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Published: December 3rd 2010
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Just in case you didn't realise
this is how you use a Western toilet These last couple of weeks have been a bit of a fiasco!
It’s not really necessary to go into loads of detail on the blog (since im not entirely sure who the sometimes 100 people are who read it! –many thanks for the support though!) however last Sunday there was quite a drama concerning my host family which resulted in me moving into a dorm mid-term. It’s not fair to them if I go on about what happened on the internet but if you wanna know what happened I’m happy to explain.
Anyway, this whole malarchy took a lot of my energy and time just thinking about as well as my moving weekend (I appear to have acquired a lot of things since I came as the number of boxes and cases to move across Nagoya was quite remarkable) so this all put me well behind in terms of things such as school work and any kind of socialising – bad times. On top of this there have been a couple of vaguely significant presentations etc as well as rehearsing for a Christmas play that I landed myself in somehow, so Ive ended up finding myself very fairly busy
Autumn Colours 'kouyou'
admittedly Autumn's pretty late.. and relatively stressed out this week or two, which I don’t like to be! 😞
However all that said, its still been really fun – im appreciating so much the proximity my new dorm to Nanzan, a 5 minute walk instead of the hour + it took from my homestay and its great living with students again. It’s a small dorm with only 20 people-same layout as Ellerslie (my 1st year dorm in Leeds) with a boys floor and girls floor but this time we all have our own toilets and there is one big kitchen to share between all of us. 😊
I also now have to cook for myself for the first time ever…its interesting but really good fun!
The Christmas play I mentioned was a Texas version of ‘A Christmas Carol’ (the one about Scrooge and all that) which I was sort of forced into unwillingly knowing I cant sing act or dance just because I told the producer it sounded ‘interesting’. Anyway I played Fred’s wife as well as an orphan which I spose looking back was good fun-met pretty much every foreigner in Nagoya I think! Following one rehearsal I went to a
nearby bar in the evening for a coupla beers which was only the second time I’d tasted alchohol since I got here, a wonderful relief!!
I’m knackered now from staying up writing a paper last night and need nothing more than just one day to be in the dorm and do nothing but it seems like that never happens! Tomorrow for a project for my festival class we are all visiting Osu Kannon which is a massively popular shopping district amongst young people-there we will observe young men age 18-25 and carry out some interviews to explore the ‘shoushokudanshi’ culture (basically along the same sort of lines as a metrosexual)…. Guys who are gentle, refined, concerned about his appearance, kind or respectful to the females in his life –anyway the aim for tomorrow is to ask guys their opinions on this culture that’s getting bigger and bigger…should be fun 😊
Then Sunday the same teacher has offered to take me and my Brit friend Katie to look at some nearby Kofun tombs (we’re tagging along on the side of some archaeological research project of some Japanese students)….as of yet I know nothing but according to good old Wikipedia
Kofun (古墳?) are megalithic tombs in Japan, constructed between the early 3rd century and early 7th century. They are up to 1km in length and often shaped like a keyhole-their shape is unique to Japan…admittedly not a day out that I would choose but it’ll be really nice to learn some extra history about this area and I might as well take all the opportunities I can whilst im here..bit of variety and all that. So anyway, still busy busy!
Also this week we had a free tour of Nagoya's Toyota factory plant and museum (Nagoya is pretty much the leading city for Toyota production so it was pretty big) and it was amazing to watch all the thousands of robots making cars! Also went to celebrate a Japanese friend's birthday at Hard Rock Cafe the same night-far too much fun for one day...
It’s a little chilly but still bright and sunny (vaguely jealous of the England snow!) and what with the horrendous renditions of incorrect carols in the supermarkets, the reality of Christmas is starting to hit me – at the moment im gonna be stuck by myself in the dorm the whole time (a surprising number of people are returning to their home countries for Christmas or leaving for good after one term) so im trying to make myself decide what to do….! Possibilities include visiting friends in Kyoto/Kobe etc and im not sure how sincere the invitation I received was to go skiing with my Yamanashi host family…anyway I need to start making decisions, i'm definitely going to do something!
As for now, i'm really looking forward to going out to dinner at a kaiten zushi (conveyor belt sushi restaurant) with all the dorm on Monday night.
Happy start to advent everyone
xxx
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