Tomasu in Japan

About two weeks ago, we were invited out on a hospital trip going towards Mount Fuji.  We only got about two days notice, but since it was over Thursday and Friday yet didn’t count as a holiday from work (which we still have nine days of at some point), and cost no more than 3000￥, we accepted immediately.  So on Thursday morning me and Rhys went to meet Chizuko and her friend Tamachan, both of them from my old ward and Rhys’ current: 消化器内科, or Gastroenterology.  We said goodbye to the nurses working at the time and went to the coach waiting outside. 

Although the instructions stated that the coach would begin boarding at 8:45 and leave at 9, when we got there at quarter to we were the last people to get on.  This embarrassment would be repeated at every stop made on the trip.  As soon as we got on the coach began its three hour trek to Fuji Safari Park.  Thankfully we both brought our MP3 players, as the ultra-polite Japanese being spoken by the tour guides was both monotonous and undecipherable.  I was pretty much just listening to Sambomaster, as I was still on a bit of a rush from seeing them a few days earlier.

I mentioned before that I managed to get a ticket at the last minute to go and see them, and it was a fantastic gig.  Although at first I was expecting to be going there by myself, after I mentioned it at work, another nurse said she liked them and managed to get a ticket the same day to go with me.  First a band I haven’t heard before called Eastern Youth played, and despite not having heard them before, they were pretty fun to listen to.  Either way, I had only really gone to hear Sambomaster.  Although I couldn’t understand a word the singer came up with between songs, they played some of my favourite songs towards the end of their set which was awesome, including the crowd favourite 「世界はそれお愛と呼ぶんだぜ」, which roughly translates as “Everybody calls it love”.  Anyway back to the trip.

Along with the polite form of speaking Japanese which is simple to understand, there are honourific and ultra-polite ways to say things.  However, as these forms are much longer and protracted than their casual equivalents and as a result, the people speaking them do so at a lightning fast pace.  Sometimes this was hilarious – at the inn the morning after, he was saying ‘ohayou goziamasu’ (which means good morning) more like “ogaamasss”.  At least the guy fell asleep before too long and the ride was a bit more peaceful.

After a brief stop for lunch at a prawn restuarant, we arrived at Fuji Safari Park, which was for the most part a little disappointing as the animals were pretty dormant and  looked depressed.  On the bright side, we did get to see some randy lions, some deers trying to eat a car and Chizuko taught us a Japanese song about elephants: “象さん、象さん、お鼻が長いのね” which in English sort of translates as “Mr elephant, Mr elephant,  your nose is long”.  

We goofed around a bit in the Safari shop after we’d seen enough animals, and then got back on the coach taking us to the ryokan, which is a traditional Japanese inn.  These places are quite fancy and it should have probably cost us at least double the 3000￥ the trip cost us just to stay there for a night.  In a ryokan, tea and breakfast is provided, there is some sort of entertainment and all of the women working there wear traditional kimono dress.  Me and Rhys had to share a room with two older guys from the hospital.  We didn’t know them and they weren’t as friendly as the people we shared with in Inuyama, so this time we didn’t have a crateful of beer in the corner of the room.  The room itself was nice though, and we should have had had a very good view of Mount Fuji, unfortunately though it was far too cloudy.  Nevertheless, we soon went to meet Chizuko and Tamachan again to go to have some traditional Japanese tea.

This was exactly the same as the last time we did it. around Nagoya Castle, soon after we had arrived in Nagoya in September.  However, this time I didn’t drop the sweet all over  the floor since I can use chopsticks now.  We walked around the traditional Japanese garden surrounding the ryokan, and went to try some amasake, a very sweet hot alcoholic drink.  We went into a small hut where there was a woman making the drink in the back and we got a cup full of the stuff.  Much less tasty than it sounded, it was very sweet and lumpy, perhaps similar to how unfermented beer might taste.  I think it’s made from brown rice.  I don’t recommend it.

Amasake was only the beginning of our strange culinary experience, as not long after we sat down for our tea in one of the large eating rooms of the ryokan, some very healthy looking oysters were brought to us on a small stove type thing.  After watching them shrivel up on the plates, and even witnessing an attempted escape, we got to eat them.  It was pretty weird.  Otherwise, the food was delicious, typical washoku fare.  Rice, sashimi and such.  After getting full of food and sake, me and three others got on the stage and karaoked Linda Linda.  However poor our singing was, we were easily beaten by a guy who chose to sing the theme of the Chunichi Dragons, Nagoya’s baseball team who have just won the main league.  As soon as he started singing, the room emptied!  Since they won, we got very used to hearing the tune wherever we went in the following week.  It’s now ingrained on my brain for better or worse; 「いいぞ頑張れドラゴンズ、燃えよドラゴンズ」.

The next day we went to some beautiful places around the area of Mount Fuji, first of which was a lake full of scary fish that have human-like faces, called Jinmengyo.    Other than that, it was a very picturesque place, only bettered by the waterfall we visited next.  There’s not much I can say about it other than show the pictures, but it was very impressive.

When all was finished, we got back on the bus, ready for another three hour slog.  It was made a bit more entertaining by some of the Engrish signs  we saw on the way, watching a Japanese film and then teaching Chizuko some casual English.   Or maybe you’d just call it rude English, either way she has a pretty foul mouth now!  I know, I know, we’re bad people.  It’s hard not to find it funny though.  She even taught some to her head nurse, who is probably in her 50s, who the other day said to Rhys “I’m ****ing hungry”. 

I’ve done much more in the last week but I’m a bit strapped for time, so it’ll come later.

またね！

I’m getting a lot more settled down in Nagoya now, although despite having a 5-day working week I’m hardly in any kind of routine.  This week me and Rhys have been invited out for meals on three seperate occasions with people from work.  I also had a bit of an adventure on Monday night when I went to Toyota to go for a meal with Mayu but got stuck at the wrong station for 20 minutes – I got off at Kami Toyota, not Toyotashi.

When I eventually got there, I was considerably late which is a HUGE no-no in Japan.  She didn’t seem to mind too much though, I guess you’re more likely to get away with things like that when you’re a foreigner and find it easy to get lost.  We went to a Korean restaurant, and it was delicious.  No cat or dog this time though, I’m afraid.

The next day we went for dinner with some of the people from work who were responsible for us, like Tojo san and Ito san, and also some important people from the hospital.  Ishikawa sensei, the hospital director couldn’t come because of a personal matter, but it was still very enjoyable – and because we were at a work function, our nurses were fine with us missing some work for it.  We were there for longer than we realised – we missed an entire hour of work (not including our lunch-break).  It was fun though, and nice to mingle with some of the people from work and practice our Japanese.

On Wednesday after work, me and Rhys went back to the hospital in the evening to meet with some nurses from his ward at the moment, Urology.  Whilst we were waiting in the staff room for everyone to get ready, one of the nurses was telling us about the chicken hands we were going to eat in Sakae, whilst she was brushing her teeth.  It’s quite interesting that here pretty much everyone brushes their teeth after every meal.  Given that, it’s surprising how few people here seem to have straight teeth compared with England.

We got the chikatetsu (underground) to Sakae and talked to a doctor called Kitmuraken while we walked to the chicken place.  He was wearing a Radiohead shirt so we got talking to him about music – his english was very good which was helpful!  When we got to the restuarant, there were about 30 people there sat down – like most Japanese restaurants we had to take our shoes off first – then we put them in a box on a shelf which was then locked.  Locking them was a bit pointless, not just because they were only shoes, but since I’ve come to Japan I’ve seen people leaving their wallet and phone on the table in a bar whilst they go to another part of the bar to play pool.  I’m not sure why it is so safe here, but it’s very refreshing compared to England where you have to check your wallet’s still in your pocket every few minutes.

We got the chicken hand we’d heard so much about, a Nagoya speciality – it was just chicken wings!  Some of the nurses from Rhys’ ward had moved over to sit with us and they were shocked to find out we had them back home in England, and that they were pretty common.  Then the beer started to flow and we had some half-Japanese, half-English conversations.   I already knew Hasagawa, a nurse I was talking to about music a couple of weeks ago, and there were some other cool nurses with her – one of them a girl called Naomi whose limited english consisted of “I LOVE YOU!” and “heartbroken”.  They asked us if we had girlfriends in England.  I said no, but I was seeing a Japanese girl.  From then on I was a ”playboy  prayboy”.

We went on to get some ramen and talked some more with the girls from Rhys’ ward.  There was a girl called Natsuki who was a friend of Megumi from my ward, who was flirting with Rhys, calling him “kakkoii”.  We were talking about music and films – to my surprise she knew who Scarlett Johannsen was from Lost in Translation.  She taught us a new word for ’sorry’, which is “sma”, but after using it for a couple of days I found out it was a word used solely by old Japanese men!

On Friday night we were invited out again, this time with the people from my ward, Gastroenterology.  We got a bus to the restuarant where we had traditional Japanese food.  Along with the obligatory fish, there was a lot of beef, sort of like a fondue.  There was also a grill for pork, beef and chicken.  It was some of the ta stiest food I’ve had since coming to Japan, and since it was all very communal it was also pretty fun.  We were sitting near Megumi and Dr. Takuya from my ward, so we talked to them for a while.  I am often complimented on my chopstick ability when we eat out with people from work.  Rhys may have a far better command of the Japanese language, but in a chopstick competition I would win every time. 

After the eating was finished there were a few speeches in incomprehendably quick Japanese, as one of the doctors was leaving the hospital and a new one was starting.  The night got a lot more fun however, after the drinks had settled in and we moved on to a bar called Popcorn, on the way joking about being “tokidoki hatachi” – sometimes 20 years old!  The people at work really don’t mind us being ‘adults’ here despite the age being two years older than in England, which is a relief.  It’s a bit frustrating to go from being an adult back to childhood; I always find it a bit patronising when the auxiliarry nurse who gives me my orders, Iinuma-san, calls me “Tommy-kun”.  ‘Kun’, like ’san’ or ’sensei’, is a suffix for names, but ‘kun’ is reserved for children.

It was a bit more upmarket looking than our local, Soda Pop, or the places we’ve so far found in Sakae.  In the end that didn’t matter though, because to our surprise we didn’t have to pay for anything!  Wednesday night was fairly expensive – so it sort of evened out – but it was a very pleasent surprise.  The drinks we had alone would have come to about 10 quid, never mind the food.  We sat around there for a few hours with several doctors from my ward, Drs Takuya, Hijikata and Yamakawa.  It was great fun talking with them as their English was quite impressive – so we learnt some Japanese from them, had them recommend us things to drink and talked about being a doctor.  Hijikata sensei was telling me that he dreamed about being a baseball player but had to settle with being a doctor.

We also got our Gaijin (foreigner) cards on Friday, which was a weight off of our minds as before this we had to take our passports with us everywhere.  We were standing behind a guy from Manchester who was studying Japanese here – he’d just arrived so he was applying for his card like we had to two weeks ago.  Since he could tell we were English, we got talking which made waiting in line not so bad.  I’ve seen quite a few foreign students around, as we live very close to Nagoya Daigaku, a large university.  Hearing some of them speak on the chikatetsu on the way to Toyota earlier in the week, I realised how lucky me and Rhys were.  There was a guy talking about how he was boarding at a Japanese family’s house, and they gave him a curfew of 10pm every night – even weekends.  On the other hand, me and Rhys have our own apartments and can stay out as long as we like.  The hospital covers the rent also, so we live very comfortably.

The Japanese word for delicious is おいしい (or oishii). It’s one of the few words used by the people here to describe food. Sitting down to eat, first you say “itadakimase” which is ‘thank you for this meal’, and end it by saying “gochisousama(deshita)” which pretty much means the same thing. During eating you might say “oishii desu ne”, which translates as “delicious, isn’t it”? Asking somebody about their meal, you could say “hirugohan (lunch) wa oishikatta desuka” – “was lunch delicious?”

Most of the time it is delicious – Restaurant Maron at the hospital is where I eat pretty much every workday, and one of the set meals costs 500￥ or £2.50. For that much today I got some tuna cutlet with miso soup, tea, a huuge bowl of rice and some orengi juusu. The food there varies day to day but it’s always pretty decent. It’s where a lot of the staff eat too, so it’s a good spot to meet friends from work to chat a bit.

Work itself is getting a lot more demanding already – most of the things I’m doing are solo, like making the tea, folding towels, taking the tea to patients and talking to them, folding more towels (seriously I must have folded over a thousand already) and sorting out the washing. Changing beds and transporting patients around is always done with two people though. Sometimes, mostly due to the language barrier and mundanity of some of the work, things can be a bit hard going. It’s a very rewarding feeling to be a part of the hospital machine though, and I’m getting an appreciation for a hard days work after being very work-shy back at home!

Straight after work today we had something a bit unusual – we had to introduce ourselves to all of the directors at the hospital. In Japanese. We had a microphone and everything, and had to stand at the front of a big auditorium. It was going well, until I unintentionally got a lot of laughter from the room. I looked puzzled at Tojo-san, I’d said I was “hassai”, 8 years old, rather than “juuhassai”! Oops!

Tonight I cooked for me and Rhys in my apartment, something I knew how to cook from home, honey and lemon chicken. However, with no recipe and only vague recollection of the amounts of different ingredients we went to Jusco, our local big supermarket, and bought what I could think of at the time. It actually worked pretty well with my educated guesses for number of lemons, and we both agreed it was oishii! That said, the rice cooker is still a bit beyond us.

Speaking about the apartments, mine has some pretty cool stuff in it now. I got a new album at the weekend by a band called Sambomaster, and it’s pretty cool. It’s a lot more modern – released last year – than The Blue Hearts, so it’s a good conversation starter with the younger nurses at work! I also have the new Zelda game for the DS, which I got in the hopes of learning more Japanese. It’s not reached its full potential yet but it could be useful in a month or so when I’ve got the basics nailed. We found a guitar in one of the apartments too, with an amp! Very kindly left behind by one of the previous volunteers.

I’ve got an electronic dictionary with a touchscreen, so you can draw the kanji to see how to say something! It’s been both very handy to translate things, and it’s good to impress the girls at work with my japanese writing – they’re easily impressed I think. Next week I’m going to get a mobile phone, since pretty much everybody has one here and I spend little time in my own apartment, so my apartment phone isn’t much use.

Mata ne!

また　ね！

I was sat in a western style bar called Soda Pop last night, english music and food but Japanese people working there, talking to a guy called Yohei who was shocked to find out I was only 20 years old (the drinking age here).  He said he loved english music and  was a big fan of Peter from babyshambles.  I told him and the other people working at the bar that I liked Japanese music, and it set them off – the people here laugh all the time.

I don’t know much Japanese music, but every morning I stick The Blue Hearts – Super Best on my CD player and listen to Linda Linda （リンダ　リンダ）, possibly the best morning song ever.  I’ll post it up later, it’s cheesy as hell but a real earworm.  After rushing around to get ready this morning, I went along to my first day of work.  This month I’ve been put in the gastroenterology department, working with the nurses.  Kojima san took me around for the day showing me the ropes, and she’s a great lady.  Apparently she was at Soda Pop too last night (earlier than me), so she and another of the nurses have invited me down there sometime!

My day was never really mundane, even when I was taking Japanese tea to patients, my mangled Japanese made it quite interesting.  What was meant to sound like “ocha o ikaga desuka” came out like “occcha o kikiha desuka” so I just got a blank look.  By the last few patients, I was saying it semi-coherently though.  It was fun talking to Kojima-san, because she was as keen to improve her English as I was my Japanese!  She was a lot better than I was.

I got to do some slightly more exciting things also, like transporting a couple of patients around the hospital to different wards with the very kawaii to kakkoii (cute and good looking) Megumi-san.  She was also very friendly, like all the other Japanese people I’ve come across so far.  I’ve got the rest of the month working alongside Kojima-san and Megumi-san along with others, so the conversation should keep it interesting if nothing else!  My other tasks involved making a bed and cleaning up around the place.  It was never too dull though, because you do most things with another person.

Then I crammed some Japanese, now I’m sat in my good old internet cafe.  I’m expecting the workload to be a fair bit bigger tomorrow, but I’m looking forward to the opportunity.

Till next time!

また　ね！