JAPANEXILE

And anything else that has occurred to me during my first month here!

Its hard to sum up my feelings on Toya, Japan, and my new life out here without sounding like a gushing teenager. As I am writing this I’m amazed that I’ve been here over a month now, the old phrase that time flies when you’re having fun holds true. I love living here, I love my life here, and I love Toya. When I first arrived I’ll be honest, I wasn’t overwhelmed with joy. Toya is small and quiet and immediately I was wishing I was in Tokyo. But as more time goes on I fall more in love with this place and its people. The town has an amazing community spirit to it which I’ve been sucked into. Like so many things the people you meet are what define the time you have, and the people here couldn’t be better. Friendly is an understatement, most will go so far out of their way to help you in anything you need I feel bad even mentioning any problem I might have, for fear of their reaction! The Board of Education here have been receiving volunteers for a long time, and they’ve learnt how to make sure we enjoy ourselves. Ensuring we’re kept busy with a varied work schedule. Its a truly wonderful feeling to be able to look forward to going to work each day. The days are tiring, and getting longer, but I don’t begrudge any of it. There are times when it gets a little boring, but that is bound to happen. And I’m learning to make the most of that down time, updating my blog as I am right now, or doing a bit of Japanese. I could keep going on about Toya, but it would get a little repetitive.

And now onto the other things that have come to mind since I’ve been here.

Language. I haven’t done anywhere near enough studying yet. I came wanting to leave as near fluent as possible, and that is still my goal. But something is going to have to change for that goal to be achieved. At least I have realised this at this stage instead of later. I’m finding myself involved in Clubs most evenings now so time is limited, and when I’ve been at work all day, no matter how fun it may have been, the last thing I want to do is sit down and open a book. Despite very few people in the town speaking English, one could probably get by here without knowing much Japanese, the little I have currently is enough to communicate enough to understand work and my other responsibilities. But there have been countless times when all I want to do is have a conversation with someone I have met, or understand but one thing the kids say to me, but I can’t. Its very frustrating.

Mobile Phones. It has really surprised me to find that pretty much all Japanese phones are massive compared to Western standards. Yes they do everything, TV is a standard feature, as is an enormous screen and pretty much everything else. But still, I expected a slightly more elegant devices. Another thing which seems inexplicable to me is the way people attach various trinkets and cuddly toys to their phone, making an already large phone all but impossible to put in a pocket.

Food. In general the food here is fantastic. Especially BBQ. Japanese style BBQ is SO much better than in England, great fun with everyone cooking and eating straight off the grill. Rice is brilliant, whatever meal of the day. Its great to fill you up when you can’t be bothered to make a full meal. Plenty of stuff I don’t like however, although I don’t know what half of it was. unagi - eel. Is horrendous, like eating a sponge infused with soap. Why anyone would eat it I don’t know. Same goes for Octopus, one night in he GutenTag our boss offered both of us a piece. Of course we accepted. I chewed for 5 minutes before attempting to swallow, I gagged, then gave up and discretely spat it out. Craig soldiered on and managed to swallow it. And finally on my list of foods I hate, nori - seaweed. Its appears in far too many meals and manages to consequently ruin far too many meals! I would really like Onigiri if it wasn’t wrapped in seaweed. We get our food from the only places possible in Toya, Seicomart and Acoop. They manage to fulfill our food needs well enough. However, whenever I get the chance to go to a Supermarket I can’t help but really wish we had one in Toya. I really want to be able to buy more fruit but unfortunately its prohibitavely expensive unless you find a decent local farmer of go to the Supermarket. Convenience stores charge nearly £1 each!

I did have more to say in this post but unfortunately I can’t fully remember what that was. Next month maybe.