Good News
Sometimes rain - 時々雨
Sitting outside the school with the 5th grade elementary teacher:
Me: Great weather, isn’t it?
Hamaji-sensei: Ah yes. It is getting warmer.
Me: When will it be spring? (Knowing the rather rigid structure of dates/seasons here)
Hamaji-sensei: Ah yes. Soon the winds will blow across the water from
Me: I see. (Nodding in my own politeness to the ‘unique’ Japanese seasons)
Two days later the prophecy came true as I woke up to find the sky a dusty yellow. It has been noticeably warmer ever since. At the risk of sounding slightly pretentious… I have felt a bit more in touch with nature since I moved to
I’ve been using a new method to study kanji this week. It’s a rather strange system because I’m not actually learning the full meanings OR the Japanese for them. However, it’s all based on the concept that simply learning stroke orders is not the natural way to learn a language. Instead it introduces the basic kanji and a basic meaning that soon fit together with other basic ones… increasing in complexity. It then creates a story for each kanji to help you remember them and it actually works really well. Here is a basic example of a few:
日
This is one of the most well known/used/loved kanji. It is a pictograph of the sun. Kanji square of all round edges so that’s why it is that shape. It is also the kanji for day for obvious reasons.
目
This is the kanji for eye. Like the sun it is a pictograph of an eyeball and you can easily imagine it when you know the round frames have been removed.
冒
If we add the two together then we get a new kanji. The basic meaning of this is risk. The story that goes along with this is fairly simple. The eyeball (below) is looking up at the sun (above) and as we all know… staring at the sun is a risk to your eyesight.
Not bad eh? It’s far from the most effective method but it’s fairly fun and it does actually work. For now I can glance at a random kanji and have a very vague idea what it might mean (they change depending on the context). Indeed, I was looking at the kanji on the office door today to see if I could see anything in them. I went back to my desk 2 minutes later and the next kanji was one of those on the door. It freaked me out slightly to be honest. The basic meaning associated with that one was ‘employee’:
員
The top square means mouth. The bottom one means shellfish. The shellfish is comprised of the kanji for eye plus two lines at the bottom. The two lines represent animal legs. So the shellfish is an eye with animal legs. An employee needs to work so that he can feed himself. Hence, the shellfish going into the mouth. Pretty cool huh? I’m going to stop pretending I know what I’m going on about before some proper Japanese speakers comment on my entry.
It is nice knowing that kanji can have some basic foundations like this and that at least a few are essentially pictographs. Excuse me whilst I go off on a tangent that is slightly related to the kanji. It’s no surprise that in a language like this the kanji for sun 日 and moon 月are important and influential players. I’ve recently become fascinated by how much the pair must have influenced the history of mankind. Think of all the different civilisations spanning over thousands of years. Pretty much all of them have placed significant emphasis on the sun and moon. From worshipping them, the idea of the constant battle between the two… the ideas of ying and yang… good versus evil… you know what I mean. It’s exceptionally easy to see how this was the case as well as they gazed upon the day and night skies. I sound terribly woeful but I know what I mean. I now worship the sun and the moon. I remember when I was a young child interested in astronomy I used to imagine that an eclipse would be planet Earth’s number one tourist attraction. It’s true though! If there are hundreds of inhabited planets out there then there is a whole universe of aliens waiting to travel. How many other planets have a moon that aligns itself perfectly with the planet’s sun? I’ll be the best 29th century entrepreneur in the whole of the galaxy. I’ve even made a new kanji in my head for my company’s symbol.
Here's a picture I got from Noah. It's down at the lightohuse in Muroto in January. A lighthouse is certainly bright 明. Do you see it eh? The sun and moon together? Man, I'm awesome at kanji...
Enough of my pseudo Japanese studying for now.
So it was raining today. After having lunch at elementary I was walking about the school talking to the kids as it was too wet to go outside and play like we/they usually do. One of my favourite fourth graders saw me staring out the doorway at the rain and ran down the corridor to come and talk to me. She’s actually really bad at English but I don’t really care that much. Indeed, a few times in class I’ve noticed her get anxious and panic when it is her turn to do something. So one day I told her not to worry about it as English is meant to be fun and that I’m terrible at Japanese. She’s always trying to talk to me in English class when we have a group activity going on and the teacher is always trying to do me a favour by giving her into trouble for annoying me. Of course she never is and it’s pretty difficult to explain to the teacher it’s alright. Anyway I had a nice little conversation with her after the usual “Hello. How are you?” Also, this is about as good as my conversational Japanese gets.
As we both stared outside:
Me: Hmmm lots of rain.
Student: Uh-huh
Student: Do you like rain?
Me: (ponders) Sometimes
Me: Do you like rain?
Student: (ponders) Sometimes
Both: (more pondering)
Student: Bye bye!
Me: Bye
*It feels slightly uncomfortable referring to myself as British even though I’m not that much of a nationalist. However, it is undoubtedly a British stereotype.
**This may seem like a generalisation (and it is) but a lot of conversations I have start with “We Japanese…” and “In
Both of these issues will hopefully be addressed when I talk about identity… one day.
am to pm
I thought I would write a very short entry to show all those concerned people that I'm still here. The main reason I have been quiet is because there hasn't been a lot happening recently and I've actually been fairly busy at work. Well... as busy as it gets here.
I went to Tokushima at the weekend there with some friends (David, Nish, Sarah and Melissa: 3 Brits and an Aussie). It's the capital city of the prefecture in the north-east of the island of Shikoku. It was a bit of an average city but the Saturday was still quite fun. We went up a cable car, watched some ancient dancing thing and then stayed up drinking all night until the first bus back at 7:45am. I didn't did home until about 1pm that afternoon and tried to stay awake until about 8-9pm that night so I could sleep. I went for a nap at 4pm and set my alarm for 6pm so I could start making dinner. It turns out I set my alarm for 6am and slept the whole night. I was pretty confused for about half a minute when I woke up. Then I was upset I had to get ready for work.
I left work early today (well, I took my actual designated 1 hour break for once) and headed to the gym in the mountains. I was pretty unfit and couldn't really do much because my leg still hurts so I came home instead. I had a lovely drive down through the mountains and came out at Yasuda just in time to see the sunset. It was a very pleasant night as the temperature has started to get warmer now and the nights lighter. I then bought about £6 worth of beef and cooked it all for dinner whilst drinking some beer and listening to my music. Good times.
Cheerio for now.
Choo Choo
Today I have:
Had one meeting.
Had school lunch with my 6th grade.
Messed about in the elementary playground for half an hour.
Learnt one kanji (元) character and revised some grammar.
Exhausted the internet for news articles.
Accidentally fed a ¥1 coin to a fish.
Drank a free banana milkshake.
Been paid a tidy sum for this.
Although it must be said that it is pretty obvious that 90% of the posts are attacking the lifestyles of hipster/affluent 20/30-somethings in certain areas of certain American cities. I actually stumbled across it after reading about it on a JET discussion forum. Some of them seemed to take things a bit too personally and were quite adamant that it was written by an "Asian-American with an inferiority complex to 'white' culture". Personally, I enjoyed reading the comments and the internal arguments that erupted from them. There were some genuinely interesting discussions on racial backgrounds, culture and stereotypes. However, there was an equal amount of morons smashing their face off the keyboards spouting xenophobic garbage at each other. You should give it a read.
I teach here... sometimes
The stream of silent silky time
I am writing this entry tonight to take advantage of the good mood I have been in recently. It's much more easier to find the motivation to write when you're angry rather than happy. The main reason I am in a cheerful spirit is because I can walk again. I got my cast off on the 8th February but I was unable to walk for a further week after that. That was a bit of a let down but the doctor said my break was quite bad so it's going to take longer to heal. It's still a bit dodgy but I've been bandage free since Saturday and I'm almost back to normal. The doctor on Friday was really nice and explained things to me in English which was a nice change. I could tell the nurses were impressed and as he was being nice to me I waited until they came back and was all "Oh wow your English is excellent" in Japanese.
I certainly won't miss spending my Friday afternoons sitting in the waiting room surrounded by dying 90 year olds. I saw a sad sight the other day when an old couple (and I mean old) were sat across from me. I could tell they were exceptionally poor as a lot of people in my rural prefecture are. The older woman was obviously ill and in quite a bit of pain. The thing that struck me was that the old man was just as fragile as she was yet he was trying his best to look after her. It was touching and tragic at the same time. Anyway, who cares about all that right? I can walk again and I won't be going back there anytime soon (hopefully). I will miss the receptionist I had a crush on though but I prefer my leg.
I often find English phrases on notebooks, tshirts and in this case a clock. They always strike me as being very profound.I spent that afternoon walking about the city and doing a touch of shopping. I bumped into a few other foreigners before meeting up with Andrew and Noah for some tataki (local speciality) for dinner. I decided to tag along with Andrew later that night as there was meant to be a night out in the city. Noah had to go back to Tano as his 3rd grade were performing a play in English which he was part of. I was planning to go and watch but since I'd been stuck in my apartment for about 6 weeks I looking forward to going out. For some reason I just thought it was Noah's class doing their separate thing but it turns out this was a big elementary shindig with lots of performances. Of course, not one person actually told me anything about anything and now I look like an uncaring waster. I can't actually believe that not one of my teachers, colleagues or students (not that I'd really understand) even mentioned this to me. I bet they all discussed how I wasn't there though. I didn't participate in the town event last Sunday either so they'll hate me even more. Although, to be fair... it was a marathon. It didn't stop someone asking me if I was running in it despite having my cast off the day beforehand. I'm going to learn the Japanese tomorrow to ask them about the elementary thing though and let them know that someone needs to actually tell me. Although... it did kind of work out well for me because I got to go out and have fun with a clear conscience (at the time).
There was an 'international night' held in Nankoku on Saturday that I was thinking about going to but forgot. Somehow... that evening I ended up catching a lift in the chartered bus back to Kochi City. Apparently they had all been waiting on Andrew and I but I was fairly oblivious to this when I hobbled on. Andrew then left with some of the girls and I kind of strolled on in a fairly jolly mood. I was greeted with quite a few people looking at me in sheer disgust. Oh deary me... the daggers in their eyes were sharp. I suppose I did hold the whole thing up and caught a freebie lift from a party I was too lazy to attend... and they were all smart whilst I had a scruffy beard and an open can of beer. I didn't know though so they can naff off. I ran and hid at the back with the friendlier people who then all agreed (fairly) I was a miserable bugger when I had a broken leg.
The bus then took a really long journey to the city so my hold-up didn't look so bad and we ended up in this small pub with some acoustic music. I had fun talking to a few people, got a few drinks in me and even talked a little bit of Japanese for once. Everyone then vanished apart from my friends Joey, Nish and Lachlan. We tried to find a club but they were all empty (on a Saturday night boo) so we went to karaoke. I felt exhausted and eventually crashed at my friend's house in Nankoku as I usually do (uninvited as usual). I woke up in the middle of the night with a cat on my chest. I didn't know it was in the room and shot up thinking "what the hell is that?". I had some good banter going on with Nish and David the next morning before I headed off to buy some boring stuff like socks, towels and bedsheets. The night out was a bit average on paper but I needed it as I was starting to get a bit crazy out here in Tano.
I set-up this picture to capture my last walk to school with crutches. I was on them for another week in the end...Last night and this evening I have found great joy in the ability to clean my apartment. I like living in a clean environment and I've been unable to do much these past few weeks. Also, I managed to change three(!) light bulbs that had recently blown without electrocuting myself. No more peeing with the aid of a torch for old Hanta. Success all round then. Also, I spent about £20 worth in the foreign food store yesterday and have been eating expensive chocolate and drinking tea like a king.
Yes, so today was a damn fine day all round. I could cycle to school this morning and all the staff were going "Hey! Your leg!" and I replied with "Yes! It's great". All my classes went really well too and I was in happysuperfun teacher mode for the whole day. I was learning loads of new Japanese and testing them out on my English teacher too. Also, I got a belated box of chocolates from some of the women (or redeesu as the katakana English read) in my junior high office. Valentine's Day in Japan differs slightly because it's only the women who are meant to buy stuff for the men although there is a new day on March 14th called 'White Day' where some men buy gifts. It's all a big commericalised fantasy of course dreamed up by some blokes in suits. Anyway, the women in the office are pretty much coerced into buying chocolate for every male. I think it's a bit unfair frankly but I got some which was nice. I liked it because they all presented it to me in a giggling manner and I reacted in a very shy sort of way. Anyway, they didn't need to give me it but seemed to want to and I thought it was really nice and appreciated it unlike all the 'courtesy chocolate'. I'll need to read into 'White Day' to see if I can buy them all something in return without it meaning I want to marry them. My advanced English class gave me some chocolate last week too with a nice little note saying they liked my class.
I reckon I'm just about done with this update. I find it really boring writing about myself in this manner but I guess I need to keep people up to date with my life. I'm going to finish off my other entries once I read over them and make sure I'm not being racist. I was going to mention I was planning on reading over my dissertation on Valentine's Day as that marked a year since I completed it. I've not been able to bring myself to read it again as the whole experience was so traumatic. It's interesting that the period of woe this year (January-February) coincides with a similar period of sheer misery this time last year. I don't think I've ever put so much effort into anything as I did with my dissertation. In the end I got the best mark in the entire History department (at Glasgow University I might add) with 97.5%. Yeah, I basically mentioned it to boast about it but I don't care because I slaved over old Islamic texts into the wee small hours. I'm the best historian in the whole world.
I took this picture the morning I finished my dissertation. I'm so dramatic sniffI'll end in a juicy nugget of information that I've only told Noah and Andrew until this moment. When I was writing my dissertation about a year ago I got really hungry at about 3am in the morning so headed off to the Co-op for some studying fuel. My tenement flat was right next to all the shops so it wasn't that far of a journey. Just before I reached the entrance of the supermarket this sinister looking fellow approached me and the alarm bells started ringing in my head. It is at this point I would like to add that growing up in the west coast of Scotland has led me to developing a sixth sense when trouble is arising. I knew exactly how the situation in front of me was going to unfold and I knew sprinting wouldn't have been the best option as he looked like the sort of chap who would give chase for little reason... like a stupid greyhound chasing a stuffed rabbit.
"Gie's yer wallet" the man said to me. Without thinking twice I handed it over and expected him to accept this as a symbol of my submission to his obviously superior stature (ie a possible crazy drug addict with a knife). As I stood there in the rain... stripped of my masculinity I contemplated how hungry I was going to be. This struck me as a strange thought as I was facing a man who would happily stab me given the circumstances. The man opened my wallet and seemed disgusted to find I only had a £5 note. He actually looked at me with an ounce of pity I think. He took the note out and glanced at it for a split second... I'm not sure why he didn't just leave. "Is tha' aw ye huv?" he asked me. As always in these circumstances, I resorted to my more working class accent and replied with a deep "Aye". This floated in the air for a few seconds when I said something that still surprises me to this day. "Can I... like... err... have my driving license back?". I'd always thought to myself that if I was in this situation then I'd just hand everything over and shut the hell up. However, I was honestly sleep deprived and seemed to think this was a perfectly logical question. I could see no possible economic gain for him whilst it would be a lengthy hassle for me to get a new one.
Surprisingly, he quickly stuck the note in his jeans... handed me back the wallet and walked off in the opposite direction without saying a word. The incident left me feeling hungry and annoyed more than anything else. Rather than wishing to faint or call the police I just wanted to buy some Jaffa Cakes and go to bed. It's a good story to tell though eh? I never told anyone because I was a bit embarrassed and my mum might have found out and got herself worried. Don't worry mum! I'm not in Glasgow anymore and don't really want to go back. Hurrah for Japan.
Christmas and New Year 2007
Christmas Eve's Eve... Eve Hats, music, fruitcake and beer. Joey (2nd from left) has never had a 'proper' Christmas as he's an Aussie and they're weird. So later that night he opened most of Noah's presents.
Christmas Eve's Eve. I went up in the mountains for the night. In the morning I went to pick some fruit. My local area is famous for its Yuzu which is a yellow citrus type deal.
Here's me picking some with my bare hands as I'm all man. One of the Japanese girls said "Be careful... the thorns are posion". "Arrrrgh". It only gave me a rash.
Here I am in Kyoto about a week later. I headed up to Osaka with Andrew on the bullet train the day before. He met up with his sister who was visiting for about a week and I went out exploring. I found an awesome Mexican restaurant... and later cakes, coffee, ice-cream, pancakes, Guinness... basically non-countryside goodness. This picture features my morning coffee as I walked through the Imperial Palace grounds. It was really, really boring.
That night I met up with my friend Joey. He had left a few days earlier with Noah. This is yakitori (grilled meat on skewers in lovely sauces) and beer. A wonderful combination.
Joey and I are fine gentlemen. He is probably the most sociable guy I've met in regards to strangers. Each time I went to the toilet he had made new life long friends and got himself some free food and drink.
I bought a new camera in Osaka to replace my 4 year old one. I was testing out the settings when wandering about in some bamboo in a garden.
I wanted a clear shot through the arches but it was too busy. This area had some strange features like an aqueduct. I went walking along it and got into a fight with a (I'm gonna say North American as they might have been dirty Canadians) woman. There was this really steep edge on one side of the pathway. This couple were approaching me side by side so I moved out the way as much as I could whilst she didn't even flinch and nearly knocked me over the damn edge. I confronted her about it and enjoyed it far too much. 6 months of nodding and not wishing to cause offence might have built up in me.
It's almost like the cover of my guide book.
Oooh reflections
This is a really famous bit in Kyoto. It has old temples and shrines and all that jazz. I forgot the name but it was favourite area and is a UN protected heritage site. A quick look tells me it is the Kiyomizu-Dera. 
This is me posing with Sakamoto Ryoma. He played an important role in trying to rid Japan of its feudal ways. I believe his actons contributed to the Meiji Restoration which brought major social and political changes in Japan (mid 19th century). Anyway, he was born in Kochi prefecture and everyone adores him here. I even found myself saying in bad Japanese to the girl who took the picture "He's from Kochi. I'm from Kochi!".
In eastern Kyoto there are loads of small and winding streets leading to some of the best temples. They are all really busy but I think it adds to the atmosphere.
This is at the bottom of the Kiyomizu-Dera. Apparently if you drink the water then you'll stay alive forever or something along those lines. Actually, mizu means water in Japanese... the whole place probably means spiritual water spring or something. Anyway, the queue was too long and had too many fat tourists for my liking. Maybe I should have waited on second thoughts...
I think this might be famous but I can't remember. I just like the picture.
Hello me. I was kind of lost at this point but walk anywhere in Kyoto for 5 minutes and you'll find a temple with a map.
I quite liked the smell of incense whilst walking about. I might buy some.
An old couple watched me take this photograph. They were too polite to walk past. Oops
I met up in Osaka on New Year's Eve with some Kochi people. It's socially acceptable to walk about with alcohol here. We drank and went to karaoke for about a day solid. It was Erin's (3rd from right) birthday the next day too so I sang Auld Lang Syne and Happy Birthday (in German, of course) in the queue for a club at midnight. The club turned into a bit of a nightmare for me. We had to wait in the queue for ages and then pay 5000 yen (£20) for an all you can drink affair. When we got in it was the busiest club I've ever been in my life, it was like standing at the front of a concert. Anyway, I went to get some drinks and ended up getting my backside thrown outside in the space of 3 seconds. The bouncer pulled me from behind by my elbow, drinks flew everywhere and I found myself outside in a flash. After much arguing and translations I still don't know what the deal was. It left me bitter and twisted and summed up my January.
A few days later Noah and I managed to capture a Daruma sunset. My blog header (or click on the picture) shows the setting sun refracted off the ocean. It only happens in this part of Japan at this time of year. Apparently my town is the best area to see it as well. I've talked to people in the area who have lived here all their life and still haven't seen it. I took a video of it too but it's really embarrasing because Noah and I just keep shouting weird stuff like "YEAH YEAH LOOK AT IT SET". That was the result of a few day's of failed attempts.Whilst typing this latest entry I managed to spill hot chocolate on my kotatsu blanket. I then had to hobble about to clean it up quickly with a broken leg. I used a whole kitchen roll to wipe it up and as I have no bin bags left I stupidly stuck it in the toilet. This didn't flush of course so my toilet got blocked. I then had to plunge the thing forever. I had to do this in the dark because the light bulb blew last week. This is also happened in my shower room and living room... in the same week. Ach aye.
It's hard to bow with crutches
The one positive thing about this period of depression over others in my angst filled youth is that it has a definite expiration date (8th February 2008). I’ve been back to the hospital and my leg is healing pretty nicely. The x-ray (called a ‘Rentogen’ here after the German bloke who discovered it) I had on Friday shows that a good portion of the bone has healed. I studied all the possible questions/answers and went by myself for once. I was so proud of my memorised medical script until the doctor started talking really, really fast but it’s all good. It’s difficult for me not to write about my leg because every day it determines what I can and cannot do. I’ve managed to adapt pretty well but I really can’t wait until my cast comes off and I can taste freedom once again.
One thing I haven’t mentioned on my blog but has been a popular topic of conversation amongst my friends for a few weeks now is re-contracting. I decided back in November that I was probably going to stay here for a second year. Ever since then I have had creeping doubts and as the deadline gets nearer I’ve been thinking hard about it. It’s quite a big commitment to make as you can’t really back away from it and you’re actually agreeing to 18 months rather than just a year. Despite a few niggling doubts I am probably going to sign my papers later today. I have really enjoyed my time in
Cake on my birthday awww
Can you guess where it's broken?
A common sight for me
On top of the abandoned hotel on a brisk January afternoon
Australia Day: No sun, no barbecue and no Aussie in sight.Here ends this update. I still need to write about my trip but I’ve forgotten most of it. I’ll just post some pictures and comment on them later on. Here are some other bits I couldn’t fit in the above post:
At the supermarket I lean on the trolley and glide through the aisles in order to buy food. I call it the ‘superman’ and I enjoy looking at the confused old women.
I’ve fallen over so many times I’ve turned it into an art. I can tell when it’s about to happen and go ‘uh-oh’ and prepare for the smash. It makes me laugh thinking about it.
At the lowest point of my depression I wanted to make beans on toast (I got them in a birthday box). I didn’t have a tin opener so I had to smash the thing in with a knife. I was only partially successful and nearly broke down in tears when I sprayed myself with bean juice and dropped my crutches.
I haven’t shaved since the day I broke my leg. I’m now sporting a pretty terrible beard and messy hair.
二十二
I'd actually forgotten until yesterday evening when I saw the date on a news article. I'm usually apathetic enough towards my own birthday as it is nevermind being in a foreign country with a broken leg. I was awoken from my slumber once again with an orchestra of air raid sirens but I dismissed them and stayed in bed. I never gave myself enough time to have a shower (it's an image of dignity I assure you) so hobbled off to work.
I finally got a cast on my leg/ankle on Friday morning. I'll have it on for 4 weeks so it isn't too long but still annoying. The pain went away yesterday and I think most of it was from the swelling around the whole ankle. I just sat on my backside most of the weekend perfecting my football skills on the Xbox. Although the initial day of the still broken leg, frictionless crutch and heavy rain have traumatised me slightly. The worst was when I slipped in the toilet (note: not actually in the bowl) at about 5am in the morning. There's a little ledge guarding my small bathroom and the useless crutch just gave way trying to maneuver it. This meant the entire weight of my body landed on my still broken leg (I felt the bone move again) and my whole body just collapsed into a depressing pile of woe. I'm pretty much thinking about it all the time and forcing myself to think "left foot first left foot first". The prospects of rain and stairs now fill me with despair.
Things picked up at work today just before lunchtime when I got a parcel of gifts from my aunt. I missed school lunch because I can't be bothered with the calamity that it will involve so I went to a cafe. After that I went to a bench near a fish pond and opened them up which was nice. Despite the occasional laugh directed at me when I hobble (it's some non-malicious/uncomfortable/not sure what to say Japanese reaction) everyone was pretty nice at work. Just as I was packing up to leave they turned off the lights and my old supervisor Chika (an exceptionally kind person) brought me in a birthday cake. Now, it might be my sluggish nature due to the painkillers but I honestly didn't process the situation at first and was wondering what the hell was going on. So everyone sung happy birthday to me and gave me some Glenfiddich whisky because I'm/it's Scottish and great.
I've always hated having birthday stuff and being the focus of attention... and even though there was a bit of shyness I was genuinely touched. It's the most powerful effect a birthday song has had on me actually (not exactly hard). It's like weeks of my petty moans/irritations vanished and I was left with a mild feeling of guilt for not thinking kinder of my colleagues.
Anyway, I'm still at my desk an hour after work because I have an adult class in about 25 minutes. There was no point going home for an hour just to deal with the dreaded stairs. I hate stairs.
I broked
"Hmm hospital might be a pretty useful one "
Fast forward to 9pm where I go to block a shot during football. I manage to do so but I put all my weight on the trapped ball... which then moved making my right ankle go SNNNNNNNNNNNNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP.
I heard it snap and kind of knew straight away that it was pretty bad. All the Japanese dudes were just "Meh, he's always getting injured or falling down holes".
I sat at the side for 5 minutes then had to hobble across to the exit. I took my sock off and there's the right side of my ankle going "Heh, I'm broken". I went to stand up to tell Noah/my supervisor that it was broken when I put a bit of weight on it and felt the bone move a bit ARGH
Went to the hospital. Noah and my supervisor held my hand all the way through sniff sniff
The person who does casts and stuff is away home so I'm in bed waiting to be fixed tomorrow morning.
It sucks and I'm now ready to embrace the life of a hermit with a massive beard.
Oh yeah, to get in my apartment I need to go up 30 steps. They gave me a pair of crutches and one of them has no friction on the bottom. Cost me 6000 yen to lend them too.
------------
Update: So I'm lying in bed at about 8am. I slept for about 20 minutes last night before I woke up going "hmm I do believe that hurts". The painkillers have worn off twice and it is a bit sore but nothing terrible. I got me a new painkiller 20 minutes ago so it's all good. The most dangerous thing was the damn crutch which nearly made me fall on my face twice.
My feet are really cold and I smell.
The end
Wakey Wakey
Each day I am awoken at 7am with a little jingle from a loud speaker just behind my window. When I first got here my reaction was "What the hell is that and why is it waking me up?". I had gotten used to it until they repaired a speaker right next to my apartment and now it wakes me up all the time. Lately a little van with a speaker has been driving about at 7:15am announcing something in Japanese. Occasionally I am woken up before 7am from the sound of plinky plinky Japanese style music as all the old women dance about outside the town hall. Back in August I was dumping my rubbish at the designated point when I passed them on the way home and every set of eyes was fixed on me even though their bodies were moving in the opposite direction.
At noon there is an air raid siren that goes off to let everyone know it's lunchtime. On my second day here I was walking along the coast and thought there was a tsunami about to strike. At 3:15pm there is a lovely 3 minute jingle encouraging everyone to do the stretching exercises. I have yet to see ANYBODY perform this yet I need to listen to this alpha male telling me to stretch EVERY BLOODY DAY. It has gotten to the stage where I can't stand this intrusion and quickly stick in my headphones and listen to some calming music. There is another alarm at 5pm to let everyone know it's time to go home... although I need to stay another 45 minutes. Then at the back of 8pm there is another notice from the fire brigade to "Turn off yer gas and don't start any fires now". After listening to it for 5 months I'm kind of tempted to go cook something straight after it out of sheer spite.
Nobody else seems to care about these daily noises but sometimes I find them unnecessary, annoying and intrusive. I can't help but feel I'm living in a mix between some totalitarian state and the little town in 'The Prisoner'. As I've been off work lately I'm finding the 7am alarms exceptionally annoying and I've sometimes found myself gargling sleepy insults to them from under my covers.
This morning I was awoken by the sound of an air raid siren. I remember questioning whether they use the siren for the 7am alarm every morning but I ignored it all the same. It went off and came back on for a second time which somewhat caught my attention. I glanced at my clock and it read 7:32am which seemed exceptionally unusual. I stayed in bed but I was waiting with tense anticipation to see if it went off for a third time. This is because I have been told that when a tsunami is due to strike the air raid siren will go off three times in a row. Why they even use the bloody thing for a town alarm clock is beyond me but I digress. When it went off a third time I launched myself out of my bed totally convinced that the Pacific was going to come knocking on my door. I threw on some clothes as fast as I could and threw on my shoulder bag that had all my stuff in it. I tried to find my phone to tell Noah and his friend Eric that WE WERE GOING TO DIE but I couldn't find it (luckily in the end).
I remember thinking back to the tsunami leaflet and all the stuff you should take: food, water, money, some clothes.... torch.... "I HAVE A TORCH!" I thought. So there I am standing at my kitchen window trying to process all the information. "It can't be from the Nankai earthquake or I would have felt it. Maybe it is from out in the Pacific somewhere. Hmm that means it won't be that big... phew I'm not going to die. Wait a second... why is there nobody running around in terror?" I continued to look out my window for 20 seconds before seeing an old man walking his dog. For a good 60-90 seconds this morning I had fully accepted that a tsunami was about to hit my town. It was an unusual experience to say the least. The most overwhelming thought was "Right... what in the hell am I meant to do?" more than anything else. I cursed my town and went back to bed.
I woke up two hours later to the sound of shouting and marching. It sounded like there was an army walking behind my apartment. Do you know what? I didn't give a damn at this point. I didn't even bother to get up and look because I was fed up. My only guess is that there was some practice event this morning for a tsunami. It wouldn't surprise me... yeah Sunday morning eh? Let's just have a good old time playing the air raid siren and tell everyone in town apart from the dirty foreigner. I slept in till the back of 1pm which is pretty unusual but it was great. It was amusing when I processed everything later on. I actually laughed when I saw my red torch abandoned on the kitchen table and even more so when I turned it on and the batteries were dead.
"Okay Craig... we're surrounded by water at 8am in the morning. What did you bring?"
"Well, I got me a torch that doesn't work."
"Splendid."
