Pera Pera Peter

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!