Being called an 'Alien' is rather insulting...

Embarrassing Moment #3


And it's a big one today, folks. EM3 is bringing the wrong sized photos to the Alien Registration Office, meaning I didn't get my Alien Residency Permit, meaning I didn't get a bank account, meaning I didn't get a phone, meaning I still can't make decent plans with others, meaning I'll probably end up a social recluse and live out the rest of my life as a super robot obsessed hikkikomori. Until tomorrow, that is.

-----

Very irritating, that.

Anyway, it's day 2 of orientation, time to get you guys caught up. Day 1 started nice and early, but I woke up even earlier to set off. Not early enough, it seems, as I only just made it to the placement test (written). Now I know, though, it won't happen again. The test went very smoothly, without me having to think too much about answers until difficult level 2, where I couldn't do any. But that's just fine.

Afterwards was a very lengthy introduction, including a rather monstrous degree of paperwork that I did a bit of today, as well as a short church service commemorating the start of term for us wee gaijin. The whole thing was very austere, but in the state we were all in after the test I don't think it was particularly well received.

Then there was a small gathering with food and drink, which was nice, and then we went home. Mark and Matt (it was Matt) came back with Benjamin (fellow Shuugakukansha) and I to see the place, as they wanted to move. I can tell you now that their plans fall through. Then I went to bed.

Today was the placement test (spoken), which went rather well. Messed up a few compounds, but I think I got my desired Level 4-ness across, which was nice. Also got my anime enthusiasm across - they didn't seem fussed. I guess it is Japan, after all. Then I had lunch with some new friends, and we gathered in one of the big lecture halls to be put into groups, where a Japanese student would help us with our Alien Registration (and you already know how well that went). Turns out I was in the group with Aki-sempai, a welcome surprise, as well as fellow Nichibun classmates Marisa (from Germany) and K...Kay (??) from New York, who was way better than I was.

So now I know how to set up a bank account and put money in and out, for what little good it'll do me without an Alien Residency Permit... I also know that tomorrow we meet out classmates for the first time, and can sign up for 'extra' classes if we're Level 5 or more. Those're classes in Japanese for Japanese students. Probably not relevant for me, so Ben and I are off to get our ARPs (he forgot his photos, too. It's good to not be alone...) and bank accounts, then phones and maybe bikes. An expensive day, you see.

In the coming days we'll be signing up for proper classes, which have all kinds of topics. There's even a 'History of Manga and Anime' one. You can probably guess my reaction to seeing that.

Anyway, there's a party outside and I'm invited. Thanks for reading!

Astro Boy says: 'Let's work together to stop the threat of influenza!'

Haven't really done all that much today, 'cept study for tomorrow's placement test...

...

Anyway, thought I'd do something I've been meaning to do for a little while now: a list of expectations met and new surprises discovered in the 4 days I've spent here so far. No doubt I'll be adding to this list in the future, but this is what I've come up with so far.


EXPECTATIONS FULFILLED

• Japanese game shops are awesome.
• You can't travel more than a couple of miles without seeing a high school that looks identical to the last one you saw.
• Nobody uses jou-sei-go anymore.*
• Cashiers are exceptionally friendly.
• Gaijin get stared at sometimes.
• Bread and milk are scarce.
  A couple of fun observations on this topic for you. I don't believe the Japanese see bread in the same light as Europeans do; a staple, unremovable part of the everyday diet. It's difficult to find in the sort of quantities I'm used to, and is so much thicker than Euro-bread. In fact, in my wanderings around Imadegawa I came across a convenience mart sign that boasted that it sold "Bread and Food". The seperation between those two made me laugh, but then again, so did the picture of a tubby baby with an ice cream posted outside the cinema.
  Also, Japanese milk tastes odd. Not necessarily bad-odd, but odd none the less.
  And here's the interesting bit: the Japanese government doesn't have a 5-a-day fruit and veg scheme, but it does have a 3-a-day dairy products scheme. I can see why, with all the milk I've not been drinking and the cheese I can't find at a reasonable price.
  
• Trains are always, always on time. Even subway trains.
• Japanese kids are sickeningly talented sometimes.
• Japanese kids are sickeningly cute always.
• Convenience marts are convenient.
• Roads are confusing.
• Cicadas make that creepy crying noise you get in creepy horror anime. You know, the noise you hear in Higurashi no Naku koro ni (aptly enough**) just before somebody goes mental and kills somebody else.
• Japanese dogs are more common in Japan that most other dogs.
• Coins are USEless. I can't get rid of the things fast enough.
• If an inanimate object is going to have a voice, it will be that of a young woman. I can't tell you how creepy it was the first time a HGV enthusiastically told me that it was turning left, so watch out na no desu!***

*a form of language used by women as far back as the Edo period as a way of distinguishing themselves from the lower classes. These days it is used, if ever, to make a voice sound more feminine. Anime uses it a lot, but that's about it. I hear most Japanese people see jou-sei-go as being a bit unnecessarily eccentric.
**'higurashi' being a breed of cicada that makes that noice.
***this is an exaggeration. Larger vehicles use a woman's voice for their indicators, but the day I hear a truck use the voice of a 7 year old girl is the day I pack up and leave.


NEW SURPRISES

• High school uniforms look positively normal compared to what anime would have you believe.
• Insects make the most horrendous ruccous when you don't want them to.
• There is a wealth of wildlife here I didn't know existed, such as storks, small birds of prey and large bugs.
• Being a pedestrian is difficult.
  All the roads I've seen so far follow this same pattern. Pavements are just as wide as those sported by the rest of the world, but there is usually a cycle lane, usually on the side closest to the road. You see, bicycles count as pedestrians too, unless specified by a sign, so you often find yourself being overtaken by about 5 whilst another two come hurtling towards you. As far as I see it, you don't have to move out of the way, that's the cyclist's job. I think if you move out the way it's a bit of an insult to the cyclist's skills.
  In the suburban areas it gets even more complicated. It's like you have a big network of pavements, all with car lanes, so you have to give them space to squeeze past if they need it. Scary stuff.
• Japanese orange juice is great!
• You really can buy anything here. Positively anything. So long as you can sift your way through the myriad of shops to find the one you're looking for.
• Games are cheap, but I don't think technology is that much cheaper. I mean, Pokemon came out at £22-ish, and that's game plus pedometer device. Without the 'Walker it comes to about £17, and that's a normal price. But the new PS2, that wonderous gem I hope to one day own, is still £75. And no, that's nothing compared to the PS3, but it's still not the £30 I was hoping for.

That's all I've got so far.

As you may have seen I'm lacking a bit in terms of Japanese translations. I know, I know, I said I'd do all of them, but I seem to get a bit carried away with myself and then translating it all will take me the best part of the night. I may come back to these bigger posts, but right now I really can't be bothered.

Oh, and in other news, I deftly dodged Embarrassing Moment #3 today at the supermarket with an apologetic remark that got a smile from the cashier. Let's hope that was the last of them.

Thanks for reading.

Inori desu.

Embarrassing Moment #2

Payed for an 880 yen purchase with a 10000 yen note. Duuuuuh~

-----

Most important matter first, I was able to find a church this morning and I'll probably end up going back there next week.

The church is in Doshisha Girl's Liberal Arts College, just next door to the main University where I'll be studying the other 6 days of the week. A perfect chance to practice the route to Uni as well, a previously determined 30 minute trip. It was also a good time to try out the new PokeWalker, the pedometer device that comes with the newest Pokemon, and which offers a chance to catch some rare Pokemon and collect new items, as well as boosting Pokemon experience and happiness with each step. I'm hoping for some powerful Pokemon with all the walking I intend to do!

In the end I set off a bit late, getting Pjotr on the 'Walker proved a little trickier than previously anticipated. However, with the little guy in tow, I set off with a good 30 minutes to spare. Should have left earlier, I think. Regardless, the journey there was easy and predictable, and I racked up about 4800 steps, somewhere in the region of 300 'Watts', the PokeWalker currency.

I cannot tell you how much courage I needed to walk through the gates of the college, guard's stares felt on the back on my head. Or at least, that's what it felt like. Ended up going in the side entrance, as well, which wasn't so smart of me.

Doshisha church hosts on average 75 people (this is according to the order of service I would have picked up had I gone through the right entrance. Today there were 78, as three new people were joining the church that day. At least, the leaflet said 78, to me it looked more like 20.

I cannot talk for churches across Japan at this stage, only for Doshisha's service, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was very similar. It felt to me more like a traditional Anglican service, with short, traditional hymns that always end in a two-chord 'Amen' and a very austere approach to worship. There were 2 songs and 2 readings of the Lord's Prayer, which is near impossible to read at the same pace as everyone else. Then there was the sermon. Today's sermon was on 1 Corinthians 1:7-12, a passage in which Paul calls for a renewed unity of the church. I got little bits of sermon here and there, but for the most part I was struggling over vocabulary so much that it was difficult to form any sort of cohesion. Not that I minded; it was delivered with confidence, and what little I got was good. Then there were 2 more readings, a singling of Gloria by 5 people at the front, then some notices.

Throughout it all, I was talked to by three separate people, who would come and give me a hand if it looked like I didn't know what I was doing. It was friendly and all, but I couldn't help but feel a bit pathetic not knowing where the Lord's Prayer was in the hymn books, or what verse we were reading from. I even dropped the hymn book once in my flustered-ness, which was pretty embarrassing.

After the service, however, I got to talking with a number of the regular worshippers. One, who regrettably was attending other matters soon after, was a young man also studying at Doshisha, though I didn't find out what. I also got to talking with Kio-san, who apparently lives next door to another of Doshisha's exchange student homes that I hadn't heard of, and another woman who apparently knows everything there is to know about Doshisha. Both possessed the same voracious hospitality I've come to expect from the Japanese, and were more than welcoming enough to make me want to come back again next week. Next time I'll know what I'm doing, no doubt.

Ended up getting lost on the way home; that makes 5 times, but with this time having the biggest repercussions in terms of time. It did, however, allow me to see Kamigawa, Kyoto's big river, along a much longer stretch than I'd previously seen, as well as some of the ways the people of Kyoto spend their weekends, and some of the wildlife I hadn't known existed, like this cool kestrel thing.

Anyway, after remaining inside for the last few hours, brushing up on a few forgotten Kanji, I'm feeling a bit emotionally drained, so sorry if this isn't as readable as it could have been. If you're interested, Pjotr and I have just beaten Tsugushi, the 2nd Bug Gym Leader, Pjotr is level 17 (one level off evolution), and the mysterious egg hatched the ever-lovable Togepi (named Ichigo), who is a vertiable powerhouse.

Thanks for reading, as always.

Oh, I've also been watching Eureka 7 lately. Didn't realise it was so good.

catch&release

I don't think Teramachi has a Gamers. I think Lonely Planet lied to me.

Anyway, today marked the big Nintendo event of the year: the release of Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver, and I was there near the front of the queue to grab my copy. It was also a great opportunity to check out the shopping district of Kyoto, having resigned myself to the fact that shopping in Shimogamo is passable but not the bright, glittery image of Japanese commercialism I had come to expect.

Teramachi was that image.

I am beginning to appreciate phones alot these days, now that I don't have one. That is to say that the arranged meeting between Mark and myself did not go ahead. Station T12 at 8.30; it was more complicated than it sounds. Anyway, alone in the slowly awakening south-eastern section of Kyoto city, I began to wander the streets. I swear, had I not had a specific goal in mind I would have spent all day there. The place needs days to explore to the full.

As I have already mentioned, I couldn't find Gamers, that paragon of anime merchandising, and so had to find a different game shop. I eventually put myself in line in front of a 10-storey electronics shop called SofMap, which was the best Pokemon event I was going to get. My sources tell me that the real event takes place on the weekend of the 20th... in Roppongi. It's a bit like Edinburgh all over again; always second place to Glasgow.

Anyway, this shop was simply heavenly. Macs and Mac accessories in the basement, phones on the first floor, cameras on the second floor... video games on ALL the others. 8 floors of gaming goodness. It was truly breathtaking. I quickly got my copy of HeartGold and looked about. Did you know the Persona 3 and 4 soundtracks got their own live show? I didn't. It's a good thing I don't have a bank account, I was seriously tempted by too much in that shop. Far too much. Games that good cannot be lessened by a mere language barrier.

Other shops in the Karasuma district I came across included a manga shop in which I had to avert my eyes from half the stock, a small modelling museum with some sweet plastic Gundam models, and a sweet plastic Gundam model shop. Lunch at McD's and off home where I spent the rest of the day training Pjotr the Totodile and translating Japanese attack names.

Tomorrow I hope to get to the church in Doshisha Women's College. Now, I know what you're thinking, but I assure you that it's a mixed-gender church service! I think...

...I hope.

Anyway, thanks for reading. Here's some Japanese.

Oh, and for those who asked, the exchange rate is about 0.5p to the yen, so 2600 yen is about £13, which is okay. I'm still trying to judge for myself what is expensive and what isn't.

***

寺町は必ずゲーマーゼがないと思います。LONELYPLANETはうそつきだと思います。

じゃ、今日は「ポケットモンスターハートゴルド・ソールシルバ」の発売させた大切な日で、僕はコピーを買うために列で待てていました。それも、京都のショッピングを調べることのいいチャンスでした。下鴨のショッピングはそこそこですが、僕の日本のショッピングのイメージじゃありません。

寺町は完璧です。

僕は今ぐらい携帯電話に正しく理解を始まります。それは今日マークに会われませんでした。「８時半にT12で」はもちろん難しすぎます。とにがく、一人で京都のゆっくり起きている烏丸を歩き回りました。ゴールがないたら、一日中歩き回って、一日は必要、全部を見るために。

だから、アニメショップの鑑のゲーマーズを見つけられなかって、ほかのゲームショップを見つけなくてはいけませんでした。結局は電気器の店のSOFMAPの前に列をみつけまして、それは京都のほかのポケモンのイベントより大いですかな。最高のポケモンイベントは２０日の週末に…六本木ヒルズであるらしい。エジンバラのようなで、いつもよりグラスゴーです。

とにがく、この店は僕の天国でした。マックとアクセサリーはB1で、１Fで携帯電話、２Fでカメラ、そのほかでゲームがあります！８回ものゲームがありました！素敵でした。早く「ハートゴルド」を買って、店を歩き回りました。パーソナー３＆４はライブショーがありまして知っていますか？僕は知っていませんでした。銀行預金口座がないことはよかったで、多分多すぎて買いました！多すぎます！そのゲームのために言語障壁は無理です！

そのほかの店は多い恥ずかしい物があるマンガ屋やすごくて小さいガンダムモデルがある博物館やすごいガンダムモデルの店を見つけました。マクドナルドズで昼ごはんを食べて、うちに帰って、ワニノコのピョッターを教育したり、日本語のアッタクの名前を訳したりしました。

明日、同志社女大学の教会に行くつもりです。しかし、もちろん男女両用礼拝です！頼む…

そう望んでいます…

じゃ、お呼んでありがとうございます。

First Contact part II

Embarrasing Experience #1

I'd forgotten making a fool of myself was even a possibility.

So I was getting my first batch of groceries (vegetables, fruit, noodles, juice, milk, bread, veggie oil; all for 2600 yen) and was paying. I noticed a row of small tables where other customers were packing their goods, and by the looks of it you got plastic bags from a rack on the tables. This was duly noted. The woman behind the till asked me something in the usual lightning-speed Japanese, but I'd gotten so used to hearing Japanese cashiers say a bunch of things I don't need to respond to so I just stayed quiet. She said the same thing again, slower, looking a bit anxious, before holding up a carrier back. In my nervous state, I misheard the question of 'Do you have a bag?' as 'Do you want a bag?', to which I replied yes, I did. I then proceeded to not get a bag, and walked off to one of the tables, to find to my dismay that the bags on offer were the thin ones used to packing small objects into groups, really not good for carrying all my stuff home. I must have stood there, biding for time as I tried to come up with a plan, for a few minutes, before the kindly woman opposite me motioned to a member of staff and said I looked like I needed help. I bought a bag and went on my way...

Stupid, simple errors. Just wanted to curl up and die. Something to remember, anyway. What surprised me was that the woman who helped me out, though being a kind soul for doing so, didn't smile. Not once. It was as if she was obliged to help, not that she wanted to. A worrying thought. But regardless, I guess I let my guard down. I mean, earlier today I bought a LAN cable from a gaming shop (more on them later) that was in a glass cabinet in a whole other part of the shop!

Well, it was bound to happen some time. I'll be praying that it was the last time I make a fool of myself.

-----

Right, anyway.

After a bit of a kerfuffle trying to find the place, Aki and I found our way here, to the Shugakukan, which is a quiant little place inside and out. The rooms are small, but pretty awesome, with sliding wooden blinds instead of curtains. The windows themselves don't open, which is shame 'cos it gets pretty hot, but I do have an aircon fan thing which makes funny noises when you turn it on and off. Took me a while to get the internet going, but that's flawless now. Also 2 small common rooms with a simple table and TV; 2 shared kitchens, one for each floor; and 25 rooms up for grabs, with a meagre 5 filled when I last checked. After meeting Ono-san, the lovely warden, and learning how to set up a futon, we head off again with directions from Ono-san to a small Japanese diner in a shopping center some 5 minutes from the Shugakukan (where I shall be buying Pokemon tomorrow!!) which was good. Made a bit of a fool of myself when trying to eat a boned slab of fish with chopsticks, but I managed. Aki was incredibly patient and more than happy to explain the best way to eat a Japanese meal.

(I think I hear tenant #8 arriving now...)

After that we explored for a bit. Aki showed me Doshisha's campus grounds, and where to go in case of emergency, before we parted ways. I now know how to use the Kyoto subway, which is surprisingly simple. It's no London, that's for sure.

So, home again I unpacked, went out, wandered, got lost, returned home, ate a rubbish meal of badly made instant soup, instant pasta and an onigiri with I-don't-know-what in it. I was asleep by 8, and I woke up this morning at 7.30.

Okay, with the introductory phase over, today I decided to properly explore Kyoto and get my mental map updated. Turns out that I CAN get to Doshisha on foot, something I intend to do for now. Japan really is the strangest place, each riverbank is like a little nature reserve, an absolute delight to walk down. And right in the middle of the city, as well. I can't tell you how I excited I was the first time I saw a stork, it was in the small stream round the back of the dorm. They're smaller than I expected, I imagine they have bigger cousins or something. The temples (which are awesome!) have hundreds of little black dragonflies, which I found myself watching for ages, and Japanese butterflies come in all these different colours to the ones I'm used to. You also get these little woodpecker things that are as common as sparrows are in Britian, and kingfisher-looking birds in the central rivers.

Bought lunch at an am-pm, with staff slightly more enthusiastic than those of the 7eleven (which is not saying much) before reading the ingredients again and finding it had bacon in it. So much for mottainai, I thought to myself as I stealthily threw it away. Could have given it to Eric here in the Shugakukan, I guess, but by the time I'd see him again it would likely have gone off. Same goes for anyone else living here, but in that case it's 'by the time they arrived'. Geez, I sure bought a lot of stuff I didn't need today.

Let me tell you about something strange that happened to me whilst exploring the Doshisha area on my own. Aimlessly wandering down the road, I was stopped by a middle-aged Japanese woman who, in Japanese, asked if the road we were on was Imadegawa-dori. I replied that yes, it was, and she thanked me in that plain, nonplussed way Japanese people use, and went on her way. I couldn't help but celebrate a little for knowing the answer and for replying in English, but as I walked down the road, smiling to myself, I couldn't help but wonder.

Why ask me?

Why me, an ignorant-looking gaijin, barely a full day in the country, and not one of the Japanese people close by (and there were a few)? What made her so sure I, and not the man just behind me, knew where Imadegawa-dori was? I'm really starting to suspect now that, with the event so close to campus, Doshisha is trying to enforce Japanese learning in its students by employing people in plain clothes to walk around the University area and search for student-looking gaijin and ask them easy questions in Japanese to check their knowledge. I think there's a good chance of that.

Now let me talk about something else: video game shops. There are a grand total of 2 in the area between here and Doshisha, one small and Leicester's CEX-esque, the other bigger and closer to Game or Gamestation size. Both are awesome.

I think it's sad that these days it's so hard to get your hands on older games on the street rather than eBay or some other such site. Not so in Japan! I found sections for the more traditional PS3, XBox 360 and Wii, as well as DS and PSP, but also then for PS2, GameCube, GameBoy Advance, GameBoy Color, Playstation 1 and SNES. The Super Nintendo! The craziness of it! It also turns out that the rumour I heard is in fact true: Japanese game shops have a non-genre-specific section set aside for Square Enix games. Must be a huge compnay over here to deserve that.

So, for those of you interested, here is the result of my gaming research. The current biggest selling games are Monster Hunter Tri on the Wii, which came bundled with a very hand USB Keyboard in the shop I checked, Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (aka Monster Hunter Freedom Unite) on the PSP, the latest Inazuma Eleven on the DS (a football game series in which you create a school football team from your character's classmates and pit them against other school teams), strangely BioHazard 5 (Resident Evil 5) for the PS3, SD Gundam G Generation Wars and Gundam vs. Gundam on the PS2. They didn't do PC games at all. Japanese PS2s cost 13,800 yen for the old model (the 35000, I think), and 14800 for the newest (the 90000). It was truly beautiful to see Super Robot Wars a3 and Gundam Seed Destiny Rengou vs. Zaft II Plus on the PS2 just sitting there, not needing any kind of postage charge or waiting time or anything, displayed proudly amonst the dating sims and character song CDs (both of which are everywhere, and in huge quantities). Pokemon games tend to be set aside, as well, with Pokemon FireRed the top seller, followed by Emerald, Red Rescue Team, a never-heard-of Sky Rescue Team (or something to do with the sky and mystery dungeons), Platinum and Diamond following on. The box art is so much cooler over here. Not much hype for HGSS at the moment, but we'll see tomorrow. Both shops had boxes set out with 'Coming 12/9' stickers, so I know I'll be in luck tomorrow. Unless everyone has got it wrong and it actually means the 9th December...

That's about all I can think of for today. I'll be sure to write more when more stuff happens, so keep coming back.

Oh, a last note to leave on. A van with big speakers on the roof (and another a little time ago) just came driving along the little road outside my window, stopped, then blurted out an advertisment for the big second-hand shop near here twice, then left. Very insistent, Japanese electronics.

Anyway, thanks for reading.

First Contact part I

I honestly have no idea where to start...

Okay, so I'm now in Kyoto in a lovely, if small, room in my new dormitory. It's a 30 minute walk from campus and sits in the middle of the most confusing suburb known to man. Even the taxi driver got lost...

Anyway, I'll start at the beginning.

Mark and I were at the airport for about 8, giving us plenty of time to get on the flight to Frankfurt. Nothing to report there. From Frankfurt, and a simple McDonald's with Caroline, we got ready for our 10 hours 50 minutes of air time. The flight was a good one, I guess, with plenty to do on the little back-of-the-seat computers we had, such as films in Japanese, German or English including Star Trek (that film is dull after so many views, even in Japanese) and Night at the Museum 2. There were also some cool Japanese radio stations to listen to, all courtesy of Lufthansa and thus heavily advertising Lufthansa's flights. Meals were okay, but they remembered I was a veggie to they did well.

I didn't sleep. At all. God knows I tried.

Now, have you ever played Half Life 2? If so, you will have a good idea of what checking in at Kansai International Airport was like. A quick ride in a monorail, which talked to us as we travelled over the airport, followed by queueing in huge, grey halls, in front of desks with cameras that followed you which were staffed by sullen, uniformed staff in face masks. It was terrifying. Signs about said they were scanning our temperatures for the telltale signs of swine flu. However, I couldn't see anything that might be doing such a scan, and in many ways that was worse. Incidentally, my temperature today is 35.2 degrees Celsius, which is a good sign. Just thought you might like to know.

Anyway, we then had our luggage checked, with questions such as 'How much cash do you have on you right now?' (thanks Mum for the note which told me!) and 'Is any of this illegal, at all?', and then we found our way to the nearby station, where we were able to decipher (with the help of a button labelled 'English') the train ticket machine. After a brief call to Doshisha to say we were on our way, we went down to the station proper and waited for the train.

It was here that we became aware, if even a little, that we were in Japan.

The train was twelve minutes early, but we soon saw why. As soon as the passengers disembarked a small squad of uniformed cleaners hopped aboard and cordoned off the entrances before setting to work. This however, only took five minutes at most. What followed took our breaths away.

The seats turned around.

Perhaps that doesn't make it sound as impressive as it was. And it was; it was REALLY impressive. In England we have train seats that face both ways, so you may be sitting facing the direction you are moving in or maybe not. The train we were on (a 'Haruka-12', if you care) had all the seats facing forward, so when the train switched directions as it did at the airport the seats had to spin around in a funny little dance to face so that we would still be facing forward. We discovered later that you could spin the seats around yourself using a lever near the base, so you could have 4 seats facing in if you were a big group. So cool.

Anyway, the journey itself was incredible. We watched, amazed, as Osaka passed before us; towering buildings followed by squat ramen shops followed by farms, but never always in that order. We saw young men on scooters driving around tiny streets; bustling dual-carriageways full of morning traffic; women in kimonos with parasols; farmers in straw hats riding tractors as they tended their tiny patches of land; houses, everywhere. It was unbelievable. The Japanese family across from us must have thought it very amusing, these two young gaijin commenting on near everything, even skyscrapers the likes of which we'd seen before but with helipads that MUST have been designed for Gundams.

Kyoto Station was pretty weird, too. There were two exits from the platform, and so we decided to check both so we didn't miss our 'support'. The first exit we tried opened out into an electronics store, so we checked the other one. We were waiting around for a little while, not actually that fussed about missing possibly our only help in the whole country, when we were met by a trio of young Japanese women followed by an Australian fellow named... Matt? Sorry, dude, if you're reading this, I've had a lot of names to remember. But this little procession was in fact here only for Mark, and gave me a very confused look when I told them who I was. Didn't help, Mark, that you have two middle names, one of which is Peter. After a bit of deliberation, they checked the list again and found that I was to be 'supported' by a guy they called 'Kusabe-kun', who they assumed was searching somewhere else. After a short discussion, and a few apologies, two set off to find him, whilst we got to know Matt (?).

We met 'Kusabe-kun' not long later, when he came to join us after being found... somewhere. Mark and I parted ways, and Akihito Kusabe and I went off in search of my new accomodation.

Anyway, I'm going to take a break there as I haven't had lunch yet and don't want Qanat to close early as in my paranoia I fear it might. I'll be back in a bit.

Oh, and no I don't intend to translate all that into Japanese now. I mean, look at it!

T-Minus

(Yes! Took me a good few minutes but I finally remembered my password! Let's hope this isn't an issue that'll be repeated...)

Today is the 7th September, and you know what that means? A mere 2 days until the big day! Tensions are running high as we gather together sufficient clothes, make sure accounts are in order, buy some emergency medicine and memorise the swine flu symptom chart, but everything is on track.

Felt a lot better about this whole thing lately. Been checking GoogleMaps for the locations of the dorm, the campus, and the nearest SevenEleven, and it all looks strangely feasible. Also starting to realise how much free time we get before the opening ceremony on the 15th - that's a week tomorrow - and so I've been wracking my brain to come up with useful things to do. Study for the placement test comes fairly high.

But there is something else that in my obiviously lacking research I have failed to realise until now, something I really should have thought about sooner...

Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver come out on Saturday!!


I am so psyched about this it's unreal! Already got my starter Pokemon picked out and everything! For the last couple of days I've been scouring the net in search of the names and locations of Kyoto's game shops so that I know where to go to pick up my beloved Totodile (gonna call him 'Pjotr'!) but it's been proving a tad difficult. No real names have been found just yet, though I've memorised the routes to a couple of nearby shopping centers.

And besides, this is Japan we're talking about! If I don't pass at least 3 game shops between the station and the dorms there's something wrong with the country!

So, Pokemon gets placed firmly at the top of 'things to do' for now, alongside 'find Japanese people who play Monster Hunter Freedom Unite', and 'learn to like sushi'.

Until the big day, kids.


Oh, and another thing: In a bid to claw back the lost Japanese writing skills I've decided to write all blog posts in Japanese as well as English, so keep reading if you can. If you want to go one step better, keep your eyes peeled for grammar errors. I can take the criticism...

+++

（よし！五分ぐらいかかたけど、パスワードを覚えた！いつでもそうしたい、ね。）

さぁ、今日は９月７日で、なぜ大切だと覚えていますか？そう、２日間に出る日です！服を集めたり、アカウントをチエックしたり、薬を買ったり、スワインフルーのきざしを暗記したりし、すごくストレスがあるけど、全部大丈夫になれます。

今ぐらい悪い気持ちがなくなりました。グーガルマップで寮やキャンパスや近いセベンイレベンをさがして、全部をできるだと思います。それも、学期の１５日に始まりの前に暇のことについてかんがえています。それは明日に一週間です。それから、いい僕がすることについて考えています。クラス分けテストのために勉強することは大切ですね。

しかし、もちろん下手な研究だから大切なことをわっすれました。それは…

土曜日にポケモン「ハートゴルド」「ソールシルバ」は封切られます！

楽しんでいてすぎます！もうスタータモンスターを選びました！今ぐらい京都の愛させてワニノコ　（「ピョテル」をつけるつもり！）　を見つけられるゲーム店を探しているけど、ちょっと難しいです。店の名前がないが、ショッピンセンターへの道を暗記しました。

でも、これは日本です！京都駅から寮までいいゲーム店を三つ以下見つけなれば、国は問題があります！

それで、ポケモンはしなくてはいけないことの表の上に「モンスターハンターポータブル２ｎｄＧのプレヤーを見つける」や「すしが好きになる」のそばに置いました。

じゃ、また大切な日、子供たち！


あぁ、もひとつのことを聞かせられてください。日本語の能力のためにこのブロッグは日本語でも書かれて、できる人呼んでください。それも、文法の誤りを探してください。批評はいいです…