Toya - Project Trust

IT'S FINISHED

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Day (God knows now) - Postmortem

tl;dr - my inner-thoughts on some aspects of this year I don't want to forget

Today is my last day of scheduled work and I have the farewell party tonight. Now obviously this blog thing kinda crapped out about 3 months or so in. That's mainly a mix of the first few months actually being my least favourite and a general disinterest in a lot of things.

But anyway, I’m back for maybe the last post (I might post my travel pictures after I get back to England). So let's sum up about 7 months of life in a few paragraphs.

So starting back at Christmas/New Year, basically where this blog died. So for posterity’s sake I'm going to list off the Jap volunteers. [Elia/Nic - Kyoto, Liz/Teiba - Showa Tokyo, Alex/Katie - Junten Tokyo] Okay now that's done... So anyway in December everyone but Nic visited us in Toya (Elia for only a short while) and basically what had happened was I (and I feel like Liem too, but lets just me) hadn’t learnt any Japanese (I say any, but I knew all the Hiragana; some Katakana and Kanji; and some easy phrases. But my grammar as base level language knowledge was basically nout). So up come all the other volunteers and they were all, Teiba and Katie in particular, better than me in Japanese. Obviously, this bummed the shit out of me, and me being me, put me in an odd state. But anyway I loved spending time with Brits my own age again so the Christmas holidays were great (in-spite of, and I don't think I've said this on the blog yet, but getting home was a fucking knightmare... money issues).

So anyway I picked up things in January and at Katie’s recommendation started using Genki. So this got me a great start. 

Then March rolls around quickly and we go to Tokyo for a thing we all have to attend. Anyway, I've been studying, learnt about 60 kanji I think,  ‘mastered’ the hiragana and katakana, and managed to catch up grammar wise to basically to Katie and Alex (obviously not vocab wise). So this gets me in a better mood in the way of Japanese. But that week I was particularly socially exhausted (especially with Nic there) so all in all left feeling worse than when I got there.

This is where my memory cuts out for a bit, it was just a lot of working I think.

And now I report from the present (26/07/2017). My Japanese has come a ways (just finished Genki) and I'm mostly happy, I've just recently started a friendship with a girl (Nanami) who we’ve worked with for a while at one of the gakudos (after school club) and I know my speaking is probably my second weakest aspect, after listening, but talking with a Japanese person on a social friendly level and felt like a lot of the time I can get a point across is good (A lot of the time, in other situations, I think I'm too nervous that I'll mess the sentence up so I don't try).

Also, we’ve had all our lasts (except last toya gakudou), last shougakkou (last Friday), last chuugakkou (last Thursday), last toya hoikujo (this Monday). And just a quick run through is that a lot of time it wasn't a huge deal, we hadn't made a massive bond with the teachers or kids at some of the places (we only saw them like once a month anyway). But the shougakkou was the most emotional, I genuinely love some of those kids and it breaks my heart a little that I won't see them after this month (note: got a little emotional there, writing that part). But only one kid properly cried, Saya, which was sad and cute (mainly because it’s Saya).

Conclusion: I don't know why I've written this, well I do, so I don't forget, but still. I wish I could add pictures of the classes but Japanese law stops me doing so. 

Lets just add some great moments

Sapporo Yuki Matsuri 

Anytime at the Toya gakudou

Days with Shiro and Yuki

Eating a bunch of soba with the mayor, going to karaoke, getting pissed at 5pm and vomming on a Korean bbq restaurant 

Rock climbing with Noriko and her mates

Yosakoi Soran Festival 

A little BBQ with the mother’s English club people

Canoeing on Toyako

Tacoyaki making, sans taco, with Nanami

This year’s been odd and long at points... but hell if it hasn't gone fast

Also, this year’s an odd one, because I've always known it’ll only be a year so I haven't fully invested in Japan as I might of if I moved here permanently. Basically I’ve loved this year, but Japan’s rarely felt like home, Toya does, but for now at least I need the UK.

p.s. time capsule thing, you’re quite in TWICE atm. Probably can be a future cringe thing

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Day 162 (Feb 8) - Return

Today we got the pleasure of meeting another ex-volunteer, she was her three years ago so we had a good time comparing experiences and eating with most of our English students at the pub.

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Day 161 (Feb 7) - Plague

We were supposed to be at the Onsen nursery and the Abuta after school club. Things went to plot though, we were only at the nursery for about 40 minutes before we got picked up again because apparently there was a cold going around. I mean there was one room in the nursery that was totally sealed off with people in masks cleaning it. So god knows what happened there.

We were back at the office until 3 from then on. But around 2 we got pulled out. Turns out two Americans had somehow gotten lost on their way to Noboribetsu and found their way to our small village. Anyway we helped them out and hopefully they got there safely.

After that it was just yosakoi where we just learnt one new dance.

A very strange day...

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Day 160 (Feb 6) - CAKE

So I bought 5kg of rice today because I'm trying to eat better food (not pot noodles) and save money for travelling later in the year (got like 3 budget spreadsheets set up now). I also learned some more Japanese, finished a bit more Lovecraft, and organised my desk.

So, to counteract any positive effect today may have had on my life, my current favourite song atm is ‘Cake’ by Flo-rida -____- I’m not proud of it...

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Day 159 (Feb 5) - BBQ

Funny one today, the head of the international exchange board had invited us to a festival so we agreed, not knowing anything about it. We got there, turns out it's a BBQ. So we got absolutely stuff on free meat and bean sprouts. Got to see a bunch of our students from various schools. A bangin’ day.

Then we had to play a strange game where a guy mumbled for a bit, said something and you had to grab the corresponding card. The problem was that the hiragana on the cards was unreadable. So I got a little annoyed at that. Plus there was no discernable competitive aspect to the game, which confused me a little. In the end, though everyone else had fun so it was pretty good.

Then the man who’d taken us there (Sasaki-san) and his wife took us out for ramen in Onsen. So a free meal and decent conversation, wins all around. 

Also, I was on the ball the whole day with puns.

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Day 158 (Feb 4) - Water Cleans?

The Japanese lesson wasn't on today so all I did all day was go to onsen, it was fairly relaxing but I'd written some words to memorise on my hand so I had to keep one hand above the water level and I reckon it looked dead weird.  

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Day 157 (Feb 3) - Less Love Lovecraft

I had a mild headache all day today. So today being one of the best days was a welcome ease. We worked at the shougakkou (first school) and the after school club. I got a little more Lovecraft read (not really int0 this one as much) and made some headway into Genki chapter 3. Yosakoi wasn't on tonight either so I just chilled and watch Scott P v The World in my bed by projecting it onto the ceiling, relaxing af.

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Day 156 (Feb 2) - Genki Desu 

Today we had the old people's home and because of Japanese tradition, we had to dress up as oni (demons) and have beanbags chucked at us. It also breezed through chapter 1 and 2 of the Genki textbook.

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Day 155 (Feb 1) - Love Lovecraft

So by a series of unfortunate events (not the books) I can’t play Bloodborne. I can, however, get really into its influences. Which I have done, I’ve only gotten through; The Nameless City; The Festival; The Colour Out of Space; The Dunwich Horror; and most of The Whisper in Darkness; but I am hooked. Working around the pieces of blatant racism they're amazing stories. Also, Toya is perfect right now to read them in. It’s been really windy recently and that plays very well into The Nameless City. The other day it rained and turned all the snow to sludge, which fitted perfectly The Colour Out of Space.

“10/10 Would face the horror of the unknowable again”

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Just muckin’ about with my new laptop and reminiscing about the Christmas holidays

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So January was a weird month. I won’t bother writing anything for January but I'm getting back into it in February.

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Sapporo part 2

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Sapporo part 1

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Day 124 (Jan 1) - Today we went to Takeshita street (very touristy) for a wonder about. But it was heat which was nice. Then we went to Cat and Owl cafe (SO CUTE!!!!). Then the photo booths from hell. Then a different shrine. Then a cute little bar. Then looked for bowling again (-_-). Then, inevitability, McDonalds.

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Day 123 (Dec 31) - Today was rather boring. Everyone was bored so we all went separate ways. I got lost in Tokyo for about an hour trying to find the right subway station. Eventually I met back up with Liem by pure accident at Odaiba coz he had the only key to our room so I had to stay out. We saw some sights then headed home. Around 8 we headed over to Oji for a taste of Tokyo's clusterfuck of a public transport system. Basically everything went to shite. So we ate a lovely toad in the hole at Katie and Alex's house. Then headed to the Oji shrine for the new years parade. It was dead boring and we barely noticed it turned 12. Then we stumble around at 2 in the morning looking for a bowling alley (coz we're idiots). Eventually we had to call it day and head home coz I was knackered.

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Day 122 (Dec 30) - Today was our last day in Sapporo so we went to the batting cages, hit a few balls (missed a lot more). Then went for THREE games of bowling (I won them all) but everyone was dead by game three. Then we bounced off to the airport at 4pm (despite our flight being at 9pm). We hung around a while until the girls flights left at 7. So me and Liem wondered a bit, got food at the Lawsons, and then waited for our flight. We almost missed our flight coz they changed the gate and we didn't know, but someone helpfully informed us last minute, so we ran to it. Then in Tokyo we grabbed all of the last trains to get to our hotel (quite stressful).

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Day 121 (Dec 29) Today we went to the Sapporo Bell Tower, which was significantly better than the TV Tower. Not much to say on it though. Then we tried to find the ropeways up the mountain but got lost, ended up in a church, Liem and Teiba got in a snow battle, and saw some cute doggos. Eventually we made it up the mountain... And... It... Was... FREEZING! I couldn't feel my fingers after, but it was worth it to see the whole city at night. Then we went back down and met up with the whole group to go to a buffet. Teiba ate waaay too much. Then we decided to go on the ferris wheel (it probably wasn't worth the cost, but I enjoyed it). Then me and Teiba stayed up till one playing Go against each other, neither of us really winning.