Finals

Today I go back to Brooke's after spring break for the last month of my firs year. This semester is when I ha e my finals, and here's roughly what that involves: 2 language exams, an oral test, a listening test, 2 huge portfolios, an essay on kanji, an essay on Japanese history and an exam on history.

New Vlogging Series

Hey everyone, it's been a while. A very long while. Anyway, I wanted to start recording some vlogs again, and this is the first one I came up with. I've already got another one in the works, based on experiences at other UK universities in Japanese Studies. That should hopefully be recorded by next week, we'll have to see really. But for now that is it, and speak to you soon.

Here and gone again

So I was away, then I came back, now I'm going away again.
I leave for university on Saturday, so now I'm sorting out everything before I try and pack it. Then of course I have to see friends and family before I disappear as well. I had my last day at work yesterday, but no one made that big a deal, because I haven't been back long, and most people expect me to be back at Christmas. But anyway, they're all behind me now.
I was getting quite worried that I wouldn't have enough money to last me until my student loan comes through. Now that I'm not working, I only have half my last pay check, and another 15 hour pay check coming in next Friday. That would be barely £300 to last me, and I can see it being an expensive couple of weeks. However, grandma to the rescue! She very very unexpectedly sent my brother and I (who is also starting university this week) £500 each! Amazing! That might just last me ;).
Anyway, I have lots to do, with packing and shopping etc., so I'll sign off here. Once I'm into uni, the real blogging will start! As well as I side project that I'll link you to at another time.
Adios hombres!

Awkward mistakes

When I was in a bar in Osaka, I was having a conversation with a couple about tattoos. The girl was saying the Japanese word for "ouch" - ittai. I misheard her and heard "ippai", which I picked up and started to use. So for the next month I would say ippai when I wanted to say ouch. Turns out, ippai is actually the Japanese word for breasts. Fml.


~GA

Location:Osaka, Japan

Japanese Club

All across Japan I went into bars and the like, but I only ever went into one club. It was my last week in Japan, and I was in Tokyo. A friend I had met way down in Hiroshima was going out with some of work friends in Shibuya. So 7 of us gaijin hit the brightly lit streets and bars of Shibuya. After a few bars, we decided to go to Shibuya's moat famous club, Gas Panic. I say famous, I don't know if it was, but it's the one that got suggested every time by Japanese people.
So first off, the name. They named a club after a terrorist attack on Tokyo. Not the nicest name really, is it? That'd be like naming a club 9/11 in New York!
Anyway, this club was in a basement under a restaurant of something like that. Being in a basement, it was dark, dank and cramped. The smallest club I've ever been in without a doubt.
At the door was a single bouncer. Or I presume he was a bouncer. There was a big guy at the door. Unlike every club here in England, there was no ID asked for, no searching. Nothing. He just stood there. And weirdly, this club's entry age was 18. Yet the Japanese drinking age is 20. Apparently they don't care.
Another strange thing with ages: inside the club was a cigarette vending machine. To buy cigarettes from these machines, you an ID card. However, the club had skipped this by tying an ID card on a string to the machine. Job done!
What else was strange, eh? Well, there were hardly any girls in the place. Apart from my gaijin friends, there were never more than a dozen at a time. Which meant every time a new girl would come in, she would be swarmed by Japanese guys. I wouldn't want to be one of those girls!
It was a strange place, but I dis have a great night, albeit it cost me ￥１５、０００ by the end!
Anyway, thats the weird things about the Japanese club I went in. I'll let you know if others are different.

~GG

I've been teaching myself Japanese

Yeah, it's not going terrifically well. I know a lot of very basic stuff, and some simple bar talk (things such as "Another please", which is much more useful than asking what the time is). But really, I have so much admiration for people who can teach themselves a language.
I know I will be able to speak Japanese, but that's only because I'm devoting four years of full time education to it, but to everyone out there that can speak the language without having sat down and having had it drilled into your head, I respect you for it! You have a better mind than I.

In other news, it's now just over two weeks until I depart for uni. I have bought everything I need, living wise, and next is to buy some new clothes, stationery, get my laptop fixed... Okay so  I have quite a list, but I'll manage it! Really, I just can't wait to get away, new life and a new start (I made a post about this on an old blog, but I won't worry about linking it, it's no neccessary).

And finally, I've put a twitter feed thingy over there -->>. So you should follow me on twitter! And as my tumblr is linked to my twitter, it'll pop up too! But you could follow my tumblr anyway...

A new blog, a new introduction

So this is now my third blog in my counting, and I hope to actually stay on top of this one.
So my names Ed, I'm 19 years old and I am from England.
For the next four years, I will be studying Japanese at Oxford Brookes University, and that's what this blog will be about. That and my day to day university life.
Just over a month ago (one month and three days, but it's not like I noticed), I returned home from a two month tour around Japan (I failed at a blog about that one), and I cannot wait to get my pasty English arse back there!!

Anyway, my course: it's four years, and focuses on language, history, society and culture. What I learn will no doubt be filtered into this blog. My third year is entirely in Japan, studying at a Japanese university (eek!).
And I guess that's about it for now :).