100 Days of England - JET medical [Day 20]

Apologies for the radio silence.

A lot has been going on, but mostly unrelated to JET.

Classes have finished, my coursework is handed in, and I have just one more exam to sit before I'm done with uni.

Girugamesh have announced their break-up, and as a result I have added two more shows to take the number of European shows I am going to up to 5. I've also booked a return flight to Tokyo before I fly out with JET to attend their last gig with my friend Daisuke.

In slightly more JET related news, I had my medical the day before yesterday. It cost me £90 to book it a few weeks ago, and Larni booked appointments at pretty much the same time, and went together to do exactly the same thing I did 2 years ago for my Year Abroad medical. Including an X-Ray at the hospital which I will be invoiced a further ~£70-ish at a later date.

The x-ray results should take 3 days to about a week to come back to me, at which point I will go and pick my medical form up from the doctors, who have kept it, and I will send it to JET along with my ICPC which I received weeks ago.

Today, we (Larni and I)'ve spent the day preparing for a party we're hosting for our friends from our Japanese class tomorrow. I.e. tidying the wreck that our house became during deadline season!

Today is day 20 of 100 days of England. We have 80 days left!

100 days of England [Day 1].

It might have gone past midnight, but whatever!

This blog died when I returned to England, but I'm going to be picking it back up again thanks to the fact that I shall be returning to Japan as a JET at the end of July! In fact, in 99 days!

So, I decided I'd do a little countdown, and my best friend, and housemate, Larni, who has also been accepted onto JET will be joining me. I'll be posting a link to her blog later :3

I guess this is also going to be the master post! I'm going to aim to post everyday, but since there's going to be people that just want to skip to the important, JET related bits, I'll leave links to those days here when they pop up!

Right now I'm just slogging through the last part of my degree, so I won't have much about each day to comment on, but hopefully there will be something, and for particularly boring days, I'll post some past info about the JET application or something!

So, watch this space for new adventures!!

Today was day 1 of 100. I have 99 days left.

Being 'fat' in Japan

I wasn't always chubby. I put on a bit of weight during my second year of University, and although I wouldn't have described myself as fat, I was aware I'd rounded out a little. I felt a little chubby in France, when my employers where speculating over whether I had lost weight since I got there.
But Japan is a whole different kettle of fish.

In Japan, most people are thin. They're tiny, in fact. That's not to say I don't see chubby or overweight people, but there are a lot less over here. When I went back to England for just under a week, I literally thought to myself "wow. Look at all the fat people". I think England might have a little problem. Back to the matter in hand though.

I am a little chubby, maybe I am even fat, though I didnt think so before. But here, it isnt a secret. It's not a thing your friends don't mention. They love to comment on your weight. Luckily, everyone has been saying I've gotten thinner. Good, I'm on a diet for the first time in my life, but it doesn't seem to be that effective.

My weight is almost like a novelty here. People arent afraid to jiggle my arms. Or my face. Or my stomach. (That last one is pretty much reserved for my boyfriend though). And of course, they are all friends of mine, though sometimes friends I have known for less than a day. They think its kind of fun, how I wobble. I don't. I think it's kind of embarrassing.

I asked my boyfriend one day if he thinks I'm fat. He didn't say anything. That hurts.
Don't get me wrong, my boyfriend is wonderful and he always ensures I know that he likes me the way I am, and I know for a fact he enjoys the fact that he can grab a little bit of my stomach. But he thinks I'm fat, and I think he's the first of my boyfriends to think so (probably because I only just got fat) so it's really easy to get down about it. But that's not the only reason I want to diet. I want to fit into cute Japanese clothes, and I want to feel sexy again.

So now I'm on a diet, and its sad because I'm not enjoying all the foods I should be before I leave for home in two and a bit months. I've been told maybe I should wait until I'm home to diet and just enjoy the food while I'm here, but once I get home I know I'll want to enjoy the food I've missed for the last forever. If I don't start now, when do I start?

Anyway this was all a bit of a pointless ramble, but if you're in Japan and you're feeling a bit podgy, don't worry. You're not alone. As long as you're comfortable with yourself, that's okay. It just gets a little more difficult to do in this country, sometimes ^^;

My Flight Home is Booked

So I can't quite believe it, but it's gotten to the time of year where everyone is booking their flights home, and making their plans for the next semester. Me included.

This flight cost more than my flight here with Emirates, and is actually with Air China. Why would you pay more for an airline that has a worse reputation, you may ask? Because they will give me more luggage allowance, and right now that is exactly what I need.

With Emirates you get 30kg luggage free, in as many bags as it takes.
With Air China you get two pieces of luggage, at 23kg each. That gives me a grand total of 16kg more to play with, which is exactly what I like to hear.

I've bought a lot of things in Japan. As much as I would have loved to fly back with Emirates, I'd rather be able to take back as many of my belongings without posting them as possible as well.

On the downside, my flight is at 9am, which is not fun beans at all. I've booked the cheapest 'hotel' I've ever seen for my boyfriend and I the night before I leave in Osaka. It cost 2,400yen. For two people. That's crazy. I hope I don't die.

I only have just under 3 months left here. Time has gone so quickly, but I've also gotten used to it around here. It's like I've been here forever and I've not been here very long all at once.

These next three months are going to be full of adventures and memory making ^.^

Until next time ^^

Durarara!! Streeeeet!! Exhibition Osaka

So this month there is a six day Durarara exhibition in Osaka's Cosmosquare called "Durarara!! Streeeeet", and of course my friend Abi and I just had to go and check it out. I thought I'd write a little bit for those of you that couldn't make it!

When we arrived at the venue, we took a little while to find the exhibition because it was a huge building and we got a bit lost. Once we found it we queued to go in and were given an option for an Audio Tour (Japanese only) done by the voice actors of Shinra, Shizuo and Izaya, for 700yen, which we both took. The Audio tracks were amusing, but short, and it was quite expensive for what you actually got. I'm pretty glad we took them, because I love Shinra and he voiced nearly all of it. Abi, a huge Izaya fan, was a little disappointed. But I'm sure all the exclusive merch she bought made up for that! More on that later.

WARNING: This post may contain spoilers for those of you who are not up to date with the Durarara anime. I suggest you get up to date with it. It is an amazing anime!

Walking into the exhibition, there were character profiles posted on the walls of all of the Durarara and Durararax2 characters, and this fabulous picture.

After that, we saw a map of Ikebukuro, with locations from the anime pinpointed on it, and a summary of what happened in the first season.

Next up was a schoolroom setting, with windows behind curtains that you could open up and look through, and a set of shoe lockers for each of the characters.

From then we went on a little tour of Ikebukuro! Past Russia Sushi, invading several people's houses such as Izaya, Shizuo, Masaomi and Shinra and Celty, as well as seeing some other familiar faces along the way.

And then, at last, we got to buy some tasty exclusive merch, and spend far too much money! Nearly everything that I bought here was an exhibition exclusive. I regret nothing. (Especially since I managed to get a mini drama CD from the ichibankuji[a bit like a raffle]). There was a lot of Izaya merchandise, because it was his birthday recently. You might be able to guess, but my favourite characters are Shinra and Celty <3

And that's all from me on the Durarara!! Streeeeet!! Exhibition. I've uploaded all of the photos I took to this album.

I can't speak French anymore O.o

So this is rather frightening.

As you may or may not know, I'm studying double honours French and Japanese at UEA, but am currently on my year abroad in Kyoto, Japan. Before that, I was working in the South of France, trying to improve my French. But that kind of seems like a wasted effort now.

Last weekend, I went camping with OEC, a group of people at the University who arrange activities where Japanese students and exchange students can meet and interact. One of my friends who always attends these events is a lovely Japanese girl called Eri, who is currently studying French. She has only been learning for one year, but is already better than nearly everyone I know after they had studied five years of French. Whilst trying to have a little conversation with her, I found myself tripping over my French, trying to put Japanese words into my sentences, and generally failing at communication as a whole.

I know my brain gets confused when three languages are floating around in it and I try to use them all at once, but it really was a struggle trying to get even simple French out.

Now I know that I'm probably over-reacting. My French is a little rusty, and I probably just need to read a few books or articles, watch a couple of videos and have a chat with someone in French for it to "all come flowing back" or something like that.

But the thing is, I don't want to. At least not at the moment. I'm at the point with my Japanese now where all my Japanese friends are marveling at how 'good' I have gotten at Japanese. I feel like I really need to push further before going home, and I'm hoping I can hit a jump and increase my level before I return to the land of Yorkshire Puddings and poor language skills. I don't want to slow down my Japanese by trying to improve or even just refreshing my French. But at the same time, I have to go back to University in England in just over four months, and I'm going to be sitting in classes with people who have just spent a year in France boosting their language to what might be a close-to-fluent standard.

I guess I will just have to push forward with my Japanese, and do an intensive refreshing session when I land in England a month before the new term starts.

Adventures in Tokyo: Tsukiji fish market. Tsukishima and the Owl Café フクロウのみせ

Video! I made a video for you. It's kind of long, and nerdy, and includes just hanging out with my friends, but there you go. More information on the things I did below ^.^

Sorry for the quietness of my blog again. I'm a horrible person.

I'm on a little holiday to Tokyo to see my best friend, Larni. I also met up with my friend Viv, and my friends who've flown over from Canada and England, Erika and Lauren. Our Cosplay group is back together and causing not very much trouble because we aren't those kinda people.

Today we went to Tsukiji Fish Market, around Tsukishima a little, and to an Owl Café. I'll talk a little about each of them (in case you want to visit. Or you want to know. I dunno).

Fish Market!
Tsukiji Fish Market is the biggest fish market in the world (according to Viv). We walked around and looked at gross squishy seafood, or seafood to be. I guess it's not seafood yet if it's still alive. We got there at about 9am, but all there was to do was look at squishy fish. Viv says if you get there at like 4am then they have an auction. The fish that is at the market is freshly caught that morning, and most of it was gone by the time we got there, so you have to get there early if you want some! Seafood is one of those things that they say tastes better the fresher it is. I'm not sure, because I hate fish, and seafood. Sorry, Japan.

Tsukishima
Whilst my friends ate something expensive and fish related, Larni and I went off to eat McDonalds (because we are poor). If you eat fresh sushi by the market, its the stuff that was caught that morning, but is likely to cost you 3,000yen upwards. If you wander a bit further from the market, it gets a lot cheaper, but I doubt it's the same stuff that was caught that morning, if you want the whole market experience. Mcdonalds cost us about 450yen which is about £2.50 (according to google right now). Poverty lunch for Larni and I. After that we waited at a park for our friends to finish their food. After getting our reservation for the Owl Café (below), we went and sat by the river and did some wig shaping. Yup.

Owl Café
So the owl café in Tsukishima is super popular, and it's recommended that you get there an hour before the café opens because that's when they start to take reservations for that day. (The café will be fully booked before it opens for the day). Today it opened at 2pm, so we got there at 1pm, and managed to reserve a slot for 3pm. It cost us 2000yen to get in, and we got to choose a (very tiny) drink, and pet and hold the cutest owls for an hour. At the end, we also got a little omiyage (souvenir) to take home with us. It was cute. It was a great experience, worth it, and I recommend it. Top tip: If you don't speak any Japanese, you should probably go with someone that does at least speak a little. They do have little pieces of card with English rules/instructions/etc. written on, but it's handy to be able to have a basic grip of the language (but don't worry if you don't). Once you are inside, drinks cost a further 2,000yen per drink (which is why not many people buy a second drink). You can also buy all kinds of owl related souvenirs. The name of the cafe is フクロウのみせ (Fukurou no mise - [lit.]The Owl Shop), and you can view it's blog in Japanese, here.