For the multitude of fans who keep harassing me about Fuji and other stories, please be patient. I will have that done soon… Plus the Hiroshima/Kyoto story, the timeline and any funnies I can remember.Maybe.

Thanks again,

Otsukaresamadeshita! (oht-sky-sama-desh-taa)

(Lit: “I’m tired”, but actually means goodbye, kind of)

So I’m back home in Blighty. The flight was not too bad, visiting Seoul for an hour and being fed 6 times was as fun as you would expect. It’s a little bit weird but not as bad as I thought it might be. It’s kind of like when you go on holiday and come back. I also feel like I’ve not really been away in some respects, everything here is pretty similar but then I am a little jet-lagged I guess.

I guess this will be the last post, I will write up the Fuji experience (for Sheryl’s mum!) and then that will be it.

I can only finish this by saying that the last year has been the greatest of my life. I’ve made loads of friends, been to many cool places, done many interesting things and eaten many endangered species whilst being in Japan. What happens next is somewhat scary, less interesting and hugely daunting at the moment.

If you’ve been following my progress during the year and have stuck it out to the end then I thank you for taking the time to have a look at what I’ve been doing. Hopefully it’s been exciting, interesting and funny and hopefully many people will be interested in going to Japan.

Enough of the sentimentality. I’m off job hunting…

The last 10 days have been eventful, and at the same time not very eventful. I finished work on the 25th and it was emotional and also a relief to have finally completed my year of teaching. The last lesson went well and I was given presents and photos from the students. I even got a call from one of my students who wasnt able to make it so that was nice.

On Sunday the 26th I packed my bags and tidied my room, went to the leaving do and got very drunk, sang at a Karaoke place with Russell and my old boss until 5am and then went home and crashed for a few hours.

Then over the next few days, me and Sheryl did various necessary things to prepare for Mt Fuji and going home. We bought tickets for the bus to get to the 5th station and back and got the final few things before we set off on the Thursday.

Climbing Mt Fuji was tough, the experience was amazing and I’m gonna write a seperate post about it before I leave, because it warrants it’s own post to do the whole thing any justice. So that was Thursday night/Friday morning and after Fuji, was a 2 day break to recover.

Sunday was the second leaving do, this time in Shibuya. It was all of our friends, about 10-15 people showed up in the end which was nice. It was a relatively quiet affair, everyone coming, giving gifts/taking pics whilst drinking lots and then leaving by 11 (it was a Sunday night after all!). Yesterday (Monday) was spent getting the last few things packed as well as ensuring that everything is ready for the flight home on Thursday.

Today the plan is to head into Shibuya, clear out the bank account and go for one last session with Matt and Sheryl. Not too sure how late it will be but it should be great. Tomorrow will be the last day in Kita Kogane before heading to Narita to stay in a hotel near the airport.

Thursday it’s all over.

I have only 2 weeks until I am happily home with my Family. It’s something I’m looking forward too and I can’t wait to get back and see everyone. I have one and a half days left at work, I’ve been getting presents and lots of love from the students now I’m on my way out!

I have also had my picture taken many a time today. The students are bringing in their cameras and taking snaps once they’ve finished the lesson. It’s been emotional for the students and myself but it’s been a great day (even though it was busy). The next two days will fly by I’m sure, I then have packing, drinking,climbing Fuji and relaxing as my next two weeks activities. I will also be working hard on my website. I’m depressingly nowhere near landing a job at the moment but I’m sure something will come up….

mata ne!

Today was the begining of my final week at Nova. I have 4 days left and today I did a special 3 lesson Voice for the students. Normally Sunday Voice has about 4-5 people. 17 people turned up to see my pictures, take a Damien quiz and to have a good laugh and fun whilst enjoying learning English.

It was an amazing 3 lessons for me, the students loved my pictures, brought cakes, cameras and pictures of their own. They also brought a good sense of humour and we had a great time learning/looking at my pictures. I gave the students my SLR to take pictures of the lesson and they accepted my mission with gusto. Some of the 50 pictures they took are so genius that I have to post them to the Funnies section.

I gave the students a notebook to write me messages and they are all very nice (if not great English, but hell it’s better than I could do in Japanese!). I also was presented a 5 foot tall Shoudou piece by Masamichi (my favourite old student, he’s about 70). Essentially it says thank you and good luck for the future but looks stunning and is something that made the other instructors jealous!

It was a draining, exciting, emotional and exhillarating last 3 voice lessons with Students I really enjoy teaching. It begins the final furlong of my Nova career, one that I’m sad to be ending but similarly I can’t wait to get back to see my family and friends. The next four days will fly by and I should hopefully have many people I call friends in Japan.

mata ne!

Summer Sonic has come and gone. The music festival was on in Makuhari over the weekend and featured about 40-45 bands over the 2 days and was absolutely amazing. On Staurday, Sheryl and I went to the festival, taking in several bands during the day including Locklsey, Interpol, Blue Man Group, Editors, B’z, LCD SoundSystem, Klaxons and Maximo Park.

LCD Soundsystem rocked the place, an amazing mix of dance/indie. The Klaxons were amazingly well received too, the Japanese crowd going wild for their songs which were perfect for moshing to. Maximo Park, for Sheryl and I were the highlight of the day, giving it their all to a diminished crowd (Travis, Sum 41, Sugar Ray and B.E.P were on at the same time). They performed really well and had a great stage presence which made for a great gig.

Sunday was less hot and so more enjoyable and the line-up didn’t disappoint. The day started with The Enemy and The Twang, two up and coming British bands who drew a small but excited crowd to the main stage. Following these was a Japanese band (Remio Romen??) and Rooney. Both were okay but nothing special. The main draw for us was the afternoon lineup: The Fratellis, Bloc Party, Manic Street Preachers, Kasabian and Arctic Monkeys. All of them were great, the heat of the afternoon (about 34C) meant that for The Fratellis and Bloc Party, we were forced into the stands to avoid it. By the time the Manics came on we could stand the heat. They were made to feel very welcome by an appreciative crowd and played a great set of some classics and some new songs.

Following them was Kasabian, and for me they were the main act. They didn’t disappoint. The set was about an hour and they worked the crowd well, got everyone singing and moshing and generally created an excellent atmosphere. Matt, Sheryl and I were right at the front and although the crowd was going mad, it was well worth it. I highly recommend going to see Kasabian live, at Summer Sonic at least the were simply amazing.

Following them were the Arctics. They played a flawless set and the crowd went mad. For their set, it was just Sheryl and me who braved the front, Matt retreated to a safe distance. In the end we had too as well. The moshing started off well, no maliciousness, just pure enjoyment but when it got to the stage where people were charging us and clearly aiming to cause pain, it got too much.  We retreated to the edge of the standing area and enjoyed the performance safely. The Arctic Monkeys were good, but totally lacked any stage presence and banter with the crowd. The lead singer seemed a little bored/daunted at having to face 10,000 Japanese. Musically they were impeccable, and I definitely would see them again, preferably at home where they might actually talk!

So all in all it was a wicked weekend. And now I have to recover. I’m not up to much tomorrow (my regular weekend) but hopefully on Weds will be at a beach…

mata ne!

I went to Yoyogi park on Tuesday, chilled, drank beer and got sunburn. Matt and Sheryl got burnt too, with Sheryl being especially bad. This waylaid our plans for Mount Oyama until another weekend. Maybe. We also heard reports of Fuji and what to expect, from the various reports given, it’s different for everyone who does it.

I realised today that I have only 11 days left at Nova, 3-5-3 is how the next 3 weeks pan out with work. I also realised I have 28 and a half days left in Japan. Scary.

Here’s some advice I think is useful for the new batch of recruits heading to Japan. Enjoy!

1. If your coming to work for Nova, and reading this, you kind of know what to expect.

Many people I’ve seen come and go in my short time at Nova have come to Japan, liked it until they have to start working (me included). But there are a number of people who come as Visa-hunters and they are annoying. The often complain that the pay is low, and the hours are bad but all of this is explained to them before coming and still they complain. The Internet is full of stories about life at Nova at what to expect, Nova now even has a blog to tell new recruits what it’s gonna be like. One thing I will say (and this may seem really obvious) is that Nova is a Japanese company and so you will be treated differently from a company back home.

2. Bring plenty of stuff from home

The Japanese love to find out about their teachers home country and how it is different. Anything you can bring that shows this off is very useful. If you have brochures/menu’s/postcards/train maps bring them because when your teaching they become invaluable. Any pictures from Towns/Cities and the countryside are useful too as the Japanese idea of uniformity spreads far and wide, extending to City/Town and countryside aesthetics.

3. Don’t bring a guidebook, but do bring a phrasebook.

I brought a guidebook, and after the first week, never really used it. Save yourself £18/$40 and just ask someone. Students are a great source of info and love to tell you about places they’ve been and recommend. Other instructors/friends and random gaijin will always have somewhere they recommend. Added to this is Metropolis, a free English magazine distributed in Tokyo and Greater Tokyo areas (usually in Tower Records). Osaka/Kansai may have a similar magazine which caters to the resident Gaijin. It always has listings, gigs, films and mostly anything that takes your fancy.

A phrasebook is handy if you want to try to make an effort, something that the Japanese are always pleased to see. Even if it’s just to say please (onegaishimasu / kudasai), thank you (arigato) or where are the toilets? (toire wa doko desu ka?) it definitely shows some respect.

4. Make friends with the locals

If you don’t, you miss out on half of what’s going on at any place you visit. Many places don’t have English signs or translations of Japanese text (in Museums for example). Having someone who can translate, show you the cool stuff and tell you the best places to drink is such a gift. The benefit for your Japanese friend is that they get the kudos of being with a Gaijin and they can practice their English. Win-Win!

5. Learn Japanese

Show some respect, try and learn the language. Even if it’s a little, enough to get you by in a restaurant/bar it shows that you are here because you want to be part of the county. Admittedly I haven’t actively been studying but through immersion, I have been adding to my vocabulary, improved my listening and can easily negotiate through many social situations. Plus, speaking Japanese is cool.

6. Enjoy it!

Many people come to Japan for many reasons. The main one should be to enjoy yourself! Do what you want to do, go where you want to go and be glad you’ve got the chance to be in such a strange, different, interesting and amazing county.

Enough of my evangelising, if you have any comments or feedback I welcome them. Until the next time!

mata ne!

p.s.

I’ve just scaled the 5000 hits mark. Not a lot but thanks if you’ve been reading this blog!

Today I went to the Matsudo Hana-bi (fireworks) festival and took some wicked pics. It was an exciting event, one that lasted an hour and was cool to see lots of Japanese people dressed in the traditional dress of Yukatas and Jinbeis (similar to Kimonos).

It was hectically busy, the 10 minute walk from the station to the Edo-gawa was packed with thousands of people with the same idea. The streets were lined with people, a mixture of traditionally dressed and those dressed in a western way.

The heat was still intense and the humidity nearly unbearable but it was worth it even if the view wasn’t ideal (look at the silhouettes in most of the pics, an artistic choice but that’s what I saw!). The fireworks were cool, apparently over 8000 let off in a little over an hour. The ending was, as is to be expected, the most spectacular and worth fighting through crowds to get back to the station and home for.

More work tomorrow, only 2 days left of another week. Time is racing by at the moment…

mata ne!

This last weekend was eventful, having been getting stuff for Fuji the previous weekend, Tuesday was all about Mt. Takao. Mount Takao is a small mountain (599m above sea-level) and was supposedly really easy to scale. With this in mind we headed to the mountain to try out our new gear and get some pre-Fuji practice in.

The ascent was made very easy by the fact that they’ve built a road pretty much all the way to the top, and that you can take a cable car to reach the top if you so desire. We were hardcore though and wanted to walk to the top. The route we chose was 3.8km of steep inclines, taking in some very windy and steep sections but mostly it was quite straight forward, it was a little disconcerting having the concrete road to walk along so we changed direction and route to a more natural trail which made it feel like proper hiking.

The journey to the top took about 2 and a half hours of walking, which was bad considering it’s supposed to take ninety minutes in total. At the top, the views were stunted by the dense clouds surrounding the mountain and no there was nothing of great worth seeing (or taking pictures of).

The descent took a more interesting route, down route number six. I would recommend anyone walking up/down Mt Takao to go by route six. It follows a stream and a one point you walk down the stream for a few hundred metres as part of the route, it’s exciting, interesting and everything you want from a walk in the country.

The descent was about eighty minutes which made up for the poor climb, but on the way down I was getting dizzy and even though I was drinking plenty, I couldn’t shake it off. I had something to eat once I returned to civilization but it didn’t seem to work. When I was home, I crashed out but not before feeling a little nauseous and very dizzy.

The next was Toshimaen, and after a 14 hour sleep, I felt right as rain again. Toshimaen is a big water/theme park and is amazing. It’s a little pricey (￥3800 for the water park) but definitely worth it. There are about 15 slides, 6 or 7 pools and loads to see and do. We spent the day lounging around the pool, going on the slides and generally larking around in the sun and extreme temperatures we’re experiencing now.

So that was the weekend that was, another 6 more to go and I’m done!

mata ne!    またね！

The last few days of the rainy season are petering out, which is good and bad at the same time. It means that the humidity levels are unbearable. Yesterday was like walking around in a sauna, literally. The 15 minute walk to the train station has become intolerable in the middle of the day as the heat is just too much.  The temperature is on the rise again, the last few days it’s been about 30 during the day, and I’m sure it’s still about that much at night too.

My air-conditioner has been on full blast, something that I’m aware is bad for the environment etc but with out it the heat is too much! I tried to sleep with it off last night and it wasn’t a comfortable night that’s for sure. My students reckon it will get even hotter over the next 4 or 5 weeks, so I am definitely looking forward to coming back home and diving into the nearest flooded field or street and cooling off (what is going on with the weather in the UK?).

I’ve started applying for positions in the UK now, I should hopefully have something definite to report soon, it’s all programming style jobs so hopefully I will be able to come home and get straight into it. I’m trying to get something together to show prospective employees before I leave but I have lots of other things to be doing so it’s always being delayed.

mata ne!