Pera Pera Peter

So today I woke up, did some homework and spoke to kim, the usual morning, went down and said hi to my host family, spent a little time downstairs before coming back up and getting some more revision done.

Got a call a bit later saying the rest of the old gang (India, Sophie, Brian, Hannah and Maria) and Alex were going down to Hirakata for dinner, did  I want to come along? Okay’d it with Okasan and rode off into the night.

Now this is where the interesting bit starts. I am not the fittest guy in the world, as many of you know, and being in homestay, I have been cycling to school and back every day, on a single gear bike (Side Note: As much as I’ve been bashing single gears, it makes it so much easier if the chain slips off, trust me xD), and the route to school is up and down hill all the way. So, it usually takes me about 40 mins each way to school, that’s 1 hour 20 biking a day, minimum. Plus the biking down the highway I’ve been doing with India Wed-Friday this week adds about 20 mins each way 3 times. Then yesterday, an hour and 10 bike each way into hirakata. plus just getting around a little, that’s about 11 hours of biking this week. My legs are slowly dying, but god am I gonna be  fit by the end of this semester.

The dinner was great, the ‘all drinks 280’ place down next to the Ring building – horrible service, but it’s been too long since all of us  hung out like that. I even got the smackdown handed to me by maria – on a long string of euphemisms referring to her fingers as magic wands: “Magic in that they make boys disappear” “Yeah, and they turn into men.”

Then home and dying slowly in bed xD

Short day again for friday, just speaking and reading/writing in the morning, then a free afternoon! No super happy fun times today, as both lessons had review tests, but it was still good! Spent the first part of the afternoon chatting with Kim, then playing scrabble with the guys, then me and India decided to do something we’d been saying we’d do for ages, and go check out the Hotel Chapel Coconuts.

The Hotel Chapel Coconuts is a love hotel down the highway, that’s a little odder than most. For a start, it is freaking huge and pink – you can see this building about a mile down the river next to Hirakata – and secondly it is hilarious – “Welcome to Adventure World” proclaims the large archway, as you cycle past flaming torches and toucans. I will take pics when we go down there again (both of us forgot our cameras, so we’re making a pic run soon). but it was good fun, especially with all the innudendo filled jokes we could make about going to  a love hotel and all.

It was getting late, so I should have been heading back to homestay – however, I thought friday night would be a good night to ask if I could eat with india and come home later – which I texted, and was given full and lovely blessings by okasan. What a darling.

After that checked out the arcade, and then the shop where I bought my PSP, hoping to find India a DS lite. This caused way more hassle than it should. Because we not only found standard DS lites, we also found DS lite Overseas/North America Edition, which was 2000Y cheaper in one store and 400Y cheaper in another,and which had a huge  paragraph of extra text explaining the differences, that I was having serious trouble translating xD so we phoned Ella (LOVE YOU DARLING) who googled the shit out of it for us and found that…nobody had any idea what the differences were. and then it turns out on the box, on the bit I could understand, it said the adapter worked in both NA and Japan – which is great, but why are paying 2k less for the privilege? Even now, after an hour googling and translating, people are saying conflicting things, but the one consistent thing is that it doesn’t come with a DS strap for some reason. WHO KNOWS.

Came back home and ofuro’d, then was going to go straight to bed, but ended up staying up later fiddling with things and trying to hook up my psp to he interwebs xD

Had Japanese speaking in the morning.

DAILY JAPANESE SPEAKING HAPPY SUPER FUN TIMES:

“You have been very nice to people recently so God will allow you to become the opposite sex for a few days.”

“Mr Tanaka wants people to think he is rich, so he always tells lies.”

“Tanaka-san wants to go out with you. However, you don’t want to go out with him, because he is not handsome.”

“Some of your friends stopped talking to you after yesterday’s drinking party. You don’t remember what you did, because you were too drunk.”

Oh speaking class, you’re looking to be hilarious. After that one class, chatted with kim a bit, ate some lunch, then went out with India for a bit, down to the highway, grabbing a mos burger and looking at DS lites for her. Also tried getting a few errands done, but it wasn’t to be.

Got back, and celebrated Setsubun (season’s divide). We ate long sushi rolls, facing this year’s lucky direction, and ate our age in roasted beans, so 20 for me. Traditionally, the children will then throw those beans at their father, dressed as an Oni, or demon, and say “Oni ha soto, fuku ha uchi” which translates roughly to demon out, fortune in.

After that, ofuro, a little homework, and bed 😀

Woke up in my room. My room where, once again, I could see my breath forming clouds infront of me. I turned the heater on, half expecting  to see an icicle precariously above my head, and curled up in my blanket cocoon. I’d woken up early so I could speak to kim in the morning, so it wasn’t like I had to get going anytime soon, so I cranked up the heat, put my laptop next to me, and only stretched a hand out of the warmth to type.

This worked fine until it was time to go. The room was now, after about an hour of heating, maybe half a degree warmer than it started at, so I hopped out of bed and reached straight away for my clothes. Clothes that were, due to my previous lack of foresight in the heating department, about 10 degrees colder than the room was. Put on a tshirt, a long sleeved shirt over that, my Leeds hoodie (my warmer hoodie was still wet from monday), and some cargos, and immediately my core body temperature dropped like a stone, but cycling would warm me up. Shoved my stuff in a bag, went downstairs and ate a slice of toast, before cycling to school. At least it wasn’t raining.

Got to class, first was speaking. I’d like to take a moment to describe just how incredibly amazing/depressing Japanese lessons can be. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned previously in this blog, but back at Leeds, a lot of the examples/reading excerpts we had were all hilariously saddening – for example, a girl whose roomate stole her things then did a runner without paying the rent, or a girl whose boyfriend cheated on her with her best friend. It started off sad, but as we read each new one we got, and saw the pattern forming, it became a joke between us, what new depths our readings could sink to. In our speaking class, it looks like this tradition is carried on marvelously – but with a lot more comedy than in Leeds. For example:

“Mary wants to marry Takeshi, but her friends want her to marry Ken. You are a friend of Mary’s. Let’s speak ill of Takeshi and praise Ken!”

As a grammar example, set during a date between a foreign student and a japanese girl: “Which do you like more, my left or right hand? Oh no, that might be misunderstood!”

I adore Okawa-sensei. He’s so dude-like. If this carries on, i may have to do a daily section about these things.

Spoke to kim after, playing Scrabble with the guys. Called Kimmeh so she could read me the last few pages of her book, which was sweet ^^ after that, afternoon classes!

Religion in Japan and Death in East Asian Thought both seem amazing, can’t wait to get stuck in. Kenney-sensei talked with me a little about the fact that there will be some overlap in the classes, especially doing Shinto last year, suggesting I look at another course maybe – but when I explained how interested I was in religion in Japan as a concept, how i did my paper on it back home  and all, she was satisfied, and said that was fine. After the first lesson with her, I sat and discussed Eaaf and I’s cult night (which I haven’t blogged about yet, but I will do, believe me) with her, which she found really interesting, and we chatted a little about religion in general in Japan, which was great.

Came back after lessons (swinging by Sem 2 to pick up some trainers I forgot seriously me wtf – thanks to Jeremy for being a star and looking out for them for me) and had dinner, after being teased by Okasan and Yuuko-san: “did you find your way ok tonight? :p”.

Dinner was delicious, but odd as all hell. It was like hot pot, meat, veg, tofu, udon and these strange clear noodles that i can’t remember the name of. The odd part was already in the bowl at the beginning though. Sweet potato, that tasted kinda lemony, and a cold Japanese citrus sauce, that made everything taste of really, really sharp lemon and lime. Hot Udon noodles + cold sharp lemon sauce = weird as hell, but good.

Watching TV during dinner was an exercise in hilarity as well, for me anyways, as I was introduced to the Japanese phenomenon of choosing really mismatched english songs for adverts and news articles. Again, this may well be a daily section too, but so far I’ve seen an advert for valentine’s day in Universal Studios Japan, using “Lovefool” by the Cardigans:

“Love me, love me, say that you’ll love me,

Fool me, fool me, go on and fool me,

love me, love me, pretend that you love me

Leave me, leave me, just say that you need me”

not the most lovey of songs, at the end of the day. The other great one was on the news, during a news story that involved…all I could tell was schoolgirls getting off a plane from somewhere, maybe a youth olympic team? not sure. However, the song was “Not Fair” by Lilly Allen. The excerpt they used?

“I look into your eyes,
I want to get to know you,
And then you make this noise,
and its apparently its all over

Its not fair,
And i think your really mean,
I think your really mean,
I think your really mean.

Oh your supposed to care,
But you never make me scream,
You never make me scream,

Oh it’s not fair,
And it’s really not ok,
It’s really not ok,
It’s really not ok,

Oh your supposed to care,
But all you do is take,
Yeah, all you do is take.”

Stay classy NHK News, stay classy.

After that, ofuro. Only stayed in it about 5 mins this time, I swear I’m getting worse at coping with the feeling of pins and needles as every extremity is pushing every blood vessel in the skin to the surface to cool down. Well, not every extremity. The other one is caught between pain of temp and trying to keep cool, I don’t think there’s a plan of action in a brain for this kind of situation.

Then, ato de, bed for me ^^ talked with kim a little bit, played some wipeout, revised for my tests this week, then hit the hay.

My first day of classes back after christmas was a short one – Japanese from 9-11, speaking then reading and writing – so I had to be up early.

So, after my alarm briefly woke me up, and then didn’t snooze for no seemingly apparently reason, I woke up with 35 mins too spare. Seeing as it’s a ’30 minute bike ride’ according to okasan/otousan, I was pushing things – but I threw clothes on, grabbed my stuff, got shown the bike I’m borrowing, and charged off into the early morning grey.

Side note: Whoever thought it was a good idea for one of the most technologically advanced nations to all ride single gear bikes is a goddamn moron.

Anyways, so predictably enough, I get completely turned around, end up seeing K’s Denki on the highway (the other side of the uni to my house) and finally snaked down past seminar house into school. I ended up being about 10 mins late, which isn’t so bad on the first lesson. I explained how I got lost to our teacher and everything and he was fine with it, so I suppose it worked out in the end. Got  all my papers from that and headed to my next class, which was fun, but kinda sobering in the scope of what we’ll cover. Then into the computer room to speak to Kim ^^

Spoke with Kim (which was great, as ever ^^) went and bought my textbooks and got my papers. Played 4 way/3 way scrabble with India and Jeremy for a little bit, then decided it was time to head back home. This was about 4-ish. So I get out of the room, and decide it’d be a good idea to register the bike. So they need the number on the back of the bike, fair enough, so I leave my textbooks/parcelImayhaveleftintheCIEyesterdaybyaccident in the office, and go to find my bike. Thus begins the saga. By this point, it’s tipping it down with rain, and I go to find the bike. And just then I realise that I have no idea what the bike looks like. I remember it had straight handlebars, a proper bell and a ‘National’ brand lock  (do not ask me how I remembered the lock brand of all things), but I couldn’t even remember the colour. I had, however, remembered where I put it, so I found one that looked similar, tried my key…nothing. Crap. Eventually found it (although it was green, so looking for silver bikes because ‘they’re all silver’ probably wasn’t the smartest move), and unlocked it…only to notice that it had registration stickers from Kansai on it – stickers that are meant to be handed in at the end of each semester. Stickers which mean it’s a student’s bike, especially when one of those stickers says it comes from seminar house. So it’s not my bike. But I just unlocked it with my key. At this point I decided to cut my losses (after scouring the bike park for the better part of 30 mins) and headed back to explain the craziness to CIE. They then phoned okasan at work (oops 😦 Gommenasai okasan!) and she said that the stickers were meant to be on the bike. And just to add to the confusion, it was Brian’s (their last homestay student’s) old bike. But then why did the ownership stickers say michael?

Long story short, what we imagined happening is, the person who owned it at Sem apparently owned it a couple of years back, according to the sticker code. They must have just left it there at the end of a semester, and Sem sold or gave it to Brian, who then left it with okasan. This is what happens when Japanese Beaurocracy goes wrong people. Chaos. It’s wonderful when it works, but when it doesn’t you’ve got a better chance of getting something done if you just wave a chainsaw around.

So then i began the task of cycling back. Bearing in mind how generally unfit I am (much better now with all the walking last semester) and how the bikes are single geared, and me not riding one for the past god-knows how long, it was a pretty daunting task – especially as my thighs had seemed to have disappeared after this morning’s trek (got off the bike: I’m okay! Stepped down a step to the field: Leg almost gave way as my thigh gave my brain a giant ‘fuck you I won’t do what you tell me’). However, nothing’ll help me get fitter like a 30 minute bike ride in the pouring rain and darkness right? Where my glasses keep steaming up from my breath and getting covered in raindrops so i can’t see? Where i get lost again on my way back home and end up spending close to an hour and  a half cycling around Kuzuha? It was great exploration, and now I know exactly how the route fixes together, so that’s cool, but still, so long x////x Thank goodness otousan had leant me some gloves!

eventually got back, threw some new clothes on and had dinner which was gorgeous, fish and rice and bentou and miso soup, and it was delicious. Then, while the ofuro was being used, went upstairs to sort timetable/homework, and then took my ofuro.

I’ve discovered something new about the ofuro. They are witchcraft, for sure. I have this boiling hot bath, get out wet, dry myself off etc, and then retreat to a bedroom I can see my breath in (heaters in japan are aways turned off, if you’re not in the room) and I didn’t feel a thing. It’s like the cold is running away from your 43 degree water heat. It’s crazy.

Got dried off and came upstairs to do homework after saying about it to okasan and otousan, and came up, but only realised the time after they get to bed, so didn’t say oyasumior anything, which I hope won’t be too bad in the ettiquette state of things. xD

Right now, I need sleep though, so goodnight!

So today was the day I moved in with my homestay family. I was so nervous this morning, wondering about so many things – finishing packing, whether I’d have internet or not and be able to speak to Kim, whether they’d even like me – it was pretty nerve wracking. I finished packing my stuff (I need a new large suitcase –  I haven’t got that much more stuff, just needed to spread it between about 6 small bags instead of one big ‘un), finished talking to Kim and dragged all my stuff to the ground floor, with the aim of walking up to uni with it all with India’s (begrudging :p) help, before leaving it in the lobby to meet my family. Slight problem. It started raining, pretty hard – me with two suitcases, god knows how many shoulder bags, a box and a guitar. So I ordered a taxi. Which then sat outside the wrong sem house for 10 minutes.

Long story short, despite my best intentions, we were running late.

So we go a huge way around uni to the bus depot, crank it into uni and run upstairs. The first question I recieved: “why do you have all your bags?” Turns out that when they said put them in the lobby, they meant of Seminar House precisely so you didn’t have to drag them to uni. And no one thought to tell me when I was lugging all this shit out of sem xD So I then run downstairs, dump all the stuff in the main office, say goodbye to long-suffering India and run back upstairs, scribble on my forms and come outside to meet my homestay family.

I couldn’t stop smiling the moment I saw them. Obviously we are gonna have our ups and downs, but they just looked the nicest people. Also, my first thought was that one of them looked like family friends of my family’s back home (it later turned out they are IDENTICAL IN EVERY WAY TO THAT FAMILY except japanese). Okasan was wearing a black jacket with leopard print insides and a purple sweater. HOW BAMF IS THIS WOMAN. Then it turned out everyone knew them (maybe because I’m their 22nd homestay student) and everyone kept saying how much fun I was going to have with them. Then I had the meeting with them and it turns out I have internet, the family all live within two doors of the house, so there is regularly huge amounts of things going on covering 4 generations, I am being lent a bike, I have no real curfew, although I have to let okasan know what’s going on (fair enough), okasan will do all my laundry, etc etc. I was like 😀 at everything.

Then we left to go home, and we loaded my many bags (and box and guitar) into the car and headed home, me following the route back to uni carefully, knowing i’d have to cycle it the next day. Got in, met the dog (who is SUCH A CUTIE) and lugged all my stuff upstairs, and sat chatting with okasan and obaachan for a bit infront of the 405 foot wide TV, before the family arrived.

And boy did they arrive.

It ended up as Me, okasan, otousan, obaachan, two adult children and their spouses, and their 5 children. Thirteen of us  in the front room eating. it was mad. It was little Kaito’s birthday (he turned 3) so I gave him some of my english pencils as a birthday gift. for food we had sukiyaki which I freaking love (raw egg in the bottom of a bowl, hot pot of meat and  veg in juices that you just help yourself too aspkfaslx so delicious) and birthday cake to finish. We then chatted and I taught some guitar as we watched TV and let dinner go down, before people started using the bath. A little while later it was my turn to use the bath.

So in Japan, this is what you do. You shower before the bath, making sure you’re extra clean, then get in the bath (which is hot – this was 43 degrees) and soak away your troubles, and then get out feeling relaxed and refreshed – which was oh man, exactly what happened. Baths, I’ve missed you so.

So then after everyone went (and we watched a great j-drama called Tokujo Kabachi), I went back to my room, which is  where i am now. Let me just describe the awesomeness. There are books everywhere, including the complete Encyclopaedia Britanica in Japanese, Ningyo (shudder) and pictures everywhere, including, in pride of place above the desk, a where’s wally jigsaw picture. And just incase I needed any more signs to how perfect it is, the shouji (sliding doors) have snoopy on them. ❤

Then the following conversation happened – excuse the language.

[00:34:56] Ella May Blake: What’s your room like at your house?

[00:35:01] Wiggles: lovellyyy

[00:35:11] … dolls a- HO SHIT IS THAT A PIANO UNDER THAT COVER

[00:35:14] … IT LOOKS PIANO SHAPED

[00:35:16] … BRB

[00:35:44] …THERE’S A MOTHERFUCKING PIANO

[00:35:46] … IN MY ROOM
Turns out there is a piano  in the room too, under a giant blanket. I love this family.

Right, so now off to bed. 6 and a bit hours sleep then cycling  to school. Most likely in the rain. Fun start to the year! 😀

Time for the Tokyo Game Show! Set off on night bus last night with…well, I won’t use his real name, but let’s call him Stanley, who…was a constant source of pain and trauma this day, to both me and Katy. Let us not dwell on him. Suffice to say I didn’t sleep  much on the coach, mainly due to his constant pestering, even when it was quite clear I was trying to sleep – in the end the only way I managed  to get him to shut up was by giving him my DS, Scribblenauts, and telling him Long Cat was involved. For those of you unschooled in such things, this is Long Cat:

After arriving in Tokyo and meeting Katy, we were off to TGS! Here is Katy being cute:

Then after being let in, the nerdery commenced. From here on out, it’s going to be mainly pics with commentary, with a few more details of the day thrown in. Enjoy.

Katy kisses a "Solid Snake" fnar fnar

Final Fantasy XIII in "Wait...that's actually a girl this time?" shocker

...And we're back to effeminate males again. Good Job FF:Crystal Chronicles

...Or Not. Only manly men here.

TGS - Tasty Game Show?

There's always time for engrish

And for  those of you with a sharp eye for the ladies, the belles in the background were part of this display:

Please note the evilest bear-strangling toddler ever in front.

To save me saying repeatedly how once we got inside, it was busy, I will simply post this photo of the people behind us in the queue. There were more people infront:

It's unsettling how many people are looking directly at the camera

And now…INSIDE.

Oh so moe

Katy will remember this – the advert for this mobile game made it look basically like Mobile Sugar Daddy Simulator Deluxe ™, except you weren’t playing the sugar daddies. Wtf world, wtf.

Very high cosplay quality...though a scary as hell Chun-Li

Do not ask, for I do not know.

Touhou Cosplayers!

Again, for anyone not in the know, Touhou is a series of ‘Bullet Curtain’ shooting games, which while incredibly beautiful and fun, are hard as nails. Note the fact the the one on the right has fake skin. Hiding hairy man-arms perhaps? Who knows!

Lastly, comes one of my fave games of the show, Bayonetta:

This…this is only a game that could be made in Japan, really. I’ve no idea how much the western press is covering this, so excuse any repeat info. From what I can gather, the game is about the above Demon/Woman/Library Worker Fetish Model and her many guns, fighting other demons. Two of the aforementioned guns are built into her high heels. Her hair can also transform into a variety of deadly super-attacks (guillotines, dragons).

However, this is when it all starts getting strange. In a clear case of a designer wondering how to work casual nudity into a game and it be story relevant (this also coming from the designer who spent a long time “perfecting her breasts and ass. Maybe I’m just that kind of guy.”) her hair also forms her costume, so whenever hair is used as a special, she gets briefly naked. I…I could not make this shit up.

However, this isn’t my reason for loving it (honestly) – it just looks like a ridiculously smooth, incredibly well choreographed, incredibly tongue in cheek bit of arcady Devil May Cry fighting action. Keep an eye on it, DMC lovers.

Last but not least, I couldn’t do a TGS post without mentioning the merchandise everywhere:

Haaaiiii!

Layton and Luke Plushies/Keyrings

Yoshis/Pikmin/Animal Crossing!

And the most expensive thing I picked up that day – then entire Kingdom Hearts Collected soundtracks ❤

9 Discs, each with different art work - so beautiful ;;

After that, hung out a little more with Stanley around Akihabara, which produced some hilarious moments. I know katy blog-ranted about him, but here’s my top Stanley-moments for the day.

• Within five minutes (literally) of meeting Katy, he showed  us across a crowded shop a magazine he knew entirely too much about, with an anime picture of a very young girl (looked about 11) in an entirely too revealing maid’s outfit.
• Clearly didn’t expect Katy to know anything whatsoever about video games/nerdery, and so tried to explain things to her like basic internet memes and game characters – many of which he got wrong, which lead to many a stern and well deserved smackdown from Katy.
• Literally forcing himself onto our company, when it was clear me and katy wanted to spend time together (the reason I came down in the first place) he continually forced himself into our plans, including telling us we should take him to akiba because he’d never been there.
• Then in Akihabara, home of all that is good and bad about Japan, while me and Katy went round the terrible parts laughing andd joking, he wanted us to leave because it made him uncomfortable – despite the young girl magazine incident from earlier.
• And last but not least, inviting himself to sleep in Katy’s room next time we came down to stay. Really.

After all that drama, and seeing Stanley off, we headed back to Katy’s house and slept. It was a long and tiring day.

Also worth noting is Katy getting Chikan’d halfway around the show. A Chikan in Japan is a sexual pervert – and in this case, while being sardined together in a busy pathway, Katy was groped. It was really an insane show of just what happens in Japan with relation to that, especially his blank stare of “What?” when katy looked at him, as he continued. It was a very strange experience, and one I don’t hope happens again.

Today was the day of the famouse Toji Temple Fleamarket in Kyoto, and me and a ton of other people decided to head down there – Jerrard, Jo, Katy and a few others. However, they were getting up eaarly to get down there, and partly due to my late night/work/general laziness, I decided I’d meet the guys down there. Easier said than done without a phone, I know, but that was the plan. Other than that, i was aiming to look around and see if I could find a Shamisen, especially after a discussion with Matsue-sensei, our Popular Music teacher, who told me all the things to look for in a good Shamisen at fleamarkets.

Got up, did some work/chatted with peeps, before heading out towards the market about midday. Walked down to Hirakatashi Station, but looked at the station map expecting to go to Kyoto Station, and it wasn’t on the map. Luckily there were a couple of americans there going to the same place, and they told me I needed to go to Goenshijo then bus it from there. So we ended up going as a big group down to Goenshijo, then (after I asked the policeman about buses to Toji Temple) to the fleamarket.

The fleamarket itself was in the temple grounds, and who did I meet there but Simon, Jason, Sophie and a few others from Leeds going to different Unis:

Wandered around – there were tons of different stalls, selling everything from plants, to hats, to swords and knives. I found a stall selling childrens toys and bought a coin purse (for all my damned 10 yens) and a towel (both Blue Dragon) and a Hello Kitty purse for Kim (excuse the messy table in the background!):

After losing the guys to go say bye to the Americans who were leaving early, decided to have a wander around the temple proper. Paid my entrance me, headed in, and man was it beautiful. I’ve always loved the  architecture and general feel of shrines and temples, Japanese religious places in general, and this place was stunning:

After roaming around there for a while, headed back out and couldn’t find the guys again, so decided to walk back down to Kyoto myself, and have a look around – seeing as Kyoto was my favourite place in Japan when I visited before. Found a few odd things, including:

• A store with anime figures and posters in the window, which turned out to be a hairdresser’s
• The loudest Pachinko Parlour ever
• A shopping street/road thing, with a roof over it – which had the unnerving effect of making you think you’re in a mall, before dumping a shrine’s gate right between two shops, and set back as well, so it’s like a portal to another world.
• A Thomas and Friends subway train

Grabbed a Mos Burger on the way home, and got on the train home the wrong way! But luckily, two stops to the end of the line, and it turned around and came back.

More pics in my Picasa web albums!