More Things Keep Happening

Friday 20th - Sunday 22nd October

As promised, here's last weekend's adventures. It's super-long, but at least there're pictures to break up the brain-numbing waffle elsewhere...

Tokyo Bound



Today, I was missing lessons to head to Tokyo for a two-day trip. I caught the 7:46 Nozomi Shinkansen from Kyoto station to arrive at Shinagawa station in Eastern Tokyo just after 10am. On the way, I did a little bit of Japanese practice, but as my folder was missing after lessons the previous day, I had to make do with SOAS materials. While I slept for most of the journey, I did get to see the vast silohuette of Mt. Fuji from my window, surrounded by fog, looking far larger than I remembered it being.

Foundation Meeting

I travelled to Roppongi to the 33rd floor of the Ark Mori building to visit the Heiwa Nakajima Foundation, who were providing my scholarship for my study in Japan. My ears popped in the lift and the view from their window was filled with fog, but the nearby Tokyo Tower was in plain sight. Another scholarship student (a girl from Vietnam studying in Tokyo) was also present, and we sat at the table at the end of the office as I was presented with a folder filled with facts and information, as well as a booklet on the Foundation's founder and a dictionary for correct kanji use.

The office then gathered together (about eight employees total) for a sushi bento lunch which I happily munched through, but, try as hard as I might, I really couldn't finish it all. While we spoke in Japanese, they were all very attuned to keeping the questions as easy to answer as possible, and were very interested in my thoughts on Japan, my study and interests. I also brought along a few photos from Somerset and East Anglia, which helped no end as a focal discussion point and a visual aid for talking about my family and where I live. I had my photo taken a few times, and they also showed me photos of Tanaka-sensei visiting the office, and a Heiwa Nakajima representative visiting other members of the SOAS Japanese faculty in London. They were all very friendly and helpful (even offering to help track down my childhood friend Kitaro) and were extremely appreciative of my British prezzies of Duchy Original choccie biccies and a National Trust calendar. I had been a little nervous about meeting them and hoping I'd live up to their expectations, but they were all supportive and enthusiastic, leaving me feeling suitably buoyant.


Pete's 21st Birthday Party


Last time I had seen Pete, we were shaking hands at Green Park London Underground saying, "Next time we meet, we'll be in Japan". Jump forward a month or so later, and we're outside Waseda Underground meeting again. Bizarre, but cool. I get a brief tour of one of Waseda's campuses, and then I to visit Pete's space prison quarters which aren't quite as oppresive as I had envisaged, but then I guess I didn't encounter any of the 'wardens' (or forced to fight to death on a spiky turntable platform a la Flash Gordon). We meet with Hanako for coffee (hot chocolate for me, thank you) and soon we're ready to go out. Now that Pete's a man of 21 years, my present is a Nishijin textiles tie; perfect for job interviews for management positions in Japanese zaibatsu.

We all head out for an all you can drink session in Shinjuku and I'm reunited with most of the SOAS Waseda alumni, plus John Dykes, Esq. currently mixing it up in Tokyo Gaidai. I also meet a couple of Edinburgh University Waseda posse, and we exchange information about the Edinburgh University Doshisha students I've come to know - it's a small world after all. We all squeeze into three tables of space, but most of the screaming, chanting and drinking games come from the central table, buoyed on by the organisers, two mad Japanese girls. I decide to spend my time drifting from table to table, before settling down with Dykes and Rory Chu, topping up each other's beers while catching up, telling tales and making plans for the year ahead. When the evening comes to an end, I am muchly sloshed, but lucid. While the majority our heading karaoke-wards, I decide that if I'm going to make it to the hostel I have booked into in time, I should make tracks. I bid the partygoers adieu and take the train across town to Minowa.

Night at the Hostel

The train journey to the hostel is about 25 minutes, during which I get a little emotional, having just said goodybe en masse to many SOAS amigos and then to receive an elated post-birthday email on my mobile phone from Hamish. It could be a side-effect from all the alcohol though, another one of which appears to be increased Japanese speaking ability. I successfully asked the man at the train platform where the correct exit for the hostel was and once I arrived I had a conversation for over half-an-hour with the lady at reception. We talked about universities, binge drinking culture, the North Korea crisis and Japanese history - in particular, she said I should walk down the block to look at the whore-houses...she was emphasising how this area had been the the Edo pleasure quarters, the floating world, and how a map of Tokyo with the circle line and the Chou line drawn through it resembled the Yin-Yang symbol, with the aristocratic area and the pink district in direct contrast of each other. Not sure I quite bought it, but interesting nonetheless. It brought back a lot of memories sleeping hostel style at the Tokyo International Hostel from my pre-university trips. Chris had recommended the place to me, and at 2000 yen a night in a 10-backpacker dorm, it weren't bad at all. Comfy beds, clean washing facilities, good chummy atmosphere. Of course, noise from fellow travellers late night and early morning, but those are the breaks. While my Japanese certainly impressed the members of staff (the morning receptionist couldn't believe I had written the Japanese for mobile phone myself - as even native speakers forget how to), I kept schtum about my credentials amongst the other guests...didn't want to create a scene.

Ueno Park

With the morning free, and having to change trains there anyway, I decided to take a stroll around Ueno Park. I had been there before, but mainly just to visit the Tokyo National Museum (one of many museums that are situated there), so I took the opportunity to stroll around the grounds. I visited the statue of Saigo Takamori, samurai and dog-handler; Kiyomizu-Kannon-do, a temple modelled on Kiyomizu-dera which I had visited the previous weekend; the Gojo fox shrine, atmospherically filled with ominous cawing crows; a big pond with paddle boats...I took some pics, but haven't uploaded them yet as they're not very good or interesting. Also took a quick trip to the big toy shop near the station, but there was little that took my fancy.

Meeting Ian


I met Ian for Lunch in Mejiro where we had a tasty pasta set lunch and talked at length about Japan and the pros and cons of the Japanese experience. It seemed that even now my fresh observations of food, finance and frivolity here clicked with Ian instantly, and he gave me lots of little pieces of advice for surviving life in Japan. It was a very enjoyable meeting and he was over the moon with my gift of Gentelemen's Relish. Hopefully, he'll be able to come to Kyoto at some point, but if not, I will return to Tokyo in a few months time.

Mikael's in Town

While in Tokyo, I got a message that Mikael was in Kyoto this weekend for the big festivals. Once I had got off the Shinkansen, we endeavoured to meet up but meeting with Baptiste was a mission unto itself, involving much running around, exasperation and telecommunication - if it wasn't for the fact my phone died, it would have been just like 24. After 30 minutes, we finally met up and kept the anger to a minimum for the sake of everyone. Tal and her Gaidai chums were having all you can eat pizza at Shakey's (yes, Shakey's) in Shijo, but by the time we got there, they'd already sodded off. But that didn't stop myself, Baptiste, Mikael and his Nagoya buddy fitting in half-an-hour of pizza and assorted junk for ourselves. We then decided to decamp to a karaoke box for an hour of soul-filled singing and called it a night.

Jidai Matsuri

The Jidai Matsuri is one of Kyoto's big three...and we missed it. Baptiste and I miscalculated when the festival was going to end, and turned up to find everyone leaving and packing up. Bum. However, we still managed to savour a bit of post-festival atmosphere, and visited the Heian Jingu shrine where it climaxes (there was still a bit of pomp and circumstance going on behind closed doors). Ah well, there're two other big Kyoto festivals in the summer we'll make certain not to miss. Besides, our day of festivity had only just begun.

Riverside Music

While we waited to meet with friends to head to Kurama (see below), we decided to have some drinks and snacks in Sanjo by the Kamo river, a popular meeting place and general hanging out area. A mini-concert was underway, with a big Japanese flag with 'Under the Bridge 55' written on it waving above the amps. The acts were just a bunch of students a mix of open-air music spanning various musical genres. Most interesting was a screeching punk act who represented the first signs of student political activity I had witnessed in Japan. Through the mad synth, kicking microphone stands, river running and megaphone shouting, their message was 'Sayonara Americans, Konnichiwa Japanese!' and their lyrics included 'Showa! America! Showa! America!' - alluding to the feeling that Japan today was designed by the Americans for American purposes (which is kinda sorta true to an extent). It was too dark to get any footage of them on my phone, so instead, here's the act before them, a little male singer, strumming away to his own version of The Monkees' Daydream Believer - with a, shall we say, unique singing voice:



Kurama-no-Hi Matsuri


My final flutter of fun was a trip into Kurama, deep within the mountains of northern Kyoto, for the annual festival of fire. The trains were packed heading there, so much so, we walked to the next station along to avoid the queues at the main change point. We thought we weren't going to see anything when we got there (Tal had already given up, and Mikael, who was already there, was not sure exactly what was going on). Hundreds had descended upon the little town to visit the shrine where the festival climaxes, but we decided to head in the opposite direction, which turned out to be a good idea. Every house had a little fire outside, and the scent of smoke filled the air - it was like a premature Guy Fawkes night.

Then from the end of the road, a procession of torch-bearers appeared, chanting as they walked up the hill towards the temple. We got a good vantage point outside a smaller temple where they were luckily to make a brief stop before heading on. Behind the initial procession, loinclothed men carried massive burning torches across their backs, as others urged them on and kept the flames alive. They were followed up by further torch-bearers and taiko-drumming to keep them going. Once they got to the temple next to our position, they raised the massive torches and aligned them beside each other. After a few minutes, they again rested them on their backs and continued the slow climb onwards. It was a magical and satsifying experience, complete with atmosphere and wonder. Having had our fill of flame, we walked to the next station along. Its a beautiful area at night, looking deep into the surrounding forests and marvelling at the stars above. As there's only one train track, the ride back was absolutely packed, but everyone was so happy to have seen the festival that it was all good fun. Parn, Baptiste, Mikael and myself then headed to Imadegawa for a late-night Mos Burger and so another action-packed weekend came to a close...

Things Keep Happening

Things do indeed. And in order to keep up with my adventures, I'm going to have to do a big old splurge of recent events from the past couple of weeks. I'll do last weekend in the coming week and the weekend before that now...if that makes any sense.

Friday 13th October - Sunday 15th October

• Karaoke Marathon - after having spent all afternoon with my newly installed internet, I was invited to join various Mukaijima residents (studying at Doshisha and beyond) for a spot of karaoke at the local Shidax centre, just a brief walk from halls. Upon entry, the faux-grandeur was overwhelming, with 'gold', 'marble' and a winding staircase in the lobby. We booked a room with the decor of a Spanish restaurant and so began the singing session. Bowie, Beastie Boys, Blur and Beck were my artists of choice (though I did dabble in a bit of Polysics and YMO for Nihongo's sake), but Tarvi and Ritso (the Finnish Jay and Silent Bob in appearance, but anything but in reality) kept things varied with spirited anime themes and angry rock anthems respectively. We soon turned off the score system that would cause cartoon cracks to appear on the screen for woeful renditions (it seems it wanted Anarchy in the UK to be sung by a Celine Dion-alike), and let rip. As the tunes went on and the 'all you can drink' booze flowed, members of our party called it a night, until it was just me, Tarvi and Ritso. At 4.45am. Having started at 9.45pm. Yes, I made up for my lack of recent karaoke by doing it for seven hours straight. Good stuff.

• Thai Dinner - Having finished watching Mr. and Mrs. Smith as part of Mukaijima Gakusei Centre 'Movie Night', we went for a big Thai meal at the restaurant handily located just next to Doshisha's Imadegawa campus, as Parn's mum was in town. As Thai food barely extended beyond fishcakes and red/green curry, it was an eye-opening and eye-watering experience. Some items were super-spicy for my tastebuds, but it was mostly delicious and a very enjoyable evening all round. Araoi! (Apologies to Thai people everywhere for my attempt at writing "Delicious" in your native tongue).

• Class 5A Daytrip - our appointed class figurehead, Chan from Korea, decided to organise a little outing on a sunny Sunday for those class members who could make it. Little did we realise just how in-depth and interesting it would be. And how many free samples we'd nibble on. We went around Sanjo and Shijo, down familiar streets and the not so familiar, before arriving at an anonymous block of flats. Little did we know lunch was to be a free meal at a Korean Protestant chapel! With the greatest hospitality, we had big bowls of spicy vegetable and rice soup (though I passed on the kimchee) and engaged in conversation with the regulars. This was followed by a trip down Nishiki Food Market for donuts and tofu ice-cream, before a walk through Gion, through Yasaka Shrine, up to Kiyomizu-dera, via many local sweet stores, offering countless samples (accompanied by scary little Geisha bots, that nodded a little like the wind-up razor-toothed dolls from Barbarella).

  I had visited Kiyomizu on my previous trip with Harry, but it was lovely to go again, and I did few things I didn't do last time. For instance, I attempted to walk with my eyes closed from one love stone to another at Jishu-jinja, but missed my goal, therefore dooming my relationships forever...or something. Plus, I drank from the Otowa-no-taki waterfall, which is said to have therapeutic qualities and improve school results (which I guess compensates for buggering up my love life). A return visit at night in the autumn is a must. It wasn't all good though - I left my sunglasses somewhere up the hill (a habit which is continuing rather worringly, having left my file in class, and then leaving a recently purchased storage folder at the supermarket). And an octopus ball covered in horrible Japanese mayonnaise (to my mind, the foullest condiment known to man) left a taste in my mouth that lasted a day. I'm similarly afflicted as I type. Last night, I was all set to cook some bacon with my new frying pan, but what I thought was cooking oil turned out...well...not to be. I decided I'd cook it anyway, but the bacon just burnt horribly. Desperate for a bacon butty, I chowed down on it anyway, and while I liked it at the time, I now have a horrible burnt metallic taste in my mouth over 24 hours later, like I've swigged battery acid and am turning into some kind of ManTank a la Testuo II

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Back on topic, I took photos using Chan's camera, but have yet to receive them back, but once I do, I will stick them up on my brand new Flickr account! For now, I will leave you with a couple of treats for making it this far. First, my mad quote of the week (which actually comes from several weeks ago). I got a message from the Gakusei Centre office informing me that my bank manager wanted to seak to me regarding a bank transfer from my UK account:

...the manager has a duty to clarify what are you going to use the money for, probably to prevent an illegal trade or money supply to a terrorist. (But can you imagine a terrorist saying "Yah, I' m going to buy a nice launcher with this money." ???) Anyway, please contact...

And instead of pics, here're two short little mobile phone videos of Japanese technology in action. First, the aforementioned Geisha Bot:



And, having previously seen animatronic road worker signalmen in Tokyo two years ago, here's the next generation - little digital men on orange screens waving a flag. What's great is how it's not a cartoon of a man, but an actual image of a road worker scanned in. Unnecessary but genius:

The Church of Paragraph Writing

It is about time I actually wrote a bit about the very reason I came to Japan in the first place: to be educated at Doshisha University of course. I've just finished my third week of lessons, so I have a pretty fair idea of how the term is going to pan out from hereonin.

We have 3 hours of Japanese language classes, divided into 2 90 minute sessions, Monday to Friday from 9am. And with the journey from Mukaijima taking around 50 minutes total (with good connections), that means it's an early start every weekday and a lot of commuting time to kill. Luckily, Baptiste is my regular travel buddy, so our strange conversations and earphones of music get us feeling as genki as we can possibly be, given the circumstances. These language lessons are split between those that cover a general set text filled with kanji, grammar and vocabulary for the week ahead and classes that deal with particular aspects of Nihongo (listening, speaking, reading, etc.). Then, after lunch, we have additional courses we can pick and choose.

On Mondays, there's Japanese Life and Culture 1, which consists of visits, trips and hands-on experiences - so it's my 'fun-time' class; so far, we've been to a traditional sweets museum and shop, a textiles centre, on which I will write more about later, and a kimono-trying on session. I'm particularly looking forward to the 'Incense Listening' class in a month or so...whatever it entails. Wednesdays include my additional Japanese language seminar, which is fast-paced and tricky, but just the kind of thing I should be studying, and Ancient Japanese history, while Thursday features Japanese Law and Politics - which was billed as being taught in English, but has ended up with us flitting between Japanese and English throughout each sentence. Tuesday and Friday afternoons are my free afternoons, but I've yet to really cash in on these opportunities with the amount of homework and various bits and bobs I have to get done.

Ah, the homework. It all seems quick and simple, but there's so much to keep in my mind, I rarely manage to do everything that was needed for the day ahead, but have probably finished another exercise not due for a week. But I'm getting there...one day at a time.

The teaching style is mostly very much like SOAS, though there are certain differences. For a start, while in one week last year in London, we would have only 4 different tutors in the Japanese classes, here we have double that, as there's a mix of full-time and part-time staff. It makes you realise just how hard Tanaka-sensei, Kashiwagi-sensei, et al work, with the same hours and amount of teaching, across different classes and year groups. Another change is we have male Japanese teachers, who turn out to be my favourites.

Matsumoto-sensei would be a legend in the making, if it wasn't for the fact that he seemed to already achieve legendary status based on word-of-mouth via my predecessors at Doshisha. Every class he teaches is just filled with such energy with a healthy dash of self-deprecating humour that you can't help but join in. Now that our class has gotten chummy with each other, it makes for some very entertaining off-tangent discussions, all in an atmosphere where you don't feel like a fool if you make a mistake. Plus, he never fails to give thorough explanations for trickier language aspects, peppered with pitch-perfect textbook-quality examples. I consider myself very lucky to have 3 lessons with him a week. The only other regular male teaching staff member in the Japanese language department is Manita-sensei, who has a rather bizarre sense of humour which others find a little disconcerting, but he always cracks me up, so I can't complain.

Perhaps the most unsual class so far has been a writing comprehension class which has introduced me to The Church of Paragraph Writing, which, via the aid of post-it notes, is designed to optimise one's essay/notice construction to make clear and precise sentences in the best structure possible. The three tenents of Paragraph Writing remind me of the Hardeep Singh Kohli documentary on Scientology (and the opening verse to Queen's It's A Kind of Magic):

1. One word, one meaning
2. One sentence, one point,
3. One paragraph, one topic

I've yet to fully understand what it all really means, but I am intruiged to see how it all plays out. Similarly, the speaking class is built on repetition, repetition, repetition. In particular, the 'Shadowing' exercise, in which we all recite scripted conversation together, turns into a babbling mess, albeit an entertaining one. Perhaps we can all do it to music over the coming weeks; every school and kindergarten I pass on the way to Mukaijima station - and there are a fair few - seems to have singing, music and learning off by heart pouring out every day, so this seems like a university extension of such a teaching method.

As for the actual classrooms, if you've seen Battle Royale, you have a pretty good idea already - chunky sliding doors, raised platform at the front with stand and microphone, big green chalkboard. A green little National/Panasonic is plugged into the wall beside the chalkboard and turns out to be a hoover box for chalkboard wipers, which reveals why the board's are always so immaculate after a day's scribbling. However, my biggest bugbear are the desks. The majority of them have the ability to fold out in front, but that means there is zero legroom and I frequently bash my shins against the folded desk half - leading to frequent cussing and my football shinjury taking even longer to heal (scab gone, still pink and tender). I don't know how anyone can cope with such stunted seating space. And furthermore, the little cubby holes under the desktop cause further knee bashing and make forgetting your work folder even easier (as I did today...very annoying).

So, at the mo, its a bit of a mixed bag, and the schedule is really taking its toll on my waking life, but, in the words of Mr. Bedingfield, I gotta get thru this...

And on a completely unrelated note, in case you hadn't take note, I note that two teaser trailers for Hot Fuzz are now available to view in all their hilarious glory here and here. The self-references! Wells locations! Souljacker Part I by Eels! How's that for a slice of fried gold?

Best Buys...So Far II

Wahey! I've finally got internet access in my room now, so this blog is coming to you live as opposed to typed up previously and uploaded via university computers! This is a quick follow-up to Best Buys I - just to cover a few cool items I purchased, as well as telling you how fantabulous my mobile phone is.

HOUSEHOLD GOODS

You will have previously seen cameos of my cool little glasses from the 100 yen shop. For no particular reason, they have AoB written on them, with a coloured circle and a character - like a piece of punctuation. I've got an exclamation mark with an orange circle, a plus sign in a red circle, Baptiste has one with a percentage sign in a blue circle, and there's also one with a yellow circle with an @ sign. They just look...kinda neat, s'all.

I also got a mug as part of the British Bistro Bear range, with the following enscription, which is also my mad phrase of the week:

Bistro bear is the best gentleman of a British tradition. He is cleverly refined, is very stylish and kind. Ladies enjoy conversation with him.

If this is what Japanese kitchenware manufacturers have been saying about 'gentleman of a British tradition', I'm going to disappoint many resident mug enthusiasts.

As for other goods, very little exciting; I still need to get a frying pan to expand my meal options a little more, and a household plant would complete my room (as would a couple of posters to brighten up the rather drab walls - household department store Loft currently has these great Halloween posters dotted around, but I don't think they're for sale - I might try and ask nicely after October).

MOBILE PHONE

Now I'm not exactly technologically-savvy or up-to-date on new mobile phones, but the features on my Sanyo A5514SA blew me away. And what's more - it was free! Of course, it's all part of a special student contract and as it was the only English-language mobile offered by AU (the service provider), so everyone has the same model - but who cares?

Features include:

• Camera - vary picture size and quality from the little pics I've already shown here to some pretty impressive quality big snaps, with all sorts of special digital camera effects you'd never expect a mobile could achieve. Plus up to 3 mins of video footage.
  
• GPS navigator and map system for when you are really lost.
• Radio channels - but not really any worth listening to.
• Internet access - perfect for quick headlines, weather, info searches. Also can download pics, music and episodes of Oh! Mikey.
  
• E-mail - without SMS texting, there's C-Mail (for phone-to-phone messages) and E-Mail for between phones and between computers.
• Infra-red - for uploading pics and videos to computers, exchanging address book info.
• Japanese - English / English - Japanese dictionary - by no means comprehensive, but useful for on-the-go translation.
• Photo-mixer - make bizarre little movie shorts with photos you've taken.
• Optical Recognition - this is amazing - you can use the camera to recognise kanji written on signs, packets, etc., and it will translate it for you! Plus it can recognise addresses, emails, notes, and such as well. Not perfect, but fun.
• Plus...calculator, alarm, remote control, calendar, journal, memo pad, pocket money log, and more!

It feels like such a special treat! A shiny new phone! And if this is what they offer to dumb foreigners like me, what do the top-of-the-range ones offer? It seems the most popular model at the mo is Docomo's Foma SH903i and other similar models, which seem to be a stylistic step backwards, looking chunky, blocky, thick and heavy. But I bet they're stocked to the gills with 3D holograms, virtual future predictive capabilities and every book ever written. Oh, and a little hole to put your 'strappers' (or 'danglies').

Best Buys...So Far

Another double dollop of blogs, you lucky people!

We’ve dwelled too long on the negative purchases, so let me tell you about some of the choice products I have bought recently. With all of these things, there are equivalents in the UK, but in Japan, it’s the little differences that…um, make…the difference. The bread’s a little sweeter, the Coco Pops (or Coco-kun’s Choco Kurisupiisu) more chocolatey – but my market research has turned up some interesting results…

FOOD

Japan loves snacks – FACT. Aisles and aisles devoted to all kinds of snack foods, crisps, sweets, nuts, dried fruits, chocolates, biscuits. And then all the strange region-specific bite-size nibbles that I haven’t explored in full yet for fear of munching on octopus beak when I was expecting cashew nut.



Choccie biccies are the order of the day, my favourite being Graham Biscuit, “Chocolate Cream Sand Biscuit”, which I believe is supposed to be more like Golden Grahams than Graham le Saux and more like Sandwich than Weston-Super-Mare Sand (though the Digestive-esque quality of said biscuit lends it a gritty texture akin to that of beach dust). At first, I wondered why each biscuit was individually wrapped in plastic wrapping-conscious Japan (a treatise on Kyoto’s recycling system coming soon), but it perfectly rations them out, unlike the tube of mini choc-chip cookies I ate in one go while lying on my bed after a long tiring day.

Crisps are more of a mixed bag, with unusual flavours turning up some nice surprises (Baptiste’s curry flavoured maize puffs were addictive) and more traditional flavours disappointing (Chip Star’s lightly salted tube were somewhat flat and uninspiring). Jagareto (I think), the crisps with the ad as seen on Adam and Joe Go Tokyo, are pretty tasty, but my favourite so far has been a big bag of Mexican Chilli Tacos.

Ice cream, on the other hand, often scores highly. I’ve had a choc-chip ice cream crepe (crepe in general are very popular in Japan, though they fill them with anything – natto crepe anyone?), ice-cream filled waffle, crushed cola ice (which caused minor gum damage trying to extract from the bottle), some delicious fruit ice creams with bits of pineapple in, and Giant, a brand of ice cream cone not too dissimilar to Cornettos, but at only 80 yen a go (about 40p), they always do the trick.



As for actual meals, there’re all the various kinds of quick and easy noodles (but they pretty much all have the same flavour). Boil in the bag curries aren’t too bad with some microwaved rice (it seems that there’s a curry endorsed by pretty much every kids TV character – yes, even Thomas the Tank Engine), but pasta remains the top student dish. However, I recently prepared a meal of mini hamburgers, chips and mixed veg. The hamburgers were each about the size of my thumb, and came in a little plastic dish for being heated up in the microwave. Though the package advertised 100% beef, I think that really meant that the beef was 100% beef and not, for instance, beef-flavoured tofu, as there was some other filler ingredient of which I couldn’t quite ascertain its origin, but they were fine in a late-night burger van way. The chips were also microwaveable, in a little red box. They stuck together and were a bit greasy, but actually tasted like less salty McDonald’s fries, but like the small ones at the bottom of the carton. The veg was Jolly Green Giant-branded, though a little flavourless – but I was just happy to have some actual vegetables.



DRINK

Ion supply drink Pocari Sweat is a beverage “that smoothly supplies the lost water and electrolytes during perspiration” and is a somewhat confusing creation that is instantly refreshing but tastes a bit like an anonymous vegetable. It served me well on my previous travels, and continues to do now – though the fact that it is made by Otsuka Pharmaceuticals, they of Calorie Mate infamy, makes me a little wary. Calpis has a comparable taste, though it is distinctly white in colour. Plus, in a country where the Nintendo Wii doesn’t produce a snigger, having the word ‘piss’ (or ‘sweat’ for that matter) in the name of a beverage is not considered odd.

Also returning from my previous Japan adventure is Lemon Water, similarly refreshing, but tastes good even after losing its chill carrying it around in your backpack all day temple-hopping. And good old Qoo, though the white grape flavour I love has only recently become readily available in nearby shops – and I’m not completely sure it is the same taste as the drink I’ve had in McDonald’s.

Bubble Man and Bubble Man II are space-age bubblegum flavour soft drinks and can therefore only be consumed by 7 year olds at the risk of descending into a sugar-induced twitch. Suntory’s C.C. Lemon claims to have 210 lemons’ worth of Vitamin C in every 1.5 litre bottle, though every lemon-based beverage makes similar claims (probably because fresh fruit and vegetables are so pricey). Fanta R18 is another Red Bull style sugary fizzy caffeine gurana enamel-remover, almost fluorescent yellow in colour – but I had to buy a bottle if only because R18 is the certificate the BBFC classifies porno.



Tea and coffee drinks, both hot and cold, can be found everywhere, with vending machines on every corner, advertised by Meg Ryan and Tommy Lee Jones. As booze goes, Asahi’s the obvious (and nicest I think) choice of beer; can’t say I’m a fan of Kirin. Haven’t gone down the sake root just yet – beer’s expensive enough as it is.

That’s it for food and drink for now. Next time – household goods, plus my mobile phone!