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復活 - April to mid-August

I shall resurrect this blog :)

It has been over 14 months since I last wrote something here, mainly due to 'write something on your blog!' falling waaaay down my priority list, and Facebook really taking over. That hasn't helped the six billion take 140-odd who aren't my Facebook friends though, and for that I apologise.

From April '07 until the rains started, I rode my bicycle absolutely everywhere, fearing I wouldn't be able to the next day because the rains would start - I guess I had the same complex as those who, having a subconscious fear of running out of food tomorrow, buy and prepare as much as possible every single day: I feared running out of sunlight and lapped it up at every opportunity.

I've got to say that exploring everything within a 12-kilometre radius of the Minesawa Dormitory was fun. Finding a quick way to Gumyoji dorm was particularly good, as I always knew at least three people would be welcoming me with open arms every single time I'd arrive there, offering some fruit, a refill of my water bottle and a nice chat. Ah, those were the days...

In place of Slimeball Sasanuma, a nice first-year from Nagoya called Watanabe moved in, and if ever his music got a little too loud (only twice), I was sure to let him know, knocking and politely asking him to turn it down due to the thin nature of the walls. He obliged, and we lived peacefully until my exit in late September.

It was in July that I started resenting not having an air conditioning unit and merely a large fan - when the nighttime temperature is never less than 25 degrees and humidity is in the nineties, an air-drying aircon system always comes in handy. Seeking refuge in other Minesawans' airconditioned paradises provided respite from the heat and humidity on many occasions. For accepting me as a climate refugee, I thank them :)

There was a continuous heatwave in August all over Japan, but I had no idea until half way through that month when Shoji bought the Asahi Shimbun at Munich station. Eh? Munich? Yes, we went to Europe for a month. Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary (Transit only lol), Serbia, and Bulgaria (only two hours).

Arriving at Frankfurt's international airport after ten months in homogeneous Japan proved a shock - Shoji and I had arrived in multicultural Europe. Seeing apples sold by the kilo, cranberries and smoked meat in abundant supply, and whole supermarket walls dedicated to yoghurt, all types of cheese and other such products made me see the major cultural difference between Europeans and Japanese (and other East Asian nations): DAIRY!

The only thing that passes for cheese in the average Japanese diet is the stuff put on hamburgers, the Kraft Parmesan cheese spinkled on pasta, and Kraft Singles-style rubbery processed "cheese". Sour cream, thickened cream, buttermilk, Balkan-Greek yoghurt, cheddar, tasty, fetta, colby, kashkaval..... all was on display in Germany, very difficult to find in Japan however.

One could say the Japanese calcium intake is substituted by fish etc, but it doesn't seem to do the job, as the grandmas spines bent 90 degrees bear testament to. A fellow student of mine from Korea, while discussing the consumption of milk, told me flatly:

'There's a famous Korean doctor who says the Korean body doesn't absorb the calcium present in dairy products, so there's no point in drinking milk or eating cheese for us. That's a white-person thing'.

Naturally, I was gobsmacked. I don't exactly remember my reply, but it went something like this:

'WHAT?! That doctor's a fucking idiot. Koreans, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese etc have milk products in their diet if they live in Australia or the US, and they have strong bones, thanks to the calcium in their diets.... Tell that doctor he's an idiot, he has no idea what he's talking about! He must have been paid by the All-Korean Anti-Milk Axis (AKAMA) to say such crap.'

I delivered a similar pro-milk speech at a primary school in Gunma prefecture. The kids there told me the only dairy intake they get every day is the 200ml carton rationed to them at lunch. The same ration is given to the teachers, but they don't bother drinking it - it's a non-dairy (I am tempted to say "staunchly ANTI-dairy") culture, nothing much can be done. An appeal to the kids to have at least half a litre of milk a day so they grow up big and strong (assuming yoghurt and cheese are in limited supply in the village) received mixed responses - from "yes, we'll have more milk" to "but I don't like the taste of milk". It's the same in every country I guess.

That's enough for today. Stay tuned for part two.

The Simplicity of Kanji (漢字は簡単である）

My friends,

Now that the Kanji test is behind me, I've started to have a look at the forms of these ideograms that cause us so many sleepless nights. My interest in this is purely for fun - you may ask yourselves 'why does Petar look at Kanji for fun?!' ... I ask myself the same question all the time.

I have concluded that the current 常用漢字 are simple, but at the same time annoying.

Now, please don't rush to inflict violence on my person - I should clarify my use of 'simple': compared to their old forms, current 常用漢字 are easier to recognise and write. I encourage you to have a look at the list below, to see how and why the Japanese education ministry has, in its infinite wisdom, sought to make literacy attainable for its charges.

I sincerely hope that, as your eyes skim over this list, you will come to agree that Kanji is merely troublesome.

Of course, please increase the size of your display font to appreciate the differences in old vs new characters :)

壓 圧
醫 医
圍 囲
壹 壱
隱 隠
榮 栄
營 営
驛 駅
圓 円
鹽 塩
歐 欧
毆 殴
穩 穏
假 仮
畫 画
會 会
繪 絵
擴 拡
覺 覚
嶽 岳
學 学
關 関
歡 歓
觀 観
勸 勧
歸 帰
犧 犠
舊 旧
據 拠
擧 挙
區 区
驅 駆
徑 径
莖 茎
經 経
繼 継
輕 軽
缺 欠
硏 研
獻 献
權 権
鑛 鉱
號 号
濟 済
齊 斉
劑 剤
參 参
蠶 蚕
贊 賛
慘 惨
殘 残
絲 糸
齒 歯
辭 辞
實 実
寫 写
釋 釈
肅 粛
處 処
稱 称
證 証
觸 触
囑 嘱
圖 図
隨 随
髓 髄
樞 枢
數 数
聲 声
竊 窃
淺 浅
踐 践
潛 潜
錢 銭
雙 双
總 総
屬 属
續 続
墮 堕
體 体
對 対
臺 台
瀧 滝
澤 沢
擇 択
擔 担
膽 胆
斷 断
遲 遅
蟲 虫
遞 逓
鐵 鉄
點 点
當 当
黨 党
獨 独
讀 読
屆 届
貳 弐
惱 悩
腦 脳
廢 廃
麥 麦
發 発
蠻 蛮
濱 浜
竝 並
倂 併
邊 辺
變 変
辨瓣辯 弁
寶 宝
豐 豊
萬 万
滿 満
譯 訳
豫 予
餘 余
譽 誉
亂 乱
兩 両
獵 猟
禮 礼
勵 励
靈 霊
齡 齢
戀 恋
爐 炉
勞 労
樓 楼
灣 湾

亞 亜
惡 悪
應 応
櫻 桜
價 価
壞 壊
懷 懐
樂 楽
氣 気
戲 戯
峽 崃
狹 狭
曉 暁
勳 勲
惠 恵
雞 鶏
藝 芸
縣 県
儉 倹
劍 剣
險 険
檢 検
顯 顕
驗 験
廣 広
國 国
醉 酔
兒 児
濕 湿
壽 寿
收 収
從 従
澁 渋
獸 獣
縱 縦
敍 叙
將 将
燒 焼
獎 奨
條 条
狀 状
乘 乗
淨 浄
剩 剰
疊 畳
孃 嬢
讓 譲
釀 醸
盡 尽
粹 粋
瀨 瀬
靜 静
攝 摂
專 専
戰 戦
纖 繊
禪 禅
壯 壮
爭 争
莊 荘
搜 捜
巢 巣
裝 装
藏 蔵
臟 臓
帶 帯
滯 滞
單 単
團 団
彈 弾
晝 昼
鑄 鋳
廳 庁
轉 転
傳 伝
稻 稲
賣 売
祕 秘
拂 払
佛 仏
飜 翻
默 黙
藥 薬
與 与
搖 揺
樣 様
謠 謡
來 来
覽 覧
壘 塁
隸 隷

(more characters probably belong here, but this is enough だよ～)

Kanji Test Freakout

Okay, so today、finally, after many months of preparation, is the Kanji test. All 1945 常用漢字タス誰アンド賂・・・・・

FUCK!

Kanken has lain untouched for many a day.......

Words encountered once or twice and never again are slowly but surely escaping. Gems such as 普遍、 国璽 (okay, so THAT one won't be on the test, but still...)、儒教、凸凹、韻律、虞、褒める・誉める、直径、怪物、趣旨、膨らます and 憩い are now meaningless, MEANINGLESS!!!

v(T_T)m
(a kind of HELP ME, I'M SINKING emoticon)

Japanese books keep annoyingly repeating the same 教育漢字, and instead of 窮まる authors write きわまる lest they are ridiculed for not instead using 極まる........

Various dajare will also ruin any chance of passing - 脂肪のせいで死亡した、性交で成功がありますか・・・・・・


But..... second chances exist, and worrying only brings on high blood pressure and an urge to get plastered (at 11am?!).

The trick is to hop on the basketless bike waiting downstairs (pfffttt.... that can wait for tomorrow - I'm driving!), and play Kanken somewhere in Chifley until 1350 today.

A skimming of the second volume of that terrible Kanji workbook would also help, but vocabulary in that book is mostly useless. I must agree that there will be few chances to squeeze 山猫 into a sentence, and 水浸し, unless of course my tatami mats are flooded out as a result of heavy rain, shall also remain in the 'never to use' box.

慰安旅行 would be good to drill into my brain, though the word directly below it in the reference book assigned to us i.e. 自慰行為, will not come in handy at all (no pun intended).

Time to get ready..... 頑張るぞー！

I'll be at the bar around 4pm, come have a beer (or three).

I'm lazy with this blog

Okay, a short spiel on where I've been and what I've done:

I went to Kyoto during the spring holidays for about 48 hours with a Seishun Kippu - yes, local trains.... but I got annoyed at Nagoya and caught the Shinkansen to Kyoto - half an hour as opposed to two hours....

I teach English in a cafe - basically, I get paid to drink beer and coffee, sit with Japanese people and explain lightbulb jokes as well as the difference between Lice and Rice, Election and (you get the idea)...

I went with Shoji to Kamakura on Sunday - some photos from there will find their way onto Facebook once I find my camera's USB cable.

The new semester started, all my classes are in Japanese except for some management class I'm attending in order to catch up on sleep. My translation lecturer used to be a lecturer at the ANU (Yoshida-sensei), and a lecturer of mine from the ANU was one of his students back in the day - it's a small world ain't it :)

I have yet to randomly bump into someone from home unexpectedly... what are you all doing? Staying in Australia, where the heavens do not send rain, and the ground does not shake violently?

Enough! Back to watching Terebi-Tokyo, it looks like some funny game show is starting soon :)

I win!

Returning from my arubaito earlier this evening and checking my mailbox, I saw a notice （空室）stuck to the mailbox for Mr Slimeball- and the sticker bearing his name (笹沼勇佐） wasn't there...

This, combined with the fact that since yesterday his electricity meter wasn't turning (come to Minesawa and see how easy it is to monitor people's electricity consumption), made me realise something - THE BASTARD MOVED OUT!

HOORAY!

To celebrate, David and I finished my 3 litre can of Asahi Beer while watching Barcelona vs Real Madrid on TV.

It seems his banging on the wall on the weekend was a goodbye gift, as on Sunday afternoon there was the loudest bang I had ever heard on my wall (I thought a bomb exploded next door), and then silence.

I am unbelievably happy - everyone's good wishes for a speedy end to this episode paid off - HE'S GONE!!!

I shall now get to proper uni life - studying Kanji like a madman, and possibly going to Kansai for 48 hour trips.

...and the war starts again

After the heavenly silence of Nagano, the joy of seeing fellow ANU students in Japan, and buying a Nintendo DS-lite after waiting in line last Friday night at Yodobashi-camera, you'd think all was set nicely, right? Think again.... old problems come back, like the bad smell of last night's clump of natto that fell behind your table accidentally...

This is, of course, Mr. Slimeball. He started playing ball at 8am (!), waking me up. I nicely got up, yawning rather loudly, and he banged my wall. Thinking this was a coincidence, I yawned again for good measure, and again a loud bang came in reply.

Having the confidence of some of the liquid courage of last night's Midori in my system, I took my breakfast (a banana) and walked to the guy's door. After ringing the doorbell once, he answered. We exchanged morning greetings, then I asked him, in a rather croaky voice (I had just woken up!) to be careful not to bang the wall, he slammed the door in my face. I then went back to my room, and guess what happened....

Obnoxious Short Slimeball, not having an ounce of niceness in him, took half an hour out of his morning to bang the wall loudly every twenty seconds or so. Seriously, what is the bastard's problem? Does he hate Americans (I'm an Aussie, but he may not know that)? Does he hate whites? Does he hate that I'm taller than him? WHAT IS IT?!!?!?!?!?!?!?!

If he bangs tonight, I've kind of arranged for a collection of dormitory friends of mine, a combination of Japanese, American, African, and others to accompany me to his front door. And we shall kindly offer to buy him a child-sized taiko drum that he can bang to his heart's content, so long as the thin wall separating myself from him suffers no more abuse.

You'll be updated tomorrow on progress in the Great Wall Hitting War (大壁殴り戦争）. Stay tuned.

Problem Solved. Now to deal with spam...

In the last twenty minutes, because it was nearing midnight, I could no longer stand the banging of Mr Slimeball. I decided to knock on his door or ring his doorbell and ask him to cease and desist, but since it was late at night and he had a potential weapon (his banging ball), I asked the nicest person on my floor to come with me and talk to Slimeball. Getting to his door, we agreed he was banging a ball around the room rather loudly, as we could hear it while standing outside his door. My friend then rang the guy's doorbell.....

At first, the banging stopped, there was the characteristic squeak of a Minesawa-provided chair, and then silence. Waiting ten seconds and wondering if he heard the bell the first time, my friend rang again. Again, no response, just silence, no banging, nothing. He wanted to ring a third time, but I suggested against it - the banging stopped, it's okay.

I am eternally grateful to my good friend, who backed me up in what might have been an ugly one-on-one verbal confrontation. You are always blessed with good people who live around you - you've just got to wash your dishes in the kitchen to meet them :)

My blog gets a lot of spam posted to it, much to my annoyance. On top of having to clean my room/do my laundry, I also have to clean up my blog. What puzzles me is the same message that appears on the blog also appears as the only English-language spam email to my phone (so much Japanese spam, but I like my short email address - having it as anu256-gansekiraku07@ezweb.ne.jp may help, but it's too long for people at home to type into their email programs). I've got to somehow get that picture-letter recognition thingy included as part of my 'create post' dialogue, similar to what you can see if you decide to leave a comment.

I see that many people from all over the place read my blog - keep reading, I promise more pictures and tales of adventure in Nippon.

The bastard in the room next to me

I was going to write about the splendour of New Year, Christmas, the Japanese Orthodox Church, Sumo and seeing the Emperor and Empress, but this will all have to wait, as something else is on my mind at this very moment....

There is a problem in Minesawa dorm - the idiot who lives in the room next to me.

Without fail, that degenerate slimeball will bounce a ball in his room, and since the walls here are thin as in most of Japan, I am forced to hear every bang. Now, it would be nice if the guy had some some sense of rhythm, but this is asking too much from someone who appears to have the brain of a tone-deaf and chemically affected J-pop drummer (if such things exist). Though we have lived next to each other for three and a half months, I have only seen this guy two or three times - he is about 160cm and looks like he's in his mid to late twenties, or it may be that he's my age, but the amount of makeup he uses (he looks like a metrosexual of sorts, so I'm assuming he wears what so many people now euphemistically term 'male care products') must have made his face have the same consistency as my leather gloves.

Despite the fact that I've seen Degenerate Slimeball, I have not spoken a word to him, nor has he to me. The only communication we have is him banging a ball against my wall and me throwing something heavy at the wall in return. Somtimes, he'll punch the wall in reply to that, which gives me the excuse to intermittently push the wall in simulation of an earthquake, at which time the banging ceases.

I have been tempted to ring Mr. Slimeball's doorbell and ask, in a very direct way 「貴様は問題がある?」, but I really couldn't be bothered to - banging the wall is enough communication. In the meantime, buying a softball or tennis ball and doing the same thing would either make him stop, or have matters made much worse, with 24-hour bouncing marathons... I'll stick to vacuuming my room at 3am, it's relatively more productive while causing genuine annoyance :)

If the bastard moves out at the end of semester, I will breathe a sigh of relief - I will finally be able to study in my room without having to endure the endless ﾊﾞﾝﾊﾞﾝﾊﾞﾝ I currently experience.

The last two or three weeks or so

Okay, so it's really been 久しぶり for this blog. But it's the holidays now, so I have time.

Japan is getting slowly colder, with frost appearing on the cabbage fields that I see on the way to/from Mitsuzawa-kamicho station. In Aomori, a long way away from Yokohama, it's snowing.

My tutor and I went to Kamakura about three weeks ago, exploring the shrines and temples for which that location is famous. Along with several keychains, I bought many postcards. What was interesting about Kamakura relative to Yokohama-proper is the abundance of eagles - Yokohama is full of crows, big black crows that squark constantly, while the shrines of Kamakura have eagles that fly over and glide gracefully through the sky. I made the mistake of not doin laundry the day before, so the only wearable jacket I had was my black アキバ系 one. Akiba-kei literally means Akiba-team, as in Akihabara　（秋葉原）, the electric shop district and unashamed nerd mecca. The only problem is that Akiba-kei has a rather negative meaning, kind of like a rude way of calling someone a nerd. Wearing a jacket that effectively says NERD on it in Japanese, coupled with visiting traditional sites, was a bit of a mismatch, so I bought a new jacket with the help of my tutor towards the end of our day.

After buying my new jacket (which is really nice by the way), we walked about a kilometre to a zen-temple to try some zen-Buddhist meditation. I can say that during the whole exercise, I was wondering whether, if my Vladika found out, I would receive an epitimia of 1,000 years or just a week. As well, my back hurt quite a lot while sitting on one of the temple cushions, as I couldn't fold my legs the right way. All in all, it was far from an exercise in clearing the mind of worries, but it was good to try it at least once. Given that this info is now in my blog, my Vladika will find out. I repent!

Some time after that, it was the day before Sv Alimpije, so I thought the Orthodox Church in Tokyo would have Vecernje or something. Taking with me the freshly-faxed letter from Vladika Irinej saying I was a ctec, I caught the train to JR Tokyo-eki, then changed to the Chuo line to Ochanomizu station, got off, walked to the church, and found the gate locked. Maybe they don't like Sv. Alimpije as much as Serbs do....

My trip to Tokyo was fruitful though, I bought a pair of leather gloves in Kanda that now keep me warm when my hands risk suffering frostbite.

That same evening was the Christmas party at Gumyoji, the other YNU dorm, about 20 minutes by train from Kamicho-eki. There, I met someone from Bosnia who invited me to a Jadranka Stojakovic concert the following Friday, which was quite nice of her. We'll jump to the concert now...

At Higashi-nakano station, waiting for me were several Zainichi Balkanites - Bosnians and a few Serbs. They all spoke Serbian, naturally, and Japanese, and English - perfect! I could communicate in all three languages!

The concert was nice, but meeting new friends in Japan who are Balkanites was even better :)

Somewhere in between that and last week came a stint at Karaoke in Gumyoji with friends who live at that dorm that was originally supposed to be an hour but later turned into three, then a slow walk to Gumyoji so I could crash there in a friend's room. I wish I could remember what day it was - I think it was Friday or Saturday, but I'm unsure. Anyone reading this and who was there, please let me know what the actual date was, so I can edit this blog accordingly :)

...Two days later was the YNU Orchestra's concert, that was phenomenally good. It was held in the Minatomirai large hall, which really is large! We got really good seats, so we got a full listening AND viewing experience.

Then came my birthday this week, which was very nice. In the evening, it was sushi-eating time with a few friends, which was excellent - after sushi came eating icecream at a shop called Milky-Soft (which is 200m from a 70s era porn cinema [take from that what you will]), and a call from relatives at home wishing me a happy birthday. Good fun, great food.

Friday, though, was the big party. Dinner at the Watami izakaya with 10 different dishes, and nomihoudai for two hours led to many funny photos (and videos that will end up on Youtube), and a feeling of 'beer is good - it's a jolly drink!'.

After the party, it was Karaoke at Gumyoji, but only orange juice for me - Watami was enough drinking hahaha. We got to Gumyoji dorm at around 2am, and I again crashed there. So, let's recap - I did not sleep on Friday night at home as I was at Gumyoji.

Then, Saturday. Getting up, going to the station and coming back home by 7.30am was okay - I could have a bit of a nap, which was good. At 2pm, I went to Sakuragicho to meet with Sheryl to visit, take a deep breath, the SILK MUSEUM.

Yokohama is full of all sorts of museums, from silk to ramen (noodles) to tin dolls and (probably) bottle caps. The silk museum, though, like the fibre it's based on, is fine, smooth, and very pretty. Silk through the ages throughout the world in Japan was on offer - very interesting, and a good choice by Sheryl to go there.

Later on, it was catching the Seabass (ferry kind of thing) to a nice shopping centre called Bayquarter - lots of restaurants with nice views overlooking the harbour.

After that came meeting with Sasha and going to Tokyo - first, Ginza, the very expensive shopping district. Prada gloves cost 50,000 yen, denim jackets 112,000 yen... it's nice to look, it's a ripoff to buy.

Following the Ginza walk, it was a quick train ride to Shibuya for dinner, then buying a pair of jeans for me. This deserves its own paragraph.

Buying clothing in Japan is interesting. Like I mentioned in a previous post about sizes, I have to visit a big/tall menswear store for stuff I can buy in a normal shop in Australia. Not to worry, my size is the second smallest at the shop in Shibuya. After choosing jeans and trying them on, I see the leg is too long - the shopkeeper offers to alter them FREE OF CHARGE, ON THE SPOT! They're altered (so professionally that they don't look like they've been altered!), I pay for them, very happy that I have a new pair of jeans with the leg the right size - hooray for nice Japanese shop employees that happen to be good tailors, with sewing machines on hand, who will alter clothing for me!

Our sojourn in Shibuya soon ended, as we went to Roppongi. The first three hours I would rather forget, as they were in a trance club full of smoke and people who looked like they were high on ecstasy. The last two hours were more fun, in a club called Gas Panic. I thank Sasha for taking me there, it was excellent :)

While walking through Roppongi at 3am, we were appraoched by hordes of whores - women offering a 'special massage' mainly to me because I look like a foreigner. To show that I wasn't an opportunistic nymphomaniac gaijin, every offer I turned down with 全然必要ない!　(I don't need it at all!), which shut them up very quickly - this gaijin could turn them down directly in their own language!

When Gas Panic closed, it was a bolt to the train station, and missing the first train by ten seconds. All it meant was a 15 minute wait, which went by quickly. I noticed at the train station that black American men with the physique of Marines would approach random Japanese couples at the station and try to talk to them, the couples would try to get away, but would be followed up and down the platform. I wouldn't like to be in those couples' position, those Americans looked mighty scary (how did I know they were Americans? Simple, they had AMERICAN ACCENTS!).

Getting to Yokohama at 6.30am or something like that, I caught a train to Kamicho, then got home at around 7.00am, and went to bed, then woke up at 3pm. That was on Sunday (Catholic Xmas Eve).

So, in short, I did not sleep at home for two nights in a row - strange, eh?

The next two weeks will be spent studying and writing research papers - Yokohama is no holiday (contrary to my original hope of it being one), they actually make us do work!

Photos will be up soon, but it's easier to see my albums on my Facebook page. Sign up for an account at http://www.facebook.com/ - it's free and it's easier for me to upload pictures there :) To save us all time, here is the link to one album on Facebook http://anuedu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020953&l=4542d&id=204401291

Thank you all for comments (verbal and written) - to quench your collective thirst for my bloggin, I'll be more regular in my posting from now on, with more detailed accounts than the one above (I'm writing it at 3.30am on Boxing Day!!!)