Back 2 Skool

Well 40 hours later I hopefully have improved my J-go somewhat! I'm so glad I went to the school-the staff and students were lovely and they made us feel totally welcome and part of the family straight away. I really enjoyed meeting other foreigners from Europe (forgot how sexy European accents are and how bad the dress sense is!) and Taiwan (confident Asian boys-shock!) The teachers were wicked too and we had a fab night at karaoke and a hilarious last lesson where we basically learnt how to talk dirty in Japanese (money well spent!) among the most interesting phrases they told us were Cal-pis (manky Japanese energy drink) as slang for sperm, "homodachi" (gay friend) and "ii koto shitai" ("I want to do a nice thing" nice change to "get your coat luv, you've pulled!")

More SS pics...

Kasabian

Meeting The Others

Bloc Party

Let's Festival Together!

Ah so many adventures, so little time to blog! Starting with my highlight of the summer (and possibly of the year) Summer Sonic in Osaka. Although I almost cried when I saw the line up for the more expensive, further away Fuji Rock, (which had every band I want to see-Doves, the bravery, Futureheads, Hot Hot Heat...arrrrrrrghhhh!!!) I had a amazing time meeting random people (including some bands-woo!) observing some fantastic Japanese fashion and etiquette and, of course, watching some phenomenal bands!

The Bands
I came to realize that the strength of the performance rested on communicating with the audience-this is made difficult not only due to the language barrier but the fact that the audience is made up of die hard fans, mildly interested curiosers, and people who are just breezing by. Kasabian and Oasis seemed to have issues with the non-response of the audience, the Ordinary Boys and Weezer tried their hands at speaking the j-go (quite well!) and in some other cases, the music spoke for itself (bloc party, Interpol) I boogied my arse off to most bands and the atmosphere was fab, it felt like everyone was really making the most of it. Taking the summer by the reins and milking it till its nipples are red raw!!
The Others were bloody sensational. Unfortunately their songs aren't as exciting as their manifesto but they radiate anger and passion and drive when they're on stage. The Japanese fans were shouting "za ozassss!" which made me laugh. Top lads! The first thing they said to me was "Know where we can buy any drugs?" I then did my best to translate the j-folks bemused shouts to them (which wasn't difficult-consisted of "kakoiii!" and "tanoshikatta!" ect)Domonic was an absolute nutter and gave me his number in England (some use!) apparently when they're gonna do a show they just text the fans. Guerilla ne!

Orange Range also were super fun, utterly bouncy and carnival like. They had the crowd making dance circles, doing the locomotion dance and waving their towels (the ultimate festival accessory in Japan, it seems)


However, Interpol and bloc party really did it for me, at their volatile, brooding bittersweet best live.
The People
It appears that all the cute and crazy j-kids flock to these festivals! Everyone seemed totally enthusiastic and chilled out with none of the usual muso-posers...having your own space to dance in close to the front was great although I have to say that the rock and roll side of me kind of missed the crazy pushing and moshing back home!
The most memorable person we met wa a cute Japanese-Korean girl. She started to talk to me and Selena and I got an inkling that she wasn't your typical j-girl (she had good English for a start) then came the following exchange...
Her:Do you want to learn some Korean?
Me: OK
Her: Its quite sexual is that ok?
Me: Errrr Ok then
Her: (insert Korean phrase)
Me: What does it mean?
Her: It means "are you coming?" nice meeting you bye!

Victoria and Selena also made fab festival companions with lots of enthusiasm and Gillian's freind Chris that we met up with was a top laugh. When he said "lets get hammered" at 11AM I knew there was a good reason Gillian introduced us-cheers mate!

Benkyo...NOOO!

My language course is well taught, organised, fun and enjoyable but Japanese is the most complicated, confusing and downright frustrating thing I've ever had to apply myself to. Having gained enough J-speak to get by in simple conversations, order in restaurants and ask directions, I was quite proud of myself after a year. However, I now realise that a) I still have A LOT to learn to be proficient b) a great deal of words that I often used before were conjigated wrong or just plain innapropriate and c) although I am pants at speaking japanese, I can't help but let it litter my everyday English,which is fine if I'm talking to other similarily minded friends but makes me look like a right tit in any other circumstances (ie real life!)
Despite that, last night, feeling the effects of all you can drink seshion I managed to sing not one but three japanese songs somewhat accurately at karaoke. (orange range, SMAP, Bennie K)
Ya-fucking-Ta!

SuperSonic Summer

The Summer Sonic festival I attended last weekend was bloody fabulous. A more detailed account to follow but hers the high points
-meeting and getting to chat to/translate for The Others-top lads, great live band
-witnessing the funfest of orange range live with the maddest crowd ever
-perfect sets from bloc party and interpol
-japanese fashion at its most crazy and random
-oasis live at night in front of 20,000 people and fireworks
-ridiculous dancing with space around you on the second row of the crowd
-all the mayhem and excitement of live gigs withough the bruises and squashing (only in japan...)

Now I'm in Fukuoka and its really nice to live in the city-international restaurants, huge western shops and a million bars are on my doorstep here in Tenjin. Details to follow...

Happy Campers

I just got back from 3 of the most fun and enlightening days I've experienced in Japan. I went to an English camp on Oshima (really pretty island off Yanai's coast.) There ended up being 11 ALTs and about 30 students! I was a bit apprehensive at first, anticipating the usual amount of blank faces and strain in teaching English to sullen teenagers but...shock horror, most of the students were total keenies and not the geeky types either. There were some great characters-the chubby cute androgynous one everyone loves, the serious ambitious girl, the super cute giggly girl, the emotional sweetheart...we got to know them really well and they were obviously well chuffed to be around so many foriegners!
The Japanese teachers were ace as well and the ALTs worked bloody hard creating a great atmosphere...if only it was always like this! A kind of English Teaching Utopia...They really wanted to learn. I can only imagine the shock the newbies will have when they teach their first class with normal half-arsed students and see the contrast! Highlights included watermelon smashing on the beach, a big bbq, extremely weird (but funny)dance routines choreographed by the two quietest boys and Carl breakdancing on a 16 foot high narrow pier. All great stuff!
As the whole newbie thing goes I have come to realize that the weirdness is something to do with adjustment. Although everyone here has an adventurous outgoing personality to move to a foreign country in the first place, we do create a comfort zone to combat homesickness, culture shock etc. I think it's taken me all year to get completely comfortable and content here. So the onslaught of new faces sort of pulls the rug from under your feet. However, I had a wicked time with the other ALTs, all of whom at one point or another really impressed me both with their interaction with the students and on the social side of things too...I'm lucky here, the south side of the guch has a fab mix of people! I got to know Crystal, Matt,(taking over Jamies place) Mark, (new Paul) Megan, (new Tense) and Carl (new Angela) a lot better and they're all mint. It was also the first time I've witnessed other ALTs at work and it was an inspiration-this is what we should do instead of sit sweating our arses off at Kencho listening to lectures!!
Now I'm off to Osaka for what I'm sure will be a frenzied time at Summer Sonic. (Japan's Glastenbury. Kind of.) I'm frothing at the mouth like a rabid dog at the amount of live music on offer after this year of semi-cold turkey! One annoying thing is that the best bands seem to be on at the same time! However I will endeavor to be stealth and whiley to sneak my way through crowds to witness Kasabian and Asian Kung Foo, Ian Brown and Duran Duran ect. After that I'm straight off to Fukuoka for two weeks of hardcore Japanese study. I'm gonna be pera-pera (fluent) when I get out! (or improved anyway-I better bloody had better be considering how much its costing!!) I will revise and practice and not just go out every night to all the fab clubs and mess around with Sarah, brownies honor! (hmmm....Who believes that?!)

"Hard Gay Play tomorrow?"and other stories...

After the initial nuttiness of kencho the weekend actually shaped up to be rather fab! Sarah came to visit me which was great as always and we had an ace time indulging in visiting my favourite restaurants (Taiwania and Chodori Dining) beaching it and going to the Iwakuni festival. Highlights also included watching several dads attempting to get their young kids into the water without much success at the beach and an old women in the sea wearing a raincoat (with her hood up.) Only in Japan....Much bitching, reminiscing, dirty talk and predicting was had. She would fit right in with my pals back home. I'm kidnapping you and dragging you to Manchester after JET Sarah!
Anyway after much deliberating I ended up going to another fireworks festival in Hikari last night. ..and I'm very glad I did. I love the chilled out party atmosphere at these things as well as the j-folk dressed up so cute in their yukattas. But the real highlight last night was hanging out with 4 lovely j-girls. We managed to get by in their broken English and my terrible Japanese and ended up having much fun. I love the way that you discuss everything about your life with Japanese people the first time you meet them whereas its all random crap with people who speak your own language! I now know where they live, their jobs, ages, living arrangements, favorite food, animals and colours, where they have visited in Japan and what kind of men they like. I don't know if I could say the same of the new Jets I've been hanging out with for 2 weeks!
We also met some random j-boys who took a liking to Mark by saying "hard gay?" and then the afore mentioned classic quote "gay play tomorrow?" Amazing how these bad ass boys cant speak any English apart from "sex friend?" and "oh my god" ( I also got a "hello...sex girl." once at Yanai bowling alley. Classic.) Also met some Taiwanese people who are studying Japanese here. It was weird cos they could speak English and Japanese and Tammy was talking to them in mandarin. Internationalization ne!
I sometimes forget what a mixed bunch it is over here. At the moment my Jet friends are all over the place-Loz back in blighty, Ellen in aus, Dan and Rosie in NZ, Christine in Canada, Kirk Aaron and Angela back in the states...I cant fathom it!

Welcome To The Jungle...

As my hazy memory serves me, this time last year when myself and lots of all the other 2004 newbies went to the first orientation we were all in differing states of exhaustion, jet lag and bewilderment. The veterans seemed like ace people wiling to help us out that already had strong friendships. There were some gossiping, some ill advised couplings and a lot of fun and laughs.
However this years orientation was fucking MADNESS.
There seemed to be about 100 new people and about 5 second years. I couldn't help but thinking that sometimes our advice mignt have come across as alienating or condescending. The first afternoon was normal enough but the meal and night out on Thursday was probably the maddest night I've experienced in Japan. And not necessarily in a a good way. The good news is that the people in my area are totally sound. Ross seems to have the ability to drink and grin through anything, Keith is a top laugh and a valuable source of me remembering my real accent, Tammy is always entertaining and a Karaoke demon. However there's a few people who definitely made a name for themselves that night by being absolutely pissed out of their faces. I'm talking chugging beer repeatability stumbling puking drunk at like 8 o clock. As Sarah said, "I thought you liked to party and drink before this!" It was kind of odd. Tori had nothing on these lushes. Flashback to first year of uni. I'm sure things will calm down in time and people will mesh together but the night ended up being quite all over the place. I found myself turning the karaoke music down to shout "Please be careful, there's broken glass on the floor and you have bare feet!" Shut it grandma....
Of course first impressions aren't always to be trusted. I did get to chat to a few people who seemed fab-Hannah, Jen, Mark, Meagan and a few others whose name tags I didn't read...Another thing was that I noticed some of them came away with a real buzz and excitement for their life in Japan with regard to befriending j-peeps, traveling and trying all the crazy food. It was my sad realisation that although these things can be done now for them, they can't be done with real ease and enjoyment until you've been here a while and have a good feel for the place and the language. Also whilst I'm happy to help people out I'm looking forward to the point where I stop becoming advisor/helper/translator and just become friend. The first year really is a year of learning and trying and settling. If only we could all start the program as second years....

Happy Birthday Christabel!

It's my brother's birthday today...have a pint (or 3) on me Chris! Being 19 is a fab year.
Which prompts the question...whats your best birthday memory? I think mines's gotta be when I was little and we had pass the parcel, musical chair and statues,ice cream and jelly and a care-bare cake! The less said about my 18th party the better (tori would have been proud of my hyperemotional drunken behaviour) and it was all downhill from there...