Ok, so. I haven’t done this in way too long. I’m sorry. Hum… I wrote a bit about “German night” a while ago… But never got around to actually uploading it. Here’s that particular blog…
Tuesday - Ok, well Tuesday was hilariously surreal. After I did buffet stuff, loads of people finished their shifts and went home so it was just me, Tomo and Masaki-san. Then Tomo went to the office and Masaki-san dissapeared off somewhere... So I was left all on my own in the refectory, changing the roses. So I put on some Jpop and just chilled out. Occasionally people would walk through... A few times I saw Masaki-san running past... Then there was a phone call at the refectory, someone asking for Masaki-san and I was like "um... I'm not sure where he is..." Had a quick look around for him, but failed... After an hour it came to my lunch break... But there was nobody around to get permission from. But I figured I'd already done everything that needed to be done, so I wrote a note saying that's where I'd gone and left.
When I came back I quickly counted who was there... And realised I was the only gaijin. This meant I had to do guest control. Basically, with guest control you give a speech welcoming everyone in, telling them where the food is and where to put dirty stuff afterwards. Then you guide them in and just make sure they're all safe and happy. This was a new group as well, which meant I had to do a full speech.
"Good evening, welcome to the refectory. For dinner we are serving buffet, including 6 different kinds of hot foods, salad and soup. There are drinks here and when you have finished please take everything to the wash room (and for some reason I always say "on my right"... Even if it's very not on my right!!!)"
So, I'm there, letting groups in, using the crazy map drawn for me by their teachers (they wanted me to send in 3 boys... THEN about 15 girls... Seperately! WHY?!)... The first time I did it I found it hilarious as I had a table of boys and they were all cheering and being silly teenage boys.
Oh yes, then Masaki-san appeared and was like "hey Faye, we're doing service upstairs tonight... They'll be here in a few minutes. Now, carry on sending guests in!" WHAT?! They'll be here in a few minutes! I've had no time to prepare, I don't know what's on the menu, I haven't lit any candles or done any drinks or anything! And now I'm doing two peoples jobs?!
By the last table I wanted to just hide. The last table was the worst. They'd been waiting for ages (because of the crazy order I was supposed to send the groups in by) so when I finally arrived they all cheered... Then they started perving on me and whistling and stuff... Which was horrifically disturbing... One even shouted "dance!"... So I welcome them in and then get on with restocking the drinks. The boys by the door were horrific "hey, do you have a boyfriend?", "how old are you?", pervy eyes, pervy eyes. So I went and hid behind the barrier, under the pretence of drinking lots of water.
Then my guests arrived. I always find service stressfull as I've still not fully got the hang of it... So I keep clearing from the left or serving from the right, or I drop the bread or I burn myself on the plates, so I jump and the food moves around on the plate and looks less beautiful. But I'm learning... Thankfully this group was the guy who's been eating here all week and sat with me in the pub for a bit, watching me revise with some vague interest. He was there with a work colleague and someone who works at BH.
It wasn't so bad. They all know I've only been here a few weeks so everyone was very nice to me and I even got given a taste of the beef and at one point Masaki san excitedly called me over to try some delicious dessert wine... Oh, that man loves wine... And dessert... It was good... And went straight to my head... (apparently the altitude makes it easier to get drunk up here).
When I got back I found nobody was in the house and the living room was tidy and completely changed around, the TV had gone and there were several more sofa's and tables and there was a hell of a lot more room than I thought there was. I felt so confused, I was slightly drunk and things were different... So I freaked out a bit.
After I'd recovered, finding that James and Dennis had spent the whole day making it look beautiful for German night, loads of people came over. It was an amazingly fun night, Dennis had made a load of really good German food, loads of people were there, laughing, having fun, I was drinking wine out of a bowl (Yuki then told me that her Grandmother used to do the same, apparently. There you go). I loved that night. After loads of people went home I went outside and played in the snow for a bit... Actually... I spent the next two-three hours in the snow, building an epic snowman!! Pictures are on facebook. After that I went inside and sat next to my heater after the cold had sent me quite insane... I should wear more than jeans and a thin jumper next time I spend hours in the snow. That was a VERY weird day...
Since then a lot has happened. However, I can’t remember most of it. It’s all been a bit of a blur since I’ve arrived here really. I was reading some of my blogs back earlier and none of it seems real really.
Ok, so memorable things that have happened recently… Becoming poor in one day, Aizu, staff party, new people, speed dating… I’m sure other stuff has happened, but I way can’t remember.
So I’ll start with the day I spent all my money -
I had a day off when very few other people did, so I decided to spend the day shopping in Shirakawa on my own. I wrote myself a good, long shopping list and packed my camera and a simple map of Shirakawa. It was a really good day (even though my camera batteries ran out). I really enjoyed just walking around, at my own pace, completely relaxing, not worrying about annoying whoever was with me by my slow pace of shopping or my inability to concentrate on one thing. I had a good, long look around the clothes shops in my hunt for a warm coat and new boots. Japan has amazing shoes. Seriously, I saw so many amazing styles of shoes and boots you’d just never see in England. There were a few that I really wanted to buy because of how awesome they were, but I knew I’d just never wear them. Even though I never found a good pair of boots, I did find a nice coat. It’s nothing amazing (which it should be, considering how much I spent on it), but it’s warm and is quite smart, so I suppose I can’t complain too much. I bought a load of stuff for the kitchen and some baking stuff, as well as a big map of the world (it was only 100 yen, so…). Yeah… When I got home, I had a look through all my stuff, then in my purse. I was horrified to find I only had 6000 yen left (around £30... Although the exchange rate’s changed now that Japan’s gone into recession, which is annoying and confusing!). So yeah… That was about… 5 days after my pay day… I blame it on the fact that I had an advance on my wages so they were reduced that month. It was a good day though, I enjoyed it.
Ok… On to Aizu - The original plan was to go down to Koriyama with Helen, Yuta and Ayano. But that morning Ayano said she was too scared to go in the car with Yuta as there was a little bit of snow and she’s still shaken up from the crash… So as Helen, Yuta and I left for Koriyama Yuta was like “I don’t know how to get to Koriyama”… So we went to Aizu instead, which is his home town, and about an hour away from Koriyama. We went into this massive Avail (a clothes shop)… The one in Aizu is way bigger and better in Aizu than in Shirakawa. There was a little bit attached, full of adorable house things. I didn’t buy anything from there though, because I’m poor (this has been my excuse for not doing many things… Also, my excuse for complaining). We then checked out a few other shops and stopped for curry. I loved Japanese curry, it‘s got the perfect amount of spice in for my tastes (not much)… I had cheese curry, which is the weirdest thing ever, but quite nice. Yuta then went on a new phone hunt because his old one was broken (I’m pretty sure I’m the one broke it… Whoops.). Japanese phones are amazing. So many strange, amazing gadgets and stuff… They spin and flip in ways I never imagined possible. After about 30 minutes of talking to some woman he found out that he needs his mom there with him (because being 19 still makes you a child in Japan). So he told his mom and we continued shopping. He then met his mom in a different phone shop and we waited there for another hour and a half!! Why it took an hour and a half to buy a new phone, I have no idea… We met his 6 year old brother though, who’s adorable. He spent the whole time in the “kids corner”, jumping around, entertaining me and Helen, giggling insanely. I really wanted to sit and play with him (I actually miss working with kids), but my head was exploding…. I don’t know why I keep getting these headaches, but it‘s so annoying! (I blame mom‘s genes).
After he eventually bought a phone, Yuta apologised so much… Seriously, he wouldn’t stop. He then bought us doughnuts. His mom also bought some beautiful boxes of chocolates for us. We then went to this big shopping centre, that looked really cute… I think there were lots of floors, although Yuta only took us to one. If I go again, I’ll definitely check out all the floors. I bought an apron for when I cook and clean. It’s a proper Japanese housewife apron with the strip of fabric on the back and the button… I don’t know how to describe it… But you always see them in anime’s and drama’s.
I can’t remember a lot more of the day. I bought some more baking stuff… Mainly stuff that was too heavy to carry in Shirakawa (milk, flour, butter etc). Baking keeps me sane here. Oh yeah, did I mention that Nami got our oven fixed? Yeah, we love Nami, she’s so lovely.
On the 10th of December, there were absolutely no guest bookings, so Masaki-san organised a staff party. We had to pay 1000 yen per person and then people would go shopping for food and drinks and we would have the party in one of the rooms in the castle. This just happened to be the same day that new people were arriving.
So in the morning of December the 10th, about 10 minutes after I woke up I had Yasu banging on my door, telling me that we were going shopping. I had no idea that I was going to be one of the people shopping for supplies, but apparently I was. Apparently Yasu had called Yuta and Yukina at about 9am telling them as well. Yasu normally stays up until stupid o’clock drinking, so where he got all this energy from, so early in the morning, I have no idea.
Yasu drove us all down to Shirakawa and Yukina had all the money people had given her. The whole time Yukina, Yasu and Yuta (am I the only one amused by the fact that their names all begin with Y?) talked to each other in Japanese, which was way fun. I love just sitting and listening to Japanese, even though I rarely know what they’re saying. When we got back I helped Yasu take all the stuff to the party room. Oh god, the rooms in the castle are amazing! They spend most of the year being unused and they’re so beautiful. They’re basically small apartments with a living room, a kitchen, a huge bathroom, two bedrooms and a small tatami-mat covered room which just looks generically Japanese and so pretty. I complained a lot, saying that it should be staff house! I still think it should be.
Anyway, I had decided to make Cornish pasties following a conversation a few days before in which (I think) Mel and I were trying to describe them to Japanese staff. Once we got back, I got stuck straight in to making pastry. I briefly met Lawrence (one of the new guys) as I ran up to my room, to get my apron.
I’ve got to say, my pastry was pretty good, I accidentally put too much water in, so tried to save it by putting more flour in. Once I got it out of the fridge though, it seemed to have fixed itself and was a beautiful consistency, strong and stretchy and soft and just generally awesome. I may make some more pastry at some point… Maybe make a pie or something… I also make some cornflake cakes using the spare cereal I’d saved from the refectory (Yasu had been saving leftover cereal for ages, but did nothing with them, so they were going to throw them away. I wouldn’t let them.)
When I got the party, loads of people were already sat around, relaxing, drinking. It was so nice. There were two tables pushed together with alcohol and food ready to be consumed. I was welcomed in by Masaki-san and they all made a big fuss of the pasties, it made me feel so happy. Japanese people are so nice like that. Masaki-san took the first pasty and very carefully cut it open with his chopsticks, it was so funny watching him trying to pick up half a pasty with his chopsticks. I explained that it should be eaten with your hands, then tried to imagine Cornish miners sat there, in the mines, eating their pasties with chopsticks. Very fun.
It was a good night all around. I drank some of James’ wine… Which came in a MASSIVE bottle and apparently was very, very cheap… It tasted it too. I then had some nice wine. At this point I was at that happy state of drunk, where everything feels relaxed and there’s a faint buzzing somewhere in the back of your head. I hadn’t had alcohol for a long time before this, so it didn’t take long to get there. I then played some cards in the tatami room before getting bored and wandering off. I then tried to find the toilet, which was hilarious and bizarre. I entered one room, saw tiled walls, a sink and assumed it was the toilet. I locked the door… And then looked for an actual toilet… There was none… In my semi-drunk state this was very, very confusing… So I went back into the hallway and just stood there, feeling confused… I had a good look in every room (even in a cupboard in the bedroom), before eventually finding it.
I also met James that night. New James, that is. Old James now goes by Whiteside (his last name) or Shirakawa-san (because the kanji in shira means white… And kawa means river… I don’t know why that works… But it’s the name of the nearest town so…). Anyway, before long I found myself the only gaijin surrounded by Japanese people. All sat there, watching some Japanese comedy… I had no idea what was going on, they all talked too quickly. If I laughed at the same time as the Japanese people, I’d have no idea whether it was at the same thing and if I found something funny, but nobody else was laughing, I’d feel really hesitant to laugh. It was still fun though… As I said, I really enjoy being the only gaijin with Japanese people… It’s such a beautiful language to just sit and listen to. I’ve realised, it’s really pouty too. A lot of the words require you to pout a lot when you speak because there are so many vowel endings, I assume.
After I started getting tired, I quickly helped clear up and did some washing (also broke a glass… Somehow…). As I was leaving, I suddenly felt really woken up by the night air. It was about 11:30pm at this point. I got to the end of the path leaving the castle, which led on to the main road. If I turned right I would head back towards the main part of BH, with the manor house, guest houses and staff house… If I turned left I would go towards the pavilion and to the “Georgian garden”. After a few seconds of deliberating, I decided it would be more fun to go on a walk through the wilderness of British Hills in the middle of the night. So I went left. It’s so creepy in the middle of the night. The trees were bare and the branches looked like long, thin hands silhouetted against the deep orange sky. The ground was so soft and I could hardly see what was ahead of me. At one point I saw a row of young evergreen trees that actually made me jump because they looked kind of like small people in the darkness. I watched them suspiciously for a few minutes before throwing myself down a steep slope. I then travelled into the depths of the forest behind the staff residence. It was so good, all the spiky trees clawing at my arms. It was absolutely silent and there was some mist forming… It was so amazingly atmospheric, I want to do that again some time.
I finally got back at about 1am, desperate to learn Japanese. It was such a good day.
Hm... New people are awesome. We've got Lawrence, Phil's friend. Jess, Mel's friend and new James, who didn't have any friends here until he arrived. They're all really lovely people. I think I get on well with all of them. Although Jess won't be staying for long, which makes me kind of sad, she's really sweet.
Ok, so apparently the Japanese government has a special initiative in which it sets up "speed dating" events in rural area's, like this, in an attempt best described to me by Nolan as "to encourage them to breed!" They were holding one of these events at British Hills... It was awesome. They set up the library with several tables and chairs, with candles and Christmas trees and a buffet table. Lawrence and I were the gaijin assigned to that area. It was way awesome! Because the people at this event weren't guests, they generally couldn't speak any English, so I got an amazing chance to use my Japanese (we're not supposed to speak Japanese to guests...). Hm... Rather than go into every detail, I'll skim over the highlights.
They had two (apparently well known) comedeans there talking really quickly to eachother through microphones, making people laugh. They were speaking far too quickly for me to even guess what they were saying. Then one of them turned to me and was like "Heart? Is it heart?" I assumed he was asking if he was saying it right, so I nodded... But I still have no idea... Then the other one was like "give me your e-mail address!!" (In Japan, that's like your phone number, they e-mail instead of text on phones) I was hoping I'd missheard him... But then Yasu started laughing at me and was like "he wants your e-mail Faye!" That was funny and surreal.
Also, despite being from Australia and, I think, an Italian last name, Lawrence looks quite Japanese, which was hilarious, as he speaks very little/none. The guests kept coming over and asking him for things in Japanese. I really enjoyed his very blank look. Then I'd come over and try to help with my little knowledge. At one point there was a woman asking him for "bii-ru"... Which, in English, is "beer"... Although I didn't know where the beer was, so I had to ask Yasu for help anyway.
At one point we'd run out of oolong tea, so I was sent to get some more jugs. As I was about to head down the stairs to the kitchen, I noticed a woman blatantly belonging to the speed dating, looking very lost. So I went and asked her "daijobu?" (are you ok), to which she replied "toiru wa doko...?" (where's the toilet)... At the point she trailed off, looking rather confused at me, I assume because I was a gaijin. So I was like "ok, shita" (ok, down) and pointed to the stairs. I then had her follow me as I tried to remember where the toilet was. I asked Tammy and then poined down a corridor, saying "migi" (right)... I'm sure I spoke much more Japanese to her, but I can't remember... Either way, I felt way pleased with myself afterwards...
Yeah, after that I had to help with a big service, which is always fun.
Once we'd finished service and setting up for the next morning and everything, someone brought down the love heart shaped balloons from the event... Which was awesome. Yasu ripped one of them open (which had several smaller balloons inside)... And then the helium games began. There's nothing quite like bonding with your work mates over several helium baloons. There were some really funny ones... I think the best one was Masaki-san saying "I'ma kick your ass!" With his helium voice... Masaki-san's awesome. That night was so much fun, we spent the whole time laughing, deciding who should go next and stuff. I really love working here.
So, today (23rd of December) is a special event, for either Christmas or the Emperer's birthday (which is today)... I'm doing a buffet type thing upstairs and stuff... Tomorrow is Christmas eve, in which I will do some shopping (Nami's exchanging my English money for me... Have I mentioned how awesome she is?!) and prepare for Christmas in general. Christmas day I also have off and will spend trying to enjoy Christmas in general, and making a proper Christmas dinner for loads of people, which I'm looking forward to. Then it's new years... Oh, and on the 9th of January, I'm going to Tokyo! ^0^ I organised it yesterday. I've got a hotel booked in Ueno, I know how I'm getting there and I've pretty much decided what I'm doing on each day. It's so exciting!
Anyway, I need to get ready for work now! Ja ne!
Saturday 29 November 2008
Monday 24 November 2008
FINALLY there!
I don’t remember Saturday too well… It must’ve been quite average… Either that or it was so amazing that my memory couldn’t handle it and decided to erase it! I’m going to assume it’s the former.
On Sunday morning I actually had a really good cup of tea and a really nice breakfast. So I was in a really good mood already. And, Ayano came back! I quickly went to the toilet before going to work, and when I walked in, there she was, washing her hands. I actually gasped and said “AYANO!” We talked for a few minutes about how I’d missed her and asked if she was ok and everything. This made me even happier.
In fact, I spent the whole day feeling really cheerful Ayano had given everyone these pastry things as a thank you for being so nice to her. When it came to getting one, I read the packets. One was apple and the other had, in katakana “chizu” written on it… And I just said “cheese” out loud, trying to imagine what a cheese pastry would taste like. Then Misaki-san was like “you can read!” this made me grin. I don’t know… It just pleases me that I can read hiragana and katakana… It’s so useful and makes me feel special. In the end I had the apple one… I was in the mood for something sweet. It was tasty.
We had to do a wedding service, which I’ve never done before. We had to wear these really uncomfortable white jackets that made us look like sailors. So, Dennis, Mel and I were stood at the door, waiting for the bride and groom to arrive so we could open the doors for them and smile. We then followed behind them towards the royal balcony. It was so funny, as we approached, everyone was still clapping, at the bottom of the stairs were Helen, Misaki-san, Saito-san, Ayano and Yukina, clapping. Mel, Dennis and I started bowing and saying thank you. Then Dennis started walking as if we were welcoming him. So Misaki-san linked arms with him. Oh god, it was so funny. Misaki-san is awesome.
Anyway, during service, loads of guests left a lot of food unfinished, either because they were busy socialising and doing wedding stuff or because they just didn’t want it. So between serving we all just sat in the back “sampling” the foods. Oh god, it was good. As we were clearing away I had 5 cakes… They were only small, but still… Two slices of wedding cake, some green thing, some pink thing and a chocolate cake. Doing wedding service is fun, although a tad stressful… With the constant fear that I’m going to trip and throw soup all over the bride and ruin her day forever. Also, there was an adorable little girl there, who was, supposedly 4... Although she looked about 2 (Japanese kids are TINY!)… Yeah, while she was adorable to watch, I actually found myself missing my baby. I tried to imagine what she’ll be like now… She must’ve changed so much. I tried e-mailing Abby the other day to ask how she’s doing, but apparently it didn’t send. I really need to try again.
The rest of the day was pretty cool, I gained a few fan girls too. I noticed one girl had four slices of cake and two sorbet’s and she was scoffing them down really quickly (I assume because everyone else was ready to go). This caused great amusement for all of her friends and one of her teachers… And me. So, just as she was finishing her last bit of sorbet, I approached her with a plate holding yet another sorbet and two slices of cake. Oh god, it went down well. Everyone killed themselves laughing. Then, as I was walking away a load of the girls cooed “kawaiiiiiiii”…. Heh. They then asked for endless pictures.
After everyone had gone I ate the leftover sorbet… Otherwise it goes to waste… I ate nine! I can’t believe it!! But I couldn’t stop… I’d finish one and want another… Afterwards I felt really sick and twitchy.
After work I headed over to the pub with my studying bag. (I need to take a picture of my study bag, it’s adorable!). I talked to Ayano for a bit before sitting opposite Yuta on the table and studying. I studied nice ‘n’ good! I really feel as if I learned a lot while I was there. In one of my breaks, I was talking to Ayano and told her that she should sit with me and Yuta and study English. After a while she came over and she had a flick through my book and really tested my Japanese listening skills, then Yasu joined us. Yuta, Ayano and Yasu then just sat there talking to each other really quickly in Japanese while I sat there trying to pick up the conversation (I’m getting far better. I can now pick out important words and get the mood of the conversation, even if I don’t know the details). Then they started randomly writing in hiragana and kanji. (Apparently Yuta has very nice hiragana… Although I find it really scruffy…). Then Ayano was like “we want to make your name in kanji”. I then sat and watched the three of them scribbling down random bits of kanji, talking to each other really quickly. At one point Yuta and Yasu were both waving their phones at Ayano saying “kore! Kore!” (Here, here!). It was amazing to watch. I really felt so honoured that they were trying so hard to give me a kanji name. I felt so happy I could have cried, honestly. In the end they agreed on ““. (Fu E I) Apparently  means a flower that is still beautiful, even when it dies. My translator translates it as “Lotus”.  Means drawing and  means reliable. So there we go. I’m a reliable drawing of an endlessly beautiful flower. On the “I” part of my name, they were torn between the one that means “reliable” and another one that apparently means something like “loved by everyone”… Although I can’t find the character they’ve written here. Oh yeah, I felt so touched by this that I decided to keep the paper they scribbled it down on.
So yeah, awesome day. Plus, I learned so much Japanese and finally felt like I was understanding bits of it… There’s still a lot to learn… But I’ve already learned so much. I just need to kill my fear of getting things wrong. I’m going to be fluent one day… What an exciting idea, ne?
On Sunday I had a 7:00am start. Normally it’s not a problem, but I guess my week of fun just decided to catch up with me on that day. I felt exhausted. After I’d finished my breakfast I found myself with only 10 minutes of break left. So I sat down in one of the big, red, comfy seats and relaxed… And fell very easily into a surprisingly deep sleep. I even had a dream. I was woken up about 5 minutes later by Yuki moving tables around. So I carried on working… Then, after my initial cheerfulness at having had a few minutes of sleep, I suddenly felt exhausted again and wanted nothing more than to go back to sleep. Slowly this exhaustion turned into irritation… And then into a migraine. Oh god, it was awful! I actually felt sick from the pain. For buffet we had 200 odd kids, so we had to do another set up straight away, which added to the work. I was trying so hard not to let it get to me. I even snapped at Yasu, which I felt awful for! Nobody snaps at Yasu. He’s the nicest person ever. Earlier in the day he told me not to worry because “every day is a party!”. After I’d snapped at him, I instantly apologised and just felt awful. Thankfully, Ingrid was one of the teachers having dinner with the kids and after I told her about my agonising pain, she went and got me some pain killers! Ingrid is a saint.
I did get over the pain eventually, but the rest of the day really dragged… I even missed out my second break so I could finish half an hour earlier. Although I stayed for another 15 minutes because Saito-san was making “butter beer” for the Harry Potter event… It’s really tasty!
Anyway, once I got home, I took all my revision stuff and laptop downstairs. The plan was to finish writing this and then do some revision. So I put The Matrix on and started typing. 30 minutes later I was fast asleep… Part way through the film I woke up and thought “Oh, I get this film now!!!” and went back to sleep. Then woke up to watch the last hour or so, then took my laptop and books to the pub instead. About 15 minutes in, loads of people came down the pub and decided to start socialising. This was fine, I put my stuff away and started socialising. Then, they all decided to go again. They all went off and played chess or talked to people at the bar… In the end it was just me and Nolan sat talking about random stuff. For a bit Yuta came and joined us, but then disappeared again. I then realised that he’d gone off to study without telling me! Some study partner he is! So yeah, I then went and studied with him. I’m starting to get the hang of verbs, I think. Which is exciting. I think once I’ve got a handle on verbs I’ll really begin to excel at Japanese. I just need to find the best way of remembering all the different ones. I already know a few… But there are billions!
Yeah, one of the guests here was at the pub, socialising with everyone. He’s a nice guy. He kept talking to me in Japanese, except he did it really clearly so I could understand. I thought it was really nice of him. Yeah, Japanese people are cool.
So, we’re FINALLY all caught up!!! This morning… I slept… In fact, I woke up at 1:30pm… So, desperate not to miss lunch and end up eating my emergency food (for when I miss meals accidentally) I quickly got dressed and rushed down to the staff kitchen, arriving at 1:45. As I pushed the door open I read on a sign “Closes at 14:00, last meal order at 13:30”… I was gutted. I went in to find the rice cookers empty and the “example food” all packed away and the guys in the back packing all their stuff away. There was a little bit left on the cold buffet, so I piled some of that into a bowl. Just as I put my food in the microwave I heard The Chef (the one who got drunk at the staff party) call my name. He then spoke to me in his usual ridiculously fast, incomprehensible Japanese. All I could pick out was “tabemasu” (eat) as he poured half of his lunch into a bowl and handed it to me. Oh god, that was so sweet of him… He’s such a lovely guy! I’ve been telling everyone, just so they all know how kind he is. (Even though everyone already knows he’s awesome).
I then went home and did some washing and ironing before having yet another good cup of tea (it must be the milk I’ve bought). Oh yeah, Helen went to Shirakawa today and bought me some pain killers… Which I’m so grateful for. I just need to get someone to read the instructions, so I don’t end up taking an overdose.
At 4pm, Yuta finished work so we decided to hang out for a bit. As we drove off he was like “I need to go to the convenience store, do you mind?” No problem, right? Convenience stores are convenient in their location. About 20 minutes into the journey, after passing SEVERAL convenience stores, Yuta was like “we’re nearly there”… Apparently he wanted to go to the one in Aizu (his home town)… But this was fine, I actually really enjoyed seeing some different scenery. Aizu looks really pretty. We then went to a different shop and Yuta bought an Arashi CD and we looked at some DVD’s… Oh god, they’re cheap! He got The Ring for 380 Yen and X-Men for 400 yen (both about £2). I then saw Enchanted and was like “that’s an amazing film” but we both said it was too expensive… Afterwards I realised it’s just come out in Japan and it was only 1000 yen (about £5)… Seriously! Also, I had a quick look at the PS1 games and was so happy to find FFVIII at number 3 best seller (the top two were games I didn’t recognise), with VII and IX below it. Maybe it shouldn’t have pleased me so much… But 8 was above 7... That would never happen in the UK.
Yeah, then Yuta got a text. Apparently his friend wanted to “look at me”… This made me laugh. He wanted to come and look at the gaijin! Ahh, language barriers. Whenever I say “meet”, Japanese people blatantly think I mean “meat”… It’s the same with when I say “wear” and they instantly think “where”… Ahh, I need to learn Japanese.
Let’s see… What words have I learned recently…
Ryouri - Course (of a meal)
Tsugi - Next
Kyoukenbyou - Rabies (there is an incredibly long, hilarious explanation to the reason behind knowing this. Maybe tomorrow…).
Oru/Tadamu - The verb for “folding”
Imo - Potato (pronounced “emo”… Now imagine that emo potato! I can’t remember the longer version because I had too much fun repeatedly talking about emo potatoes!)
Komatta - Confused
Komatteiru - Confusing
Yukurri - Slowly
Zoo - Elephant
Kusai - Smells bad
Ii ni oi - Smells good
Itamimasu - The verb for pain
Um… There are more… But I’m too tired… It is quarter to 2 though so… There’s good reason… Oh god, I can’t let my sleeping pattern go crazy.
Oh yes, I’d just like to quickly mention…. It’s snowing REALLY heavily… And, after 3 weeks of being here I’m beginning to believe I’m in Japan… Not fully there yet though… I’m sure it’ll hit me eventually…
On Sunday morning I actually had a really good cup of tea and a really nice breakfast. So I was in a really good mood already. And, Ayano came back! I quickly went to the toilet before going to work, and when I walked in, there she was, washing her hands. I actually gasped and said “AYANO!” We talked for a few minutes about how I’d missed her and asked if she was ok and everything. This made me even happier.
In fact, I spent the whole day feeling really cheerful Ayano had given everyone these pastry things as a thank you for being so nice to her. When it came to getting one, I read the packets. One was apple and the other had, in katakana “chizu” written on it… And I just said “cheese” out loud, trying to imagine what a cheese pastry would taste like. Then Misaki-san was like “you can read!” this made me grin. I don’t know… It just pleases me that I can read hiragana and katakana… It’s so useful and makes me feel special. In the end I had the apple one… I was in the mood for something sweet. It was tasty.
We had to do a wedding service, which I’ve never done before. We had to wear these really uncomfortable white jackets that made us look like sailors. So, Dennis, Mel and I were stood at the door, waiting for the bride and groom to arrive so we could open the doors for them and smile. We then followed behind them towards the royal balcony. It was so funny, as we approached, everyone was still clapping, at the bottom of the stairs were Helen, Misaki-san, Saito-san, Ayano and Yukina, clapping. Mel, Dennis and I started bowing and saying thank you. Then Dennis started walking as if we were welcoming him. So Misaki-san linked arms with him. Oh god, it was so funny. Misaki-san is awesome.
Anyway, during service, loads of guests left a lot of food unfinished, either because they were busy socialising and doing wedding stuff or because they just didn’t want it. So between serving we all just sat in the back “sampling” the foods. Oh god, it was good. As we were clearing away I had 5 cakes… They were only small, but still… Two slices of wedding cake, some green thing, some pink thing and a chocolate cake. Doing wedding service is fun, although a tad stressful… With the constant fear that I’m going to trip and throw soup all over the bride and ruin her day forever. Also, there was an adorable little girl there, who was, supposedly 4... Although she looked about 2 (Japanese kids are TINY!)… Yeah, while she was adorable to watch, I actually found myself missing my baby. I tried to imagine what she’ll be like now… She must’ve changed so much. I tried e-mailing Abby the other day to ask how she’s doing, but apparently it didn’t send. I really need to try again.
The rest of the day was pretty cool, I gained a few fan girls too. I noticed one girl had four slices of cake and two sorbet’s and she was scoffing them down really quickly (I assume because everyone else was ready to go). This caused great amusement for all of her friends and one of her teachers… And me. So, just as she was finishing her last bit of sorbet, I approached her with a plate holding yet another sorbet and two slices of cake. Oh god, it went down well. Everyone killed themselves laughing. Then, as I was walking away a load of the girls cooed “kawaiiiiiiii”…. Heh. They then asked for endless pictures.
After everyone had gone I ate the leftover sorbet… Otherwise it goes to waste… I ate nine! I can’t believe it!! But I couldn’t stop… I’d finish one and want another… Afterwards I felt really sick and twitchy.
After work I headed over to the pub with my studying bag. (I need to take a picture of my study bag, it’s adorable!). I talked to Ayano for a bit before sitting opposite Yuta on the table and studying. I studied nice ‘n’ good! I really feel as if I learned a lot while I was there. In one of my breaks, I was talking to Ayano and told her that she should sit with me and Yuta and study English. After a while she came over and she had a flick through my book and really tested my Japanese listening skills, then Yasu joined us. Yuta, Ayano and Yasu then just sat there talking to each other really quickly in Japanese while I sat there trying to pick up the conversation (I’m getting far better. I can now pick out important words and get the mood of the conversation, even if I don’t know the details). Then they started randomly writing in hiragana and kanji. (Apparently Yuta has very nice hiragana… Although I find it really scruffy…). Then Ayano was like “we want to make your name in kanji”. I then sat and watched the three of them scribbling down random bits of kanji, talking to each other really quickly. At one point Yuta and Yasu were both waving their phones at Ayano saying “kore! Kore!” (Here, here!). It was amazing to watch. I really felt so honoured that they were trying so hard to give me a kanji name. I felt so happy I could have cried, honestly. In the end they agreed on ““. (Fu E I) Apparently  means a flower that is still beautiful, even when it dies. My translator translates it as “Lotus”.  Means drawing and  means reliable. So there we go. I’m a reliable drawing of an endlessly beautiful flower. On the “I” part of my name, they were torn between the one that means “reliable” and another one that apparently means something like “loved by everyone”… Although I can’t find the character they’ve written here. Oh yeah, I felt so touched by this that I decided to keep the paper they scribbled it down on.
So yeah, awesome day. Plus, I learned so much Japanese and finally felt like I was understanding bits of it… There’s still a lot to learn… But I’ve already learned so much. I just need to kill my fear of getting things wrong. I’m going to be fluent one day… What an exciting idea, ne?
On Sunday I had a 7:00am start. Normally it’s not a problem, but I guess my week of fun just decided to catch up with me on that day. I felt exhausted. After I’d finished my breakfast I found myself with only 10 minutes of break left. So I sat down in one of the big, red, comfy seats and relaxed… And fell very easily into a surprisingly deep sleep. I even had a dream. I was woken up about 5 minutes later by Yuki moving tables around. So I carried on working… Then, after my initial cheerfulness at having had a few minutes of sleep, I suddenly felt exhausted again and wanted nothing more than to go back to sleep. Slowly this exhaustion turned into irritation… And then into a migraine. Oh god, it was awful! I actually felt sick from the pain. For buffet we had 200 odd kids, so we had to do another set up straight away, which added to the work. I was trying so hard not to let it get to me. I even snapped at Yasu, which I felt awful for! Nobody snaps at Yasu. He’s the nicest person ever. Earlier in the day he told me not to worry because “every day is a party!”. After I’d snapped at him, I instantly apologised and just felt awful. Thankfully, Ingrid was one of the teachers having dinner with the kids and after I told her about my agonising pain, she went and got me some pain killers! Ingrid is a saint.
I did get over the pain eventually, but the rest of the day really dragged… I even missed out my second break so I could finish half an hour earlier. Although I stayed for another 15 minutes because Saito-san was making “butter beer” for the Harry Potter event… It’s really tasty!
Anyway, once I got home, I took all my revision stuff and laptop downstairs. The plan was to finish writing this and then do some revision. So I put The Matrix on and started typing. 30 minutes later I was fast asleep… Part way through the film I woke up and thought “Oh, I get this film now!!!” and went back to sleep. Then woke up to watch the last hour or so, then took my laptop and books to the pub instead. About 15 minutes in, loads of people came down the pub and decided to start socialising. This was fine, I put my stuff away and started socialising. Then, they all decided to go again. They all went off and played chess or talked to people at the bar… In the end it was just me and Nolan sat talking about random stuff. For a bit Yuta came and joined us, but then disappeared again. I then realised that he’d gone off to study without telling me! Some study partner he is! So yeah, I then went and studied with him. I’m starting to get the hang of verbs, I think. Which is exciting. I think once I’ve got a handle on verbs I’ll really begin to excel at Japanese. I just need to find the best way of remembering all the different ones. I already know a few… But there are billions!
Yeah, one of the guests here was at the pub, socialising with everyone. He’s a nice guy. He kept talking to me in Japanese, except he did it really clearly so I could understand. I thought it was really nice of him. Yeah, Japanese people are cool.
So, we’re FINALLY all caught up!!! This morning… I slept… In fact, I woke up at 1:30pm… So, desperate not to miss lunch and end up eating my emergency food (for when I miss meals accidentally) I quickly got dressed and rushed down to the staff kitchen, arriving at 1:45. As I pushed the door open I read on a sign “Closes at 14:00, last meal order at 13:30”… I was gutted. I went in to find the rice cookers empty and the “example food” all packed away and the guys in the back packing all their stuff away. There was a little bit left on the cold buffet, so I piled some of that into a bowl. Just as I put my food in the microwave I heard The Chef (the one who got drunk at the staff party) call my name. He then spoke to me in his usual ridiculously fast, incomprehensible Japanese. All I could pick out was “tabemasu” (eat) as he poured half of his lunch into a bowl and handed it to me. Oh god, that was so sweet of him… He’s such a lovely guy! I’ve been telling everyone, just so they all know how kind he is. (Even though everyone already knows he’s awesome).
I then went home and did some washing and ironing before having yet another good cup of tea (it must be the milk I’ve bought). Oh yeah, Helen went to Shirakawa today and bought me some pain killers… Which I’m so grateful for. I just need to get someone to read the instructions, so I don’t end up taking an overdose.
At 4pm, Yuta finished work so we decided to hang out for a bit. As we drove off he was like “I need to go to the convenience store, do you mind?” No problem, right? Convenience stores are convenient in their location. About 20 minutes into the journey, after passing SEVERAL convenience stores, Yuta was like “we’re nearly there”… Apparently he wanted to go to the one in Aizu (his home town)… But this was fine, I actually really enjoyed seeing some different scenery. Aizu looks really pretty. We then went to a different shop and Yuta bought an Arashi CD and we looked at some DVD’s… Oh god, they’re cheap! He got The Ring for 380 Yen and X-Men for 400 yen (both about £2). I then saw Enchanted and was like “that’s an amazing film” but we both said it was too expensive… Afterwards I realised it’s just come out in Japan and it was only 1000 yen (about £5)… Seriously! Also, I had a quick look at the PS1 games and was so happy to find FFVIII at number 3 best seller (the top two were games I didn’t recognise), with VII and IX below it. Maybe it shouldn’t have pleased me so much… But 8 was above 7... That would never happen in the UK.
Yeah, then Yuta got a text. Apparently his friend wanted to “look at me”… This made me laugh. He wanted to come and look at the gaijin! Ahh, language barriers. Whenever I say “meet”, Japanese people blatantly think I mean “meat”… It’s the same with when I say “wear” and they instantly think “where”… Ahh, I need to learn Japanese.
Let’s see… What words have I learned recently…
Ryouri - Course (of a meal)
Tsugi - Next
Kyoukenbyou - Rabies (there is an incredibly long, hilarious explanation to the reason behind knowing this. Maybe tomorrow…).
Oru/Tadamu - The verb for “folding”
Imo - Potato (pronounced “emo”… Now imagine that emo potato! I can’t remember the longer version because I had too much fun repeatedly talking about emo potatoes!)
Komatta - Confused
Komatteiru - Confusing
Yukurri - Slowly
Zoo - Elephant
Kusai - Smells bad
Ii ni oi - Smells good
Itamimasu - The verb for pain
Um… There are more… But I’m too tired… It is quarter to 2 though so… There’s good reason… Oh god, I can’t let my sleeping pattern go crazy.
Oh yes, I’d just like to quickly mention…. It’s snowing REALLY heavily… And, after 3 weeks of being here I’m beginning to believe I’m in Japan… Not fully there yet though… I’m sure it’ll hit me eventually…
Sunday 23 November 2008
Sunday, through to Friday night...
The three words that seem to be said most in the refectory are, in both languages.
Nemui - Sleepy
Atsui - Hot
Daijobu - Are you ok?/I'm ok
Just thought I'd mention that...
Ok! So, Sunday and Monday were normal days at work really… Although, I feel bad saying nothing… So, I’ll quickly mention just how much I’ve started loving working in the refectory.
Tuesday was my day off. I woke up at about 11am… Fantastic stuff! Helen and I had decided that we wanted to go do Karaoke, so had roped Yuta into taking us and asked Tomo to come (although he never turned up). I spent most of the day relaxing and getting ready for karaoke. It was good. Before Karaoke, we went for some ramen, which was amazingly good. Although I got full very quickly and Yuta had to finish it. Also, I had my first ever Melon soda… Oh god, it’s amazing!!
So anyway, on to karaoke. There’s a not a lot I can write about it… We all sang songs… And generally had fun. Yuta has an amazing voice. He sang Arashi and News songs and it’s only when he stopped singing to cough or something that I realised that there were no backing vocals. I really want to sing some of the Japanese songs next time we go. They have the furigana above the kanji when the lyrics come up on screen… But I’m way not fast enough at reading yet to be able to sing along to them, so I need to learn a song off by heart. If anyone has any suggestions for Japanese songs to learn, e-mail me or send me a face book message. So yeah, awesome fun day.
It started snowing on Wednesday morning. It made me really happy when I woke up and saw snow on the mountains in the distance and a few flakes falling. Although it stopped by the time everyone else had woken up. Anyway, Nolan, Helen and I had decided to go down to Shirakawa that morning, so, for some reason not even I can fathom, I forced them both to get up about 2 hours before the bus would arrive and made them go down to breakfast with me. I’m sure it was a good thing in the end, I’m sure if I hadn’t they would’ve woken up late and missed breakfast or something.
So, anyway, to Shirakawa. This time I didn’t end up spending hours walking around aimlessly because Nolan and Helen actually know where they’re going. We went to some huge shopping centre and I somehow managed to find myself in the 100 yen (50p - ish) section. Oh god, the random things you can get at a 100 yen shop. To my memory I bought… Several hair things, an adorable little bag (which is now my revision bag) a Japanese practice book, pens, ruler, corkboard, pins for my board, a little clock for the kitchen (which still needs batteries)… Um… And other stuff I can’t remember.
I then found another shop where I bought a lot of adorable accessories for my pigtails. (Hey, if I’m going to be called “kawaii” several times a day by hundreds of teenage girls, I might as well give them more of a reason), oh, and I also bought a new pocket watch! I was so annoyed when I realised I’d left my pocket watch at home and I refuse to buy a wristwatch, they annoy me so much. I was so happy when I found a whole display counter covered in different, adorable watches. Even happier when I saw the selection of pocket watches. I was torn between three different ones; a silver one with a butterfly on, a smaller, gold version (about the same size as my pocket watch) and a silver one with a crown on. I decided on the one with a crown on, because it reminded me of Nana Kitade. Seriously, it only cost 1000 yen (£5 - ish). If I go back there, I may buy a few more as spares, they’re really nice watches.
Anyway, I didn’t really buy anything else that was too exciting.
When we got back to British Hills I sat downstairs and watched “My Neighbour Totoro” with James, Nora and sometimes Kenny, while I looked at all my new, exciting stuff. It’s a really weird film… And the voices of the girls in it are really annoying. I have yet to see a Studio Ghibli film that has lived up to all its hype… In my humble opinion.
That night I went down the pub and talked to everyone at the bar for ages. Then I noticed Yuta, sat on his own, looking all down. So I went and asked him what was wrong, and, glancing at his phone once again he was like “Ayano’s had a car crash…” Ahhh!!! I felt sick! He told me that Saito-san, Yasu, Tomo and Yuichi had gone to help. But I really wanted to go as well… Even though I knew it was stupid. Yuta got phone calls throughout the night updating him on what was going on. In the end we found out that she’d gone off the side of the road (originally we heard that she’d fallen off the mountain!!!) and got whiplash, so was spending the night in hospital. I went around telling all the gaijin staff I could… Nobody seemed nearly as upset as I was. So in the end, Yuta and I just sat next to each other, in silence, worrying. I decided that we needed to get our minds off it, so I told Yuta we should go for a walk…. In the snow… Falling heavily. We walked through the woods, towards view point. It was beautiful… The snow was completely untouched and glittered beautifully in the gentle moonlight. I then threw a snowball at Yuta and we had a good snowball fight. Ahhh, there’s nothing quite like acting like a child to cheer you up. I felt much better after this. In the end, all I could do was hope for the best, worrying about it wasn’t going to help.
Thursday was amazing. At work in the morning it was only me, Mel, Yuta, Helen and lots of snow. We did the work we needed to do… Then we played! James appeared part way through and started throwing snowballs at us and attacking us with icicles (yes, we have icicles! They‘re huge!). He then started attacking the passing school children with snowballs. Which gained him more fan girls. Damn him! There was general silliness all day really. Later on, I was going around replacing the flowers. I love doing this as it is… Because I get to play with pretty flowers. I decided to keep a few that weren’t pretty enough to stay on the tables, but still weren’t dead (they’re now taped to my door to dry them). Then Misaki-san was like “come here and try some wine”… So, there we were, sitting around, drinking wine, playing in the snow, admiring roses. Then I went home at 4 because I was on an early shift.
On Friday, work was normal, as far as I can remember... Something exciting probably happened... But it seems like weeks ago.
Helen had decided to do curry and cakes for Friday night. Oh god, it was so good. The oven in our kitchen has stopped working so apparently she had to go to the teachers houses and had to run from room to room stirring each pot on their single hobs and the cakes had to be cooked in the toaster oven. The curry was amazing… Helen’s a damn good cook! It was really nice having everyone sat around the table like that. Let’s see if I can remember… Me, Helen, Mel, Phil, Mansell, Anna, Bruno, Ingrid, Tammy at one point, James… Nolan… Um… Dennis? I’m sure there were other people there… Seriously, it was amazing, we were all sitting around, sharing dishes, making repeated toasts, everyone talking… We’re like one big, multicultural family. England, Holland, Germany, South Africa, Australia, Canada… Um… Yeah… I love everyone here. The mixture of cultures and personalities makes for very interesting conversations and interactions.
Anyway, after the curry, as everyone was leaving I suddenly decided to start building a snowman. I wanted him to be sitting on the chair in the smoking area. So, I got to work moulding his arm first, then his body... Then I realise that if I carried on, my hands would drop off, so I grabbed some gloves and snow boots. I then moulded the rest of him. At one point Yuichi and Noriko came out of the pub and were bewildered by me. Nolan decided to stay out and play in the snow too. He built a snow "mushroom". But yeah, once I'd finished my man, I decided to build a whole army of men. But by this point my whole body was starting to sieze up from the cold (I was only wearing jeans, a thin jumper, snow boots and gloves) so my second man kind of turned into a snow lizard, inspired by a huge one Owain did when I must've been about 8... Yeah. Then I went back inside. That was hilarious. I kicked off my boots and stepped into the house, then my legs gave way from underneath me and I spent about 5 minutes crumpled on the floor in the hallway, laughing to myself because I couldn't get back up.
Once I got to my room I turned my heater onto maximum and just sat next to it, letting it blast me with hot air... It felt good.
But I don't care about the amount of pain I went through, the end product is awesome! He's still there... Sort of... His heads fallen off and his legs are seperate from his body, but you can still sort of tell what he's supposed to be. Plus, a lot of people have commented that he's awesome and actually looks like someone has been covered in snow. I can see him from one of the windows at the refectory as well, which pleases me greatly.
Today is Sunday... (Well, sort of, it's 1:30am on Monday). I have a random day off tomorrow... And I have no idea what to do with it... I don't have enough money to go down to Shirakawa... Plus, I'm feeling quite tired... So I might spend most of tomorrow in my Kigurumi, drinking lots of tea and maybe tidy my room so I can take and upload pitures of it.
I should be caught up on blogs by tomorrow.
Nemui - Sleepy
Atsui - Hot
Daijobu - Are you ok?/I'm ok
Just thought I'd mention that...
Ok! So, Sunday and Monday were normal days at work really… Although, I feel bad saying nothing… So, I’ll quickly mention just how much I’ve started loving working in the refectory.
Tuesday was my day off. I woke up at about 11am… Fantastic stuff! Helen and I had decided that we wanted to go do Karaoke, so had roped Yuta into taking us and asked Tomo to come (although he never turned up). I spent most of the day relaxing and getting ready for karaoke. It was good. Before Karaoke, we went for some ramen, which was amazingly good. Although I got full very quickly and Yuta had to finish it. Also, I had my first ever Melon soda… Oh god, it’s amazing!!
So anyway, on to karaoke. There’s a not a lot I can write about it… We all sang songs… And generally had fun. Yuta has an amazing voice. He sang Arashi and News songs and it’s only when he stopped singing to cough or something that I realised that there were no backing vocals. I really want to sing some of the Japanese songs next time we go. They have the furigana above the kanji when the lyrics come up on screen… But I’m way not fast enough at reading yet to be able to sing along to them, so I need to learn a song off by heart. If anyone has any suggestions for Japanese songs to learn, e-mail me or send me a face book message. So yeah, awesome fun day.
It started snowing on Wednesday morning. It made me really happy when I woke up and saw snow on the mountains in the distance and a few flakes falling. Although it stopped by the time everyone else had woken up. Anyway, Nolan, Helen and I had decided to go down to Shirakawa that morning, so, for some reason not even I can fathom, I forced them both to get up about 2 hours before the bus would arrive and made them go down to breakfast with me. I’m sure it was a good thing in the end, I’m sure if I hadn’t they would’ve woken up late and missed breakfast or something.
So, anyway, to Shirakawa. This time I didn’t end up spending hours walking around aimlessly because Nolan and Helen actually know where they’re going. We went to some huge shopping centre and I somehow managed to find myself in the 100 yen (50p - ish) section. Oh god, the random things you can get at a 100 yen shop. To my memory I bought… Several hair things, an adorable little bag (which is now my revision bag) a Japanese practice book, pens, ruler, corkboard, pins for my board, a little clock for the kitchen (which still needs batteries)… Um… And other stuff I can’t remember.
I then found another shop where I bought a lot of adorable accessories for my pigtails. (Hey, if I’m going to be called “kawaii” several times a day by hundreds of teenage girls, I might as well give them more of a reason), oh, and I also bought a new pocket watch! I was so annoyed when I realised I’d left my pocket watch at home and I refuse to buy a wristwatch, they annoy me so much. I was so happy when I found a whole display counter covered in different, adorable watches. Even happier when I saw the selection of pocket watches. I was torn between three different ones; a silver one with a butterfly on, a smaller, gold version (about the same size as my pocket watch) and a silver one with a crown on. I decided on the one with a crown on, because it reminded me of Nana Kitade. Seriously, it only cost 1000 yen (£5 - ish). If I go back there, I may buy a few more as spares, they’re really nice watches.
Anyway, I didn’t really buy anything else that was too exciting.
When we got back to British Hills I sat downstairs and watched “My Neighbour Totoro” with James, Nora and sometimes Kenny, while I looked at all my new, exciting stuff. It’s a really weird film… And the voices of the girls in it are really annoying. I have yet to see a Studio Ghibli film that has lived up to all its hype… In my humble opinion.
That night I went down the pub and talked to everyone at the bar for ages. Then I noticed Yuta, sat on his own, looking all down. So I went and asked him what was wrong, and, glancing at his phone once again he was like “Ayano’s had a car crash…” Ahhh!!! I felt sick! He told me that Saito-san, Yasu, Tomo and Yuichi had gone to help. But I really wanted to go as well… Even though I knew it was stupid. Yuta got phone calls throughout the night updating him on what was going on. In the end we found out that she’d gone off the side of the road (originally we heard that she’d fallen off the mountain!!!) and got whiplash, so was spending the night in hospital. I went around telling all the gaijin staff I could… Nobody seemed nearly as upset as I was. So in the end, Yuta and I just sat next to each other, in silence, worrying. I decided that we needed to get our minds off it, so I told Yuta we should go for a walk…. In the snow… Falling heavily. We walked through the woods, towards view point. It was beautiful… The snow was completely untouched and glittered beautifully in the gentle moonlight. I then threw a snowball at Yuta and we had a good snowball fight. Ahhh, there’s nothing quite like acting like a child to cheer you up. I felt much better after this. In the end, all I could do was hope for the best, worrying about it wasn’t going to help.
Thursday was amazing. At work in the morning it was only me, Mel, Yuta, Helen and lots of snow. We did the work we needed to do… Then we played! James appeared part way through and started throwing snowballs at us and attacking us with icicles (yes, we have icicles! They‘re huge!). He then started attacking the passing school children with snowballs. Which gained him more fan girls. Damn him! There was general silliness all day really. Later on, I was going around replacing the flowers. I love doing this as it is… Because I get to play with pretty flowers. I decided to keep a few that weren’t pretty enough to stay on the tables, but still weren’t dead (they’re now taped to my door to dry them). Then Misaki-san was like “come here and try some wine”… So, there we were, sitting around, drinking wine, playing in the snow, admiring roses. Then I went home at 4 because I was on an early shift.
On Friday, work was normal, as far as I can remember... Something exciting probably happened... But it seems like weeks ago.
Helen had decided to do curry and cakes for Friday night. Oh god, it was so good. The oven in our kitchen has stopped working so apparently she had to go to the teachers houses and had to run from room to room stirring each pot on their single hobs and the cakes had to be cooked in the toaster oven. The curry was amazing… Helen’s a damn good cook! It was really nice having everyone sat around the table like that. Let’s see if I can remember… Me, Helen, Mel, Phil, Mansell, Anna, Bruno, Ingrid, Tammy at one point, James… Nolan… Um… Dennis? I’m sure there were other people there… Seriously, it was amazing, we were all sitting around, sharing dishes, making repeated toasts, everyone talking… We’re like one big, multicultural family. England, Holland, Germany, South Africa, Australia, Canada… Um… Yeah… I love everyone here. The mixture of cultures and personalities makes for very interesting conversations and interactions.
Anyway, after the curry, as everyone was leaving I suddenly decided to start building a snowman. I wanted him to be sitting on the chair in the smoking area. So, I got to work moulding his arm first, then his body... Then I realise that if I carried on, my hands would drop off, so I grabbed some gloves and snow boots. I then moulded the rest of him. At one point Yuichi and Noriko came out of the pub and were bewildered by me. Nolan decided to stay out and play in the snow too. He built a snow "mushroom". But yeah, once I'd finished my man, I decided to build a whole army of men. But by this point my whole body was starting to sieze up from the cold (I was only wearing jeans, a thin jumper, snow boots and gloves) so my second man kind of turned into a snow lizard, inspired by a huge one Owain did when I must've been about 8... Yeah. Then I went back inside. That was hilarious. I kicked off my boots and stepped into the house, then my legs gave way from underneath me and I spent about 5 minutes crumpled on the floor in the hallway, laughing to myself because I couldn't get back up.
Once I got to my room I turned my heater onto maximum and just sat next to it, letting it blast me with hot air... It felt good.
But I don't care about the amount of pain I went through, the end product is awesome! He's still there... Sort of... His heads fallen off and his legs are seperate from his body, but you can still sort of tell what he's supposed to be. Plus, a lot of people have commented that he's awesome and actually looks like someone has been covered in snow. I can see him from one of the windows at the refectory as well, which pleases me greatly.
Today is Sunday... (Well, sort of, it's 1:30am on Monday). I have a random day off tomorrow... And I have no idea what to do with it... I don't have enough money to go down to Shirakawa... Plus, I'm feeling quite tired... So I might spend most of tomorrow in my Kigurumi, drinking lots of tea and maybe tidy my room so I can take and upload pitures of it.
I should be caught up on blogs by tomorrow.
Saturday 22 November 2008
So.. Three weeks....
Wow... Three weeks ago I arrrived in Japan. Only three weeks!! This time three weeks ago I was stuck in Tokyo Station, attempting to catch a Shinkansen...
Anyway... I've managed to type up Thursday through to Saturday. So, only a week out of date... I may miss out Sunday and Monday as I'm pretty sure nothing exciting happened...
On Thursday I there were people there, filming a J-drama about boy love. So, Helen and I started walking around trying to find them… Then we gave up because we couldn’t find them, and decided to go on a bike ride instead. Just before we left Helen decided to take some pictures of the main building… And there they were. On the roof. Some rodie guy leaning over the wall and waving at us. Anyway, after this excitememnt, we left. It was a really nice ride. We rode to the end of the main drive and saw some really beautiful scenery. We’ve decided we should go on bike rides more often… Maybe even down to Shirakawa one day. When we got back they’d started filming right in front of the refectory. As we walked up the steps we bumped in to one of the actors, he bowed and I said “ohayo gozaimasu…” all confident and stuff and he replied politely. As soon as he was out of earshot I squealed excitedly. Oh god, he was so pretty. So petite and elf like… His hair clips in and everything…. Yay for fangirling. After this, we just watched them filming for ages, taking loads of pictures and fangirling some more. At work, they were filming just outside of the window. I can’t wait for the drama to come out so I can be like “I was in the background there, behind the window, watching the back of their heads!”
Anyway, after lots of distracted working Helen and I managed to hunt down two of the actors and asked for a picture. Only one of them would though (I think they misunderstood and thought we only wanted a picture with one of them…). After the picture was taken Mel just said “playboy”, to which he was like “no, no, no, no, no!” And we all laughed a lot… (It amuses me especially that his limited English vocabulary includes playboy).
On Friday I felt really gross for some reason… I don’t know. You know those days where you just don’t feel pretty and you don’t want anyone to look at you or anything? Yeah. That was one of those days. Unfortunately, I had to go to work… At 6:30am. Work was pretty generic. Fangirls screaming “kawaii” at me… Then telling me it means “cute”. Chefs scaring me with their glares… Or laughter. The chefs scare me a lot.
Oh, and on their second day of filming… All of the pretty boys were there… Not just the two. Helen and I went to the relaxation room for our morning break where we met Mansell and told him all about it. We then saw the pretty boys sitting just outside the door, on the benches. So, after much persuasion by Mansell we went and asked for a picture (guess what Ayano’s phrase of the day was on Thursday?! =D ).
“Sumimasen, shashin o totte kudasai.” (excuse me, please can I take a picture?)… They all looked quite scared and bewildered by us… But agreed and came inside and we got us some pictures of us with pretty boys… Mansell took the picture for us… And the moment he said “everyone move in closer.” I loved him forever. The guy stood just to the right of me was standing really close. Yeah… Very childish fangirling, but I don’t care! Although I still felt very gross and especially unattractive stood next to these boys.
I finished work at about 3pm, and as soon as was humanly possible (considering everyone else wanted to use the shower in which all my stuff is kept), I had myself a bath. I used my mango body wash as bubble bath and filled it loads with really nice, hot water. I then had a shower and cleaned myself before getting in. Oh god, it’s awesome. Japanese baths are really deep and shorter than Western baths. It was so nice to sink into the mass of bubbles and not have to lie right back to enjoy the sensation of hot water lapping at my neck. Friday night was the staff party, so I got changed into something pretty and made a bit of an effort with my make-up… This made me feel a little better. But I still felt really glum… I have no idea why.
I was stood at the entrance, about to put my shoes on, considering not going at all and just going to bed early, when Kenny came in and I told him I didn’t want to go… So he offered to walk me there. Kenny gained 10 points.
When I arrived at the party, I started off feeling really out of place. Everyone had already been there for a couple of hours and had started on the food and drinks long ago. They were already sat in groups, talking and laughing and I felt like such an outsider. I got myself a bowl of soup and sat myself near James, Helen, Mansell and Mel. It wasn’t long before everyone welcomed me and we all got chatting. This was good… This made me feel very happy.
Since “chess night”, I decided to drink as little as possible. I never want to feel like that again. So, I had one cup of some weird grape flavoured beer type thing which was surprisingly nice and watched everyone around me getting drunk. Oh god, drunk people are hilarious… Especially when you’re tipsy and the most sober person in the room. Helen spent the whole night giggling at me. The chef was the best though. Apparently he’d had about 5 glasses of whiskey. He was completely out of it. He kept groping people, men and women. A good few times he’d come over to me and say “beautiful, beautiful!”, before grabbing my hands and talking really quickly in slurred Japanese. At one point, he decided to take a picture of me with Helens camera. He took one picture, then decided to sit somewhere else, fell off the chair and took pictures of me from the floor. After the party at the pavilion (mausoleum) closed, we all headed to the pub. This added more hilarity to my night. Everyone was struggling to walk, using each other to stay upright. As we walked along the road, I kept turning around to tell people that there was a car coming and that they had to move out of the way. It was fantastic. I spent the rest of the night chilling out, watching everyone around me and attempted to get an early night. Due to various different things, I didn’t get it.
But I’m glad I went to that party.
On Saturday morning we had a fire drill. Hm, do you think they organised this carefully to coincide with the morning after? It was brilliant to see other people all hung-over and tired, and me feeling brilliant. For the fire drill we had a Japanese fireman explaining the dangers of Hydrogen Sulphide gas with someone translating into English. It was great fun, we were all sitting on the floor of the sports hall, everyone giggling and talking quietly between themselves while the teachers talked. I felt like I was back in school.
It was quite interesting anyway. Apparently there have been lots of cases of people going to hotels, making hydrogen Sulphide gas in their room and using it as a method of suicide. It smells like rotten eggs and is colourless. If someone creates Hydrogen Sulphide gas we need to stay as high up as possible, as it’s heavier than air. We can’t go into the room in which it’s created. We need to get everyone in the building out and up wind and all neighbouring houses need to close their doors and windows.
We then learned how to use the fire hose. Way fun. Push button, open cupboard, two people grab the hose and run for the fire while one other person stays by the wheel. You then shout back to that person and they open the valve while the other two fight the fire. So we split into two groups and on the other side we could just see people running around shouting “fire, fire” before pulling out the hose and blasting it at Shakespeare. Then the people on our side did it… Oh, it was so fun. Some guy was walking up the main courtyard just as they turned the hose on while Yuta was holding it. It was hilarious, this guy was running away, desperately trying to avoid getting soaked while Yuta struggled to control the direction of the water.
Anyway, we went back to work and for some reason I spent the rest of the day feeling progressively moodier and moodier. Um… Yeah… I eventually cheered up though, so it’s all good.
Anyway... I've managed to type up Thursday through to Saturday. So, only a week out of date... I may miss out Sunday and Monday as I'm pretty sure nothing exciting happened...
On Thursday I there were people there, filming a J-drama about boy love. So, Helen and I started walking around trying to find them… Then we gave up because we couldn’t find them, and decided to go on a bike ride instead. Just before we left Helen decided to take some pictures of the main building… And there they were. On the roof. Some rodie guy leaning over the wall and waving at us. Anyway, after this excitememnt, we left. It was a really nice ride. We rode to the end of the main drive and saw some really beautiful scenery. We’ve decided we should go on bike rides more often… Maybe even down to Shirakawa one day. When we got back they’d started filming right in front of the refectory. As we walked up the steps we bumped in to one of the actors, he bowed and I said “ohayo gozaimasu…” all confident and stuff and he replied politely. As soon as he was out of earshot I squealed excitedly. Oh god, he was so pretty. So petite and elf like… His hair clips in and everything…. Yay for fangirling. After this, we just watched them filming for ages, taking loads of pictures and fangirling some more. At work, they were filming just outside of the window. I can’t wait for the drama to come out so I can be like “I was in the background there, behind the window, watching the back of their heads!”
Anyway, after lots of distracted working Helen and I managed to hunt down two of the actors and asked for a picture. Only one of them would though (I think they misunderstood and thought we only wanted a picture with one of them…). After the picture was taken Mel just said “playboy”, to which he was like “no, no, no, no, no!” And we all laughed a lot… (It amuses me especially that his limited English vocabulary includes playboy).
On Friday I felt really gross for some reason… I don’t know. You know those days where you just don’t feel pretty and you don’t want anyone to look at you or anything? Yeah. That was one of those days. Unfortunately, I had to go to work… At 6:30am. Work was pretty generic. Fangirls screaming “kawaii” at me… Then telling me it means “cute”. Chefs scaring me with their glares… Or laughter. The chefs scare me a lot.
Oh, and on their second day of filming… All of the pretty boys were there… Not just the two. Helen and I went to the relaxation room for our morning break where we met Mansell and told him all about it. We then saw the pretty boys sitting just outside the door, on the benches. So, after much persuasion by Mansell we went and asked for a picture (guess what Ayano’s phrase of the day was on Thursday?! =D ).
“Sumimasen, shashin o totte kudasai.” (excuse me, please can I take a picture?)… They all looked quite scared and bewildered by us… But agreed and came inside and we got us some pictures of us with pretty boys… Mansell took the picture for us… And the moment he said “everyone move in closer.” I loved him forever. The guy stood just to the right of me was standing really close. Yeah… Very childish fangirling, but I don’t care! Although I still felt very gross and especially unattractive stood next to these boys.
I finished work at about 3pm, and as soon as was humanly possible (considering everyone else wanted to use the shower in which all my stuff is kept), I had myself a bath. I used my mango body wash as bubble bath and filled it loads with really nice, hot water. I then had a shower and cleaned myself before getting in. Oh god, it’s awesome. Japanese baths are really deep and shorter than Western baths. It was so nice to sink into the mass of bubbles and not have to lie right back to enjoy the sensation of hot water lapping at my neck. Friday night was the staff party, so I got changed into something pretty and made a bit of an effort with my make-up… This made me feel a little better. But I still felt really glum… I have no idea why.
I was stood at the entrance, about to put my shoes on, considering not going at all and just going to bed early, when Kenny came in and I told him I didn’t want to go… So he offered to walk me there. Kenny gained 10 points.
When I arrived at the party, I started off feeling really out of place. Everyone had already been there for a couple of hours and had started on the food and drinks long ago. They were already sat in groups, talking and laughing and I felt like such an outsider. I got myself a bowl of soup and sat myself near James, Helen, Mansell and Mel. It wasn’t long before everyone welcomed me and we all got chatting. This was good… This made me feel very happy.
Since “chess night”, I decided to drink as little as possible. I never want to feel like that again. So, I had one cup of some weird grape flavoured beer type thing which was surprisingly nice and watched everyone around me getting drunk. Oh god, drunk people are hilarious… Especially when you’re tipsy and the most sober person in the room. Helen spent the whole night giggling at me. The chef was the best though. Apparently he’d had about 5 glasses of whiskey. He was completely out of it. He kept groping people, men and women. A good few times he’d come over to me and say “beautiful, beautiful!”, before grabbing my hands and talking really quickly in slurred Japanese. At one point, he decided to take a picture of me with Helens camera. He took one picture, then decided to sit somewhere else, fell off the chair and took pictures of me from the floor. After the party at the pavilion (mausoleum) closed, we all headed to the pub. This added more hilarity to my night. Everyone was struggling to walk, using each other to stay upright. As we walked along the road, I kept turning around to tell people that there was a car coming and that they had to move out of the way. It was fantastic. I spent the rest of the night chilling out, watching everyone around me and attempted to get an early night. Due to various different things, I didn’t get it.
But I’m glad I went to that party.
On Saturday morning we had a fire drill. Hm, do you think they organised this carefully to coincide with the morning after? It was brilliant to see other people all hung-over and tired, and me feeling brilliant. For the fire drill we had a Japanese fireman explaining the dangers of Hydrogen Sulphide gas with someone translating into English. It was great fun, we were all sitting on the floor of the sports hall, everyone giggling and talking quietly between themselves while the teachers talked. I felt like I was back in school.
It was quite interesting anyway. Apparently there have been lots of cases of people going to hotels, making hydrogen Sulphide gas in their room and using it as a method of suicide. It smells like rotten eggs and is colourless. If someone creates Hydrogen Sulphide gas we need to stay as high up as possible, as it’s heavier than air. We can’t go into the room in which it’s created. We need to get everyone in the building out and up wind and all neighbouring houses need to close their doors and windows.
We then learned how to use the fire hose. Way fun. Push button, open cupboard, two people grab the hose and run for the fire while one other person stays by the wheel. You then shout back to that person and they open the valve while the other two fight the fire. So we split into two groups and on the other side we could just see people running around shouting “fire, fire” before pulling out the hose and blasting it at Shakespeare. Then the people on our side did it… Oh, it was so fun. Some guy was walking up the main courtyard just as they turned the hose on while Yuta was holding it. It was hilarious, this guy was running away, desperately trying to avoid getting soaked while Yuta struggled to control the direction of the water.
Anyway, we went back to work and for some reason I spent the rest of the day feeling progressively moodier and moodier. Um… Yeah… I eventually cheered up though, so it’s all good.
Monday 17 November 2008
Gomen ne!!
I'm so sorry I haven't been posting lately! But, god, this week has been so hectic... But so fun. I'm either too busy having fun to post... Or too tired from having fun...
So, I've decided to post retrospectively until I catch up...
I've really started to enjoy working in the refectory now that I've got to know everyone and feel comfortable with the routine. It's good fun.
Ok, so on Wednesday I woke up, went to the toilet... And when Helen said "hi" to me from her room, I assumed it was still night time and went back to bed... Then checked the time and learned that it was in fact 12:30pm... So, a very long lie in to say the least. I considered just locking myself away in my room until we went to the onsen, but then I realised that I still hadn't applied for my gaijin card, so I went and asked Nami if she would take me.
So, after I'd done what I needed for my gaijin card and come back it was about 3pm... I really needed to get the food sorted... And get myself ready for the onsen.
So, I'm there, running around trying to finish doing my washing, cook chicken and make soup all at the same time. Oh, and I hadn't eaten all day... So I was shovelling food down my throat at the same time.
At about 4:30pm, Yuta and Yukina arrived to take us to the onsen. So I kind of left everything half-cooked for when we got back. So, off we set; me, Dennis, James, Yukina and Yuta.
By the time we arrived at the onsen the sun had already set and it was quite dark. Now, I've never been to an onsen, so in my mind I was imagining the onsen I saw in the Pita-Ten manga... All big, with seperate area's for boys and girls, with a changing room and rock gardens and the like. I was a little suprised to find us walking for about 5 minutes down a steep, rocky path towards the sound of a rushing river... And a tad more suprised to find at the bottom a sort of stone bath set into the ground, just a little above the river. There was a pipe running into it, bringing in hot water... Which was apparently from an actual hot spring.
We actually got changed on the rocks next to the bath. I quite liked this... It was like we were out of some silly teen movie, all getting changed, in the dark, next to a river.
By the time I was in my bikini, I was absolutely freezing. Bear in mind that we're up a mountain in Northern Japan in November... It was a tad chilly. So, I raced towards the onsen, with all it's beautiful steam rising and looking so welcoming and just stepped right in.
You know that feeling when your feet are really, really, icy cold and you just dunk them into really, really hot water? Yeah... I squeaked a little... But it was so good. I was desperate for my body to adjust to the change in temperature so I could just sink my whole body into the water.
It was amazingly hot. There was steam everywhere. For about five minutes I don't think any of us said anything, and we just sat there looking stupidly happy.
We sat in there for a good hour or so, I think... I don't know, time sort of stopped. For a while we talked about silly things. James and I talked about England. We then talked about national pride... Apparently I'm the only one who doesn't know the words to my country's national anthem... However, I can play it on the flute! We then all tried doing tongue twisters in English, Japanese and German, which was hilarious and crazy.
It's fun to get Japanese people to say "red lorry yellow lorry"... Although I can imagine it'd be good practice for them to get their tongues around the l/r thing.
When we got out, I felt so relaxed that I could hardly move. I just sat there in my towel smiling inanely for about 10 minutes while everyone else got dressed... I didn't even have the energy to change out of my bikini, I just put my clothes on on top... But that was fine... I was so hot that it dried almost instantly. Oh god, I felt so clean afterwards... It was beautiful, the moon came out from behind the mountain while we were getting ready to go and it was a full moon, and so bright... We were just bathed in the stunning glow... I wish a picture could've captured that moment in all its glory. But you know it can't.
So we all got back to the house and I finished cooking the chicken and soup… I then served everyone pink chicken, got depressed and James took over. Once James had taken over, it was all lovely… I take no credit for any of it, even though people tried to force it upon me. Next time I’ll make a stew. Oh, and I made a cake, which was incredibly nice. Although our oven is broken. I still need to beg someone to fix that for us so I can make cakes for everyone.
So, I've decided to post retrospectively until I catch up...
I've really started to enjoy working in the refectory now that I've got to know everyone and feel comfortable with the routine. It's good fun.
Ok, so on Wednesday I woke up, went to the toilet... And when Helen said "hi" to me from her room, I assumed it was still night time and went back to bed... Then checked the time and learned that it was in fact 12:30pm... So, a very long lie in to say the least. I considered just locking myself away in my room until we went to the onsen, but then I realised that I still hadn't applied for my gaijin card, so I went and asked Nami if she would take me.
So, after I'd done what I needed for my gaijin card and come back it was about 3pm... I really needed to get the food sorted... And get myself ready for the onsen.
So, I'm there, running around trying to finish doing my washing, cook chicken and make soup all at the same time. Oh, and I hadn't eaten all day... So I was shovelling food down my throat at the same time.
At about 4:30pm, Yuta and Yukina arrived to take us to the onsen. So I kind of left everything half-cooked for when we got back. So, off we set; me, Dennis, James, Yukina and Yuta.
By the time we arrived at the onsen the sun had already set and it was quite dark. Now, I've never been to an onsen, so in my mind I was imagining the onsen I saw in the Pita-Ten manga... All big, with seperate area's for boys and girls, with a changing room and rock gardens and the like. I was a little suprised to find us walking for about 5 minutes down a steep, rocky path towards the sound of a rushing river... And a tad more suprised to find at the bottom a sort of stone bath set into the ground, just a little above the river. There was a pipe running into it, bringing in hot water... Which was apparently from an actual hot spring.
We actually got changed on the rocks next to the bath. I quite liked this... It was like we were out of some silly teen movie, all getting changed, in the dark, next to a river.
By the time I was in my bikini, I was absolutely freezing. Bear in mind that we're up a mountain in Northern Japan in November... It was a tad chilly. So, I raced towards the onsen, with all it's beautiful steam rising and looking so welcoming and just stepped right in.
You know that feeling when your feet are really, really, icy cold and you just dunk them into really, really hot water? Yeah... I squeaked a little... But it was so good. I was desperate for my body to adjust to the change in temperature so I could just sink my whole body into the water.
It was amazingly hot. There was steam everywhere. For about five minutes I don't think any of us said anything, and we just sat there looking stupidly happy.
We sat in there for a good hour or so, I think... I don't know, time sort of stopped. For a while we talked about silly things. James and I talked about England. We then talked about national pride... Apparently I'm the only one who doesn't know the words to my country's national anthem... However, I can play it on the flute! We then all tried doing tongue twisters in English, Japanese and German, which was hilarious and crazy.
It's fun to get Japanese people to say "red lorry yellow lorry"... Although I can imagine it'd be good practice for them to get their tongues around the l/r thing.
When we got out, I felt so relaxed that I could hardly move. I just sat there in my towel smiling inanely for about 10 minutes while everyone else got dressed... I didn't even have the energy to change out of my bikini, I just put my clothes on on top... But that was fine... I was so hot that it dried almost instantly. Oh god, I felt so clean afterwards... It was beautiful, the moon came out from behind the mountain while we were getting ready to go and it was a full moon, and so bright... We were just bathed in the stunning glow... I wish a picture could've captured that moment in all its glory. But you know it can't.
So we all got back to the house and I finished cooking the chicken and soup… I then served everyone pink chicken, got depressed and James took over. Once James had taken over, it was all lovely… I take no credit for any of it, even though people tried to force it upon me. Next time I’ll make a stew. Oh, and I made a cake, which was incredibly nice. Although our oven is broken. I still need to beg someone to fix that for us so I can make cakes for everyone.
Tuesday 11 November 2008
"Stupid Yuta!"
Ok, so today I went down to Shirakawa with Yuta to buy ingredients for cakes and this meal I'm doing tomorrow. I was kinda relying on Yuta to help me get around without getting lost...
It didn't start well when we got to the station and he tried to go through the ticket barrier, then, when he realised he'd gone the wrong way, he just walked off while I was left trying to explain to a very angry ticket guy that we'd gone the wrong way in my broken Japanese!!!
A bit later on, I asked him where we were going and he said "I don't know... I've only been here 3 times." I've been to Shirakawa twice! So, he's only been there once more than me!
Anyway, we decided to go for sushi for breakfast (genki sushi again! It's so good!). So we're walking along and along and along... And I'm thinking it didn't take this long last time I went and Yuta's there like "don't worry, trust me!"
Then we ended up in some back alley, no idea where we were. So I directed us to what looked like shops... And we did a bit of shopping... But still had no idea where we were.
After about an hour of randomly walking, "trusting" Yuta, we found a taxi company building and decided to get a taxi. There was nobody in the cars at the front, so I suggested we checked the office. When Yuta got to the front door he turned me and was like "am I allowed?" Oh, I did tell him off! Seriously, he's the one who knows what the signs outside say... He's the one who's Japanese.
So yeah, turns out we were going the completely wrong direction.
We finally had sushi and did some shopping. I bought a dalmation Kigurumi. This is a Kigurumi:
It's amazing! I saw them hanging up at the back of some random clothes store (I meant to buy a winter coat... But failed... So I got my Kirugumi and leg warmers instead. I also bought some Christmas presents and got the ingredients I needed for the cake and chicken from another shop. Although, Japan doesn't do whole chickens... I ended up having to get chicken wings. But yeah, Japan is amazingly random, I love it! I kept laughing in the shop because of the random stuff I saw... In a generic shopping centre!
Also, Japan does amazing socks! They do hundereds of them, in beautiful, unique styles and they're all so cheap! I'm in heaven!
Anyway, we then tried finding our way back to the train station... Which was yet another exciting adventure. I started by following Yuta, letting him redeem himself... Until we somehow found ourselves in a back alley asking a very sweet lady for directions. Once we were back on the main road (and I'd noticed that we'd actually just gone in a big circle), I decided to take control. I then started walking in what I thought was the right direction... We must've been walking for hours...
We ended up at Shirakawa station... We needed to get to Shin-Shirakawa station... They're different apparently... So... Another taxi. It took us about 15 minutes to get there by taxi... Oh god, how did we make such an epic fail?
I attempted to tackle Black Shop again... This time I was able to walk around without feeling faint... But it's still so disorientating... I wanted to buy a games console... But couldn't find one I wanted... So we headed back to the station.
When we got back I jumped straight into my Kigurumi! Oh god, it's amazing!! It's so warm and comfortable and adorable! I'm so going to wear it around the house when I've got nothing better to do.
I had a nice walk around the BH grounds with Nora as the sun set and we discussed Japan... And by that, I mean, I talked a lot... And we looked out for bears. Then I made cakes! This was an adventure in itself... I found out that our oven is broken AFTER I'd made the mixture... So I had Nora desperately trying to find us an oven before the mix went all weird... We had to be creative, to say the least... Must mention the broken oven tomorrow. Anyway, the cakes came out really well... They're really tasty.
I decided to wear my Kigurumi down the pub tonight and I brought cake. It was really fun. I played Nora at a couple of games of chess, and failed, massively. Then, we all sat around talking for a bit... Well, they did... I was too tired... So I just listened to everyone around me and smiled inanely to myself.
I've been feeling really cheeful and chilled out recently. Life is very good. Everyone here is really awesome.
Onsen tomorrow, woo!
It didn't start well when we got to the station and he tried to go through the ticket barrier, then, when he realised he'd gone the wrong way, he just walked off while I was left trying to explain to a very angry ticket guy that we'd gone the wrong way in my broken Japanese!!!
A bit later on, I asked him where we were going and he said "I don't know... I've only been here 3 times." I've been to Shirakawa twice! So, he's only been there once more than me!
Anyway, we decided to go for sushi for breakfast (genki sushi again! It's so good!). So we're walking along and along and along... And I'm thinking it didn't take this long last time I went and Yuta's there like "don't worry, trust me!"
Then we ended up in some back alley, no idea where we were. So I directed us to what looked like shops... And we did a bit of shopping... But still had no idea where we were.
After about an hour of randomly walking, "trusting" Yuta, we found a taxi company building and decided to get a taxi. There was nobody in the cars at the front, so I suggested we checked the office. When Yuta got to the front door he turned me and was like "am I allowed?" Oh, I did tell him off! Seriously, he's the one who knows what the signs outside say... He's the one who's Japanese.
So yeah, turns out we were going the completely wrong direction.
We finally had sushi and did some shopping. I bought a dalmation Kigurumi. This is a Kigurumi:
It's amazing! I saw them hanging up at the back of some random clothes store (I meant to buy a winter coat... But failed... So I got my Kirugumi and leg warmers instead. I also bought some Christmas presents and got the ingredients I needed for the cake and chicken from another shop. Although, Japan doesn't do whole chickens... I ended up having to get chicken wings. But yeah, Japan is amazingly random, I love it! I kept laughing in the shop because of the random stuff I saw... In a generic shopping centre!
Also, Japan does amazing socks! They do hundereds of them, in beautiful, unique styles and they're all so cheap! I'm in heaven!
Anyway, we then tried finding our way back to the train station... Which was yet another exciting adventure. I started by following Yuta, letting him redeem himself... Until we somehow found ourselves in a back alley asking a very sweet lady for directions. Once we were back on the main road (and I'd noticed that we'd actually just gone in a big circle), I decided to take control. I then started walking in what I thought was the right direction... We must've been walking for hours...
We ended up at Shirakawa station... We needed to get to Shin-Shirakawa station... They're different apparently... So... Another taxi. It took us about 15 minutes to get there by taxi... Oh god, how did we make such an epic fail?
I attempted to tackle Black Shop again... This time I was able to walk around without feeling faint... But it's still so disorientating... I wanted to buy a games console... But couldn't find one I wanted... So we headed back to the station.
When we got back I jumped straight into my Kigurumi! Oh god, it's amazing!! It's so warm and comfortable and adorable! I'm so going to wear it around the house when I've got nothing better to do.
I had a nice walk around the BH grounds with Nora as the sun set and we discussed Japan... And by that, I mean, I talked a lot... And we looked out for bears. Then I made cakes! This was an adventure in itself... I found out that our oven is broken AFTER I'd made the mixture... So I had Nora desperately trying to find us an oven before the mix went all weird... We had to be creative, to say the least... Must mention the broken oven tomorrow. Anyway, the cakes came out really well... They're really tasty.
I decided to wear my Kigurumi down the pub tonight and I brought cake. It was really fun. I played Nora at a couple of games of chess, and failed, massively. Then, we all sat around talking for a bit... Well, they did... I was too tired... So I just listened to everyone around me and smiled inanely to myself.
I've been feeling really cheeful and chilled out recently. Life is very good. Everyone here is really awesome.
Onsen tomorrow, woo!
Monday 10 November 2008
"Welcome to the British Hills Mausoleum!"
Ok, first, I'm so sorry I haven't been updating this as often as before. But I've really settled in recently and have either been too busy having fun or so tired from all the fun to actually put into words what I've been doing and how I'm feeling.
So, yesterday was hilarious and strange. There was a big tea event... That was literally translated... Seriously, it was called 大茶会 - Dai cha kai. Big tea event.
Anyway, this meant that there were hundereds of people everywhere... So we were nice and busy all day. I started work at 6:30am... Which I've never done before. That was fun. We got to have buffet food for breakfast, which was delicious.
Anyway, later on I went to the pavillion to serve lunch to the Japanese Boy Scouts who couldn't fit into the actual refectory. I was with Saito-san, Tomo and a load of Japanese chefs. It was hilarious. They were all stood around talking to eachother really quickly in Japanese, and I was just stood there, listening, watching, picking out occasional words. I'm so glad they didn't talk to eachother in English for my sake...
I really enjoy watching Japanese men talk to eachother. They talk so loudly and react so dramatically. I love watching them completely relax with their peers, randomly shouting words or exclaiming "EHHHHH?" loudly and laughing. I love watching them talk to their superiors, and see how they change and watch them bow and are so careful to pay attention.
Because I was the only gaijin there, I had to give the speeches to the 64 Japanese boy scouts, welcoming them to the pavillion, showing them where the food was and telling them where to put their dirty stuff... So...
"Good afternoon and welcome to the British Hills......" Mausoleum "...." Mausoleum! "...... PAVILLION! Tonight..." It's the afternoon "... We have a buffet including....." Food... "Pasta, rice, meat and fish..." You forgot to mention soup and potato "we also have a salad... Including..." What? Salad stuff? "...Salad stuff... And afterwards there will be pudding" No there won't. Why did you just promise these poor chidlren pudding?! "Once you've finished please take everything to the trolley over there and put any leftovers in the bin. Thank you, please stand up and follow me to the buffet table!"
This happened... Or something smilar... Every time I gave a speech. The itallics are what I was thinking... I did actually say "salad stuff!"
This was both hilarious and horrific... Thankfully their English was practically non-existant, so they had no idea that I was talking absolute rubbish.
After that, I ate some more delicious buffet food. They have these battered chicken things... That are absolutely delicous and moreish... I can't stop eating them, they're so sweet and tender and juicy. They're amazing!
Anyway, I finished work at 3pm... Which completely threw me for the rest of the day. I'm so used to finishing at 9pm that I had no idea what to do with my afternoon... And I completely wasted it. I slept for a lot of it, then I sat on the internet and when Nora finally came home I watched him game for a bit before playing shot chess.
I lost at shot chess... I'm never, ever playing again... And I may never drink again.
So, today, I woke up in a complete state because of the damn chess... I had a shower... And noticed that my legs are considerably thinner than they used to be... Although they're absolutely covered in bruises. Just thought I'd put that out there...
Work was awesome. For most of the day it was only me and Ayano. We spent ages just talking about random stuff. Later on, James and Dennis came and we all just stood around joking, being silly. Good times.
It was really busy, so I had lots of fun running from one buffet table to the next, doing as many things as possible. I'm always happier when I feel like I'm in an impossible situation and I'm handling it.
It was so funny, one girl put some gravy on her rice and James just tutted and said "That's no good. You're supposed to put it on your beef..." To which she pulled her head away from her plate and loudly exclaimed "EHHHHHHHHHH?!" As if she'd done something awful. Oh god, I laughed for so long.
Later on another girl was asking for a lemon to put in her tea. So James went and got her a whole lemon and offered it to her. He then actually cut it up and presented it to her on a dish. Once she'd finished she gave James the last 3 slices of the lemon she didn't have. So James wrapped it up in cellophane and gave it to her on her way out. Oh god, she wasn't impressed at all. James is funny.
Oh yeah, yesterday Yasu taught me a new word "saigo" (last). If I say "saigo no hitotsu" I'm saying "last one" or I can say "____ wa saigo" which is "Last ____"... Which is important when I'm doing the buffet and we're on the last one of something. I can just shout it to the chefs... So, today I tried it out. The first time the chef just shouted back "haii" and everything was fine. The second time, as I left I heard a couple of them laughing saying "saiko" (awesome)... =/ The chefs laugh a lot when I leave the kitchen... It makes me feel very paranoid... But I will keep talking to them in Japanese, even if they do mock me!
Tomorrow I'm going down to Shirakawa to buy stuff. And on Wednesday a group of us are going to an onsen. I'm really looking forward to it. It should be really good. After that, we're all heading back to the staff house and eating a roast chicken dinner I plan on making. I'm looking forwards to it.
Also, my favourite collection of kanji ever.
大丈夫 Daijoubu (It's alright). We all say this a lot... As a question and as an answer to stuff. It's a useful word...
That's all for now, I think...
So, yesterday was hilarious and strange. There was a big tea event... That was literally translated... Seriously, it was called 大茶会 - Dai cha kai. Big tea event.
Anyway, this meant that there were hundereds of people everywhere... So we were nice and busy all day. I started work at 6:30am... Which I've never done before. That was fun. We got to have buffet food for breakfast, which was delicious.
Anyway, later on I went to the pavillion to serve lunch to the Japanese Boy Scouts who couldn't fit into the actual refectory. I was with Saito-san, Tomo and a load of Japanese chefs. It was hilarious. They were all stood around talking to eachother really quickly in Japanese, and I was just stood there, listening, watching, picking out occasional words. I'm so glad they didn't talk to eachother in English for my sake...
I really enjoy watching Japanese men talk to eachother. They talk so loudly and react so dramatically. I love watching them completely relax with their peers, randomly shouting words or exclaiming "EHHHHH?" loudly and laughing. I love watching them talk to their superiors, and see how they change and watch them bow and are so careful to pay attention.
Because I was the only gaijin there, I had to give the speeches to the 64 Japanese boy scouts, welcoming them to the pavillion, showing them where the food was and telling them where to put their dirty stuff... So...
"Good afternoon and welcome to the British Hills......" Mausoleum "...." Mausoleum! "...... PAVILLION! Tonight..." It's the afternoon "... We have a buffet including....." Food... "Pasta, rice, meat and fish..." You forgot to mention soup and potato "we also have a salad... Including..." What? Salad stuff? "...Salad stuff... And afterwards there will be pudding" No there won't. Why did you just promise these poor chidlren pudding?! "Once you've finished please take everything to the trolley over there and put any leftovers in the bin. Thank you, please stand up and follow me to the buffet table!"
This happened... Or something smilar... Every time I gave a speech. The itallics are what I was thinking... I did actually say "salad stuff!"
This was both hilarious and horrific... Thankfully their English was practically non-existant, so they had no idea that I was talking absolute rubbish.
After that, I ate some more delicious buffet food. They have these battered chicken things... That are absolutely delicous and moreish... I can't stop eating them, they're so sweet and tender and juicy. They're amazing!
Anyway, I finished work at 3pm... Which completely threw me for the rest of the day. I'm so used to finishing at 9pm that I had no idea what to do with my afternoon... And I completely wasted it. I slept for a lot of it, then I sat on the internet and when Nora finally came home I watched him game for a bit before playing shot chess.
I lost at shot chess... I'm never, ever playing again... And I may never drink again.
So, today, I woke up in a complete state because of the damn chess... I had a shower... And noticed that my legs are considerably thinner than they used to be... Although they're absolutely covered in bruises. Just thought I'd put that out there...
Work was awesome. For most of the day it was only me and Ayano. We spent ages just talking about random stuff. Later on, James and Dennis came and we all just stood around joking, being silly. Good times.
It was really busy, so I had lots of fun running from one buffet table to the next, doing as many things as possible. I'm always happier when I feel like I'm in an impossible situation and I'm handling it.
It was so funny, one girl put some gravy on her rice and James just tutted and said "That's no good. You're supposed to put it on your beef..." To which she pulled her head away from her plate and loudly exclaimed "EHHHHHHHHHH?!" As if she'd done something awful. Oh god, I laughed for so long.
Later on another girl was asking for a lemon to put in her tea. So James went and got her a whole lemon and offered it to her. He then actually cut it up and presented it to her on a dish. Once she'd finished she gave James the last 3 slices of the lemon she didn't have. So James wrapped it up in cellophane and gave it to her on her way out. Oh god, she wasn't impressed at all. James is funny.
Oh yeah, yesterday Yasu taught me a new word "saigo" (last). If I say "saigo no hitotsu" I'm saying "last one" or I can say "____ wa saigo" which is "Last ____"... Which is important when I'm doing the buffet and we're on the last one of something. I can just shout it to the chefs... So, today I tried it out. The first time the chef just shouted back "haii" and everything was fine. The second time, as I left I heard a couple of them laughing saying "saiko" (awesome)... =/ The chefs laugh a lot when I leave the kitchen... It makes me feel very paranoid... But I will keep talking to them in Japanese, even if they do mock me!
Tomorrow I'm going down to Shirakawa to buy stuff. And on Wednesday a group of us are going to an onsen. I'm really looking forward to it. It should be really good. After that, we're all heading back to the staff house and eating a roast chicken dinner I plan on making. I'm looking forwards to it.
Also, my favourite collection of kanji ever.
大丈夫 Daijoubu (It's alright). We all say this a lot... As a question and as an answer to stuff. It's a useful word...
That's all for now, I think...
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