Merry Christmas!!!

Where I live 

Poo

Well its a week to go to christmas!!!

I still dont feel very christmassy but will have to get in the groove soon as i am having to dress up as father christmas for a kids party next week and need to look jolly and festive...

bah humbug.....

other than that i am still stupefied by the mildness of the weather here in Kumamoto, its definitely more a med winter than a british one.
Have just been to Yamaga and got a dose of real traditional Japanese culture. Visited a Buddhist shrine (1st time) and had tea with the caretaker type person, much bowing and nodding was enjoyed.

By the way cant seem to read the posts from the last blog so could the people who wrote them try and repost on this one?

I have at last relented and am enjoying the delights of reading manga (which for a long time i have poopooed but now really into) Am reading bilingual versions of Doraemon, the time travelling cat with a 4 dimensional stomach. The english translation is a bit wooden but its still good fun to read.

Other than that just contuing life as normal and enjoying the incredible friendliness and warmth of the kumamoto people. The acts of genorisity I have met have been awesome and often overwhelming

There is still many a time when I still think oh my gosh im in japan! , the surrealness of being here hasnt worn off yet, maybe it never will. Still adjusting to the japanese way, it takes a while.... particularly the whole tatemae/honne thing with the people over here (see previous posts.) Especially having lived in the med and in arabic environment before I still find it difficult at times to understand why... it seems like such an awful burden that im not surprised why Japanese people I knew in England didnt go back.

Toddler/Gaijin Japan is a completely different place, its a playground, a soft cosy bubble where you are lauded like a god, misdemeanours are generally ignored and where you are the continuous recipient of peoples affections.

Its also a place where random shit comes out on a frequent basis....

私はケンタッキーフライドチキンを好きじゃない

Well things are going pretty swell over here. I feel more settled now and i think i have entered a new phase of my life in Japan. The first four and half months were crazily random but now things have slowed down a few gears, maybe not as exciting but i feel much more content.

My Japanese is coming on pretty well. I feel very motivated to learn the language, much more than I did when I was studying french at uni (and probably studying much harder too!) French was something I was always pretty good at so I felt compelled to study it but I never really had the passion or drive to learn it during university and was something of a lazy linguist. With Japanese I feel I have choosen to study it because I want to and am not going through the now conveyor belt motions of the school-university transition. I think it helps that Japanese people are very tolerant so i feel very uninhibited with making mistakes. With french i was always very self conscious because of various peoples snotty putdown attitudes. Many french feel you if you dont speak it correctly you are practically raping their language that is or was to them virginal and pure .

An interesting contrast in attitudes between Japanese and French is that the the wide variety of english words is seen as a positive thing in Japan, a testament to their growing internationalisation. Conversely the french fear franglicisms like the bubonic plague. However this tolerance to loanwords is partially thanks to being given their own special writing system, katakana. Just like the gaijin, katakana works with its indigenous relative very closely, stands out a mile and enjoys playing tennisu, going shoppingu and having a glass of wain or two. Yet just like the gaijin it knows it will always be different, never able to be fully integrated with everyone else.

A lot of people I have met argue that its not worth learning Japanese and that languages such as Arabic and Spanish are far more practical as they have a far wider global remit. That being true that doesn't mean to say a knowledge of Japanese isn't potentially lucrative. If there's a buck to make out of anyone its the Japanese!

And now for something truly peculiar...

question...

what do Japanese people do for christmas? do they snuggle by the fire and play board games? exchange gifts or sing songs???

No, they all go to KFC.

Apparently there are literally queues round the block...

Sorry its very naughty of me to take the mick when christmas has nothing to do with japan. At least theyre not trying to pretend that now its nothing more than a big commercial event!

Anyhow enough ranting please post me and give me some christmas cheeｒ!!!

ちょっと つまらない

Well things have quietened down over the last few weeks probably a good thing. Having said that i am starting to get pretty busy with work. My mind changes everyday how long i want to be here though. I defnitely dont want to live here for ever but time is rushing by so quickly im not sure if a year will be long enough.

Have just spent an hour in the bookstore talking to an american Japanese translator who has lived in tokyo for 15 years. It was really interesting getting the experienced gaijin perspective and he gave me some good tips for learning japanese such as reading childrens bookｓ, so i took it upon myself to buy the hobbit in Japanese. Maybe a wee bit ambitious but im very familiar with the story so thats a good starting point. I found reading the lord of the rings in french really useful when i was living in France, so hopefully the same thing will rub of again.

Now that the Christmas season is approaching do i feel christmassy? The answer is absolutely not. I have been surprised to see so many christmas decorations put up around Kumamoto but they are a hollow gimmick that puts me in the mood no more than rancid turkey.

Suffering a little bit from kumamotoitis as i have not been out of the city for the last few months and it is starting to feel a little claustorophobic. I cannot wait until the end of december when i finally get some time off and can finally venture outside kyushu.