文化休み - Culture Day!

Japan has a lot of bank holidays, almost twice that of Britian, and Tuesday was Culture Day. What a perfect chance to party on Monday and have a house warming. The night started with a few pints down at HUB, the British style chain pub here in Japan, with a hand full of people. This group slowly grew, and after a further 1 or 2 in Second Chance, we went back to mine for merriment.

We shuffled in to my apartment on the 4th floor and proceeded to annoy everyone in the building with excessive noise and banging. They will have to get used to that! It was good to actually exploit some cheaper entertainment for once. Pre-drinks at ours will become an established tradition at this rate...

After the house we moved on to one more place before wrapping up the evening and, for me anyway, heading home. Some of the others stayed until the first train.... suckers!

So that's the house warmed up, and now that I finally have a Japanese phone, all I need is the Internet at home to feel complete again. Also, playing football for the first time tomorrow! Its been too long...

Home Sweet Home

So Fukae is now history as tonight winds down and my 4th night in my new place draws in. This place has been a massive financial commitment, and along with a phone, I have spent al ot of money on furniture etc and now I must look for a English tutoring position asap.

Still, this is nothing compared to what this place has done for me. Living in Sannomiya has given me a shot in the arm. I finally have my appetite back and everything is falling into place. I am saddened when I think back to how I handled my first month here but what was I supposed to do eh!? I still can`t work that one out...

Reality is another thing however, and Sannomiya is the place to be in order for me to do what is best for me at this crucial time of my degree and indeed my life. My new place looks like this!

I have since invested in a desk and chair and have tidied up a bit, before it got wrecked at the house warming party...

Off The Radar

So I have moved in, and settling down nice and quick. Just a very small post to say that I will not have Internet for 2 weeks, and I don't have time to edit/update now as I'm writ ting an essay/flirting on facebook.

I will try and figure out how to get the Internet in university so I can finish my last blog and update 2 or 3 posts. As for now I`m offline. And it feels like I`ve lost a limb...

Yes We Can

So tonight saw the warm-up for Halloween proper. It it currently 5.58am and I'm sitting here with a can of Coke and playing 3am by Eminem. This combination has put me in the mood for the final post from Fukae. I feel lucky to be typing this entry after I was attacked by this beast!...

The day started later then planned after Tony was late (again!) but we managed to get down to the town hall and sort out our Alien Registration Cards and sort out housing insurance at the post office. After this we headed to Sannomiya to finalise the contract and finish off our Halloween preparations.

The party we had that night went well and my Obama outfit won me 3rd best dressed! We moved on to Sannomiya where I waved to literally thousands of people and high-fived most of Kobe. Having campaigned for some support, we headed to what is quickly becoming one of our haunts - Beberu.

Fun was had by all, but I crashed at about 3am, and was later awoken to go to the combini and buy 3 microwave-able cheeseburgers and wolf them down. Satisfied, we wondered to the train station, and for the very last time, I waited for the first train home.

All Quiet on the Eastern Front

Lots and lots of stuff happening this end with moving day tomorrow. Still, its all niggley little details that are to boring to write about. Today I finished off my Obama costume and will finish packing before heading to a Halloween warm-up tonight. Basim has a car in Japan so moving will not prove a logistical difficulty.

However I will be without the Internet when I first move in, and I have that Ops. Man. report in for Monday, so maybe no updates over the weekend as I get my life in order. I wondered around where I will be living today, and its just as lively in the day as it is at night. I'm so happy to be moving but needless to say its come as a financial blow.

As soon as I'm settled I must begin the search for a tutoring position a few hours a week, before everyone else runs out of money and does the same.

Followers of this blog will rightly find the idea of me teaching English grammar and spelling hilarious. And rightly so. Still, I think I would go for a more "advanced colloquial" thing, where rich businessmen buy me drinks and food (as well as pay my wage) in order to have a chance to practice English naturally, which is hard to do in the Japanese education system.

I'm a grammar whore!

Lots of updates planned for Monday...

Also, thanks for the 600 odd visits in the last ten days. It makes it worthwhile to think people are enjoying this too. Much love minna-san x

Best. Haircut. Ever.

Well, all my fears about my lack of Japanese ability and/or a suitable photo of my hair as I like it being a problem were absolved today. I went to the hairdressers just down the road from my soon to be ex-residence. The staff were extremely polite (which was a bit of an issue as I didn't understand a lot of the polite language), and better yet, extremely cute.

The woman who washed my hair was the most beautiful girl I have ever seen. Or at least been spoken to by. Enjoying myself, I relaxed and spoke in Japanese for the entire hour or so I was there, which has served to be a boost to the old confidence.

I've promised to return once I can speak better Japanese in order to woo her. This presents a problem as along with the Russian from KGB I now have two people whom I want to marry. Maybe I'll get both and move to Utah (Thanks Marina). They love it down there don't they?

Anyway I digress. My hair came out the other end more or less how I want it, and most importantly, my fringe is below or on my eyebrows, saving me from looking like a butch female. I did back out from having it done in a crazy Japanese manner, perhaps I'll grow it long and have it done next time. Having knocked something off my to-do list I return to studying to rubbish my way through a Supply Chain Management report due Monday in order to have the weekend free to get my stuff down to Sannomiya.

Japan is going strength from strength. What a difference an email makes ;)

Chow for now x

It's Official. I'm Moving to the Bright Lights!

I believe it was a certain Mr Churchill who said.... "oooooooooooooh yes!"

As of Sunday, I will be leaving this distant and prison-like halls of residence and moving to the heart of Kobe's restaurant, shop and clubbing districts. After a long process, it has resulted in me and Tony getting a place together right on the edge of basically everything we could possibly want... and everything a man would need.

I will post pictures once I've settled in, and that in itself is the only set-back as far as I am concerned. The settling in period will be a little awkward, without Internet or furniture... Yeah, no furniture. The Internet issue shouldn't be too bad now that I'm not skyping at 4am anymore.

So far we have a bath, shower, cooker, wardrobe, and an air-con unit. There is a coin-operated washer upstairs and a fridge available from the estate agents for £10 each. This leaves me with just a futon (Japanese floor-based bedding) and a desk/chair needed. There are plenty of second hand shops and a massive Ikea nearby, so this won't break the bank.

I've crunched the numbers, and as I can make out, my British account will bare the brunt of the rent demands, leaving my scholarship to pay for my lifestyle and other essentials. Any luxuries or shortfalls will be paid for by tutoring work that I'm looking into finding once I've settled down.

Basim has found a place in Shinzaike, for those who know it, so our social web has been cast far and wide. We will now be the envy of all the exchange students, and there will be ample socialising and crashing at our place over the many weekends to come...

The place itself is located just down the road from KGB, the bar from the first night. Things are about to take-off big time. Since, all be it kicking and screaming, returning to the side of fate, it has rewarded me.

Japan just got interesting.