Itsumo naratte imasu

So I’ve had a “natsu-kaze” (summer cold) for about two weeks now and I’m only now starting to get over it. This has unfortunately coincided with a particularly busy week in work meaning I haven’t really had time to rest up. Still as the Japanese saying goes “Baka wa kaze ga hikanai.” (Fools don’t catch colds). Guess it’s just cos I’m so smart then.

So referring to the title I think part of the reason I’ve been so drained lately is because I’m always learning something. I’ve been dropped into a new field of research, in a new country, with a different language and a different culture. I’m having to learn new things every single day so it’s no wonder I’m a bit brain drained really.

So this week what I’ve mainly been focused on is the sample preparation for CDI. This has essentially meant being stuck looking through a microscope for about 5 hours a day. It’s not particularly complicated but it is a bit fiddly and time consuming. I don’t mind really it’s good to actually understand what I’m doing for once. Also as our microscope is a digital one I don’t have to further wreck my eyes looking through a small lens all day.

The reason for this is that I’ve actually been put in charge of sample prep for the entirety of the experiment starting on Tuesday. There are three reasons for this:

1)   It frees up Daewoong to concentrate more on learning about set up and operation of his CDI system.

2)   I’m the only member of the group with a biology background and our target samples are either cells or biological molecules so I should in theory have a better idea their expected image and how to handle them.

3)   My supervisor believes it will help me be more involved in the experiments since we’ll be looking at samples I’ve prepared. The last couple of experiments whilst I was present I wasn’t all ways engaged so hopefully this time it’ll be a bit different.

Of course this means the pressure is on so I’ve been working my balls off to try and get the technique sorted before Tuesday. I think I have a good handle on it now but I’m I’ve been ending most days completely drained, going to bed at about 11pm and sleeping for 9 hours.

It’s not all been work though I’ve also been doing other things, though still learning. An important thing for me whilst I’m over here is to engage more in the Japanese way of life and at the moment the biggest barrier to that is language. As such I’ve been taking every opportunity to learn that I can. I currently have two lessons a week with Kitimura-sensei at work using the Japanese for busy people book.

Outside of this I’ve also been attending a much more informal Japanese language class with some local retired members of the community. This is really nice and laid back and also a good chance to get to know some locals. Since I don’t really speak Japanese much at work, except maybe briefly with Shimada-san this provides a great opportunity.

At the moment I’ve been learning with Teroi Saado-san. He also works here at Spring-8 and is developing a detector system for the XFEL beamline. He worked for another company in Osaka for many years but retired a couple of years ago, only to start working here at the age of 62. He really doesn’t look his age though. It has been very nice learning with him especially as his English isn’t great so he’s just as keen to learn my language, as I am to learn his.

This week he actually proposed that I should come visit him at his house and meet his family sometime. I’m really excited about this it should be a very interesting experience, I’ll just have to make sure I don’t do anything that would be considered rude. I’m not sure when it’ll be but I’d imagine sometime after my vacation. Hopefully I’ll have some nice pics to put up from that.

Another member of the class Ueda-san a rather lovely lady from Taiwan has offered to take myself and Sam out on a few trips in the local area at some point as well. The only problem is that her english is about as good as my Japanese but she is very keen. We just need to find someone with a decent grasp of Japanese and english to help her out a bit. Hopefully we'll get something arranged in the future. Last week she gave Sam and me one of these Taiwanese cakes each. It was pretty tasty, kind of like an eccles cake but without raisins.

Right only a short one this week. I’ll leave you with some photies from what I can only guess was a gardening equipment fair being held at the bottom of my road. It was a rather odd surprise and only goes to reinforce just how rural the area I live in is. Some of those lawnmowers looked like fun though.

Mata ne.          

Ultimate in the Taj and talking of Hen’s

Work this week had been mega stressful. I had to give my first year presentation about my research. This normally isn’t such an issue for me, I love to chat and I think giving presentations is one of my strengths. I was nervous this time though. I was giving the presentation via skype meaning I wouldn’t be able to see my audience or gesticulate any of the things I was talking about.

After a bit of practice and some reassuring words from my supervisors in the UK I felt a bit more ready. At the end of the day it was only 20 minutes and everything is learning experience. Overall I think it went well, I could answer the questions and I got a few emails from my supervisors afterwards saying they thought I’d done well. Result, time for bed. At least that was the plan but I was so excited about my upcoming Frisbee tournament I couldn’t sleep.

So 5am the next day and with very little sleep I got my stuff together and began my epic journey to Tajima. I’d arranged to meet one of my teammates, Makoto-san, at Nazota station, which was just past Himeji. The connection times were pretty fine but I had just enough time to grab so Onigiris for luncheon. I had a few nerve-racking minutes wait as I didn’t actually know whom I was waiting for but Makoto soon showed up in one of the standard black, block shaped cars, ubiquitous in Japan.

Makoto was a nice guy and his English was fantastic. He runs an English café and school over in Osaka. He said its good fun and he meets lots of interesting people though times are tough right now. Following the earthquake money had gotten tight and he’d had to lay off some staff, meaning his workload had increased. I’m sure you can relate to that mum.

His choice of music was excellent, lots of 70’s rock and 80’s hair metal, and the 2 hour journey flew by. This may have been more due to the fact I fell asleep though. About 30 minutes outside of Tajima we stopped of at a Sake-shop to grab some booze for Saturday night’s bbq. I grabbed some soft drinks and then popped next store to the Godai drugstore. I’d been suffering with a nasty “natsu kaze” (summer cold) and I needed some “kusuri” (medecine). Unbelievably neither one of the (two) shops in my local vicinity stocked paracetamol. Rubbish.

A little while later we were in Tajima. Makoto pointed out a large white structure, the Tajima dome, which was close to our final destination.  We passed some very lush playing fields that sadly were already booked. We move onto some dirt pitches instead. Not ideal but the sight of many people together playing ultimate was exciting none the less.

Tajima is apparently one of the biggest ‘Gaijin-dominated’ tournaments in Japan so there were people from all over the place. What that apparently meant is that it was a little more laid-back, it seems that the Japanese teams take it very seriously and it is played with the same level of professionalism as any other sport. I’ve actually got no problem with that whatsoever but to each there own I guess.

On arriving we couldn’t see any of our team members but the guys from the other Osaka team, Disc-O, where about so we set up shop with them. I got chatting to Gatson and a few of the other guys and he asked if I’d like to play with them before my team arrived. Silly question really I’m always up for some frizzers.

The first game went ok, but a few of the guys on the team were a little intense. By that I don’t mean really good or playing with a high level of seriousness, they were just loud and very fast to point out others faults, though keeping their gobs shut if they made a mistake. I’m not a fan of that, no matter what level I’m playing at.

After that game the team I’d be playing for the rest of the day, Cheez whizz (awful name I know) finally showed up. In fact they still hadn’t all arrived in time for our first game so we had to borrow some players from a team hailing from Nara. I can’t remember much about the first game, we were just finding our legs really but it was all good fun.

First game out of the way and we headed straight back to the tents. The weather was gorgeous but really friggin hot. Must have been at least 33⁰c at it’s hottest. It seemed like shortly after the first game the beers were cracked out by some of the members of my team. Seemed like a crazy idea to me in this weather but I guess this is just how some people relax.

I won’t bore you with the details of the games since I can’t really remember much apart from sweating a ridiculous volume. Also it was some pretty rubbish Frisbee to be quite honest. Most of the people there could barely throw a backhand. I really can’t stand losing to people who can’t throw but I knew what it would be like before I got here. In the end I got in the swing of it and just had fun. Cheez whizz and Disco-O actually ended up semi merging as neither team really had enough players leading to a 14 game rather than a 7 game weekend. Whoops. At least they were only 30 minutes long.

I’d say I spent most of the day chatting with one the guys on our team called Trip (no idea what his real name is). He had a huge afro, ridiculous socks, and was the epitome of ‘hippy Frisbee player’. He was also very interesting. He’d spent some time in his youth touring the East coast of America as part of a pop punk band, they’d played warped tour a few times, mega cool.

He was now in the business of wedding video and photography but his passion was music. He was into everything naturally but in particular it was music production and sound technology that he was most passionate about. I struck up a conversation about electronic music and the scene blossoming out of the UK and he was well clued up. He’d even heard of ‘Donk’, possibly the chaviest music ever that was emerging in Bolton. What impressed me most was that he’d actually made a few bass-lines for Caspa. Not a bad claim to fame.

With the day winding down, but the temperature not following suit, we wrapped it up for the day and headed to ‘Utopia lodge’ were we’d stay for the night. I headed back with Kazu-san. He was a bit older than the other guys and spoke next to no English. I think we just managed to figure out what we were both yammering on about though.

Tajima is way up the mountains and is actually quite a famous ski resort in the winter I believe. Slopes surrounded us and I can imagine the place looks awesome when covered in snow. It was still very pretty in the heat of summer as well.   Denis Go and Trip had headed out to the lodge ahead of us  to make sure we got decent rooms. I hit the showers with Kazu, the lodge also had it’s own Onsen which was very nice on tired muscles.

Back up to the room and I crashed out on my bed for an hour or to, I was so shattered. I think the heat of the day had done me in and I was soon dozing. I think some of the guys headed to a nearby conbini to grab some more drinks, but I just couldn’t be bothered to move.

By about 7 I was aroused by the sounds of lots of people and the smell of cooking meat.  Guess it was time for the bbq. It hadn’t really hit me just how many people there were at this tournament until I was in the salad queue, bowl in hand waiting to get some veg and rice.

What was nice is that nearly everyone was American, Canadian or Australian so sparking up a random conversation was pretty easy. That being said, as always, 99% of people were English teachers on the JET program, or former JET’s. This meant everyone sort of already new each other and cliques began to form. Never mind a good chance to hang out with my team and get to know them a bit better.

Every team had been given a stack of meat and half a barrel with a metal grill on which to bbq said meat. I’d already mentioned about my aversion to beef and everyone had been cool with it and made sure it was all cooked in the same spot, to prevent cross contamination and potential bellyache.

Trip Denis and Go were already all pretty hammered by the time I had sat down and were off meeting old friends “hisashiburi!” (Meaning long time no see). I sat down with some of the ladies on our team. They told me off the bat that they didn’t speak much English but I said it was cool I needed to learn Japanese anyway. Sadly I couldn’t catch most of what they were saying. Seemed to be a lot of talk about hens?

Ok I’ll elaborate. So the Japanese I’ve been learning at the moment is ‘standard Japanese’. Obviously Japan has accents but it also has dialects to. The words and some of the grammar are actually quite different. “Sono Josei wa Osaka-ben o hanashimashita” (they were speaking in the Osaka dialect). The area I live in has it’s own dialect ”Kansai-ben” and Osaka has it’s own particular flavor. Being as everyone on the team is from Osaka it’s what they speak.

The hen joke is a bit lame but it’s because the casual negative form of verbs (usually ending in –nai) in Osaka-ben end in hen. For example I don’t understand, wakaranai, would become wakarahen. Interesting stuff. Anyway they rather nicely slowed their speech a little and I could actually talk a bit in their language. I’m still severely lacking in adjectives and nouns though, being able to say what you can/will/have/ want to do is great but I can’t describe anything. I’m sure I’ll get there.

It does mean I don't feel so lost in a sea of people anymore. Whilst I can’t quite express myself as I’d like I can catch bits of conversations now and actively participate. It’s only going to help my learning really it’s just such a shame I can’t practice whilst I’m in work. Of course since I was at a sporting event I was mostly learning ‘dirty’ Japanese. By that I mean just quick stunted phrases shouted whilst on pitch, the same in any language really but it means the phrases I’ve heard most are “ganbaru” (go for it), “yukkuri” (slowly but with the nuance of take your time) “gomen” (soz) and “mecha sugoi/kakkoii” (absolutely amazing/ cool).

The next day there were more games to play. I was not as full as enthusiasm as the previous day. I forgot how worn out you get on the Sunday and playing 8 games, even if they were short, was a bit much. Breakfast at the lodge wasn’t great really, a very small roll, 1/4 of a slice of ham and a spoonful of scrambled eggs. Pretty meager, still onwards to the field.

We had 6 more games to play since we’d joined forces and by 9am it was already brutally hot. Although we’d lost a couple of players, one had his daughters piano recital to attend and another had to be rushed to hospital. I’m not sure why, I got some cagey replies when I asked so I figured it best not to press the matter. Thankfully we’d also gained a couple, Bede from Australia, Sean from Canada and also Yuko.

Again the details of the games are a bit of a blur, though we won 5 of the 6. I think it’s unlikely I’ll get any serious ultimate out here unless I learn better Japanese and try and join in with some of the university’s practices, but I’m just too far away really.

One game that sticks to memory was our game against the Hiroshima team. That is only because the heavens decided to open at this point. At first I was rather happy for the rain, it was nice and cool, but it quickly became torrential and everything was soaked through. Not so fun and as soon as our game finished so did the rain. Back to the 35 degrees heat and 80% humidity.

Tournament over and fun had by all we had to back the gazebo’s down and say goodbye to Tajima. It was fun. I dunno if I’ll try and go again next year but I guess that is a way off yet. So “Ima kaeru no?” (are we going now?). Actually no it seemed that Makoto and Yuko, who was also coming with us, really wanted to go to an Onsen. I was apprehensive thanks to the timing of my last bus but I couldn’t really say no.

We went to the same Onsen as the last time I was in Wadayama. It felt pretty good but I can’t lie I was a bit too worried about the time to really enjoy it. We left at about 6pm and I knew we were cutting it pretty fine but next everyone wanted to stop for food.  I was assured it’d be quick but I knew in my heart we’d be late if we stopped to eat. Nowhere nearby had space thank-god so we hit the freeway and headed towards Himeji.

About 20km from Himeji we pulled over to a service station to get some food. I was too stressed out worrying about time to be hungry. Plus I really didn’t want to have to wolf down a dinner. Either way it still took a good half hour and we were getting very close to the time of my train. What I hadn’t realized was that I was in fact being taken to a station just before Himeji, but because we stopped for food there was no way we would make it in time.

A quick change of direction and we were on the road to Himeji JR station. Sadly the traffic lights weren’t in our favor, are they ever when you are in a rush somewhere? I got to the station with about 2 minutes to go. Bah looked like that was another 5000yen gone, but the weekend was fun so I didn’t mind.

I phoned Yuko to let her know I’d missed the train and she told me to come back to the car. When I asked why she said Makoto had offered to drive me home. He felt responsible I’d missed the train because they’d stopped at the Onsen and for food. I tried to insist that it was fine and that I lived miles away but he’d have none of it. He also refused, and seemed genuinely offended, when I offered him money for petrol. “Either give me ichi-man yen (10,000) or nothing”. He was far too nice.

So in the end I got home in good time and with a heavy wallet. I’m so lucky to have found such nice people and I look forward to meeting them again soon. I woke up today pretty sore and worn out but Kohmura-san whom I’ve been helping with some editing gave me a rather lovely gift of some mochi and it's helping to ease the pain. Also I think I’ve infected everyone in the office sad times.

Mata ne minna.

Beaches and Holds

Well it’s been another week of hard science with soft x-rays, oh physics puns you will always amuse me. Either way it was definitely a good opportunity for some downtime, and where better to have some downtime than the beach? Nowhere that's where. Arnaud, Sam and myself had been invited to join some of the Hyogo based Jet’s and friends at Matsuekaigan beach near Akashi.

Mmm beaches but they do just reminded me of home. Living up a mountain is cool and all but I miss the scent of the seaside, although admittedly I don’t miss the shrill cry of those pesky seagulls. Unfortunately the day did not start off to well. Not only was the weather forecast rubbish but I managed to over sleep meaning I wouldn’t make it to Himeji in time to meet the group heading to the beach. Curse you shinki bus and your rubbish weekend service.

It turned out alright in the end. It seemed I was not the only one languishing in bed that morning Sam had also slept in. Along with Arnaud we headed to Matsuekaigan as a trio. The rain was beating down up the mountain but by the time we’d reached Aioi it seemed to be clearing up. It was practically tropical by the time we reached Akashi.

Whilst we were on the train I couldn’t help notice haw many “ギャル”（gyaru or gal)　there were about.　I’d been doing a bit of reading around on Japanese fashions, mainly out of curiosity and this one seemed to be particularly popular right now. I guess once you know about something it’s amazing how much you notice it. Either way this is obviously female predominant and involves a heavy tan, fake or real, and bleached hair. Essentially just the kinds of girls you’d see on a standard night out in the pool.

Back to the beach. As we stepped off the train the wonderful salty aroma of the seaside infused my nostrils. Ah it smelled like home, I really couldn’t wait. We basically just followed our noses, and some rather conveniently placed tiles, to reach the beach. It seemed pretty nice, the beach was very clean and the sea looked gorgeous, a far cry from the New Bo of my memory.

At the beach we played the age ol game of hunt the gaijins, seeing as foreigners only make up 1.5% of Japans population it isn’t hard to spot a large group. And what a fun group they were. It would seem the predominant nationality was Australian or American. In particular people from Arizona and Adelaide as these are sister cities of Himeji. What this does mean is that a vast majority of the people from Himeji are more used to hearing English spoken with an Australian accent than American. Never a bad thing.

We met loads of new people so naturally I've forgotten nearly everyones name. One person who stuck to my mind was Greg, an Australian fella who was a great laugh. In fact it turned out he knew a lot of Scousers back home in Adelaide and  in illustrating the archetypal scouse women to Sam pretty much described Nan when she’s on a warpath, which didn’t half make me giggle.

Also immediately springing to mind was Chihiro a local, and good friend of Arnauds. I think at first she didn’t have a clue what I was saying and I had fun with my new favourite game, guess where I’m from. England is nearly always the last place most Japanese people guess. I just don’t fit into what they consider to be an English accent. Of course as soon as I start with the whole “Mary Poppins” style English they get it straight away.

This actually sparked for me what was a very interesting conversation about what makes an English accent. Apparently Chihiro had been told by her English teacher, a man named Mr. Razor from Worcester, that she should speak English with a British accent because it was more respectable. For one the notion that British accents are refined is ridiculous, especially coming from someone living  so close to Dudley. Secondly is there really such a thing as a British accent? I don’t think so we are the land of accents. I spent at least an hour trying to explain this. I think she might get it now I’ve introduced her to the wonders of Teeside tintin.

The whole day was a great laugh. The weather was wonderful and I had a great swim in the sea, it was pretty warm compared to anything off the coast of the UK. After chowing down on some overpriced and under octopussed takoyaki I whipped out the disc I’d brought along with me and had a good chuck about with Arnaud and some of the other guys. One in fact tried to explain to me that there was a real sport called “serious Frisbee or something” and it had rules and everything. I’ll put my hand up I was a dickhead and let him struggle trying to explain it to me for a few minutes. I couldn’t help myself it was too funny.

Sadly just as things seemed to be getting into full swing myself and Sam had to depart. As always our time out is restricted by the need to get home in time for the last bus, which is at 8:20pm. Seriously Shinki bus sort it out I actually want to have a good time on the weekends I’m free. We said our goodbyes and look forward to eseing everyone again, since practically everyone was a teacher I’m guessing they’ll have plenty of free time over summer.

Back up the mountain and one pot noodle later Sam and me headed over to Brian’s, another workmate, flat. He’d invited us over for some board gaming, geeky I know but hey we all work at a synchrotron what do you expect. Stereotyping, me? Nevah. Anyway I finally understood why Sam’s rent was so much more than my own, his place is like 5 times the size of my flat. The whole apartment block is crazy though, there seems to be no fixed layout, in fact Brian’s flat two doors down was completely different.

Inside the flat we had to be very quiet. Brian has a wonderful new baby boy named Jazz and he was currently asleep, I understand this was a rather rare occurrence unless he was in a car. The game we would be playing that night was called “Settlers of Catan”. No Cluedo for us then? I got the impression that Brian and Sam were both heavily into bored games as they reeled of a list of games I’d never heard of.

This one was based on a hexagonal grid and the goal of the game was to score ten points. Sounds fairly straightforward and actually it was. I guess this was a nice introduction as it is one of the less esoteric hex based games. It was a nice evening with Strados providing sublime comic relief by asking some truly ridiculous questions “could I build a village in the sea?”. Great guy.

The following day the weather took another dip, just can’t get the hang of 梅雨 “the rainy season”. So good time for some indoor activities I’d say. And what indoor activities are more fun the bouldering. So the plan was to set off for Kakogawa to go to the Heimat bouldering centre again. I set my alarm this time I wasn’t oversleeping again. I’d also bought what I’d thought where oats at the local shop in a vein attempt to make porridge. Turns out it was barley. My first attempt didn’t go so great but I’ve subsequently managed to make porridge out of it, takes nearly an hour though.

We arrived in Kakogawa around 12:30pm and set off first for something to eat. Not before wandering through the local high street however where we sighted some wonderful examples of Engrish. Kakogawa seems like a really pretty town, even if it was tipping it down, though I don’t think it’s very big.

Now for the dreaded question. “Where would you like to eat.” Ugh I hate making decisions about food but unusually I did have something in mind. I was actually really up for some sushi for some reason. At first it seemed like we were out of luck. We couldn’t see a sushi place anywhere and it seemed like we’d have to go for a chain of some sort. It was then that I saw quite a few people going in and out of a little building with a fish on it’s sign. Time to investigate Batman.

Success it was a sushi place. It ticked all the boxes as well. It was clean, didn’t smell of fish and was pretty busy, all the criterion of a good sushi-ya.  The seating was traditional Japanese style, very low to the floor, and there was a counter where you could watch the chefs preparing your sushi. It was a very cool place the chefs were all really friendly and excited to be photographed. Interestingly the first half of this places name is “danta” which I think referred to the fact they played a drum as people entered.

We went with the 790yen “定食“　(set meal). Arnaud told us this was generally the way to go if unsure as its good value and will likely include some of the restaurants specialties. It didn’t disappoint after a short wait we received a nice square plate full of nigiri and maki. It was a nice selection with some Tuna, Salmon, eel, squid, octopus, and scallop amongst others. Very tasty though I think it could of done with a bit more wasabi but I guess I just like spicy. It was great value for money and nice to get a good meal in, I was really suffering from eating only junk food yesterday.

We moved onto the climbing gym and had a good boulder for a few hours. The helmet gym is really cool place, great atmosphere. Everyone is very chatty with many shouts of “Ganba” (go for it) and “Oshi” (close) for encouragement. About half way through this incredibly slight girl came in. She didn’t look like much but my god she was amazing, you really can’t judge people by appearances. Some people just move on the wall so well, I really need to improve my footwork I think, it shows so much when I try and match some of Arnaud’s moves, he is just flat out stronger than I am.

Thoroughly knackered we went next door to investigate the nearby game arcade. The previous night Brian had mentioned an arcade game that involves piloting a giant robot. The game is housed inside a capsule and has rather in depth joystick and pedal based controls. Sam was rather taken by the idea and keen to check one out. As luck would have it they were the first things we came across.

They were actually very popular and all of the pods were full. I wasn’t that keen on waiting so I went and had a little look further inside. This place was beatem-up heaven. I actually have never seen so many different fighting games in one place, which is good for me as they are one of my favorite genres of games. I sat down at what I though was a Guilty Gear game but turned out to be something called “Melty Blood”. Nope I have no idea either. What it was though was damned fun. Very similar to the mechanics of Guilty gear I was wailing away at my opponents fairly quickly and managed to get through 8 stages before losing. A well spent 100yen.

Gamed out we headed back to the station for a bit of shopping before heading home. We went to the rather good bakery at the station called “La Saint Michel.” The baguettes here had already been given Sam and Arnaud’s seal of approval so  picked one up to use with my dinner, it had been ages since I’d eaten bread and this was particularily yummy.

I also picked up some microwave chips to. They were decent, or maybe I thought they were decent as it’s been so long since I’ve eaten any. I got them mainly cos they are crinkle cut and that always  makes me think of home. I’ll admit I’ve been a bit homesick lately. I really can’t wait till the rents arrive at the end of the month.

Ja ne minna-san, mata kondo.