Carriages, Caligraphy, Karate and Kaze

Carriages - Monday

My day off saw a fairly uneventful trip to the city of Maebashi, Although one thing that was fairly exciting was the train ride. Or more precisly the Mishap which occurred on the train ride:
After dropping my bike off at the friendly carpenters house (there really are some very generic village jobs in this area) I turned the corner to see the train pulling into the station. I ran up just as it was pulling away, but a kindly lady called to the driver to stop it and then showed me to the ridiculous ticket machine implying I should take a ticket... so I did, thinking to myself how lucky I was to catch the near empty, but beautifully decorated train. It is important to note that there was only one track so presumably only one way the train could go.... Presumably not. It turns out that the trains use the same single track and wait at certain stations to pass each other! What was meant to be a 30 min trip turned into a 2hour magical mystery tour of the Gunma area!!! Much to the train drivers amusement. Upon arrival at Maebashi everything seemed very quiet, with uninviting restaurants and empty shops, but at the same time there were no signs of vandalism, no homeless people and there was a nice river walk.

Calligraphy - Monday Night

Somehow I seem to have gotten myself roped into doing the ancient art of Japanese calligraphy with some sort of Japanese versionof the WI!!! How! I hear you cry. When Mr Sakaki asked me what I wanted to do outside of work in terms of extra activities, I stupidly answered "I thought calligraphy was the only thing I could do" (I think I read it on a piece of paper somewhere). So monday night was spent regressing back to my playschool days as I learnt how to hold a paintbrush, and used many bits of paper to practice whilst doting Japanese women clustered around me offering me sweets and biscuits and continually saying my name like I was some sort of puppy!!! Anyway here are some pictures, maybe you could put them on the fridge mother and give me a gold star!!!


My Name in 3 different alphabets Katakana, English and Kanji respectively. I didn't do the one on the far right!

This is the teachers kanji for "mountain" pretty uninspiring I'm sure you'll agree....

... that is until you see my version of "mountain" which takes on a life of it's own, adding new forms and flows, and a little extra expression to a tired and drained pattern of brushstrokes. I have really tried to take "mountain" to the next level and in doing so, I have become a true artiste!!!






Karate - Tuesday Night

Learning Karate is difficult...

Learning Karate from a Japanese Teacher is a bit more difficult (as gestures have to be used a bit more to explain what you are trying to teach)...

Learning Karate from a Japanese teacher who only has one arm is even more difficult (as gestures can only be made with one hand and you can only really copy what one hand does)...

Learning Karate from a one armed Japanese teacher with 20 or so children (age range about 4 - 12) a philipino (not much taller than the children) and a 2 foot+ height advantage over everyone in the room is just asking for trouble!!!

I wasn't taken with the idea of Karate in the first place and to be honest last night didn't really change my opinion. However I seem to be morally obliged to carry on attending due to two factors:
1 Kim ,my Philipino Collegue of whom we shall find out more about later, is desperate to learn Karate and cannot drive
2 Also I don't think I can worm my way out of Calligraphy and Karate in one week. Something positive from the experience is that I did find a new respect for the Martial art when a couple of demonstrations were put on at the end. I just don't think I want to learn drill after drill of various moves against invisible opponants.


Kaze - Monday onwards

Kaze is Japanese for the flu. I have it and it is annoying.

Final note:

I realise that these blogposts have not really been very organised, merely anecdotal scenarios that don't really set up what Japan is really like, or where I am living or what I am doing. This has been a purposeful attempt to try and convey to you the utter bewilderment and confusion I have found myself in over the last few days! Luckily all of your comments have helped no end, When coming to the blog it is like visiting a tiny piece of home and when i see the pictures on the corkboard and entertaining messages it really helps me through the unrelentless working day, so keep up the good work!!!

And to all you silent types: PUT SOMETHING UP TO PREVENT ME FROM GETTING HOMESICK!!!... whats that? there is no one else reading my blog except my Mother and Aunty using many different guises and psuedonyms to send comments... oh I see!

Anyways next blog will be a back to basics look at life in Japan hopefully filling in a few of the gaps. Also there are big things planned for the "Eggplant Special"

Watch this Space!!!