しゃしん - Photographs

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:


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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

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

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)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.