Lily Goes To Japan

Gomen Ne - Sorry

2008-04-16T10:56:00.001+01:00

Hi Everyone. Sorry I haven't posted anything since getting back to the UK, but when I said I would, that was before I got a job and decided to study for my driving test and enter to run a marathon, among other things. Part of it is probably laziness too, if I am honest. I am getting used to my life here again. Japan seems years ago now. If I get round to it, I'll try and finish off a few posts I have in my head but if it doesn't happen it doesn't happen. After I find out in October if I have a place in the 2009 London Marathon this blog might require a name change to Lily Runs The Marathon. Fingers crossed...

東京 – Tokyo

2008-03-08T09:24:00.005Z

I left Nagasaki last Friday morning. (Wow, has it already been a week?) May and I treated ourselves to breakfast at Mos Burger, we said goodbye to everyone at the dormitory and then we got on a bus together, bound for Fukuoka Airport. Those three hours on the bus were both happy and sad. We were on our way home but that meant we were leaving each other and leaving a lot of great things behind in Nagasaki too.

Since May was flying to Seoul, we got off at the International Terminal. From there I had to take a free shuttle bus to the domestic terminal. I said goodbye to May here, which was obviously very sad. We are both so determined to see each other again though, it didn't really feel like goodbye.
The bus pulled away and the 'Sayonara' ending song from Howl's Moving Castle played on my ipod.

*

The flight to Tokyo was fine. It took took two hours, so it basically felt like we went up and straight back down again. I arrived in Tokyo in the early evening and I was aware that it would be getting dark soon, so I ignored my hunger and fatigue and headed for my youth hostel. This involved two train changes which, with a suitcase, rucksack, handbag and paper and bamboo Japanese umbrella for my sister, was quite an effort. It wasn't fun navigating Tokyo's rail network with all this luggage, but what choice did I have? Given the vast quantities of food I had eaten in the preceding two weeks (due to the numerous farewell dinners and a commitment to finish all the food in my apartment) I thought the exercise was probably not a bad thing. Still, my19kg suitcase was quite a beast to haul on and off trains. I managed to time my journey to perfection though, as I just caught the last glimpses of a Tokyo sunset, the sun sinking behind Fuji-san (Mt. Fuji), leaving the famous volcano burning terracotta red on the horizon.

Seeing my youth hostel was such a relief. I stayed in a different one when I first arrived in Japan in September but it was in the same area (Shinjuku-ku) and when the building looks like this:
...how could I possibly miss it? Checked-in, found my room: more relief. When I read 'dormitory-style rooms' on the youth hostel website, I started preparing myself for three nights of disturbed, public sleep. So seeing this was just wonderful:
Curtains! And a reading lamp! Privacy, yay! As it happened, I didn't need them that much since the other people in the room turned out to be... well, ok, first, one of the girls, Lee Anna, I already knew. (I know, what are the chances?!) She was one of the Gappers who came to Tokyo back in September. She had spent the past six months working in Kumamoto and now, like me, was stopping in Tokyo briefly on her way back home (to Vancouver). The girl in the bed above me, Danielle, was also a Gapper, but she was just starting her placement. There was also an American from Georgia with a voice like honey and an Australian snowboarder from Perth. We all got on really well and chatted a lot over the next few days about our respective homes and experiences.

Danielle and I clicked particularly well, so we ended up doing some sightseeing together. This was such a wonderful relief. I was expecting to spend three days alone in Tokyo in a sort of limbo, since I didn't want to leave Japan but I wanted to go home. Spending time with someone who I got on well with and who was in the exact same situation as I was six months ago then, was fantastic.

The first day I was there though, Saturday March 1st, I went on a day-trip alone to see Fuji-san. I took a 2-hour bus to Kawaguchi-ko (Lake Kawaguchi), walked around the town a bit and went up to a viewing platform to see the volcano. It was a lovely little day trip, but unfortunately some cloud had settled in over Fuji-san this was the view I got:
It was actually a little clearer than this photo but still, I had seen more impressive sights in Japan. Well, maybe I am being a little harsh. It's size was extraordinary. I was truly colossal. I definitely felt like I was looking at a volcano too, so that was quite cool.

The lake:

After a slightly longer than expected return journey – there was a problem with the bus so we had to wait on the side of the road for another one to come and blah blah blah – I got back to the youth hostel at around 4:30 and I was just shattered. I managed to make it down to the convenience store to buy some food, but after that I didn't leave the hostel that day. I had a bath, read, chatted with the girls for a while, then fell asleep.

The next day I felt I could take things at a more leisurely pace, having no long-distance bus journeys to fit in. This was when Danielle and I went off together, hopping from one site to the next. We went to Harajuku, Tsukiji and the Imperial Palace. We may have gone to a few other places too but they kind of all blend into one in my memory. Tsukiji was my favourite. There is a giant fish market there, where the first catch of the day are brought and sold. Surrounding it are scores of sushi and sashimi restaurants which sell some of the freshest (i.e. finest) fish in Japan. It is apparently best first thing in the morning but we chose being slightly lazy over getting the best of the best sushi and went there for lunch. We were fortunate enough to bump into a man handing out discount leaflets for the restaurant where he worked, so we each got ¥500 off our lunch. I ended up paying ¥360 (£1.75) for some absolutely delicious sushi. Yum yum.

After lunch we walked to the Imperial Palace and had a stroll through the gardens. It was nice enough but certainly not one my favourite sights in Japan. I did enjoying walking around Tokyo a little though. Usually, you just travel by train or metro because that is the quickest and easiest way to get somewhere, but we both had the time to walk and the weather was lovely so why not?

I didn't go out in the evening, the same as the previous two nights. I was just so exhausted. Plus, there wasn't anything else in Tokyo that I desperately wanted to see. You may have gathered by now that I wasn't all that impressed with Tokyo, even after a second visit. Perhaps if I liked to go clubbing all night and shopping all day, it would be more my kind of city, but I am a bit of a geek and I like sightseeing and exploring. The sights I found a bit of a let down and Tokyo is too big to explore on foot really. The buildings were remarkably tall, I'll give Tokyo that. Like, you have to strain your neck to see the top of them.
I had to wake up early on the morning of Monday March 3rd for my flight back to England. Lee Anna and Danielle got up for my departure (Danielle even helped me with my luggage to the lobby) so yet again, I found myself saying goodbye to friends I had made in Japan. Leaving the youth hostel, catching the trains to the airport, checking in... all of it I did in a state of numbness. It didn't feel real. It was too significant a day for me to take everything in. The twelve-hour flight went remarkably smoothly, and time didn't drag as you might expect it would. I highly recommend Virgin Atlantic. They were great. Each passenger has their own TV screen and there is such a vast choice of entertainment it was impossible to watch everything I wanted to. I only slept for about an hour and still I couldn't make it through all the episodes of Family Guy they had on offer.

Bang. Tires touch down on English tarmac. Home.

As I was walking to the baggage carousel, I heard someone calling my name behind me. I turned around and it was Lucy, yet another Gapper whom I had already met and who had just finished her placement. She was partnered with Lee Anna in Kumamoto, as it happened. Lucy had been on the same plane as me for the past half a day and it was only as we were getting off that we met. It's a funny world, isn't it? We talked about our experiences at break-neck speed to try and fit everything in, as we only had the time it took to collect our luggage and go through passport control before we had to separate again.

Seeing my Dad for the first time in six months, there waiting for me in arrivals.... it goes without saying that it was... I can't come up with a good enough word to describe it. He had told me on the phone the week before that he would be wearing his red winter coat so I could spot him easily in the crowd, so one of the first things he said to me was, “Can I take my coat off now? It's sweltering in here”. Good to be back, Dad.

Dad and I left Lucy to find her Mum and we got in Dad's car – how good it was to see that little blue Nissan again! - and hit the road. Destination: Preston, Lancashire. From London this was a four-hour drive, but that felt like nothing compared to the amount of travelling I had done recently. Dad and I talked all the way home. It was a fantastic four hours, made even better by the goody bag of English food my Dad had prepared for me. Pringles, Iced Gem and Haribo Fizzy Mix have never tasted so good.

My house looks almost exactly the same as when I left it in September. The only difference I can spot is a new bath mat. Even all of my fish are still alive! The people have changed a bit. My sister is now seventeen and looking more and more like an adult – albeit, a rather unique one – by the day. My eldest brother is deep in his studies and has a new girlfriend, who he seems to utterly adore. My other brother came back from university in Coventry for the weekend and he is more well-built and balder than I remember. He had obviously shaved his head very recently, I like to think for my return :-)
There has been a lot of gift-giving and catching up, and still plenty more to go too. I am settling back down into my English life nicely and am already working on my Post-Japan To Do list. The priority on there is finding a job so that I can start earning and paying my Dad back for my Japan trip. The grand total spent on this whole Japan experience was... drum roll, please... £4113, ¥848,771. Out of that, I owe my Dad £2388. That's not too bad, certainly not as much as I was expecting. And for what I got out of it, it was worth every single penny.

*

There is still more to come on this blog. There are a few things I didn't get a chance to write about at the time they happened, so I'm going to be going back in time a bit to catch up. Stay tuned.

2008-03-04T20:48:00.003Z

I am back in England now, back in Preston. Everything is a little weird. In some ways it feels as though I never left but in others... wow. It isn't that living in England again is strange, but rather that not living in Japan is strange. Of course, I can't have both so I will just have to get used to this place. There is so much to tell about my journey home but I am too tired to go into it all now. So there is still more to come; This blog isn't over yet!

かえります – I'm Going Home

2008-02-27T03:29:00.001Z

I only have two more days left in Nagasaki. On Friday I will leave, probably forever. I am very happy that I have done this, and that my work here is nearly over – because it was hard – but it won't be easy leaving my friends and some of the quirky things about Japan that I have come to take for granted. I'm a little overwhelmed at the moment. I have thought about the journey home a lot in the past six months and now it is two days away – wow. This has felt like a time-out from my life so it might be difficult getting back into the swing of things in England. Still, I don't think English food will taste as good, English weather will feel as refreshing, or the English language will sound as melodic as it will next Monday.

My journey home should work out something like this: I am leaving Nagasaki on Friday morning, getting a bus to Fukuoka airport, then hopping on a plane for Tokyo. I will spend the next three nights in the Tokyo International Youth Hostel in Shinjuku-ku and spend the following two days sightseeing in and around the city. Then first thing on Monday morning, I will go to Narita International Airport and get a 12noon flight to London Heathrow. My Dad is meeting me at the airport and he will drive me back home to Preston. *sighs* It will be a very interesting next few days, I think. May is travelling with me as far as Fukuoka airport. From there she is flying to Korea to spend the next three weeks with some of her relatives there. After that she is coming back to Japan and spending a week in Tokyo, then flying back home to Vancouver. I am going to miss her a lot.

*

Random photograph: Below is a photo of my favourite road sign. Many of you may not have a favourite road sign but I do. According to this sign, there are only two things you need to worry about: Nagasaki, which is two kilometres underground, and Hirado, which is one hundred and nine kilometres up in the sky. The Most Informative Sign in the World is situated about 2km from Nagasaki train station, which I suppose is the centre if the city. But really, if you hadn't figured out which city you were in until you were that close to the centre, then a sign that says you either need to start digging or head upward to Hirado (apparently your only other option) is surely just going to cause more confusion.

Placement Summary

2008-02-25T03:02:00.000Z

I was asked by Kimura-san to write an article for the hospital newspaper, summarizing my placement in Nagasaki. Here is it, spelling and grammatical errors included:

Something To Tell The Grandchildren

I was told by many people before I came here that the six months I was due to spend in Japan would fly by at an alarming speed. At first I didn't believe them but now, looking back, they were absolutely right. It was a shock to the system initially, being thrown into the middle of a Japanese hospital, but so many of the staff tried to welcome May and I as warmly as they could that we soon started to feel not like temporary volunteers, but as members of the hospital. It was this fact that made my placement so enjoyable and it is this fact that makes me sad to be leaving Nagasaki.

Since coming to Japan I have encountered many things for the first time. It has been a long series of firsts after another, in fact. This was the first time I have lived alone and in a foreign country, the first time I have had a full-time job, and the first time I have put my life in the hands of a fugu chef (the latter causing much trepidation among my family). Being constantly confronted by things that were unfamiliar to me was very difficult at times, but equally, very rewarding. It has encouraged me to be less inhibited, more open-minded and more fearless.

There have been many wonderful and exciting events in the past half a year that I will always remember fondly. Some of the highlights for me are as follows:

● Seeing Nagasaki's O Kunchi Matsuri – it was definitely worth waking up early for!
● Travelling to Kumamoto for the Kyushu Red Cross Sports Competition – I was proud to cheer for my hospital, especially after seeing many of the staff consume an impressive amount of alcohol during the bus journey and opening ceremony.
● Watching a surgical procedure for the first time – and the second, and the third... Thank you to all of the surgeons and surgical nurses who allowed me to peer over their shoulders on the numerous occasions I managed to make my way into the surgery room.
● Bonenkai – Need I say more?

Of course, it wasn't all road trips and parties, May and I worked a little bit too. We worked in the nurses stations, the pharmacy, radiology, test department, operation room, kitchen, medical matters and nursery. Having a schedule that had me working in a range of departments not only meant I got to see a variety of things and contribute in a variety of ways, but it also meant I got to meet and befriend many people. Although my work at the hospital has been important to me and, I think, character-building, it is the people that I will remember. It is the people that I will miss. Thank you... for everything. You know who you all are, so I won't embarrass anyone by mentioning names. The phrase, “so much to do, so little time” comes to mind though. May and I were swamped with invitations to visit people's homes or have dinner with them and unfortunately it just wasn't possible to fulfill them all. It was very flattering to be extended so many invitations, although I am not sure I deserve half the amount of kindness that I have received here.

This has been without a doubt, the most challenging, enjoyable and gratifying time of my life. I will never forget Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Hospital and the people who devote so much of their time and energy to it. Nagasaki has become like a second home to me now and I would not chose another place to spend my gap year even if I could. And who knows, maybe I will come back at some point in the future for a visit...

宮島 - Miyajima

2008-02-21T03:20:00.002Z

After having breakfast at the hotel in Hiroshima last Wednesday (13th February), I went to the Tourist Information Centre located in the Peace Park to buy a one-day tram and ferry travel pass. For ¥840 this allows you unlimited travel on both the trams and ferries in Hiroshima, meaning I could get to the tram stop at the ferry terminal from central Hiroshima, get a ferry to the island, a ferry back, and another tram back into the city centre all on this one ticket. Smashing.

This is the island of Miyajima, seen from the ferry on the way over:
One of the reasons I decided to visit Hiroshima during my busy schedule was so that I could come to Miyajima. Miyajima was what clinched the decision for me. I have always wanted to come here and see the famous floating torii of the Itsukushima Jinja (Itsukushima shrine). I think I wrote a post about it back in August 2007 so I won't regurgitate the same information about the island's history here.

The first thing you notice as you get off the ferry is the herd of the tamest deer you have ever seen. Having spent the past six months trying to befriend my local stray cats with zero success, to see these wonderfully tame deer was incredible. I resisted going up to them and touching them like some of the other tourists though because I had read that a) they will head-butt you if they feel like it and b) they like to eat clothing, bags, whatever they can get their teeth into.

A few of the pack:
A ten-minute walk from the ferry terminal put me right in front of it, the floating torii. It was breathtaking seeing it in person after spending so long looking at it in photographs. I was lucky enough to see it at a semi-high tide so it did actually appear to be floating on water rather than mud.
The only other thing that I wanted to do on the island was to get the ropeway (cable car) to the top of the highest mountain on Miyajima, Misen-yama (Mt. Misen), 530m. A return ropeway journey set me back ¥1800, nearly ¥1000 more than the cost of travel to and from the island, but it turned out to be money very well spent. Oddly, it was snowing quite heavily on the way up (and down) but at the summit it was clear and sunny.... hmm? Here's the view that was worth every last yen:

And if there was any doubt remaining about the money, this really made it indisputable:
Not only was there a pack of monkeys who were hanging around the ropeway station (sorry for the pun), but they were semi-tame too! You could get within a metre or two of them and they didn't mind being photographed at all. As is never surprising with monkeys, they were just as curious in you as you are with them. They were especially cute when about ten of them would huddle up together for warmth (it may have been sunny up there but, boy, was it chilly).

And that was Miyajima. I arrived back in Hiroshima at around 3pm so it was a very easy day trip. A short blog post like this doesn't do it justice. It was one of the highlights of my trip to Honshu though, it really was. Torii, deer, monkeys, mountain view... fantatstic.

広島 - Hiroshima

2008-02-16T03:15:00.011Z

I arrived at Hiroshima station at around 1:30pm on Tuesday 12th February. With a hotel already in mind after some internet research prior to travelling, I set out on foot down Ekimae-dōri (which translates as 'the street in front of the station'). Immediately, I was taken by how beautiful a city Hiroshima was. Spacious, tree-lined streets... gorgeous river... it reminded me, interestingly, of Nagasaki. Kyoto was lovely, of course, but enormously different from my home city in Kyushu.

A ten minute walk saw Ekimae-dōri become Heiwa-Odōri, or Peace Boulevard, the main street in Hiroshima. The hotel I was looking for was just a couple more minutes walk from there. It is called the Toyoko Inn and is one of a chain of business hotels found in all the major cities of Japan. I stayed in the Toyoko Inn in Kumamoto with the rest of the team who went on the Red Cross sports trip back in November. It was from this experience that I knew I would like the hotel in Hiroshima and since it was in the perfect location for my purposes, I decided to go for it. It was almost exactly the same price as the ryokan in Kyoto incidentally.
Check-in wasn't until four pm so I left my rucksack behind the reception desk and went exploring. I came across this:
Now, is it me or does it appear that this duck is reading a newspaper whilst sitting on an invisible toilet?

After about an hour of wandering around I got a sudden craving for some curry, so I changed my objective to seeking out a curry house. Today really was my lucky day, as I stumbled upon this restaurant after only a few minutes of looking:
“Good Smell. Good curry”. Sounds good enough for me, I thought.

After settling in at the hotel for a while, I went out again and made the ten minute walk to Heiwa Kōen (Peace Park). I particularly wanted to see the Genbaku Dōmu (A-Bomb Dome). I had first seen pictures of it many years before during history lessons at school and was struck then by its desperate appearance. Being only a matter of metres from the hypocentre, it managed to stay standing because it was subjected to primarily downward rather than horizontal forces. It is now a Unesco World Heritage site.

The cenotaph, containing the names of all the known victims of the bomb. Each year at the memorial service the names of all the hibakusha (atomic-bomb survivors) who have died in the past year are added to it. Last year over 5000 more names were added.

The Children's Peace Memorial, inspired by the leukaemia victim Sadako, who believed if she folded a thousand paper cranes, her wish to be cured would come true. She died before she reached 1000, but her efforts inspired children across the world to fold cranes in the hope of one day achieving peace.
The monument for the Korean victims of the bomb. One in ten of the victims of the bomb were Korean, largely due to the fact thousands were forced into coming to Japan for slave labour by the Japanese during the war.
I had been warned that Kyoto was extremely cold at the moment but compared to Hiroshima, ha! I woke up on Wednesday morning to this image from my hotel window:
A blizzard, by English standards! And a little later, after breakfast:
Wednesday was the day I had planned to go to the island of Miyjima as a day trip and I wasn't going to let a little snow stop me. I left the hotel wearing all the clean clothes I had left in my bag, ready to spend most of the day outside. I'll talk about Miyajima in a separate post because there's quite a lot to say.

I got back from Miyajima in the late afternoon, with just enough time to see the Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum. This museum is only given one line in my Lonely Planet guide book, but that was enough to convince me to see it. “... Featuring Salvador Dali's Dream of Venus...” The Salvador Dali?! The Dream of Venus?! The painting lived up to its expectations without a doubt. It was truly amazing. There were some other wonderful paintings there too, many by Japanese artists. I enjoy admiring artwork, but sometimes there is just too much to look at for me, too much to try and appreciate. This was quite a small museum however, so that suited me very well.

I woke up bright and early again the following day, Thursday. No snow this time though. After breakfast in the hotel lobby and after checking out I went back to Heiwa Kōen to see the Atomic Bomb Museum. Needless to say, it was very moving. It was also very informative. I learned that, unlike Nagasaki which aimed to simply rebuild after the destruction of the bomb, Hiroshima was given a make-over too. The streets were widened, trees were planted (many of which were donated from various places from across the globe). They wanted Hiroshima to become The City of Peace and so it had to look like it. From spending three days there, I think they did a very good job. It is a really beautiful city and a lovely place to explore on foot.
To get home to Nagasaki I had to first travel to Fukuoka/Hakata. I worked out that if I went by Shinkansen to Fukuoka and then by train to Nagasaki, it would cost me well over ¥12,000, but it would only take me four hours (excluding the time it would take to change trains). I then worked out that taking a bus all the way back, changing at Fukuoka, would take me seven hours but would only cost ¥6500. I decided to go for the latter. I had already finished everything I wanted to do in Hiroshima and sitting on a long-distance bus for the afternoon, listening to my ipod and enjoying the scenery didn't sound that bad to me. And if I would be saving ¥6000 too, then all the better. After a small glitch early on, involving me getting on the wrong bus, I had a very easy journey home. It was wonderful seeing my apartment again, lying on my bed, playing on my laptop. After five days and 1700km of travelling Japan, I was absolutely exhausted. I ate some dinner, put my camera on to charge and fell asleep.

*

Next, Lily Goes To Miyajima.

京都 - Kyoto

2008-02-15T05:00:00.009Z

Wow. Where do I begin? Since I last posted, my Mum has come and gone, I have ridden the Shinkansen ('Bullet Train') across Japan and I have seen Kyoto, Hiroshima and Miyajima. Well, let's do things in chronological order, shall we?

So, my Mum came to visit me in Nagasaki. I went to meet her at Nagasaki airport (the runway of which stretches out into Ōmura Bay) on Sunday 3rd February. We then spent the next six days in Nagasaki shopping, eating, sightseeing and socialising with some of my friends here. Her and May got on really well and everyone I introduced her to loved her. I took her to the hospital to meet some of the people I work with and about 75% tried to speak in English for her sake, even though only about 25% actually speak in English. There was a bit of laughing about the lack of a common language but that made everyone smile that little bit more to compensate.

It was nice showing my Mother my home turf here in Japan, but we had previously decided that we would travel a bit together too. On Sunday 10th February we woke up bright and early, said sayonara ('goodbye') to May and headed for Nagasaki Station. We got on a train to Fukuoka/Hakata (which took 2 hours) and there hopped onto an Hikari Shinkansen bound for Tokyo. We got off at Shin-Ōsaka Station and changed for a Shinkansen going through Kyoto. In a total of five hours travelling time we had travelled 854km, and the first 174 took two hours on the regular train. It was very impressive but a little weird travelling on the Shinkansen. If you imagine a film clip taken from a moving train and then imagine speeding it up and watching it in fast-forward, that was what it was like. Anyway, here's the Shinkansen we caught Hakata to Ōsaka:
After navigating Kyoto Station (which is the train station equivalent of a mystical labyrinth by the way) I managed to book us two nights in a traditional Japanese Ryokan (Inn).

It was a lovely little hotel. It was quite expensive but there was no arguing that we were travelling the Japanese way now. Plus, a large and delicious breakfast was thrown in. Can't argue with that. Aaaand do you see that table in the second photo... well, it has a heater built into it. You slide your legs under and it keeps your feet toasty while you enjoy a cup of ocha (tea) and an okashi (cake). Bliss.

The following day I headed out to Fushimi-Inari Taisha, a Shinto shrine in the South-east outskirts of Kyoto. Although many of you might not recognise the name, some of you might recognise the place:

The shrine is dedicated to the Gods of rice and sake (Japanese rice wine) and is the main Inari shrine out of the 30,000 dotted across Japan. Needless to say, it is very popular with tourists and when I arrived there at around 10:30am it was packed. Even so, the beauty of this famous shrine was undeniable. The torii-lined pathway extends 4km up the mountain, Inari-yama. I didn't walk the entire 4km. As much as I was enjoying the stroll under the torii, the prospect of an 8km trek in the middle of February didn't appeal. Besides, I would be leaving Kyoto the next day and I still had some more sightseeing to do.

Next I went to Gion, the traditional entertainment district of Kyoto. It was here that I stood my best chance of seeing a real-life Geisha, as they still wander the streets here on their way to and from appointments. In a stroke of pure luck, I stumbled upon a Geisha posing for some photographers after being in Gion for only five minutes. Jackpot:
I stopped on the walk back to the Ryokan at the Kamo river. It was turning into a beautiful evening and what with the distant mountains and the river birds and the buildings of Kyoto on all sides of me, I decided to sit on the bank for a while and read some of my book.

After another night in the Ryokan, Mum and I went back to Kyoto Station. There we said goodbye. She got on a Shinkansen for Tokyo and I got on a local train to Shin-Ōsaka, and from there took a Shinkansen to Hiroshima. Mum is flying back to England from Tokyo Narita Airport today. I have been in Hiroshima for the past three days so I don't know what she got up to in Tokyo, but if her time in Nagasaki is anything to go by, it probably involved a lot of shopping :-)

Stay tuned for the next instalment, where Lily Goes To Hiroshima.

30 ⽇ - 30 Days

2008-01-30T03:28:00.000Z

This is really it. I only have 30 more days here in Nagasaki, and 34 more days in Japan. How did I get here? How did I make it this far?
My Mum is coming to visit me on Sunday and will stay in Japan for two weeks. As great a blessing as this is, with it comes the need for a lot of preparation, planning ans socializing on my part. My social life has never been as active as it is now, I don't think. All of my friends at the hospital are really excited about her visit so I've been getting a lot of invitations for us both for dinner and stuff. I haven't had to turn anybody down yet but our schedule is getting so full that I might have to soon. I should stop complaining. It is reminding me how much a part of the hospital I feel now.

Speaking of socializing, May and I have been invited to Sinenkai this Thursday. Remember Bonenkai, the end of year party that was held in the middle of December? Well, Shinenkai is the start of year party. It will be a night full of food, alcohol and semi-naked dancing no doubt, at least it will if Bonenkai is anything to go by. Is it wrong that I am looking forward to it even though I know this? When I asked a few of the nurses on 6E if they were planning on going, they all raised their hands in unison and yelled, “Iku! Iku!” (“I'm going, I'm going!”). Looks like I'm not the only one who is looking forward to it.

No Beanstalk Though

2008-01-26T02:54:00.000Z

Ha! I successfully made my own red bean sweet paste this morning, without a recipe I might add. Now I can conquer the world!

Here in Japan, everything has this sweet bean paste in it. You bite into a cake or pastry and expect it to be filled with jam or cream or something, but nine times out of ten it is filled with this paste. At first that bothered me but now I love it. I have no idea what it is called but it sure is yummy. I think I'm going to take some of the dry beans back to England with me so I can make some for my family.

Woo. Feeling productive.

⼦ども - Children

2008-01-26T02:44:00.001Z

Here are a few photographs of the children who go to the hospital nursery. All of these photos were taken by May with her camera so I can take no credit for them whatsoever. (Where I have listed two names, the latter is the shortened version that we use over their full names).

Ayaka-/Aya-chan:
Aya-chan is the oldest child at the nursery. Last week, while playing with a piece of my hair, she asked "why is your hair yellow?". Very good question, Aya-chan. Unfortunately, even if I were able to explain in Japanese, I think the concept of genetic inheritance might be lost on a four year-old. Still, I think she has a lot of potential.

Tatsuhi-/Tabo-kun:

Hiroto-/Hiro-kun:

Reina-/Rei-chan:
Hiro-kun and Rei-chan are siblings. Watching Rei-chan play, you can tell she has an older brother. She's forceful, stubborn and a little rough. Oh, and everything is a competition. Yeah, I can relate to that, having grown up with two older brothers myself.

Yuto-kun:

Yuna-chan:

Rintoro-/Rin-kun:
May did well to get a picture of Rin-kun that isn't a complete blur. He never stays still. You have to watch out for him because he seems to like climbing on things and then jumping off them, and he'll happily use you as a prop in his never-ending obstacle course.

Haurka-/Haru-chan:

Yukika-/Yuki-chan:
It was a miracle to get a photo of Yuki-chan where she isn't crying. She doesn't like May and me, so cries for about 90% of the time we are there. The 10% when she isn't crying she is usually laughing at Hiro-kun pulling faces at her.

Tateki-kun (with Re-chan):
Tateki-kun is the most quiet, gentle little boy that you will ever meet. What's funny is that his Dad (who is a doctor at the hospital) is exactly the same.

Tateki-kun & Yuna-chan:

べっぷ – Beppu III

2008-01-22T03:06:00.001Z

I know, I know, I went to Beppu like two weeks ago and I should really have posted about it by now. Better late than never though.

May and I left Nagasaki a week last Saturday on an 8:40 bus direct to Beppu. After a scenic and at points very windy journey, we arrived in central Beppu at around 12:30. Hungry, we quickly found our hotel, the Ekimae Goto Onsen, dumped our bags there and checked out the nearby train station for restaurants. We settled on a steaming hot bowl of udon in the end. We then explored the town a bit, found a Korean restaurant, much to our interest and then got on a tour bus of the local rigoku or 'hell springs'. These are some of Japan's hot springs that you definitely do not want to bathe in. Too hot and too toxic. Beppu is famous for it's hot springs by the way. There are two types, the rigoku hells and the onsen, in which you bathe. Our hotel, as its name suggests, sits directly over one of these onsen, which we had the pleasure of being able to use whenever we wanted.
We decided on the Korean restaurant for dinner because May has been making me salivate for months whenever she talks about Korean food – hot, healthy and spicy, mmm. The owner was Korean, so May enjoyed being able to speak in her native language for a night, and I was happy because I had a plate of awesome food in front of me. The owner was impressed that I managed to eat all of the kimchi soup that May ordered for me because kimchi is used in Korean cooking to make everything super spicy. Being English however, I grew up eating Indian curry so a little bit of spicy cabbage barely registered on my Hot-O-Meter.
After dinner, we explored a bit more, shopped, took some photographs. What made my night though was spotting something that I have been looking for in Japan for four months. It was something that I specifically wanted to give as a present to one of my family members and here it was, in a small souvenir shop in Beppu, Oita-Ken. It was cheaper than I expected too, although a little awkward to carry ;-)

Sunday started bright and early with a short train ride to Oita city, then a two-hour bus journey to Aso town in Kumamoto-Ken. From there we took another 40-minute bus ride up Aso-san (Mount Aso). We then took a cable car a few hundred metres to the top of Nakadake, one of the five peaks that makes up Aso-san. It was freezing - there was snow and everything - so we ran to take our first peek inside a volcano crater, got one of the Korean tourists who we met on the bus journey to take a quick photograph and then headed back down the mountain to a reasonable altitude. The photos we took didn't really do the spectacular landscape justice, but at least they have given you an idea of what I am talking about.

Cold, tired and hungry we made it back to Beppu at around 8pm. We did what anyone would have done in that situation: We went back to the Korean restaurant for dinner, into the open arms of the owner, and then soaked in the onsen at our hotel before heading to bed. Our bath was even more pleasurable as all the lovely food in our tummies hadn't cost us a penny. There was a Japanese man at the Korean restaurant who had had one too many sake's and on a whim decided to pay for the dinner of the two foreign girls sitting at the next table. Anything can happen.
After another quick dip in the hotel onsen the following morning, we checked out and caught our bus back to Nagasaki, squeaky clean but ready for a rest. It's amazing how tiring sitting on bus for hours on end is. I mean you're just sitting there, so why do you get off feeling like you need a good long nap?

*

People at the hospital are sensing that our time in Nagasaki is coming to an end. We have had three invitations this week already. Last week we had three also. We had to only pay for one of our meals last weekend. Aside from the obvious financial benefits, I am really enjoying making the most of my final few weeks in Japan. The people here are just great. Generous, kind, attentive. I have made some really good friends. It's almost a shame that I am leaving so soon.

せいじんしき - Seijinshiki Festival

2008-01-21T03:09:00.000Z

The second Monday in January marks the Seijin No Hi, or coming of age day. Men and women who have reached the age of 20 (hatachi) celebrate on this day the start of their adulthood. It seems to be acceptable to celebrate Seijinshiki not just on this day though, at least things certainly look that way as May and I celebrated it this Saturday just gone. She is 20 years old according to the western counting system and I am 20 according the Japanese counting system (where you are 1 on the day you are born). So either way you look at it, one of us was supposed to be celebrating our coming of age.

Kumiko-san and Oka-san kindly arranged for us to be dressed in their kimono for the day. We had tried on yukata (summer kimono) at the International Festival that took place in October but these... these were bone fide, the-whole-nine-yards kimono. It took two people two and a half hours to dress both May and me. There were so many layers, bits of string, back-boards, padding, towels... ugh, it was all very exciting and interesting and something I will remember for the rest of my life, but boy, was it tiring. It was very similar to how I imagine being dressed in a corset would be like - lots of pulling, tugging, bracing yourself - as was the end result: very pretty, but difficult to walk and breathe in.

Once fully kimono-clad, we took a walk around the hospital (where we got dressed) and showed a few of our friends on the staff. There were many “Kawai ne!” (“Cute!”), “Sugoi ne!” (“Amazing!”) and “Kirei!” (“Pretty!”), which was all very nice. After some photo-taking we then got in to Oka-san's car and drove to Suwa-jinja (the main Shinto shrine in Nagasaki). Something to note: riding in a car with a huge obi shaped into a flower on your back is tiring work!

After only a few hours of wearing the kimono, we were glad to get them off and back into our jeans. I have a new-found respect for women who wear kimono regularly, particularly geisha, who's kimono are notoriously heavy. Really, it was hard work just standing in them. Doing anything else required additional effort too. Still, kire katta desu, ne! (they were pretty, weren't they).

べっぷのしゃしん - Beppu Photographs

2008-01-16T03:22:00.000Z

I still don't have any time to write, so here are some photographs to keep you all quiet.

べっぷ - Beppu

2008-01-15T03:31:00.000Z

Wow, what a weekend I had. I spent three days in Beppu in Ōita-ken with May, and we even managed to squeeze in a day trip to Aso-san too, a volcano in central Kyūshū. I have had hardly any time to write anything since getting back, so I will let some of my photographs do all the talking.

Kanja-san

2008-01-11T03:42:00.000Z

I met a terminal cancer patient yesterday. It was only part way through a wonderful conversation with her that she told me her diagnosis. I didn`t really know what to say, so I just said that I was sorry and that it sounded like she had had an amazing life. She told me she had traveled to 25 countries, including England three times, and China, where she taught English. I found myself thinking about her last night and I regretted not learning more about her when I had the chance. Today though I found out her name and the date of her next treatment at the hospital. I have also loosely arranged to get a little time off work to go and see her when she is next here. I feel like I should buy her a gift or something, but what does one buy for someone who is dying? I can`t even give her food because she has no appetite due to all of her medications. Maybe I should just give her as much of my time as possible….?

50 Days To Go

2008-01-10T07:04:00.000Z

Today marks only fifty more days left of my placement in Nagasaki. Can I hear a "woo!"?

*

I am going to Oita this weekend with May. More on this when I get back.

しゃしん - Photographs

2008-01-07T03:28:00.000Z

Overlooking the Urakami river, taken from a bridge in front of the Red Cross Genbaku Hospital:

New Year decorations in the entranceway to a pachinko (vertical pinball) arcade:

The Ferris Wheel under construction atop a new department store, due to be completed in April:

A cartoon strip on the side of a building – I don't know why it is there, what it is trying to say, or why all of the characters are naked, so don't ask:

Overlooking the main street and tram-line in central Nagasaki:

It's not just clean. It's "Smokin' Clean":

Detail on some stone stairs at the Nagasaki Municipal Park:

きょうそう – Running

2008-01-07T03:21:00.000Z

I discovered that there is a running track within five minutes walk of my apartment I think on the second or third day of living in Nagasaki. I have been meaning post about it ever since. There always seemed to be more important things to write about, that is, until this post-new-year lull in activity. So here goes. Here's a post I wrote months ago that never got published:

I'm not one of those people who need a whole gym, complete with swimming pools, sauna's and whatever else gyms have these days. I'm not saying I don't like all that stuff, I just don't need it. All I need is a good pair of running shoes. I love to run. Back in England I would run alongside the canal, which made a beautiful route and also a cheap one. The canal runs behind the running track in Preston, which I would have used if they weren't charging £5 for each time you used it. It would have been nice to know how far I was running and how fast so that I could set myself goals, but there was no way I was going to pay five quid a go. So imagine my surprise and joy when I discover that not only does Nagasaki have a running track that is remarkably close to my apartment, but that it is completely free. I go running there two to four times a week now.
It is really pleasing as a runner to see the track being used by so many people of so many varying abilities. I have seen toddlers running about two metres and then getting distracted by something on the ground. I have seen ninety-year-old's walking a lap in twenty minutes. The local schools use it for P.E. lessons and sports events, and I have seen some professional athletes training there too. Japan truly is a nation of runners! It also has it's fair share of walkers, some of whom deserve honorary membership in the Ministry of Silly Walks. Seriously, there are people who look like they are dancing their way round the track (even when they aren't listening to music on an MP3 player), people who I can only guess have had one of their hips fused in a replacement operation at some point in the past, and people who have legs so bow-shaped they could carry a beach ball between their knees. I think it's great though, that people of any ability feel they can come to the track and exercise. You just wouldn't get that in England. You have to be able to run 10km in 30 minutes to feel worthy to use a track in England, which is such a shame.
There are two tracks - an inner 400m and an outer 600m. The inner has a sand surface and the outer is just pavement. I use the outer track because you only have to run two thirds of the number of laps to do the same distance and also, I don't like to get sand in my shoes. It is a really nice set-up they have, with bathrooms and water fountains at every corner (i.e. every 150m) and even on especially busy days, there is plenty of room for everyone. I took these photo's on a Saturday morning, which is normally very busy indeed, but not this day. There was a marathon the weekend before in Nagasaki, so maybe runners were staying home to rest after that.

クリスマスとおしょうがつ - Christmas and New Year

2008-01-04T06:22:00.001Z

It seems like an age since I last posted anything here. A lot has happened. I have spent my second Christmas abroad and 2007 has come to an end. Being as we are now in January, I have the delight of being able to say that next month I am going home. There are what feels like a million crucial and complicated things that I need to do before then, but no matter how stressed I get with all of that I just have to remember that in a little over two months none of this will be important.

So, Japanese Christmas. May summed it up perfectly in one sentence: they don't celebrate it religiously or culturally, they just think it looks pretty. It is very true that Christmas can transform even the drabbest train station or department store into a fantasy land of lights and decorations, but this rather superficial celebration of Christmas is rather lacking in the spirit of the season that we love in the West. With no family or close friends here in Nagasaki, Christmas passed May and I by without really changing our moods much. We did have a very pleasant time, it was just missing that something special that makes Christmas Christmas.

On Friday 21st December we were taken out to Bagdad Café (that's 'Bagdad' as opposed to 'Baghdad', according to their sign) by Kumiko-san, along with Oka-san and Goto-sensei to enjoy their Christmas menu. It wasn't what I would call a traditional Christmas dinner, as it featured spaghetti, pizza and seafood salad, but it was very delicious none the less.
May and I were working on Christmas day so we moved our own Christmas celebration to the day before. We basically spent the whole day baking, eating (the food we'd baked, the cake we bought, anything else we could get our hands on) and watching rented DVD's. So not much change there from a regular Christmas, apart from maybe the baking and you would probably watch all the new DVD's you received as presents rather than rented ones. On the 25th, I was working with the home nurse while May was still working on 4F. This meant that while she was bed-making and sorting through patient files, I was visiting ordinary Japanese people in their homes. It was a wonderful and unique way to spend Christmas day actually, even more so because it seems to be standard for the patient to give cake and tea to their guests. May and I spent our lunchtime handing out sweets and cookies to some of the hospital staff and we received a few presents in return. In the evening, we were invited over to Oka-san's house, where we were surprised with another Christmas meal that her daughter had cooked. All in all, a very nice Christmas but, if I'm honest, not even close to the one I missed over in England.

Custom-made keyrings from Oka-san and her daughter:
New Year is a much bigger occasion in Japan than Christmas. We were given four days off from work (combined with the weekend, six days) which is the longest break we have had since coming here. We could have done loads of amazing things, travelled, made the absolute most of our little holiday, but we instead decided to spend most of it shopping and relaxing at home. Don't judge us, we needed the break. We had been waiting for January before we started seriously shopping (which we succeeded in doing, bar a few minor lapses in concentration) because we had heard that Japan has some major New Year sales. It even has it's own special name, hatsuri, or first sale of the year. AND they have special lucky bags (fukubukuro) just for this occasion. You don't know what is inside when you buy them, but they're only about half the price of the contents' value. You're not completely in the dark though, since there are sample bags that you can open and there are different sizes for the bags containing clothes. As interesting as it would have been to buy one, I decided against it. Besides, I had already seen exactly what I wanted to buy:

A blue skirt (¥9555, normal price ¥13,5000) – This is the perfect skirt for me, so I think it was worth spending the equivalent of 2 weeks food money on it, don't you think?
A new pair of jeans (¥3990) - I needed to replace my old ones which are starting to fall apart a little. This style is called 'Boyfriend Baggy, but I am quietly ignoring the claim that they are baggy. I was lucky to find jeans that fit me at all in a country where most girls have a 21” waist and weigh under 100lbs;
A black top (¥2048, reduced from ¥4096) - It didn't photograph well unfortunately, but you can take my word for it that it is cute and looks great with a red top I bought during one of my “lapses in concentration” last month;
A pair of earrings (¥1260) – These were too unusual and too pretty to miss.
Now, the people who know me will know I am not a big shopping person and that I am normally plagued with guilt for days after buying myself anything. Japan has changed me though. Japan is shopping country and I am in need of retail therapy. I wasn't completely selfish however– I bought some omiyage (souvenirs) for people too, which, for obvious reasons, I can't tell you much more about.

May and I had anticipated a lot of people at the department store for the sale on January 1st, so we decided to get there for 10am when it opened. We were shocked: there were hundreds of people ordering themselves into nice, neat queues outside every door into the store. I had heard that everyone goes to the shrine on New Years' morning but apparently shopping is really the priority here. Then came the second shock of 2008: when the doors were opened, people started running! I mean literally running... all over the shot. And the store clerks were yelling for people please not to run, but it was already too late by then. All sense of propriety had been thrown out of the window. Incredible.

New Year mochi (rice cake):
Throughout this whole holiday period the weather has been going crazy. On December 23rd it was 17ºc and 68% humidity; On January 1st it was 7ºc and snowing and hailing. It seems to be stabilizing again now, but I don't know how long that will last. I'm used to it always being 12ºc and drizzling in England – I just can't take this kind of sudden change.

I have no idea how to finish such a long, rambling post so I will just do it with a random picture. This was taken on January 1st near Hamanomachi:
Owari desu!

No Music, No Life

2008-01-04T03:52:00.000Z

A few weeks ago, I asked one of my friends from the hospital if he likes music and he really impressed me with his answer. He replied, “Of course! No music, no life.” It impressed me because that is pretty much exactly how I feel about music; it expresses something for me that nothing else can. Add onto that that it is quite a clever thing to say considering English is his second language. Anyway, after this, I respected him more on a personal level. Imagine my surprise then when I see the following sign outside a music store while I was shopping on January 1st:

That scoundrel! He tricked me. They weren't even his own words! There they are in one foot tall, bright red lettering. *shakes head disapprovingly*

I told May to stand in front of the sign and “look disappointed”, which I think she did absolutely flawlessly. She even seems to have got a little of a “you've been found out” expression in there too. This has to be my favourite photo of her. She said her favourite photo of me is one where I am hunched over a skirt that I am reattaching a button to. She calls me Granny because I can sew and bake and knit. For some inconceivable reason I don't mind being called Granny. I am knitting her a scarf (the only thing I know how to make) at the moment, as a matter of fact. She also calls me Mean Mommy when I tell her she can't have ice-cream for breakfast.

2007-12-28T00:04:00.000Z

hi everyone. i have a holiday off from work for the new year until friday 4th january, so you won`t be hearing anything from me until then. don`t worry though - i will have a number of posts ready to go, including about my christmas and new year in japan.

i hope everyone has a very happy new year!

整形外科はだいすき - I Love Orthopedic Surgery

2007-12-26T06:15:00.000Z

Nothing can make my day like watching a fractured clavicle being screwed back together. I finally got to watch some seikei geka (orthopedic surgery) today. I had been waiting for this for four months and it was certainly worth the wait. There were scews and titanium pins and electric drills and screwdrivers and wire cutters... They actually bored the grooves into the bone for the screws! Come on, how awesome is that?! Oh man, it was excellent. To quote Christina from Grey`s Anatomy, it was "like candy, but with blood, which is so much better!"

I love Seikei.

メリークリスマス - Merry Christmas

2007-12-26T03:31:00.001Z

Here are a few photos from around Nagasaki during the Christmas season. I thought I would share them with you. Also, it saves me writing a real post.

Sorry this isn't really a very good photo. This is Hamanomachi anyway – the main shopping district in Nagasaki. There are actually tons of festive decorations all over the place here, but apparently, not visible from this angle.

This one is a bit more obvious, huh. Even if you miss the giant snowflake light display on the wall in the background, you would be hard-pressed to miss the 25 foot tree in the centre. Japan is a Buddhist country.... that fact and what we're looking at here really doesn't seem to add up, does it?

The “Japanese McDonald's” is called Mos Burger. This is an advertisement for their Christmas menu. Let's take a closer look...

Yes, the sign does read “Merry X'mos!”. (Sorry that it's blurry, by the way). At first glance I thought it was a misprint, just some poor English, but the Japanese continue to surprise me with their rather clever advertising. What is a little funny though, is that 'Xmas' is not pronounced here as 'Eks-mas' but 'Ek-ku-su-ma-su'. You try saying that quickly... it's really difficult.

I know this one isn't very festive, but I couldn't not share it with you. That is indeed a 3D illuminated human heart model plastered to the side of that building. The hiragana beneath it reads “Nagasaki haato kurinikku” ('Nagasaki Heart Clinic'). What you can't see in this picture is that the heart is lit up so that it appears to pump blood! How's that for innovative? God Bless the Japanese and their advertising genius! It might have been a little wasted in this case though. I mean, if you need to go to a heart clinic, whether it has a giant illuminated heart model on the front of the building is of little importance to you really, isn't it. Would you choose this one over a clinic that didn't have such a display? Hmm?

*

Well, that's all for now, folks. I hope everyone had a smashing Christmas. See you in the new year.

リハビリ - Rehabilitation

2007-12-25T04:12:00.000Z

May and I have worked our way down to the fourth floor of the hospital for the second time now. However, because the fourth floor is all orthopaedic, there is only one ward (4F) on the east side of the building and a rehabilitation centre on the west. Last time we were on this floor, I went to work on the 4F ward for two weeks and May spent the first week in Rehabilitation and the second with a nurse doing home visits. So, this time I got to go to Rehab. Compared to the work on the wards rehab is a piece of cake – in the literal sense too, since you get a daily tea break, complete with your choice of okashi ('confectionery').

It was very inspiring working in rehab. At first I was quite anxious during my time there because a lot of my responsibilities involved talking with patients – all in Japanese, of course. One patient changed my perspective a little though. She came and sat down next to me part way through her walking laps of the centre. All I said to her was, “Tsukareta desu ka?” (“Are you tired?”) and she launched into a whole story about her knee replacement. Within minutes she had lifted up her trouser leg and shown me her six-inch scar too. She didn't care that I clearly wasn't understanding everything she was saying; she just wanted to say it to somebody. I was less shy about talking to patients after that.

The patient I interacted with most though was an eighty-nine year old woman. I don't know what was wrong with her (she came down each day from 6th floor, so not an orthopaedic patient) but she was clearly very old and very frail. Unlike most Japanese people, she looked older than she was. She came to rehab every day for both a physical and metal workout. I was given the task of keeping her word association up to scratch. I would show her a picture on a card and ask her what it was and she had to answer. This was quite difficult for us both. She couldn't always remember the word and I couldn't always understand the Japanese. She was your stereotypical Japanese woman though: she could remember the names of every different type of flowers I showed her but she couldn't remember the difference between a fork and a spoon. At the end of the week, the tables were turned and she got to ask me what the picture on the card was and I had to tell her in Japanese. Even at 89, she totally kicked my ass at it!

I noticed that most of the people in Rehabilitation were elderly. I thought how it would be bad enough for a young, fit person to go through such dramatic surgery and to be faced with a long rehab program, but add onto that old age... that's tough. I broke my little finger playing netball when I was eleven and it still aches to this day. I have noticed it more recently due to the type of work I am doing here in Japan. Any task that involves splaying my fingers or moving the little one independent of the adjacent finger and it'll become all stiff and painful. And that's just a broken finger from eight years ago. These people are recovery from broken pelvises for goodness sake! It was very clear how great a job the orthopaedic surgeons do. It seemed impossible that these people were walking at all and yet there they were, striding through the rehab centre with their walking sticks permanently raised from the ground. Yes, Rehabilitation was very inspiring. I realised though, that physical rehab is a lot like yoga – very beneficial to your health but it makes, at times, passing wind impossible to avoid.

Tabi

2007-12-17T03:33:00.000Z

Here is one of the pairs of tabi that Yamaguchi-san gave me. I love them. The Japanese really know how to decorate their feet.

ぼねんかい - Bonenkai

2007-12-17T03:28:00.000Z

It was Bonenkai (the hospital end of year party) last Friday night. There is no denying that May and I looked great. She wore a green dress that she had bought on Wednesday and I wore a red top that I'd bought the week before; Our hair was pretty; We had make-up on. All of these things were massive improvements on how we normally look at work – tired, uniform-clad and a little sweaty from all the bed-making. I think we surprised people a little actually. "Wow, they scrubbed up well, didn't they?" It turned out to be as formal an occasion as people wanted it to be - some of the staff wore suits, some wore jeans - so May and I felt nice and comfortable somewhere in the middle.

The party was at the hotel that is right next to the hospital. We pass it every day on the walk to work and it turned out to be very nice indeed on the inside. One thing I didn't like about the evening was that you had to pick your seat number out of a box at random, meaning you could wind up sitting next to complete strangers. That was half the reason for doing it, also there was a raffle at the end of the party based on seat numbers. It didn't really matter though because Kumiko-san arranged for May and me to sit with her at table 7 by talking a few members of staff into switching with us.

Once seated, the food promptly started to arrive, all of which was delicious. There were a lot of dishes that I didn't recognize, but that has never stopped me before from digging in and it didn't then. There was quite a lot of debate between a few of the doctors at our table over what the English name was for the meat in the soup. We had everything from 'seagull' to 'whale' put forward as suggestions. I think it might have been goose, but who knows?!

Part way through the meal, the performances started. Half a dozen or so of the departments gave a 5-10 minute performance and the senior members of staff had to judge the best for a prize of ¥50,000 (£214 – the same amount May and I get per month from the hospital). After the Kumamoto trip, I knew what to expect: Semi-nudity, group-participation and on-stage consumption of alcohol. Oh, and also wigs and cross-dressing. Needless to say, it was very entertaining. Mariko-san dressed up as a reindeer and threw a mango at a doctor in drag, with the aim of him catching it on a fork. He managed it two out of four times, in case you were wondering. Oka-san was up there, Nakashima-sensei and Imamura-sensei too. You would never think that such respected doctors are so willing to make complete fools of themselves in front of a room full of their work colleagues and friends, but apparently it is the complete opposite. Anyway, 4F won. I can't even bring myself to tell you what Imamura-sensei had to do to get the victory for his floor. *Shakes head in disbelief*. All I will say is that it involved a dominatrix. Enough said.

A sample of 7W's performance:

Yamaguchi-san (assistant nurse, 6E) came over to our table part way through the proceedings and gave May and me each a present: two pairs of tabi (Japanese split toe sock). I had yelped with delight at the inter-departmental volleyball tournament a few weeks ago when I had seen her wearing the most beautiful tabi I had ever come across. She obviously took note. You gotta love Yamaguchi-san :-)

Kumiko-san was very drunk by the time the party ended at 10:30. It was quite funny to watch her giggling to herself and tripping over her own feet. She asked us to forget this occasion in the future and although we won't be so cruel as to bring up her embarrassment again, there's no way I could forget her singing "All I Want For Christmas Is You" over a sobering cup of coffee in Mos Burger after the party.

Bossy Me

2007-12-14T03:20:00.000Z

I actually got to be somebody else's boss on Tuesday. Okay, sure, it was to a fourteen year-old high school student doing her work experience at the hospital, but still. It felt great. I got to order her around a bit when we were making beds but then, showing that I can also be a very nice boss, arranged with the chief nurse on 5W for me to take her on a quick tour of the hospital. I had forgotten what it is like not to feel as though you are at the bottom of the pile. Shame she was only here for one day.

*

Bonenkai party tonight. Very, very excited.

New Schedule

2007-12-10T03:30:00.000Z

There are only two new departments in my revised work schedule for this month: the nursery and the operation room. I worked in both of them for the first time last week, so I can tell you a little about them now.

Before my timetable changed, I worked on the wards every day of the week. Now, with the nursery on Wednesday mornings I have a break from that, a 'weekend in the middle of the week' as May called it. It made a huge difference. How could it not have? Instead of changing bed sheets, folding towels and making oshibori, I am playing with a dozen children under the age of five. They were all very cute and very shy at first, but after about half an hour they were jumping all over May and me – literally – and trying to out-do each other in impressing us. The teachers were great too; they didn't even laugh when they had to show me how to change a nappy.

The highlight of the morning was watching the children's Christmas concert rehersal. I felt a little sorry for them though. They must have been petrified performing to a couple of foreigners instead of their parents. To my surprise, they didn't show any more fear than you might expect from a toddler singing a solo to an audience. It was a great little show. The costumes were wonderful too. And because this was a Buddhist Christmas concert, there was no mention of the birth of Jesus or telling of the nativity story – as you would expect – just lots of singing about Christmas time... and food, for some reason. I can't wait to go back there on Wednesday.

Second, the operation room. You're probably wondering what work two un-trained volunteers could possibly do on the surgery floor. Unfortunately for me, it turned out the answer didn't involve anything inside the theatres. We were doing behind the scenes stuff – packaging sterile equipment mainly, for both the OT's and the wards. I thought it was quite satisfying in a way, knowing that this medical equipment was soon going to be used by a surgeon or doctor. Maybe I was grabbing at straws though; I wanted to be observing surgery.

Anyway, that's about it. My timetable will change again come January. I will no longer have a free Wednesday afternoon but will be working in Nutrition and then Radiology. Although I will obviously miss my free afternoon – especially considering that is the only time I have been able to watch surgeries so far – it will be nice going back to Radiology. I already miss it after only a week without it. There's such a great atmosphere there, one that seems to be unique to Radiology. Plus, May and I have made some good friends there. Matso-san stands out for both of us. He is a similar age to us (he's 24) so we feel like we're on a similar level to him. I am the youngest employee on the hospital staff so, according to Japanese culture, everyone else is essentially my boss, including May. Matso-san treats us more like equals though, maybe because if it weren't for us, he would be the youngest on the staff. I also miss the chief Radiologist, 'Ojiisan' ('Grandfather' – not his name, just what everyone calls him). He shows me the coolest x-rays, MRI's and CT's that he can find and then lets me try and work out what they are of. At least we will see all the Radiology gang at Bonenkai on Friday. Yay.

げか 2 - Surgery II

2007-12-10T03:27:00.000Z

I went back into surgery on Wednesday. It was only the third time I have been in there but it felt like the hundredth. I feel like I have been watching surgeries all my life, but each one is still just as amazing as the first one I saw.

I watched two operations on this visit: a Cholecystectomy (removal of the gallbladder) and a skin graft.

Cholecystectomy:
This was an endoscopic (or laparoscopic) procedure. Several small incisions are made at strategic points on the patient's abdomen and then the surgeon detaches the gallbladder and pulls it out through one of the holes. This particular patient had a rather bad case of gallstones, so his gallbladder was very enlarged. It was about the size of a pear, and the incisions are roughly the size of grapes, so there was quite a bit of tugging and twisting when it came to pulling it out. It reminded me of birth, only the result isn't a cute baby but a diseased sac of bile. Oh, speaking of bile, the surgeons accidentally punctured the gallbladder while they were detaching it from the liver, and this caused some of the bile contained within to gush out into the patients abdominal cavity. It was quite a sight!

This procedure was particularly impressive because the surgeons can't see anything they are doing directly. They have various long instruments stuck into their patient, which they are enthusiastically moving around, thrusting them into the far corners of this poor man's stomach, all time while looking at a TV screen. It must take a lot of practice. Obviously.

Skin Graft
Now this one was very interesting indeed. Whereas all the other procedures I have observed have been fairly routine, a skin graft can never really be routine, can it? I mean, if you need some of your skin replacing... how often does that happen?

The patient had had a malignant melanoma on her foot. The cancer was very aggressive so the dermatologist had to remove a lot of skin from the foot around the tumour to ensure there wasn't a single cell of it left that would spread. That happened several weeks ago. Now, the patient was well enough to undergo a second surgery to repair some of the damage sustained to her foot as a result of the first surgery. A large section of skin was removed from the patient's abdomen – about the size of a mango, to continue the fruit sizing system – and while an intern and resident took to sewing up this huge hole, the chief of dermatology started preparing the skin for grafting. This involved carefully cutting off the inch of fat – which is a delicious, bright yellow colour by the way – that was present and then smoothing the underside of the skin by cutting away any imperfections. When she was finished, the skin looked so thin and shrivelled I was just hoping that it was stretchy, otherwise it would never cover the wound. It turned out to be remarkably stretchy; The skin really is an amazing organ, you know.

Once the skin was loosely attached with just enough stitches to hold it in place, a blue dye was injected into the tissue around the would, presumably to track the blood flow to the new skin over the next few hours/days. That's when it happened.... the foot moved!!! Ha! The surgeon stopped what he was doing and gave a rather amused look to the anaesthesiologist, who quickly made a few adjustments to the station at his end of the table. Aw man, the foot moved.... awesome :-)

Truffles & Blood Clots

2007-12-05T03:24:00.000Z

With too many truffles to handle even between the two of us, May and I decided to hand some out to a few of our friends at the hospital. This included our friends in Pharmacy and Radiology, Kimura-san, Kumiko-san, Oka-san and Nakashima-sensei. Everyone was really impressed, exclaiming "Oishii!" ("delicious"), and I think they they won us a few brownie points too. Now we're not just the GAP volunteers, we're the GAP volunteer who give them confectionery. Who couldn't love us?!

*

Ide-san, the woman who met all of the Gappers in Tokyo back in September, came to visit Nagasaki last week to check on May and me. Since everything is fine, it was a short, concise visit, only lasting for more than an hour because we broke for lunch. She gave us a piece of advice though that has really stuck with me: be less shy and more active when it comes to asking for more things to do. She said this in the context of asking to watch a birth, but I have already applied it at work in a different context. Yesterday in the Test Department I asked if I could help take the clots out of centrifuged blood - something I see the other lab tech's doing scores of times a day. They didn't even hesitate and handed a blood-filled test tube and a tooth pick each to May and me. They were so impressed they gave us our tea break early and then let us leave for lunch early too. Ide-san's advice really worked! I wonder what else this could lead to? With less than three months to go now, I really have to try to make the most of this.

*

I watched surgery again last week. I didn't mention it before because I took May in with me so we only stayed for an hour. She was very impressed but said that once was enough. Me? I'm going back in this afternoon. It will never be enough :-)

クリスマス – Christmas

2007-12-03T03:43:00.001Z

It is getting rather Christmassy here. May and I agreed 1st of December would be a reasonable date to start celebrating Christmas so we spent the day putting up a little tree that one of the previous Gappers left in May's room, watching a movie ('Notting Hill', in case you were wondering) and making chocolate truffles. The truffles were probably the best thing I have ever made. They were divine. Seriously. However, it was slightly depressing eating them since we knew exactly what was in them. Our truffles contained only four ingredients: chocolate, cream, butter and cocoa powder. Yeah, we're going to give some away as presents to prevent us from eating them all. Anyway, guilt aside, it was a great day. We each made our own advent calendar back in November so of course, we got to start those too.

The landowners put up a tree in the entrance of our apartment building too. It is especially nice coming home after work now, being greeted by a Christmas tree with twinkling lights. It does make me a little homesick though, all this Christmas stuff, since it is my favourite time of the year back in England. Oh well, this will certainly be one to remember in years to come.

ふくふぐ – Happy Fugu

2007-12-03T03:38:00.000Z

Well, I am alive. The fugu dinner was excellent and, given that none of the attendees died, could be considered an all-round success. It was actually a retirement party for Hamano-san, the lady who works in the Medical Office where May and I spend Friday afternoons 3-5pm. It is so sad that she is retiring; she is like a mother to everyone in the hospital, including all the surgeons who use the office as a break-room. It was an honour to be invited to her retirement dinner, it really was. I am going to miss her when she leaves at the end of December.

The meal consisted of fugu sashimi, then fried fugu, battered fugu, fugu soup and finally, fugu risotto. The window to the tiny little restaurant we were dining at doubled as an aquarium for the (live but soon-to-be-dead) fugu; by the time our party of six was done with all that food, I kid you not, the tank was half-empty. Given that each one of those fish contained enough poison to kill 15 fully grown men, I must commend our highly skilled chief separating the 'safe' parts from the 'deadly' ones. The battered fugu tasted remarkably like battered cod from the chippies back in England, so that obviously had to be my favourite. We fried the pre-sliced chunks of fish on little grills in the centre of the table, which wasn't anything special in itself but what was endlessly entertaining, the pieces of fish were doing that post-mortem death-twitching thing. They kept twitching for about five minutes too. I thought it would last only a few seconds after death but apparently not. They were really strong muscle contractions too.... amazing.

Here's my plate of sashimi. The sashimi is the pale pieces of meat laid out to cover the plate; the white and grey pieces in the middle are some of the fish's skin. Yum. And yes, my lips did go quite numb after just a few pieces. Way to go, chef!

*

I got my new work schedule last week. Monday and Tuesday are the same as before, but here are the changes:

Wednesday
am. Day Nursery
pm. Free time

Thursday
am. Pharmacy
pm. Nurses Station

Friday
am. Nurses Station
pm. 13:00-15:00 Operation Room
15:00-17:00 Medical Office

Also, starting in January after my Japanese classes finish at the Brick Hall, we won't get free time on Wednesday afternoons but we will spend 13:00-15:00 in the Nutrition Section and 15:00-17:00 back in Radiology. Overall, these changes are pretty pleasing, although I don't know yet what May and I will be doing in the new departments. I'll let you know.

3か⽉ – 3 Months

2007-11-28T03:29:00.000Z

Well, I have made it to the half way point. Today is twelve weeks since I came to Japan. Three months down, three to go. I don't think the enormity of being half-way through my placement has hit me yet.

Over the past few weeks in particular, May and I have really bonded. She is remarkably similar to me, which does mean however, that she occasionally annoys me. Most of the time though, we spend laughing together. Yeah, we get a lot of stares from people at work, let me tell you. She has become a very dear friend to me and one I will always think of fondly when I remember my time in Japan. We have already made loose plans for me to visit her in Vancouver and for her to visit me in England at some point in the future. Man, I'm going to miss her. Although I am excited about finishing my placement and going home, it makes me sad thinking about leaving May-chan. Her nickname among her friends back in Canada is 'Amazing', as in Amazing May; on the same theme, she gave me the nickname Wonder Lily. We could totally fight crime.

*

This week is the last of my current work schedule, the one May and I have followed for the past three months. We still don't know which new departments we will start working in next week (some of our bosses are having a meeting today, I think, to decide) but we are feeling quite optimistic about the change. Of course, I will let you all know where we end up.

*

Tonight is Fugu Night. I am so excited! I'm going to try fugu at last. I remember seeing that Simpsons episode as a child, you know, the one where Homer demands fugu at a Japanese restaurant and then thinks he's going to die after eating it, but then doesn't. That episode has stuck with me all these years, so I am really determined to go ahead and seize this opportunity. Also, I promised my cousin that I would try it. This is for you, Greg!

2007-11-26T03:31:00.000Z

I miss rain. I was lying in bed last night, all snug under my duvet and electric blanket and I realised something was missing: the sound of rain against the window. I have been here three months and in that time is has rained four, maybe five times. I am English; I need more rain than that! November brought the cold weather finally. I say cold, I mean by Nagasaki standards, with highs in the mid-teens. But we still have crisp, blue sky almost every day. Wait, why am I complaining again? Oh right, yes, I want night rain. Yes, that would be good, blue sky during the day and rain at night. Oooh, or snow. Mmm, snow would be good. I am told it usually snows here once or twice a year. Fingers crossed, eh?

たべものとかいもの - Food and Shopping

2007-11-26T03:27:00.000Z

May and I have become suddenly very popular indeed. I think maybe it was our joining the sports teams in Kumamoto and our pathetic attempt at playing volleyball last week that has brought us closer to certain members of the hospital staff. They just seem a little more comfortable around us and, apparently, more open to inviting us out. I am writing this on Saturday morning (24th November) and yesterday we had lunch out with Oka-san, the assistant nurse on 5W, and her daughter. We had this (it's a type of bento):

Today, we are meeting Kumiko-san again for lunch, and on Wednesday we are having – drum roll, please - fugu(!) with Nakashima-sensei and another of the senior doctors, who's name I don't know yet.

I'll just quickly explain about the Japanese naming system, since I have now mentioned three different addresses in this blog. Putting -sanafter the name is the equivalent of calling somebody Mr, Mrs, or Miss. You generally use the surname only; first names are only used by very close friends or between members of the same family. Also, I have noticed at work that if more than one person has the same surname, people might call them by their first name. If you called out for Yamaguchi-san about ten nurses and three doctors would answer. -Chan, as I think I have mentioned previously, is less formal than '-san' and is usually used when referring to children. Children, and me. Finally, -sensei means teacher as a word on it's own, but after a name it means doctor. So Nakashima-sensei is Dr Nakashima. Oh, actually, like in English, you could just say 'Sensei' when speaking to a doctor, as in, “Tell me the truth, Doctor” or “Thank you, Doctor”.

Back to all the dinner engagements. So yeah, I am having fugu on Wednesday! You all will know what fugu is, even if you don't recognise the word. Fugu is that infamous Japanese fish that can kill you if you eat certain parts of it. It looks like this:

If I am not mistaken, it is the toxins in it's liver that can turn your dinner into your funeral. It is usually served as sashimi (thin slices of the raw fish) or boiled in a soup, I believe. It is a winter delicacy and an expensive one at that, so May and I are very lucky that Nakashima-sensei offered to treat us to some. I understand that a good fugu chef can prepare the fish so that there is still enough toxin in it that it makes your lips go numb – that is the optimum fugu experience. If there's a little bit more of the poison present than that, you will end up in a coma, and a little more on top of that and you'll end up six feet under. I read somewhere that back in the olden days, to distinguish between coma and death in someone who had eaten fugu, they would leave the body next to the coffin for three days before they buried it: A comatose body won't rot. So that is all for me to look forward to on Wednesday. If you don't hear from me after that, you will know what happened.

*

After lunch with Kumiko-san today, May and I are going shopping. Yay! We have been very good and have resisted doing this until now since our last spree in September. But believe me, my urges to buy things are so pent up, there will be no resistance this afternoon. There will be no holding me back. Ha ha ha ha! There is a decent excuse for shopping today though. Firstly, it is a long-weekend so there are a few sales on. Secondly, May and I have a party to go to and therefore, a new outfit to buy. More on this later, hee hee.

わたしのしゅうまつ- My Weekend

2007-11-20T03:37:00.000Z

I had a really great weekend, maybe the best so far since coming to Japan. It started off with lunch at Ezoesan's house with May. Ezoesan is a now-retired nurse who used to work at the Genbaku Hospital and who befriended May and me back in September. It was possibly the best Japanese meal I have had. It was really wonderful. Exquisite, even. Also, she showed us how to do the tea ceremony. For the first time I felt I was getting quite deep into Japanese culture, which was a nice feeling.

The opera on Saturday evening was fantastic too. It wasn't a performance of the entire Madame Butterfly opera, but kind of an ensemble. There were three main vocalists, two soprano's and a tenor (the tenor and one of the soprano's were Korean and the other soprano was Chinese), as well as three pianists, an violinist/violist, a clarinet player and a group of chorus singers. The show opened with 18 kimono-clad women on stage singing the chorus. It was truly amazing. The clarinet player was the best I have ever seen. I was glad to see his talents were being rewarded with an excellent solo. Of the two soprano's, the Chinese woman was the most skilled, but the the Korean woman, wow. Her voice... her voice just melted into you. Her name is Chun Sonmi, if any of you want to look her up. My favourite performance of the evening was the tenor's rendition of a traditional Korean folk song. He was clearly enjoying singing it, which makes all the difference.
Sunday started bright and early with an inter-departmental volleyball competition at the hospital. May and I went with the intention of just watching and cheering on our friends but, well, one thing lead to another and we ended up playing in a match. I had never played volleyball before in my life and there I was is a tournament game. Naturally, I was appalling. Fortunately, the game didn't last long and May and I didn't let ourselves get dragged into another one for the rest of the day. We enjoyed the cheering part, and a lot of the hospital staff brought their kids along so we got to play with them too.

After much hilarity during an MSN conversation with my friend online and after running 10km 2 minutes faster than my previous time (woo!), I had my monthly phone call home. Although one of my brothers and my Mum couldn't be there, I still had a lot of fun talking to two of my siblings and my Dad. There was lots of laughing, initially at the huge time delay between each person finishing a sentence and the other hearing it. Speaking to them made me realise something: I am happy here. Before I was fine, but now I am happy.

I only have a four day week at work this week since it is a national holiday in Japan on Friday. May and I have plans for pretty much every minute of the three-day weekend. I'll talk more about that later though. Oh, one last thing. May informs me that today marks 100 days of our placement remaining here in Nagasaki. That doesn't sound like a lot does it? That's all for now; Got to get back to work.

2007-11-16T07:10:00.000Z

Hamanosan, my supervisor on Friday afternoons, just handed me and May tickets to see Madame Butterfly tomorrow night. Awesome. I am going to the opera tomorrow, woo! And where better to see Madame Butterfly than in Nagasaki?

We love Hamanosan. She`s become like a mother to us. If we ever have a problem she will be the first person we go to.

Kumamoto

2007-11-16T03:29:00.000Z

Before I went on the sports trip to Kumamoto, I thought most of my work colleges were caring but serious people. They are hard and committed workers, and the kind of people you would trust with your medical care. Now... let's just say I am looking at them in a different light. Okay, I'll put it this way: They started drinking beer before the bus started moving. Yeah.

May and I were told to meet everyone at the hospital at 12 noon on Saturday and that we would be leaving around one. We were some of the first people to arrive, but by 12:30 all 64 of the other Kumamoto-Goers had also shown up. May and I had been designated to travel on the second bus (of 2) with the baseball and volleyball teams. You have to take into account then, that everything I am about to describe may have been unique to the second bus but I doubt it. I doubt everyone on the first bus was just sitting there reading books while all those on the second... oh, boy. There was lots of beer – as I said, they started that at around ten to one in the afternoon – then they moved onto the wine, and with this, they started the karaoke. It was great, and very funny watching all these people I know as nurses, doctors, surgeons(!) getting tipsy on a coach. Even though May and I weren't drinking, we really soaked up the good atmosphere. It was kind of difficult not to. The Japanese have been stereotyped as scrupulous workers, but I can testify that they are also party maniacs!

The one thing that best sums up the journey I think, is when one of the senior members of staff (who was the main organizer of the trip) stood up and yelled above all the commotion to say that we wouldn't be making any more stops unless someone needed to use the toilet. Then she asked if anyone needed to go and half the bus eagerly raised their hands, shouting, "Me!" in unison. It was such an odd, amusing moment. It felt just like being on a school trip: thirty kids on a bus getting over-excited and needing to use the bathroom every hour.

We arrived in Kumamoto at about 4:30 and it took us another 30 minutes to get to the hotel. We would be staying at the Toyoko Inn and May and I were very pleased to discover that everyone would have their own individual room. We weren't worried about the two of us sharing, but the prospect of sharing with one or more drunk Japanese girls didn't really appeal to us non-drinkers, who just wanted a good nights' sleep. The rooms were small but very nice indeed. We didn't get to spend much time in them though; at 5:30 all of us left and made our way to the ANA Hotel for the opening ceremony, along with all the other teams from around Kyushu.

The opening ceremony was great. There was lots of food, lots of alcohol (and a very happy atmosphere for the sober people to enjoy) and each hospital team did a little performance for the total 850 spectators. There was a recurrent theme in most of these performances: semi-nudity. It was surprising how willing all these committed health care professionals were to make fools of themselves. My hospitals' performance consisted of a well-built pharmacist in a short dress and pink wig, dancing and miming to music with the volleyball team dancing in the background. I laughed the whole way through. I will never look at that pharmacist in the same way ever again.

There are two other Gappers currently on placement in Kyushu, Lucy and Lee-Anna, who are living in Kumamoto, as it happens. We met up with them at the opening ceremony and got to compare notes on our placements and life in Japan in general. We hadn't seen them since we were in Tokyo together back in September. They actually performed in their hospital's dance and were superb. They didn't get naked though, just for the record.

The ceremony wrapped up around 9pm. We headed back to the Toyoko Inn and I went straight to bed, having set my alarm for 5:40. I had to be up so early on Sunday because at 6am everyone was to eat a bento breakfast in their rooms (although I ate mine with May in hers). We all got back on the buses then made our way to the sports complex. It was only then that I remembered, oh yeah we're here for a sports event. (With all the drinking and dancing going on around me I had forgotten). This was an annual sports competition between all the Red Cross hospitals in Kyushu, of which there are many. There are two in Nagasaki alone, mine being the Nagasaki Genbaku and the other being Isahaya. On arrival, May and I tagged on to our relay marathon team because we thought they were heading somewhere where everyone was meeting but they turned out to be walking over the marathon route. We didn't mind though; It was really cold so all the walking kept us warm. We had a good time just chatting with them too. Here they are:

The marathon was due to start at 1pm so the team decided to watch some softball until then. Softball is like baseball, but the balls are bigger and yes, a little softer. Also, girls can play. I think that's the only difference between the two. Isahaya were playing first, so the Genbaku team were all there cheering on their friends. I had never watched a softball game before but I really enjoyed it. It helped having Imamurasan, one of the marathon team (far right in the above photo), there to explain the rules to us. Isahaya won 17 to 8. May thinks it was her cheering that made them win, and I think maybe she is right. You should have seen her, she was yelling like a madwoman. It was her first softball game too but she took to it like a duck to water.

Genbaku weren't playing softball until a little later so May and I had a wonder around. We bumped into Lucy and Lee-Anna, who were working on the staff, and chatted with them for a while. Then we watched a little tennis and some volleyball. We caught the second half of the softball game between Nagasaki Genbaku and Kumamoto. May was cheering like crazy again but we got thrashed. We lost 22 to 0. Yeah, our softball team sucked. It was still fun to watch and we still cheered even when we were clearly going to lose the game. One of the radiologists was watching with us and he kept shouting, "Ii yo!" to our team. It means 'no problem' or 'don't worry about it'. LOL. At this point we were at 20 to 0 and this was the last innings. There's no way we can win and he's shouting, 'no problem'. Now that's a committed fan.

Everyone had bento for lunch, courtesy of the Kumamoto organizers. I can't even imagine how much 850 bento boxes costs. By then it was almost time for the marathon so May and I headed for the track, where it would start and where all the exchanges would take place. We stopped off at the volleyball courts on the way and watched Nagasaki Genbaku win their quarter-final. Woo! During the marathon May and I came up with the chant, Go Genbaku, Go! which we were very proud of but too shy to use, since we would actually be saying "Go atomic bomb, go!" which we thought may be a little insensitive. Our team did well in the marathon even without our chant, coming 12th out of over twenty.

The closing ceremony started at 3pm after all the games had finished. Nagasaki Genbaku came third in the volleyball competition, but apart from that most events were won by Kumamoto or Fukuoka - two of the largest cities in Kyushu. We finished off with Manzai, where everyone raises their hands and cheers "Manzai!" together. It is kind of like the Japanese version of The Wave, or Mexican Wave as we call it in England. Back to the bus we went, and back to Nagasaki. The return journey was less chaotic than the one on the way. Everyone was so tired. There was plenty of drinking again though :-)

It was so wonderful to see Nagasaki again. I was home! Visiting Kumamoto made me realise how beautiful Nagasaki is. It was great sleeping in my own bed again. At work the following day I was looking at the staff differently. I now know that no matter how serious they are about their jobs, they will party like their is no tomorrow if given the chance.

May trying to keep warm:

げか - Surgery

2007-11-14T03:48:00.000Z

Phew! What a week it has been. My first surgery was awesome, as was the Kumamoto trip, although for drastically different reasons. I'll talk about Kumamoto in a later post, I promise.

So there I was, last Wednesday, the day of my first surgery. I was met by one of the female surgeons who took me into the changing room to get into my surgical scrubs, cap and mask. Even that part was exciting. She then took me through the surgical floor to O.T. 5, where I had a few minutes to just look around in awe at all the cool equipment and medical stuff. Nakashimasan (the vice-president of the hospital, who took May and me to the Viking restaurant back in October) arrived and he told me a bit about the patient: 6 year-old male; blood type AB+; suffering from sleep apnea, difficulties eating/gaining weight, a concave chest and heart problems as a result of this; will undergo tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy. Basically, his tonsils and adenoids were so big that he couldn't swallow, that's where most of his medical problems were coming from. This tiny little boy was brought in, obviously pretty scared, but the anaesthetists were great and soon calmed him down. It took quite a long time for him to fully fall asleep though. Nakashimasan explained that they were being particularly careful with the anaesthetic because he was a child.

With the patient under general anaesthetic, the surgeons got to work. The main thing they were worried about was bleeding. They don't use sutures for a tonsillectomy so they have to be certain that they have stopped all the bleeding (using what is essentially a soldering iron) before they wake the patient up. I was a little surprised at how rough they had to be to get the tonsils out. They used a 'snare' (wire loop) and pretty much just pulled them out. From start to finish, it was about 1 hour 30 minutes. That's 90 minutes of pure enthralment from my perspective.

After the little boy was moved out and taken back to his Mum, Nakashimasan gave me a proper tour of the surgical floor. I got to peek inside the other four operating rooms, all of which had surgeries going on in them. I also spent a few minutes observing a skin tumour being removed from a woman's scalp, which was very cool. I wondered how something like that gets noticed though. I mean I could only see it because her head had been shaved. Ordinarily her hair would have covered it, right?

Anyway, we headed back to OT5. A second patient was brought in. Two surgeries in one day – I couldn't believe my luck! This patient was a middle-aged man with a visible tumour in his neck: a tumour of the lymph gland. As you probably would have guessed, he was in surgery to have it removed. The doctors didn't know if it was malignant or not, but regardless, nobody wants a lump the size of a golf ball sticking out of they neck. This second procedure was way cooler than the first. The point at which I realised this was when the surgeons were in the process of cutting out the tumour, tying off blood vessels as they went – something that looked very satisfying to do indeed – and a wonderful gloop of lymph oozed out of it. Imagine really thick cream, but more yellow, and you've got lymph. It was disgusting but so, so interesting. Apparently, this tumour was actually contained within a lymph-filled sack, hence the seepage. Cooool.

The second surgery only took about an hour and after that, alas, I had to leave. I was really tired though, after standing up concentrating for three hours straight. My body was tired, but my mind was buzzing. It really was amazing. It all felt so natural, you know, like it was natural for me to be there. This wasn't just some once-in-a-lifetime experience; I could see myself doing this every day as my job. Ah, I am still so excited about it a week on. I might being going into surgery again this afternoon but Nakashimasan is at a conference so I need to find the female surgeon from last time. I'll let you know as and when I make it back in!

おどろき- Surprises

2007-11-07T03:34:00.000Z

Surprise Number One: Today, in approximately twenty-five minutes, I will be watching my first ever surgery!

Surprise Number Two: Over the next four months I will be watching many surgeries, perhaps as many as one per week, and of all different types. My hospital doesn't have a cardiology or neurology department - yes, I did ask! - but it does have an excellent orthopedic department. Do you know how cool an orthopedic surgery is going to be?!

Surprise Number Three: I am going to Kumamoto this weekend, my first trip outside of Nagasaki. There's a Kyushu-wide Red Cross Sports Competition being held there on Sunday, so the hospital is arranging for May and me to travel down there, as well as putting us up in a hotel and providing us with meals. We have to pay ¥5000 for this but, believe me, this is a bargain. Although we're only going to watch, it will be great cheering for the Nagasaki team, as well as getting to know some of the other hospital staff better. Oh, and Lucy and LeeAnna, two of the other Gapper's we met in Tokyo are placed in Kumamoto, so May and I will get to see them again too.

Surprise Number Four: I can't tell anybody this one yet, but for those it will affect - hee hee - it's going to be great.

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Feeling good.

やっきょく- Pharmacy

2007-11-05T03:22:00.000Z

At the end of November my timetable at work is due change. I will still spend half of every day in a nurses station, but the departments in which I work for the other half will change for the latter three months of my placement. This means I will no longer go to the beloved Pharmacy on Thursday afternoons or Radiology on Friday afternoons. I feel a little sad about this because I have made some good friends in these departments and I enjoy the work there. On the plus side, I won't have to go to the Medical Matters section first thing on a Monday anymore. No more lugging patient's files the size of encyclopedias for three and a half hours at a time, yay.

When I first discovered that my whole working week was to be transformed so drastically, my instinct was to worry. (What a surprise, *eye roll*). Now though, I am getting quite excited about it. I have various sources of information in the hospital, and in terms of which new departments I can expect to spend half of my week in, overall things look good. I don't want to say too much on this now because I kinda sorta have a few surprises up my sleeve that I don't want to let slip yet. Hee hee. I know something you don't know!

Anyway, I know I have mentioned the Pharmacy a few times as being my favourite department, but I haven't really explained why. Now that I only have four more afternoons there - yikes, is it only four? - it seems about time that I list a few reasons why I like it so much:
1. I'm together with May, so we can chat and I don't have to worry as much about understanding Japanese because she is essentially my interpreter.
2. We get to sit down for the entire time. Believe me, this is a God-send after a hard morning on the nurses stations.
3. Most of what we do involves packaging medications, like this...

...folding leaflets, and occasionally mixing pre-measured medicine. None of this is particularly difficult work, but is occupying enough that we don't get too bored and not too distracting so we can still talk.
4. The staff in the Pharmacy are really friendly and very appreciative of our work. They even make us origami.

5. The staff in the Pharmacy bring us tea and cakes once we have finished all the work.
6. We are allowed to leave early if we finish all the work set. We do this every single week.

So there you go, my work in the Pharmacy in a nutshell.

2⽉ - Two Months

2007-10-31T06:16:00.000Z

Well, another month has passed. That's two down, four to go. Looking back, the second month was a bit easier than the first. Perhaps this is because everything is now familiar, perhaps it's because of the babies on 5E. Although, having said that, I seem to have developed new fear during my second month in Japan: stairs. Japanese stairs are really steep and tall (you saw the ones at Suwa-jinja!) and are made of brick, and I'm afraid that if I fall down them I will break my neck and that will be the end of me. I'm even having dreams on this theme. I look forward to nice English, carpeted staircases.

On a much brighter note, yesterday I got to handle my first human organs! Woo. Sure, they were from a recent autopsy rather than a live patient, but that actually took the pressure off a little and made me less worried about dropping them on my shoes. My friend in the test dept. just kept on handing me body bits, which I prodded for a while until he handed me the next one. I could tell what some of the organs were but some were completely indistinguishable (they had already been 'autopsied' – cut up). I was playing around with one particular piece of dead person and couldn't figure out what it was, so I asked: the patient's rectum-

8-I

-Right. Okay, I'm just gonna put that one down now. Next? I was quite proud of myself for putting my hands in a jar filled with formaldehyde and all the internal organs of a now ex-patient. I hesitated at first, but then thought, 'hey, when is the next time I'm gonna get the chance to do this?' I answered my own question with, 'probably next year when you start medical school' and decided it was too long to wait. “Hand me the gloves,” I said. The organs were actually less scary once I had touched them. After feeling them they just became rubbery bits of meat rather than parts of a human being, and that was easier for my brain to handle.

Anyway, back to the point of this post. I have passed my two month marker. Next target: Three Months, aka Half Way.

おみやげ - Omiyage

2007-10-29T08:28:00.000Z

There is a tradition in Japan that if you go away on a trip somewhere, you are expected to bring back gifts for all of your family, friends and co-workers. This had led to the development of many regional omiyage (souvenirs) which usually come in the form of food. I think this is because food items can be bought cheaply and in bulk. I saw, for instance, many of the Japanese passengers on the flight from Heathrow to Tokyo carrying boxes and boxes of Ferrero Rocher chocolates, presumably for this purpose.

In some of the departments that May and I work in during the course of a week we are given a tea break, and along with ocha we are also offered various omiyage that people have brought back from their domestic travels. We've tried omiyage from Nagoya, Tokyo and a bunch of other places that I now forget. Nagasaki's omiyage is the castella cake, which was originally brought over by the Dutch. It is basically a plain sponge cake, something not all that impressive to a European but to a Japanese person it is quite unusual. When I went to Glover Garden a few weeks ago and they had scores of castella shops lining the sloped streets. Fortunately for May and me, they had plenty of samples on offer of all the different flavours, including chocolate, banana, green tea and cheese. Yum.

Here's the cake that May and I bought from the Fukusaya Castella shop, which is famous in Japan for having the best castella's money can buy. It has been going for nearly 400 years, so I guess they have had plenty of practice. It just happens to be in Hamanomachi, the main shopping district here in Nagasaki. We couldn't resist trying one.

This is a fairly common type of omiyage, a manju. They are cakey on the outside and have a chestnut or sweet soy bean paste or something similar inside. Nagoya is meant to have the best manju, but this I bought from the hospital shop for ¥55.

Happy Halloween

2007-10-29T03:47:00.000Z

May and I had been seeing posters all over Nagasaki for the past 6 weeks advertising a two-day 'Halloween Carnival' at the Seiyokan, to be held on October 27th and 28th. Naturally, we wanted to see how the Japanese celebrate Halloween so we went to check it out on Saturday. And this was it:

The “carnival” comprised two witches, a candy-floss machine and three games, one of which was a mini golf course with one hole. Hmm.

グラバー - Glover Garden

2007-10-29T03:33:00.000Z

A few weeks ago May and I ventured down to the southern end of Nagasaki to visit the Glover Garden, named after Thomas Glover (1838-1911), who is famed for building the first train line in Japan and establishing the first modern shipyard. The former homes of some of the other pioneering European residents of Nagasaki have also been reassembled in this hillside garden. Well, that's enough of re-wording my travel guide. It was essentially a pretty garden, interspersed with a collection of European-style houses – not very interesting to a European – some ponds filled with carp, and a great view of the harbour. It was nice and all – pleasant, perhaps is a better word – but not all that interesting to me from a historical perspective, which I think was it's aim.

Oh yeah, Madame Butterfly was there too, see:

There was also a room dedicated to her in one of the houses, which had on display her kimono, elaborate hair pieces, fan and bamboo umbrella. Very pretty. I thought it was a nice touch that they had a recording of Madame Butterfly playing in the background.

Check out these guys:

Now what I want to know is did the sculptor see the turtles sitting like this before he made his turtle statue, or did the turtles see the statue in their pond and say to each other, “hey, you know what would be funny...”

You exit the garden via a museum displaying floats from the Kunchi Matsuri, which are even more magnificent close up. After that you have to go down a little sloped street lined with omiyage (souvenir) shops to get to the main road again. Among the castella's (I'll talk more about those later) and your average Japanese souvenirs (fans, chopsticks, pottery) there was also... Scottish shortbread. And to think, I was going to bring that from England as a gift for my Japanese friends here.

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May spotted some kind of fair from the viewing platform at the top of the garden and it still being early in the day, we decided to go down and take a look after we had finished with Glover. (We were hoping there might be some interesting food opportunities). You'll never guess what it turned out to be... a motorbike rally.

There's a lesson to be learned here: You never know what you might stumble upon while you are out and about in Japan.

Engrish

2007-10-23T04:42:00.000+01:00

Here are a few photos of some Engrish I have come across so far in Japan.

This was taking at my local video rental store, You-ing.

"Our fantasy and amusement park, that gives a wonderful smile anda deep impression to you, who have been crazy for cinema, music and good culture"... Hmm. You can see what they're trying to say.

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This I took while I was on the tram (the tram system in Nagasaki being easier/quicker/cheaper than the buses, and therefore all I use to get around).

A man was carrying this bag. You can't see but it has a picture of a puppy on the side of it, which, admittedly, results in it making a little more sense.

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I took this while I was at the Kunchi Matsuri a few weeks ago.

You heard the child, rock and move on!

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This I think is actually pretty clever. Champon is a regional dish here in Nagasaki, consisting of noodles in a rich broth, with seafood, meat and vegetables on top.

Queen would be proud of the Japanese right now.

Suwajinja

2007-10-22T04:34:00.001+01:00

I have been unbelievably busy this past week or so. I'm just about getting enough rest, but I have had practically no time to write anything substantial for this blog - sorry. Hopefully, this quick post will keep you all occupied until I find some time to write a real post.

May and I went to Suwajinja Shinto shrine on Saturday. Much to our dismay however, we had to climb the Tallest Set of Stairs in the World (see above) to get to it. This photo wasn't even taken from the bottom, but part way up.

The great ascent was worth it though; The view was amazing.

The shrine itself wasn't half bad either.

And we found an old-fashioned well to play with while we were there. Yay.

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After the shrine we headed to the Fukusaya Castellla Shop, which has been making and selling castella cakes since 1624. We split the cost of the smallest one they did and had it for dessert after our first attempt at home-made okonomiyaki, which I have to say was a remarkable success.

イングランドのデザード – English Desserts

2007-10-19T04:50:00.000+01:00

Whenever people here have asked me what English food is like, I have often been stumped for examples. What actually is English food? I try and think about the sort of stuff we eat on a daily basis in England, and most of it isn't English - pasta, curry, pizza etc. I end up naming various desserts, starting with scones because the Japanese seem to like those. And dairy, lots of dairy. Aside from that, I can only think of hot pots and casseroles and things like that, which are all really difficult to explain in Japanese.

Anyway, this has led me to want to a) learn more about true English cuisine, and b) learn how to cook. If for no other reason, I want to return the hospitality I have received here by sharing some of the cuisine from my own country with a few of the people I have met. May and I are therefore arranging for Marikosan (and possibly Namisan) to go over to May's apartment one evening and she will cook a traditional Korean main course for the four of us, while I will make an English dessert. I have decided on Apple Crumble, since that is the easiest thing for me to make with the facilities I have in my room. Plus, it only requires four ingredients, so it will be quite cheap to make even for four people. (I was especially pleased with the 1kg bag of flour I got for ¥105 / £0.45).

Yesterday evening I did a test-run and it went very well considering I don't have a sieve, a set of scales or an oven. I aired the flour as best I could with a fork, measured the ingredients by eye/ using a cup, and cooked it in the microwave/oven thing that I do have in my possession. (I'm not actually entirely sure what it is... it heats things up and turns things brown on top, but It is definitely not a microwave or an oven as I know them). I think I am going to serve the crumble with ice-cream; obtaining custard in Nagasaki would be nothing short of a miracle.

Okonomiyaki

2007-10-15T04:37:00.000+01:00

This is what I had for lunch last Tuesday after going to the Kunchi Matsuri. Okonomiyaki translates as 'as you like' or 'whatever you like' and this refers to the vast choice of ingredients that you can pick and choose from. It is kind of a mixture between pancake and pizza, so like pizza toppings, you choose ingredients for this too. It is also known as 'Japanese Pizza' for this reason. This is probably one of my favourite food finds so far. What is funny is that when I first saw it advertised in restaurant windows etc. I thought 'ew, that looks horrible'. In my defence, they advertise the ingredients here, not the finished product, like this:

This is because you cook it yourself at the restaurant. The table has a sunken hot-plate in the middle of it, so you receive your order simply as ingredients in a bowl. You mix it all up yourself, pour it onto the hot-plate and let it cook. Then you decorate it liberally with okonomiyaki sauce, mayonnaise and dried bonito. It was all very novel, but aside from that it was absolutely delicious.

(Kimura-san's is the one on the far right, May's on the near right and mine is the one on the left)

I thought if you make it yourself anyway in restaurants, I may as well try making it myself at home in a frying pan. I went online and found a few good recipes, which I thought I would share with you. You could easily try this at home if you felt so inclined:

Ingredients
Essentials:
1 cup flour
1 egg
¾ cup dashi or water
1/8 - 1/4 cabbage

Optional:
beansprouts
mushrooms
peas
sweetcorn
onion
tuna
squid
prawns
chicken
beef
or anything else you can think of!

Sauces:
Okonomiyaki sauce (or I suppose tomato ketchup or brown sauce would do)
mayonnaise
dried bonito flakes

Method
1. Shred or finely chop the cabbage.
2. Mix the water, flour, eggs and shredded cabbage together.
3. Cut your chosen additional ingredients into small, dice-sized pieces and add to the base.
4. Bung it all in a well-oiled frying pan and cook on a low heat, checking the underside regularly to see if it is turning brown.
5. Flip the whole think like a pancake. As with pancakes, it is always best not to drop it on the floor at this point.
6. Cook until the underside is golden-brown.
7. Decorate as you like with okonomiyaki sauce, mayonnaise and dried bonito. In this case, it is better to have too much than too little.
8. Cut into slices (like a pizza) and serve while hot. Enjoy.

Easy, or what? There you have it: your first Japanese pizza.

Nagasaki Kunchi Matsuri

2007-10-15T04:28:00.000+01:00

From the 7th -9th October each year Nagasaki celebrates the Kunchi Matsuri (festival), and has done so for more than 370 years. It celebrates the ninth day of the ninth month of the lunar calendar, which is meant to a lucky day. The name “Kunchi' comes from the Japanese for “ninth day”, “ku nichi”. There are festivities on all three days and in various places around the city, notably at the Suwa-jinja Shinto shrine and at Otabisho, which is outside the You-Me-Seito department store that I have already come to know and love.

I found a website that gave a very informative description of the festival, but I have lost the address so I will repeat some of it here:
The first Kunchi festival took place in 1634 as part of the central government's campaign against Christianity. It is to give thanks for the harvest, but it also coincides with a period when the gods are said to leave their own shrines for a kind of annual conference. Kunchi festivals are held in many parts of Japan, but Nagasaki's Kunchi is recognised as one of the three great festivals of the Japanese year and attracts visitors from all over the country. At the festival a number of machi (districts of the city) are selected to perform.

The performance normally has three parts. First is the parading of the machi's kasaboko, a huge ceremonial umbrella, bearing the symbols of the machi. Next is the parading of a huge wooden boat on wheels, which is usually occupied by children playing drums and cymbals. Finally, there is a performance of some sort, sometimes involving the boat, but usually a dance.

Nagasaki's Kunchi is distinguished by two features, apart from the enormous effort of preparation which goes into it. Firstly, there is a variety of dances, which came to the city with people who were brought to the city to repopulate it after the Shimabara massacre of 1638. Secondly, there is the incorporation of Dutch and Chinese elements into the performances, which has occurred during its long history.

I saw the festivities at Otabisho on Tuesday morning, which started at 7am. There are seven different performances that make up the whole festival, each performed by a different machi and each lasting between 30-40 minutes. So yeah, it was a long morning.

Kohjiya Machi – The kawafune (Riverboat dance). The large, wooden boat is pulled along by a group of men, and rotated (in one direction only), which excites the crowd greatly. There was lots of yelling, cheering and clapping - no chance at all of anyone still being half-asleep by this point. The carp mounted on the roof of the float represent the carp in the Nakashima river which runs alongside the town.

Kohzen Machi – The Hon-Odori (Japanese dance). This was the first time I got to see/hear shamisen live, and it was wonderful. I also got to see geisha – yay. It started raining at the beginning of this dance, but that wasn't going to stop anyone. It's a good thing that geisha make-up practically has to be chiselled off to be removed.

Gin-ya Machi – The Shachi-daiko (Fish and Drums dance). This was just amazing. It was possibly my favourite of the performances. The taiko drummers were awesome; the sound reverberated through my chest the whole time. Add onto that the phenomenal displays of men heaving, pulling, throwing and catching a giant wooden float and you got yourself a performance that made me more glad than ever to be in Japan.

Yahata Machi – The Yumiya Hachiman Iwaibune/ Kenbu (celebration Boat/ Sword Dance). I was surprised to see only women doing the sword dance. They were obviously very skilled with their samurai swords and they gave an impressive, if a little intimidating, display of female strength. The celebration boat was pretty good too:

Manzai Machi – A Hon-dori (Japanese Dance). The music took a step or two up beat with the beginning of this performance, so that the sound of the Shamisen was now combined with more modern music. This really got the crowd going, with a lot of people joining in with the singing and dancing. It was awfully fun to simply watch too.

Nishihamono Machi – The Jabune (Dragon Boat). The dragon boat is apparently the largest object used in the festival, although they all looked similarly large to me. This boat is meant to represent the ship which brought Princess Anio to Nagasaki to marry Soutaro Araki, a wealthy trader. As you can see, unfortunately some of it had to be covered in clear plastic sheeting to protect it from the now heavy rain. The crowd (me included) got quite a shock when 'smoke' (water vapour) shot out of the dragon's mouth!

Gotoh Machi - Jaodori (Dragon Dance). Ah yes, the dragon dance. Some years there is a 'child dragon' but this year there was just an 'adult dragon', which I have to be honest was a slight relief because I was really tired by this point and my enthusiasm for the crowd's near-deafening cheers had dwindled somewhat. It was a fantastic performance, don't get me wrong. The performers aim for speed and height in this dance, when the leader guides the dragon in various directions with - what I can only describe as - a golden, spinning ball on the end of a staff (sorry, I don't know the name of it).

Kasaboko: Each machi's performance begins with a kasaboko, which is huge, parasol-like object. It carries a placard with the machi's name on it, as well as decorations on top, and a veil draped all around the sides. One man carries the 130-150 kg float on his shoulders, and to make things that little bit more difficult, the veil prevents him from seeing where he is going, so another person guides him with a flag. The carrier dances and spins in a circle, again, with much encouragement from the crowd. All very impressive.

If anybody is thinking of visiting Nagasaki and is unsure of when to do so, come at the beginning of October! This has been one of the highlights of Japan so far for me I feel privileged to have seen it all live, something that many Japanese don't even get the chance to enjoy.

ふゆをきますか - Is winter coming?

2007-10-15T04:26:00.000+01:00

The weather is definitely changing here. Last week seemed to be the turning point. Now, you need to wear long-sleeves if you are out and about in the evening and there are moments during the day when a breeze is enough to make you wish you had an extra layer of clothing with you. It is still getting up to about 30ºC at midday, but it starts cooling down sooner and quicker than previously. This comes as such a relief. I guess it is part of being English to complain about the weather; It is never perfect and therefore needs to be protested about endlessly. I'll be saying it is getting too cold soon enough.

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You know, for a country that doesn't actually celebrate Christmas, Japan sure does prepare early for it. I took this photo on Friday at Seiyokan.

Yeah. Eleven weeks until Christmas. There were also advertisements for a tree-decorating competition, which May and I are thinking of entering. We thought we'd have an obvious advantage because we are westerners so have decorated more Christmas trees than your average Japanese person, and also we thought we might win a few extra votes if we threw in some of our crudely-made origami. I think this is going to fall into the Things We Said We Would Do But Never Did category, it has to be said.

5 階東 – 5E Nurses Station

2007-10-11T04:10:00.000+01:00

I had to get up at 5:30 on Tuesday morning. I would have been annoyed at this had I not done so for the sake of the Nagasaki Kunchi Matsuri (festival). Japan must be the only country in the world where festivals start at 7am. The hospital paid for tickets for Kimurasan, May and me, which I am told aren't too cheap either, so I really can't complain. The “show” was absolutely fantastic, but there is way too much for me to say about it now. For a full post on this, you will have to wait until after the weekend when I have had more time to write - sorry.

After the festivities of the morning and an excellent lunch out of Okonomiyaki, May and I had to return to work. That afternoon I moved from the 6th floor nurses station to go kai higashi (5th floor East wing). Like the last time I moved two weeks ago, I couldn't help but feel apprehensive about the unknown. Unlike last time however – when I was greeted with much the same stuff on 6E as was on 7E, since both appeared to be general wards – this time I was pleasantly surprised to discover that 5E is solely a maternity and gynaecology ward. I know I'm going to sound like such a girl when I say this, but it makes a huge difference having babies around at work! Everything is suddenly way more interesting. There is a group of student nurses on 5E at the moment, and sometimes when they are being shown how to do new things I am allowed to observe also. On Wednesday I observed how to bathe a newborn baby. I found it most funny that instead of, as in England, dressing her in a one-piece baby-grow, the nurse put her in a little yakuta (summer kimono/ dressing robe). Aww! And then... I got to hold her! Kawai ne... yoroshiku. Sorry, I really can't help it. She was so cute! Just a teeny, tiny little human being.

It makes a nice change from the upper floors, where some of the patients, to be quite frank, look as though they have just escaped from a labour camp. I'm talking about people who have lung cancer and and fractured humerus, or are missing a leg and have a bag attached to their abdomen that is steadily filling with blood. Pretty depressing stuff, although admittedly very interesting from a wannabe doctor's perspective. Oh, and also, Marikosan (the woman who lives in room 207) works on 5E so it is nice having a friend around at work too. The downside to all of this of course, is that I am only on the 5th floor for two weeks. After that I will move down to 4E, which I believe is an orthopaedic and physiotherapy ward. Interesting, yes. Full of babies, no.

いなさ山 – Mount Inasa

2007-10-09T10:07:00.000+01:00

I had been told many a time that Nagasaki looks stunning from the top of Inasa-yama (Mt. Inasa), particularly at night. Since the 'Ropeway' cable car to the top costs ¥1200, May and I decided to skip the day-time viewing and wait until nightfall to go up: It was worth the wait and the ¥1200. The view was as spectacular as I had been told it would be. Of course, I took plenty of photographs but even my expensive camera couldn't do it justice, so I bought a postcard with a much better quality picture on it for ¥150. Again, money well-spent, me thinks. Here`s what the postcard looks like:

Peace Begins in Nagasaki

2007-10-09T09:53:00.000+01:00

On Saturday I did my first real bit of sightseeing in Nagasaki. For me, the only place to start was the Hypocentre Park. As it's name suggests, it marks the point above which the atomic bomb exploded at 11:02 am on August 9th 1945. In a word, it was... haunting. I am very glad that I have now seen it, but it was quite an emotional experience and one I don't want to repeat any time soon.

Here it is, the hypocentre. The 4.5 ton 'Fat Man' plutonium bomb exploded 500m above this column.

There are thousands upon thousands of these origami cranes – the symbol of peace - dotted around the park in displays such as these.

This is the Atomic Bombing 50th Anniversary Commemorative Projects Monument and it sits about 20m from the hypocentre. A section of the explanatory plaque reads, “...the child is like Japan on the day of the atomic bombing, while the mother represents the support provided by the countries of the world in Japan's efforts to build the peaceful nation it has become today”.

The Urakami cathedral suffered a near-direct hit by the blast, but still a small portion of its walls remained standing. This was moved to right next to the hypocentre, and included these gnarled dragons at its base.

From the Hypocentre Park I moved onto the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum. It was a relief to discover that photography was not allowed inside the museum; In some ways I don't want to remember what I saw, and even if I did, photographs would never do some of the artefacts and exhibits justice. The 'before' and 'after' aerial photographs of Nagasaki were just shocking. I recognised the landmarks I was seeing in them! This was the city I am currently living in! It felt horribly real. This was made worse when I learned that within 1.2km of the hypocentre the death rate for anyone out in the open was 100%. My apartment, the hospital I work at, the track I run at, all lie well within that radius. Yeah, that was a pretty scary realisation. I don't want to try and summarise the museum here because you really do have to see it to grasp just how devastating the bomb blast was. I will mention though, that the exhibits where separated out into categories including the build up to the attack, the bomb itself (including the science of atomic bombs), the immediate after-effects on the city and it's residence, the relief efforts, the injuries sustained by people and the long-term human cost, and also the state of the world today in terms of nuclear weapons. It really was a fantastic museum.

By now feeling understandably depressed, I headed over to the Peace Park in the hope of finishing the day's sightseeing on a positive note. There I saw the famous Peace Statue:

There was also a collection of other, smaller statues that had been donated from other countries around the world, and the Peace Fountain.

It was all very beautiful. And heart-warming. It certainly proved to be the right order to see these three sights in. I walked home feeling, surprisingly, hopeful and optimistic.

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As a Westerner, I have to admit that I felt some guilt as I walked around these sights. We study all the awful things that Hitler and Stalin did, call them barbarians, but honestly, what we did was just as bad. The atomic attacks on Japan have been justified by the West, calling them 'a quick end to the war', a 'way of saving our soldiers' lives', but at what cost? The vast majority of the victims in Nagasaki were women, children and the elderly. How were their deaths any less important than those of our soldiers?

If nothing else, I learned on Saturday that we have an incredibly distorted understanding of modern world history in Britain. I wonder if and when that will ever change.

へび - Snake

2007-10-09T09:48:00.000+01:00

Last week I was walking up to the front door of my apartment building after a long day at work when I encountered this little guy. My first instinct when I saw him was not – like normal people – to run away and get a big strong man to get rid of it before I could climb the steps. Oh no, my first thought was, 'I want to pick him up'. I then thought that he might be poisonous so decided against it. I was really tempted for a minute though. He looked so silky. I don't know what species he is, if he's commonly found in Asia, or if he's only found in Japan, or what. He sure is cute though, and shy too; He slithered off up the steps and into the nearest bush as soon as I moved closer to him with my camera. Aw, bless.

1⽉きねんび - One Month Anniversary

2007-10-03T04:49:00.001+01:00

Today is one month since I came to Japan. Wow. That's actually a little scary to think about. It doesn't feel like it has been more than a week. Time really is flying by, faster than I think it ever has in my life. Perhaps things will slow down a bit now that everything here is starting to feel familiar. Who knows, maybe it will be the complete opposite. There's only five months of my trip left. Eek, I had better start doing some sightseeing. Watch this space everyone...

おちゃどうぞ – Tea, Please!

2007-10-01T04:42:00.000+01:00

My work timetable has been arranged so that every fortnight the nursing station I am working on changes. For my first two weeks I was in the 7th floor East wing. Last week I moved to 6E. I was a little apprehensive about the move – new staff, new patients, new expectations – but I was actually pleasantly surprised at how smoothly it went (despite being put on the spot on my first day when I was asked to introduce myself (in Japanese) at the staff meeting they have every morning). I now prefer 6E to 7E. The staff in 7E knew it was my first fortnight on the job, so went kind of easy on me, but I have noticed a gradual increase in responsibility over the past three weeks. Just think where I will be in six months!

My new supervisor on 6E is Yamaguchi-san (Mrs Yamaguchi) and I love her. She's in her mid-fifties and makes up for her small stature (she's about 4'9”) with a really jolly personality. Also, her English is a little better than my Japanese, but not by much, so we're constantly teaching each other new words and phrases in our respective languages. Yes, I think she is the one person I have learned the most Japanese from. She knows I want to improve my Japanese so she lets me shout “Ocha douzo” (lit. “Tea, Please”) into the patients' rooms when we give them their 11am cup of green tea. She and some of the other nurses have started calling me Lily-chan ('Riri-chan'), which is a slightly subordinate but affectionate name. To put it into perspective, children get called '-chan'. Mind you, I am kind of the 'child' on the hospital staff – I am the only one yet to reach 20 years of age, which is an important marker in Japanese culture. So yeah, calling me '-chan' isn't much of a surprise really.

ばんごはん – Dinner

2007-10-01T04:36:00.000+01:00

It turned out that I had nothing to worry about with our dinner invite on Friday. It was as far from the whole-hospital-invited party that I feared it might be as you could get.... only five of us: the hospital vice-president, a nurse from the ENT department, Kimurasan, May and me. I am embarrassed to admit that I have forgotten the names of both the vice-president and the nurse. Shame on me, I know!

That's the vice-president sat on the left of the photo, Kimurasan in the middle, and the ENT nurse on the right.

From the hospital May and I were taken by street car to the Best Western Premier Nagasaki Hotel, which, as you might imagine with a name like that, has a five-star rating. The restaurant (called 'The Kitchen') was on the 15th and top floor. The view was amazing. Just amazing. I had heard that Nagasaki has one of the best night views in Japan and now I can believe that unquestioningly. I took pictures but they really didn't capture it, so I won't bother posting them here.

The meal itself was great. It turned out to be an authentic Japanese buffet. The Japanese word for buffet is, believe it or not, Viking (pronounced Biking). You can see how May and I got so confused when beforehand we were told it was a 'Biking' restaurant we would be going to. Anyway, the food was sensational. My favourite thing by far was the sashimi (thin slices of raw fish, in this case in a light marinade). The salmon sashimi was particularly good. Mm, sashimi.

To top off the wonderful food, we had some really great conversation with our hosts. It was during a dessert of ice cream, tiramisu and sesame seed cake that it happened. We were talking about what May and I wanted to do in the future, as in what careers we wanted to pursue, when the vice-president turned to me and the following words came from his mouth: You know, you can watch a surgery if you want to...

...My jaw dropped....

...I seriously could not believe it for a second. I had to ask him twice if I had heard him correctly. Me? Watch a surgery?! 'Yes, yes, yes, I would love to!' I was so shocked that I forgot to ask for details: When? What procedure? Which surgeon? From the gallery or - *gasps* - inside the operating theatre? Oh man, I'm getting so excited just thinking about it. I feel like Meredith Grey. No, actually, probably more like George O'Malley. (Sorry, for the non 'Grey's Anatomy' fans, I feel like a surgical intern, that's all you need to know).... Awe.Some.

We wound things up around 8:45 and May and I got a taxi home with the nurse. We didn't spend a single Yen all evening – the vice-president paid for everything. Of course we were incredibly grateful for this and showed our appreciation in the traditional Japanese way, by saying gochisou sama deshita (“that was a lovely meal”). We have been invited to another dinner in a few weeks; I am not nervous at all about this next one now :-)

しゃしん - Photographs

2007-09-25T09:33:00.000+01:00

It has been requested that I post some photographs of Nagasaki city. Unfortunately I haven't had much opportunity to do any sightseeing yet (it's still too hot and too humid to go exploring, especially since I like to explore on foot) and therefore, I currently don't have all that many to post. I have a few photographs, however, from the area around my accommodation and the hospital.

This is the view from my apartment, or part of it:

This is Inasa-Yama/Mount Inasa, the highest peak in Nagasaki, which stands at 333m high:

This is the northern view from the Nagasaki Seiyokan building, which houses an array of restaurants and small shops:

There are a couple of these statues dotted about the place, but this is my favourite:

I don't know if you can see in this photo, but there is a little trickle of a stream leading down this mini valley...

...And this is what it leads to, Urakami-Gawa:

*

May and I ate out for the first time since coming to Nagasaki on Saturday evening, as a joint celebration of our birthdays. We could have gone for sushi, soba, udon, but no, we decided to eat at Jolly Pasta in the Nagasaki Seiyokan building.

I had the maruguriita pizza (see photo of plastic window display version below), and May had some kind of cheesy spaghetti dish that had a slightly spicy after-taste. We shared a brownie ice cream sundae for dessert. Yum. It was a lovely meal, if not an authentic Italian one. Having said that, what do I know about authentic Italian food? Not a lot. My share of the bill came to ¥724, which is around £3.10. Amazing, huh?! I can't believe I thought Japan was going to be a really expensive country to live in.

⽉9 ⽇23 – 23/09/07; コミュニケーション – Communication

2007-09-25T04:47:00.000+01:00

May and I have been invited to dinner this Friday by some of the hospital staff. Great... free food, interesting company, what could be wrong with that? There's only one snag though: we have no idea what kind of occasion it is going to be. We can't figure out if it is a home-cooked meal in somebody's home with just their family and maybe one or two other (senior) members of staff, or if it is a massive, all-hospital-staff-attending welcome dinner at a hotel restaurant somewhere. We have no idea what to expect – or what to wear! We're going to try and get some more information about the meal from Kimura-san, so hopefully, come Friday, we will have half an idea what's going to happen to us.

*

May joined the hospital tennis club. Ha, she can't play tennis to save her life and she's joined a serious tennis club. Also, there was some mention of a Kyūshū-wide tennis tournament between all the Red Cross hospitals, and we think she might have signed herself up for that too. Oh dear. Better her than me. I wonder if there is a hospital athletics club though...

*

Here's something that made me giggle in the middle of the supermarket:

I can be so childish sometimes :-D

誕⽣⽇ (だんじょうび) – My Birthday

2007-09-21T04:31:00.001+01:00

Yesterday, I had my first birthday away from home. I don't know what I was expecting, but it turned out to be a really nice day. I woke up and straight away opened the cards that my family had given me back in England before I left for Japan. Then I allowed myself two cookies with my breakfast. I was off to a flying start. My morning at work was fine, but my afternoon was excellent. Thursday afternoons May and I are in the Pharmacy which is probably my favourite department in terms of the work we have to do there. On top of that, the guy who looks after us in the pharmacy brings us coffee and cakes and biscuits part way through the shift, and then he lets us leave 45 minutes early. Yeah, we like Pharmacy-san. Yesterday's meals at the hospital were particularly good also; They must have known it was my birthday, lol. During my lunch break, I gave the hospital president a gift that I had brought from England – the first opportunity to do so since I arrived. It was surreal giving somebody else a present on my birthday. Oddly, quite an uplifting experience though... Hmm. In the evening I wrote emails to my family, ate yet more cookies, read some of my book and watched an episode of Six Feet Under. All in all, not a bad day :-)

From Kimura-san:

⼈ - People (i)

2007-09-19T08:16:00.000+01:00

Last week May and I were invited to dinner at room 207 in our apartment building. (I live in 210 and May lives in 211). It was all arranged through notes on the reception notice board, which was an interesting experience in itself. So here's how we met Togawa-san:

Dear リリ (Lily) and メイ (May)

Hi!! I'm Mariko Togawa. I live in the room 207.
Welcome to Japan!!
I'd like to be friends with you. Let's talk together. Are you free on Monday night (9/17)? I'll cook something for dinner.

Though I'm poor at English. I'll try. Please teach me. Nice to meet you.

Have a nice day. ☆☆☺☺
From Mariko

We replied to this note, saying, thank you, Monday was fine etc. We got a reply to that a day later:

Dear Lily and May

Thank you for you message.
I'm glad to hear you can come Monday night ☆ My friend Nami who lives in room 305 will also come. How about pm 6:30?
I'm looking forward to seeing you.
I'm happy you can talk Japanese. Why don't we use 2 languages when we talk. It may be funny ☺

まょう⽇もイしごとがんば3うね!!
Let's enjoy our job.
From Mariko.

We went over on Monday evening as planned and had a fantastic home-cooked meal with Mariko and Nami. We ate a Japanese curry dish, cheesy home-made pasta (Mariko said it took her four hours to make!), miso soup, rice (a necessity in any Japanese meal) and nutto, which is the Japanese Marmite – you either love it or you hate it. I think it is soy beans in a vegetable paste...? I will try and get a recipe for it or something because it is really difficult to explain. Oh, and for dessert we had a wonderful yoghurt/jelly pudding thing, which Mariko is going to show me how to make, yay! I had a really great evening with them both and we've already made some loose but numerous plans to meet up again. These include going shopping, exchanging DVD's and music, and more eating. Sounds good to me.

9⽉16⽇ - 16/09/07; たべもの - Food

2007-09-18T09:42:00.001+01:00

My eating routine on weekends is slightly different from that during the week for obvious reasons – I have to find, buy and cook my own! I've started doing a weekly shop every Saturday at the supermarket (Seiyu) and I buy stuff like rice, noodles, cereal, dried fruit (fresh fruit is really expensive), coffee, milk and so on. I'll prepare something at lunchtime, eat half of it then and eat the other half for tea. Simple. And cheap. If I get hungry in between meals I'll snack on the dried fruit or, in the evenings, my Chocolate Pillows or something similar (see last post).

For my birthday on Thursday May and I are going to head down to the local Mos Burger as a treat. And when I say 'local', I mean 90 seconds walk away from our apartment building! Mos Burger is kind of like the Japanese McDonald's (although they have Makudonarudo here too) but the food is much nicer, healthier and cheaper. It's May's birthday on the 24th so we're going out for dinner somewhere even nicer than Mos Burger as a joint celebration at the weekend.

Anyway, I thought I would share today's lunch experience with everybody. All you need is some Japanese rice and some sweet tofu bags. Cook the rice, put a spoonful into each bag, fold the sides over, et voilà! I don't know what these things are called. I just call them Sweet Tofu Rice Bags, but if you have any more creative suggestions for names I would be interested to hear them. They sure are yummy though.

9⽉17⽇ - 17/09/07; テレビ - Television

2007-09-18T09:41:00.001+01:00

I have been making a point of watching a little TV every day to help with my language studies. At the moment I am still feeling a little overwhelmed linguistically by some of the programs that are on, but those that have more commentary than conversation are great. For instance, chat shows and game shows I find really boring because I understand so little of the Japanese. However, cooking shows, travel shows and sports coverage are fantastic. There is a sumo tournament going on a the moment so there is plenty of the latter on TV every day. With cooking and travel programs it is more hit and miss, but sometimes I find a real gem. This morning I stumbled upon a show about two Japanese women who were travelling on the Eastern and Oriental Express and stopping off in numerous countries along the way. Yeah, that was good, although I think maybe the Japanese idea of travel is to stay in five-star hotels and eat at all the finest restaurants. Each to their own. I don't honestly know how much of a help the TV is going to be with learning the language, but there's no harm in trying I suppose.

9⽉14⽇ - 14/09/07; しごと – Work

2007-09-18T09:28:00.000+01:00

Aaaah, Friday evening! No work for three days (Monday is a national holiday, remember). Man, I don't think I have appreciated the weekend as much as this. The first week of work at the Nagasaki Red Cross Genbaku Hospital was really tough. The tasks that I had to perform were not all that challenging but it was still nine hours at work each day however you look at it. I started work at 08:30, had lunch 12:00-13:00, then finished at 17:10 and had my dinner in the hospital cafeteria. May and I have been given a weekly timetable which is as follows:

Monday
AM – Medical Matters Section
PM – Nursing Department

Tuesday
AM – Test Department
PM – Nursing Department

Wednesday
AM – Nursing Department
PM – Free (Japanese Language Class)

Thursday
AM – Nursing Department
PM – Pharmacy

Friday
AM – Nursing Department
PM – 1:00 – Radiology
3:00 – Medical Office

I should probably explain what everything is: Medical Matters is the reception and records department; Nursing Department is the nurses stations on all of the wards; the Test Department is the lab; and the Medical Office is the staff break room, on-call rooms, doctor's offices and so on. For everything but the 'Nursing Department' May and I are together. It's good when we are separate because it gives me more of an opportunity to practice my Japanese. When I'm with her I just let her do all the talking and translating because she's two thirds of the way to fluency whereas I am miles off that target yet. However, the work can be very boring on the wards– making beds, folding towels and bandages etc. - so it's much more pleasant for both of us when we are together because we can chat. The 'Test Department' and the Pharmacy are my favourites, if the first week is anything to go by. The staff gave us coffee and cookies in each of these departments, so that immediately put them in my good books.

Here's what the hospital looks like as I approach it in the morning. This is actually the back, but I have no reason to go round to the front because the staff entrance is on the near side of the building as you see it there. It's about a 10 minute walk from my apartment which you would think would make the walk home after a long day at work nice and easy, but....

Yeah, I have to tackle this monster of an ascent if I want to get home (that yellow building top/centre is mine). Swings and roundabouts, eh?

The hospital provides both lunch and dinner, which is awesome. It has certainly given me the opportunity to try a lot of authentic Japanese food. So I just have to find my own food on weekends and for breakfast, for which I'm having cereal every day as I did in England. The only downside of the hospital providing so much of our food is that May and I get the same meals as the patients, which are of course designed for people who are spending a large proportion of their day in bed so they're low-cal, low-fat, low-sugar. Very yummy, just not quite enough for two growing girls. To make up for this, I treat myself to a snack from the convenience store in the evenings. I usually end up choosing something that comprises more then 75% sugar! This was tonight's snack:

These were actually quite a lot like Chocolate Squares, as in the cereal, but with a softer outer shell. They were really good with a glass of milk on the go at the same time too. Oh, and no, I don't know what the stalk-like bird with trainers on is about.

I think overall my current diet is very healthy, even taking into account my evening indulgences. At least that is what I am telling myself, lol. Hey, if I put on weight because I eat too many Chocolate Pillows then so be it. If you're going to gain weight because you're eating too much of one thing it may as well be something will a ridiculous name, right?

A Path Well-Trodden

2007-09-13T08:07:00.000+01:00

I got paid yesterday after only three days of work. Actually it's an “allowance” because my visa doesn't permit any paid work. I was expecting ¥30'000 for the month but instead I got ¥50'000! That works out at about £214! Sure, for a full-time job that isn't much, but for what is essentially voluntary work it's pretty good. And they give me two hot meals a day too. I'll do a full post on my new job after I have been there at least a week, since I have a weekly timetable so I haven't worked in all the departments I am going to yet. One thing you have to love about Japan though is the number of national holidays they have. The next two Monday's I have off work for that reason so May and I are planning to seize the opportunity to do some proper sightseeing in Nagasaki. And you know what that means... lots of pictures!

I am really loving my apartment. Both May and I agreed that we were pleasantly surprised by our new lodgings. We were expecting something smaller, dingier and with fewer facilities, but we have all sorts of cool features. My tatami floor is just beautiful and the slidey paper doors (which aren't actually made of paper) are very Japanese-ey. Also, the fact that these rooms have been used by previous Gappers means there's loads of stuff they have left behind that we can use. This includes practical stuff like chopsticks and washing-up liquid, and fun stuff like books, videos, CD's and Japanese language guides. It's comforting knowing that this is a path fairly well-trodden by people before me.

Kimurasan – the woman overseeing my placement at the hospital – arranged for me to have weekly Japanese lessons for free at the so-called 'Nagasaki Brick Hall'. I had my first lesson yesterday and thought it was really good. I was surprised at who else was attending though – three middle-aged Indian women and a female basketball coach from New York. I was quietly smug that even though I was joining their class half way through the course, my Japanese was as good as, if not better than theirs. Previous Gappers seem to have been to this same class when they were here too because the textbook I need was sitting on the bookshelf at my apartment when I arrived. Just saved myself ¥2000 right there.

2007⼿* 9⽉ 10⽈ - 10/9/07

2007-09-11T09:53:00.000+01:00

Okay, it has taken me a few days but I think I have sorted out the internet problems I have been having since my arrival in Nagasaki. Basically, the internet café nearest to where I am staying – which is not only the cheapest but the only one I have found so far – doesn't have wireless facilities. Apparently, this is not uncommon in Japan. It also does not allow the use of USB's so I couldn't transfer any of my photos etc. that way, and the keyboards were incredibly difficult to decipher. However, I do now have access to a computer at the hospital, which has internet and a usable USB port and an easy-to-use keyboard. In fact, it's a Mac. So the current plan is to write all blog post at home and transfer them and my photos via USB during my lunch hour or after work. I am using May's iPod to do this at the moment but will hopefully buy a USB stick this weekend.

My first day of work today was difficult. Well, actually it was just tiring. I'm confident though that once I get into a routine it will become much easier. Fingers crossed.

*Apologies to my Japanese-speaking readers for my ue of the incorrect kanji for `year`; I counldn`t find the correct one.

2007⼿ 9⽉ 9⽈ - 9/9/07

2007-09-11T09:46:00.000+01:00

It's all go here in Nagasaki. My first few days in Japan have had me feeling a vast mix of emotions, some good and some bad. All of the bad ones so far however, I am tackling with a positive attitude and that seems to be paying off.

Here's a couple of quirky things about the Japanese that have already come to my attention:
● They can sleep almost anywhere, and do. If you get on a Japanese train, bus or tram you will see that about 30% of the passengers are seemingly asleep. This is a useful skill on the bustling public transport in Japan. On that, so many people use public transport because it is so good and efficient, and apart from the possibility of standing in a confined (but air-conditioned) space for the duration of your journey, Japanese public transport cannot be beaten.
● They carry little face towels around with them to wipe the sweat from their foreheads. It is encouraging to a humble foreigner knowing that the natives are hot too and that they sweat in this weather too. I have followed in their footsteps and started carrying round a face towel of my own. I didn't even have to buy it since the apartment I am staying in is provided with face cloths, dish cloths and sponges.
● The women here walk around with their umbrellas up when it's sunny. Again, I have taken to doing this myself (the ¥105 umbrella I bought in Tokyo broke after a day, so I bought a much better and nicer one after I arrived in Nagasaki – it's a really cute pink one). This was the first time I have come across people using umbrellas to shade themselves, and it made me think back to my childhood when I thought those sun umbrellas in Jane Austin films looked so novel.

*

Yesterday May and I went shopping to celebrate our arrival at our placement. We walked to one of the major department stores which was about 3-4km away from our accommodation and arrived there at 09:30, forgetting that Japanese department stores usually open at ten. To kill time, we bought a cold drink each. I decided to use the opportunity to try Calpis (pronounced cow-piss). It turned out to be quite nice, like a mixture of calpol and milk, although that description makes it sound awful.

After half an hour we went in and were greeted by dozens of shop assistants all at once, shouting irrashaimase (welcome) and bowing deeply. I felt like royalty! It was great. We then shopped for about an hour, ate lunch and shopped for another two hours. As well as groceries, we bought a pair of indoor slippers that we needed for our apartments.

Yes, they're ugly, but hey they were cheap (¥390 - £1.65).

Then... we moved onto the clothes section, mwah ha ha! Both of us realised that we had packed for colder weather than it turned out to be - at least that was our justification for buying clothes on the first day. May bought a pair of shorts and a shirt, and I bought two shirts. It was nice and easy finding my size, which was a nice surprise. It turns out that I am Japanese medium. Good to know.

The expensive one, ¥1596 - £6.80:

The cheap one, ¥500 - £2.15:

I don't think this is the prettiest shirt ever but I couldn't resist the Engrish. Diamond...Your smile that a glitter wins... reflects in the surface... shine kindly. Oh, I will shine kindly, don't you worry.

ｔｅｃｈ　ｐｒｏｂｌｅｍｓ

2007-09-08T08:02:00.000+01:00

ｗｅｌｌ，　ｉ　ｍａｄｅ　ｉｔ　ｔｏ　ｎａｇａｓａｋｉ　ｉｎ　ｏｎｅ　ｐｉｅｃｅ，　ｈｏｒａｈ！　（ｙｏｕ　ｗｉｌｌ　ｈａｖｅ　ｔｏ　ｅｘｃｕｓｅ　ｔｈｅ　ｌａｃｋ　ｏｆ　ｃａｐｉｔａｌ　ｌｅｔｔｅｒｓ　ｉｎ　ｔｈｉｓ　ｐｏｓｔ；　ｉ‘ｍ　ｕｓｉｎｇ　ａ　ｐｃ　ａｔ　ｔｈｅ　ｌｏｃａｌ　ｉｎｔｅｒｎｅｔ　ｃａｆｅ　ａｎｄ　ｉ　ｈａｖｅ　ｙｅｔ　ｔｏ　ｆｉｇｕｒｅ　ｏｕｔ　ｔｈｅ　ｋｅｙｂｏａｒｄ）．ｔｈｅ　ｒｏｏｍｓ　ｍａｙ　ａｎｄ　ｉ　ａｒｅ　ｓｔａｙｉｎｇ　ｉｎ　ａｒｅ　ｆａｎｔａｓｔｉｃ　－　ｂｉｇ，　ｓｐａｃｉｏｕｓ，　ｗｉｔｈ　ａ　ｔｖ　ａｎｄ　ｖｉｄｅｏ　ｅａｃｈ　ａｎｄ　ｗｉｔｈ　ｈａｌｆ　ａ　ｄｏｚｅｎ　ｏｒ　ｓｏ　ｅｎｇｌｉｓｈ　ｆｉｌｍｓ　ｔｏ　ｇｏ　ｗｉｔｈ．ｏｈ，　ａｎｄ　ａｉｒ　ｃｏｎｄｉｔｉｏｎｉｎｇ　ｉ‘ｍ　ｔｏｔａｌｌｙ　ｌｉｋｉｎｇ　ｎａｇａｓａｋｉ　ｍｏｒｅ　ｔｈａｎ　ｔｏｋｙｏ　－　ｉｔ‘ｓ　ｊｕｓｔ　ｓｏ　ｍｕｃｈ　ｎｉｃｅｒ．　ｉｔ　ｈｅｌｐｓ　ｔｈａｔ　ｉ　ｃａｎ　ｓｅｅ　ｍｏｕｎｔａｉｎｓ　ａｎｄ　ｔｈｅ　ｓｅａ，　ａｎｄ　ｔｈａｔ　ｔｈｅ　ｗｅａｔｈｅｒ　ｉｓ　ｎｏｎ－ｔｙｐｈｏｏｎ　ｌｉｋｅ．　ｉ‘ｍ　ｇｏｉｎｇ　ｔｏ　ｈａｖｅ　ｔｏ　ｋｅｅｐ　ｔｈｉｓ　ｐｏｓｔ　ｒｅａｌｌｙ　ｓｈｏｒｔ　ｉ‘ｍ　ａｆｒａｉｄ　ｂｅｃａｕｓｅ　ｍｙ　ｔｉｍｅ　ｆｏｒ　￥１００　ｈａｓ　ｎｅａｒｌｙ　ｒｕｎ　ｏｕｔ．

ｍａｙ　ａｎｄ　ｉ　ｓｔａｒｔ　ｗｏｒｋ　ｏｎ　ｍｏｎｄａｙ．　ｉ‘ｌｌ　ｈｏｐｅｆｕｌｌｙ　ｐｏｓｔ　ｍｏｒｅ　ａｆｔｅｒ　ｔｈａｔ．

明治神宮 Meiji Jungu Shrine

2007-09-07T00:32:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I went with the group of other volunteers (not all going Nagasaki but to other placements across Japan) and our guide, Ide-san, to Meiji Jungu Shrine. It was the first Shinto shrine I had visited and I didn't know what to expect.

This is what greets you as you approach the shrine - a giant torii gate, which indicates that all land beyond this point is sacred. We were also greeted by noisy raven; he obviously knew we were coming.

Okay, if I said I knew what these were I would be lying. Lanterns? Barrels? I don't know. Well whatever they were, I loved the artwork on them.

It's funny how ablution rituals pop up in so many different religions. In Shinto, you use these wooden ladle-like things to pour water over each hand and then to rinse out your mouth before entering the shrine proper.

This is a fairly familiar image from a Japanese shrine. On these Ema boards people write a prayer or a wish for the world to see. There were thousands of these at the Meiji shrine, but only up close do you appreciate their intimate nature.

You can tell you're in Japan when you see umbrellas for rent at the major attractions. Seriously, everybody here carries an umbrella. After only a few days in Tokyo I understand why – it's way too hot/humid to wear a jacket but it will rain torrentially for thirty seconds every hour or so. And if you're caught outside without an umbrella you can pick one up at any market or stall very cheap. I paid ¥105 for mine, which is about £0.45.

That's all for now. I'm flying down to Nagasaki today, so there probably won't be any posts for a few days. We'll see.

Landed

2007-09-06T08:52:00.000+01:00

Okay. I'm in Japan. It was quite a journey getting here but I won't go into that until after I arrive at my final destination, Nagasaki. Tokyo is great, although quite overwhelming at times. I have already come across some great Engrish and some of their product names are just absurd. Here's a few photographs to keep you occupied until I can be bothered to write something a bit more detailed.

This is a street in Akihabara - the electronics centre of the world.

Hmmm... these are different types of diet pills. My favourite has to be FAT MAGNET. Surely you would want the opposite from a diet pill...?

Ah, yes, the Japanese vending machine - sells everything from green tea to groceries. And they are everywhere.

Believe it or not, there is a whole line of X-Girl clothing. This one was totally my favourite though... going my wave...LOL, that's great. The shop I found this t-shirt in sold both men's and women's clothing, but I'm not sure if there is a men's x-girl range - that would be the ultimate.

I'll just leave you with one more thing before I go: One of the first things I bought in Japan was a box of green tea and chocolate flavour Pocky (a kind of sweet/biscuit if you don't know) but it was only a few minutes ago that I noticed a great logo on the back that said, A wonderful life in the best of taste. Yep, that's Pocky. The logo had a little dancing man on it too, the relevance of which I haven't figured out yet.

冒険 Adventure

2007-08-30T10:48:00.000+01:00

Well.... I am in the final stages of my preparation for my Japan adventure. This will in all likelihood be my last post before I take a giant leap into the unknown early next week. I'm sorry to say that I am more scared than excited at the moment. Normally before I travel I feel the complete opposite, but I guess this trip is in a league of it's own. It is making my two months in Türkiye a few years ago look like a long weekend.

My main worries are to do with the language and my job, which it has to be said are going to be pretty major components of the next six months. On the up side, I don't have many little niggley worries that are going to drag me down. In fact, the only one I can think now is that I have to survive the winter without my Vicks inhaler - the only thing I have found that successfully clears my nose when I have a cold. But unfortunately, according to the Japanese anti-stimulant laws, all of Vicks' products are illegal in Japan :-(

Anyway, I better get back to my preparations. See you on the other side.

手荷物 Baggage

2007-08-21T13:11:00.000+01:00

I know it has been a while since my last post. I have been wanting to write more but there's not all that much to report back on at the moment. That is, apart from my packing dilemma. I have 29 kilograms in total to sustain me for 6 and a half months. I alternate between thinking this is plenty and pitifully little. I'm trying to trick my brain into thinking it will be enough and I'm managing to convince myself of this for about 90% of the time. Unlike most airlines I have come across is the past – who charge £4 to £6 per kg of excess baggage – Virgin Atlantic charge £43 per kg, so there's no way I can be even a little over. I have 23kg for my suitcase and 6kg for my hand luggage, and that's that.

So how does one pack six and a half months worth of stuff into 29kg? How does one possibly decide what one needs and what one doesn't need, what might come in handy, or what might prove to be just a waste of space and weight? Personally, I like to go the list route. I have made lists for everything – stuff that is going in my hand luggage, stuff to go in my suitcase, stuff to go in a bag that's going into my suitcase for me to take out on arrival in Tokyo. I have made lists of individual items of clothing, make-up, toiletries and jewellery. I am well aware of the obsessive-compulsive nature of my packing strategy but hey, it works and it is possibly the only thing that is keeping me from panicking.

My master packing list gets edited every few days but I'm still not happy with it. Some things I repeatedly take off and put back on. For instance, at first I decided I could manage without a comb or brush (I have curly hair so can, more easily than a non-curly haired person, get by without one) but now I have two combs on there, a fine tooth and a wide tooth. It doesn't matter if I take zero, one, or two combs – combs are not important - but the tight regulations on my packing are making the most negligible thing in normal circumstances seem critical even when they are not. It's the same with every single item on my list and at the moment I have 150 things on there. It's so stressful. Another thing I have to take into account is the return journey and all the souvenirs etc. that I will be bringing back with me. The weight allowance is the same coming back so I either have to pack with weight to spare or be prepared to leave some stuff in Japan. *sigh* I'll manage – I have no other choice.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention: my suitcase, the lightest light-weight suitcase I could find, weighs 3.7kg. My luggage allowance is down to 25.3 kilograms. Life's tough, ain't it?

計画する The Plan

2007-07-27T12:42:00.000+01:00

It's probably about time that I explain what is going to happen when I leave for Japan at the beginning of September. Here's roughly how everything should pan out:

* My father and I are flying from Manchester airport to London Heathrow airport on 3rd September, then staying overnight in a nearby hotel.
* My flight from London Heathrow airport to Tokyo Narita airport leaves the UK at 13:00. I am flying with a group of about 10 other people who are also going on voluntary placements in Japan, all arranged through GAP like mine. I have only met some of these people so far but an eleven and a half hour flight will be a good opportunity to get to know everyone a little better.
* I arrive in Tokyo on the morning of September 5th. I will collect my suitcase then hand it over to a courier who will be transporting it directly to my accommodation in Nagasaki.
* With nothing but our rucksacks, the other Gappers and I will head to Lutheran Ichigaya youth hostel in Shinjuku-ku in central Tokyo, where we will be staying for the next two nights. There we will have our orientation course, which I have been told is just a couple of hours long, so for the rest of the time I am free to do as I will in Tokyo.
* On the afternoon of the 7th September I am flying (possibly with my GAP partner) from Tokyo Haneda airport to Nagasaki airport. The flight is about 2 hours.
* On arrival in Nagasaki, I will be greeted by Kimura-san (Ms Kimura), who will be overseeing me throughout my placement at Nagasaki Red Cross Ganbaku Hospital.
* After a quick train ride into Nagasaki city, I will arrive at the hospital's nurses apartments, where my suitcase will be waiting for me. I will have my own room (one of twenty-eight) with shared showers, washing machine, drier etc. I have also been told that I have a little kitchen area in my room.
* I might then be taken on a tour of the hospital (15 minutes walk from my accommodation), introduced to a few members of staff and so on.
* After that I guess I'll be starting work. More detail on that later.

SOうどん SO Udon

2007-07-19T10:32:00.000+01:00

A Japanese restaurant opened in Preston a few months ago called Soうどん. Yesterday my Mum and I ate there for the first time, and both of us came out with full stomachs, smiles on our faces, and barely a dint in our wallets. I rate it much higher than Sakura, the other (also fairly new) Japanese restaurant in Preston, which seemed more concerned with putting on an elaborate show than giving you a filling meal – and boy, did they charge a lot for the show. 'Soうどん' is primarily a noodle bar, but with a few other bits and pieces on the menu, such as teriyaki and tempura. They also had this phenomenal chocolate cake, which was made from the most mouth-watering dark, bitter chocolate. For the two of us, the bill came to £21. It wasn't the most amazing restaurant to eat in, but the portion sizes were more than adequate and the food really was delicious. For twenty quid, who can argue with that?

富士フィルム FujiFilm

2007-07-16T08:33:00.000+01:00

There are clearly pros and cons to taking a year out and using the time to go gallivanting off to the other side of the world. One such con is the shear cost of the whole thing, although I am learning how to use this in my favour. Given that I have already worked up a £2000+ debt with my Dad (who is giving me an interest free loan until I get back from Japan and can get a full-time job) I am now catching myself thinking things like, 'what difference is another couple of hundred pounds going to make?' Despite this being unheard of for me usually, it is exactly what happened yesterday. I needed to buy a digital camera for my trip – I don't have one and there's no way I can afford all the development costs of film – so Dad and his credit card and me made a trip into town to an electronics store. We went in with a £100 limit to our budget in mind... We came out with a £250 camera! Now, that isn't as bad as it's sounds, I promise. We actually paid £130 in the sale and in addition to the camera we got a case, 512MB memory card and a spare battery. Not a bad deal, huh? Well, without further delay, here's my new baby:

疑い Doubt

2007-07-14T17:32:00.000+01:00

This has been a tough week - for reasons I won't go into. There have been moments this week when I felt the last thing I wanted to do was to go abroad for six months, and it's at times like that when I really question my ability to get through such a challenge as this. I don't have much choice about the matter though – probably a good thing; I might have chickened out by now – so I just have to get on with it, I suppose.

In lighter news, I found a 1-on-1 Japanese teacher, who is currently giving me weekly lessons. He's a great teacher and I have learnt a lot already, having only had one 2-hour lesson with him. The only problem is that he charges £20 an hour. I'm trying not to worry about the money, it's just this is going to set me back a couple of hundred pounds that I hadn't anticipated.

This post seems to be all doom and gloom, so I'll leave it at that. I'll try and report back in a few days with more positive things to say.

地図 Get Out The Map

2007-07-06T10:38:00.001+01:00

Do you ever find yourself saying things like, 'Oh, we can sort that out when we get there,' or 'I'm sure everything will fall into place'...? Well, that was my attitude towards the journey from Nagasaki back to Tōkyō after my six month stay in Japan. Basically, I have seven days from the end of my placement at Nagasaki Red Cross Hospital to get to Tōkyō, where my flight leaves for the UK. If I had wanted to I could have just flown back and then spent a week in Tōkyō, which I have no doubt would have been very enjoyable. Even with the two weeks holiday I am entitled to during my placement, and many a weekend to go on short trips with my friends or on my own, I have decided that I will definitely be seizing the opportunity to see more of Japan as I travel back. I will be navigating the Japanese rail network, and possibly even brace myself for a ride on the Shinkansen (Bullet Train) for part of the way if I can afford it. Here are a few places that have caught my eye so far:

Kyōto:- This is renowned as the best place for foreign visitors to see traditional Japan, whilst staying within the comforts of a modern city. I was immediately attracted to Kyōto when I first saw a picture of the avenue of torii gates at Fushimi Shrine, but I am not sure why I have such an affinity for torii gates. This city really does seem like one not to be missed, so I thought I might spend a few days here, time permitting. The annual Matsuri (festivals) are particularly abundant here also.

Biwa-Ko (Lake Biwa):- This is Japan's largest lake and covers a greater area than any Japanese city. Apparently there is a string of shrines, temples and shops along the waterfront, as well as Hikone Castle on the lake's eastern shore. It might be a bit touristy but a beautiful and serene place none-the-less.

Miyajima Island:- A lovely, unspoiled island that lies very close to the southern coast of western Honshu, not far from Hiroshima. You know that famous torii gate that appears to float on the sea? Well, that marks the entrance to this island, and it symbolises that the whole island is sacred. What drew me to Miyajima particularly was the fact that nobody is allowed to give birth of die on this island, meaning there are no maternity wards or cemeteries. Also, the monkey sanctuary at the top of Mount Misen here (accessible by cable car) and the free-roaming tame deer may have had their part to play in convincing me to visit this island.

One finds a recurrent theme in Japan of rebuilding and renewal, which just fascinates me. That is why Hiroshima and Kobe are also on my list of places to visit. Some Shinto shrines are rebuilt every twenty years exactly how they were previously, for instance, and have been for hundreds of years. Lying on the intersection of four tectonic plates, it is perhaps no surprise that Japan has acquired such an unrivalled ability to rebuild. Earthquakes - at least measurable ones - just do not happen here in Britain, so we are never faced with the challenge of starting everything over from scratch.

It goes without saying that the plans I am making now of my return journey may change dramatically by the time I come to fulfil them. Even so, I am getting increasingly excited by the day about my stay in Japan; I feel like a child in a sweet shop while I am looking through the guide books and websites on Japan and choosing where I want to go. I can't wait...

しつぼ Disappointment

2007-07-03T10:51:00.000+01:00

I was going to post today about how, now that all my flights are sorted out (Manchester - London Heathrow, London Heathrow -Tokyo Narita, and Tokyo Haneda - Nagasaki), I'm feeling a lot calmer. Then, of course, comes the phone call from Lancaster University informing me that the 5-day intensive Japanese course that my brother and I were enrolled on has been cancelled. Great. I was relying on that to allow me to get used to conversing with a native speaker and to improve my mediocre, self-taught language skills. Ugh! I don't know what to do. I'll go out to Japan with low level Japanese skills if I must, but I'd feel so much better if I had spoken with an actual Japanese person before I did so. I should probably start looking into private tuition.

This year out was never going to go exactly to plan, but to have a set back so early on... that hardly bodes well. *Sighs*. Oh well, no point dwelling on something I can't change.

興奮した Excited

2007-07-01T08:26:00.000+01:00

Yay, I've finished my A-levels! Now I am free to really buckle down with my Japan prep. I'm going through a whole range of emotions daily: fear; panic; excitement. I'm trying to think positively though, and scaring myself into doing something usually works for me.

My Dad and I travelled down to Reading on Thursday for a briefing by G.A.P. and although it was possibly the worst train journey we have ever been on and the most over-priced hotel we have ever stayed in (it was £65 per night per person, but you could probably find the same quality of rooms in a hotel charging £20 a night), it was still worth going. If nothing else, it was a real jump start. I'm now devoting most of my time to Japan stuff, mainly the language at the moment, and now the excitement is overriding the fear and panic.

Before I went on the briefing day in Reading I was really worried about how I was ever going to manage with only a 23kg luggage allowance. I kept thinking, 23kg for six months... I don't think so. Now I'm thinking I won't even go near that limit. I debated for a long time over whether I should get a rucksack or a suitcase, especially given that I will be doing at least three weeks of in-country travelling. What clinched it was my Dad filling up my brother's 45 litre rucksack with the heaviest things he could find and then seeing how it felt when I put it on.... I worked up a sweat just standing still whilst wearing it! I could barely walk the couple of metres across my bedroom so there was no way I would be able to haul a rucksack of similar size and weight up and down Japan's mountains. So I chose to get a suitcase. Apparently there's a well-established system in Japan where people send their luggage on ahead of them and then just travel with a small piece of hand luggage, so that solves the issue of a suitcase being awkward to transport.

Another thing I found out at the briefing: I may be placed to work on the hospital pharmacy for a couple of weeks and if I am I will be required to read prescriptions and medicine labels, which will be predominantly if not entirely in hiragana and katakana. There goes my focusing-on-conversational-Japanese plan – right out the window. I am taking this news in my stride however, and have already learned about half the hiragana “alphabet”. I have been told also that it is not particularly important to know thousands of kanji, which is a huge relief. I had best get my hiragana and katakana perfect though, since I am told I will be handing out medications directly to patients. Lots of potential for things to go wrong there.

Anyway, that's all I have to report for now. I'll leave you with a picture of the new receptionist at Aizu Central Hospital in Aizu-Wakamatsu city:

対決 Showdown

2007-06-14T18:26:00.000+01:00

Ah, yes... What every young traveler to Japan looks forward to:

お詫び＝謝罪 I Must Apologise

2007-06-08T15:01:00.000+01:00

I'm afraid I won't be able to post much, if at all, over the next few weeks. My exams start on the 13th June and finish on the 25th, so I'm going to be quite busy until the end of the month.

*

My invoice from Gap Activity Projects arrived in the post today: I owe them £800 for all of their services. That's not too bad, I suppose. Including all my flights, insurance, visa etc. the total so far comes to £1836, which is approximately ¥440,302. I seem to be working up quite a nice debt. Go me.

すし Sushi

2007-05-31T16:02:00.000+01:00

I have never understood how some people can say 'I don't like Chinese food' or 'I don't like Indian food'. What, all food from that country you dislike? Every single dish? How can the cuisine of an entire nation be ruled out like that?! What I do understand is that some people hear the words 'raw' and 'fish' and immediately think that sushi will taste awful. 'Raw fish' doesn't exactly have the most pleasant connotations. Personally, I used to think of my cat's breath straight after she'd eaten tuna – mmm, salty. But I am a complete convert to sushi. It sounds dreadful in theory but tastes awesome in practice, and don't knock it until you've tried it. Even if you do try it and then decide you don't like it, Japanese cuisine includes so many interesting foods besides sushi – blue lotus demonstrates this very well – you're bound to find something you like. I highly recommend YO! Sushi, where you can watch highly-skilled chefs making your food in front of you, which is a treat in itself.

The only Japanese food I can easily get my hands on at the moment is Morrisons supermarket's sushi boxes. These are... how can I put this nicely... not something a sushi chef would be proud of. You'll barely find a single grain of rice out of place with quality sushi, but this... It tastes okay, I suppose. Not bad. Not particularly great either. My only problem with supermarkets like Morrisons selling sushi as part of their expansion in foreign cuisine, is that people who have never tasted authentic sushi are going to try this and think, 'Yep, tastes like raw fish', without knowing how wonderful the real deal tastes in comparison. Then they'll avoid trying sushi again and that's a shame. It is good, however, for sushi addicts like my brother and I to have a reliable supplier.

日本語 Japanese Language

2007-05-27T15:20:00.000+01:00

People seem surprised when I tell them that I am teaching myself to speak Japanese. I know it's not your average language to learn but it's really not as difficult as it seems. Now, reading and writing, that is a different story. I normally have the opposite problem when learning a new language – I can read it perfectly well, but when it comes to actually saying something the desire to run in the opposite direction overwhelms me. In that sense it is refreshing to be learning Japanese, which is so much easier to speak than to read. Here are my main reading and writing goals:

Reading:
1.street signs
2.food labels
3.price labels

Writing:
1.my name
2.the date

That's it. If I get those sorted, then we'll see about moving on to something more difficult. I'm not holding my breath though, especially since the main focus will be to learn how to hold a conversation in Japanese, as well as developing a vocabulary that includes any medical terms that I am required to know for my voluntary work.

Having said all that, the language studies are on hold at the moment, but once I finish my exams I can start buckling down again. I'm going on a five-day intensive Japanese course at Lancaster University in July and I've got an array of Podcasts, Pimsleur (audio) lessons and books to help me get my language skills up to scratch before I go. I've heard that although foreigners always receive a warm welcome in Japan, they find it difficult to be seen as anything other than exactly that - a foreigner. I am hoping that by making a decent effort to learn how to converse in the native tongue, that won't prove to be such a problem.

The Land of the Rising Sun

2007-05-20T17:41:00.000+01:00

I should probably start somewhere near the beginning. I am currently an A-level student, although in a matter of weeks that will no longer be true. After I finish my exams at the end of June I will be taking a year out before embarking on a gruelling five-year course studying Medicine at the University of Manchester. I thought I deserved a break after fourteen years of education, so I decided to go Japan. I got in touch with Gap Activity Projects and, to cut a long story short, they have organised a six-month placement for me volunteering in a hospital in Nagasaki. I will be sleeping, eating and working within walking distance of the Red Cross Nagasaki Genbaku Hospital from the 7th September 2007 to the 7th March 2008. I still don't have all of the details on my placement – that will be sorted out in due time – but one thing I do know is that I will not be alone. A girl called Hye will be with me. I haven't met her yet - she lives in Canada, I live in England – but it will definitely be nice to have someone in the same boat as me.

There will be plenty of time for me to explain everything, like why I chose to go to Japan for instance, but for now I'll leave you with this: One of the A-level subjects I have almost finished studying is Modern History and I can honestly say that I enjoy it greatly, despite being a scientist at heart. I know what you're thinking – how boring, right? Hey, even I think 'modern history' sounds boring at first, but when you start looking at the way people lived and in what circumstances, it's humbling to discover what people can survive. Anyway, the reason I bring it up is that Nagasaki has a rather noteworthy history. I was slightly overwhelmed when I found out that I would be living there for half a year, and in a building in which 1,400 people died in the bomb blast back in 1945. But this in fact is the perfect place for me to spend my year out. I'll have science, medicine and history all in one city.

Lily Goes To Japan

Gomen Ne - Sorry

東京 – Tokyo

かえります – I'm Going Home

Placement Summary

宮島 - Miyajima

広島 - Hiroshima

京都 - Kyoto

30 ⽇ - 30 Days

No Beanstalk Though

⼦ども - Children

べっぷ – Beppu III

せいじんしき - Seijinshiki Festival

べっぷのしゃしん - Beppu Photographs

べっぷ - Beppu

Kanja-san

50 Days To Go

しゃしん - Photographs

きょうそう – Running

クリスマス と おしょうがつ - Christmas and New Year

No Music, No Life

整形外科 はだいすき - I Love Orthopedic Surgery

メリークリスマス - Merry Christmas

リハビリ - Rehabilitation

Tabi

ぼねんかい - Bonenkai

Bossy Me

New Schedule

げか 2 - Surgery II

Truffles & Blood Clots

クリスマス – Christmas

ふくふぐ – Happy Fugu

3か⽉ – 3 Months

たべもの と かいもの - Food and Shopping

わたし の しゅうまつ- My Weekend

Kumamoto

げか - Surgery

おどろき- Surprises

やっきょく- Pharmacy

2⽉ - Two Months

おみやげ - Omiyage

Happy Halloween

グラバー - Glover Garden

Engrish

Suwajinja

イングランドの デザード – English Desserts

Okonomiyaki

Nagasaki Kunchi Matsuri

ふゆを きますか - Is winter coming?

5 階東 – 5E Nurses Station

いなさ山 – Mount Inasa

Peace Begins in Nagasaki

へび - Snake

1⽉ きねんび - One Month Anniversary

おちゃ どうぞ – Tea, Please!

ばんごはん – Dinner

しゃしん - Photographs

⽉9 ⽇23 – 23/09/07; コミュニケーション – Communication

誕⽣⽇ (だんじょうび) – My Birthday

⼈ - People (i)

9⽉16⽇ - 16/09/07; たべもの - Food

9⽉17⽇ - 17/09/07; テレビ - Television

9⽉14⽇ - 14/09/07; しごと – Work

A Path Well-Trodden

2007⼿* 9⽉ 10⽈ - 10/9/07

2007⼿ 9⽉ 9⽈ - 9/9/07

ｔｅｃｈ ｐｒｏｂｌｅｍｓ

明治神宮 Meiji Jungu Shrine

Landed

冒険 Adventure

手荷物 Baggage

計画する The Plan

SOうどん SO Udon

富士フィルム FujiFilm

疑い Doubt

地図 Get Out The Map

しつぼ Disappointment

興奮した Excited

対決 Showdown

お詫び＝謝罪 I Must Apologise

クリスマスとおしょうがつ - Christmas and New Year

整形外科はだいすき - I Love Orthopedic Surgery

たべものとかいもの - Food and Shopping

わたしのしゅうまつ- My Weekend

イングランドのデザード – English Desserts

ふゆをきますか - Is winter coming?

1⽉きねんび - One Month Anniversary

おちゃどうぞ – Tea, Please!

ｔｅｃｈ　ｐｒｏｂｌｅｍｓ