiting a week to have a doctor do it, who then proceeded to complain about all the things he was having to do. To top that off, I was charged for the whole procedure, which I'm told I shouldn't have been. However, in Japan, the x-ray, which presumably takes a lot more time an effort than a blood test that the doctor in Sheffield was complaining about, was over and done with in little to no time, and with a doctor who quite happily chuckled the whole time, quite possibly due to a large number of bemused looking transfer students. The difference between the two really stood out to me.
Following that, while I've been to a couple of small shrines in the vicinity of my campus, yesterday we were taken on a class field trip to Yasukuni Shrine. Previously, I only knew of this because of the political unrest it causes whenever a politician visits the shrine, as there are a number of war criminals interred there. Obviously, considering I only knew that, I was surprised by just how grand the shrine turned out to me. The benefit of knowing a small amount of information, you could say. The main thing that caught me by surprise, having only been to small shrines in city, was just how big the Tori gates were. I attempted to get a few photos, but the sheer size of them meant I could never fit the whole gate into shot unless I was some distance away. I was told that there will be some form of festival next week, so I shall be making a return visit.
And then again, yesterday, I went with some friends to an izakaya for a fair few drinks. Thankfully the vast majority of people there were Japanese, and assisted by some Dutch courage, I felt relatively confident with speaking Japanese. It's maybe a bit silly, but I'm consciously aware of how much time I spend with other English speaking students and native Japanese people. I always have the fact that my year abroad is supposed to be to improve my Japanese rather than have a holiday, and events such as this help make me feel it's all worth it if I have fun at the same time.
Finally, having spoken to a very nice teacher at my university, I was asked which sort of clubs I was thinking of joining. At the moment, it's calligraphy, kendo and Ouendan, and she was quite surprised to learn of both of those interests. What surprised me though, was that several hours later in the same day, she found out which class I would be taking so that she could speak to me afterwards, to say that she had spoken to a few people to find out how I could join each of them. Definitely not something I was expecting, but it seems like it would be silly to pass up the oppurtunity to try at least one of them!
Wednesday, 5 October 2011
Hurdles
Minor update really, but it felt like the sort of thing I could group together as one. It's just short a few days, but I've been in Japan almost a month now, and I'm starting to notice a few little things.
The first one is that I've got a good feeling now of what it's like to be foreign. Having lived in Britain my whole life so far, I wasn't exactly used to being treated differently. Having been stared at solidly, caught a few glances in my direction, had people move away from me on the subway and on a couple of occasions, even change seats when the oppurtunity allowed, and had English yelled at me despite speaking in Japanese to someone, I've got a fairly good idea how that feels. I knew to expect it, I just didn't really know how it might bother me slightly. I know it's not something I can move away from through, so I'll simply have to cope.
Also, around the time of my arrival, I was speaking much more Japanese than I did previously in Sheffield, which was essentially nothing. I noticed that I was speaking more and more and developing better sentences, but I think that wasn't anything more than what I knew coming out to be used. Now, that seems to have peaked somewhat and evened out, meaning I'm beginning to get frustrated when there's something I'm unable to say. I'm constantly trying to resist the urge to slip back into English, but it can be difficult at times.
Additionally, I've finally succumbed to an illness which has been going around the boy's dorm for about a week now. Thankfully it's not anything other than a cough, but a couple of people have developed flu symptoms, so I'm hoping I don't have that strain. Due to that, I'm getting myself well acquainted with Vitamin-C drinks and what I can only assume are the Japanese equivalent of Tunes, only they taste better and they're much smaller. They haven't killed me yet either, so my first experience with Japanese medicine has been a success! That is, of course, if lozengers qualify as a medicine.
Aside that that, that mostly brings us up to date. I haven't managed to find employment yet, the English language cafe I found wanted me to work the entirety of every Sunday, open until close, which I don't think I can manage, so it's back to the searching stage at the moment.
The first one is that I've got a good feeling now of what it's like to be foreign. Having lived in Britain my whole life so far, I wasn't exactly used to being treated differently. Having been stared at solidly, caught a few glances in my direction, had people move away from me on the subway and on a couple of occasions, even change seats when the oppurtunity allowed, and had English yelled at me despite speaking in Japanese to someone, I've got a fairly good idea how that feels. I knew to expect it, I just didn't really know how it might bother me slightly. I know it's not something I can move away from through, so I'll simply have to cope.
Also, around the time of my arrival, I was speaking much more Japanese than I did previously in Sheffield, which was essentially nothing. I noticed that I was speaking more and more and developing better sentences, but I think that wasn't anything more than what I knew coming out to be used. Now, that seems to have peaked somewhat and evened out, meaning I'm beginning to get frustrated when there's something I'm unable to say. I'm constantly trying to resist the urge to slip back into English, but it can be difficult at times.
Additionally, I've finally succumbed to an illness which has been going around the boy's dorm for about a week now. Thankfully it's not anything other than a cough, but a couple of people have developed flu symptoms, so I'm hoping I don't have that strain. Due to that, I'm getting myself well acquainted with Vitamin-C drinks and what I can only assume are the Japanese equivalent of Tunes, only they taste better and they're much smaller. They haven't killed me yet either, so my first experience with Japanese medicine has been a success! That is, of course, if lozengers qualify as a medicine.
Aside that that, that mostly brings us up to date. I haven't managed to find employment yet, the English language cafe I found wanted me to work the entirety of every Sunday, open until close, which I don't think I can manage, so it's back to the searching stage at the moment.
Saturday, 1 October 2011
お久しぶり！
It feels like it's been a while since I've updated this, which might be in part to the long days that I've been having here. Thankfully, my excuse is simply lack of time, rather than lack of interest. The problem there is that it's left me with potentially too much content to write about, so I'll bring things up to date rather than make what could potentially be an overly long diary style post.
Firstly, classes at Hosei are going smoothly. I've attended all of my chosen classes, so I know what I'm in for now. As previously mentioned, I'm in the upper intermediate bracket for Japanese language, and the classes are all easily understandable. The actual teaching proficiency of the lecturers varies quite widely, and thanks to that I have a couple of favourites and some I'm not so keen on, but the course content is solid enough. Regarding classes about Japan taught in English, those are also fine, but as there hasn't been much other than the orientations so far, there's not a great deal to say.
That is not the case with one class though, about youth networks in Japan. Today, we made a class field trip to the Advertisement Musuem in Tokyo. It mostly focused on Mitsukoshi and Parco, two department stores in Japan that have quite radically different approaches to advertising. It was interesting, I'll admit, but not much of it actually applied to what we were studying. Despite that though, it's not a place I would have known about otherwise, and it was free to attend, so I could have done a lot worse with my day.
Socialising wise, I've met up with some other Hosei students who have previously been to Sheffield, and there was also a welcome party by an international circle at my campus. The welcome party wasn't radically different to the weekly socials that ran in the Japan Society at Sheffield, so that wasn't too bad, and I found out later on in the night that I'd been drinking alcohol without really realising it, as it simply looked like a can of juice. I need to pay a bit more attention with that, it's the second time it's happened.
Meeting the previous transfer students was fantastic though, and presently it might be the highlight of my year abroad so far. A handful of Sheffield students were also in attendance. We went to a place which I believe is called "The Lockup", which is located in Shibuya. I was expecting an all you can eat/all you can drink kind of situation, which is what happened in a sense, but the theme was new to me. The entrance, which took about ten minutes to get through, was made up like a haunted house. Each of the rooms were made to look like a cell, and various drinks came in beakers instead of glasses. The highlight was that, every so often, all of the lights would go out without warning, UV lighting would come on, and then people dressed up as horror movie characters would burst into the room. I'm told that there are quite a number of theme bars such as this, and I'm somewhat tempted to experience others.
Finally, to wrap this update up, following the advice of a graduate, I've potentially managed to find some form of employment with an English cafe. Whether or not I secure such a thing, I will post about in the near future.
Firstly, classes at Hosei are going smoothly. I've attended all of my chosen classes, so I know what I'm in for now. As previously mentioned, I'm in the upper intermediate bracket for Japanese language, and the classes are all easily understandable. The actual teaching proficiency of the lecturers varies quite widely, and thanks to that I have a couple of favourites and some I'm not so keen on, but the course content is solid enough. Regarding classes about Japan taught in English, those are also fine, but as there hasn't been much other than the orientations so far, there's not a great deal to say.
That is not the case with one class though, about youth networks in Japan. Today, we made a class field trip to the Advertisement Musuem in Tokyo. It mostly focused on Mitsukoshi and Parco, two department stores in Japan that have quite radically different approaches to advertising. It was interesting, I'll admit, but not much of it actually applied to what we were studying. Despite that though, it's not a place I would have known about otherwise, and it was free to attend, so I could have done a lot worse with my day.
Socialising wise, I've met up with some other Hosei students who have previously been to Sheffield, and there was also a welcome party by an international circle at my campus. The welcome party wasn't radically different to the weekly socials that ran in the Japan Society at Sheffield, so that wasn't too bad, and I found out later on in the night that I'd been drinking alcohol without really realising it, as it simply looked like a can of juice. I need to pay a bit more attention with that, it's the second time it's happened.
Meeting the previous transfer students was fantastic though, and presently it might be the highlight of my year abroad so far. A handful of Sheffield students were also in attendance. We went to a place which I believe is called "The Lockup", which is located in Shibuya. I was expecting an all you can eat/all you can drink kind of situation, which is what happened in a sense, but the theme was new to me. The entrance, which took about ten minutes to get through, was made up like a haunted house. Each of the rooms were made to look like a cell, and various drinks came in beakers instead of glasses. The highlight was that, every so often, all of the lights would go out without warning, UV lighting would come on, and then people dressed up as horror movie characters would burst into the room. I'm told that there are quite a number of theme bars such as this, and I'm somewhat tempted to experience others.
Finally, to wrap this update up, following the advice of a graduate, I've potentially managed to find some form of employment with an English cafe. Whether or not I secure such a thing, I will post about in the near future.
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