JAPANEXILE

After a very long hiatus I finally make another post. I’ve become a bit of a book worm/Japanese language obsessive lately, trying to study as much as I can. So free time has been limited, much to the detriment of this blog. I can’t say I’m sorry though, I’ve finally started to enjoy studying, so have little intention of stopping. Its really satisfying to really commit yourself to something and see the fruits of those labors realized. Something I wish I had realised during my school years. I had actually writen this next post 3 months ago, and even then it was 3 months old. But since I had already done it seemed a waste not to post it.

Yoyogi kouen (Yoyogi park). Yoyogi park is as the name might suggest – a park, a big park at that, very centrally located next to Haraujuku station. Contained within the park is Meiji Shrine, one of the larger and more famous Shrines within central Tokyo. I actually went there back in January shortly after New Year, which as I found out was the same time several thousand Japanese people go there. So, it er, didn’t quite have the peaceful temple feel. The park itself is really nice, and the sheer amount of people there actually served to amaze and impress me, rather than than irritation I felt when I was in Kyoto temple viewing (a future post). We did the traditional prayer when we finally made it up to the temple. Throwing my hundred coin about 6 metres over the people in front of me. Minami very narrowly missed the heads of those in front of her. Nothing else really to say about Yoyogi, not that I can remember anyway, was over three months ago…crikey that’s gone quickly. (Now 6, where is the strike through formatting option. PS. I’ve just given up trying to get the photos on the rest of the site working how they used to, I just can’t take the stress anymore.

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.

Normally I wouldn’t bother with a post devoted entirely to a fairly typical journey, but this one was such a nightmare I thought it was needed.

Friday 8th September 2007, 3.30am. A mere two hours after having collapsed onto my bed after some furious last minute packing the night before the alarm goes off. With all the grace of wounded Hippo I carry my bags downstairs and make the last minute checks that I have everything. Wallet: Check. Mobile: Check. Passport: Check. Watch: Check…Wait, Oh no. And the horrible realization that I’ve left my rather costly watch lying on a bench at Millfield School swimming pool. Nice way to start what should have been an extremely exciting day. Nothing we can do, I’ve already delayed 20mins searching everywhere in the house in a vain hope I haven’t been so careless. So into the car we do, and after some more worrying about what to do I fall asleep…

Friday 8th September 2007, 4.40am. The car begins to slow down and I can’t help but wonder why - I need to be at the airport at 6am to meet the rest of the group. Especially since it was my idea to meet early in the first place. Thankfully its the just the friendly policeman - who feels it was necessary to stop and give my dad a ticket for speeding at 4am in the morning through a completely empty main road through Bath. Do these people really have nothing better to do? Go fight some crime. 20minutes later we’re able to leave. Now with no chance of arriving on time.

Friday 8th September 2007, 6.25am. Finally arrive at Heathrow Terminal 2 and meet up with the rest of the JPK. Was really pleased they had waited for me. Thats loyalty to the group! Check in all at once through a computer terminal which saved us some time queuing. Then the the moment of truth…was my bag under 20Kg? Answer: No. Not by a long shot. Weighing in at a hefty 25.5Kg. Thankfully Air France took pity and allowed me through with my equally hefty 15Kg+ hand luggage and Laptop Bag. Said goodbye to mum and dad - something I’d been preparing for for a long while. Very strange to think I wouldn’t be seeing them until they visit in the Winter.

Friday 8th September 2007, 6.45am. Unfortunately the pity Air France had taken on me did not extend to Heathrow Security Staff who took issue with me having both a laptop bag and hand luggage. Unable to check in another bag drastic measures were taken, with me putting on every item of clothing I could and offloading the rest to Ben (Thanks Mate) The result you can see below. So I’m forced to go through security wearing three pairs of trousers a pair of shorts and roughly 6 layers on top. Much to the amusement of the watching staff. Then for the guy at the Metal detector to have a go at me for wearing too many trousers…I wasn’t happy. More fun yet tho. It seems a large stack of CDs looks like a bomb of some description when looked at through an X Ray machine.

Security Guard: What have you got in you bag Sir?

Me: I don’t remember exactly since I’ve just had to reorganize everything. What’s the problem?

Security Guard (In a rather forceful voice): You tell me what is in the bag, then we’ll see if theres a problem. What’s in the bag?

So after a search of both my bags I’m left to repack…again.

Friday 8th September 2007, 8:45am

We boarded our flight to Paris without further hassle thankfully - only for it to sit on the runway for 30mins. Good Job theres a massive 45min Gap between this flight and the connecting flight.

Friday 8th September 2007, 10.35am Now in Paris, we quickly rush to our gate to catch the next flight. I’m stopped and searched at security. Again. Flight missed. Air France atleast gave us a free sandwich for out troubles. We’re given tickets for the next flight. I couldn’t help but wonder what would happen to our baggage - but I was assured everything would be fine.

Saturday 9th September 2007, 8.30am Due to not taking our original flight our seats were spread randomly around the plane. I was surprised to be sandwiched between two Germans on the journey however, considering there must have been only a handful of westerners on the flight. A rather uneventful flight, other than watching the sunrise as we neared Japan, it was incredible. All of us Giddy with excitement that we’re finally in Japan we do what any normal person would do - immediately went to the nearest toilet to see if the rumours were true. I wasn’t disappointed - heated seat, a deodorizer, and water jets. The instructions made me laugh as well “Equipment to cleansing the buttocks with warm water” Ha! Went through immigration and looked for our bags, we’d been so long signing forms our flight was no longer listed so off to the Air France desk we go. Eventually we were told that all except Craig’s (somehow) bag had been left in Paris. Surprise there - not. Normally this wouldn’t have bee a problem but we’d all been intending to sort out what we needed for Tokyo at the airport before sending our baggage on to our respective projects. So now we were to endure 30C heat and humidity wearing Jeans. Thankfully that was the end of the problems for our journey.

Apologies for the incredibly long moan there. From now on its all good! Yata!

I realize the order of my last posts isn’t quite right, but live with it. Thought I should give a little detail on the training week, which took place August 23rd to 28th. I had a bit of a nightmare traveling up, but that was all forgotten when the excitement of meeting the other volunteers kicked in. Arrived in Glasgow around 9am and promptly went looking for a pub which was showing the Grand Prix. I then realized it was a Sunday and not many pubs are open at 9am so went and sat up in the Galleries reading Harry Potter for several hours before meeting up with Katie and many other volunteers. We then took over Starbucks for the afternoon which was good bonding experience to say the least. We all got the train over to Glasgow in the evening where I met one of the Tokyo volunteers, Ben. Whom I had a good ol’ chat with for the 3 hour train journey, although I was regularly distracted by the amazing scenery up the west coast of Scotland. Upon arrival in Oban we dumped our bags and made our way to the pub as you do.
It was an early start on Monday to get the ferry. Here we met up the other Japan volunteers, Craig and Mike. The former being my partner, whom I had surprisingly met on the selection course. We soon became good mates, and formed the very cool group, the JPK, and from then on moved as one unit, and even began to refer to ourselves in the third person! The other country groups we were on training with included Vietnam, Mauritania, India, Dominican Republic, although the vast majority were Thailand. The week from then on was jam packed. With ‘lessons’ starting at 9am every day, finishing at 6.30pm. We took our country specific classed with Amy, where we went through things such as earthquakes, our accommodation, ways to behave etc. The lectures on general safety, illness, keeping clean, traveling etc we all took as one big group. The primary aim of the course was to prepare us for our jobs abroad. So much of the day was spent discussing teaching. And our evenings were partly spent firstly preparing a 10minute lesson, and then a 20minute lesson, to be performed in front of your group. It may not sound long, but panic sets in and it seems an eternity. Despite having a plan prepared it went out the window in the first 2 minutes of my 10minute lesson, improvisation followed, and disaster soon after.

My 20minute lesson on directions was much improved, using a favourite game of my Japanese teacher at School, Mrs Harwood. Brief explanation of the game - 9 pictures representing direction and traffic features on the board. I point at a picture, and say something, if I say the correct word, the class repeats, if I say the incorrect word, stay silent. Sounds simple enough but despite this game being designed to be taught in a foreign language, all participants were eventually caught out, 3 times. Amy was especially poor.

The best times on the training course came in the evenings. The bar was open every night, which helped. First night as it was such a beautiful day we all went down to the beach, where a giant game of Zoofball was organised. BW would have been proud. Second night was spent playing ‘Sausages’ Where you have one person in the middle of everyone else, people in the circle as the person any question, and the only answer they can give is ’sausages’. If they laugh, they’re out. So as you can imagine there were some pretty filthy questions and answers. We then changed the word to ‘moist’

On the Thursday night we first went for a swim in the unbelievably cold Scottish Sea. I ended up collapsing afterwards from the cold. So back to the warmth of the centre, where we had out farewell meal, excellently prepared by the Kitchen staff, which was followed by a traditional Scottish Kayleigh. Great fun, then went back to the beach where it poured down with rain.

Friday it was time to leave, goodbyes were said for a year to the other country groups. An emotional time. All in all I had an amazing week, and to echo a line from Mike’s blog, I couldn’t be happier with the group of guys going to Japan. Its going to be an incredible year. <a href=”http://www.japanexile.com/photography/project-trust-training/”> Click here</a> for a link to the photo album for the week.

So I’ll be leaving at 08:45 on September 7th, arriving Tokyo 06:55 September 8th.

I need to give a quick introduction to our desk officer Amy Lee. Amy went to Sri Lanka with Project Trust, before spending a year in Japan with the JET program. She has been a great source of information for all of us Japan volunteers answering all our questions whilst we were on training. Whilst we are away it is Amy who looks after any serious matters.

So after that introduction an actual update. Received an email detailing what to do on arrival in Tokyo. Seems we are getting a 4 day stay over in Tokyo for an induction course on arrival, which is exactly what I was hoping for. We’ll be staying in the Cerulean Tower Tokyu Hotel, which according to its website, has great panoramic views of Tokyo…from the bathroom window, so I’m guessing the view from the balcony is going to be the backside of the neighboring bulding.

Packing has so far not happened, went and and bought a suitcase at least. Haven’t got much to fill it with, yet at the same time too much. Its really difficult trying to pack clothes for a year into 20Kg, especially when you have to pack for both hot and cold climates, as well all the electronics I of course have to bring with me.

I’ve been reading up extensively on my Japanese history, well 19th and 20th century stuff anyway, before that in all honesty doesn’t seem necessary for my to have much knowledge of. What I really should be doing is some Japanese language practice, despite my best intentions of doing 30mins a day every day of August not much has happened.

I’m guessing my next update will be when I’m over in Japan, where I imagine I’ll have enormous amounts to say!

Welcome to my Blog!

(Update: I decided today to move my blog over to a dedicated webhost rather than the free service provided by wordpress, which will allow me to upload all my photos directly into my blog, rather than the rather inelegant solution I had before of merely linking to my Flickr account. I’ve just copied over the posts from my old site so the timeline is a little shaken.)

But anyway, as this is the first post on my new site an introduction is needed. My name is Tom, I’m 18 and have recently left School and am spending my Gap Year before University as a representative of the charity group Project Trust. I was placed much to delight in Japan as a volunteer teacher.

Although Japan may at first seem strange place to be sent to do volunteer work, there is a genuine need for young people from Europe to visit there. I have been placed in the small town of Toya, located on the Northern island of Hokkaido. Toya is a small rural village with a population of only 2000 people and is situated right on the shores of a volcanic lake. Agriculture is the main industry and tourism is also very important to the region. The Village is about 2 hours drive from the nearest city and it is blanketed in heavy snow from November to March so the town is very isolated and as such gives the volunteers who go there a great insight into Japan.

I am being hosted by the Toya board of Education. My main role will be to assist with English conversation by giving lessons at the local school as well as running adult evening classes. In addition to my role as a teacher I will also be helping out at the local Kindergarten and spend one day a week doing voluntary work at the local Hospital.

Its hard to describe how excited I am at the prospect of spending a year away. I will be updating this blog whilst I am out there with my thoughts, photos, and whatever else takes my fancy whilst I am out in Japan. Selfish as it may sound I will mainly be keeping this blog as way to remember my year in the future, as well as keep friends and family updated with what I am up to. I hope you enjoy reading, please feel free to make any comments, would be nice to have some feedback on how the blog is going.