琉留 (琉球 + 留学)

海よ, 宇宙よ, 神よ, いのちよ

2008-09-04T11:27:00.004+01:00

I'm home, and I really wish I wasn't. Of course it's nice to see family & friends again and eat meals that don't involve rice, but mostly I'm either working in McDonald's or sitting about listening to Shima Uta and crying into my tea.

I honestly feel like anything else that's going to happen in the (near) future will just pale in comparison to Okinawa. Oh well. What I really wanted to say is, I'm home, so this blog is done.

Bye.

Baby, I'm grieving

2008-08-21T16:01:00.006+01:00

Alex left last week. We finally finished the movie on the 17th. Closing ceremony was on Tuesday. Geoff left on Wednesday. Kai's off on Saturday. Mike goes on Sunday. I'll be in Tokyo in a week and home in 9 days.
My heart (and liver) just can't take this leaving stuff.

You're asking me, will my love grow?

2008-08-03T15:31:00.005+01:00

There's a guy outside singing The Girl From Ipanema and doing an amazing trumpet impression.
I have literally no money.
Yesterday I saw a cloud that looked like a Basilisk about to eat Ginny.
Ashleigh's here on Thursday.
I'm sweating my arse off writing a history essay (literally sweating in the late night Okinawan humidity, not actually working that hard).
We're making a romantic comedy/horror film.
I am sick sick sick sick sick of Let It Be, but I need to pass that guitar exam.

Man oh man, I do not want to leave.

I wake up to the sound of music

2008-08-01T09:15:00.002+01:00

28 days until I leave Okinawa.
29 days until I leave Japan.
30 days until I arrive in Newcastle.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

Melt my plastic heart & help me move on

2008-07-14T01:35:00.004+01:00

Blah blah blah, yes I suck at updating, Steph was here and it was awesome (because Sheffield people are awesome), actually went on one of the American bases and ate some pizza, spending most of my free time at the beach at the moment (day, night, who cares), currently rehearsing and rehearsing and rehearsing a play we're doing on my mam's birthday. And it's so fucking hot I've not had a shit in 8-days-and-counting because I`m just sweating all the moisture out of my system. Ughhhhh!

She thinks I'm sad, and that's alright

2008-06-28T11:50:00.006+01:00

I dare say you'd get a better idea of what's going on in my life if you started Facebook stalking me instead of bothering to look at this blog. Less than 2 months until I come home, fuckkkkkk. Here's some random facts and photos for you:

- New favourite song at karaoke? Muse - Time Is Running Out.
- New hobby? Going to the beach in the middle of the night.
- New habit that annoys your housemates? Getting the tumble dryer full of sand.
- New favourite drink? Calpis and Melon Soda.

I`ve met someone that makes me feel seasick

2008-05-29T07:15:00.002+01:00

久し-fucking-振り, guys.
Don`t really know where to begin, in both the good and bad sense.

I was hanging out in the Shrieking Shack

2008-04-16T13:35:00.020+01:00

A lot has been going on since the last time I posted, but I have neither the time nor inclination to do my traditional back-posting spam. Essentially, I had a really good time with my mam and next-door neighbours (hi, Chris!) in Okinawa, classes started at univeristy again, and I went to Tokyo to turn 21 and do karaoke while covered in bunting. I`m sure you can get the general mise-en-scene from all the photos on Facebook anyway.

Gigantic THANK YOU!s to everyone who came out to Shibuya to celebrate with me (especially Jay and Tanya, who got there from Kanazawa and Okinawa respectively), or sent their love (and awesome necklaces, stylophones and sweets) from afar. You know who you are, and I love you to pieces.

In other news, I`m getting a complex about how much of an everage English person I am, and that I`m not getting a whole lot out of living in Okinawa except dodgy tan lines and a lot of heavy books that will require me to turn tricks to afford to the shipping rates when I eventually pack up and leave. Case in point, after sort-of-following a lecture of Japanese culture this morning, I walked home listening to the Kaiser Chiefs, watched the last episode of Skins and ate a cheese-and-Branston-pickle sandwich. And the newest additions to my heavy book collection are the first four in the Harry Potter series, translated in Japanese.

I think the problem is that I`m just not obsessed with (or even vaguely interested in) any aspect of Japanese pop culture like I was in high school. I was so wrapped up in J-Rock and movies that I couldn`t understand without English subtitles that it motivated me to go to evening classes when I was already doing 4 A-Levels, and now my only motivation is getting a good degree (a least a 2.I, please, Sheffield?) and perhaps one day feeling like I have a good grip on the language. I mean, this is about a million times better a motivation, but it`s a bit harder to work with.

Maybe I`ve just grown up.

21, fuck.

Do you think this is cool?

2008-03-27T18:32:00.002Z

僕が生まれた。。。この島の空を。。。

I am hoooome! Andrew kindly came with me to Haneda on Tuesday morning and I got back to my dorms at around six in the evening. I live in Okinawa, I`m caught up on the two latest episodes of LOST, and I went out and got shitfaced with Tanya, Charlie and Venus last night. This is the life, my friends.

You don`t have to deny your urge

2008-03-24T23:58:00.001Z

What do you do with your last full day on the Japanese mainland before it`s back to Okinawa? You go to Tokyo Disneyland, of course (even if it is pissing down with rain)! I`m not a big Disney fan, to be honest (apart from The Lion King), but we had so much fun... even if Big Thunder Mountain broke down 3 times while we were queuing for it. And then I finished off the day with a lovely salad in Yokohama that I couldn`t finish.

Massive `thank you!`s go out to everybody I`ve met up with these two weeks on the mainland, and extra big gratitude to Jaycob and Andrew who put up with me after Lizzy went back to England even though today was our mere 3 week anniversary. I`ll be returning to Tokyo for my 21st birthday in a little over a fortnight anyway, so hopefully see you all then!

You said you knew that this would happen

2008-03-23T22:47:00.007Z

Happy Easter, everybody!

Japan not being too big on the Christian celebrations I didn`t manage to have a chocolate egg or go to church, but I did go out in Ikebukuro for lunch and purikura with Chris. He showed me around his campus at Rikkyo University which was rather impressive but, being a twat, I forgot to bring my camera so you`ll just have to live without visuals. When we went to do purikura (Japanese photo sticker things... they never really took off in England but I remember there being a REALLY shit machine in Miss Selfridge in Newcastle) a group of school girls kept staring at him and nearly died on the spot when he waved to them on the way out. Well, he is proper fit and that.

It`s been so nice seeing all the Sheffield people again!

I don`t like it any more than you

2008-03-20T15:34:00.002Z

Jaycob, Andrew and I had a very lazy day today, after last night`s alcohol poisoning... but after a while I REALLY wanted some chocolate, so I sent Andrew out to the combini to get 2,000yen (about a tenner)`s worth of the stuff.

We`re so fat.

It`s all not quite legitimate

2008-03-19T09:04:00.004Z

This evening was, I reckon, officially the most battered I have been in my almost-21-years of existence.

In the morning/afternoon I was out in Yokohama with Lizzy for our last day out before she goes back to England for the rest of the holidays, and then Jaycob and I were invited out with Andrew and his mate Richard from Kyushu... we went to this really weird izakaya in Shibuya called Lock Up which was a mix of a prison and a haunted house, maybe. Andrew got handcuffed on the way in and the booths were mock-up cells... and half way into the evening all the lights went out and staff members dressed as monsters terrorised the clientelle. All well and good, really.

Except the drinks there were LETHAL. Very gimicky in the most awesome sense of the word, served in test tubes and conical flasks and the like... but we ordered two 電気ショック (electric shock)s each and we were gone. Utterly gone. By the time we got to Hub, an `English pub`, we were absolutely dead... and we only had 5 drinks all evening. Classy.

Jaycob also nearly got killed on the train back when he got into an argument with a Japanese woman about how loud and annoying we were being. Whoops!

When I`m drunk I can be an arsehole

2008-03-15T09:01:00.000Z

I think half the fun of going out in Tokyo lies in being drunk off your arse on the trains and around the stations before you actually get anywhere, and the trip back to bed where you annoy the shit out of the morning commuters...

Like a little white rabbit from yesterday

2008-03-13T19:50:00.001Z

Yokohama is awesome... I think if I came back to Japan and couldn`t live in Okinawa for some mental reason, it would be my second choice... partly because I had the nicest sushi in my life here, but whatever. It will also have a special place in my heart for being the place I saw the most amazing street performer, an American guy who spoke Japanese the whole time and was generally hilarious and impressive.

I can`t love you any more than this

2008-03-11T23:36:00.001Z

Absolutely beautifully clear today, YES! We saw Fujisan!

I`d been to Hakone before, when I first came to Japan on holiday with my mam when I was 16, but I`d only ever seen Mt. Fuji from our hotel in Shinjuku. Well, today I saw it up close and personal, and it is genuinely a breathtaking sight.

Other than actually seeing the mountain, we did EXACTLY the same stuff we did yesterday - cable car, ropeway, pirate ship (though today involved bumming from Ryan on that one... see the photo below), peanut ice cream, even dinner in the same restaurant with the same waitress who was so pleased to see us again that I wanted to hug her. Lizzy and I have scrapped our plans to go to Nikko (where the famous monkeys are) as it`s so much farther away and we know it will just pale in comparison to the awesome time we`ve been having here.

Sorry, Nikko.

I don`t care, you amaze me

2008-03-10T22:23:00.001Z

So it`s farewell to my beautiful subtropical island home for 16 days... I`m on the Japanese mainland! Arrived into Haneda airport yesterday afternoon with Lizzy and the Yokohama crew and didn`t... really do much on the first night, just went out to dinner.

But today I`m in Hakone with Lizzy, Jason and Ryan! We took the train to Odawara, and after a little stop to check out a nearby castle we were up in the mountains (Hakone is where Mt. Fuji is). We`ve got a 2-day pass for all the crazy modes of transport around here (cable car, ropeway, pirate ship...) but the weather was really foggy today so we couldn`t see Fujisan at all... fingers crossed for tomorrow, but even if it remains shrouded it doesn`t matter because the world`s most amazing (peanut flavour!) ice cream and hostel are right here....

What`s that you said, my love?

2008-03-07T23:56:00.003Z

My new favourite hobby? ISLAND HOPPING!

Last night we were searching for a nice beach to go to in Lonely Planet, and Andrew discovered Minnajima or `croissant island` and it sounded amazing so that`s where we went... well, after we missed the first boat across and hung out on Sesokojima (a bigger island connected to Okinawa-honto by a bridge) for a few hours. Minnajima is tiny, it took us about half an hour to walk around and it is also the official birthplace of Island Phone... essentially Lizzy, Andrew, Jaycob and myself shouting into shells and pretending we were telephoning each other.

Today was also my last day with Jason, Lizzy and the Yokohama folk before we fly to Tokyo together on Sunday so we finished the week off in style... pissed in a karaoke bar. Ace.

Someone`s got their eye on you now

2008-03-06T21:57:00.001Z

Access to a car makes living in Okinawa about a hundred times easier. Today we set off for Itoman Peace Memorial Park (yes, exactly one week after the first time I went, shut up), got a bit lost on the way but found another war monument which was quite nice. The best part of the day, as shown in the last (very bad, sorry) photo, was when we were accosted by a group of middle school girls who wanted their pictures with the crazy white people. This week I`ve pretty much visited all the places we`ve been taken to on university field trips since October, only 3,000 times more fun \o/

Then she couldn`t run away from me

2008-03-05T20:17:00.002Z

We`ve rented a car! Or rather Andrew has, but now we have an hilariously symbolic white 8-seater 外人 mobile to terrorise the locals with... and it also cuts down on the ridiculous public transport costs here. Today was Churaumi Aquarium, Manzamo cliffs (where I broke my favourite shoes climing on rocks, bollocks!) and boozing in Chatan. Fun fun fun!

Julius Caesar, Lady Diana and Mother Theresa

2008-03-04T19:12:00.001Z

My bestest Sheffield University mates, Lizzy and Jason, have arrived in Okinawa - along with the former`s mates from Yokohama (Andrew, Jaycob, Tatyna, Ben and Sani)! They`ll be here until the end of the week so we`re going to get up to all kinds of crazy 外人 adventures. Today was Shuri Castle and Shikina Royal Garden:

Could it be that you`re joking with me?

2008-03-02T23:08:00.001Z

We finished our LOST marathon, finally! And by about half ten at night, which was quite impressive. Our band has also undergone a name change because The 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42s was already taken.... we are now... THE FISH BISCUITS!

Check us out.

Due to lack of interest, tomorrow is cancelled

2008-02-29T09:05:00.001Z

So I`ve got an extra hole in my face.

Tanya went to the piercing place in Chatan today to get her anti-eyebrow thing done, and I randomly decided to get a labret piercing, awesome! Haven`t bothered to take a photo for you, but I`m sure it`lll pop up several hundred times on my Facebook soon.

Let the love tear us apart...

2008-02-28T17:43:00.001Z

Today we went on a field trip to the Peace Memorial Park in Itoman at the very tip of Okinawa island, and then to the most sacred place in the prefecture, Seifa Utaki.

I`ve got a wider knowledge of the world

2008-02-28T01:09:00.001Z

The biggest earthquake in the UK for over twenty years... and I`m in Japan. You couldn`t make this stuff up.

Something that will make us the life of the party

2008-02-27T15:05:00.014Z

Wow, check out all this food! We must be on for some kind of crazy party, right?

... no. Tanya, Charlie, Venus and I are actually using the first week of our spring holiday to watch all of LOST again, which has resulted in me talking about Locke in my sleep and the creation of our band, The 4 8 15 16 23 42s. We`ve just finished season 2 and will crack on with season 3 after our trip to Itoman Peace Memorial Park tomorrow.

Yes yes, my LiveJournal is where I should be waffling on about LOST... whatever...

Like a monkey with a miniature cymbal

2008-02-25T14:24:00.001Z

WARNING.

THIS POST HAS LITERALLY NOTHING TO DO WITH LIVING OUTSIDE THE U.K., NEVER MIND OKINAWA.

Ear stretching update! I know you`ve all been on the edge of your seats about this one... I`ve actually taken a lot of progress shots and intended to make a lot more posts about them but just sort of... never gotten around to it. Anyway, my right ear is on a 10 gauge earring at the back and, oh yes, a genuine 2 gauge flesh tunnel at the front! People can see through my ear!

The left is on a 12 gauge hoop that needs to go back down to a 14 or it will rip out soon (thank you very much dodgy piercer for mucking up the hole in the first place several years ago... kids, don`t get your ears done in the Greenmarket in Newcastle!) and a 2 gauge sexy red thing at the front. Oh, and as you can see, my hair is back to blonde. My ears also look alarmingly red in these photos, but I can assure you they are not.

Are you hopeful or just gullible?

2008-02-23T06:59:00.005Z

Actual photographic evidence that I took part in that speech contest a fortnight or so ago, thanks to my Chinese mate Zen. There is a video as well, but like hell is anyone allowed to see that. And yes, I really did go on stage with that Union Jack sticker on my face.

There`s only music so that there`s new ringtones

2008-02-22T06:56:00.001Z

I had avoided spending a ridicious amount of money on something for myself for so long... but I did genuinely want a new .mp3 player and this one plays video and... yes, TELEVISON (only in Japan, but w/e) and is so sexy and small and is 8GB and ohhhh I love it. Check out that screen display, man. I am yet to pick a name for it... any ideas?

I`m in trouble again, aren`t I?

2008-02-20T06:46:00.006Z

URSEP field trip to Katsuren castle, some bridge that connects two little islands, and the temple in Kin that I went to on Christmas day, including some awesome caves where they keep awamori (Okinawan alcohol). Tanya and I spent most of the bus trip watching Boosh and AD/BC on my sexy new .mp3 player... more photos on my Flickr if anyone is so inclined!

They ask why they don`t catch proper crooks

2008-02-19T06:44:00.001Z

Have I ever mentioned that they let goats graze on our campus?
Because they do.

No-one will ever do but you

2008-02-18T06:40:00.000Z

Woo-hoo! The English Salon party... actually, it occurs to me that I`ve never written about English Salon on here. Essentially myself and the 4 other native-English speakers got paid to hang out with Japanese students every week and talk in/about English... yeah, that`s why I`ve never written about it, it`s not exactly fascinating. Anyway, to celebrate the end of term, most of us went out bowling in Chatan and then drinking. Ace.

Team 4, top to bottom: Hiroshi, Naho, myself and Charlie. We kind of... came last. Entirely my fault, because I can`t bowl to save my life.

You`ve always seemed inviting

2008-02-15T06:35:00.002Z

Last Japanese class today, half the people in this picture will no longer be in Okinawa when term resumes in April :-( But we did eat some delicious cake!
L-R: Naomi-sensei, Rou, Yonaha-sensei, Setsubai, Bojan, Jihyun, Yumi, me!, Mou, Rumi.
Not pictured: Zen, Hon & Hison.
Photographer: the lovely Toby.

Never never try to gauge temperature

2008-02-13T16:07:00.004Z

Shoe horn? You still call it a shoe horn? You`re living in the past, mate! It`s clearly a shoes spatula now. Engrish in the 100yen shop never fails to amuse me.

The North Sea crashes through your dreams as I leave

2008-02-12T06:30:00.000Z

Don`t tell me you don`t love wanky long exposure photos!

Shut up, I need a haircut

2008-02-11T07:54:00.000Z

So, it turns out I didn't know the proper word in Japanese for 'chicken'.

Why don't I just go and shoot myself in the face?

Is that why your nose is bleeding?

2008-02-10T18:15:00.000Z

スピーチ大会 = 終わった!!!

That is to say, the Japanese speech contest is over and done with and I (almost) have my life back. I didn`t die on my arse on stage either, so even better! I`m not a shy person in the slightest but I just don`t like performing, so add the fact that I was performing in Japanese I was... well, nerve-wracked, shall we say. But I did okay! I rushed the start out of a burning desire to just get off the fucking stage but I looked out into the audience and saw my one of my teachers trying to subtley gesture SLOW DOWN YOU CRAZY ENGLISH PERSON and it was alright after that.

Most of my Japanese class (amusingly minus Zen, who won the contest!)

Mental people with their flags on their faces.

You can forget all future plans

2008-02-05T07:15:00.000Z

A quick note about how the buses around here are so ancient that they should be at Beamish and not transporting me to shopping centres all the time: I just saw one with an electronic display thing and it was quite exciting.

... actually, this is more a quick note about how unfulfilling my life is.

We left our trousers by the canal

2008-01-31T12:12:00.000Z

If I ever got stopped in the street by FRUITS or one of those other mad rad cool Japanese street style photography magazines and they asked me what my current obsessions are for the little bit of text at the bottom-left of my picture, these would be my answers:

Stretching my ear piercings
I'll admit it, about a year ago if you'd asked my opinion on flesh tunnels I'd have said they were disgusting and I didn't understand the desire to make piercings any larger. Well, obviously I have changed my mind! There's a cool jewellery shop on the main street in Naha and all the coolest earrings are for bigger gauges so I thought I'd give stretching a go. My biggest hole at the minute, with that plastic thing in, is an '8'... not sure how that converts to UK sizes. The one behind it has a 12 in it, and my left ear is currently on a 10 and a 14. Brilliant. I shall no doubt keep you updated on this.

Sending postcards
I've been annoying the shit out of my parents and certain friends lately with sending far too many postcards... I just find nice ones in the market and buy stamps in lots of 20 and should probably keep them for when I have things to say but they burn a whole in my pocket more than money does! Don't feel like you have to reply to everything I might send you in the post... although something would be nice...

Nana
Yes, it's manga. Yes, it's probably the stupidest girly thing ever committed to manga, about two 20-year-olds who meet on a train on the way to Tokyo and coincidentally have the same name and despite being completely different (one is a punkish lass in a band and the other is... well, the opposite?) they become best mates and have adventures and stuff. It also happens to be brilliant, which you can trust simply by the fact that never before have I shown interest in manga! Guilty-pleasure crap at its finest.

Is it cold where you are this time of year?

2008-01-30T19:17:00.000Z

If I end up as neither a famous writer (ha) or a secondary school teacher in the south of England (almost inevitable), then I have found a back up plan. I want to translate lyrics into Japanese for CD inlay booklets! How awesome is that? Of course you can't actually sing them to the music but it's nice for international fans to at least know what these bands are saying.

So get your coat, we're leaving

2008-01-28T19:06:00.000Z

As Ricky Wilson says, everything is average nowadays. That is to say, I am not updating that much at the minute because there's not a whole lot going on to be writing about; my life now largely consists of panicking about the speech contest next Friday (5 minutes on a stage speaking in Japanese in front of loads of people and a TV camera? No ta!), an erratic sleep pattern and eating KitKats. Not exactly a million miles away from life at university in England, is it?

There's only 7 more miles to go...

2008-01-25T19:06:00.000Z

One of my (very arrogant) favourite things is when Japanese people assume I don't understand their language and I get to surprise them.

For those who don't know, I've dyed my hair pink again - well, actually, now it has faded a lot and I resemble a Fruit Salad chew but, getting to the point... Yesterday, Tanya and I were in the market, and we walked past an old Japanese couple. The man leaned over to his wife and said (admittedly very loudly) look, her hair is pretty! So of course I turn around, smile at him, and say thank you very much!

I think I honestly made his day.

You're welcome, Japan.

And the chemical abbreviation for table salt is NaCl.

2008-01-24T18:58:00.000Z

So, I was sitting on the steps in front of my dorms this morning; it turns out the man who delivers the newspaper comes at half 4 in the morning! Can you imagine that? Anyway, when he arrived, he greeted me in English.

He didn't say good morning or even morning. He definitely said mornin'.

Brilliant.

Marlboro Lights stub... stuck to my gob...

2008-01-23T10:56:00.001Z

Who has the best best friend in the entire world? Oh, I think I do.

When Janet was over here at Christmas, she brought me some telly to watch, including some QI, on which Johnny Vegas talked about pickled onion Monster Munch sandwiches on white bread and since then I have been DYING to have one. And because Janet is a legend, she send me an entire box of said crisps!

Sod immersing myself in Japanese culture! What more could I want out of life than a Monster Munch sandwich and a cup of tea? Thank you, Janet. Thank you thank you thank you ♥

Strap your hands across my engines

2008-01-20T11:51:00.000Z

Ryan and I have finally gotten around to doing our photography project (taking photos on daily themes to compare Tokyo and Okinawa, essentally), so go and check it out!

Okinokyo

Every day feels like a week

2008-01-16T10:07:00.000Z

So, for some reason, they decided to put our names on the mailbox downstairs...

How hard can it be to spell my surname?

I spill things from stirring `em too quickly

2008-01-05T09:30:00.001Z

Well, I`ve been in this internet/manga cafe for more than four hours now, and I think I`m finally back up to speed with the internet - here are the posts I`ve just made at a quick glance if you`re interested:

* In which the international student Christmas party was pretty terrible
* In which I ate cake with some Japanese kids
* In which I had a proper British Christmas!
* In which we went to a big cliff on Boxing Day
* ... and then to the aquarium
* In which Janet came to Okinawa because she`s the best mate ever

Now to get to work on my colloborative photo project with the awesome Ryan - keep your eyes peeled for that one. And finally, a big massive THANK YOU to everybody who made this festive period awesome for me despite my being so far away from home - you know who you are. But if you don`t, it`s basically anybody who got me a present, talked to me on the phone, wrote on my Facebook... you get the idea. I love you guys!

... sorry to anyone subscribing to the RSS feed. Far too many posts and way too many photos today, forgive me!

どうしたらいいのか分からない。。。

2008-01-04T09:15:00.000Z

The best part of my winter holidays this year was, of course, my best friend Janet braving the long flights from and to England (via Paris... and the mainland...) to come and visit me - she was only here for a week (December 27th - January 3rd) but we had some adventures, I can tell you that much:

- Going to the beach in Chatan and just standing there for a bit
- Doing a LOT of shopping
- Eating a LOT of taco rice
- Spending New Year`s Eve at the international student accommodation that I don`t live in eating lots of Mister Donut doughnuts and drinking champagne with orange juice with the other people who had no plans
- Going to Shuri Castle on New Year`s Day and standing inside the big bell there
- Being incredibly lucky and getting a lift from Kin town to Churaumi Aquarium from my history lecturer`s wife, Rachel (then my being a massive knob and mixing up the buses on the way home and wasting a lot of money, but whatever)
- Doing a LOT of stupid purikura (those sticker things)
- Watching a LOT of The Mighty Boosh and Gossip Girl, which her fabulous boyfriend Rich had kindly acquired for me

Once again, thank you Janet for coming to Okinawa, and I`ll see you in September!

♥

Don`t... don`t you want me?

2007-12-28T09:00:00.000Z

Boxing Day adventure part two - actually at the aquarium!

Me and my French husband, Geoff. I`m not sure when we got married.

How good is this - an aquarium where you can touch things!

Hiroshi and myself posing like twats.

Look at the teeth on that bugger!

Alex, a stupid English person, and Ngyuen.

How cute are these? I call them straw fish. They aren`t, though.

Here it is, what I first thought was the biggest tank in the world - it`s actually THE BIGGEST PIECE OF PLEXIGLASS IN THE WORLD!!!! To be fair though, this is the only place on earth where whale sharks and manta rays have been bred in captivity, so yeah.

I`ll end on a picture of a friendly turtle.

You were working as a waitress in a cocktail bar

2007-12-27T08:49:00.000Z

Boxing Day adventure part one - 万座網, Manza-mo - literally in English "a field where 10,000 people can sit". On the 26th all the people on my exchange programme who were still in Okinawa (so basically most people minus my best mates who had buggered off to Tokyo on the 22nd...) were kindly taken to 美ら海水族館, Churaumi Aquarium in the very north of the island, and we stopped at Manza-mo on the way. And because it`s Okinawa, it was a bloody boiling, gorgeous late December day.

Do the fairies keep him sober for a day?

2007-12-26T08:32:00.000Z

I forgot to take my camera with me for my Christmas celebrations, so forgive the boring text-only post!

Christmas was one of the main things that I was worried about when preparing for my year here in Okinawa - if you know me at all well then you will know that I love Christmas , and more specifically I love British Christmas - horrible cold weather, brandy snaps with Anchor whipped cream, Fenwick`s Christmas window display in Newcastle, running around the estate on Christmas Eve with my mam to post last-minute cards, wearing paper hats at Christmas dinner and eating mince pies with my next-door neighbours. A few of my mates from Sheffield were returning to the UK for Christmas and I felt wildly jealous, even though I`d already made plans with my best mate Janet (more on that later!).

Thankfully, a fellow Brit came to the rescue - specifically my Okinawan History & Culture lecturer, John, who invited me to his house in the north of the island to spend Christmas Eve and Day with his family! I have to say that it was bloody brilliant - proper dinner, tree in the corner, helping to wrap presents at midnight and even presents for me in the morning (including Toblerone!) which I wasn`t expecting. Slight Okinawan twist put on the day in the form of running into some American marines in MaxValu and going to the beach, but it was still brilliant. We even fell asleep on the sofas after watching Morecambe and Wise, which he had downloaded specifically.

What more can you ask for?

Tonight thank God it`s them instead of you

2007-12-23T10:14:00.000Z

Because I love kids and want to be a teacher quite badly, sometimes I volunteer for things without realising what I`m agreeing to. As such, I inadvertently agreed to help at an English school`s Christmas party the morning after the international house Christmas party - thankfully it all worked out okay in the end and the latter was rubbish so I wasn`t too rough for the former, but still. Anyway, Alex and I joined a small class of kids on the morning of the 22nd for Christmas games and really good cake, and then their teacher took us out for very delicious Okinawa soba and... the weirdest pudding in the world. It was like cold, sugary porridge, except made from peas. I tried to eat it all out of politeness but I couldn`t. Never mind.

When the kids start singing...

2007-12-22T07:56:00.000Z

国際交流会館 (Intertional House) Christmas Party!... it was pretty fucking terrible for the most part. To start off, it was pissing it down with rain so after a quick trip to MosBurger to line our stomachs, Tanya and I had to use her hairdryer on our clothing and my shoes never properly dried. We had quite a nice time before the party, involving straightening Charlie`s hair and me wearing antlers (I was Rudolph at the 2006 Sheffield Japan Society Christmas party, I`ve never looked back) and Waka, who we love. There was hardly anybody at the actual party though until very late- Alex deemed it a lost cause and went to bed around 11, thankfully we stuck it out and Venus turned up drunk with the other Samoans and it was alright from then on. Oh, and one of the French guys was sick all over the stairs. HAPPY INTERNATIONAL STUDENT CHRISTMAS!!!

Time for presents and exchanging kisses

2007-12-21T05:04:00.000Z

I am done for 2007!

Work/university wise, that is. And thank fuck. If anyone sees me around campus or at the international students` Christmas party tonight I`ve still got a lot of candy canes I`m trying to get rid of. In a festive generous way.

Get 5 a day or that is the end of you

2007-12-18T12:45:00.000Z

There`s definitely something to be said for going camping on a beach at any time of year, but in the middle of December is just awesome. Can I say for about the 5,239th time since I got here that I fucking love Okinawa?

So anyway. Tanya, Charlie, Geoff, Hiroshi and myself went camping last weekend, on the beach, and it was awesome. We didn`t arrive until midnight because we were out karaoke-ing so we had to put the tent up in complete darkness which will explain the last photo here when you get to it. And fun was had by all! We ate baguettes, drank beer, made a fire and slept in a tiny tent and the water was REALLY close when we woke up in the morning. Ace.

Of course, life hates me, so my camera battery died after taking the following terrible photos:

A nice blurry torchlight-on-sand effect?

Honestly, that`s a lighthouse.

But thankfully Tanya is awesome and allowed me to steal her photos and upload them for you all, so here we go!

That`s me pratting about with a torch in the distance...

And then me pratting about with the tent. What larks.

Doing our `scared` faces... Hiroshi doesn`t look particularly terrified.

Even more fun with torches.

Eating a baguette with Philadelphia, it was honestly like being at home except I was on a beach at night in December and hadn`t lost any of my toes to frostbite.

Boooooooze.

Starting the fire. Me wearing Geoff`s hat.

FIRE!!!

Yeah, that sea`s a canny bit close like.

Niiice bed hair. Good job I went and got a hair cut literally straight after (and we were at the hair place for 4AND A HALF FUCKING HOURS because Charlie was getting her hair bleached but that`s not really interesting, is it?).

That would a dead fish that we had put our tent on top of, indeed what we had been sleeping on. Probably wasn`t actually a piranha but it had big fuck-off teeth so that`s what we called it.

It`s the season of love & understanding!

2007-12-17T12:37:00.000Z

I keep forgetting to upload this pictures of my newly-decorated room of Christmas joy. Basically I went to the 100yen shop and picked up a load of tat and threw it about the place but... Christmas! I love Christmas. My housemates are all a bit perplexed about decorating for Christmas at all, they thought I was having a party. No. Just putting tinsel on my furniture for a month for literally no reason!

I need something to sing about

2007-12-16T12:31:00.000Z

Nothing cuter than a tiny little sword to eat your pineapple with!

LOL Spar!!! I keep meaning to post this one. It`s the same logo & everything!

Say what you want about World War II, the Japanese give good hair cuts.

But the very next day you gave it away

2007-12-14T12:40:00.000Z

I don`t want to shock anyone but... I have a boyfriend.

His name is Mugsy, or as I call him `Freddie` - we`ve met on several social occassions but the last one was when I was hanging out with some mates and he came along to see me. Here he is with his owner Waka, and then below getting very friendly with me in front of Geoff:

Yes, he`s a dog.

More photos of drinking? Okay.

She grew up and she moved away

2007-12-11T04:18:00.000Z

Amusing English graffiti in the library, volume I:

For apparently no reason, written under a window - "birds of a feather". And just next to this one, on a desk:
"Don't.
Don't cry.
Just revenge.
The best revenge is live well."

Someone else had drawn a little arrow next to this and written "その通り!", which roughly translates as "exactly!" or "that's the way!"

Another year over & a new one just begun

2007-12-06T11:41:00.000Z

I have finally gotten off my lazy arse and started my Japanese blog after about 6 months of Nagai-sensei being horribly disappointed in me - it`s here, 怠け者, for anyone who can read it or would like to look at the pictures and guess what I`m going on about. I`m trying to blog here & there at least twice a week, but we`ll see how long that lasts.

I think I`ve finished all my Christmas shopping, too (went to Naha, pictured, this afternoon and got the last bits & bobs). I`ve probably forgotten something and I won`t be posting everything until next week anyway so I dare say nothing will get to England on time anyway. But as they say, it`s the thought that counts.

Best/worst name for a drink ever...

2007-12-05T06:51:00.000Z

What`s even better is that, judging by the vending machines I`ve seen it in, the drink itself is very beige and opaque. Yum!

Are you from `round here? How do you do?

2007-12-04T06:23:00.000Z

More `Okinawan` condoms - shisa (?!) , pineapple, mango, & banana varieties

Spelling words incorrectly in French is alright, but `airlines` in a list of colours?

Blue Seal Ice Cream`s "rainbow sherbert" flavour, heaven for only 240 yen

Help, we`re stuck in a foggy sphere of some kind!

Man, I love shopping.

We are the pretty, petty thieves

2007-12-03T05:25:00.001Z

One of my all-time favourite forms of procrastination is cutting up magazines and making stupid collages, and for some reason Japanese magazines are especially good for this purpose. This is the first one I`ve made in Okinawa, and it`s a work-in-progress called... umm... Morrissey. Yes, that is Keira Knightley coming out of his crotch and Scarlett Johansson balancing on the flamingo he`s holding.

Shiiine, the weather`s fine

2007-12-01T14:25:00.000Z

So this is the weather in December in Okinawa. How`s the freezing rain in England?

Take these sunken eyes & learn to see

2007-11-30T10:42:00.000Z

At some swanky hotel in Naha last night there was a mass party for all foreign students in Okinawa, IE: people other than those from our university. It was alright, mostly consisted of trying to eat noodles while standing up, being partially deafened by the drumming on stage and my avoiding a scary Chinese guy who insisted I drink some water and then introduced me to random people as if I actually knew who he was. Not enough booze there, mind, save for watered-down awamori. I wore my sexy H&M dress for about the fifth time since I`ve been here as it`s the only vaguely formal item of clothing I have with me, score \o/

God knows I`ve got to break free

2007-11-26T11:05:00.000Z

Last night when I was making a cup of tea, I noticed that an appliance in our kitchen is from the same manufacturer as the ice machine at my job back in England. Fascinating stuff, I know!

You don`t need me, believe me, you`ll be fine

2007-11-20T07:13:00.000Z

Much like they whore out my part-Scottish heritage and stick tartan on anything that stands still in Edinburgh and then try to sell it to stupid tourists, a lot of everday things here have an Okinawan spin put on them to make people buy them. On 国際通り, the main street in the capital, Naha, you can buy mango-flavoured bright yellow KitKats (don't, because Nestlé are evil, I'm just saying you can) and fake Puma tshirts with Shisa on them... in Chatan I even found goya flavoured condoms. The weirdest thing I've seen be Uchina-ised* though, has to be Spiderman, of all things.

What in the name of ARSE were these people thinking? I wish I'd been in the meeting when they came up with that, actually...

"Well folks, we've already exhausted all the ways to make Hello Kitty Okinawan in some way, and I don't think anyone's really buying the idea of Mickey Mouse as the King of Ryukyu, so where do we go from here?"
"How about we make Batman a sanshin-player?"
"Don't be ridiculous!"
"Superman with a pineapple on his head?"
"Have you gone entirely 'round the bend?"
"Wonder Woman leaning over a Battle of Okinawa war memorial?"
"I'm ending this meeting now..."
"Okay, okay, how about Spiderman with a flower in his hair reclining on a disproportionate traditional castle gate?"
"Ooh, you actually might have something with that there!"

Seriously.

(Incidentally, for anyone who was wondering, goya has the most absolutely disgustingly bitter flavour so the idea of making... you know... taste like that is absolutely crackers!)

僕はどれくらい知っているんだろう。。。

2007-11-19T10:19:00.000Z

My friends from Hosei university in Tokyo came to Okinawa last weekend! I met Saori, Manami and Haruka when they were studying at Sheffield last year and I was the Minister of Defence for Japan Society (no, seriously) and we had many great evenings in The Harley and nights at Leadmill. Anyway, I met up with them on Friday night and we went to an izakaya (kind of like a pub but... not) in Naha and then we spent the afternoon/evening on Saturday in Chatan.

Chatan is a bit of a weird place. One of the many U.S. air force bases is there, and there's an 'American village', Mihama, along the coast - full of import shops and restaurants, and while I only counted two Starbucks there was probably at least another one. The thing that makes it weird for me is the perfectly rational, but still startling, amount of Westerners. I live in Nishihara, quite a bit south-east of, and the only foreigners I see around here are the other international students, and even then there's not that many of us. At least half the people I saw in Chatan were white or African-American - and not just the armed forces (it's quite funny seeing so many guys with the exact same haircut) but their spouses, children, friends - I even saw a group of teenagers hanging around and ruining the English language with their grating accents (just kidding... I love American accents... kind of... not). I'm sure some of them were also just on holiday / visting their spouses, children and friends, but the logic of that escapes me - hey honey, let's pay shitloads of money to go to Japan but actually let's go to Okinawa and eat at Nathan's like we do every week here in Missouri. You get the gist anyway.

The weirdest part was I saw none of the non-Japanese hanging out with locals, or vice versa, apart from one big white guy with his little wife/girlfriend/whatever. I was the only person and I'm fairly sure the only one speaking Japanese - basically what I'm trying to very egotistically say to myself here is that yeah there were loads of Westerners but I was still special. Have some pictures!

They come all the way from Tokyo, and it rains when they get to sunny Okinawa, bloody typical!

L-R: Haruka, Manami and Saori. Hanging out on the wonderfully titled 'sansetto biichi' - work that one out for yourself.

Haruka and myself. Last time we saw each other we were both crying our eyes out before she got on a bus to Heathrow, so this was a nice change.

Manami and myself, with Saori being hilarious in the background. I swear, I don't deliberately try to look so patronising/inconvenienced in photos... maybe it's just my default position.

My sexy flip-flop tan lines. I'm really not looking forward to coming back to England and wearing proper shoes all the time.

A little tired, Saori?

Haruka collecting seashells.

WARNING - do not wear very small trunks and dance with jellyfish!

Whoops...

... that's better. I'm not sure why a ferris wheel is typical of an American village, but there it is.

Falling asleep on the bus back to Naha.

When the sun shines, they slip into the shade

2007-11-09T04:08:00.001Z

You hear that? That`s the sound of ~~inevitability~~ glorious rain in Nishihara, and also the sound of one of the 5,432,236,709 scooters around campus. I have no idea why the file is so big for a 25 second .WAV, but do have a listen. Ahhh, rain. It`s like being at home.

In other news, I had my hair cut and coloured for the equivalent of about 25quid at a very nice hairdresser`s in Naha yesterday. Went a bit lighter than I intended because the woman was used to bleaching Japanese hair and as such wandered off for about 0.2 seconds and came back to find my hair bright yellow.

You love my MySpace-stylee pictures, don`t you?
Sunburn all but gone save a for a VERY ITCHY bit on my back \o/

We could be heroes, forever and ever

2007-11-06T07:19:00.000Z

Yesterday morning at 3.30am, there were two cats meow-ing very loudly at each other in our stair well. This morning at 3.30am we had some random outside playing a sodding sanshin.

Whatever happens at 3.30am tomorrow morning, I`m sure as hell hoping it doesn`t involve the giant bats on campus.

And that`s when she said to me she wasn`t coming `round for teeeaaa

2007-10-31T12:16:00.000Z

More photo-spam, because Flickr and Facebook are still being, well, cunts. Not just to me either, it`s something to do with the 琉球大学 server.

Anyway! Today we (international URSEP folks) went to Shuri Castle, or 首里城. I`m sure you can read lots of fascinating facts about it on Wikipedia but basically the royal family of the Ryukyus lived here, it was destroyed in the Battle of Okinawa (thanks, America/Japan!) and they rebuilt it in the 1990s. And it was a LOT smaller than I thought it was going to be, and the weather was uncharacteristally cloudy today so I got about zero decent photos, but w/e:

Charlie looking `cool`, Tanya looking as if to say `WTF, Charlie?`

happy!Tanya.

Alex, Charlie and Tanya hanging about on some steps.

View from the outer walls. Far in the distance is the East China Sea, but obviously you can`t see it on this 400x300 photo... when uploading stuff actually works, it`ll be awesome.

Dancers dancing. Moving on...

I honestly thought this place would be much bigger. But it`s still nice. Nice and stripey.

Stop taking photos of us, man!

(looking annoyed because this was the 2nd attempt at this photo)

Yep, wearing the Bar One shirt again. Thinking of making it a very obscure theme...

Dear God, I hope I`m not stuck with this one

2007-10-31T12:09:00.001Z

Excuse the breasts, but for your own scientific enlightenment I decided to take some photos of my disgusting sunburn. Just don`t do anything that I do. Ever.

Lazing on a sunny afternoon

2007-10-31T08:56:00.000Z

I went to the beach at Nakagusuku on Sunday, and I am still horrifically sunburt. We`re talking blistered here, folks. And that was wearing factor 50 sun cream (although admittedly, not enough as I`d only intended to go to the supermarket to get washing powder...)

Sorry for like, not posting and stuff. And I still can`t get photos to upload anywhere, boo!

By the way, Chris, you suck at blogging. More than I do, even.

In which Flickr & Facebook still won`t let me upload anything

2007-10-23T06:49:00.001+01:00

Apologies go out to anyone reading this on a feed, I know it`s image heavy but Blogger is the only server that I can stick pictures on at the minute!

So, this past weekend we (all the short-term exchange transfer students and some Japanese friends, and some of our teachers) went on an `orientation camp` to Itoman Youth Hostel in the south of Okinawa island - basically an excuse to go out in the middle of nowhere, play stupid games in order to remember peoples` names and then drink shit loads of beer in order to forget them again. Have some photos!

L-R: Charlie, me and Tanya posing in the bathrooms. Not pictured: sexy toilet slippers.

View from my room.

...and the rest of the photos are from Shikina garden, where the second house of the King and Queen of the Ryukyus was.

Geoff and Hiroshi being `cool`

Charlie and Tanya posing (again).

Tanya posing (again!... I love you really, crazy Australian lady!)

Hiroshi & me having a nice sit down. As you can see, I haven`t tanned in the slightest. And yes, for the eagle-eyed among you I am wearing one of my Bar One shirts!

Oohh we`re posing again, with Geoff. That`s Kinjo-sensei in the background too.

~ 終わり~

I`m gonna get you, little fishy

2007-10-18T06:50:00.001+01:00

Stereotypical stupid foreigner pose from me there!

Today in our language class we had to do a kind of scavenger hunt - which was awesome because it involved a free trip to Naha, the capital of Okinawa! Myself and Jihyun had to find pig trotters, some kind of herb and... some other thing that I think you put in soup, in the market. The market was mental - particularly the meat and fish sections. As you can see by the photo of us with a pig`s head with sunglasses on.　Neither Facebook nor Flickr are letting me upload any photos at the moment for some unknown reason, but try and check back later to hopefully see a dead pufferfish and also the cricket that was on my wall this morning. Ace.

Surfing the sun as it starts to rise

2007-10-17T07:25:00.000+01:00

This is the first country I`ve been to where one opens the windows when it`s cold in the classrom. Damn crazy air conditioning.

I`m a loser, and I`m not what I appear to be

2007-10-15T12:55:00.000+01:00

isuSo I`ve compeltely given up on being able to write a post for every day since I`ve been here, because I`ll have been in Okinawa for a fortnight tomorrow afternoon... and yes, that seems absolutely mental to me too. So here`s a terrible bullet-point post for you to try and cover everything that`s happened without taking 59-and-a-half hours to type it up.

- General sequence of events after the last post goes: have to attend a lot of introductory meetings and be introduced to the o ther students on my program and our Japanese `supporters` (read: people who are told to hold your hand while you do everything over here and while it`s nice that they want to help I sometimes just want to scream I CAN SPEAK JAPANESE YOU KNOW, I`LL MAKE IT TO THE SHOPPING CENTRE ON MY OWN THANKS!!!), general hanging out with Alex (from Nevada, US), Tanya (from Canberra, Australia), Charlie (from the Federated States of Micronesia which you`ll probably only find as hilarious as I do if you also watch The West Wing) and Venus (from Samoa) and finally lessons starting last Thursday, ahhh!

- Japanese classes are mental. Literally mental. I aced the first placement test as it was basically aimed at people who know how to say `hello` so I was put forward for the advanced test, scored about 50% and after two embarassing interviews in which I said my favourite kanji was 驚 and generally failed at life I got put in Intermediate IV. Thank god I didn`t make it to advanced, I have no idea what`s going on in these classes half the time... although it`s weird, because the grammar and kanji we`re studying I`ve already done, it`s just that my speaking and listening is GOD. AWFUL. Anyway, fun times and progress to be made.

- Okinawa is hottttt.

- I miss everyone like crazy sometimes, not just people from home but Sheffield mates who are elsewhere in Japan as well, having massive parties on the mainland without me (probably). Succck.

- After begging you all to email my 携帯 (mobile), it seems to be fucking up somewhat. Expect some Hotmail emails in reply soon when I lose my patience.

- Have successfully forced all my international pals into watching LOST... we`re kind of addicted actually, and constantly call each other son-of-a-bitch! after dicking about on YouTube and coming across this. Awesome. (yes, this kind of talk is meant to go on my LiveJournal but it`s kind of related, right?)

- Okinawa is hotttt

- Generally, I am having an awesome time which basically means culture shock still hasn`t properly set in yet and I`ll soon be locking myself in my wardrobe and demanding potatoes and a plane ticket back to Newcastle. Can`t wait!

Okay, that`s all the recap you`re getting, but now I can stop worring about having to recap and actually post things as they happen and whatnot. I`m still working on getting photos on here due to the university computers not having Paint Shop Pro and my being anal about all the photos on here being in the same format, but I`ve managed to upload stuff onto Flickr and Facebook if you fancy a neb!

I could trace your private number, baby

2007-10-09T02:48:00.000+01:00

I`m going to attempt a proper set of posts for each day I`ve been away later today when I get on the computer in the library, but now I`m just killing time until we go to Nishihara city for some more shopping (still don`t have: a pillow, an adaptor for my laptop/.mp3 player cables). So this is a nice boring contact details post instead!

My Japanese mobile phone number is 090-3792-4024 although I have no idea what the international dialling code is and also please don`t waste your money phoning me because I imagine it will be hilariously expensive. And I have email on my phone which is basically just text-messaging but the character limit is 10,000! It`s free for me to receive and 2yen (less than 1p) to send so please email me! arisu1987 (at) ezweb . ne . jp, & if you want me to email you, let me know which address you want stuff sent to (I only have MSN messenger addresses for most people and I know a lot of people don`t check them).

Also please please please pleeeeeease send me post! I haven`t had any yet :-(
903-0129 Okinawa-ken
Nakagami-gun Nishihara-cho Senbaru 59

Ryukyu Daigaku Senbaru Ryo

Konju-to (josei) 209

JAPAN

Or if you can write* Japanese/print it out, this will probably be better:

903-0129 沖縄県中頭郡西原町千原５９

琉球大学千原寮混住棟（女性）２０９

JAPAN

*I`m sure nobody would but, seriously, if you can`t write Japanese please don`t try!

Mister can you tell me where my love has gone?

2007-10-04T04:01:00.000+01:00

I unfortunately don`t have time for a proper update (going off to the 100円 shop to look for a clock and a pillow) and I have a slight problem with my laptop in that I`m an idiot and brought the wrong plug converters but I just wanted to say:

I am here. In Japan.

And Okinawa is so bloody hot I can`t believe it.

They have to amuse themselves, `cause we`re not making them laugh

2007-10-02T17:03:00.000+01:00

Previously on LOST (if by LOST, you mean 流留): Alice says goodbye to everyone, gets on a plane at Newcastle, gets off this plane at Paris CDG and gets on another one, which takes nearly 12 hours...

I knew that I was going to die a horrible melty death in Okinawa as soon as I stepped off the plane at Kansai airport: if it was this hot on the mainland, like many of my coursemates had been complaining about, what was it going to be like in the southernmost prefecture? I pondered this for all of about 26 seconds before I was forced-pushed onto a little train thing that went from the terminal to baggage claim and got my hands back on my giant suitcase which a sniffer dog took worrying interest in (but was quickly dragged away). I had about two hours in Osaka after the lifetime it took to stand in line at passport check and actually be allowed into Japan but I couldn`t really be arsed to do anything so I precariously tilted my suitcase on the escalator and went upstairs to the domestic departure gates.

Now, I don`t really blame them, but EVERYBODY up there was looking at me in a sort of "oh look at the stupid 外人(foreigner), she thinks this is the international check-in area" way which was fun. Even when I went over to the JAL desk to check in Mr. Suitcase the guys on the X-ray machine immediately asked to see my ticket, saw that it clearly said Okinawa and sort of looked sheepish when they returned it. At least one of them comically redeemed himself when I apologised for the bag`s weight and he shouted "HEAVY DESU!!!" to his mate. And I didn`t get charged for being 16kgs over their limit. Score two!

The view of Osaka city from the domestic departure lounge was pretty spectacular but by this point I couldn`t really be bothered to move so I just parked my arse and stole some broadband from an unsecure connection to quickly send an email to my parents (as Orange is shit and I couldn`t even text my mam from Paris on a tri-band phone, WTF?) letting them know the plane hadn`t crashed, and also to harras my brother on MSN for a few minutes. I didn`t get a window seat on the way to Naha which was a shame because the views, or what I saw of them over a sleeping Malaysian woman`s shoulder, were amazing.

Let me tell you though, Okinawa looks a lot smaller from the air and in maps than it actually is. I got picked up from Naha airport by a lovely woman from the International Student Centre whose name escapes me because I`m shit and it was about a 40 minute drive to the campus. And that`s like... just going between two of many cities in the place. Yeah, it`s no tiny island. The campus is nowhere near the sea at all!

When we arrived at the International Student Centre the staff tried to speak to me in English for about two seconds before they realised I could speak Japanese and after that I was bombarded with a lot of information and was mostly just nodding going `yes, yes, yes, I understand, yes, yes` a lot but I don`t think I missed anything important. Then I got taken to my dormitory by 石原先生 (Ishihara-sensei, a name that will probably come up a lot because he`s a legend) and he pretty much sorted everything for me despite men not actually being allowed past the fence (ya, rly!)

I can`t really remember what I did on my first day/night in Japan other than sweat a lot, un pack, get in the shower without turning the water heater on by accident and went for a quick walk around the place (getting lost slightly). & I didn`t sleep much, but that`s to be expected...

Get your plane ride on time, I know your part`ll go fine

2007-10-01T23:44:00.000+01:00

So, the journey begins!

My parents and I had to leave the house at the ungodly hour of 3.50am to get to the airport two hours before my 6.20am flight to Paris, CDG was called. Ate my last slice of toast from that toaster, looked at my room for one last time and had the last journey in my dad`s silver Nissan Micra, although of course at the time it didn`t seem that significant. I was (almost literally) shitting myself about excess baggage charges as I was a whopping 11kg over the Air France limit of 30kg (you can do the maths there) but I think because it was so early and maybe he saw in my passport that I was moving away for so long the guy behind the check-in desk just stuck a bright orange tag saying `HEAVY` on my mammoth suitcase and waved me away. Score one!

I sat about downstairs with my mam and dad and we had rubbish tea from Starbucks and they argued about cash machines and lifts for a bit until an hour before my flight when I decided to just go through into the departure lounge upstairs. I thought I would cry but I honestly didn`t... my mam probably did when I got around the corner though... bless.

Flight to Paris was largely uneventful; my hand luggage was searched inside and out with cotton swabs in Newcastle for seemingly no reason but I had a nice chat with the security guard while he got on with it, the plane was really small and I was sat next to a guy reading the official Newcastle United magazine, the flight wasn`t really long enough for much to happen at all.

When I arrived at CDG though I had loads of time to kill: we touched down from England at just past 9am and my flight to Osaka Kansai wasn`t until 1.45pm. Spent most of the time wandering about the shops and eating overpriced food bought with the last-minute Euros my mam got converted for me, sleeping in the departure lounge and eavesdropping on Japanese conversations. At last we boarded the plane, and I sat next to a European guy and his Japanese girlfriend. \o/

That plane ride was obviously going to take a long time but, man, you could really f e e l it taking a long time. I`d keep dozing off and wake up thinking I`d gotten rid of at least an hour and it would have been 7 minutes! The film selection on the little monitors wasn`t so bad though (I watched Pirates of the Caribbean: At World`s End, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and a few episodes of The Simpsons and Friends in between sleeping... everyone else seemed to have Donna`s dad`s taste in films though and were watching Mr. Bean`s Holiday) and because there was a choice for the Japanese people on board the food wasn`t too bad either. They even served cup noodles in the middle of the night.

Touch down at 8.20am local Japanese time... but obviously that`s for "tomorrow" ;-)

I`m sorry that all of these catching-up posts are going to be boring and photo-less but I`m still using the university computers at the minute until my plug converter arrives from eBay.

I`m leaving on a jet plane, don`t know when I`ll be back again

2007-10-01T00:42:00.000+01:00

Saying goodbye to people really fucking sucks. Some friends, I didn`t really get the chance to say goodbye to due to their return to university conflicting with my work schedule (Donna, Rachel). Others I said goodbye to long before I actually left while we actually had time to see each other (such as mine and Sammy`s awesome scone-related adventure in Bamburgh). My brother came up from Cambridge to see me before I went and left the day before. I went out for a nice pub lunch with my next-door neighbours during my last weekend, and met up with my best friend Janet in Middlesbrough and had an awesome last afternoon of tea and shopping and giant cookies and curly fries.

The last person I said goodbye to, not including my parents at the airport, was Ashleigh. She even bought me that `Revolver` bag that I`ve long-coveted but never allowed myself to buy and I nearly started crying at the bus stop.

Yeah, saying goodbye sucks.

This time tomorrow, I'll be in Paris (and I still haven't started packing)

2007-09-30T11:25:00.000+01:00

aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

AHHHHHHH

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh

AHH

I need Harry Potter like a grindylow needs water!

2007-09-29T23:15:00.000+01:00

My baggage limit will not allow me to bring all / any of my Harry Potter books.

I'm honestly not sure I want to go any more.

I want a doctor to take your picture so I can look at you from inside as well

2007-09-29T17:15:00.001+01:00

I went up to the shops this afternoon to get some passport-sized photos printed off before I leave. The first time around I put my £4.00(!) in and then proceeded to poke myself in the eye with the zip on my hoodie so on those, on the left, I've got a lovely watery red mess on the left side of my face.

Reckon I'll be using the second set for my Gaijin card, yeah?

Still haven't started packing. 1 day to go!

But it's raining, raining in my heart...

2007-09-28T23:01:00.000+01:00

I've been hearing a lot from my friends already in Japan that the weather is altogether too damn hot, which has made me a bit concerned about moving to Okinawa where it will be altogether even hotter than too damn hot. So I used this as a very weak excuse to go shopping today and spent just under £100 in Primark and H&M.

But obviously, I couldn't justify buying the awesome jumper you see up there. Because, as I've only recently realised, I'm not really going to have a winter this year. In Okinawa it generally doesn't get below 15 degrees even in December - that's pretty balmy in Britain for those not in the know! I'm going to miss (hoping for, at least) snow and cups of tea every five minutes and slipping down Barber Road in Sheffield on the way to the library and wearing my massive size 20 black coat and buying new scarves and gloves because I've lost my set from the year before.

And Christmas, but that's a whole other whiny post in itself...

I came to see a man

2007-09-25T00:12:00.000+01:00

Welcome to Air-O! May I help you?

Okinawa. One way.

6 days to go, baby!

So long, Big Macs!

2007-09-24T17:01:00.000+01:00

A particularly lethal drink Paul introduced us to; finish half your pint and stick two bottles of WKD in it upside down. Drink through a straw and go from nought to battered in about 3 minutes!

Yesterday was my last ever* shift at McDonald's, after which I promptly went out with some colleagues and got absolutely shitfaced at the nearest pub. Well, about 4 hours later anyway as I was on a 06:00 - 15:00 shift and had to go home, have a shower and eat my Sunday dinner. Great night out basically, consisting of a lot of games of pool, watching other people play darts, eating other peoples' peanuts, singing along to the same Kate Nash song twice and mixing far too many different drinks. Rumours that we walked home via work in a ridiculously inebriated state and I hugged fireman-John & Chris a lot are strictly untrue.

Things I will miss about work
-> Chocolate doughnuts and cups of tea on morning breaks. Mmm.
-> Playing the posh accent game with Tracey and Anastasia on window 3. "Have you presented this gentleman with his beverages? His order will be complete as soon as the pomme frites alert us that they are ready for removal from the vat"
-> Annoying the fuck out of everyone by singing Mr. Sandman with Louise. Bum-bum-bum bum-bum-bum-bum bum-bum bum-bum bum-bum...
-> Making money!

Things I definitely will not miss about work
-> Spending 07:00 - 16:00 shifts on window 1 of Drive-Thru and having to clean all the egg and sausage off everything after breakfast.
-> Nearly getting run over at least twice a week crossing one of the craziest roundabouts in Northumberland.
-> Shallow as this will sound, I hate the general stigma of working at McDonald's, and certainly the lack of respect you get from some customers. Dickheads.

*Well, perhaps it wasn't my last ever shift there, I may be returning after Okinawa for summer, Christmas, Easter... and the next summer. Maybe.

You only give me your funny paper

2007-09-22T17:48:00.000+01:00

Went to the bank after work yesterday to pick up the yen I'd ordered - ¥202,000 (£899.01)! I feel so rich, which is daft, because I'm nearly a grand overdrawn again but never mind.

Bollocks bollocks BOLLOCKS!

2007-09-21T23:07:00.000+01:00

Because the British trains service is so ridiculously expensive from time to time, I can't get down to Cambridge to see my brother before I leave the continent for ten months.

Cunts.

(sorry, Mam)

Ohhh the bus don't go to Hogwarts

2007-09-19T12:22:00.001+01:00

Yesterday, 07:49AM - 11.15am = train to London

11:15AM - 15.00PM = time spent in London

15.00PM - 22.43PM = Megabus back to Newcastle
22.43PM - 23.20PM = time spent pissing about in McDonald's drinking tea, waiting for the bus

So, my adventure to London to book my domestic flight was alright. Had a cup of tea from McDonald's in Newcastle, train journey was fine (two more cups of tea), hopped on the tube to Oxford Circus and found the JAL office no bother. Booking the (£100-odd) ticket seemed to go fine until I left the building and the woman who served me came rushing out to find me as it turns out she'd spelled my name wrong on the ticket; interestingly not the usual 'Robinson' or 'Robson' but 'Robion'. Good job she found me really as you can't fly unless the name on the ticket matches the one in your passport!

Spent my few hours in London hanging out with Jason who had also bumped into postgrad-Kate whom it was lovely to see again... lunch at Pizza Hut buffet, more tube fun and finally very long and annoying Megabus journey back to Newcastle (two cups of tea first though, one from St. Pancras after Jason ran for his train to Sheffield and another from Victoria).

I did pass the time chatting away to the woman sitting next to me though. She was from Huddersfield (coincidence one - my flatmate from 1st&2nd year, Sam, is also from there) and lived in London working in the theatre and, coincidence two, knew a lot about Japan! She could even read and write kana and knew where Okinawa was, knowledge that is delightfully rare among the general British population. Despite not knowing each others' names we decided to go into business with our invention, Tea Chocolates™ (sort of like chocolate liquers, but with different tea flavours - everybody would obviously fight over the Yorkshire Tea one and the PG Tips one would be left at the bottom of the box for weeks, like the orange creme ones in Roses).

The Megabus arrived into Newcastle almost 40 minutes late so I missed my bus home and had to sit in McDonald's having another two cups of tea and listening to The Parselmouths. Got home, was knackered, went to bed!

Good karma of the day: giving my zone-1-and-2 travelcard to an Australian guy at Victoria station.

Cups-of-tea total (including one I had before I went to bed): 8

2 weeks & 1 day to go (!)

2007-09-15T17:04:00.000+01:00

First nightmare about getting to Japan and not having my Certificate of Eligibility (albeit a dream about going to Tokyo with my next-door neighbour Melanie... via America... and I found it in Costcutter's) = the nerves are finally setting in.

What a fucking faff

2007-09-10T18:51:00.000+01:00

I need to book my ticket from Kansai airport to Naha before I get to Japan, obviously, but this is apparently impossible if you're not in Japan and don't have a credit card. Well, it's impossible with All Nippon Airways. Japan Airlines are slightly more reasonable in that I have to go down to their ticket office in London (4 hours away on the train) and book in person!

So that's my only day off work next week down the pan...

If I wasn't so convinced that living in Okinawa will be fabulous, I'd be giving up about now.

Not Recommended For Use In Hot Beverages

2007-08-23T12:16:00.000+01:00

Here's a pomegranate-peach frappuccino I had in a Starbucks in Edinburgh when I went to get my visa from the Japanese Consulate, so it's vaguely related...

(test post)