Today I went to see some fireworks in Gifu. They are supposed to be some of the best in Japan and I have to admit that they made British the displays look pretty stupid. The streets of Gifu were packed with the 300,000 or so people who come to watch the display. As you will see in the video, our view was a little obscured by a set of traffic lights because we were sitting on a road which had been closed off for the event.
Here's a short clip taken during the display which should give you a little taster.
Seeing a man ride his bike through the centre of Nagoya whilst playing on his Nintendo DS. CraZY man...
Working for two consecutive 11.5 hour days thanks to Summer Schools.
Eating a Kiwi KitKat, finding out about the Pineapple KitKat, and drinking Calpis for the first time (think about how this is pronounced).
Going to a cool little gyōza restaurant/bar in Sakae with Japanese friends from work. (I love gyōza so much... ummm... yum....)
Seeing Helen juggle with a random juggling guy in a park.
Staying over at the Tsuyoshi and Chie's house and finding out that little Kiko wants to work in Yoshinoya when she's older. Ha, so cute!
The end of the rainy season! Welcome back sun. Today was 34 degrees, but I really prefer the heat to depressing, grey skies.
Seeing Nilesh again after his 3 weeks in the UK and enjoying the big bar of Cadbury's chocolate that my Mum sent back with him.
Walking round a games arcade in Osu and watching some Japanese guy get +400 combos on BeatMania IIDX , a DJ-ing rhythm game which was set on the fastest mode I've ever seen on any rhythm game. Unfortunately I didn't take a video but here some other guy playing on youtube to show you what it's like.
So it's been about 3 weeks since my last post... sorry. Actually I don't really know what to blog about any more. I'm not generally a man of many words.
After 3 months here life has kind of settled into a pretty regular pattern. With work I go to the same places each week, see the same people, shop at the same shops, and so don't really know what to write about or take photos of.
I need to go on more adventures and do some new and exciting things. I want to make more Japanese friends here but my poor Japanese and my generally unsociable work hours are making it difficult. I am trying to study harder now though. Here's an exciting excerpt from Genki I, my current Japanese text book... Exciting stuff.
In the last 3 weeks I was ill during my whole week off with a snotty cold, I started attending free group Japanese lessons near central Nagoya, and I had a birthday. The birthday it's self was fairly uneventful due to work, heavy rain, and typhoon warnings. I did speak to Clarence though which was great because I haven't really chatted properly on the phone to any of my Bedford friends since being here. He phoned me from a post office in Vietnam whilst on his tour of the far east. Nice birthday present.
Actually I opened my cards (thanks everyone who sent me one) the day before because I knew that I wouldn't really have time to see them otherwise. I felt quite down that day because it suddenly hit me how far away everyone was and how lonely it can be here sometimes.
On the Sunday (15th) some of us from church did meet together once we knew the typhoon would miss us. We met at David and Danielle's new apartment which has a really great view (14th floor) from which you can see the mountains that surround Nagoya.
Si Pask (on the Nagoya team) gave me a card which he apparently got from the birthday cards section. Neither of us are sure what it says on there though... It's not the normal お誕生日おめでとう (Happy Birthday)... I'm worried it may say something horrifying like 'I think you're super cute' so if if someone out there is able to translate it for me then please let me know and put my mind at rest.
In other news my hair is getting longer but I don't really have any idea of how to get it cut. There are loads of hair dressers but I have no idea which ones are good, plus I need to try and learn a bit of new hair vocabulary first before they give me a scare cut. I don't want to come out looking like this under prepared foreigner did... Here's a pic of my hair as it it now. It starting to look like a Super Mario Mushroom... maybe a good look for Japan? I'll probably give it another 2 or 3 weeks to live.
Here are a few things that are different in Japan.
People here only cross the road at crossings. If the man if red, you wait and wait and wait even if there are no cars to be seen anywhere. It just seems totally crazy, but for some reason I also feel guilty when I disobey the red man, which is even more crazy.
People carry around lots of cash. It's not strange for someone to carry around a few hundred quids worth of Yen. People don't worry about their wallets being stolen either because they never are stolen. I see people who keep their wallets dangling out of their back pockets without even thinking about the possibility of it getting nabbed.
Fashion here is really cool.
Guys like their hair too much. Sometimes you see them looking at their reflection and faffing about with their mop until it looks just like their girl friends hair just right.
There are BIG bugs here.
Everyone walks painfully slowly. I had a picture in my mind of Japanese people always rushing around like the end of the world was imminent but this was very wrong. Even when I'm walking slower than is really comfortable, I feel like a reincarnation of Road Runner.
Japanese people love the Cotswolds.
Japan is full of technology but sometimes just seems backwards compared to the UK. Almost all administration here is still paper based unlike the UK where it's done on computer... Strange.
