There and Back Again

Deepest apologies for not having a post in about a week, but to be fair...

I have been doing NOTHING this past week. Nothing at all.

So perhaps yu can forgive me for not drawling on about how rubbish it is to be ostracized because of swine flu, or how great Z Gundam is, or how much I'd like a Japanese PS2 (Tuesday is not far off now...).

But now I have a few things to talk about, and we shall start with the most important, I feel. For on Monday I had to return to the doctor's to get myself rediagnosed, and it was quite possibly the very best example of why Japanese beaurocracy deserves a firey grave.

So, as I knew that they would be dishing the things out, my first port of call was the Health Center for the University at Muromachi Campus a short walk from Imadegawa so I could get that precious doctor's note. I risked not using my mask, as I was feeling fine, and went up to check. Turns out the doctor wasn't in (I'm starting to sense a pattern) so I was asked to go back to where I was originaly diagnosed and ask for a rediagnosis. So, on the bike and off to that other hospital (still can't remember the name) which was packed wth early-morning sickies, and was as such as far removed from the quiet efficiency of the out-of-hours clinic as you could get. After searching about for a main desk-looking place, I decided to follow the paper signs for the worryingly named 'Influenza Corner' and see what they could do.

I was convinced that I wasn't supposed to be there pretty quick, as the Influenza Corner was a shabby-looking room with no medical equipment, just a bank of computers and some guys in glasses who did NOT look like doctors. Regardless, I took a seat and told them my story. There were confused looks and hesistant questions, and at one point one passed another a note that clearly said 'What do we do?'. In the end, I was led by one of the bespectacled chaps to what turned out to be the main desk (which I later learnt, as with many of the desks, changes places throughout the daylike the stairs of Hogwarts).

So anyway, from there I was asked again for my sob-story, issued a patient's ID card and asked to wait. I was only there for about 10 minutes and a short form that asked for the usual stuff before I was handed a folder of files (the majority of which had nothing to do with me, I reckon) and asked to take the perilous journey to the unknown second floor via the escalator. There I handed the forms to the second floor main desk, and was asked to wait. At one point a nurse came over and asked me to check my temperature with a handy electro-thermometer (35.3, a bit on the cold side) and then led me to one of those machines that takes blood pressure, where I was strapped in. This is bearing in mind she may have had nothing to do with my case, and was just trying to speed things along, so when I heard the PA thing ask for 'Mr Swan to come to diagnosis room 1' I was a little alarmed, as not only was I busy, but with each passing moment the pressure on my arm was tightening. Turns out it only takes a couple of seconds, so I took the receipt the machine dished out and headed to the room.

In the end the diagnosis was no problem at all. They didn'd even have to stick the nasty spike/cotton bud up my nose; the friendly doctor just seemed to take my word for it. I was issued a clean bill of health, or rather would have been, except this was Japan, and so issuing anything is a task of marathon proportions.

So here's what happened:

The doctor showed me the form I would be receiving on screen (and it was a form, one filled out by the doctor), and Chris Tarrent-style informed me that they didn't want to give me that. At least, not until I'd paid for it. Paid?! Tch... Still, I was in no place to argue, and it was a mere 1,200 yen so I didn't mind much. It was that or never go back to school, after all. I was given a receipt for the form and sent down to the payment desk on the first floor, which that day at that time was at 'number 5', as opposed to '6', where it would be over the lunch period, and '8' where it would be after. I wish I was making this up.

So I handed the receipt to the people behind the desk, which took 3 minutes due to cue, and was then asked to sit down while they got things ready. About 4 minutes after I was handed a bit of paper with the number 219 on it, and asked to wait for my number to be called at desk 4, which was handily just next to desk 5. Heaven forbid I was there in the afternoon, I may have had to trek across the whole building! Waiting for 219 to come up cost me 30 minutes, which got me a chance to sent Pyotr through the trials of the Pokemon Stage at the Battle Frontier. Then I was indeed called up, and was given...

another bit of paper. This one had to be sent to the payment office at desk 3. I swear...

Anyway, I shuffled on over there, where I was queuing a little bit before I was asked to actually pay. And here's the part that cracked me up once I was out of earshot:

The form cose 1,200 yen, but the receipt for the form, the one I got from desk 4, cost an additional 200 yen. If the doctor had sent the form to the payment office, I could have gotten it for 1,200 as I was promised, but because I had the audacity to move some of their paper for them they charged me an additional 200 yen as some sort of transport fee. That I had to pay! The transporter!! Ridiculous.

And let's just go over the paper count just quickly. The doctor gave me a receipt, which got me a paper with a number on it, which got me another receipt, which got me the form I wanted. The doctor's was a form for a form for a form for a form. That's a 4 Form Combo! I love Japanese beauracracy.

But we're not done yet! Oh no! This Form to the Power of 4 was for the Doshisha office to prove why I was not in class over the last week, so I went to hand it in on Tuesday at lunch. And like Frodo with his magical ring, I expected something of a rest for finishing the trials that brought me to this point, but the Rivendell that is the Nichibun center was not happy with just that. I needed to collect teacher signatures MMORPG style to proceed, which needed to be written on their own special form... And the really funny thing? I needed one signature, thus one form, for each lesson I missed.

Sixteen forms.

Six-

-flipping-

-TEEN!!

That's Sixteen Form to the Power of 5s! It's like some kind of equation! I have now completed a massive 5 of these magical pieces of paper, leaving me 11 to finish before Doshisha Eve, which by the way is impossible, as White-sensei is not in this week, so I can't get his signature. So stupid.

Uuuuurgh....

Okay, so that's the worst of the report over. The rest of it is sunny sun sunshiney, to quote a popular song. Catchup in class was not that bad, considering. The worst of it comes when I ask Tsukiyama-sensei on Monday when to do my as of yet unfinished grammar tests for the last 10 topics. But I won't worry about that just yet, not when I've got a weekend to relax in.

Oh yeah, we also did karaoke last night. It was pretty cool, with Mark and I doing a staggeringly awesome Take On Me, to name just one song.

And today I bought a PS2 game. Don't get me wrong, I don't have a PS2 yet, but seeing as I'm going to be lugging the thing home on Tuesday, clutched to my breast like an infant, I don't want to additional weight of the game I'm going to be playing on it added on top. Oh, and an extra controller and memory card, which I also got today. The game in question, if you're interested, is We Love Katamari (or Minna Daisuki Katamari Damacy) which looks to be a superb game, and a perfect choice of first Japanese game to play on a Japanese console because it is really, really weird. For those not in the know, Katamari has you attempting to replace the stars in the sky that were destroyed by your overly eccentric father (who has a Christmas Cracker for a head) by rolling stuff from across the Earth into big balls, which can then be thrown into the sky to fill all that empty space. Stuff like pens, chairs, people, buildings, clouds, mountains, other planets and eventually the Sun. This is the second game in the series, which boasts more challenges and co-op as well as competetive multiplayer. Looking forward to it.

And on the topic of games, because I just so love talking about them, I've also gotten myself addicted to a beautiful little roguelike on the computer by the name of Elona. Elona is a fantasy roguelike that was originally Japanese, so there are a few translation errors that can be easily overlooked, because it looks great. It's the graphic style of the Ragnarok Online franchise, if that helps. The best bit, I think, is the alias generator for your character, which puts together random words to make a heroic-sounding name like 'Daft Rapier Pete' or 'Ray of Gay Jay' (that guy cracks me up). So that's how I've been wasting my time.

Oh yeah, and I also got demoted back down to B Rank in Gundam Kizuna. A Rank is a distant dream, it seems; a dream populated by people who spent too long playing this game. People the likes of which I will probably become, eh?

Oh, and I also now have to write a progress report for my Linguistics dissertation (due start of 4th year first term) which I have a grand nothing on as of yet. Well, got a few things to talk about, so I can probably make a fair attempt. But still...

And in a little while I have to go meet Oota-san, who wants to study in Edinburgh and wants to know more about it. Think we'll go to that Tai restaurant that I so enjoyed last time. And tomorrow is, I think, a nabe party which should be a lot of fun. They probably think I'm dead, after all. Best to show them I'm not.

Anyway, now I have a headache, and am a little bit hungry. Hope you all had a better couple of weeks than I did, and are having fun doing... whatever it is you're doing. Like dressing up as cleaning utensils, if word on the street is to be believed (you know who you are).

And one last thing: My phone now will NOT let me send photos across, so be prepared for a picture drought.

Thanks for reading!

***

カラオケで「さよなら絶望先生」の歌を歌うのは楽しいけど、すごく難しいよ。おかしいリリックがあるだから。
でも、たのしかった。
♫　オーレのねだーんを…だーれが決めた？　とーらやヒョウがぼくーらの心にも！♫

Should have listened to Astro Boy.

So that's it, then. I have become another case in this year's pandemic, and am thoroughly, thoroughly annoyed about it. I feel rubbish, and without school for 10 days I am going to probably be behind and bored stiff. This is without a doubt one of the worst things that could happen right now...

That aside, I thought I'd let you in on how I came to know that I had swine flu. It's an interesting tale, let me assure you, and says a lot about the Japanese way of doing things.#

So I felt a little under the weather four days ago. The morning was absolutely fine, but I found myself being a little sleepier than usual towards the end. I was going to get an early night but instead took up Ben's offer of helping him, Els and Ollie make dinner (okinomiyaki). Never had shrimp before. It was alright, I guess. By 9 I was really lolling, and not in the ha-ha way, so I went straight to bed. No problem, right?

The next day I felt a bit worse. In class I was very tired and impatient, and a bit bunged up. Not a fun lesson. But still didn't think anything of it. Just a cold; people have them all the time, especially now that the season's changing.

Things really started to get bad two days ago, with random chills despite wearing three of my own layers as well as Jason's jacket when he took pity on me. He also gave me one of his virus masks, which I have been buying for myself since. The chills have pretty much stopped now, but I still sleep with a ridiculous amount of layers. My appetite's also improved now, which was also on the down that day.

Yesterday I was feeling a little bit better, and so took up the guys' offer of going to see the film Kaiji (looks like a cross between Deathnote and YuGiOh) that evening. A man can dream, right? After hearing that Aaren had become a confirmed swine flu patient I got a little bit nervous, and then Weezy drove the proverbial stake home by ordering me to the doctor's. And I'm glad she did, looking back. Anyway, before I went to the doctor's I decided to check the University website for what they were saying about the whole thing. A handy PDF asked me to call a handy phone number, and though it was a little late I found myself talking to the Imadegawa Campus main office. After relaying my fears, the woman on the other end gave me another number (I still don't know where for) and told me to call them, so I did. The people on that line asked me for much the same information as the first one, and then gave me a bit of advice. Sweet, golden advice I was oh-so happy to receive. What was this advice, you ask?

Go to the doctor.

Tch. Those wasted combined phone calls cost me about 400 yen!

Anyway, all the hospitals were shut, and since the flu isn't an emergency I couldn't just barge my way in. So today I got up at 8 (on a Saturday... *sob*) and cycled my way down to the University health center (open 'til 12), hating every fogged-up-glasses-because-of-heavy-breathing-reflected-through-stupid-flu-mask rotation. There was a sign on the door saying something about influenza, so I got out my DS and spent 10 painstaking minutes translating what turned out to be instructions for people who might have influenze: to not be there so they don't infect people, and instead to call the center up.

I honestly couldn't believe it.

Fortunately my disbelief was rewarded by a small sign on an intercom by the side, telling me that, if I had influenza, I should press the button and wait for help. I was then told by a nurse on the other side of the intercom that the doctor wasn't in today, so I would have to go to another hospital.

...

Managed to save herself a lawsuit (I kid) when she was brave enough to venture outside of the barricaded health center reception with a map to show me the way to the teaching hospital about 10 minutes cycle away. She even parted with a touch on the arm and an o-daiji ni, which was very touching, even if, now that I look back, it sounded an awful lot like a final farewell.

So with 2 hours left before that hospital closed, I made my way over the hospital, and my goodness was it confusing. It's a hospital for uni medics, so contains classrooms and stuff as well as all the normal wards and things, and this made it a nightmare to traverse. Here's a little hint: just because something that looks like a reception is staffed by people that look like they might be intelligent, doesn't mean either of those things will be true, nor does it mean they will know where influenza gets diagnosed. The North Entrance's 'emergency measures office' didn't know (what if I had the black death, eh? Think they'd know then?), the East Entrance's finance claims office didn't know. After trekking about the building for about an hour I eventually found the security office (got such a shock when I put the kanji on the sign into the DS and it came up with 'Marine Corps.'), where a friendly grey-haired man directed me down a darkened corridor to the one reception area still in operation during what I discovered were the off-hours.

So now for the actual diagnosis.

I was asked a few standard questions about my lifestyle (smoking and alcohol and stuff) as well as the symptoms I was suffering from, and then they took my temperature and complimented my kanji. I was at 36.6 celcius, if you're interested, which is a bit above normal. Then the kind doctor stuck a nasty long cotton bud right up my nose and into my brain, or so it felt. Then he checked my eyes, mouth and heartbeat, and then I had to wait outside for a couple of minutes before being told that I was positive for what the computer called FluA, and which he said meant I probably had swine flu. The probably burnt that exam room after I left.

Speaking of which, I then had to pick up some medicine to lower my fever, and some extras to reduce nausea if I needed them. They'd better be the best flipping pills on Earth, because they sure cost me it. I've been told to come back in 3 days if there's no change, but this is apparently very unlikely.

So I just got off the phone with the main office again, who said thanks for letting us know, and please don't come near us. 10 days off school for my troubles, which is 2 grammar tests I'll have to do some other time. Hoo-ray...

No letters today.

Thanks for reading! If this is the last post I make, know that I regret nothing!

***

でも、日本は豚がないでしょう？京都で見なかった。ほんとに怖いか、このインフルエンザ？
じゃ、僕がある１０日のあいだ、何をする？寮を出ることはダメだから、たくさんできないが、アニメを見られる。いいな・・・
でも、つまらなくなれるね。

Sue Donym and DeNymrods

I'm afraid this may be something of a dull entry, as au have seen fit to make me pay to have my photos transferred conveniently between phone and computer, and so I must now attempt the arduous process of putting each file onto the SD card and taking them across myself. I have never successfully done this before: it takes several hours for each file.

Wonders of modern technology, what a joke.

Plus I'm ill.

Where did we leave off? No matter, I'll just start with the earliest interesting thing I can think of.

On Saturday, being full of the spirit of TGIF, Mark, Angela, Ben, Stephanie and I all met up in distant Mukaijima for a cook-off. Everyone made a dish whilst there; Angela made a salad, Stephanie a spagetti dish, Mark cooked some fish and Ben was late and so didn't make anything. Can't blame him, though, he was on a noble quest to get his friend a preordered ticket for the Nanoha movie.

I made mash.

But what mash it was!

It had vegetables in it and everything.

We were whiling away the hours at Mukaijima for quite some time, for it was a very nice place. Pity it's so far away, really. Also played a couple of games of Gundam War against Mark and Ben. Mark was finally able to defeat the forces of Zeon, as I knew he would some day, yet was defeated by Ben, who was then put in his place by me, and thus the cycle continued.

There was a lot of interesting stuff happening, so I'm sorry if I miss some stuff out.

Sunday was Aaren's visit to sunny Kyoto. Hah, 'sunny' Kyoto. That makes me laugh even now. It rained the whole time. Stupid, stupid climate! Regardless, Aaren took us Fushimi Inari, which he had visited some years back, which was really interesting. It's the shrine with the 1,000 gates, for those that know it, and we walked most of it. There are some great pictures, honest... There were also some very cute cats, but in Japanese tradition were all very shy. Except this one cat, and that was somehow worse, as I actually felt bad about stroking it in its apathy. After that it was off to Teramachi (that blessed covered shopping street) where we had lunch at First Kitchen.

Never been there before, but I'll be going back. The fish burger was easily a dreary third behind the mighty Mos Burger andMcDonalds, but the chips!

Oh, the chips!

50 different flavours to choose from, no joke. The cheese chips were spec-flipping-tacular, as were Mark and Aaren's BBQ chips, and that was easily enough to dry our spirits.

Next was SofMap, where I decided I needed to get a new iPod at some point to replace the senile figure of my current Shuffle. In the however-many years I've had him, his capacity has dropped from an astronomical 520MB to a frankly microscopic 485MB, and it does show. No, it really does. Plus, he forgets which songs in the playlist he's already played so will loop certain songs indefiniately until you put him out of his misery. Got my eyes on a nano, going for 14,500 yen, the same price as a PS2 (Doshisha Eve fast approaches), but there's no rush.

Namco Wonder tower next, where I was pretty much forced to play Gundam: Kizuna*. And I'm glad I did! 6 suits taken out over the course of the two games, and not one death. That was enough to not only double my overall score, earn me 2 new titles and a Rick Dom, but also pushed me into the A-Rank weight category, where I am sure to be blasted to pieces more times that I care to think about. Then we had a Tekken 6 spurt, where I met the wrath of a girl with pink hair who turned out to be a robot with rocket wings and chainsaw hands and explosive limbs.

(*This is a lie.)

Phew.

Now for Tuesday, which was Culture Day and so a day off. The cook-off crew decided to go to not-too-distant Nara, a cultural place if ever there was one, famous for giant wooden temples and deer. And what a place! Despite getting lost on the way to the park (which covers almost half the city...) we saw deer enough to last a lifetime. And the funny things would eat right of your hand! Again, there are pictures. They're simply everywhere, and not that fussed about getting stroked. Also, and I'm not sure how this came about, a lot of them have learnt to bow to accept food. They were bowing! It was fantastic!

Oh, and Todaiji was quite good too, even though we missed the opening times and couldn't see the inside. But Steph and Angela bought a Dragonball for my birthday, so all was well. But seriously, so tired after that.

Probably a precursor for today's disease, that fatigue. Also, today came with a nasty surprise: they'd switched the order of the next kanji and grammar tests, which meant the grammar test I'd spent ages revising for is now on Monday, and the kanji test I frankly neglected is tomorrow. Load. of. rubbish.

Also forgot to but the washing in.

Urgh.

And on that note, Letter Corner.

Today's letter comes from Weezy back in Leicester, who asks: "What happened to the Japanese translations of your posts?"

Yeah, thanks for reminding me.

I'm pretty sure I covered this in a previous post, but writing in Japanese is by no means easy, and by the time I've thought up everything I've lost the inclination to write it all again. It takes forever. But just for you, I've decided to add a short bit of Japanese at the end of each post from now on, something I didn't mention before, so you have something to practise your reading on.

Hope that's sufficient, it's all you're getting.

Thanks for reading.

***

高田先生、聞こえるか？テストの日を変えることは楽しいか？サープライズテストも好きか？
じゃ、教えさせて：
留学生はこのものが大嫌いだ！！
それも、お前が大嫌い！！
高田先生、アホウ！！
以上！


Actually, I quite enjoyed that.

"Stop thinking sleeping and start thinking baseball."

What a crazy Monday.

But before we get to that, there's the small matter of the weekend to cover.

So Saturday wasn't a particularly eventful day. Took the opportunity to travel out to Teramachi (along with, it seemed, every other gaijin on the course) where I followed Polly's advice and found my way to a big used clothes shop called Kinji. And what a delight it was! 2 parkas, 2 hoodies, 2 otaku shirts (plaid ones) for 5000 yen (about £25). THIS is the sort of money I'd like to spend on clothes all the time, not the nonsense shops are charging nowadays. Plus I hear the exchange rate is improving these days.

Then, unable to resist, I played my second game of Senjou no Kizuna. Wow is that game fun, but the inevitable is starting to eke it's way into reality. Blown up twice, I was, with only one kill to my name in both games. Still, that was enough to push me up to Rank 3, as well as earn me a Zaku Mk I suit to try. Quite like my Zaku II, though, so I'll probably stick. Then it was to Book Off to get the second volume of Steam Detectives for 105 yen. A good little book, that, though it bears a few too many similarities to Batman for my liking. A young boy loses his parents to the criminal underworld and vows revenge, lives in a big house with a basement filled with gadgets and a butler who knows more than he lets on, fights costumed villains every week in clever ways. Very suspicious. Also got around to watching the next Pokemon movie (Lucario and the Mystery of Mew) which was pretty good (check Facebook for a review).

Now, Sunday, and the day of the softball game. I must admit, I was not looking forward to making a fool of myself. The service was taken, much to our surprise, by the leader of the youth group, the theology student who greeted me on day 1, and he did a good sermon. It was on Acts 6 1-17, and the importance of prayer. Mark and I found we could understand more this week, though maybe he'd simplified it for our sakes. Wouldn't put it past him. Then it was off to the manse for a quick lunch of udon, then down to the Gardens, kit in hand. My fears were then confirmed: these guys didn't know what softball was, or how it differed (at least in my mind) from baseball.

So we played baseball instead.

I'd like to get into that game if I could, I found it a lot more fun that football has ever been. The Japanese players showed off their skills at their national game, but not to the degree that it was humiliating. Mark did especially well (curse his eyes!). All in all, a wonderful experience.

Afterwards Mark and I walked the short distance to Teramachi, as he was keen on seeing a couple of the places I had discovered the day before. We had taiyaki (fish-shaped sweet bread and bean curd, superb) and then went to a little shop on the 4th floor of the tower block called Yellow Submarine, a card gaming and boardgaming shop. Both days it was full of people, a group of about 15 gathered in the far corner to play games and be frivolous, so it was a great atmosphere. Popular card games, as far as we could see, were Yu-Gi-Oh, Magic the Gathering (to a lesser extent) and a game we hadn't seen before called Gundam War.

We now both own a starter set. It's a fun-looking game, as well, and plays remarkably similar to Magic. You use Generation Cards (GCards) to deploy units, fire one-shot Commands or long-term Operations or bring Characters to the field. Rather than elements, as in Magic, you have 7 Nations with 7 colours to choose from, and Generations for each. Blue is for the Earth Federation, Green for Zeon, Red for Neo-Zeon, Purple for Freelance (stuff like Celestial Being from 00). You then get Brown for the repressed underdog characters (e.g. G Gundam's people), Black for characters forced into conflict (e.g. V Gundam's lot) and White for characters searching for ultimate peace (such as Gundam Wing and Gundam SEED), or something like that. Each colour has strengths and weaknesses. Turns out my lot are Green, lots of weak units that deploy cheaply and quickly, and Mark's are White, expensive but powerful. Looking forward to our first proper battle tomorrow.

Right, today.

Nothing special to day about language class. It was on causatives, for those who care, and was actually very straightforward. But after lunch came InterCom, but much to our surprise it seems White-sensei had forgotten. No explanantion. He just didn't show. No complaints here, gave us time to do homework and revise for both tomorrow's kanji quiz and Wednesday's grammar test.

Culture class was equally bizarre, as I had forgotten that it was the scheduled Aikidou lesson. A lot of fun that (I was picked for demonstrations twice...) as it actually doesn't hurt much, and gave me lots of chances to practice stage-falling. I'd like to get into it if I wasn't so lazy and didn't want to hold up a job as well in the future. But no, that was a nice surprise.

Afterwards Mark, Stephanie, Angela, Ben and I went off to find dinner and, after some debate, settled on Mos Burger. Happened into Tsutaya on the way back, a local bookshop chain (I wanted to check their Gundam War card prices, turns out they don't do them) and was coerced into getting a rental card after seeing the ridiculous range of CDs on offer. For 1330 yen (£7-ish) I got the Gundam 00 soundtrack, the Shin Megami Tensei soundtrack, the Super Robot Wars alpha 2 soundtrack and JAM Project's 2nd Best Of CD overnight, which are now all on my harddrive. Heck, we're allowed! Will be going back there later!

So here I am, taking a break between kanji revision sessions. It's looking... okay for tomorrow, but it's difficult to get confident after... last week. Gotta do the best I can, eh?

No letters this week.

Thanks for reading!

Twas two, for the price of one

Embarrassing Moment #6

You'll have to wait and see.

-----

Got a lot of ground to cover here, so bear with me.

Okay, so Thursday was a big day. Still heavily in a slump over the return of Friday's grammar test (do NOT ask), I needed something to pick me up. And the city of Kyoto was happy to oblige, with not one but two festivals in the same day.

First up was Jidai Matsuri (literally, Era Festival), a celebration of Japan's vibrant history in the form of a procession through the city of people in period costumes. The event started at the Imperial Palace at 12, and carried on until about 3 or 4 when the procession entered the Heian Temple on the other side of the river.

So, right after class, I searched in vain for the others before setting off by bike to meet with the front of the procession at Kyoto City Hall. A lot of this will be in video format today, and here is your first. As with, I think, all of the videos, I've tried to give a running commentary, but the camera hasn't really picked up my voice very well. Sorry.




Gets cut off right as I insult the No Show Trio, ironically because I get a phone call from Mark. At this point I am told that they were waiting for me (yeah, sure, bet they brought their unicorns and flying pigs with them too) and had since left for the Imperial Palace, where they were watching the later history bits of the procession. With plans to meet at Himatsuri that afternoon, the parade continued.



As it turns out the time periods are a lot longer than I thought, so Heian continues for the duration of all of these videos. There are photos on Facebook of... the next time period, which has a very different style to it.






Yeah, don't really know what that was...

Then something interesting happens, and I JUST miss catching it on camera.










And that's it. There were more time periods to see, I'm sure, but I had homework to do, and I needed to prepare for the second festival of the day:

Himatsuri. Literally translated as 'fire festival', this yearly festival takes place on Kurama, a mountain in the far north of Kyoto. I met up with Cosmopolitan at Imadegawa and we all got the too-small train to the too-far-away mountain, by which time night had fallen.




There, if you were able to spot it, was our first fire of the night. By the end, I was glad to be rid of the stuff. We gathered together briefly to think about what we would have to do to get to the main event stuff. The answer was walk uphill through the town of Kurama, practically ablaze, for 30 minutes, amidst what call only be described as a throng. Here's the next part.




As Sam pointed out, there were babies holding fire. We would see lots that night. We would also see lots of tourists and hear lots of megaphones. Still don't know exactly what the people were shouting, and would be shouting all the way up the mountain, but I'm sure it was something about power or heat or something. Anyway, next part:




You can't really tell all that well, but that black stuff you see? Those are people. They were everywhere, it was as much a test of agility as a festival.













And that, ladies and gentlemen, was Embarrassing Moment #6: me falling into a 'hora', a watery moat thing on the side of the road. It's dark, so you can't see it, and neither could I, but it was there. I guess that was my punishment for making a Dark Heresy joke. I liked that the crowd was pantomime-trained enough to gasp dramatically on cue, and also well-mannered enough to laugh at my accented Japanese.

Oh, and by this point Sam and I were well and truly seperated from the rest of the group. It would turn out that pretty much everyone was in the same predicament, and when we got to the top the others arrived in small clusters. Still, we did manage to meet up with Takuya and co. on the way up.




And that's festival 2. Up at the top, incidentally, were tents which sold beer, takoyaki (fried balls of octopus, really rather nice) and nekoshippo (literally 'cat tails') sweet pastry in the shape of, would you believe it, the tail of a cat.

Then we went home. That took about 2 hours. Incidentally, I hear Mark, Stephanie, Angela, Mimi and someone else made it too, but didn't get as far as us. Their loss, I guess, though it did mean I missed out on seeing a friend from church.

Okay, what next...

Ah right, today.

Oh no wait! In my rush I forgot to talk about Wednesday's meal! As nobody felt like cooking Wednesday evening, Mark, Angela, Stephanie and I all went out to Shijo to get dinner at a proper place. In the end we went to a French restaurant that Mark and co. recommended.

And they did fish and chips!!

And they were actually good fish and chips!!

Best meal I've had in ages.

Anyway, today.

Today was Friday, obviously, and with it came the weekend. And a very much awaited weekend it is too. Truly very happy to have the week finished. But there's something else I really want to talk about.

I got my JASSO money today!

Mark and Stephanie went to the office to ask for it directly, and were surprised to find it was there waiting for them. They phoned me, and I went to get mine, impatiant at the lack of phone call that should have told me where it was. After asking behind the desk, they said that yes it was right here, and were more than happy to hand it over.

Two hundred

and forty

thousand

yen.

That's over £1,200.

All in one go.

My wallet was near breaking point.

And they expected us to spend it wisely?!

Hah!

Finally got a chance to see the legendary Bic Camera, which is every bit as impressive as I was told, and celebrated our new found money with 750 yen of Hi-Zack Mobile Suit kit (that's £4, not bad eh?). Then it was off to the station underground for dinner, where we had big bowls of noodles followed by pitchers, yes pitchers, of parfait.

And now here I am. Zack is finished and standing beside the Gespenst, I'm typing this, and tomorrow is a free day. Unless Ben remembers we were going to Kinkakuji, which I doubt, as we've not discussed it in a couple of weeks.

Then it really is church softball the next day.

And that's me.

And now it's time for Letter Corner!

Today's letter comes direct from Mark: 'So when are you thinking of getting you Japanese PS2, eh?"

A very good question, and one that you may have answered yourself. Up until now-ish I'd thought that it would be great to get a Japanese PS2 in Tokyo, the heartland of technology. But thinking about it now I'm not sure it'd be all that feasible. I mean, I'd have to carry it with me on the Shinkansen, not to mention the subway on the way TO the Shinkansen, with all the kit and everything. Doesn't sound safe, or fun.

But on Wednesday Patricia gave us leaflets about all kinds of Kyoto stuff, and one was a flier for a Duty Free Technology shop, allegedly on the south side of Teramachi. Worth a look, methinks.

Now here's problem two: if I get a Japanese PS2 now, I will undoubtedly fail my next test. And I don't want that. But Mark has pointed out that November holds the Doshisha Holiday, which gives us Wednesday to Sunday off at... some point. And that would be perfect. Sounds pretty good, eh? That's when he might be getting the PS3 too, which means we'd have a funky gaming holiday planned. I like the sound of that.

Right, it's 1 o'clock and I'm shattered.

Thanks very much for reading.

Glyde, ikimasu!!

Embarrassing Moment #5


And I was doing so well. Actually collided with a young woman on my bike today. Didn't see her as she came out of her doorway and clipped her as I passed. It looked pretty painful to me, but she didn't seem too fussed. I guess I have to thank anime for my ability to reflexively apologise profusely, but I don't think it quite worked, as when I asked if she was okay, she responded by throwing my question back at me. It was pretty awkward. Then I did the whole one-handed-prayer gesture and rode off. It's times like this I wish the Japanese were a bit more aggressive. It'd have felt a lot better about the whole thing had I received some kind of reprimand, as I'm pretty sure it was my fault. But no, just an awkward, worried smile, and an apology. Stung more than any blow.

-----

Two posts in one day, eh? Lucky you.

I quite firmly don't believe in karma, but if I did I would say that the reason I had such a rubbish encounter was to balance out the fact that I finished another life goal today.

I played Mobile Suit Gundam: Senjou no Kizuna at the Namco Wonder Tower.

Not familiar with the name? No matter. Just watch this trailer and you will understand why this was such a big deal. It's in Japanese, but you shouldn't need to know any to appreciate it.

See?

Admittedly it was a bit pricey. You have to create an account first, which costs 300 yen, and that gets you this lovely pilot ID card:


This one tells me that my name is Glyde, I'm a... umm... I think that's 2nd Lieutenant, and that I'm fighting on the side of the Principality of Zeon. I've played once, and have 240 points to my name. Pretty cool stuff.

The game itself is a work of art. Here's the waiting area which is stage one of the playing process.

You've got a row of seats to sit on and watch the games currently taking place. Standard matches are 4 v 4, with 8 v 8 for the better players. Being an absolute beginner, I was in a 4 v 4. There were 8 machines in the Tower, but the games all play over the internet, so I was with 3 other complete beginners who also picked Zeon against a team of absolute beginners who picked the Federation. Being absolute beginners, we got suitably weak machines to play with, and because we were all so poor at playing barely anyone got killed. Except a guy called 'WILLSON'. I dealt with him.

Sitting in the cockpit it a terrifying, yet awe-inspiring experience. The guys at Namco have done everything to try and get it feeling like you're in a Mobile Suit, and the pulled it off spectacularly. You get 2 games for 500 yen (about £2.70, didn't I say it was pricey...), and each game lasts until a team wins or the 5 minutes of game time runs out. It was time out on both occassions, so winners were picked based on damage caused.

You get 2 levers with a number of triggers, and 2 pedals. Left lever controls melee combat, right controls ranged. Left pedal jumps, right dashes. The levers also control movement, and work in the style of Virtual ON or Katamari games. That is, both levers forward to go forward, both back to reverse. Both left to strafe left, and right for right. Left forward and right back is a rightwards turn, and you can guess the rest. Oh, and if you pull the levers away from each other you lunge forwards in a tackle.

I take pride in coming out as the top player on both occassions, I'll try not to let it go to my head! Don't worry, when I'm playing the game in a few months time I'll be having my pride handed to me on a silver platter by 10 year old boys and 30 year old salarymen alike. Regardless, I adored playing this game, and it was well worth the money spent.

Having said that, I think I'll wait until the JASSO fund is confirmed or denied before I do go back. And when I do I want to take friends. I know Mark will play, at least.

Whilst in town I also finally picked up a phone strap. Or rather, I picked up a couple of little Felynes from Monster Hunter on the PSP and realised they didn't have a strap attached so I bought one seperately. Finally I feel like my phone is complete! I also searched until I my vision blurred for the Baroque manga, to no avail, so decided on starting a new series I knew nothing about. Took a while to pick a book that looked like it would appeal, and finally settled on volume one of 'Steam Detectives', an old Jump manga about, well, steampunk detectives. It looks really cool, and all the books were a mere 105 yen (60p) so it may well end up as a good series to follow.

That's it, I'm tired and hungry. Tomorrow is church softball, so look forward to that. I don't know if I am... heh.

Thanks for reading!

The part of show where Pete comes out and sings... a geeky song

Went to karaoke last night, as I may have mentioned. Much bigger group than I was expecting, it had grown from Mark, Stephanie, Angela, Ben and myself to include Mae, Sarah, Ekka (did I spell that right?) and Angela's friend C...Caitlin...? It began with a C, or rather a /k/. Umm, sorry.

But memory loss aside, I can tell you one thing, and that is that karaoke

is

awesome!

Managed to complete a couple of life wishes that night by singing Tears by X Japan, and the Mikuru song from Haruhi Suzumiya in front of people that now think a lot less of me. I'd do it again, though, make no mistake. Other highlights of the night included a group rendition of Take On Me, Mark's falsetto in the Eurithmics and Ben's... umm... interesting choice of songs by a band aptly called Massive the Hormone. Heard of them? Then you'll know what I mean.

Don't want to upset any balances by putting up videos of some of the songs (oh, they DO exist), but here's a video of us going home at 1 in the morning, tired and with sore voices.




And now it's the weekend! Yeah!

Unfortunately, though I had planned to go out and wander the city center today it's started raining, so I may have to rethink. Oh, and Aaren couldn't join us today, due to pressing workloads (I can sympathise). There'll be plenty of other chances, I'm sure.

Also going to watch Pokemon movie... 7? Or am I on 8 now? It's Lucario and Mew, I believe. Been enjoying this little quest of mine, think I should make a habit of writing down my thoughts on films more often, remind me why I bothered watching them in the first place.

In other news, JASSO money is still a very real possibility. I apparently will be contacted some time next week when they've found out where it all is. But all is not well in JASSOLand, for news from further afield (i.e. Tokyo) is that JASSO money is being cut as of now, so the money we get here will be ALL we get. Mark and I have heard no such thing from the office, but alongside Nicole's story of last semester's students just not getting JASSO at all it's a tad worrying. And apparently they can do that, 'cos they're the government and it's their money anyway. Though, to be fair, that's a little bit like coming to the airport as we arrive with a squad of shiny new Gundams and saying "Greetings, travellers! These are your new mobile suits, and you will need them to navigate the fierce battlegrounds of life in Japan! You may find yourself presed between alien invaders, corrupt governments and your own friends betraying you, but with your new suits you'll be more than well-enough equipped to- Oh, sorry, I've just been told we actually don't want to give these to you. Nevermind. Umm, best of luck!" and then leaving.

Tch.

And now it's time for Letter Corner!

Today's letter comes from Home, nicely enough.

"What are the brakes like on your new bike? Are they like the European ones where you have to peddle backwards to use them?"

No, they are not. Thankfully these brakes are the normal sort. However, I can't speak for the rest of the nation's bikes, as I was told by the woman who sold me the thing that the brakes on mine are different to the others. Didn't say why, I didn't really care. I'll check.

That's it. Thanks for reading!