Unwell Ramblings

Apologies for the lack of updates recently but I’ve been a little under the weather. Last week I started to feel a little strange during my special needs school visit and I haven’t been able to shake it off since. Nothing too serious, but enough to put a dampener on things.

I’m really excited for next week because two of my oldest friends are coming to visit. I haven’t seen them for ages and, well, I miss them. So it will be great to catch up and amuse ourselves with embarrassing teenage memories of kissing the wrong people and suchlike. Also, it will be good to show some friends around my patch as I haven’t really been able to do that yet. Doubtless this will take in yet another trip to the beautiful Korakuen. I must have been there 8 or 9 times now. I always enjoy it but each time I go am irritated that I never bought myself an annual pass as I:d have saved about 20 quid by now.

I was at my special needs school again today and it reminded me of what I meant to say in my last post. Going to the special needs schools has been in many ways a happy experience. But it has also been a little depressing and saddening at times. Many of the students will lead very limited lives in which there will be constant boundaries on what they are able to do. You get a huge outpouring of happiness from them. But speaking to the teachers, they tend to focus on the long term. One teacher commented that she finds it sad because so many of the students will grow up frustrated and irritated by the things they are unable to do. She also said that she finds it difficult knowing that a fair number of the students she teaches may not live that long. Dipping into the school is fine and the nature of my visits means that the students are generally happy because they are pleased to see me. But in many of the ways that matter, they can sometimes be deeply unhappy. When I think about my own circumstances and the things in my life that make me happy-the truth is that many of those things won’t be open to these kids as they develop into adults. It’s desperately sad, when you think about the reality of it.

I’m trying hard not to generalize too much here and I know the above does go slightly against the grain of what we are encouraged to think about disabled/differently abled people having as much potential for achievement and happiness as anyone else, so I hope I don’t sound like an arse in the above paragraph.

In other news, I’m heading to a rabbit-filled island on Sunday. It used to be a research and manufacturing centre for chemical weapons-now it is marketed like a petting zoo. Japan is strange sometimes.

Decisions, decisions.

Mt Unzen - The perfect hide-out for a supervillian.

On Thursday I will be setting off on another adventure. The trouble is, I don’t yet know where it will take place. I have been terribly indecisive lately. There are plenty of areas I want to visit but I have been unable to make a final choice. At the moment it looks like a toss up between touring round Western Kyushu where I could check out Nagasaki, hike around a volcano and do the onsen thing. Or Tokyo, where I could do the city justice and maybe check out Hakone or Kamakura at the same time. It’s really difficult to decide.

I do realize that these are nice choices to have.

Right now, my parents are visiting Okayama. We took them to Korakuen yesterday which was as blissful as always. Sadly though, much of the lawn was indeed blackened, albeit not actively smouldering. When I pointed out the castle but mentioned that it was entirely re-built in 1966 they were unimpressed. I tend to feel the same way. However, I suppose that in 200 years time, people won’t be quite so snobby about it. In saying that, I still think building a lift into the castle was a mistake, authenticity-wise.

Japanese is a struggle at the moment. The main problem for me is memorizing the vocabulary. I don’t have a problem with the grammar and verb formations. Basic Kanji is perfectly do-able if you put the time and effort in. But no matter how much I study, I just can’t retain the words themselves. It has got to the point where I am jealous of my students’ impressive ability to memorize 50 words a week without breaking a sweat. Admittedly, they sometimes struggle to say anything out loud beyond “Good Morning”, but at least they know the word “phenomenon”.

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.

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.