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I have a job! This couldn't have come sooner because I was starting to get rather depressed about my prospects. I'll be working for a big science publishing house, on review journals, in a basically administrative job. However, they seem pretty serious about giving me opportunities to get my fingers in lots of pies so hopefully this will set me in the direction (I think) I want to go. It's only until the end of the year but it might well be renewed. I start on Monday.

I had to be all business-like when I was on the phone to the manager who called to tell me, but the moment I got off the line all my pent energy burst out and I was spinning around the flat and calling people to say things like "yay yay yay yay yay yay yay".

Supporting views of the balance of the universe I got some really sad news when I called my mum in the evening. Our poor old cat, Cleo, finally died. It's been coming for a while - she had a thyroid problem toward the end, became scarily skinny and stopped grooming - but it was still incredibly sad to hear. She was such a friendly, good-natured little thing and we'd had her since I was 8. My parents aren't going to get another but I really want one, if only it was viable. Hopefully within the next few years I'll live somewhere that it is possible.

So, finally, news, after 2 months of nothing.

Well, I'm back in England, but more about that soon. I've been putting back my big update, along with many other things, including job hunting, until I have the internet connected at home.

It's hard to sum up how I feel about being home. The complete change of pace and environment is, as expected, disorientating, and without any particular sense of direction here I'm starting to feel like I've closed one chapter and haven't really begun the next. Of course it is lovely to laze about in our new flat, see friends, visit art galleries and enjoy London life, and in that sense I am in no hurry to begin working again, but at the same time I've never been very good at inactivity and find myself panicking at the feeling of week after week passing by without anything really to show for it.


As to England, well, first of all I found it rather bewildering to be set down in East London rather than in the familiar Midlands. I've gradually got used to that and at least it is, if not a step forward, a step sideways rather than backwards to living at my parents' house. At first completely unqualified to interact in the outside world at all, I've now got used to speaking English to people in shops, leaving tips in restaurants and ignoring unsavoury characters (mostly teenagers - when did I become an old lady?) on the bus.

I don't think that idealised England at all to myself while I was away but it's amazing what you forget. One big thought on leaving Japan was "oh, life will be so boring when every task is easily accomplished in English". No more scanning carefully through every letter I receive to check if it's junk or highly important. No more laborious explanation in messy Japanese to staff in shops or on the phone. What's more, without the bureaucracy, intense inconvenience and nonsensicality (not to mention endless paperwork which must be completed unflawed, else repeated, then stamped by 15 people) which attends upon any attempt to achieve anything in Japan everything would be smooth sailing: day-to-day life would be so smooth as to be boring.

I think you can see my whole reason for posting coming. The sheer incompetence of some of the companies I've had to deal with has boggled my mind and driven me to eating endless numbers of tom_marzipan's rather good chocolate brownies whilst mentally drafting the most livid refund-demanding letters I can manage. In the interest of my waistline I thought it better to get it out of my system here.

First of all comes Argos from whom we made a big order of things we needed for our new place, since there weren't very many useful shops around us. The delivery (two blokes in an unmarked van who will arrive sometime between 8am and 6pm) came smoothly but it was soon established that the CD/mp3 mini-system thing was a load of junk which needed to go back as it couldn't perform its primary function of playing CDs. I have since waited in on two different days for a replacement to arrive (it didn't), then after several calls over the course of a fortnight, during which I was continually assured it would be back in stock soon, for the faulty machine to be collected. Neither of these things have happened, due to mistakes which were either errors in the computer system or caused by the incompetency of the staff. I don't really care which it was but I am thoroughly sick of being stuck inside waiting for delivery men who don't come when in fact I should be going back and forth between the internet cafe and home searching for and applying for jobs because...

... Orange have also monumentally failed to provide me with anything I have asked for. It seems the mobile phone company which so many others swear by but I've never used now provide broadband internet, or at least claim to, although I suspect it may all be a lie and in fact they make all their money from the customer and technical support phone lines. It's nearly five weeks since I applied for their 8Mb connection (I'm hoping that fast is fast and I won't feel the difference from the 50Mb service I had in Japan) and all I have to show for it is a pretty box with flashing lights and probably a huge phone bill. Every agent I speak to tells me something different but I know for sure that my first application failed due to our phoneline only having been activated for 48 hours. Of course I was only told this two weeks later when I called up to find out what had happened. Our order had been cancelled without any kind of notification to us. I gritted my teeth and agreed to wait another 10 working days for a new connection to be made. The date came and went accompanied by assurances from their staff that it was "due to be connected today. In fact, it has already been connected, our systems just haven't been updated". A likely story. It wasn't until the 8th phone call that somebody told me that I had been "connected but not connected". My broadband was running but not enabled. Someone hadn't pressed a button. (I wouldn't mind if he spoke in a technical terms I couldn't understand but what he told me just didn't make any real sense.) Apparently these cases are escalated to another department who cannot be contacted by the public, or, it seems by the technical support staff; a department which will have a queue of queries which could be two, or could be five hundred, and who should deal with my account within five working days... or possibly longer. I wonder if this department is The Pile Next To The Shredder.

I really can't believe I'm giving Orange a third chance after they so completely botched our first application but I knew that any other company would, in theory, take longer from this point to set up the connection. I worked in a call centre for quite a while so I sympathise with the staff who have to deal with useless systems, and even, almost, with the staff who have so little care for their work that they make small mistakes which cause people such trouble. However, the sheer incompetency of these companies is mind-boggling. Mistakes in the system happen with uncommon regularity. It makes one want to cease all involvement whatsoever with big companies but sadly this seems impossible.

At least in Japan if you jump through the ridiculous hoops and endure all the injustices the system WORKS. If only that were the case everywhere.

I guess the fact that I have no real news (well certainly not of kate_the_medic standards) is why I haven't been updating here. That and not having a spare second. I'm basically having the busiest month of my life bar none, and it's got the point where a friend's comment about "I feel like I should put this on my resume" is starting to ring true! Tomorrow is my last day at school and I have the joy of making a speech in Japanese in front of 1300 students. All the teachers are making a big deal of it which doesn't help. Also I have spent the last 2 years here telling students how to make good speeches in English so the pressure is on for me to deliver in Japanese!

In the last 10 days I've had materials_girl, jameswebbe, tom_pullman and kate_the_medic all pass through my doors Much food and drink was consumed, karaoke indulged in, crazy photo stickers made, and Noh drama "appreciated" ("Do you think that one is the husband or the wife? Oh no, it must be the emperor"). They brought the total of Pembrokians (including one honourary mention) who've recently visited Kanazawa to nine. Not bad I think!

This time next week I should be back in the U.K. Now if only I could split myself into three to achieve everything I need to before that time...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/5109160.stm

I definitely recognise that gate - do I also recognise those two boys, mesuno?

No update for a full month and the lack of e-mails asking me if I'm on my deathbed so can't log onto LJ indicates to me that perhaps the rest of you aren't checking it so much either!

I have exactly four weeks left in the country which is a pretty traumatic thought. My to-do list is practically a novel and includes clearing everything but furnishings from my apartment, finding a job, finding a flat in London, cleaning every nook and cranny that might have been neglected, arranging things at work for my successor, planning for a demonstration day when even the Ministry of Education will be coming to my school, writing a murder mystery party, trying to squeeze another red and white outfit from my wardrobe for the next England game, endless administrative issues related to leaving, and having fun at every possible moment with friends I will be leaving behind. With all this going on I haven't been able to help jameswebbe and materials_girl plan their trip here as much as I'd like and I haven't even managed to book a flight home! Otherwise, things seem to be just about under control *touch wood* and there's no sign of a nervous breakdown quite yet.

In the first half of June my little sister came to visit which was excellent fun. I'll post some photos soon. The second half of June has been dominated by the World Cup and I'd like to record that this is the worst possible time zone for watching such a tournament. Especially when you discover your building is connected to extra satellite channels that nobody else gets, leading to an invasion of Englanders at 3.30am on a Wednesday to watch a match that doesn't actually even matter. Good times.

A lot of these are coming to me at the moment, for obvious reasons, and I will add more over time.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Things I will miss about Japan
Mushrooms
Let's get this one out of the way first. Shiitake, eringi, enoki, shimeji, maitake, all the others I don't know the names of. Who needs meat?
Mountains and ocean
They're both so close! It's sad to think there'll be no more evenings of football (read "gossip") practice with a view of snow-capped mountains.
Japanese children
Japanese children of primary school age are actually the cutest on the planet. This isn't me getting broody: I'll objectively state that the babies are below average on the international cuteness scale. Once they start running around however they are oh-so-adorable

Things I won't miss about Japan
Incredible plastic wastage
You might think that packaging at home is over the top but that's nothing let me assure you. Everything here comes in plastic in a foil sleeve in a box wrapped in plastic. Also I have yet to challenge a supermarket assistant when they put a (conventionally packaged) toothbrush into its own separate little bag to ensure it won't touch the (equally well packaged) food I have purchased but I hope to before I leave.
Piped music
The current horrendous offender is the school song. I actually liked it until some genius decided that this academic year it would be played over the tinny school speakers at 8.17 every morning. This results in me having the damn thing in my head all day every day.

Things I used to hate but will probably miss
Always having a free seat next to me on public transport
This provides the double advantage of having more space and getting the occasional opportunity to look significantly at the person who has squeezed themself onto the opposite side of the train rather than sitting next to me.
The Notting Hill confusion
I am endlessly entertained by, when I've told a Japanese person my home town, reading their mind and saying "No, the movie was called Notting Hill and that's in London" just as they open their mouth.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*

You know how you can never remember these things when you sit down to write? More soon!

I just finished a job application which required a hand-written cover letter. Having sent all the ones I've done so far by e-mail I found it inexplicable that any company would request such a thing. However, after searching the city for suitable paper (harder than you'd think: what will I do when everyday tasks become easy again?), meticulous ruling out my own set of guidelines and ever-so carefully transcribing my typed draft (all the while wondering whether this, that and the other layout convention should be different for hand-writing) I realised the only possible reason was to weed out casual applicants and be sure that only people willing to make an effort to get the job apply. Even after all that the less than two week period between advertisement and deadline mean my letter might not make it in time, but at least I tried.

That's four job applications now, although one might be out due to the location, and another is a boring-looking back-up option. If only I was less picky I would have a better chance, I'm sure.

I finally managed to have a little fashion show on Saturday and get pictures of some of the skirts I have made recently. I left out a couple which are rather boring and just photographed the interesting ones :) I'm itching to get started on another couple of projects now - it's addictive!

( Pretty skirts )

When I saw the headline "Yellow dust cloud hits east coast" I thought the UK was experiencing something similar to Japan but clicking through I saw it was just pollen. Back in March, long before the Shinto gods flicked the switch to "summer", we had a day of sudden, unseasonally hot and oppresively humid weather.

Me: It's hot today.
Teacher: Yes. Er, how do you say "yellow sand from China" in English?
Me: Well, I guess you'd have to say "yellow sand from China". What does it mean?
Teacher: It is yellow sand in the air. It comes from China.

(Can you see why my English has deteriorated during my stay?)

They have a word for it in Japanese: kousa, which means "yellow sand", surprisingly. Sure enough, when I later turned on the weather channel, "yellow sand" was the forecast for the next day. I'm not sure how it slipped by me last year, it's actually a well-established meterological phenomenon which is becoming worse due to increasing desertification on the continent. I hope you feel you've learned something today.

I am in a dedicated rhododendron temple: there are millions of the things, all in full bloom. I'm trying to fit in with the locals by taking close-up shots of flowers on my phone.

Bel and Bel went to the Uchinada World Kite Festival 2006 on a beach a 15min train ride away from here. We ate a heathly lunch of ice cream, naan bread and passion fruit and mint slushies (a surprisingly nice combo).

Rainbow Manta Ray! A slightly better shot than the one from my phone but this still doesn't convey how big it was. Sadly they didn't have enough wind to fly the biggest kite in the world but given that it is so big it needs to be anchored to a 20 tonne truck we have to forgive them.

Very pretty phoenix

Cool Japanese-y kite

Amazing synchronised kiting These guys were phenomenal. There were about a dozen of them moving along the beach doing all kind of tricks that I still can't quite believe are possible with kites!

Middle one of three national holidays and I'm on the beach in glorious, hot sun at the 18th world kite festival. This, as the photo will inevitably not show, is a gigantic rainbow mantra ray, so big it is anchored to a truck.

wish you were here ;)

There's no real purpose to this; it's just a matter of personal interest. I'd like you all to share with me your impressions and pre-conceptions about Japan. No actual knowledge needed.

I was asked to complete this questionnaire for a class which is sort of close to "personal and social development", as far as I can tell. The students will be asked to guess what they think a foreigner's answers would be, then be given the questionnaires we filled out, and then the class will discuss the differences and where they might come from. It was really hard to remember what my ideas of Japan were before I came here so I'd be really interested to see what you all think (I'm not using your answers for anything).

Poll #720930 What do you think of Japan and the Japanese?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

When you think of famous places in Japan what comes to mind?

When you think of Japanese food what comes to mind?

What sports do you think the Japanese are good at?

What do you think of as the characteristics of Japanese dress?

What is your impression of Japanese High School boys?

What is your impression of Japanese High School girls?

What is your impression of Japanese families?

What is your impression of Japanese schools?

What is your impression of Japanese teachers?

Anyone who is in Japan or has visited and wants to add what their current, changed views are can do it in the comments. The questionnaire I had to do actually asked for both pre- and post-Japan impressions.

I think in hunting for a place to live next year my main requirement will be a neighbour who is an amazing chef and who, when she needs to borrow eggs in a hurry, returns them in the form of cake and chocolate brownies.
Any idea where to start looking?