JAPANEXILE

Its been an emotional past couple of weeks, as the last of doing everything comes up. The past week in particular has been leaving party after leaving party. Sounds nice right? Well there’s two sides to it.

Positive: Everyone loves parties!

Negative: We’re leaving

Positive: Free copious amounts of food

Negative: We’re leaving

Positive: I get to show off the fruits of my speech writing labour.

Negative: I have to show off the fruits of my speech writing labour. Oh, and er, we’re leaving.

I’m not much of a public speaker it seems, there were times when the hand holding my speech was shaking so much it became impossible to read. I was at least getting better by the 6th time or so though. Anyway’s below is my speech. Firstly, the originally, full of mistakes version.

今日で３１３日間日本にいた。３１３日間ですけど、何も忘れない。ちとせ空港で初めてゆうこさん達に会った日、９月の歓迎会と、仕事の初日も、全部よく覚えている。今のことは現実じゃないみたいの感じです。もうすこしで終わり。本当に信じられない。

１２月家族が洞爺に来た時、母に洞爺のことを色々な質問聞かれた。「洞爺はどんな町ですか？」と聞かれた。その時によく答えらなかった、まだ出来ないと思う。言葉では私の真の気持ちは伝えられない。

色々な面白い体験(たいけん)を皆さんのおかげでした。そして１０ヶ月の間、色々学びた。 学生の時よく勉強して、いい大学に入られた。だけど面白くなかった、毎日毎日ばっかり試験のために勉強した。大学に入りたくなかった、入学する理由がないと思った。でも日本にいた間一生懸命日本語勉強していてとうとう勉強するのが楽しくなった。それを本当によかった。今大学に入りたい感じしている。

皆さんのおかげでこんなに素敵な洞爺の生活)を体験できていつまでもここにいた間の思い出大切に守る。皆さんありがとうそひてまた近いうちに会いましょう。

And the corrected version (thanks lang8)

今日でちょうど３１３日間日本にいたことになります。たった、３１３日間ですけれど、全て忘れません。千歳空港ではじめてゆうこさん達に会った日や、９月の歓迎会、仕事の初日も全部よく覚えています。今日のことは現実じゃないみたいに感じます。日本にいるのももう少しで終わりです。時間がすぎるのが早く、本当に信じられません。

１２月に私の家族が洞爺に来た時、母に洞爺について色々なことを聞かれました。その時にはうまく答えらなかったし、今もまだ答えられないと思います。言葉では私の真の気持ちは伝えられません。

色々な面白い 体験ができたのは皆さんのおかげでしました。そして１０ヶ月の間、色々学びました。私は学生の時よく勉強し、いい大学に入ることができました。だけど面白くなかったのです。なぜなら毎日毎日試験のためにばかり勉強していたからです。当時私には学びたいという気持ちがなかったので、大学に入りたいと思わなかったし、入学する理由がないと思っていました。でも日本にいる間一生懸命日本語を勉強するうちに、とうとう勉強するのが楽しくなりました。洞爺にきて、本当によかったと感じています。そして今は、大学に入りたいと思っています。

皆さんのおかげでこんなに素敵な洞爺の生活を体験できました。いつまでもここにいた間の思い出を大切に守りたいと思います。ロンドンに来たら、私に訪問してください。皆さんありがとう。そしてまた近いうちに会いましょう。

I won’t give a translation, saying it in English sounds too emotional and I’ll get embarrassed, I can say things in Japanese I would never say in English and not get in the slightest bit embarrassed, its nice really. The speech went down really well, people close to crying (or they say). I was very close to doing so when I was writing it, this place has come to mean that much to me. Saying goodbye at the nursery schools is tough, they all line up at the door to say goodbye and give you a hug, the girl who gave me my leaving present at the elementary started crying, as did other kids as they sang us a goodbye song. I challenge anyone to see that and not have their heart strings plucked. I’ll give my full emotional thoughts on Toya after I get back to England I think. for now I have another party to go to (or　送別会　(soubestukai)) as they say in the local lingo. Then tomorrow, thats it. My last day in Toya. (In getting Japanese character support for this blog it seems all the punctuation in previous posts has changed, sigh, why can’t anything ever be simple?)

oteizan, standing at around 1900m is the tallest mountain/volcano in western Hokkaido. I had been intending to climb Yotei from the moment I saw it, originally with the intention of snowboarding down it, unfortunately my winter fun plans were foiled by work commitments (not mine - rather the experienced partner I was to be going with). The views are still pretty spectacular (I assumed) in the summer though, and you can get up to the top without contracting hyperthermia which would be possible in the deep of winter. So, my last weekend in Hokkaido, Hiro and I set of for Yotei, parked the car and made our ascent. Views on the way up were pretty amazing when the cloud mercifially broke for us. It took us 3.5hrs of hard climbing to reach the 9th station, where we found a big group of fellow climbers staying the night there. After a quick beer we had taken the effort to bring with us it was off for an early night, since the sunrise would be at 4.05am and we still had to get to the summit. It started getting light about 3:30pm and the hike to the summit was pretty short if clumsily done without the aid of a torch. Hiro and I walked between the two big craters on the summit and headed for the east to watch the sunrise in all its glory. Although due to the cloud cover we could see bugger all of the world below us, we were at least above the clouds which is always cool.

Sunrise came and everyone there furiously took photos, myself included, at verying shutter speeds as I didn’t really know which to use. The results are below, quite pleased with some of them. Once the sun had come up proper we made the rather difficult circuit over the rocks around the rim of the crater and headed back down the mountain. Going down is almost as hard as going up, as its more attempting to control your fall rather� than walk, to the effect that you run down it whilst trying not to slip/tumble over. Good fun actually, if painful on the old knees. There were lots of people coming on the other way, all of whom you have the same conversation with as you pass them “Whats the view like?” “Did you stay up there the night before?” etc etc.

2 hours later we we home free. And me now with every intention of coming back in winter to board down. Can’t describe how awesomely fun it looks!

Or African drumming as it is probably better know around the world. Not long before I quit Yosakoi Craig I started doing Taiko. Its only a one a week thing, its very relaxed, and great fun, so suits me well. We had two sessions with just Taiki, Yumi and the drum leader Ken-chan to get the basics down before being introduced to the larger group of percussionists in the area. There are three types of sound, closed fingers in the centre, closed fingers on the rim, and open fingers on the rim. Simple enough, damn painful after a while, fingers are raw at the end of each session! All the songs are made seemingly by combining these and then just altering the speed and layering different tunes together performed by different members of the group. In out fine group there are 14 members, collectively known as �Toya Toya�. I think I�ve already had four performances as part of �Toya Toya�, about the same number of practice sessions I�ve had! Craig and I don�t have to do anything too complex though, the same beat whilst the more advanced people show their skills. The past two performances we�ve also had our moment in the spot light performing a brief solo whilst everyone else sticks to the main tune. Solo�s are the highlight for sure, quite funny as I have no idea what to do each time, I find it hard to break out of the rhythm of the group to do anything interesting, it doesn�t really matter though, so normally I just start belting the drum at high speed and eventually lapse into a drum rhythm I heard on a Caf� del Mar album once. Strangely its the only thing I can think of under pressure. Last session we tried a new song, (was only the four of us again, plus some nursery kids) although my hands were hurting so I ended up dancing around the room in what Craig called �The Whisky Dance�. It was that good.

Since this post is so very old some more information is needed. We’ve have a load more performances, which have all been great fun, our final performance being at a nearby campsite where the members of the band outnumbered the people watching. People at the camp were actually a group of foreigners from various countries around the world, here for plant trees, save the earth and all that jazz. Something to do with the summit. Turned out to be a really great night, BBQ and some drinks in the Hokkaido summer. My only regret was not wearing some sort of bug protection. I was eaten alive. Only one drumming related activity remains now, that of our goodbye party.

After a very long hiatus I finally make another post. I’ve become a bit of a book worm/Japanese language obsessive lately, trying to study as much as I can. So free time has been limited, much to the detriment of this blog. I can’t say I’m sorry though, I’ve finally started to enjoy studying, so have little intention of stopping. Its really satisfying to really commit yourself to something and see the fruits of those labors realized. Something I wish I had realised during my school years. I had actually writen this next post 3 months ago, and even then it was 3 months old. But since I had already done it seemed a waste not to post it.

Yoyogi kouen (Yoyogi park). Yoyogi park is as the name might suggest � a park, a big park at that, very centrally located next to Haraujuku station. Contained within the park is Meiji Shrine, one of the larger and more famous Shrines within central Tokyo. I actually went there back in January shortly after New Year, which as I found out was the same time several thousand Japanese people go there. So, it er, didn�t quite have the peaceful temple feel. The park itself is really nice, and the sheer amount of people there actually served to amaze and impress me, rather than than irritation I felt when I was in Kyoto temple viewing (a future post). We did the traditional prayer when we finally made it up to the temple. Throwing my hundred coin about 6 metres over the people in front of me. Minami very narrowly missed the heads of those in front of her. Nothing else really to say about Yoyogi, not that I can remember anyway, was over three months ago�crikey that�s gone quickly. (Now 6, where is the strike through formatting option. PS. I’ve just given up trying to get the photos on the rest of the site working how they used to, I just can’t take the stress anymore.

Toya snow festival! Probably the most entertaining of the lot actually! Obviously on a much smaller scale though. Craig and I had to come in early to help set up the tents for the various stalls around the place, other than that, although we were officially staff of the event, we didn�t really have to do anything. I managed to get a free sample of everything on offer food wise, often by just standing nearby or going behind the stand (as staff members are allowed to do). The last meal came when the mayor spotted me and insisted I come and eat with him. Sweet as the mayor is I can rarely understand a word he is saying, so it�s a bit awkward after the first few minutes. Highlight of the day was our attempt to win the first prize in the Bingo. Craig and I had 40 Bingo cards between us � which we roped Kenzo and Yuko in the help do all at the same time. The reason we bought so many was because the first prize was a Nintendo Wii, which I�d quite like, although not enough to buy one. Our hopes were dashed however when someone won the Wii before we even had a Bingo, Craig went home with an Umbrella, and me with a can of Kerosine. Which surprisingly everyone was quite jealous of, even if I was less enthralled. Final part of the day was spent playing on the slide and throwing sweets at the children from the top of it. A tradition at any festival.

We didn�t actually do much viewing on the Saturday evening � we probably should have, every one I asked said the sculptures look far better lit up at night. We had more pressing concerns however, as Cori needed to find some allergy medicine, and I was hungry. The former problem was solved when a random woman saw that we couldn�t find something, so when we told her we needed a pharmacy she conveniently said she was going there herself at that very moment. A convenient if surprising coincidence! The latter problem � that of hunger was solved pretty easily as well, going to the trusty Potato Circus, which was far busier this time so the all you drink option wasn�t quite as hasty. After dinner we went and had a brief viewing of the smaller ice based sculptures in Susukino (as opposed to the snow ones in Odori park). I wasn�t really in the mood for appreciating blocks of ice though so decided to do all my viewing on Sunday with the crowds of people.

Up bright and early at the crack of noon on Sunday I headed out to Odori park. I walked the entire length of the exhibitions which took about 90mins, partly due to the distance, more so because of the hoards of people and slippery path. Only stopping to take photos and the occasional investigative trip to the food stalls. They had some pretty great stuff going actually, at any sort of public event like this in England you get the odd burger van, here you can buy freshly cooked crabs, as well as a great variety of fantastic looking meats. I only indulged once though, having eaten a curry about an hour before I felt a little guilty. In honesty though I didn�t think much of the Snow sculptures, they are very impressive don� misunderstand me. But I couldn�t seem to get quite as excited about it as they rest of the people there. I just kept thinking to myself � it�s a carved pile of snow. One of the shows I saw on the Saturday was mildly entertaining, people in silly costumes and incredibly high voices dancing around on stage � but it gets old.