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!
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