Tripping to Nara

A trip to the first imperial capital on a lovely sunny day, and our first glimpse of postcard-perfect Japan. We spent several hours wandering around the grounds of Todaiji Temple (pictured), and trying not to get too carried away with the deers in the park. There were hundreds of deers just chilling about and ignoring the tourists who 'awwww' and 'ummmm' at them, they've seen it all before. Im sure the deers were rolling their eyes at our childish excitement. I had my fortune read at the temple; basically, you make a wish while shaking a big, antique tin and the answer will be on whatever stick that falls out of the teeny hole in the tin. Mine says I'll have good luck, that I'll be successful in whatever I wish to compete in and that if I am waiting for an answer from a lover(!), it'll come too late. Sounds ominous. There was also a giant wooden pillar with a liddly hole cut out of its base, and if you slither through that then its supposed to bring you salvation. How could I possibly refuse? So, all the Ryans, Thi-s, and Bens out there, salvation is easily yours buddie if you can get your asses a few thousand miles over here. No wonder Japanese tourism is a booming business with such promises!

Come lunchtime, the place was positively heaving with tourists and gaggles of school girls, all wearing ridiculously short skirts. Honestly, how could their mothers allow them to leave the house like that?! A chorus of かわいい (kawaii, ie cute) and giggles followed Sven and David everywhere, the schoolgirls couldnt get enough of them, so its a miracle how the boys could get their heads through the bus door at the end of the day. Optimal photo-ops because the place is so beautiful, everything I'd imagined 'Japan' to be like.

Kawaii Boys

Sven's treasured photo, his little pick-me up for days when there simply arent any adoring schoolgirls chasing him around. Life can be so hard for kawaii boys, never a moment's peace in this town!

Deers, 'chilling'

Aaaah, what a view.

Say 'Chisu'

Remember I told you about the classic photo-taking pose? Proof that the girl ain't lying! This is Liz's favourite school uniform of the day: bottle green cardi; white shirt; navy pleated skirt preferabbly rolled up and flashing some red knickers; and yellow bow tie. Stop drooling boys...

Go shortie...

We booked out a section of our local Italian restaurant for Kevin's 2.0. last night, and decked it out with balloons and streamers, though we did stop short of making everyone wear party hats. The food was amazing, and it was all-you-can-drink beer, wine, juice, and soft drinks so everybody was quite merry, and the volume got louder and louder as the night progressed. Our mission was to get Kevin so hammered that we'd have to carry him home, since twenty is the legal drinking age here and so its a bigger deal to turn 20 than 21.

Rather than presenting Kevin with a card, we made him this snazzy banner with messages and doodles of our national flags. It looked really impressive by the end of the night when some alcohol-inspired messages were also added, I think he was quite touched by the effort we went to. For pressies, we got Kevin a blender (very rock 'n' roll!) and a light jacket since its getting a bit nippy these days. Then it was down to the karaoke bar to sing our little hearts out. Sven donated some vodka to smuggle in, and true to our words, Kevin drank so much he puked up and is now nursing a phat hangover. Bless...

Happy Birthday kisses to Jennifer (31st Oct) and Dina (1st Nov) xxxxx

The Love of My Life

Happy Birthday Ma, you are more beautiful with every passing day. All my love always, x

Looking Back...

I've been in Japan for a month??!!! Where did all the time go? It doesnt feel like a month, it only seems like yesterday that I was sitting in The River having drinks with the Bens and Clare, or having dinner with Michael Lessani in Cafe Rouge. Yet here I am, one month down already and only eleven more to go...despite the homesickness, I am actually quite sad about that.

So what do I think I've achieved in this time? Well, the Japanese is really difficult but I feel like I am getting some of it at least. Its very exciting when I can hold a conversation with a Japanese person and they understand what I am trying to say! Being surrounded by international students all the time does have its bad points since English is always spoken, so I dont get enough opportunities to practise Japanese.

I am really settled here; I love the Ohmeikan and my room, its my little haven with lots of photos and fairy lights, though its annoying that the floors are so segregated. It makes a mission out of organising any sort of social event since the girls' quarters are always completely out of bound. Lately, life has been a bit of an emotional rollercoaster but the worse of the storm is over. I had an epiphany last night; I realised that I've been distracted, that I'd lost my way and forgotten the reasons why I came here in the first place, which are primarily to study Japanese, and Japanese Law and Politics. I am a lot happier, I still miss you guys but then I'd remember all the abuse I had to suffer with references to paddy-field hands, vertically challenged, banana boat, immigrant child, my tenses and grammar! So then I dont miss you that much! Anyhow, I've made some great friends, and they're starting to abuse me just as much too. Aaah, there's nothing like good banter!

Speaking of friends, I've made some Vietnamese friends too! I had a hard time proving to them that I am Vietnamese; they think I'm half English because my nose isnt very 'Vietnamesey'. My countrymen always have such a fascination with my nose, they call it a Westerner's nose simply because its defined and not flat. They're all very lovely and not as scary as the Vietnamese guys in Bristol that Char, Hellie and I went to dinner with last year. Those guys just spent an entire evening saying I couldnt speak Vietnamese properly when I can, its just a hybrid version since my parents are from the north and south.

The sumo wrestling was probably the highlight of the month, besides getting the scholarship of course. The office told me that I was really jammy since quite a few people from the university had applied for it, and I was the only one successful. I knew I was jammy but I didnt know I was that jammy. I still cant believe that I dont have any financial woes, this is the first time in a long while!

Working Hard

I work so hard here compared to the measley six hours of lectures and seminars that I had at Bristol. And I hear that its down to four this year! Its very much a different system over here, punctuality is really important and attendance should be at least 80 percent if you want to pass the class. Japanese Language at 8.45 am isnt pretty, its my daily torture session and I find the hour and a half excruciatingly painful. My head spins trying to keep up because it always takes a while for me to digest new information, but there's no time for that in the lesson. Law and Politics is dire, proper slit-my-wrists boredom because the teacher drones on endlessly about stuff we've already covered. History is the same; the only amusement is tallying the number of times the teacher says 'yeah?'. She's so lovely but she does say it at the beginning and at the end of most of her sentences. We lost count at 8oish this week, bearing in mind that there was a 20 minutes student presentation when she couldnt talk. My graduate classes are great, very interesting and really fire me up. There are always heated debates in Peace-building and International Politics, though I'm not sure I can stay in International Politics because the class is too big. Probably my favourite class is Japanese Diplomacy, the teacher is quite a character and gets so enthusiastic about it. It helps that he's very jovial and funny too. Im learning lots, even getting through some of the books on my Must-Read list, starting with Boutros Boutros-Ghali's An Agenda for Peace. Check me out, well on the road to becoming model student!

*Studying Jaapnese with Antonio. Milk, chocolate, and biccies at the ready*

For the Love of Beer

The International Ohmeikan Festival opened in earnest last night with a party in the 'robby'. Its a two-months drinking extravaganza masquerading as a 'festival' just to give the facade of culture and sophistication to the idea of 100+ students getting drunk and playing drinking games...for two months. All in the name of bridging international divisions and making friends with our Japanese contemporaries.

The opening act was a rude Japanese sketch involving a girl in a pink nurse's uniform, a guy dressed in nothing but a frilly pair of yellow polka dot knickers and a red apron, and a large bottle of Asahi. The bottle was used effectively to convey his...erm arousal. Some things will always transcend the language barrier.

Still Sober!

The party was literally a series of self-introductions in Japanese by the international students and several rounds of drinking games. Everybody has to down some beer, a large bottle for the guys and only a glass for the girls, to chants of 'sorei, sorei, sorei' which is the Japanese equivalent of 'D.I.O. D.I.O. D.I.O' (down in one, etc). Necking down a bottle of beer is harder than it sounds, since the pressure naturally purses your lips together so you really have to suck by the end of the bottle. The Japanese boys are terrible drinkers, they are complete lightweights and get hammered on a couple of bottles of beer. Their faces turn bright red, they stumble about often collapsing on the floor, and then some of the other boys would have to carry them back to their room. Even I am not that much of a lightweight and I am a girl! Here's proof that it started pretty at the beginning of the night before Sven and I have had that much to drink.

タンと申します

A picture of my self-introduction in very bad Japanese, and that's with George and Liz's coaching before hand.

To say that the Japanese are very fond of self-introductions is a huge understatement. They are very very fond of it, and so we've all had to do over fifteen self-introductions since arriving here, a substantial number considering we've only been here for four weeks! Basically, if there's a stage then you walk onto the stage and give a little spiel about yourself to the crowd, and in the classroom you'll have to stand up and face the other students. Listening to forty people give you the same information for the benefit of some academics and some people you'll never see again can be so tedious and mind-numbingly boring. It was informative the first couple of times when we didnt know each other but by now we can all do each other's self-introductions.

The introductions at the Ohmeikan was the first to involve alcohol, so it was a little raucous at times! Anyway, I got up there and forgot all the Japanese that George and Liz had taught me- i couldnt even remember the word for eight but Liz, bless her, came to the rescue and shouted out 'hachi' from the crowd. Finally got through it, and then downed the beer in one. Blaaargh!

(My new red kimono: its a kiddie one but I would never wear the long, floor-length ones that are made for adults. Customised this one a little and now Im completely in love with it. Translation: My name is Thanh)

D.I.O. D.I.O. D.I.O.

Before party end, we had to perform the Ohmeikan song in a giant group huddle complete with feet stomping and uncoordinated swaying. The Hall Prez led us from the middle but he messed it up a couple of times so he had to down some more beer as a forfeit, though as the guy standing next to him with the sick bucket illustrates, he wasnt in the best shape to do it. Then everyone breaks up into blocks and do some more chantings there, then some unlucky sods were picked and the group would throw them skyward. The boys managed to hit the ceiling with their guy...ouch!

Drinking Games

After parties were held on each floor, but being indecisive people and wanting to stick together, 16 or so of us decided to check out all of them, which meant more self-introductions! It was so funny, anytime you share something with the speaker (eg. age, degree) then you'll have to stand up and take a drink too. We did each other's introductions, had Q&As where such questions as 'are you cherry?' were asked, which means 'have you lost your cherry yet?'. There's a guy in the Ohmeikan whose nickname is Cherry Boy, and we wondered what it meant at first. Someone enlightened us, and he's become a bit of a legend so now this is everyone's favourite phrase. Here's Liz making the girls proud.

Babe Magnet

Baby Kevin gets the girls, and he looks pretty damn pleased about it too. (Drinks were obviously consumed by this stage)

日本語を勉強しています

Translation: Studying Japanese. I know you're all wondering, 'how much Japanese is Thanh learning, we know what she's like with work!' I have an hour and a half of Japanese every day, and they set us homework every night for the next day so its work, work, work all the time. We move so fast through the textbook, learning so many new things everday, and its been ages since I've had to study another language. Im not even used to the terminology the teachers use to convey things, let along Japanese itself eg. Perfective and imperfective forms, particles, conjugation, demonstrative pronouns etc. Its worse when there's an entire sentence in the textbook with all those terms in and I am sitting there thinking, 'en anglaise, s'il vous plait?'

So far, we've learnt hiragana, which is the phonetic alphabet. Now we're moving onto katakana, another alphabet for foreign words, and then next week we'll start on the kanji, which is made up of many katakanas all drawn in one box. So in the heading, the three beginning 'boxes' are kanji, there's a hiragana particle in the middle, followed by kanji, and then some more hiragana at the end.

They've taught us directions; introductory conversations: what's your name, where are you from, what do you study; describing what we're doing, have done, will do, did; counting numbers and telling the time; how to add 'and' into our sentences because that would involve a conjugation of the verbs and particles. Same with making a negative statement, as in 'I didnt do that'. Confusing?

Typhoon Number 23

An official warning was issued at 7.50 this morning and all classes have been suspended. This is our third typhoon is an many weeks, and we're hoping that it'll be a good one. The Japanese think we're crazy to ask for such a thing but I guess they think of it as an annoyance because they see it all the time, whereas we really want to experience a big one to see what it's like. Its the Tourist Mentality. They're also giving us an earthquake simulation in November, though we have no idea how they plan to do that or what it will involve. Last week, we discovered that there are emergency rations at the Ohmeikan in case some freakish natural disaster occurs, so we are well and truly prepared should Mother Nature decides to throw anything at us.

The picture was taken yesterday in the pre-typhoon rain. Its the lunch queue, and everyday it stretches outside the canteen and down the road. All in all about 40m long. The food is really good and costs next to nothing, hence why the entire university seems to descend on to it come twelve o'clock.

Though buying the food is still a problem for me, since everything is in katakana and kanji, and we havent quite gotten that far yet with our Japanese lessons. Its a case of guess-and-pick, hoping that whatever I get served is at least edible. The food tends to be disguised in breadcrumbs, so what looks like chicken might turn out to some kind of fish. Its a little surprise everytime I sit down for lunch.

Keep Thanh Sane Campaign

A desperate plea: Please send me some good music! I am going crazy here without any decent music to listen to, there was simply not enough room for anything else after packing all my clothes. So what I am asking for is one compilation disc or album from you, hell, send two if you're feeling generous. Give me Damien Rice, Jamie Callum, Kevin Lyttle, Justin, Sean Paul, Mansun, Elvis, Delicatessen, Juliet Ferrar, Nirvana, anything and everything. I can't take any more trance and techno, and silence isnt easy... I am being serious, rescue me from this quiet asylum, its driving me insane.

Learning with God

This week has been the longest week of my life, it seemed like the weekend was never going to arrive. The reason is that I completed an entire semester worth of work in a week on top of all my other classes too, so everyday I was in uni by 8.45 and didnt get back til 7 or 8 in the evening.

This is all my fault, for talking myself on to the graduate course, and committing myself to the workload. Introduction to Peacebuilding, one of my graduate courses, ran a special week-long workshop with Jan Oberg, a visiting scholar from the field, where we discussed the issues in conflict zones, ranging from Kosovo, Burundi, Somalia, Iraq, Yugoslavia etc. All this required lots of preparatory work and research on my part just to keep up with everybody else since they all seem to have completed their masters and PhDs, and there is little ol' me still completing my undergraduate course. The workshop ran from 8.45 to 4.15 and then a film would be shown to highlight some of the key issues we'd discussed that day. Since most of the people there were post-grads, they didnt have any other courses to attend, but I still had to keep up with my weekly schedule and be at the workshop too. Jan made special arrangements and allowed me to come and go between my other classes, which basically involved a week of scooting from one place to another and getting half an hour for lunch. Jan, aka God, is a truly inspiration person whose achievements in the field earned him the Peace Prize in Italy. He's established a peace foundation doing work in conflict zones at the grassroot level and helping warring factions to resolve their differences. All too idealistic, I hear you say, but his achievements demonstrate that such things are possible if necessary investments are made. He's organised a meeting between Croats and Serbs with UN backing and managed to get them to not only talk to each other, but actually to build a working relationship thereafter and now the participants consider themselves friends.

I had so much work to do though, and the Japanese Language classes were getting more and more difficult. We had homework to complete everynight for the next morning, so after coming home at 8, and cooking dinner, I'll have to sit down to study hiragana, grammar and sentence structures. Then I have to do all the reading for the workshop, and all the reading for my next day's classes too. Most nights I didnt get to bed til 3 or 4, then I was up again at 7.30 to be in uni for 8.45. So it went like that for the whole week, and by Wednesday, I was completely shattered. Friday seemed like such a long way away. It finally came, and Friday proved to be the best day so far because I got news of the scholarship, had a lovely lunch which lasted more than 30 minutes with my academic adviser, and there was even a party thrown in for all the hard work we did in Jan's workshop. The picture is of all the people left standing after the tiring week, we lost some along the way and some people went home to bed, but we had a good time. God even offered me a voluntary position working for the foundation in Sweden when I return from the Far East! Now that, my friends, is networking at its best.

Skipping Down the Road

Today I am grinning from ear to ear, there's a spring in my steps, and even the Japanese Language classes aren't painful. I've finally received a response from the Takase Foundation and they're granting me the scholarship. WOOHOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Completely over the moon, hugged the lady at the International Centre who gave me the news, she was just as excited as I was! No more financial worries. And, better still, they're paying for me to go to Tokyo for the official ceremony where I get to meet Takase-san himself! I do have to make a speech, though, which I am planning to do in Japanese. Got to make an effort since they are giving me all this money. Oh happy day!

Anything you can do...

Being little means that everybody assumes that I am a weakling, which infuriates the hell out of me. Independent 21st century girl, I can open my own bottle of wine (lots of practise there), open the bottle of bolognese sauce (if I can reach it at the top of the shelf, that is)... Here's proof that the girl has some muscles hidden inside her after all. We were pissing ourselves, I first tried to swing Kevin over my shoulder and carry him like so but we ended up collapsing on the floor in a fit of giggles.

Japanese Way of Life (Vol. 1)

Its not surprising that technology is an everyday part of Japanese life, but its the little touches, which really make me grateful to be living in the most technologically-advanced country in the world.

They have motion detection lights so when I walk into a public loo or to my room late at night, lights would switch on before me and turn themselves off behind me. No more stumbling around for the light switch. Another thing that has really impressed me is the computer we under our desks. Ordinary-looking desks, one flick and a sleek and stylish flat screen monitor slowly rises up; the keyboard is wireless, the mouse is wireless so no cables to trip on either. The picture is taken in my Japanese Law and Politics class, Kevin is in the foreground, then Loni (Elenora), and DJ doing the classic Japanese photo-taking peace symbol. Honestly, its seriously annoying, a camera comes out and they just cant resist. I have seen four photo albums all in one sitting with every single picture showing grinning Japanese displaying the peace symbol- damn that John Lennon!

The university has a series of strict codes and guidelines which we must observe, including sex segregation at the halls of residence. At the Ohmeikan, the boys live on the first through to the sixth floor, seventh and above are girls only. The official explanation is that the university respects religious diversity, and the belief that some religion advocates for the separation of unmarried men and women in living quarters. That explanation doesnt quite hold up considering that girls are allowed on the boys' floors, surely religious values apply equally to both sexes? There are security doors with access codes, and hidden cameras positioned by stairs and outside lifts to ensure that the boys do not, and cannot, get into Chastity Towers (an ingenius name the boys have coined). Its like living at Hogwarts. When Emma and I cooked dinner for Sven and George, the boys had to come up to the eighth floor to give us their plates so we could serve the food. But as soon as they got out of the lift, they could hear the mechanical whirring of the camera as it followed their every movement. Fearing that they'll be kicked out for violating guidelines, the boys quickly handed over their wares and never ventured back up again!

So even though I am allowed on the boys' floors, I still get suspicious looks whenever I get out of the lift at anything below 7. The presumption is that we immediately close the door behind us and have rampant sex, which is not the case at all! What happened to simple communication and interaction these days? Worse still, is getting the lift back up at three in the morning from, say, the fifth floor. In such circumstances, I prefer to climb the stairs than to face the amused looks and curious glances. Better to avoid gaining myself a reputation for coming up from a different floor every night!

Happy Birthday Darling

Hey angelness, hope you have a brilliant time at Yia Mass with the gang, though I do think you could have been more original!

All my love, xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sumo Wrestling Grand Championship Poster

Sven's fantastic idea for a Sunday outing, he'd read that there was a Sumo Wrestling Championship in town but we're still awful with navigating the Nagoya rail and subway system, so we had no idea whether we were actually going to make it. It was an all day thing, starting at 9 and ending at 5, but we had a late night on Saturday so didnt actually make it the games til 2 in the afternoon.

who's got the bigger bubbies?

Being impoverished students, we bought the cheapest tickets to the wrestling championship, which meant sitting far back in the stadium on the third tier. I like to be close to the action, to get hit by the salt they through around before the game. So I found the entrance to the ground floor seats, turn on the charms and lots of smiling later, managed to get through security and onto the second row! I had a fantastic view of the stage, I was so close that I could see one of the sumo wrestler's birthmark on his inner thigh- not that it was a pretty sight, of course. On my way back to the others, I bumped into this sumo wrestler and had to do the touristy thing and ask for a picture. He happily obliged. And the answer to the question: much to my annoyance, him, obviously!

The Stage

The ring is tiny, not much room to manouever especially if you're a huge sumo wrestler. The spectators with the best seat sit on the floor, but these seats are usually only reserved for sponsors and company bigwigs. I managed to get a seat next to the guys in orange and grey in the bottom right of the picture. You might be able to just make out the raised tiers, I should have been on the third block, but even there we had good views. Plus, sitting on the floor means pins and needles.

party trick

Sumo wrestling tends to be a really quick game and lasts only a few seconds, but the pomp and ceremonial traditions mean that it can be several minutes before any of the action can begin. The two sumo wrestlers arrives on stage, faces each other in the crouching position. Sometimes they'll do the party trick, trying to psyche each other out. A man dressed in a beautiful kimono will do some chanting, then they walk to the left corners of the stage, pick up some salt from the wicker basket and throw it towards the centre. This is repeated three times before the game. Its great when the wrestlers give each other evils, and stand chest all puffed out and slapping their thighs. Only the really cocky ones do that, and then we know we're in for a good game. The atmosphere is electric, there's such a buzz. Once, a sumo wrestler was pushed off the stage and ended up in the second row but luckily, people moved out of the way in time. It could have been ugly, otherwise. At intervals, and this is certainly the best bit, the stadium lights are switched off and three men give a drumming performance, with huge flames lighting up their stage. The drums are massive, much bigger than the drummers themselves, and though its really only three men on drums, the music they produce is completely captivating. If only my phone had sound recording!

After the storm

Blip over, and Im bouncing around again! Sorry, didnt mean to alarm you all by the admission that I was homesick: Im doing brilliantly, I was just missing my analysis committee, always there to dissect, evaluate, and then formulate an action plan so that I'd always know what to do. I was feeling lost without this support network. Dont worry though, Im going to do the right thing.

Its an absolutely beautiful day today, we've been blessed with hot, sunny days for most of the time we've been here. Im walking around like its the height of British summertime and its October! Having said that, Nagoya has been hit by two typhoons since my arrival, though they were pretty tame and went around us rather than hitting us directly. Typhoon brings heavy rainfall, gusty wind and generally means a day sheltering indoors, so we were all a little annoyed when we heard that a typhoon was coming on Saturday, smack bang in the middle of Bank Holiday Weekend. Always the sweetheart, Kevin dragged me out of the safety of the Ohmeikan on Friday to get some waterproofs. He knew I was having a bad day and decided that a walk in the rain would sort me out and perk me up. And surprisingly, it did! we were completely drenched despite having big brollies and it only being the timid leadup to the actual typhoon. I was so prepared for the real thing...but it never came :( . The funny thing is, we want to see a really bad typhoon, to have an earthquake (dont worry, the Ohmeikan is designed to survive one), gotta experience All-Things-Japan while we are here!

Getting my leg over

Incriminating evidence, Im sure! Lol. This was taken when we had a sightseeing day to Nagoya Castle, after much photo-taking we were bored of the usual poses and so here is Sven and I getting it on...and in public too! Poor Liz. I can hear the cries of 'hussy!' resonating from home!

International Students Party

Nagoya University really look after the international students, and they are always laying on events for us. We've had many welcome parties and orientations, but the best one so far has got to be this party. I wasnt even going to go to it, assuming that it was going to be a boring affair involving sushi and green tea. The first indication that it was going to be a good one was the music blaring from the hall, which was actually some decent stuff and not the usual trance and techno that the Japanese seem to love so much. Plus, free food and free bar equals merriment all around. We have yet to find a good club in Nagoya, two weeks in town with only awful music to listen to meant that I was completely over the moon to hear some R n B, a little bit of hip hop, some reggae mixed in. Better still, I got on really well with the DJ, a guy called Steeve from Miami, who was only too flattered that someone appreciated his efforts so much. He would play my requests: Naughty Girl, Turn Me On, The Power of Bhangra, Yeah! etc. all back-to-back and even left his box to join me on the dancefloor. And Steeve really knows how to move! Some number-swapping later, and he decided he was going to take me to ID, a six-storey club, for some good music after the party. It was such a good night, and now I have a new going-out buddy! No more trance and techno for me, yeh!

A Missing Everybody Day

A little blip today: Im really missing home, missing Bristol and missing my girlie sessions. I miss having you guys at the end of the phone, having dinner with Helena and Charlotte, Clare coming round with chocolate cake, lunch at Havana. As good as Nagoya is, it doesnt compare to you all.

which bin?

A little story about life in Nagoya. Well, they're very much into their recycling here so a trip to the bin is time consuming as hell. In Nagoya, we recycle over 20 different types of rubbish and they have to be sorted into the correct bins when you chuck anything away. Luckily, at the university and halls, we 'only' recycle 14: there's plastic, PET bottles, paper packaging, glass bottles, polystyrene, incombustible waste, combustible waste etc. If you have, say, a coke bottle then this is what you have to do. First, remove the paper label from the bottle and put it in the paper packaging bin, then remove the cap AND the plastic ring under the cap and throw that into the plastic bin, then you have to wash the bottle out before you can finally chuck it into the PET bottle bin. All plastics must be washed, cartons must be washed, cut down perpendicular lines and sorted into bundles of ten. Easy huh? Try clearing up after a dinner party.

Carl

Cast of Characters

UK
* George: practically fluent in Japanese, my brother figure, he makes sure im stocked with chocolate koala bears
* Emma: lives on my floor, we're rice cooker buddies. despite being only down the hall from each other, we're always on the internal phone to each other.

AMERICANS
* Liz: recently turned 2.2, a Disney fanatic and has a real penchant for dressing up as Harry Potter
* Kevin: Spanish/Mexican/ Irish Ancestry, makes great tortillas, my saviour (see Chinese Romantic Love Film)
* Brandon: amazing on the karaoke, loud, enjoys winding me up, he reminds me off Benos actually
* DJ: lady's man, served in the marines, very good Japanese
* Jonathan: picking up my English accent, refuses to play President and Monica Lewinsky (its not sordid, its just a card game. honest!)
* Elenora: not in the hall, she lives in an apartment in town so we mostly see her when we're all going out
* Carl: our mini celebrity, he's on the cover of the Googoo Dolls album, 'a boy named goo'.

* Sven: Swedish, a real sweetheart, makes great pasta, 6"2 so we look rather odd walking down the street together
* Jan: Polish, the really nice, quiet type of guy. really good on the Japanese game of Go

Chinese Romantic Love Film

This is the best story, and its all true! Picture the scene: im taking a nap in my room and its 7ish in the evening. My internal phone goes off so i think Sven (who's cooking dinner for us all) is having a crisis. I pick up the phone, a little dazed, and a man starts speaking Japanese to me down the phone. The only words I can pick up is 'ze office' and then he hands the phone over to another man, who also precedes to talk Japanese to me. I tell him, 'nihonga wa hanusemasen', which is 'I cant speak Japanese', about the only line I've mastered in my short stay.

More Japanese and then I manage to pick up 'robby' meaning 'lobby' because the Japanese cant pronounce their L's. Thinking I've got a parcel that I must sign for, I went down to the lobby where a man greets me, 'oooh, Thanh-san' and shakes my hand. Lots of japanese later and I'm still completely baffled. He hands me his business card and then more Japanese. Jan is standing nearby but he doesnt speak Japanese either so we use the internal phone to call for emergency backup. I phone DJ, Brandon, George, Kevin, Liz, Emma, everybody. Kevin is the only one who's in so he came down to the 'robby' to act as translator.

The man tells Kevin that he wants me to be in a Chinese romantic love film. How the hell he managed to get my details, get into the international res (supposedly high security) and get my internal line is beyond me. He says he's seen me around nagoya and wants me in his love film. We tell him I cant speak chinese, he tells us no problem, he wants to cast me anyway. Naturally, Kevin and I are like, 'how romantic is this love film, eh?!!' He wants me to meet his partner who speaks English, so I'm thinking this is all a little strange but maybe worth investigating. Kevin tells him that we'll have a meeting and I'll bring a friend (more like the whole international entourage from the hall) but the man says it has to be tonight. He says, 'it'll only take 5...no 10 minutes- no, eight minutes'. we were like, surely it can wait til tomorrow. nope, the man wants us to go that night, that minute. We weren't that stupid, the film sounds dodgy and so Kevin tells him I'm in the middle of cooking dinner and that tonight is no good. i make nodding movements and pats my tummy. He shakes our hands and then leaves.

After he left, we all burst out laughing. It sounds like I was being recruited for some blue movie! It was the most random thing ever!!!

My lovely self

A picture for all the people who miss their favourite chinky friend. It was taken by Brandon before our first karaoke sess to celebrate Liz's 22nd birthday. A brilliant night all round, renditions of S Club and Spice Girls from the British camp (with obligatory dance routines) and even some salsa for Ricky Martin's Livin' La Vida Loca. The best song that night? Definately when Brandon and I grooved it up to Play that Funky Music White Boy. I havent laughed so much for ages, a really really good night!