hypnotistoflady

Looking into the past

2009-09-16T11:49:18Z

I've been tinkering with the journal style options on livejournal and consequently began to read some old entries. There aren't that many entries, but they go back a few years, and it reminded me of many things I'd almost forgotten. It's made me think that I should really write more here, even if it's short, even if it's trivial, because I will no doubt forget it, and it will be lost in the abyss.
I had another livejournal before this one which I probably started around 10 years ago. Before I deleted it, I saved all of the entries in a text file, and I know it's on a CD somewhere. How wonderful it will be to read that now.

My brother comes to Japan this weekend. We have 3 national holidays next week giving us a 5 day weekend, and on top of that I've taken 3 days off which means I have almost 10 days off straight. I had a very busy day wrapping things up at work so my mind can rest easy these coming days. I'm heading to Tokyo tomorrow for a 2 day spinning workshop with Pluckyfluff. I'm then going out for dinner with Yukimasa's online otaku friends on Friday evening, and will find a place to stay on the night, maybe ending up as an internet cafe, and meeting my brother on Saturday morning. We'll do some Tokyo partying, watch some sumo, and head back home to Hamamatsu.

Ok so I'm going to go and pack, photos and things later.

Achievements and progress

2009-08-01T15:28:39Z

I took the Japanese Language Proficiency Test Lv1 the other month. I passed level 2 about 2 and a half years ago and tried level 1 last December and failed by 5 marks. This time I think I will have passed and it'll be nice to get a piece of paper to show that achievement.

I like tangible proof of my achievements; I need it to stop myself from thinking I'm wasting my life away. I cannot live without setting targets and goals.

My boyfriend, however, is a go-with-the-flow kinda guy; he's quite free from ambition or wanting to achieve something in life, and his only real desire is to live a happy life without breaking a sweat. Being such a progress orientated person I personally cannot understand how he can think and act in that way. I'm constantly thinking of ways to develop myself and new skills to learn, and can't stand being stuck in a groove without progress. Because of this I do think I accumulate a lot more stress than he does and for that reason perhaps he lives the better life. Since being with him I've chilled out a little (but if I chill out too much conversely I get irritated by a lack of sense of achievement). Through being with him I've also learn how to accept differences and live peacefully with someone. I don't think I've lived this closely with someone before without getting riled about some conflict. Which is why I'm probably gonna be ok to marry him :D Hooray!

My next goals on the list are:

A judo black belt within the next year (I have a contest tomorrow and if I win a fight I get a point to go along the way to racking up the 10 points I need)

J-test (This test is for levels higher than the JLPT and will give we some way to record my progress)

Send around £800-£1000 home a month (to either pay off my student loan or pay for a masters degree)

ハングル検定　hangul kentei level 5 or 4

A drivers licence might be nice

Luckily Japan is big on taking exams and having pieces of paper to prove supposed ability in various fields from science to colour coordination. (Actual ability may differ.)

OK have a mental pot noodle advert. It's got garlic in to make you buff. 押忍！！

hypnotistoflady @ 2009-07-03T10:40:00

2009-07-03T01:40:15Z

Yes?

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

Bloody homos

2009-05-30T17:33:59Z

There are a billion and one homonyms in Japanese (because Japanese just doesn't have enough sounds) which can lead to confusion even amongst native speakers.

To give you an example, let's look at the word "kougi" (pronounced like the dog "corgi").

My dictionary gives 14 entries:

講義 [こうぎ: KOUGI] lecture.
抗議 [こうぎ: KOUGI] protest, objection.
厚誼 [こうぎ: KOUGI] your kindness
公義 [こうぎ: KOUGI] justice, equity
好宜 [こうぎ: KOUGI] warm friendship
好誼 [こうぎ: KOUGI] warm friendship
交宜 [こうぎ: KOUGI] friendship, amity
交誼 [こうぎ: KOUGI] friendship, amity
巧技 [こうぎ: KOUGI] skill, fine workmanship
公議 [こうぎ: KOUGI] just view, public opinion
広義 [こうぎ: KOUGI] wide sense, broader application
高宜 [こうぎ: KOUGI] (your) kindness or favour (favor)
高誼 [こうぎ: KOUGI] (your) kindness or favour (favor)
公儀 [こうぎ: KOUGI] imperial court, shogunate government, authorities, public affairs, official, government

Thanks to the wonderful invention of kanji (Chinese characters), you can easily distinguish the meanings when you're dealing with text. In conversation you can usually distinguish from the context of the conversation, but in times when there is confusion Japanese people tend to explain the kanji for the word to get the meaning across.
This is done by:
a)Writing kanji in the air with your finger. I cannot for the life of me read this squiggly air Kanji.
or
b)Explaining what kanji the word consists of by relating them to unambiguous words. For example if one was to try to explain the word 特異性 (toku-i-sei) you could say weeell it's "toku" as in "tokubetsu　特別", "i" as in "kotonaru 異なる", and "sei" as in "seishitsu 性質". And in doing so the person would be like aaah I getcha now.

I learnt this word "特異性　tokuisei" only recently in my online Japanese class. I knew "異性 isei" already as "the opposite sex" and "特 toku" means special, so my first thoughts were wtf? the third sex? But no, no, the last ”性 [せい: SEI] (1) sex, gender, (2) nature, characteristic.” takes the meaning of (2) and not (1). "special", "different", "characteristic" = 特異性 [とくいせい: TOKUISEI] singularity, peculiarity, idiosyncrasy.
Lovely.

I had an encounter with these bloody homos at school;

Student: "Do you want to buy an ochaken (お茶券)?"
Me: "ochaken（お茶犬）?
Student: "Yeah we're selling them at the school festival"
Me: "You're selling　ochaken（お茶犬）　goods at the festival?"
Student: "No not ochaken（お茶犬）, ochaken (お茶券). The tea ceremony club is serving tea and if you want to attend to have to buy a ticket."
Me: "Oh, ok then."

-----------------

I boughts an iphone last weekeeend. It's bloody marvelous and I keep buying applications for it, though most of them are pretty cheap. Got a few fun games, some useful reference apps and language learning tools. Next on my list is the Arnold Schwarzenegger soundboard :D

I'm looking at getting a Korean dictionary as well, but I'm really torn as to whether to get a Japanese-Korean or English-Korean dictionary. Korean and Japanese words are a hell of a lot similar so it may make more sense to link new words to my Japanese vocabulary, but on the other hand if there are words I don't know in Japanese it's a pain to have to look them up. The price of both is about the same, and they have native recordings of Japanese and English words respectively (no Korean as it's designed for Korean learners).

It's kinda fun learning a new language again, I'd forgotten how hard it is at the start, there's so much I don't understand, and sounds seem alien and impossible to remember. But as with anything, if you stick at something, you'll improve. I've found that with a lot of things; Japanese, teaching, Judo. Things you used to find impossible you suddenly find you can do with ease. It's those little baby-steps that motivate me.
Tonight I took babysteps by memorizing the Korean days of the week...handily similar to Japanese ones because they derive from the same Chinese characters 〜曜日= 〜ようび (youbi) in Japanese and　〜요일 (yoil) in Korean

일요일　ilyoil 日曜日　にちようび nichiyoubi
월요일　wolyoil 月曜日　げつようび getsuyoubi
화요일　hwayoil 火曜日　かようび kayoubi
수요일　suyoil 水曜日すいようび suiyoubi
목요일　mokyoil 木曜日　もくようび mokuyoubi
금요일　keumyoil 金曜日　きんようび kinyoubi
토요일　toyoil 土曜日　どようび doyoubi

~~Sorry I don't know how to romanize Korean cos there's a billion vowels~~ I bothered to look up how to romanize Korean so you'll see that all the days of the week end in 〜ようび (youbi) for Japanese and　〜요일 (yoil) for Korean both deriving from 〜曜日.
Before 曜日 you can see different characters for different days.
日 means sun - Sunday.
月 means moon - Monday.
火 means fire - Tuesday.
水 means water - Wednesday.
木 means tree - Thursday.
金 means gold - Friday.
土 means soil - Saturday.

Sun and Sunday, moon and Monday are clearly similar to one another, but 火 and Tuesday, 水 and Wednesday are also related.
Let's look at 火水木金土. 星 means star.

火＋星＝　火星 kasei - the planet Mars
水＋星＝　水星 suisei - the planet Mercury
木＋星＝　木星 mokusei - the planet Jupiter
金＋星＝　金星　kinsei - the planet Venus
土＋星＝　土星 dosei - the planet Saturn

Ok so if you look at the etymology of Tuesday you will find that it derives from Tiu's day with Tiu being the God of War. Who else is a god of war? Why that would be Mars. Mars->火星->火曜日= Tuesday.

Saturn and Saturday are obvious but if you look up all the others you'll find they follow this pattern. And in fact a lot of languages do, just take a look at this wikipedia page.

Ok enough babble.

edit: I'm going to introduce days of the week in class with the help of this TMBG's song. It's so catchy my bf keeps singing it, hopefully my kids will too.

Just because I can

2009-03-24T15:29:45Z

I've had my student's heads between my thighs all morning. And it felt good.

Boredom, boredom, boredom

2009-03-13T14:13:38Z

I have so little to do at work that today I made 3D magic eye stereograms and showed them around the office.

It never rains but it pours

2009-03-05T13:53:38Z

I would never in a million years have guessed, at the age of 25, I'd be eating raw squid quite happily. But then, I would never have guessed I'd be living in Japan either. When I was younger I didn't really even want to travel abroad, let alone live there. The thought of not understanding and not being able to communicate made me almost fearful. Indeed I still feel that way and I feel a great sense of guilt going to a place and not knowing the language. This goes especially for countries where I feel I should know the language. Languages that are relatively close to English like European languages. I went to France for the first time a few years ago and had to rely on my Japanese friend, who spoke French but not much English, for almost everything. Staying at a hotel together was quite interesting because there wasn't a language the hotel staff could speak in that we could both understand; I struggled with French, she struggled with English. So it was either the staff repeating the same thing twice in English and French, or one of us translating to the other in Japanese. Quite a kerfuffle I can tell you.

But anyway back to the topic of Squid.
I suppose it's not that strange - we have calamari in Europe, but I have never really acquired a taste for it, too much chewing without getting anywhere for my liking. I have been opposed to eating squid, along with octopus, for a long time since coming to Japan, purely based on the grossness of it all. However, recently, amazingly I have been enjoying it both cooked and raw. It all started when I was in the supermarket looking for some pre-made food goodness for my lunch the next day. I am a big fan of okonomiyaki, enough that I could probably eat it for days on end without tiring of it. It just so happened there was pre-made okonomiyaki goodness at the supermarket that day and bought it despite the clear "contains ika (squid) and tako (octopus)" label - I figured there wouldn't be many pieces and I could just pick them out. But when it came to eating it, half out of laziness and half out of curiosity I didn't bother to take them out...and found that I quite enjoyed the springy sensation of chewing on the squid (same kinda thing with tapioca, but firmer)

You see squid doesn't really have much of a flavour, it's all about the texture. In fact a lot of Japanese food is about the texture and that could explain why there are so many words in Japanese to describe such textures and sensations; "mochi mochi", "pari pari", "saku saku", "fuwa fuwa", "funwari" "neba neba" "assari". As you can see these mimetic words usually involve a repetition of the same sounds. This, I have found, is one of the hardest things to learn in Japanese. All the sounds seem so similar that I can't remember if it's "gunyo gunyo" or "gunya gunya"! (In fact both of those exist and have similar yet slightly different meanings) There are so many of these goddamn things and often it's simply a matter of personal preference about what you use them to describe, thus relying on the Japanese's unique skill of telepathy for communication. One of my friends (a Japanese teacher) uses these onomatopoeic and memetic words so much that she barely speaks a sentence without one, and usually they aren't officially recognised words either - she'll just make up the sounds herself to describe what she is trying to communicate. And actually, Japanese people can usually deduce what she is trying to communicate using their 6th sense. Although first incredibly perturbed by these mischievous little words, I have grown to love them.

Recently one of my fillings fell out as I was chewing gum and led to my first trip to the Japanese dentist. I was slightly worried that I would be bombarded with dentistry terms that I had no hope of understanding, but it wasn't the case. In fact Japanese technical terms are a lot easier to learn and remember than the English equivalents, but that's another story. However I was told a few ways to "kande", to bite my teeth, with onomatopoeic words, and for some reason, although I had only just heard them for the first time I understood what they meant. I was told to "gachi gachi kande", with "gachi gachi" expressing the sound of hard objects hitting each other continuously. Then I was told to "guri guri kande", with "guri guri" expressing the action of making circular motions whilst pressing down. Then after that I was told "gachin to kande", with "gachin" being a derivative of the previous "gachi gachi" except this time it expresses the sound after hard and heavy objects have hit each other (contrasting with the continuous nature of "gachi gachi"). So can you imagine what kind of biting I was doing? First I was chomping my teeth together repetitively, then I was grinding them, and then I was biting them together hard and holding them there.

Well I'm sure you can find better expressions to translate those words than I, and that is my terrible downfall. I love translating and would love to do so professionally but... even if I can quite clearly understand what's being said or the meaning of a text, I cannot always translate it well; it is more often that my English ability fails me than my Japanese. It tears me in frustration when I can clearly understand the meaning in my mind but to not be able to express it in words. Of course there are also times when I can translate quite well and it is that sense of satisfaction after successfully transcribing from one language to the other that I do so love. Interpretation on the other hand is impossible. Whereas translation is generally only marred by my insufficient vocabulary and writing ability, interpretation involves an entirely different problem.

The way our 1st language is stored in our brains is that words are tied to images, sensations or concepts. When we hear the word "tree", we understand it because we link the word to the image. When we hear the word "cold" we understand it because we link it to the sensation. However when we learn a new language as adults we tend to use translation over association to remember new words. I remember in GCSE French we were given "aide memoire" lists to memorise, French on the left, English on the right. All the French words were given an equivalent English word to link to, with no association of the actual object, image or concept. Although I too have had these translation word lists as part of my Japanese study, I remember clearly my first lessons of Japanese were done using flashcards. The teacher would hold up cards with images expressing simple adjectives such as cold, far, short, and verbs such as walk, eat, close. These flashcards were use to test our recall and we were given no translation. The word "mijikai" was linked to the image of a short pencil contrasting a long pencil and not the English word "short". Throughout my study I have learnt words in different ways, but the best and least stressful recall has been linking words directly to images. Especially now in the more advanced stages of language acquisition I tend to learn new words using Japanese->Japanese dictionaries or having people explain to me in Japanese. This means that the new words are not linked with English ones and therefore interpretation, which requires quick translation from Japanese to English difficult. Some teachers seem to like to use me as a walking dictionary and will at often very random times ask me the word for something in English. When I can't answer immediately first they wonder if I don't know the meaning and then when I explain I do they're like but your a native speaker of English, why don't you know!? And well, I feel kind of embarrassed, but switching between languages can be hard.

Is this all just because English and Japanese are so goddamn different? Or is it the same with other languages that are more similar in nature?

Yeah, so I've had nothing to do at work recently, probably be writing more soon. Ciao darlings!

It's been a while....

2008-06-03T07:20:15Z

Although I read my friends page on a regular basis to keep abreast of what you wonderful people have been up to, it's been a long time since I have written anything of myself.

So I'm back in Japan again for the third time, have been here since August last year. This time I'm probably in for the long run, with marrying, having babies and dying here not being unthinkable. For the time being I'm going to stick at this job for 3-5 years - it's easy, enjoyable and pays well. I'm working as an ALT (assistant language teacher) in a low level high school in Hamamatsu city, Shizuoka prefecture (about halfway between Tokyo and Osaka). The job offer came to me out of the blue while I was doing volunteer work near Liverpool in July 2007.
I had applied way back for a job as a CIR (coordinator of international relations) through the JET programme and after having an interview at the Japanese embassy in London I was told that I was on the reserve list and would be called if an opportunity came up. By the time June/July rolled around I was almost certain I would never be called and had started to consider other means of returning to Japan.
However, one drizzly afternoon after finishing the day's chores of cutting out some insulation board I returned to our mobile home (I was helping to build a house on a farm in the Wirral) to find a message on my phone from the Japanese embassy asking me to call them back. However by the time I noticed the message the embassy was closed and I had to spend the entire evening wondering what it was about. I didn't want to get my hopes up, but I couldn't help but be a little excited. The next morning I called them and after several failed attempts at getting someone other than the answer phone I got through to the woman in charge, a Ms Nemoto (authoritative Japanese women scare me). She told me it probably wasn't 100% good news for me as she knew I'd been hoping for CIR position but asked me if I'd like to accept an ALT job. My heart sank at the prospect of teaching in front a classroom of kids, but it was a free ticket to a place I wanted to go and so agreed to it.

Best decision ever.

I feel I am quite a lucky person in general. People say that those born in the year of the boar tend to be, but I don't believe that. My friend's a boar and she doesn't seem to have good luck.

My life up until now has had few hardships. The choices I made have been good ones, but whether that is down to well thought out ideas or good luck I'm not sure. I have the sight to see when problems arise and the will to make steps to correct them, but really I think that I'm just blessed with lucky opportunities that arise one after the other.

When you join the JET programme, in essence you are signing your soul away. Although you can request where you wish to be placed, in the end you must go where you are put. There are good placements and bad placements. The bad placements may involve hellhole apartments, overtime with no compensation, teachers who make no effort to communicate with you or isolation in the middle of nowhere. I heard a rumour about an ALT committing suicide in a northern prefecture; apparently suicide is the biggest cause of death amongst JETs. If it's really that bad why don't they just go home?

My placement is a good one. I requested a placement in Saitama, Kanagawa or Aichi prefecture and they put me in Shizuoka prefecture, which is sandwiched between those. I live in a city next to the sea, but no one really goes to the beach. It's famous for eel, gyoza dumplings, and mikan oranges. The amount of oranges everywhere is really quite astounding; you can't move without someone offering you free oranges. The weather is the usual Japanese stupidly cold in winter and stupidly hot in summer, but with a very windy twist. When you ask someone why they aren't cold they'll tell you it's because they're kaze no ko (child of the wind). I don't get it. The land is generally flat, but to the north there are mountains.

A month ago we had the yearly Hamamatsu kite festival in golden week. It's Hamamatsu's biggest festival and everyone was buzzing about it for months. All the districts of the original Hamamatsu town (it incorporated other towns on the outskirts and became a city last year) compete in flying kites along the river along with the usual drinking and riots of any festival. I also joined the rest of the town in the drinking part and had a thoroughly good time.

I live in a teacher's apartment block. I have a 2LK apartment that is subsidised to around 70 pounds a month. I have traditional tatami floors and paper shutters, and a balcony containing a jungle of vegetables I've started growing. It's about a 7 minute bike ride to school and I work from 8.15 - 4.00, but occasionally I stay later to chat to/play with the kids.

Anyway I'll leave it at that for now, I'm sure some photos would help so I'll try to get some arranged later. There's an all manner of things I could write about. Is there anything you want to know?

Films galore oh my!

2006-10-23T00:29:08Z

Today I have pretty much spent the entirety watching a screen with moving pictures and accompanying sounds.

This term my "japanese cinema" module involves, as the name suggests, a lot of film watching. So in preparation for that I joined www.lovefilm.com (ask me if you want a 30 day free trial ;))
This led me to be watching porn (or what could be basically summed up as porn) this morning. Ironically whilst my mother was in church, oh how she knows not her daughter. But no! Don't get me wrong I wasn't watching out of my own selfish carnal desires, I had to watch it! (honest guv) For this week I present the 1970s sex film industry in Japan to my class.
For those interested the film was "The realm of the senses" or "愛のコリーダ", and involves a _lot_ of sex, SM, a knife and a certain part of the male anatomy.

After that I watched Casshern, another Japanese film, but gave up after an hour of utter boring nonsensical rubbish. I may watch the end tomorrow before I return them.

In the late afternoon I headed over to a friends for dinner, whereafter we watched silly reality TV, a lot of scrubs and a film, "hope springs" that was on telly. Through which all 3 of us (my friend and her mum) were knitting constantly. I'm so glad I can pretty much knit without looking at my work so I can watch the TV properly. You also kinda knit automatically and then are suprised when you do look down at how much you've done!

Japanese proficiency test in 6 weeks, I'm not too worried given the pass score is 60% and over, but I'm not gonna get complacent and really need to strengthen my weak spots.

TIP OF THE DAY: Sweetened soya milk + porridge oats = tasty porridge!

新しい言葉が生まれた

2006-10-15T20:38:34Z

Just installed the LJ widget for the Mac OSX dashboard, woo!

Have been doing my 2nd translation for my "Japan through contemporary texts" module at university. We're doing about Brazilian-Japanese people emmigrating to Japan, not the most thrilling of subjects but it could be worse.
During this translation piece I came across the word 長期化 which means lengthening, to prolong, to protract or suchlike depending on the usage. However my mind in it's infinite wisdom concocted "長gation (nagagation)" as a valid translation.

My only other module of the semester is "Japanese cinema"; a 3 hour lecture and then a film which is pretty schweet cos even in the lecture she shows us lots of clips and is fairly interesting. 3 hours is a long time to concentrate. Next week I have to present the sex industry in the 70s in Japan...anyone know owt? resources?

Living alone sucks...you know you're starved for for human contact when even hearing next doors kids scream or thumping up the stairs makes you feel better.

Gonna go buy a desk tomorrow, and then get into some hardcore studying...not like I got owt else to do.

http://knitty.com/ISSUEfall06/PATTredherring.html I likes these socks

Back home?

2006-09-01T00:12:44Z

I arrived back in the UK on the 8th August, after having spent just under a year in Japan. The country became like a home to me, so much so that I could do nothing but hide my feelings from my economy class neighbour by staring out of the window as we ascended away from the soil of Japan. I cried silently as 11 and a bit months of emotion spilled out in tears. Not just tears of sadness that I was being wrenched away from so many friends, but of thanks that I had been allowed such an opportunity to have had such a wonderful experience. I am truly thankful to my university and exchange university for having set up such a scheme, my teachers for sending me to such a great university, to BA for getting me there and back (though your entertainment on the way home sucked) , my parents for supporting me financially through it, and to me for choosing such a random and ridiculous degree in the first place.

I remember quite clearing leaving Japan, flying over its many ricefields and praying that immigration would allow me to visit again. My dear American friend had given me a gift and a card the day before, with strict instructions not to open it until we took off. She has the perkiness that many Americans seem to possess, and it soothed my pessimistic little British heart. The more time I spent with her the more times I started to say things like "yeah we really should do that!" or "we really should go there" with an almost perky American intonation. She reminded me about the good things, and to make light of the not so good stuff, like being molested on trains by pervy Japanese men (we both had had that pleasure). The card she had given me was a creation of her own, she's an amateur photographer (http://fotologue.jp/showyourlove) and the book was a Japanese one, a light, easy to read book about happiness. Given we had only known each other for 4 months, and been friends even less, I was suprised how well she knew me and about what made me happy. I miss her.

I had planned on listening to the many podcasts I had loaded onto my ipod shuffle, but then I hadn't planned on the battery dying out on me about 2 hours in and was thus forced to be entertained my BAs entertainment (see previous comment), and finally tried to sleep or at least pretended to myself that closing my eyes could be deemed as sleeping. I pretended to sleep for some time, trying to avoid jetlag by sleeping and waking up to British time. It worked.

I had reserved the most comfortable seat in economy, right up the front with ample legroom and a view from the window. No I don't feel guilty that I, a 5 foot nothing, should have such legroom. The Japanese woman I sat next to didn't even give me the pleasure of conversation in her native tongue, though she seemed nice enough. I sneaked a look as she filled in her landing card, going to be a student in Sunderland I see, probably not yet ready to converse with strangers in English and probably unlikely to acknowledge that I, a 5 foot nothing Johnny foreigner, could ever speak Japanese. I'm making wild accusations with no evidence of any kind to back myself up of course.

The journey was a smooth one, we landed well on time. Showing my British passport at immigration I almost forgot that I didn't have to explain myself and was waved straight through, though a "welcome home madam' might have been nice. Customs were their usual selves; stopping no one in sight. My mother still recognised me as I came out of departures, despite me "wearing a hat". We headed straight for the bus station and endured the British transport journey home, where what should have been 2 and a half hours took around 5.

By the way, when Americans come over here and talk about how "quaint" everything is....they're not lying.

Now 3 weeks on, I'm slowly adjusting back to English society but with occasional twinges of homesickness.

Credit card fraud

2006-02-21T10:01:50Z

When a company asks you to send them a faxed or emailed copy of both sides of your credit card along with your shipping address, does it sound a bit suspicious to you?

They claim that its to protect themselves and their bank against credit card fraud, yet what they are asking me to do seems to encourage fraud. If I were to commit credit card fraud, I would be easily traceable by my university email address which I have used to order from them.

Well, probably I'm a bit naive when it comes to these matters, so I really need advice. I have already sent them an email regarding how uncomfortable I feel about their request, and told them of my refusal. Bah, what a hassle. Where's my instant internet gratification!

久しぶり

2006-02-21T09:51:07Z

Due to a series of recent events, and by events I mean processes in my mind, I decided to ressurect this dusty little journal.

So then firstly, since I haven't spoken to anyone who reads this journal for at least a year (probably), there's some things which need an update:

I'm in my 3rd year of undergraduate university education at Oxford Brookes University, now when I say 3rd year technically it's the 4th year I've been at university, and 5th year since i started university, but that's a bit boring and overcomplicated so I'll just stick with being a 3rd year. Yes, I'm still studying Japanese language and contemporary society and marketing...now when I say I'm studying marketing I mean that's what will be written on my certificate when I finish. I completed all my business related modules in the first year and haven't thought about it since, especially when I managed to change the weighting to a major and minor over a joint degree.

Oh yeah, and when I say I'm at Oxford Brookes, I mean I'm in Japan. Yeah.
A compulsary year abroad is required so I've been "living it up" in Tokyo for the past (counts on fingers) 6 months. Halfway through my stay here I'm finally settling down, although I somehow still get suprised when I walk outside my house and hear people speaking Japanese, sometimes it seems so much like home that I forget where I am. I share a room with my boyfriend which makes life here cheaper than in Oxford, which is nice. Our room is 5man (50,000yen, in Japan they have a word for 10 thousand and its so much easier just to use it in english too when talking about Japanese currency) which is around 250 pounds. Tokyo is an interesting city, completely unlike London. There is no real central area like London has, and its very spread out. It doesn't have the historical architecture that London has, but I just love all the little winding back streets and the fact that you find quiet little residential areas dotted everywhere. One minute its bright lights and noisy shops (excessively noisy with staff bleating "irashaimase" every few seconds in turn, and music and songs related to the shop and products), and then suddenly its quiet back alleys with old women sweeping leaves. But I have found the natives to be very docile, amiable and almost completely harmless. But actually its quite true, the biggest danger I have found in Tokyo is getting run over by push bikes, its a pleasant change from the delinquents back home. Whats funny is that some kids will dress up like rappers, and look like they have a lot of attitude, but underneath it they're as polite as the next person.

Wow, this is the first time I have really written a journal entry in English for quite some time. I think my English skills are slowly degrading, and that was partly a reason to start writing again. It's not that I'm fluent in Japanese, far from it, but occasionally the Japanese words come to mind before the English does. I've become very interested in languages and linguistics, despite not being very competent in them personally. Living outside of the UK as a foreigner, has finally showed me what being a foreigner is, and I would recommend the experience to anyone. I've been confronted with talking to people in a foreign language, with the awkwardness of wanting to express something, but lacking the knowledge and vocabulary to do so, and compromising it with a vague, dumbed-down version which essentially gets across what I want to say.

I will have to cut this entry short, as I am off to a knitting group in a bar with hopefully some live music. I'm moving up in the knitting scene, I'm on the Knit Out front page check it aaat

Cultural foody pop quiz

2005-04-18T23:10:48Z

Hello!
I've got to do a study of eating habits for one of my modules. If you have the time and feel like it could you please comment about your personal feelings on the following:

What animals do you consider to be edible?
What parts of animals are you happy to eat (eg. skin, tongue, liver, blood etc.)?
What meat would you consider eating if your normal food was unavailable? (eg. horse, fox, sparrow, insects etc.)
How would you feel if someone sitting near you was eating food you would never eat?

Also any thoughts as to why you do or do not eat certain types of food would be great. For instance I can't eat jelly...or wotsits, of which many of you know the reasons for :) But if you think it's force of habit, religious, taste or whatever reason please tell me,it'll be really helpful

hypnotistoflady @ 2005-02-21T00:29:00

2005-02-21T00:29:27Z

The petshopboys were in my dream last night, I kissed them, it was fun.
Just found out I'll be in Japan when the new zelda game is released (it's been pushed back)...I get to queue up in Tokyo, woo!
Put some yarn up for sale...
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=8171203315&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=8171204914&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=8171205953&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT

Haven't _really_ got much interesting to say, my brain's a bit blank...so I wont say owt.

hypnotistoflady @ 2004-03-10T21:46:00

2004-03-10T21:46:42Z

Haruka bought "The Essential Difference" by Simon Baron-Cohen today and I stole a read of the first chapter. It proposes a serious look at the differences in female and male psychology without sexism and stereotyping. From just reading the first chapter it seems to be on track. It describes the empathising brain (type E) and the systemising brain (type S) but it does not say that all woman are type E and all men are type S, but that statistically more woman have E>S and more men have S>E. However, saying this the book emphasises that you cannot tell someone's traits by gender alone, this is stereotpying/sexism. A man could have a female mind, and vice versa. I feel that this book is hope for future, true equality; neither being sexist, nor admitting there is no difference between male and female brains. Many men these days seem to be being oppressed by the rising feminist 'girl power', and as the author labels, "victim-turn-victimiser". Primarily, this book condemns stereotyping (including "men are from mars..." style literature) , promotes the importance of individuality regardless of gender and takes a curious look into female style and male style brains.

hypnotistoflady @ 2004-03-09T15:33:00

2004-03-09T15:33:08Z

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