ダニエルの冒険

I’ve been home for a few days now but haven’t gotten around to writing anything until now, thanks to a combination of jet lag and gastroenteritis, which I probably got from the plane. Let’s go over everything from the start…
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I’m just after finishing my packing, punctuated by lunch with Wana, the Romanian girl I met in Frankfurt before I got on the Nagoya flight. I didn’t get the chance to meet her again until today, but what she described as “symmetry” (starting and finishing the trip with the same person), was a nice point. Most of the foreigners I know in Japan are either here on short-term visits or are studying in language schools, neither of which provides much opportunity for really living in Japan with Japanese people in a Japanese environment. Wana, however, is married to a Japanese man and is studying Japanese by herself, so she has lots of insights that my usual foreigner friends don’t have. As such, it was great to talk to her and we had some really interesting conversations about what we like, but mostly about what we don’t like, about Japan and Japanese people.
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Well, technically it’s not a graduation ceremony (卒業式), but a “course completion ceremony” (修了式). Just home from it now. Everyone had to make some sort of speech so I just thanked my teachers and my class and made a special note to thank Junko from the Zig Zag. I said that my mother at home is often worrying about my nutrition seeing as my cooking isn’t so great, so I’m really thankful for Junko making me a proper lunch every day at the Zig Zag. I went there afterwards and thanked her personally and thanked Declan for the Irish breakfast he made me on Paddy’s Day and for all the other help he’s given me. I got to talk to some of my teachers after too, doing my best to talk down their compliments (everyone gets the same routine, I’m sure), and got home.
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We got some of our results of our various tests and exercises during this term back yesterday. In the conversation test one-on-one with my teacher, I got 47/50. In the conversation test with a classmate, where we recorded ourselves on a tape recorder and handed it in, I got 43/50. On the final exam (there are two during the term), I got 94.4%. I was disappointed with my listening test last time, but this time around I got 95.2%. The average was about 77% and the teacher said before handing them out that she has to say clearly that they were not good. The neighbouring class did the same test and lots of people failed it, I heard. I’m pretty happy that I managed to make such good progress.

Later I’ll write about my dinner last night in Nagoya. I’ll be going again tonight with a different person. Actually, to the same chain of restaurant, “Yama-chan”.

I’m uploading the videos and photos from my last weekend now. I did some cleaning up in the apartment today to get ready for packing. Also spoke to the school about getting a load of a weighing scales to sort out what to send ahead of me in the post and what to bring to the airport. I’ve found a guy who’s moving into an apartment this weekend so he’ll take the things I’m leaving behind: cutlery, kitchen paper and such. I’ve arranged with the school about returning my key for the apartment and about getting the deposit back. I’ve just about sorted out souvenirs. I’ll talk to my phone company about getting my contract cancelled on Friday or Saturday. My final exam was today. I’m making last-minute plans now to say goodbye to people. Tomorrow after school I’m going to karaoke with some guys from my class. Tomorrow night is dinner with Rui in Nagoya. The following night is dinner in Nagoya with my private lesson teacher. Saturday I’m going to meet the girl I met in Frankfurt on the way here for lunch. She just called yesterday asking if I wanted to meet up. A great way to tie the beginning of this trip to the end.

Happy St Patrick’s Day to all. Today I had an Irish breakfast, made by Declan at the Zigzag. Of course, the sausages weren’t quite right, and he couldn’t get his hands on any black pudding or anything, but it was close enough I guess. I saw the parade at Harajuku yesterday too with Yukine, Yoshie, Hiroshi, and a few others. Lots of photos to upload soon!
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It feels like only yesterday I was writing up the plans for last weekend. Time is really speeding up as my return to Ireland is approaching. This weekend, I’m going to Tokyo, which is fairly central to most of my friends. The plan right now is to head up tomorrow morning about 10am, meet Asami and Yoshie at 1pm at Machida station, near Tokyo, see Yukine, and then on Sunday morning meet Hiroshi for the St Patrick’s Day parade (who cares if it’s not really Paddy’s day anyway?).

Next week I’ll end up going to Nagoya a few evenings too. Yesterday was the last of my electives and private lessons, and I’ve been in contact with one of my private lesson teachers (the one who’s been to Dublin before). She gave me her mobile’s number and email address (instead of texting, people email from phones here) today and we’ll get dinner some time during the week. I also want to meet up with my friend Rui, who’ll actually be coming to Europe (UK) about September this year.

Let’s hope this weekend’s as good as the last one was!

Most of my class (J Class) and some of K Class and about four teachers all went to karaoke today. A girl in my class had been organising it on everyone’s behalf since the middle of the term and it worked out really well. I met a few new teachers and got to talk to some people from the other class who I hadn’t spoken to much before. I sang One Night Carnival by Kishidan, as I’ve done every time at karaoke up until now, and the teachers were pretty impressed with it. I also sang I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) by the Proclaimers with a Scottish guy, me doing the harmonies and backing and him leading it, and I did some Abba with a Swedish girl and some Barry White with an American guy with a deep voice. I did some Aiko with a teacher too.
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I woke up again a few hours later with Ayumi and her cousin (I think her name is Lian but I could be wrong… let her do her introduction in English so I’m not 100% sure) sitting in front of my face smiling down at me. We ate left-overs from the previous night (and still couldn’t finish them all), along with some fish and rice. After eating we sat around for a while, complaining about how full we are, and Ayumi said we should go for a walk so Ayumi, her mom, myself and Daisuke walked to her grandfather’s tomb down the road. The weather was really great and the air was fresh. We walked through the sort of inverted ditches between fallow paddy fields and along a small road. Ayumi was wearing a mask the whole time because of the pollen. People are sneezing all over the place, myself included, so lots of people take to wearing masks. Apparently one in five Japanese people have pollen allergies.
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A few weeks ago, myself and Ayumi decided to meet up in Tokyo and hang out for the day. Her dad knew how interested I was in her grandmother’s house, so he insisted that I take the opportunity to stay there for a night, which extended the planned trip to two days. Ayumi had a test and interview on Saturday morning, so she ended up going to Tokyo on Friday night, and we agreed to meet up Friday evening too, extending the planned day trip to a full three-day weekend.
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