Lily Goes To Japan

Gomen Ne - Sorry

2008-04-16T10:56:00.001+01:00

Hi Everyone. Sorry I haven't posted anything since getting back to the UK, but when I said I would, that was before I got a job and decided to study for my driving test and enter to run a marathon, among other things. Part of it is probably laziness too, if I am honest. I am getting used to my life here again. Japan seems years ago now. If I get round to it, I'll try and finish off a few posts I have in my head but if it doesn't happen it doesn't happen. After I find out in October if I have a place in the 2009 London Marathon this blog might require a name change to Lily Runs The Marathon. Fingers crossed...

東京 – Tokyo

2008-03-08T09:24:00.005+00:00

I left Nagasaki last Friday morning. (Wow, has it already been a week?) May and I treated ourselves to breakfast at Mos Burger, we said goodbye to everyone at the dormitory and then we got on a bus together, bound for Fukuoka Airport. Those three hours on the bus were both happy and sad. We were on our way home but that meant we were leaving each other and leaving a lot of great things behind in Nagasaki too.

Since May was flying to Seoul, we got off at the International Terminal. From there I had to take a free shuttle bus to the domestic terminal. I said goodbye to May here, which was obviously very sad. We are both so determined to see each other again though, it didn't really feel like goodbye.
The bus pulled away and the 'Sayonara' ending song from Howl's Moving Castle played on my ipod.

*

The flight to Tokyo was fine. It took took two hours, so it basically felt like we went up and straight back down again. I arrived in Tokyo in the early evening and I was aware that it would be getting dark soon, so I ignored my hunger and fatigue and headed for my youth hostel. This involved two train changes which, with a suitcase, rucksack, handbag and paper and bamboo Japanese umbrella for my sister, was quite an effort. It wasn't fun navigating Tokyo's rail network with all this luggage, but what choice did I have? Given the vast quantities of food I had eaten in the preceding two weeks (due to the numerous farewell dinners and a commitment to finish all the food in my apartment) I thought the exercise was probably not a bad thing. Still, my19kg suitcase was quite a beast to haul on and off trains. I managed to time my journey to perfection though, as I just caught the last glimpses of a Tokyo sunset, the sun sinking behind Fuji-san (Mt. Fuji), leaving the famous volcano burning terracotta red on the horizon.

Seeing my youth hostel was such a relief. I stayed in a different one when I first arrived in Japan in September but it was in the same area (Shinjuku-ku) and when the building looks like this:
...how could I possibly miss it? Checked-in, found my room: more relief. When I read 'dormitory-style rooms' on the youth hostel website, I started preparing myself for three nights of disturbed, public sleep. So seeing this was just wonderful:
Curtains! And a reading lamp! Privacy, yay! As it happened, I didn't need them that much since the other people in the room turned out to be... well, ok, first, one of the girls, Lee Anna, I already knew. (I know, what are the chances?!) She was one of the Gappers who came to Tokyo back in September. She had spent the past six months working in Kumamoto and now, like me, was stopping in Tokyo briefly on her way back home (to Vancouver). The girl in the bed above me, Danielle, was also a Gapper, but she was just starting her placement. There was also an American from Georgia with a voice like honey and an Australian snowboarder from Perth. We all got on really well and chatted a lot over the next few days about our respective homes and experiences.

Danielle and I clicked particularly well, so we ended up doing some sightseeing together. This was such a wonderful relief. I was expecting to spend three days alone in Tokyo in a sort of limbo, since I didn't want to leave Japan but I wanted to go home. Spending time with someone who I got on well with and who was in the exact same situation as I was six months ago then, was fantastic.

The first day I was there though, Saturday March 1st, I went on a day-trip alone to see Fuji-san. I took a 2-hour bus to Kawaguchi-ko (Lake Kawaguchi), walked around the town a bit and went up to a viewing platform to see the volcano. It was a lovely little day trip, but unfortunately some cloud had settled in over Fuji-san this was the view I got:
It was actually a little clearer than this photo but still, I had seen more impressive sights in Japan. Well, maybe I am being a little harsh. It's size was extraordinary. I was truly colossal. I definitely felt like I was looking at a volcano too, so that was quite cool.

The lake:

After a slightly longer than expected return journey – there was a problem with the bus so we had to wait on the side of the road for another one to come and blah blah blah – I got back to the youth hostel at around 4:30 and I was just shattered. I managed to make it down to the convenience store to buy some food, but after that I didn't leave the hostel that day. I had a bath, read, chatted with the girls for a while, then fell asleep.

The next day I felt I could take things at a more leisurely pace, having no long-distance bus journeys to fit in. This was when Danielle and I went off together, hopping from one site to the next. We went to Harajuku, Tsukiji and the Imperial Palace. We may have gone to a few other places too but they kind of all blend into one in my memory. Tsukiji was my favourite. There is a giant fish market there, where the first catch of the day are brought and sold. Surrounding it are scores of sushi and sashimi restaurants which sell some of the freshest (i.e. finest) fish in Japan. It is apparently best first thing in the morning but we chose being slightly lazy over getting the best of the best sushi and went there for lunch. We were fortunate enough to bump into a man handing out discount leaflets for the restaurant where he worked, so we each got ¥500 off our lunch. I ended up paying ¥360 (£1.75) for some absolutely delicious sushi. Yum yum.

After lunch we walked to the Imperial Palace and had a stroll through the gardens. It was nice enough but certainly not one my favourite sights in Japan. I did enjoying walking around Tokyo a little though. Usually, you just travel by train or metro because that is the quickest and easiest way to get somewhere, but we both had the time to walk and the weather was lovely so why not?

I didn't go out in the evening, the same as the previous two nights. I was just so exhausted. Plus, there wasn't anything else in Tokyo that I desperately wanted to see. You may have gathered by now that I wasn't all that impressed with Tokyo, even after a second visit. Perhaps if I liked to go clubbing all night and shopping all day, it would be more my kind of city, but I am a bit of a geek and I like sightseeing and exploring. The sights I found a bit of a let down and Tokyo is too big to explore on foot really. The buildings were remarkably tall, I'll give Tokyo that. Like, you have to strain your neck to see the top of them.
I had to wake up early on the morning of Monday March 3rd for my flight back to England. Lee Anna and Danielle got up for my departure (Danielle even helped me with my luggage to the lobby) so yet again, I found myself saying goodbye to friends I had made in Japan. Leaving the youth hostel, catching the trains to the airport, checking in... all of it I did in a state of numbness. It didn't feel real. It was too significant a day for me to take everything in. The twelve-hour flight went remarkably smoothly, and time didn't drag as you might expect it would. I highly recommend Virgin Atlantic. They were great. Each passenger has their own TV screen and there is such a vast choice of entertainment it was impossible to watch everything I wanted to. I only slept for about an hour and still I couldn't make it through all the episodes of Family Guy they had on offer.

Bang. Tires touch down on English tarmac. Home.

As I was walking to the baggage carousel, I heard someone calling my name behind me. I turned around and it was Lucy, yet another Gapper whom I had already met and who had just finished her placement. She was partnered with Lee Anna in Kumamoto, as it happened. Lucy had been on the same plane as me for the past half a day and it was only as we were getting off that we met. It's a funny world, isn't it? We talked about our experiences at break-neck speed to try and fit everything in, as we only had the time it took to collect our luggage and go through passport control before we had to separate again.

Seeing my Dad for the first time in six months, there waiting for me in arrivals.... it goes without saying that it was... I can't come up with a good enough word to describe it. He had told me on the phone the week before that he would be wearing his red winter coat so I could spot him easily in the crowd, so one of the first things he said to me was, “Can I take my coat off now? It's sweltering in here”. Good to be back, Dad.

Dad and I left Lucy to find her Mum and we got in Dad's car – how good it was to see that little blue Nissan again! - and hit the road. Destination: Preston, Lancashire. From London this was a four-hour drive, but that felt like nothing compared to the amount of travelling I had done recently. Dad and I talked all the way home. It was a fantastic four hours, made even better by the goody bag of English food my Dad had prepared for me. Pringles, Iced Gem and Haribo Fizzy Mix have never tasted so good.

My house looks almost exactly the same as when I left it in September. The only difference I can spot is a new bath mat. Even all of my fish are still alive! The people have changed a bit. My sister is now seventeen and looking more and more like an adult – albeit, a rather unique one – by the day. My eldest brother is deep in his studies and has a new girlfriend, who he seems to utterly adore. My other brother came back from university in Coventry for the weekend and he is more well-built and balder than I remember. He had obviously shaved his head very recently, I like to think for my return :-)
There has been a lot of gift-giving and catching up, and still plenty more to go too. I am settling back down into my English life nicely and am already working on my Post-Japan To Do list. The priority on there is finding a job so that I can start earning and paying my Dad back for my Japan trip. The grand total spent on this whole Japan experience was... drum roll, please... £4113, ¥848,771. Out of that, I owe my Dad £2388. That's not too bad, certainly not as much as I was expecting. And for what I got out of it, it was worth every single penny.

*

There is still more to come on this blog. There are a few things I didn't get a chance to write about at the time they happened, so I'm going to be going back in time a bit to catch up. Stay tuned.

2008-03-04T20:48:00.003+00:00

I am back in England now, back in Preston. Everything is a little weird. In some ways it feels as though I never left but in others... wow. It isn't that living in England again is strange, but rather that not living in Japan is strange. Of course, I can't have both so I will just have to get used to this place. There is so much to tell about my journey home but I am too tired to go into it all now. So there is still more to come; This blog isn't over yet!

かえります – I'm Going Home

2008-02-27T03:29:00.001+00:00

I only have two more days left in Nagasaki. On Friday I will leave, probably forever. I am very happy that I have done this, and that my work here is nearly over – because it was hard – but it won't be easy leaving my friends and some of the quirky things about Japan that I have come to take for granted. I'm a little overwhelmed at the moment. I have thought about the journey home a lot in the past six months and now it is two days away – wow. This has felt like a time-out from my life so it might be difficult getting back into the swing of things in England. Still, I don't think English food will taste as good, English weather will feel as refreshing, or the English language will sound as melodic as it will next Monday.

My journey home should work out something like this: I am leaving Nagasaki on Friday morning, getting a bus to Fukuoka airport, then hopping on a plane for Tokyo. I will spend the next three nights in the Tokyo International Youth Hostel in Shinjuku-ku and spend the following two days sightseeing in and around the city. Then first thing on Monday morning, I will go to Narita International Airport and get a 12noon flight to London Heathrow. My Dad is meeting me at the airport and he will drive me back home to Preston. *sighs* It will be a very interesting next few days, I think. May is travelling with me as far as Fukuoka airport. From there she is flying to Korea to spend the next three weeks with some of her relatives there. After that she is coming back to Japan and spending a week in Tokyo, then flying back home to Vancouver. I am going to miss her a lot.

*

Random photograph: Below is a photo of my favourite road sign. Many of you may not have a favourite road sign but I do. According to this sign, there are only two things you need to worry about: Nagasaki, which is two kilometres underground, and Hirado, which is one hundred and nine kilometres up in the sky. The Most Informative Sign in the World is situated about 2km from Nagasaki train station, which I suppose is the centre if the city. But really, if you hadn't figured out which city you were in until you were that close to the centre, then a sign that says you either need to start digging or head upward to Hirado (apparently your only other option) is surely just going to cause more confusion.

Placement Summary

2008-02-25T03:02:00.000+00:00

I was asked by Kimura-san to write an article for the hospital newspaper, summarizing my placement in Nagasaki. Here is it, spelling and grammatical errors included:

Something To Tell The Grandchildren

I was told by many people before I came here that the six months I was due to spend in Japan would fly by at an alarming speed. At first I didn't believe them but now, looking back, they were absolutely right. It was a shock to the system initially, being thrown into the middle of a Japanese hospital, but so many of the staff tried to welcome May and I as warmly as they could that we soon started to feel not like temporary volunteers, but as members of the hospital. It was this fact that made my placement so enjoyable and it is this fact that makes me sad to be leaving Nagasaki.

Since coming to Japan I have encountered many things for the first time. It has been a long series of firsts after another, in fact. This was the first time I have lived alone and in a foreign country, the first time I have had a full-time job, and the first time I have put my life in the hands of a fugu chef (the latter causing much trepidation among my family). Being constantly confronted by things that were unfamiliar to me was very difficult at times, but equally, very rewarding. It has encouraged me to be less inhibited, more open-minded and more fearless.

There have been many wonderful and exciting events in the past half a year that I will always remember fondly. Some of the highlights for me are as follows:

● Seeing Nagasaki's O Kunchi Matsuri – it was definitely worth waking up early for!
● Travelling to Kumamoto for the Kyushu Red Cross Sports Competition – I was proud to cheer for my hospital, especially after seeing many of the staff consume an impressive amount of alcohol during the bus journey and opening ceremony.
● Watching a surgical procedure for the first time – and the second, and the third... Thank you to all of the surgeons and surgical nurses who allowed me to peer over their shoulders on the numerous occasions I managed to make my way into the surgery room.
● Bonenkai – Need I say more?

Of course, it wasn't all road trips and parties, May and I worked a little bit too. We worked in the nurses stations, the pharmacy, radiology, test department, operation room, kitchen, medical matters and nursery. Having a schedule that had me working in a range of departments not only meant I got to see a variety of things and contribute in a variety of ways, but it also meant I got to meet and befriend many people. Although my work at the hospital has been important to me and, I think, character-building, it is the people that I will remember. It is the people that I will miss. Thank you... for everything. You know who you all are, so I won't embarrass anyone by mentioning names. The phrase, “so much to do, so little time” comes to mind though. May and I were swamped with invitations to visit people's homes or have dinner with them and unfortunately it just wasn't possible to fulfill them all. It was very flattering to be extended so many invitations, although I am not sure I deserve half the amount of kindness that I have received here.

This has been without a doubt, the most challenging, enjoyable and gratifying time of my life. I will never forget Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Hospital and the people who devote so much of their time and energy to it. Nagasaki has become like a second home to me now and I would not chose another place to spend my gap year even if I could. And who knows, maybe I will come back at some point in the future for a visit...

宮島 - Miyajima

2008-02-21T03:20:00.002+00:00

After having breakfast at the hotel in Hiroshima last Wednesday (13th February), I went to the Tourist Information Centre located in the Peace Park to buy a one-day tram and ferry travel pass. For ¥840 this allows you unlimited travel on both the trams and ferries in Hiroshima, meaning I could get to the tram stop at the ferry terminal from central Hiroshima, get a ferry to the island, a ferry back, and another tram back into the city centre all on this one ticket. Smashing.

This is the island of Miyajima, seen from the ferry on the way over:
One of the reasons I decided to visit Hiroshima during my busy schedule was so that I could come to Miyajima. Miyajima was what clinched the decision for me. I have always wanted to come here and see the famous floating torii of the Itsukushima Jinja (Itsukushima shrine). I think I wrote a post about it back in August 2007 so I won't regurgitate the same information about the island's history here.

The first thing you notice as you get off the ferry is the herd of the tamest deer you have ever seen. Having spent the past six months trying to befriend my local stray cats with zero success, to see these wonderfully tame deer was incredible. I resisted going up to them and touching them like some of the other tourists though because I had read that a) they will head-butt you if they feel like it and b) they like to eat clothing, bags, whatever they can get their teeth into.

A few of the pack:
A ten-minute walk from the ferry terminal put me right in front of it, the floating torii. It was breathtaking seeing it in person after spending so long looking at it in photographs. I was lucky enough to see it at a semi-high tide so it did actually appear to be floating on water rather than mud.
The only other thing that I wanted to do on the island was to get the ropeway (cable car) to the top of the highest mountain on Miyajima, Misen-yama (Mt. Misen), 530m. A return ropeway journey set me back ¥1800, nearly ¥1000 more than the cost of travel to and from the island, but it turned out to be money very well spent. Oddly, it was snowing quite heavily on the way up (and down) but at the summit it was clear and sunny.... hmm? Here's the view that was worth every last yen:

And if there was any doubt remaining about the money, this really made it indisputable:
Not only was there a pack of monkeys who were hanging around the ropeway station (sorry for the pun), but they were semi-tame too! You could get within a metre or two of them and they didn't mind being photographed at all. As is never surprising with monkeys, they were just as curious in you as you are with them. They were especially cute when about ten of them would huddle up together for warmth (it may have been sunny up there but, boy, was it chilly).

And that was Miyajima. I arrived back in Hiroshima at around 3pm so it was a very easy day trip. A short blog post like this doesn't do it justice. It was one of the highlights of my trip to Honshu though, it really was. Torii, deer, monkeys, mountain view... fantatstic.

広島 - Hiroshima

2008-02-16T03:15:00.011+00:00

I arrived at Hiroshima station at around 1:30pm on Tuesday 12th February. With a hotel already in mind after some internet research prior to travelling, I set out on foot down Ekimae-dōri (which translates as 'the street in front of the station'). Immediately, I was taken by how beautiful a city Hiroshima was. Spacious, tree-lined streets... gorgeous river... it reminded me, interestingly, of Nagasaki. Kyoto was lovely, of course, but enormously different from my home city in Kyushu.

A ten minute walk saw Ekimae-dōri become Heiwa-Odōri, or Peace Boulevard, the main street in Hiroshima. The hotel I was looking for was just a couple more minutes walk from there. It is called the Toyoko Inn and is one of a chain of business hotels found in all the major cities of Japan. I stayed in the Toyoko Inn in Kumamoto with the rest of the team who went on the Red Cross sports trip back in November. It was from this experience that I knew I would like the hotel in Hiroshima and since it was in the perfect location for my purposes, I decided to go for it. It was almost exactly the same price as the ryokan in Kyoto incidentally.
Check-in wasn't until four pm so I left my rucksack behind the reception desk and went exploring. I came across this:
Now, is it me or does it appear that this duck is reading a newspaper whilst sitting on an invisible toilet?

After about an hour of wandering around I got a sudden craving for some curry, so I changed my objective to seeking out a curry house. Today really was my lucky day, as I stumbled upon this restaurant after only a few minutes of looking:
“Good Smell. Good curry”. Sounds good enough for me, I thought.

After settling in at the hotel for a while, I went out again and made the ten minute walk to Heiwa Kōen (Peace Park). I particularly wanted to see the Genbaku Dōmu (A-Bomb Dome). I had first seen pictures of it many years before during history lessons at school and was struck then by its desperate appearance. Being only a matter of metres from the hypocentre, it managed to stay standing because it was subjected to primarily downward rather than horizontal forces. It is now a Unesco World Heritage site.

The cenotaph, containing the names of all the known victims of the bomb. Each year at the memorial service the names of all the hibakusha (atomic-bomb survivors) who have died in the past year are added to it. Last year over 5000 more names were added.

The Children's Peace Memorial, inspired by the leukaemia victim Sadako, who believed if she folded a thousand paper cranes, her wish to be cured would come true. She died before she reached 1000, but her efforts inspired children across the world to fold cranes in the hope of one day achieving peace.
The monument for the Korean victims of the bomb. One in ten of the victims of the bomb were Korean, largely due to the fact thousands were forced into coming to Japan for slave labour by the Japanese during the war.
I had been warned that Kyoto was extremely cold at the moment but compared to Hiroshima, ha! I woke up on Wednesday morning to this image from my hotel window:
A blizzard, by English standards! And a little later, after breakfast:
Wednesday was the day I had planned to go to the island of Miyjima as a day trip and I wasn't going to let a little snow stop me. I left the hotel wearing all the clean clothes I had left in my bag, ready to spend most of the day outside. I'll talk about Miyajima in a separate post because there's quite a lot to say.

I got back from Miyajima in the late afternoon, with just enough time to see the Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum. This museum is only given one line in my Lonely Planet guide book, but that was enough to convince me to see it. “... Featuring Salvador Dali's Dream of Venus...” The Salvador Dali?! The Dream of Venus?! The painting lived up to its expectations without a doubt. It was truly amazing. There were some other wonderful paintings there too, many by Japanese artists. I enjoy admiring artwork, but sometimes there is just too much to look at for me, too much to try and appreciate. This was quite a small museum however, so that suited me very well.

I woke up bright and early again the following day, Thursday. No snow this time though. After breakfast in the hotel lobby and after checking out I went back to Heiwa Kōen to see the Atomic Bomb Museum. Needless to say, it was very moving. It was also very informative. I learned that, unlike Nagasaki which aimed to simply rebuild after the destruction of the bomb, Hiroshima was given a make-over too. The streets were widened, trees were planted (many of which were donated from various places from across the globe). They wanted Hiroshima to become The City of Peace and so it had to look like it. From spending three days there, I think they did a very good job. It is a really beautiful city and a lovely place to explore on foot.
To get home to Nagasaki I had to first travel to Fukuoka/Hakata. I worked out that if I went by Shinkansen to Fukuoka and then by train to Nagasaki, it would cost me well over ¥12,000, but it would only take me four hours (excluding the time it would take to change trains). I then worked out that taking a bus all the way back, changing at Fukuoka, would take me seven hours but would only cost ¥6500. I decided to go for the latter. I had already finished everything I wanted to do in Hiroshima and sitting on a long-distance bus for the afternoon, listening to my ipod and enjoying the scenery didn't sound that bad to me. And if I would be saving ¥6000 too, then all the better. After a small glitch early on, involving me getting on the wrong bus, I had a very easy journey home. It was wonderful seeing my apartment again, lying on my bed, playing on my laptop. After five days and 1700km of travelling Japan, I was absolutely exhausted. I ate some dinner, put my camera on to charge and fell asleep.

*

Next, Lily Goes To Miyajima.

京都 - Kyoto

2008-02-15T05:00:00.009+00:00

Wow. Where do I begin? Since I last posted, my Mum has come and gone, I have ridden the Shinkansen ('Bullet Train') across Japan and I have seen Kyoto, Hiroshima and Miyajima. Well, let's do things in chronological order, shall we?

So, my Mum came to visit me in Nagasaki. I went to meet her at Nagasaki airport (the runway of which stretches out into Ōmura Bay) on Sunday 3rd February. We then spent the next six days in Nagasaki shopping, eating, sightseeing and socialising with some of my friends here. Her and May got on really well and everyone I introduced her to loved her. I took her to the hospital to meet some of the people I work with and about 75% tried to speak in English for her sake, even though only about 25% actually speak in English. There was a bit of laughing about the lack of a common language but that made everyone smile that little bit more to compensate.

It was nice showing my Mother my home turf here in Japan, but we had previously decided that we would travel a bit together too. On Sunday 10th February we woke up bright and early, said sayonara ('goodbye') to May and headed for Nagasaki Station. We got on a train to Fukuoka/Hakata (which took 2 hours) and there hopped onto an Hikari Shinkansen bound for Tokyo. We got off at Shin-Ōsaka Station and changed for a Shinkansen going through Kyoto. In a total of five hours travelling time we had travelled 854km, and the first 174 took two hours on the regular train. It was very impressive but a little weird travelling on the Shinkansen. If you imagine a film clip taken from a moving train and then imagine speeding it up and watching it in fast-forward, that was what it was like. Anyway, here's the Shinkansen we caught Hakata to Ōsaka:
After navigating Kyoto Station (which is the train station equivalent of a mystical labyrinth by the way) I managed to book us two nights in a traditional Japanese Ryokan (Inn).

It was a lovely little hotel. It was quite expensive but there was no arguing that we were travelling the Japanese way now. Plus, a large and delicious breakfast was thrown in. Can't argue with that. Aaaand do you see that table in the second photo... well, it has a heater built into it. You slide your legs under and it keeps your feet toasty while you enjoy a cup of ocha (tea) and an okashi (cake). Bliss.

The following day I headed out to Fushimi-Inari Taisha, a Shinto shrine in the South-east outskirts of Kyoto. Although many of you might not recognise the name, some of you might recognise the place:

The shrine is dedicated to the Gods of rice and sake (Japanese rice wine) and is the main Inari shrine out of the 30,000 dotted across Japan. Needless to say, it is very popular with tourists and when I arrived there at around 10:30am it was packed. Even so, the beauty of this famous shrine was undeniable. The torii-lined pathway extends 4km up the mountain, Inari-yama. I didn't walk the entire 4km. As much as I was enjoying the stroll under the torii, the prospect of an 8km trek in the middle of February didn't appeal. Besides, I would be leaving Kyoto the next day and I still had some more sightseeing to do.

Next I went to Gion, the traditional entertainment district of Kyoto. It was here that I stood my best chance of seeing a real-life Geisha, as they still wander the streets here on their way to and from appointments. In a stroke of pure luck, I stumbled upon a Geisha posing for some photographers after being in Gion for only five minutes. Jackpot:
I stopped on the walk back to the Ryokan at the Kamo river. It was turning into a beautiful evening and what with the distant mountains and the river birds and the buildings of Kyoto on all sides of me, I decided to sit on the bank for a while and read some of my book.

After another night in the Ryokan, Mum and I went back to Kyoto Station. There we said goodbye. She got on a Shinkansen for Tokyo and I got on a local train to Shin-Ōsaka, and from there took a Shinkansen to Hiroshima. Mum is flying back to England from Tokyo Narita Airport today. I have been in Hiroshima for the past three days so I don't know what she got up to in Tokyo, but if her time in Nagasaki is anything to go by, it probably involved a lot of shopping :-)

Stay tuned for the next instalment, where Lily Goes To Hiroshima.

30 ⽇ - 30 Days

2008-01-30T03:28:00.000+00:00

This is really it. I only have 30 more days here in Nagasaki, and 34 more days in Japan. How did I get here? How did I make it this far?
My Mum is coming to visit me on Sunday and will stay in Japan for two weeks. As great a blessing as this is, with it comes the need for a lot of preparation, planning ans socializing on my part. My social life has never been as active as it is now, I don't think. All of my friends at the hospital are really excited about her visit so I've been getting a lot of invitations for us both for dinner and stuff. I haven't had to turn anybody down yet but our schedule is getting so full that I might have to soon. I should stop complaining. It is reminding me how much a part of the hospital I feel now.

Speaking of socializing, May and I have been invited to Sinenkai this Thursday. Remember Bonenkai, the end of year party that was held in the middle of December? Well, Shinenkai is the start of year party. It will be a night full of food, alcohol and semi-naked dancing no doubt, at least it will if Bonenkai is anything to go by. Is it wrong that I am looking forward to it even though I know this? When I asked a few of the nurses on 6E if they were planning on going, they all raised their hands in unison and yelled, “Iku! Iku!” (“I'm going, I'm going!”). Looks like I'm not the only one who is looking forward to it.

No Beanstalk Though

2008-01-26T02:54:00.000+00:00

Ha! I successfully made my own red bean sweet paste this morning, without a recipe I might add. Now I can conquer the world!

Here in Japan, everything has this sweet bean paste in it. You bite into a cake or pastry and expect it to be filled with jam or cream or something, but nine times out of ten it is filled with this paste. At first that bothered me but now I love it. I have no idea what it is called but it sure is yummy. I think I'm going to take some of the dry beans back to England with me so I can make some for my family.

Woo. Feeling productive.

⼦ども - Children

2008-01-26T02:44:00.001+00:00

Here are a few photographs of the children who go to the hospital nursery. All of these photos were taken by May with her camera so I can take no credit for them whatsoever. (Where I have listed two names, the latter is the shortened version that we use over their full names).

Ayaka-/Aya-chan:
Aya-chan is the oldest child at the nursery. Last week, while playing with a piece of my hair, she asked "why is your hair yellow?". Very good question, Aya-chan. Unfortunately, even if I were able to explain in Japanese, I think the concept of genetic inheritance might be lost on a four year-old. Still, I think she has a lot of potential.

Tatsuhi-/Tabo-kun:

Hiroto-/Hiro-kun:

Reina-/Rei-chan:
Hiro-kun and Rei-chan are siblings. Watching Rei-chan play, you can tell she has an older brother. She's forceful, stubborn and a little rough. Oh, and everything is a competition. Yeah, I can relate to that, having grown up with two older brothers myself.

Yuto-kun:

Yuna-chan:

Rintoro-/Rin-kun:
May did well to get a picture of Rin-kun that isn't a complete blur. He never stays still. You have to watch out for him because he seems to like climbing on things and then jumping off them, and he'll happily use you as a prop in his never-ending obstacle course.

Haurka-/Haru-chan:

Yukika-/Yuki-chan:
It was a miracle to get a photo of Yuki-chan where she isn't crying. She doesn't like May and me, so cries for about 90% of the time we are there. The 10% when she isn't crying she is usually laughing at Hiro-kun pulling faces at her.

Tateki-kun (with Re-chan):
Tateki-kun is the most quiet, gentle little boy that you will ever meet. What's funny is that his Dad (who is a doctor at the hospital) is exactly the same.

Tateki-kun & Yuna-chan:

べっぷ – Beppu III

2008-01-22T03:06:00.001+00:00

I know, I know, I went to Beppu like two weeks ago and I should really have posted about it by now. Better late than never though.

May and I left Nagasaki a week last Saturday on an 8:40 bus direct to Beppu. After a scenic and at points very windy journey, we arrived in central Beppu at around 12:30. Hungry, we quickly found our hotel, the Ekimae Goto Onsen, dumped our bags there and checked out the nearby train station for restaurants. We settled on a steaming hot bowl of udon in the end. We then explored the town a bit, found a Korean restaurant, much to our interest and then got on a tour bus of the local rigoku or 'hell springs'. These are some of Japan's hot springs that you definitely do not want to bathe in. Too hot and too toxic. Beppu is famous for it's hot springs by the way. There are two types, the rigoku hells and the onsen, in which you bathe. Our hotel, as its name suggests, sits directly over one of these onsen, which we had the pleasure of being able to use whenever we wanted.
We decided on the Korean restaurant for dinner because May has been making me salivate for months whenever she talks about Korean food – hot, healthy and spicy, mmm. The owner was Korean, so May enjoyed being able to speak in her native language for a night, and I was happy because I had a plate of awesome food in front of me. The owner was impressed that I managed to eat all of the kimchi soup that May ordered for me because kimchi is used in Korean cooking to make everything super spicy. Being English however, I grew up eating Indian curry so a little bit of spicy cabbage barely registered on my Hot-O-Meter.
After dinner, we explored a bit more, shopped, took some photographs. What made my night though was spotting something that I have been looking for in Japan for four months. It was something that I specifically wanted to give as a present to one of my family members and here it was, in a small souvenir shop in Beppu, Oita-Ken. It was cheaper than I expected too, although a little awkward to carry ;-)

Sunday started bright and early with a short train ride to Oita city, then a two-hour bus journey to Aso town in Kumamoto-Ken. From there we took another 40-minute bus ride up Aso-san (Mount Aso). We then took a cable car a few hundred metres to the top of Nakadake, one of the five peaks that makes up Aso-san. It was freezing - there was snow and everything - so we ran to take our first peek inside a volcano crater, got one of the Korean tourists who we met on the bus journey to take a quick photograph and then headed back down the mountain to a reasonable altitude. The photos we took didn't really do the spectacular landscape justice, but at least they have given you an idea of what I am talking about.

Cold, tired and hungry we made it back to Beppu at around 8pm. We did what anyone would have done in that situation: We went back to the Korean restaurant for dinner, into the open arms of the owner, and then soaked in the onsen at our hotel before heading to bed. Our bath was even more pleasurable as all the lovely food in our tummies hadn't cost us a penny. There was a Japanese man at the Korean restaurant who had had one too many sake's and on a whim decided to pay for the dinner of the two foreign girls sitting at the next table. Anything can happen.
After another quick dip in the hotel onsen the following morning, we checked out and caught our bus back to Nagasaki, squeaky clean but ready for a rest. It's amazing how tiring sitting on bus for hours on end is. I mean you're just sitting there, so why do you get off feeling like you need a good long nap?

*

People at the hospital are sensing that our time in Nagasaki is coming to an end. We have had three invitations this week already. Last week we had three also. We had to only pay for one of our meals last weekend. Aside from the obvious financial benefits, I am really enjoying making the most of my final few weeks in Japan. The people here are just great. Generous, kind, attentive. I have made some really good friends. It's almost a shame that I am leaving so soon.

せいじんしき - Seijinshiki Festival

2008-01-21T03:09:00.000+00:00

The second Monday in January marks the Seijin No Hi, or coming of age day. Men and women who have reached the age of 20 (hatachi) celebrate on this day the start of their adulthood. It seems to be acceptable to celebrate Seijinshiki not just on this day though, at least things certainly look that way as May and I celebrated it this Saturday just gone. She is 20 years old according to the western counting system and I am 20 according the Japanese counting system (where you are 1 on the day you are born). So either way you look at it, one of us was supposed to be celebrating our coming of age.

Kumiko-san and Oka-san kindly arranged for us to be dressed in their kimono for the day. We had tried on yukata (summer kimono) at the International Festival that took place in October but these... these were bone fide, the-whole-nine-yards kimono. It took two people two and a half hours to dress both May and me. There were so many layers, bits of string, back-boards, padding, towels... ugh, it was all very exciting and interesting and something I will remember for the rest of my life, but boy, was it tiring. It was very similar to how I imagine being dressed in a corset would be like - lots of pulling, tugging, bracing yourself - as was the end result: very pretty, but difficult to walk and breathe in.

Once fully kimono-clad, we took a walk around the hospital (where we got dressed) and showed a few of our friends on the staff. There were many “Kawai ne!” (“Cute!”), “Sugoi ne!” (“Amazing!”) and “Kirei!” (“Pretty!”), which was all very nice. After some photo-taking we then got in to Oka-san's car and drove to Suwa-jinja (the main Shinto shrine in Nagasaki). Something to note: riding in a car with a huge obi shaped into a flower on your back is tiring work!

After only a few hours of wearing the kimono, we were glad to get them off and back into our jeans. I have a new-found respect for women who wear kimono regularly, particularly geisha, who's kimono are notoriously heavy. Really, it was hard work just standing in them. Doing anything else required additional effort too. Still, kire katta desu, ne! (they were pretty, weren't they).

べっぷのしゃしん - Beppu Photographs

2008-01-16T03:22:00.000+00:00

I still don't have any time to write, so here are some photographs to keep you all quiet.

べっぷ - Beppu

2008-01-15T03:31:00.000+00:00

Wow, what a weekend I had. I spent three days in Beppu in Ōita-ken with May, and we even managed to squeeze in a day trip to Aso-san too, a volcano in central Kyūshū. I have had hardly any time to write anything since getting back, so I will let some of my photographs do all the talking.

Kanja-san

2008-01-11T03:42:00.000+00:00

I met a terminal cancer patient yesterday. It was only part way through a wonderful conversation with her that she told me her diagnosis. I didn`t really know what to say, so I just said that I was sorry and that it sounded like she had had an amazing life. She told me she had traveled to 25 countries, including England three times, and China, where she taught English. I found myself thinking about her last night and I regretted not learning more about her when I had the chance. Today though I found out her name and the date of her next treatment at the hospital. I have also loosely arranged to get a little time off work to go and see her when she is next here. I feel like I should buy her a gift or something, but what does one buy for someone who is dying? I can`t even give her food because she has no appetite due to all of her medications. Maybe I should just give her as much of my time as possible….?

50 Days To Go

2008-01-10T07:04:00.000+00:00

Today marks only fifty more days left of my placement in Nagasaki. Can I hear a "woo!"?

*

I am going to Oita this weekend with May. More on this when I get back.

しゃしん - Photographs

2008-01-07T03:28:00.000+00:00

Overlooking the Urakami river, taken from a bridge in front of the Red Cross Genbaku Hospital:

New Year decorations in the entranceway to a pachinko (vertical pinball) arcade:

The Ferris Wheel under construction atop a new department store, due to be completed in April:

A cartoon strip on the side of a building – I don't know why it is there, what it is trying to say, or why all of the characters are naked, so don't ask:

Overlooking the main street and tram-line in central Nagasaki:

It's not just clean. It's "Smokin' Clean":

Detail on some stone stairs at the Nagasaki Municipal Park:

きょうそう – Running

2008-01-07T03:21:00.000+00:00

I discovered that there is a running track within five minutes walk of my apartment I think on the second or third day of living in Nagasaki. I have been meaning post about it ever since. There always seemed to be more important things to write about, that is, until this post-new-year lull in activity. So here goes. Here's a post I wrote months ago that never got published:

I'm not one of those people who need a whole gym, complete with swimming pools, sauna's and whatever else gyms have these days. I'm not saying I don't like all that stuff, I just don't need it. All I need is a good pair of running shoes. I love to run. Back in England I would run alongside the canal, which made a beautiful route and also a cheap one. The canal runs behind the running track in Preston, which I would have used if they weren't charging £5 for each time you used it. It would have been nice to know how far I was running and how fast so that I could set myself goals, but there was no way I was going to pay five quid a go. So imagine my surprise and joy when I discover that not only does Nagasaki have a running track that is remarkably close to my apartment, but that it is completely free. I go running there two to four times a week now.
It is really pleasing as a runner to see the track being used by so many people of so many varying abilities. I have seen toddlers running about two metres and then getting distracted by something on the ground. I have seen ninety-year-old's walking a lap in twenty minutes. The local schools use it for P.E. lessons and sports events, and I have seen some professional athletes training there too. Japan truly is a nation of runners! It also has it's fair share of walkers, some of whom deserve honorary membership in the Ministry of Silly Walks. Seriously, there are people who look like they are dancing their way round the track (even when they aren't listening to music on an MP3 player), people who I can only guess have had one of their hips fused in a replacement operation at some point in the past, and people who have legs so bow-shaped they could carry a beach ball between their knees. I think it's great though, that people of any ability feel they can come to the track and exercise. You just wouldn't get that in England. You have to be able to run 10km in 30 minutes to feel worthy to use a track in England, which is such a shame.
There are two tracks - an inner 400m and an outer 600m. The inner has a sand surface and the outer is just pavement. I use the outer track because you only have to run two thirds of the number of laps to do the same distance and also, I don't like to get sand in my shoes. It is a really nice set-up they have, with bathrooms and water fountains at every corner (i.e. every 150m) and even on especially busy days, there is plenty of room for everyone. I took these photo's on a Saturday morning, which is normally very busy indeed, but not this day. There was a marathon the weekend before in Nagasaki, so maybe runners were staying home to rest after that.

クリスマスとおしょうがつ - Christmas and New Year

2008-01-04T06:22:00.001+00:00

It seems like an age since I last posted anything here. A lot has happened. I have spent my second Christmas abroad and 2007 has come to an end. Being as we are now in January, I have the delight of being able to say that next month I am going home. There are what feels like a million crucial and complicated things that I need to do before then, but no matter how stressed I get with all of that I just have to remember that in a little over two months none of this will be important.

So, Japanese Christmas. May summed it up perfectly in one sentence: they don't celebrate it religiously or culturally, they just think it looks pretty. It is very true that Christmas can transform even the drabbest train station or department store into a fantasy land of lights and decorations, but this rather superficial celebration of Christmas is rather lacking in the spirit of the season that we love in the West. With no family or close friends here in Nagasaki, Christmas passed May and I by without really changing our moods much. We did have a very pleasant time, it was just missing that something special that makes Christmas Christmas.

On Friday 21st December we were taken out to Bagdad Café (that's 'Bagdad' as opposed to 'Baghdad', according to their sign) by Kumiko-san, along with Oka-san and Goto-sensei to enjoy their Christmas menu. It wasn't what I would call a traditional Christmas dinner, as it featured spaghetti, pizza and seafood salad, but it was very delicious none the less.
May and I were working on Christmas day so we moved our own Christmas celebration to the day before. We basically spent the whole day baking, eating (the food we'd baked, the cake we bought, anything else we could get our hands on) and watching rented DVD's. So not much change there from a regular Christmas, apart from maybe the baking and you would probably watch all the new DVD's you received as presents rather than rented ones. On the 25th, I was working with the home nurse while May was still working on 4F. This meant that while she was bed-making and sorting through patient files, I was visiting ordinary Japanese people in their homes. It was a wonderful and unique way to spend Christmas day actually, even more so because it seems to be standard for the patient to give cake and tea to their guests. May and I spent our lunchtime handing out sweets and cookies to some of the hospital staff and we received a few presents in return. In the evening, we were invited over to Oka-san's house, where we were surprised with another Christmas meal that her daughter had cooked. All in all, a very nice Christmas but, if I'm honest, not even close to the one I missed over in England.

Custom-made keyrings from Oka-san and her daughter:
New Year is a much bigger occasion in Japan than Christmas. We were given four days off from work (combined with the weekend, six days) which is the longest break we have had since coming here. We could have done loads of amazing things, travelled, made the absolute most of our little holiday, but we instead decided to spend most of it shopping and relaxing at home. Don't judge us, we needed the break. We had been waiting for January before we started seriously shopping (which we succeeded in doing, bar a few minor lapses in concentration) because we had heard that Japan has some major New Year sales. It even has it's own special name, hatsuri, or first sale of the year. AND they have special lucky bags (fukubukuro) just for this occasion. You don't know what is inside when you buy them, but they're only about half the price of the contents' value. You're not completely in the dark though, since there are sample bags that you can open and there are different sizes for the bags containing clothes. As interesting as it would have been to buy one, I decided against it. Besides, I had already seen exactly what I wanted to buy:

A blue skirt (¥9555, normal price ¥13,5000) – This is the perfect skirt for me, so I think it was worth spending the equivalent of 2 weeks food money on it, don't you think?
A new pair of jeans (¥3990) - I needed to replace my old ones which are starting to fall apart a little. This style is called 'Boyfriend Baggy, but I am quietly ignoring the claim that they are baggy. I was lucky to find jeans that fit me at all in a country where most girls have a 21” waist and weigh under 100lbs;
A black top (¥2048, reduced from ¥4096) - It didn't photograph well unfortunately, but you can take my word for it that it is cute and looks great with a red top I bought during one of my “lapses in concentration” last month;
A pair of earrings (¥1260) – These were too unusual and too pretty to miss.
Now, the people who know me will know I am not a big shopping person and that I am normally plagued with guilt for days after buying myself anything. Japan has changed me though. Japan is shopping country and I am in need of retail therapy. I wasn't completely selfish however– I bought some omiyage (souvenirs) for people too, which, for obvious reasons, I can't tell you much more about.

May and I had anticipated a lot of people at the department store for the sale on January 1st, so we decided to get there for 10am when it opened. We were shocked: there were hundreds of people ordering themselves into nice, neat queues outside every door into the store. I had heard that everyone goes to the shrine on New Years' morning but apparently shopping is really the priority here. Then came the second shock of 2008: when the doors were opened, people started running! I mean literally running... all over the shot. And the store clerks were yelling for people please not to run, but it was already too late by then. All sense of propriety had been thrown out of the window. Incredible.

New Year mochi (rice cake):
Throughout this whole holiday period the weather has been going crazy. On December 23rd it was 17ºc and 68% humidity; On January 1st it was 7ºc and snowing and hailing. It seems to be stabilizing again now, but I don't know how long that will last. I'm used to it always being 12ºc and drizzling in England – I just can't take this kind of sudden change.

I have no idea how to finish such a long, rambling post so I will just do it with a random picture. This was taken on January 1st near Hamanomachi:
Owari desu!

No Music, No Life

2008-01-04T03:52:00.000+00:00

A few weeks ago, I asked one of my friends from the hospital if he likes music and he really impressed me with his answer. He replied, “Of course! No music, no life.” It impressed me because that is pretty much exactly how I feel about music; it expresses something for me that nothing else can. Add onto that that it is quite a clever thing to say considering English is his second language. Anyway, after this, I respected him more on a personal level. Imagine my surprise then when I see the following sign outside a music store while I was shopping on January 1st:

That scoundrel! He tricked me. They weren't even his own words! There they are in one foot tall, bright red lettering. *shakes head disapprovingly*

I told May to stand in front of the sign and “look disappointed”, which I think she did absolutely flawlessly. She even seems to have got a little of a “you've been found out” expression in there too. This has to be my favourite photo of her. She said her favourite photo of me is one where I am hunched over a skirt that I am reattaching a button to. She calls me Granny because I can sew and bake and knit. For some inconceivable reason I don't mind being called Granny. I am knitting her a scarf (the only thing I know how to make) at the moment, as a matter of fact. She also calls me Mean Mommy when I tell her she can't have ice-cream for breakfast.

2007-12-28T00:04:00.000+00:00

hi everyone. i have a holiday off from work for the new year until friday 4th january, so you won`t be hearing anything from me until then. don`t worry though - i will have a number of posts ready to go, including about my christmas and new year in japan.

i hope everyone has a very happy new year!

整形外科はだいすき - I Love Orthopedic Surgery

2007-12-26T06:15:00.000+00:00

Nothing can make my day like watching a fractured clavicle being screwed back together. I finally got to watch some seikei geka (orthopedic surgery) today. I had been waiting for this for four months and it was certainly worth the wait. There were scews and titanium pins and electric drills and screwdrivers and wire cutters... They actually bored the grooves into the bone for the screws! Come on, how awesome is that?! Oh man, it was excellent. To quote Christina from Grey`s Anatomy, it was "like candy, but with blood, which is so much better!"

I love Seikei.

メリークリスマス - Merry Christmas

2007-12-26T03:31:00.001+00:00

Here are a few photos from around Nagasaki during the Christmas season. I thought I would share them with you. Also, it saves me writing a real post.

Sorry this isn't really a very good photo. This is Hamanomachi anyway – the main shopping district in Nagasaki. There are actually tons of festive decorations all over the place here, but apparently, not visible from this angle.

This one is a bit more obvious, huh. Even if you miss the giant snowflake light display on the wall in the background, you would be hard-pressed to miss the 25 foot tree in the centre. Japan is a Buddhist country.... that fact and what we're looking at here really doesn't seem to add up, does it?

The “Japanese McDonald's” is called Mos Burger. This is an advertisement for their Christmas menu. Let's take a closer look...

Yes, the sign does read “Merry X'mos!”. (Sorry that it's blurry, by the way). At first glance I thought it was a misprint, just some poor English, but the Japanese continue to surprise me with their rather clever advertising. What is a little funny though, is that 'Xmas' is not pronounced here as 'Eks-mas' but 'Ek-ku-su-ma-su'. You try saying that quickly... it's really difficult.

I know this one isn't very festive, but I couldn't not share it with you. That is indeed a 3D illuminated human heart model plastered to the side of that building. The hiragana beneath it reads “Nagasaki haato kurinikku” ('Nagasaki Heart Clinic'). What you can't see in this picture is that the heart is lit up so that it appears to pump blood! How's that for innovative? God Bless the Japanese and their advertising genius! It might have been a little wasted in this case though. I mean, if you need to go to a heart clinic, whether it has a giant illuminated heart model on the front of the building is of little importance to you really, isn't it. Would you choose this one over a clinic that didn't have such a display? Hmm?

*

Well, that's all for now, folks. I hope everyone had a smashing Christmas. See you in the new year.

リハビリ - Rehabilitation

2007-12-25T04:12:00.000+00:00

May and I have worked our way down to the fourth floor of the hospital for the second time now. However, because the fourth floor is all orthopaedic, there is only one ward (4F) on the east side of the building and a rehabilitation centre on the west. Last time we were on this floor, I went to work on the 4F ward for two weeks and May spent the first week in Rehabilitation and the second with a nurse doing home visits. So, this time I got to go to Rehab. Compared to the work on the wards rehab is a piece of cake – in the literal sense too, since you get a daily tea break, complete with your choice of okashi ('confectionery').

It was very inspiring working in rehab. At first I was quite anxious during my time there because a lot of my responsibilities involved talking with patients – all in Japanese, of course. One patient changed my perspective a little though. She came and sat down next to me part way through her walking laps of the centre. All I said to her was, “Tsukareta desu ka?” (“Are you tired?”) and she launched into a whole story about her knee replacement. Within minutes she had lifted up her trouser leg and shown me her six-inch scar too. She didn't care that I clearly wasn't understanding everything she was saying; she just wanted to say it to somebody. I was less shy about talking to patients after that.

The patient I interacted with most though was an eighty-nine year old woman. I don't know what was wrong with her (she came down each day from 6th floor, so not an orthopaedic patient) but she was clearly very old and very frail. Unlike most Japanese people, she looked older than she was. She came to rehab every day for both a physical and metal workout. I was given the task of keeping her word association up to scratch. I would show her a picture on a card and ask her what it was and she had to answer. This was quite difficult for us both. She couldn't always remember the word and I couldn't always understand the Japanese. She was your stereotypical Japanese woman though: she could remember the names of every different type of flowers I showed her but she couldn't remember the difference between a fork and a spoon. At the end of the week, the tables were turned and she got to ask me what the picture on the card was and I had to tell her in Japanese. Even at 89, she totally kicked my ass at it!

I noticed that most of the people in Rehabilitation were elderly. I thought how it would be bad enough for a young, fit person to go through such dramatic surgery and to be faced with a long rehab program, but add onto that old age... that's tough. I broke my little finger playing netball when I was eleven and it still aches to this day. I have noticed it more recently due to the type of work I am doing here in Japan. Any task that involves splaying my fingers or moving the little one independent of the adjacent finger and it'll become all stiff and painful. And that's just a broken finger from eight years ago. These people are recovery from broken pelvises for goodness sake! It was very clear how great a job the orthopaedic surgeons do. It seemed impossible that these people were walking at all and yet there they were, striding through the rehab centre with their walking sticks permanently raised from the ground. Yes, Rehabilitation was very inspiring. I realised though, that physical rehab is a lot like yoga – very beneficial to your health but it makes, at times, passing wind impossible to avoid.