べっぷ - Beppu

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

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

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

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

しゃしん - Photographs

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

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

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

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.