Being flakey

Me, when it comes to physical exercise.

I missed soccer practice again last night as I needed to be home for a birthday parcel delivery. I haven’t actually been to soccer practice for about a month now and am feeling pretty guilty about this. Given my lack of teaching experience, the one thing I have going for me in this job is reliability. Therefore, when I start letting other teachers down and not turning up to things that I said I’d be at, I am effectively making myself redundant. There are several reasons for why I have been so flakey about attending the practice sessions, but I can’t really talk about them here without going into detail about my school. Needless to say, none of these things are a good excuse for my repeated absence and I will definitely be attending regularly again in the next few weeks, which coincidentally will also be when it starts to get warmer. Yes-that’s right-we are nearly on the other side of winter. In a month’s time, it will begin to warm up and we can look forward to the famous cherry blossom and that third season called “spring” that I’ve heard so much about.

Melody mentioned in her blog that she thinks her standard of written English has become more erratic since arriving here and I think that has happened to me too. It’s strange that writing English is a skill that you need to practice, even when you have been doing it for nearly 30 years. I started writing my first novel when I was still in the womb, by the way. It was awesome.

So, I finally got round to watching Before Sunrise again. My feelings towards this film have always been a little ambivalent. When I first saw it, I found Ethan Hawke’s character exceptionally irritating. At the same time, they were just so drippy and teenager-ey that I couldn’t get into it. So it was interesting that I found myself really liking it this time around. Whereas all the pretentious, self-obsessed conversations had annoyed me in the past, I actually found them quite endearing on this occasion. I think that the self-obsessed pretentiousness was probably included deliberately and that you’re not actually meant to take it all that seriously. I have Before Sunset lined up for later in the week and I suspect that it will be even more poignant now that I’ve warmed to the original incarnation of the characters.

This made me want to visit Vienna.

Teachers are dropping like flies today. One of my co-teachers has made it in despite having the flu. I always thought that if you had the flu, you basically had no choice but to miss work. People often say they have the flu when they just have a cold, but the flu totally knocks you out and incapacitates you, right? Well my co-worker definitely has the flu and yet, there she is, right in front of me. Now obviously, I work in the public sector in the UK and there is a very different (some would say permissive) attitude towards taking time off there. But if you have a situation where blatantly sick people are coming into school even though they can’t walk properly and keep semi-fainting, then that isn't good. What has been nice though is how much other colleagues have cared for this co-worker and made sure she is okay. People really look out for each other here. I have some mushroom soup in the freezer that I think I might lend her when I nip home at lunchtime.

Birthday plans have been made. It will be low-key. It will involve dinner and an overnight stay at Hattoji. It will not involve a woman (or a Time Lord) jumping out of a giant cake. I’m hoping it does involve cake in some form though.

Good Enough

Sunday was an especially lazy day, even for me. It started ambitiously. My intention was to get up around 9, wash up in the kitchen, give the bedroom a much needed tidy and then settle down to some Japanese vocabulary learning. By the evening I would do some proper cooking, before maybe relaxing with a movie.

I got out of bed at about 10.30 and immediately settled down with a movie. I didn’t move all that much from my sofa for the rest of the day. The first movie was the bloody and disturbing Kill List, a sort of horror/thriller from Ben Wheatley. It’s a particularly violent film and at times quite difficult to watch. There’s one especially nasty scene in which someone is tortured with a hammer. You get very used to the camera cutting away at the crucial moment in films like this. But in Kill List’s case, that never happens.

Tyres!

After a quick pit stop for unhealthy snacks, I settled down with the aim of watching Before Sunrise and Before Sunset in an epic double bill. I’ve always preferred the latter but wanted to give the former another chance. But I kept getting distracted by Skype calls and the strong feeling of guilt that comes from wasting a day in a foreign country. Seriously, when you spend a lazy Sunday in the UK, you sometimes feel a bit guilty afterwards. But doing it in Japan multiplies that by 10. Any wasted time leads to the feeling of “Shouldn’t I be out there exploring and being generally youthful and fabulous?”

I was very jealous of K-Chan, who the previous day had headed to Osaka Spa World for an afternoon of Europe-themed hot springs. I am needing to treat myself a lot right now, just to maintain my mood. A lot of people are feeling stressed, ill, depressed, confused and generally a bit worse for wear at the moment. I’ve had to consciously push myself to stay active. The deadline for re-contracting is coming up and many of the JETs are still on the fence. At the same time, it’s dark outside and cold inside which, along with the annual flu outbreak, has got many people down.

I still feel pretty good though. I think it helps that I have the crutch of a job to return to. Also, being here with someone else makes a huge amount of difference as one thing that people struggle with is the lack of friends to communicate with. I have my best friend out here with me, so I always have someone to talk to. The only thing that has bothered me really is that I would have liked to have been better at Japanese by now. I still don’t feel I can have a real conversation in Japanese with my friends and co-workers. This is a little frustrating, given that I have been working really hard at my Japanese since I got here. I think it’s just a very hard language and all the work will eventually accumulate. My worry is that as soon as I get half-decent at it, I will be returning to the UK.

Is Data a bit of a stereotype?

The head of English Club asked me to recommend some films so they could have a new DVD selection. Amongst the films I chose was The Goonies. I was looking forward to watching this with my students as I felt the level of English was not too difficult and that it was quite a visual movie. Also, The Goonies rules. It was only when John and Suz reminded me of the casual racism that I started to worry. I mean, Data is a bit of an ethnic stereotype isn’t he? Look at these Asians and their crazy love of technology! Isn’t the Dad sweet with his silly camera! When he says “booby traps” it sounds like “booty twats”! I’m a bit worried there’s gonna be a diplomatic incident when they see it.

Let's Go Island!

It’s a beautiful, sunny day in Okayama and I’m sat in my bedroom/living room/laundry room listening to the weekly Kermode and Mayo film review podcast.Since I arrived in Japan, podcasts have become an increasingly central part of my weekly routine. I like the brief reminders of daily life in England and the semblance of normality they bring to what’s otherwise a pretty irregular weekly schedule.In particular, the Kermode and Mayo podcast people often fail to remove the traffic updates from their show, which means I get a reassuring reminder of tailbacks on the M4/north circular etc.

The mustard lawns

Yesterday I visited Korakuen garden to get a tour from an English speaking guide. It’s been a while since I last visited and the lawns have turned a musty yellow, the flowers are more or less hibernating and the cranes appeared cold and cranky. I found out that a large part of the garden was once used for horse racing and that they set fire to most of the lawn each February in order to re-grow it fresh and green for the spring. I love the element of choice that Japanese gardens provide, by giving you a number of different routes that you can take, each providing a different experience. You sometimes feel like you’re being manipulated by the designer, but in a way that you’re happy to surrender yourself to. I also found out that part of the garden was bombed during World War 2, which was the first time I’ve heard of damage to Okayama from that period. It used to be much larger, extending right up to where the Symphony Hall now is, in effect taking up most of the Eastern part of the city.

The "Crow Castle" overlooks the park.

I love this little water wheel, just near the entrance.

Saturday evening was spent in arcades and izakayas, consuming large quantities of ramen, edamame and tempura. I’m starting to get really obsessed with a particular arcade game called “Let’s Go Island!” where you play an irritating Western couple on holiday. They are cruising along having fun and then get attacked by pirates and mutant fish. This particular version has a “3D” element which basically means it spurts jets of cold air in your face at regular intervals whilst sharks appear to be jumping out of the screen straight at you. Your characters have machine guns but there’s a good bit where they decide to forsake the guns and take on a 40ft mutant octopus by hitting golfballs at it. This technique proves to be surprisingly effective.

I slipped up on the nicotine front. I have no willpower whatsoever.

Let's go to the wild west and eat some poultry

I have been getting very restless lately and it’s not just the result of forsaking cigarettes or turning 30 next week. I have a real urge to do more travelling and am researching like crazy to decide where to go. February looks as if it will be busy with a trip to either Tokyo, Kyushu, Kyoto or Nagano. As you can see, I’m very decisive. I also want to see a bit more of Okayama, so we may go to an old village called Hittoji for my birthday. It looks really pretty, has a huge cauldron bath and a wild west themed restaurant that does duck nabe (a kind of stew/hotpot). What more could you want?

Most excitingly, I am heading up north for the Yuki Matsuri or “Snow Festival” in Sapporo. We had a brief snowstorm yesterday, but that merely whet my appetite for more of the cold stuff. All the teachers I work with keep saying how much they dislike snow. I don’t really understand this, as to me, snow remains an exciting treat. I want to know if kids are allowed to have snowball fights in Japan. I suspect not. I suspect that they act very seriously and treat it as an inconvenience rather than something to be celebrated. But maybe the enjoyment of rare snow is universal and the kids can’t help themselves?

I have had some really strange conversations about the weather since it turned cold, back in November. One common question has been “Is it colder in the UK than it is in Japan?” There is a common implication that the weather in Okayama is better and more comfortable than anywhere else, both in Japan and in the rest of the world. However cold it gets, it is always said to be much colder in Kyoto, even when there is clear evidence to the contrary. My usual response is “they’re about the same”. But if I’m in a slightly irritable mood, I will say “well they are about the same but we usually have central heating indoors”. I realize that sounds smug-that’s not quite how I usually phrase it.

Elementary school students have to wear shorts for the whole of winter. They run through the streets in groups in order to keep warm (they all walk to school-which is awesome, by the way). I once asked a teacher if she ever felt bad that they were so cold and she replied “Yes, but they are very genki (lively and healthy) so they are okay.” Similarly, all the girls at my school wear skirts with long socks but no tights. This means that they are constantly freezing and they often enter the classroom with a blanket wrapped around their blue legs. The response to this was “They don’t feel the cold”. I think from the above, I sound like I’m going around telling people that they are doing things wrong, but it really isn’t like that-I’m usually really careful to avoid anything that sounds like “this makes no sense to me” or “In Britain, things are better because…”. I don’t even think those things as there is so much here that is better than in the UK. However, this is something that I just can’t get my head around.

Many of my students thought that Britain had large amounts of snow, Japanese Alps-scale mountains and was deeply humid in summer. Three or four times, well educated adults have told me, with a sense of pride, that Japan has four seasons, as if the concept of seasons is something that is unique to Japan. In some ways this reflects the Japanese obsession with seasonality and doing specific things at particular times of year. I feel like the changing of seasons is something that is really celebrated here. The weather forecasts will show, for example, how the wave of of cherry blossoms have spread up Japan from south to north. So at any time during the spring, you will know where to go in order to find the most beautiful cherry blossoms. A similar process occurs for the beautiful autumn leaves that you get here. There are commonly agreed places which are good to go for the maple leaves in autumn or for cherry blossom in spring. I love that people actually make time to do this stuff and design outdoor spaces with such attention to detail.

Which reminds me. I am visiting Korakuen with my English group at the weekend. Sometimes I forget that I am a proper responsible adult who is entrusted to take kids on school outings. And then I am happy that I get paid (yes paid!) to go to a beautiful garden with some of the nicest kids you would ever meet and to walk around chatting for a couple of hours. I’m actually very lucky.

Summer was a long time ago.

I've just come across this video from JefflesinJapan that captures some of the best bits of our Orientation Week back in August. I mainly like this video for a) Beautiful shots of Korakuen,, b) Shiraishi looking like a tropical paradise-It sort of is, but as Jeff implies, it also isn't all that interesting, c) For reminding me of the beautiful, if sweaty, Okayama summer and d) You can overhear me regurgitating jokes from South Park on the walk to the park and thinking myself witty. I am not witty. In any way.

Meat. Meat. Meat.

This has been a week of meat, starting with an epic bacon-based tabehodai on Friday night (tabehodai is where you can eat and drink as much as you want for a limited period) and culminating last night with a visit to our favourite yakiniku restaurant in Okayama. Yakiniku is where you sit at a table with a circular flame grill at the centre and are given thinly sliced, marinated pieces of meat and vegetables. You cook them yourself, BBQ style, dip them in a sauce and then eat. The quality of these places is quite variable, but the best restaurants seem to be those where you are given charcoal grills, rather than a gas flame, on which to cook. So essentially it’s the difference between a charcoal BBQ and a gas BBQ.

There are many Japanese dishes (although yakiniku itself is of Korean origin) which are cooked at the table and which involve some element of work by the eater. I like this way of eating as it is very sociable and allows you to cook things according to your own personal taste. Also, there’s something about cooking over an open flame that will always be fun. Maybe it’s the caveman thing.

“Stop going on about your tights” was K-Chan’s* instruction last night. I will stop soon, but am really luxuriating in having warm legs. Why have I been missing out on this for 29.9 years? On inspecting myself in the mirror, I had hoped to see ballerina calves staring back at me. I guess in some ways they were kind of flattering compared to bare legs (the legs of tall skinny men always look ridiculous), but tights are no cure for knobbly knees. Now that’s it. I will say no more about the tights!

*The Lady took issue with me calling her “The Lady”, both for historical blog reasons (someone else had been called “The Lady” on a previous blog…) and possibly also for the Thatcher connotations. So I have decided to call her K-Chan. Chan is an affectionate term and whilst it’s often used by small kids to their friends, people also use it for things like Hello Kitty, who is referred to as “Kitty Chan”. So K-Chan it is. Unless she tells me not to. Apparently I’m not allowed to call her The Shrike in a reference to B.S. Johnson. There are good reasons for this also.

Artsokayama

So, I am no longer in London. I am now in the city of Okayama which is in the south-west of Japan. In exciting news, I am wearing tights today for the first time. Yes-until now I always thought long underwear was something other people did. Older people. However, perhaps it’s the effect of the impending Significant Birthday, but it just seems like the sensible thing to do. I am both toasty warm and ready to prevent all manner of crimes in Gotham City.

I haven’t updated for a long time. That’s because I am lazy. Deeply lazy. You also may have noticed that this is not really an arts scene blog any more. Okayama is not known for its art scene, despite having the odd gallery/museum of interest dotted around. I’ll try and shine some light on those things that I do visit, but this is likely to be a bit more personal and about my day to day life than it was before. I’m also going to try and write in the first person rather than as “Artslondon” as I think that taking that personal element away misses the whole point of blogging. And because the Londonist does that type of thing much better.

So yesterday I handed in my re-contracting papers. It’s a “no”. I will be returning to London in August as originally planned. I did have a brief wobble over the Christmas period as I was having such a good time, going out constantly and feeling very comfortable with my daily lifestyle. In a basic calculation, my day to day existence here is more exciting than my equivalent existence in the UK. However, I have stuff I want to do back in the UK. Not to mention that I’m half of a couple and the Lady has her own reasons for wanting to return this year.

So in the end, I know that I am making the right decision and I am happy with it. But there will always be a part of me which wonders what it would be like to totally change my life, move to Japan, Tokyo maybe, and live a more decadent existence. Maybe the solution is to live that way back in the UK. By decadent, I don’t just mean painting the living room red, although that would be a start.

My life is pretty busy at the moment. Three of my week-nights are taken up with regular activities-football, taiko and Japanese lessons. That means I am keeping myself active through the cold winter period, though I suspect I will cut down on some of these activities when it warms up. I am also really excited about our forthcoming trip to Hokkaido for the snow festival. It’s -14 degrees there at night right now. I may have to double up on the tights.