Akabana: How to run a hostel

"Akabana", the mystical place where I got stuck for much longer than I wanted to ;-) What is it's secret?

The place as such is not fancy, but that's not what backpackers are looking for anyway. It's two simple wooden buildings with tatami inside, one male, one female bathroom. In one room the owner's grandmother lives (and watches tv all day and night). At night the futons are rolled out for people to sleep on. So amenities are really basic.

But the atmosphere is really perfect for a hostel. Hori, the owner and Ippe, the "manager" or someone else from the staff usually organized something for the evening. A barbecue in front of the house, sunset watching on Ama beach or on the mountain, a karaoke night at the Izakaya or... A lot of focus on community life and a laid-back, very friendly atmosphere that made you want to stay. The barbecues were the most popular thing, Hori acted as the grillmaster and just prepared the most incredible amounts of delicious meat, fish and vegetables. One evening we were close to 30 people at the table, so a lot of work!

The guys working at the hostel were all just being there for a while, either being students doing a summer job or having a time-out from stressful city-life (yes, there are Japanese people who don't want to work 15 hours every day!). So the staff is also changing from time to time.

There was a lot of partying and fun going on, but Hori and Ippe were also giving some rules and they did it in a smart, friendly-manipulous way. First thing when you checked in you got to read a sheet with some behavioural rules called "Akabana lifestyle". It started in the morning. If you were still sleeping at 8.30-9 am, they would just open the curtains and shout a friendly "ohayoo gozaimasu" (good morning). If you tried to ignore that, they would repeat it with your name at the end or start vacuum cleaning next to you... At night when the party got too loud, they would suggest something like "why don't we all go down to the ferry port and watch the stars?". That would usually make people more quiet and when coming back from star watching they would start going to bed. There was a lot of these little friendly manipulation going on, it was funny to observe. But nobody really minded it, because the atmosphere at "Akabana" is just great.

Tokashiki island

Tokashiki is belongs to Nanasai-Shôto, a group of islands in the South West of Okinawa. "Lonely Planet" mentionned the nice beaches, good hikes and a relaxed party scene at night. So I figured it would be nice for a short trip from Naha.

The main village on Tokashiki is Aharen, but it's tiny and very sleepy. I stayed in a hotel right next to the beach "The Southern Cross" which was a bit on the pricey side considering it was a tatami room only and with no private bath room. But on Tokashiki there is no cheaper alternative, unless you want to go for the camping site.

The beach was indeed very nice and offered some superb snorkeling. I decided to buy a cheap snorkeling set, because the rent is so expensive that it pays off even if you just go snorkeling for 2 days. I met two Japanese girls with whom I did a boat trip to the uninhabited island near Tokashiki. They took like 10'000 pictures and I had to pose for quite a few of them. I found this really funny, because just before they had mentionned that Japanese tourists take too many pictures and see places only through the lense of their camera according to their opinion. The beautiful beach also featured the typical restrictions. You were only allowed to swim in a tiny square of water and only from 9 am to 6 pm and of course you were reminded of not leaving any trash(well, really nobody is doing that here).
After swimming I went hiking a bit. There were no real hiking trails, so I had to walk on the road. But there were absolutely no cars. I went to the very end of the island. There is a rather macaber site. When Tokashiki was close to being invaded by American troups in WWII, more than 200 inhabitants of Tokashiki committed suicide at this place. There is a small memorial reminding of the mass suicide.

In the evening we tried to find the "relaxed night beach" scene mentionned in "Lonely Planet", without any success. No such thing as a party going on. At least we found a fab little restaurant and I had one of the best dinners I've had so far in Japan.

Occupation forces - angry thoughts

A few angry thoughts on American military presence here. To my American friends - you may want to skip this one...
We met these three American soldiers yesterday night and I can't even tell how angry they made me. Already when we met them one of them started telling us how prejudiced and "racist" the Japanese were. Obviously they were not allowed in in some bars. Hell, if I had a bar here I wouldn't want it to be the next GI bar - and I have seen how these guys often behave in Fukuoka. Second, how does America treat any non-American these days?! Third, what the hell are you still doing in this country?! And why do you think you have a right to be here? Fourth, you are ignorant "white trash" who don't even make the slightest effort to learn the language or culture. Fifth, you behave in a totally rude manner that must be an offense to the Japanese. Sixth, what would you do if Japanese soldiers were staying in your country?!
They were so stereotypically American and if America send people like this on missions it is not surprising that it's attracting more and more resistance and even hatred. I have met awesome Americans, but the soldiers here (and I've seen many more in Fukuoka) are just disgusting. You'd think that they learn something while being abroad for a while. The guys yesterday evening have all spent 18 months in Japan already. But they deem it totally unnecessary to learn anything about this culture.
They said the Japanese are lucky that they are here because the island is economically underdeveloped. What an arrogance! I know that economic interests play a heavy role in the discussion - and it is a heated political discussion here in Japan. I don't see any reason why they should still be here and I understand any Japanese being somewhat hostile towards loud, rude American soldiers lacking and manners and culture!
Also there was a case of rape of a 14-year old Japanese by an American marine. What would be the reaction to that in the US? Also you have no idea what it means to have foreign troups being in your country for the past over 50 years. But they think it's the most natural thing to be still there.
I can't recount in what a rude manner they behaved. And what disgustingly ignorant, stupid and arrogant views they displayed. Unfortunately the British and French guys wanted to hang out with them. I just felt a lot, a lot, a lot of anger... They said the Japanese think they are superior to them. And yes, I would agree with them.

Okinawa base backpackers

I've found the perfect hostel in Naha. Very laid-back with a hippie Japanese owner, tatami common rooms with free internet, free laundry and bikes for use, people chilling out and for just 1000 Yen. A place where you'd like to stay for a while... Shall I make use of the longterm resident discount?!

http://dp04151196.lolipop.jp/en/base.html

A day on the ferry

Okinawa is the prefecture in the very South of Japan, about 1000 km from the mainland. I had already planned to go there during my trip too since I heard it's a nice, laid-back tropical paradise. I decided to go to Okinawa by ferry. The plane tickets are really quite expensive that time of the year and also I generally enjoy being a sailor :) So I took the Marix Line ferry from Kagoshima to Okinawa on Sunday evening.

The whole trip down to Naha takes 24.5 hours, so more than one day. It sounded a bit dull, but I packed my Japanese book into my hand luggage and my iPod of course. Well, it turned out to be a really fun trip with a lot of oral Japanese language practise.

With the cheap ticket I bought I was allowed to stay in a tatami (Japanese floor mats) room with futons to roll out at night. A very packed room full of people, but comfortable enough. I went to buy some food then because I had forgotten to bring any. The ferry shop's supply of Bento was exhausted unfortunately and I had to content myself with a dry cheese and ham sandwich.

I sat on deck for a while, listening to music and enjoying the sea breeze. Then two Japanese girls came to talk to me. Having seen my Japanese textbook they had guessed that I'd speak some Japanese. I found out it's good to signal somehow that you are somewhat able to speak the language, since people generally don't speak or are afraid to speak English. Then Keichi, the guy who had priorly excelled at stripping and getting dressed again in the ferry terminal came to chat with us. When it got too chilly outside we switched to the corridor. Most people were already sleeping at 8.30, that's crazy.

We sat in front of a private room and at some point an elderly guy opened the door. I have expected him to shout at us and say something like "shut up and get lost", that's what you would experience back in Europe at least. But no, he said "maybe it's not so good to sit in the corridor, you should come to my room and chat there. There are also enough beds for all 4 of you to sleep." I was quite shocked, that was absolutely not what I expected... We are making noise in front of his room and he invites us in to keep on talking inside!

In the morning I met Rina, a girl who moves to Okinawa for University. A guy invited us both for breakfast in the small restaurant. I spent the rest of the day chatting in Japanese and it went surprisingly well. I also revised two chapters of my textbook and learned some new kanji. So it was not a dull ferry ride at all!

Kamikaze and Samurai

Chiran is a small town in Southern Kyushu. It is far from the usual tourist routes for foreign visitors, but features two interesting sites: The WWII Kamikaze museum and a samurai village.

Chiran had been one of the major airbases for the "special airforce attack groups", better known as "kamikaze". These young soldiers were trained as pilots and their mission was to crash into the US ships in the South Pacific, each one was certain to loose his life. The museum tells the story of the soldiers, how they lived in Chiran and how they were trained for their mission. While kamikaze pilots are often portrayed as these crazy, evil Japanese in the West, you see that it's just a story like elsewhere - young people being seduced by an idea and manipulated until they are ready to sacrifice everything. Seems to be a neverending and universal story, sadly enough.

The museum showed the pictures and goodbye letters of many of the over 1000 kamikaze pilots, some of them translated into English. The pilots were all very young, the youngest only 17, most in their early 20s. It's hard to imagine that the young boys on the picture would sacrifice their lives for an idea. Many stated in their letter that they were dying for the Japanese emperor. After this place where more recent Japanese history was shown, I visited the samurai villages at the other end of the town. There is a small village of nicely reconstructed samurai houses. Even better than the houses I liked the lovely Japanese garden and the carp ponds. Such simple beauty that invites for meditation.

Onsen wonderland

Japan is a very geologically active country. This leads to frequent earthquakes, there are quite a few active volcanos, tornados occur quite often in the South, etc. But Japan has included a part of this natural conditions in its culture through the omnipresent onsen.

An onsen is a hot spring and they are found all over Japan. Going to an onsen is considered a perfect way to relax and the Japanese people like to spend their (scarce) holidays in places with onsens.

One of the most famous onsen towns in Japan is Beppu, in Northern Kyushu. It features eight areas with considerable geothermic activity and each has several onsen baths.

We went to the mud bath which is quite special for Beppu. The regular mineral water onsens are found everywhere, but the mud onsen is quite unique to Beppu. When you enter the onsen you receive a small bath towel. You then undress and wash yourself thoroughly first. The Hoyaland onsen featured a regular mineral water, female only bath first. The water is quite hot, but comparable to a freshly prepared bath at home. Next to it was the mixed mud bath. The ground is all muddy and you dig for the mud and put it all over yourself. It is supposed to have a cleansing effect and be really healthy. In any case it was a lot of fun to play around in the mud and become a mud statue.

There was a small Hammam as well with a very, very hot sauna area and a cool water tank.

After Beppu I travelled to Ibusuki in the South of Kyushu. It's famous for it's sand bath. You wear a yukata, lie down on the sand and you are then dug into the hot sand and lie there for about ten minutes. It's a strange feeling and certainly not for the claustrophobic. You feel your pulse in every area of your body, from your toes up to the neck. After the sand bath you go to the regular hot water onsen to relax.

In Ibusuki I stayed at a very small youth hostel. The owner and her son were totally making fun of me when they saw my huge luggage. They were laughing out loud and the son asked me how I ever wanted to get through the weight check at the airport with that. I was like: wait - aren't you Japanese and supposed to be really polite and diplomatic?! It's funny how people can surprise you again and again because you have certain images in mind. They hold true sometimes, but certainly the Japanese are not as uniform as the West would like to think. There are some Japanese traits that come through sometimes (see the Aso post), but you see a lot of variety and only when you start understanding the language you realize that more.

Kumamoto to Aso

I started my trip across Japan on Wednesday morning, my first destination being Kumamoto. The main attraction there is the castle that has been reconstructed from original manuscripts and is supposed to be one of the most impressive castles in Japan. The castle is still work in progress, currently they are reconstructing the interior with all the artwork.

Kumamoto castle is really worth a visit and I loved walking around the vast castle area. It reminds you of samurai films. I was a bit annoyed because I left my camera battery in the locker at the station. So unfortunately no picture this time (don't want to steal any). But have a look at this website for a glance at the castle:

http://www.manyou-kumamoto.jp/contents.cfm?id=251

From Kumamoto I travelled on to Aso National park in the center of Kyushu. I had seen a picture in some brochure and since then really wanted to visit the place. Aso-san caldera is the largest in the world and a popular destination for hikes. It's not so well-known with foreign visitors however.

I checked in at Aso youth hostel first. On the way there I met a Japanese guy. I had read in some book that the Japanese don't usually travel on their own. But if you meet a solo traveller then it would be a slightly nerdy guy who'd carry the entire J-Rail timetable with him. Funnily enought that guy did have the entire J-Rail timetable with him (well, just the Kyushu part, but still...). Later we were sent to bed by the hostel owners, two elderly ladies who made it very clear that 11 o'clock was the latest time you could go to bed...

The next morning we took a bus to Mt. Aso. A cablecar ride took us to the caldera. The place was crowded with lazy tourists who just took the cablecar up there. We decided to go for a hike further up on the mountain and around the caldera. I was with Lidia, a French psychologist whom I had met at the youth hostel and Peter, a Dutch photographer who has been in Japan to do a new photo book.

On the top of the mountain we met Yuya and Kosuke, two Japanese guys who are hitchhiking through Japan with their tent on the back. They were pretty laid-back and cool. We asked them where they had met and Yuya said they had met at a station when Kosuke was trying to steal his wallet. But they also showed some a bit typical Japanse traits later on.

We wanted to go down a path that was not on their map and when we asked they said it was forbidden - we didn't think that was true though, but couldn't read the kanji. It was probably more because the way was a bit more dangerous than the one we had taken to reach the mountain top. They said they hated to go back the on the same path, but it still seemed to be the more correct option.

Well, the way down wasn't that bad, though a sign down there said you should have sufficient climbing equipment (which is over the top, really). On the way down we hid in the bushes to scare the Hungarian couple who was walking behind us. When they appeared we jumped out and screamed "banzai", that was really funny. We met the Japanese guys again at the station and they were happy we had survived... Lidia and I just crossed the street somewhere and the two guys said we shouldn't do this. We explained that we do that all the time back there in our countries. Yuya said he had done it in India too and and said that in Japan you should not do things like that. Is it that Japanese can behave in a less disciplined fashion abroad, but as soon as they're on Japanese soil they need to comply again? It's really interesting how people here can be non-conformist and conformist at the same time, depending on what it is about. We waited for the train with them, eating from our bento boxes and chatting.

In the evening I met two French guys at the hostel and we were talking about my plans to stay in Japan for a while. One of them used to work in Sourcing as well (but had become a history teacher meanwhile) and has some contacts to the "Societé Génerale" in Tokyo. He asked for my e-mail and when I'd be in Tokyo for a potential interview. You see - you may encounter helpful people randomly. I will continue to speak about my plans in any case...

Be patient...

Dear Blog readers
Please be a bit patient. I am currently on the road and can't upload photos and stuff, so I might postpone some posts. Please be patient, I will tell you all about fabulous Japan...
I am in Okinawa now, about 1000 km South of the mainland. Tropical paradise...
So long... Claudia

Goodbye Fukuoka

My time in Fukuoka is over now. I’ve spent the past 6.5 weeks here and have really liked the city. Also you quickly start to develop your habits in a new place and meet new people, so it’s a bit hard to leave now.
This last weekend I did plenty of “social” stuff, hanging out with people that I like and having fun. Friday afternoon I finally went to Robosquare, the roboter center in Momochi. It’s really fun, they do dance shows and stuff with the robots and you can talk with the “Hallo Kitty” robot. Friday evening we went to dinner at one of my Fukuoka favorites, “Alohana”, the Japanese-Hawaiian restaurant in Daimyo. After, we went to the famous “Happy Cock” to enjoy the “all-you-can-drink” offer once more. “Happy Cock” is really quite commercial and there are way too many American marines hanging out there as well. But when you’re a larger group it’s a compromise that will not totally piss off anybody. We met some “old friends” like “The hair” or the sleazy host club boys and it was not that bad at all.
Saturday I paid Momochi another visit and did actually study quite a bit as well (“kanji for beginners”). Nice as always… Saturday evening we met at “Morris”, then relocated to “Tatoo Bar” and then Atilla proposed to go to “Keith Flack” a small Dn’B Club in Tenjin. Should have discovered that one earlier, it’s really a pretty cool place and so are the people there. Left at 6 only… There was an embarassing episode though! We wanted to get a drink and two guys were blocking the bar. I said to David: "they could move their ass a bit, they already have their drink". Well, they turned around bowed and said "sorry" and I in turn bowed and said sorry and felt stupid. You should not assume that people don't understand English, even if they don't when it would be useful.
Sunday I had to do some cleaning up, separating the stuff I needed to send home by mail, etc. Later we went for dinner to “La Bohème” and had some pretty good Italian food.
My real goodbye was on Tuesday night when I came back from Korea. Luckily I DID make it past the immigration officer. See the related blog post… I really felt quite happy to be back in Japan! Anyway, we again went to “Alohana” (yes, we are boring!) and had another shared dinner – we would order several dishes and eat from all of them because it’s too difficult to choose just one. We made Atilla and David strike some “gay poses” for the camera, giving each other flowers and so on. One of the Japanese guys at the table next to ours felt asked to tell the story about his “gay phase” when he was a “lonely boy” then and came sitting at our table. It was quite funny, although we were not sure whether he actually wanted to say everything he said or whether it was due to poor English skills that he ended up saying them. His furious girlfriend then commanded him to go back to his table… We all missed the last subway, so we ended up going to an Izakaya (Japanese style pub) till 3.
Fukuoka, I’l miss you! But I will come back for the Sunset Live Openair in early September, that should be fun.

Immigration hurdle

Some of you might remember the US visa episode (when I did the internship in Boston). This was scary enough, but it happened again. I thought I was so smart just quickly going to Korea and coming back. Despite the fact, that I could have gone to the Immigration Bureau and extended the visa in Fukuoka. I didn’t do it due to 2 reasons: First, I thought they probably speak only Japanese and it will be totally cumbersome and second I feared my visa status would not be “temporary visitor” anymore – and that would mean I couldn’t use my JRail Pass anymore (it’s only usable with a certain visa status).
So I went to Korea, came back the next day and guess what – the immigration officers did NOT like it. I properly filled out my declaration. Well, let’s say as properly as I could. I wasn’t sure what I should write for “occupation”. Technically I’m a student right now, so that’s what I wrote. Another question I was struggling with was the address in Japan. I hadn’t really booked anything for the night and accordingly had no address.
So, I presented my passport and the officer looked at the declaration, the last visa and the very short stay in Korea and decided that I deserved a little interrogation. I had to wait until all the other passengers had passed and then four immigration officers were inviting me to their office… First thing was of course why I had gone to Korea for such a short time only. Then they questioned how I could finance such a long stay in Japan and reminded me that the visa does not allow me to work. I didn’t want to go into details and explain that I am still employed with a company but not working anymore. That would sound very improbable to a Japanese I guess. Then they asked about the address - which I couldn’t give. Then they asked for a contact person in Japan and a phone number – which I didn’t know by heart. Then they asked for my return ticket – which I didn’t have with me. So I fully agree with these guys for questioning me – I was a fishy case indeed.
They started talking in Japanese and guessing whether I wanted to work illegally in Japan. Then one of them said “she must really like Japan a lot if she stays so long”. I took the opportunity and said in Japanese: “Yes, I do indeed like Japan very much and that is why I would like to learn your language better”. This was sort of a turning point, they got much friendlier all of a sudden (well, they had not been aggressive arrogant assholes as the US immigration officers anyway).
They said that they needed some sort of proof that I have sufficient funds for the stay in Japan and asked whether I had a credit card. I showed my Mastercard and Visa and counted the Korean Kwon. They noted that and then finally gave me my visa.
It was a bit nerve-wrecking, because it would have been quite a disaster otherwise. I am really happy to be back now and feel like it’s a privilege.

Korea

I am now starting to travel a bit in between schools in Fukuoka and Tokyo and my first destination was Korea.

Between Fukuoka and Busan in South Korea there is a hyspeed ferry called "Beetle". It takes roughly three hours to do the trip from Fukuoka to Busan and is not too expensive either. And for Korea we do not need a visa, so it is very covenient.

Hm, how did I like Korea? Well, it was just a first impression since the stay was short. It seems that Korean culture is quite different despite the mutual influence and vicinity. I caught myself thinking how loud and impolite people were. Actually they behaved more than we in Europe do, but I seem to have gotten used to how things are done in Japan already. Korea seems to be less high tech oriented, a bit messier and less clean and people are not fashionistas like in Japan. The food is really spicy, but consists of various small plates like in Japan. I was a bit paranoid about dog meat... Karaoke is popular in Korea as well, but different. They sing on a stage, one person at a time, while the Japanese prefer small private rooms. And Korea is slightly cheaper than Japan too, but goods are not as nicely wrapped and presented on the other hand.

Busan is probably not the best place to visit in Korea. Not so much culture, it's a port city with a very international influence. I walked around in the city a bit, to see the fish market, the UN cemetery and a temple. In the evening I went out with some people from the hostel. We noticed that unlike in Japan, the beach is really lively in the evening (on a weekday), people sit outside, drink, play music, sing karaoke, etc. So a much more lively beach life. We found a nice bar on the beachfront, the "Fuzzy Navel" and played darts with the bartenders. A Korean girls who had spent several years in the US told us a bit about the difficulties of reintegrating into Korean society, that was really interesting and well-reflected.

Graduation ceremonies

Each Friday some students are leaving school and usually Japan as well. Students would give a little speech and receive a diploma that states how many hours they studied at GenkiJACS and on which language level. Something for your mum to frame and hang up in the livingroom :)

The diploma is really great for those who have spent a few weeks at GenkiJACS but have been really lazy, because the diploma simply states that student X has studied Y hours at Genki, it doesn't mention with what success. Maybe there should be some hint like "Student A has drunk so much booze during his time in Fukuoka that he forgot 50% of prior vocab and his Japanese level dropped from 2-A to 1-D". No, but the diploma is kinda nice looking and the small graduation ceremony is really nice.

I should now prepare my own speech for tomorrow evening. I know what I'd like to say, now the question is just how to phrase it in Japanese...

My time at GenkiJACS was great in any case, allthough classes have been a bit overwhelming at times and didn't make me feel very intelligent. But the other people in my class had more previous knowledge of Japanese, I came from almost 0 and that makes it a bit overwhelming. Most teachers have really made an effort to make lessons fun and interesting and very interactive. Energetic and cool Maki-sensei, cute smiley Takako-sensei (see the adorable picture), burstingly funny Chihomi-sensei, super prepared Natsuko-sensei and all the others, I will miss them. And being at the place and seeing all the people I got to know of course.

Tea ceremony

With culture class we were given the opportunity to visit a tea ceremony, or rather to participate in once. Doing a tea ceremony is considered a classy thing and it is still common to do it once in a while. The tea ceremony is one of the classic elements of Japanese culture and dates back to the 15/16th century.

When we entered the small pavillon where the ceremony was held, first the girls and then the boys were dressed in yukatas (light kimono). Then we were asked to kneel on one side of the tatami room, to oour right a small alcove with a painting on rice paper and the tea kettle.

We were then given a small sweet each, everybody took one and had to pass it on to the next person saying specific words and making specific gestures. The tea ceremony master was preparing the tea then, putting matcha (green tea power) in the tea bowl, pouring boiling water into it and then treating the matcha with a bamboo brush, stirring the powder until it was frothing slightly. Then the cup was given to the first guest. Taking it you had to turn it in your hands several times before taking a sip.

After the first round of tea we could prepare our own cup of tea using the bamboo brush. Unfortunately by then we were in such pain from the extended kneeling that we could hardly concentrate on the task and had only one wish: To get up immediately. I think the kneeling must be practised on a regular basis, otherwise it's just torture. (For anyone doubting that - please try to kneel for even 10 minutes at home...).

Hiphop in Japan

Did you know that HipHop and Reggae are really popular in Japan? I didn't until I came here. Clubs here play a lot of Hiphop, R'nB and there's quite a few laid back bars.

In Fukuoka one of the popular places for HipHop is "Sam&Dave's" which is really packed with people both on Friday and Saturday evening. The music played is quite mainstream American hiphop, but it's nevertheless a fun place to be. They often organize special events too. One was the recent "bikini night". The guys from school of course wanted to go there absolutely. A lot of women were actually wearing bikinis, but you couldn't see them. They simply took off their shirts to get in for a lower price and receive extra drink vouchers and then put their shirts back on... There are also some dancing contests and there are some guys who're really good. For the more exhibitionist ones there is a big mirror to dance in front. It's transparent from the other side and behind is the men's toilet!

The other very popular joint is "The Happy Cock". Yesss, the animal - what did you think?! Hehe, remember Alex asking some US marines whether they had ever been to "the Happy Cock" or "The Darkroom" :-). The "Happy Cock" plays music similar to "Sam&Dave's", but has two advantages: cheap all-you-can-drink offers (20 CHF a night) and a decent aircon so it's not that boiling hot inside.

There are some other cool places to go out in Fukuoka. For dinner I would say that "Alohana" and "Fasika" are some of the nicest restaurants. "Alohana" is a Japanese-Hawaiian restaurant with a beautiful interior and delicious food. "Fasika" is a recently opened Ethipian restaurant which is really nicely decorated too and food is interestingly new and tastes good. For an evening drink at the beach, go to Mamma Mia on Momochi beach. Great sunset, reggae music, cute waiters and decent Italian food and fresh fruit juice. For a classy, but slightly pricey drink on a beautiful rooftop, go to "La Bohème". "The Darkroom" features another rooftop terrace and you can play table soccer and pool. "Morris" and "The Three Kings" are traditional British pubs with a happy hour from 5 to 7 and good pub fare if you get hungry. The pizza at Morris is actually better than in most "italian" restaurants in Fukuoka. Another cool and very stylish place is the "Tatoo Bar" with chandeliers everywhere.

See last picture for proof that the Japanese are not always polite...

Life is a beach

One of the cool things about Fukuoka is that it features a nice beach. It's looking a bit "Italian riviera" which is funny, but also offers some relaxed Jamaican style beach bars, so pretty cool mix.

It's about 6 subway stops from school, so ideally located to do some afternoon studies in a nice environment or play some beach volleyball or go for a swim to relax. We often sit on the terrace of either "Mamma mia" or the other beach restaurant and study, slurping iced coffee with some reggae music in the background. We had some bad luck with the weather lately unfortunately and had to flee inside, go outside as soon as the waiters had dried the seats, flee inside again when it started to rain again... From the terrace you can also observe the beach nicely. Crazy Borat-types wearing thongs, dogs dressed in life-saving jackets and other gadgets, girls staggering in their too high high heels, etc. Today we saw two guys and first said like "whooo", but then we saw their backs featuring the same large tatoo covering the entirety of their back. From what we heard they should be Yakuza then (Japanese mafia)... So there's always something interesting to see. Or to hear like the "church" bells from Marizon.

One beach is reserved for jetskiing and beach volleyball. The weekend before last a beachvolleyball tournament was held on Momochi. We had played with a group from school before, but we were really quite bad. The guys from school clearly had an advantage in terms of height, and that should be a big one in volleyball. But the Japanese guys were just playing much better and we totally sucked.

A really popular thing to slurp is sirup ice here. It's eaten instead of icecream and consists of crushed ice which is poured different types of sirup over. There are also two nice little shop selling beach wear, flipflops and so on. Really feels like holidays going to Momochi...

Serious business

Episode from this morning...
Lucille and me sat in the Starbucks near school this morning before class to have breakfast and do some pre-lesson studying. We often do that, it's a good way to start your day, although it's unfortunately benefitting the evil empire of Starbucks :)
This morning there was a special attraction. Next to school there is a beauty and spa salon where hip young guys with colored hair work. To match the hip look of the place and the employees, they held their morning team meeting at Starbucks. So imagine, entering Starbucks you saw this table with about 10 young guys in very colorful Hawaiian shirts, hair dyed in all shades from blonde to reddish brown and cut in one of these fashionable J-Pop styles, white trousers, tanned and a latte in front of them. You would somehow imagine the atmosphere to be quite relaxed and informal, maybe even a slightly chaotic touch that often comes with young, hip companies (I've used to work for one of these...).
But NO! The whole group looked like they were attending a funeral - and that is really an achievement if you are dressed and styled like that. But they sat completely upright and very stiff, with the most serious faces possible and were listening to their boss in complete silence. That guy explained to them how they should greet customers and make them feel comfortable and things like that. There was no discussion, no questions, no reaction whatsoever, just complete concentration on what the big boss said... They surely don't realize, but for us this was highly entertaining...

Japanese karaoke song

I finally tried it... Two Japanese karaoke songs, I sang together with Kathrin. I went ok I think. Maybe due to the fact that I had a) heard these songs several times before b) the texts are rather simple and repetitive, but I would also like to think that it is c) due to my improved kana reading skills...

Whichever the best explanation may be, karaoke was again fun. This time we were extremely many students at the party and we had to rent two rooms. Not everybody dared to sing however, so we still got the mike a few times. One of the new students was a bit annoying though. He took the mike all the time and was singing so completely wrong and obviously didn't know the songs. Don't know whether he was just really really drunk already or just crazy.

Check out the Japanese songs we sang on Youtube:

"Linda, Linda" by the Blue Hearts:

http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=kACmuAREEf8

Sounds a bit like a Japanese brother band of "Die Ärzte", doesn't it? Funny enough to sing, especially screaming the refrain. Sounds more like "rinda rinda" though, the letter "L" does not exist in Japanese.

"Daite señorita" by Yamapi:

http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=e0rN64gRPj8

Eeehm, Japanese version of Ricky Martin?! Although he's kinda cute, I am not convinced that he's a good dancer. This does look more funny than anything...

The cat café

We discovered a funny place here in Fukuoka. It's the "Neko Café" = Cat café. It's a place where you can go and play with cats. You pay an entrance fee and then play with the cats they have. We wanted to go there, but thought that 1600 Yen is a bit pricey just to play with cats. The guys we asked for directions looked at us as if we were a bit strange, but showed us the way. Maybe this is even a bit eccentric here. But nevertheless cute, don't you think? You don't have your own cat for whatever reason (small apartment, no time, etc.) but still like them a lot. So you just get your appointment at neko café and have your opportunity to cuddle and play with them.

Pottery class

In addition to the language I took culture classes last week. On Wednesday we were scheduled to learn about Japanese pottery. Remembering the bad experiences from secondary school I was already in doubt whether I would be excelling. I think my mother still has some of these ugly products that I made in pottery class back then and they clearly show that I've always lacked talent in that area.

Well, half of the class had already had pottery class before, so they started off with a half finished product. We, the beginners got a piece of clay and had to start from scratch. First press it onto the turning table, mold it and extend the side part. Then add an additional layer of clay on top and make it smooth again. It sounds simple, but I was right, I am still lacking talent. The pottery teacher had to intervene quite a few times to save my tea cup. But it was really fun actually!

"Fairlyland" and "Virgin Grave"

Japanese products often feature English labels. Well, let's say somewhat English labels. It seems that English sells well, but the marketing gurus are not very proficient in the language and often unaware of the message that the product description gives. Here are two really funny examples:

• Text on Cake from am/pm: "Darling sweets might take you to a fairlyland" - What is a fairlyland?! I guess it is meant to say fairyland. So this cake is really cool... Are they meaning to say it's some space cake?! I thought use of marihuana is quite severely punished in Japan, so I'm surprised they sell it at the konbini ;-)
  
• Underwear and stockings label: "Virgin grave". Hmmm, does that mean that you will die as a virgin if you wear this underwear? Not sure whether that is clever promotion :-)

Another funny one are the cleaning staff at GenkiJACS. They wear t-shirts that read: "Clean Staff". That's a bit too much personal information, isn't it? After all it's more relevant is "to clean" than "to be clean".

Why monopolies are bad

Remember - I studied a couple of semester of economics and one of the first things you learn is the usually bad economic outcome of monopolies. Monopolies for products that cannot easily be subsidized tend to produce bad results at high prices. (Read "Principles of Economics" by N. Gregory Mankiw for more detail and fancy charts and formulas).
Well, the Swiss Post is a good example for that. Competition has been allowed for mail heavier than 500 g I believe, so parcels and other services. But the letter post is still a monopoly of "Die Post" - that's probably why they call themselves "The" post. I have been annoyed by their bad service and high prices in the past, but today I got really upset. I had requested e-banking code and access card from UBS and they promised to send that by registered mail by Friday.
Since I have redirected my mail to mother's and also granted the exclusive right to sign for registered mail to my mother and my brother, I thought this was no issue. One of them could open it and pass it on to me. But no, Swiss Post sent it to my apartment and let my subtenant sign off. It's not that I mistrust my subtenant, but I am really pissed off that they hand our confidential bank documents to randoms. And I have not paid little for the service of having my mail redirected and authorizing someone to sign for me.
I called them a few minutes ago and it wasn't my most friendly call ever. They had the guts to tell me that they need the barcode number first. Well, the document is now somewhere on its way to Japan if Raed has sent it already. I told them I expect to be compensated for all this nonsense and for telephone and mail cost. This service is totally crap. You think everything is cared for, but they mess it up. And they CAN do it, because I have no choice as a customer...

Intervention

The school has obviously reacted to the behaviour certain teachers showed lately when going out with students and has issued new guidelines for behaviour that is expected. It has been in the work contracts before however.
I think that this sort of behaviour can be really bad for the school's reputation. And that's a pity because GenkiJACS is a cool place and studying there is really enjoyable. Of course we the students were more amused by it than anything and there was a lot of talk about it. But in the end it's unprofessional behaviour and will hurt the school's reputation in the end. Especially parents could become a hesitant to send their kids here and if they learn things like their daughter has made out with a teacher they might try to seriously damage the school's reputation through the agents, media, etc.
And people will not shut up about this, so you can not keep it in the closet. A prospective students who had read my blog asked about the school in general and I replied that I hope this stuff does not put him off coming here because the school's got excellent quality and classes are both fun and productive. He replied that he had already heard these stories on an internet forum, so it was not new.
I think it's good and necessary that GenkiJACS is now reenforcing these rules. It has become too "normal" to be extremely flirty with students or even make out with them as I've seen in one case. I know that that kind of things happen in other schools too and no school can guarantee that it won't happen, it's just that people involved always know that it's not ok and are not making it public.
I will remove names of teachers from the blog. One of them has already seen this blog and apologized, although this is not necessary as it does not affect my own well-being. I don't want to put people on the spot however and I guess the meeting that our school director held should have been quite a warning.

Funny mistakes

Hm, I keep on making some funny mistakes and misunderstanding words completely (see the recent "therefore I go to England" example). Today I had the following two misunderstandings:

• Miyuki sensei said: "...tomodachi ga au..." = to meet my friends. I understood "tomodachi ga ao" and ao means "blue" (as opposed to au = meet). I was a bit confused and asked why the friends were "blue"...


• Later Miyuki made an example that said because she had no "jikan" (time) she took a taxi. "Jikan" sounds very much the same to me as "chikan" which means "molester". So I undertstood that she took a taxi because there was no molester. Didn't seem logic to me, so I asked about it. And for the second time I was the laughing stock of the class...

Yes, Japanese has its traps. But maybe I'm just a bit stupid and I really was tired and still a bit sickish today. Let's hope I can be less of a dummy in the future...

Sushi wonderland

I know that many of you back home love sushi (except for my mum probably everyone). And we all know that we spend a fortune when we have sushi at Noohn, Sakura or any of the other sushi bars in town. Usually a sushi dinner would cost around 40 CHF.

Japan is really sushi wonderland, which is not surprising since it's orginating here. Super fresh and many more types of sushi than we have back home. But I'm actually surprised how cheap it is, considering that Japan is said to be really expensive (which I generally haven't found it to be so far). The cheapest way to have sushi is buy maki rolls from a convenience store like am/pm. A roll costs a little more than 100 Yen (~1 CHF) and is probably around 12 cm long, so quite big. You also get a selection of different sushi rolls on a plate for about 300-400 Yen (3-4 CHF).

Then there is the luxury take away version from Iwataya, Japan's equivalent of Globus. The most delicious sushi plates at a slightly steeper price, but still less than half the price of the Swiss take away sushi. See picture... The sushi is super fresh also, you can see the time when it's done on the label. Yummy!

And then there are sushi bars of course. I have found a really nice and cheap one, the "sushi train" kind of place. Delicious assortment of various types of sushi that usually cost 120-300 Yen per plate. For a lunch I would typically spend around 700-1000 Yen (7-10 CHF). Isn't that cool, to have super fresh delicious sushi for the price of a canteen lunch?

I'll be spoilt for Swiss sushi forever...

Karoke advanced

Well, since the last karaoke I've been on a couple more karaoke nights and I'm really enjoying it... Kathrin and me actually thought about opening a karaoke bar somewhere in Southern Germany or Basel when we go back, because it's a currently a unsatisfied need back home and we actually think there IS a market for it. People may have their playstation and "Singstar", but that really isn't a substitute for a real karaoke night.

I have gotten more courageous since the first karaoke night and do not wait with signing up till the last minute and then "hide" on the toilet instead of singing :) Apart from the big school karaoke night we have also rented a karaoke room with fewer people and each one of us got to sing a lot. We didn't really care whether we knew the songs well enough to give a great performance either. It's really more about having fun singing than singing well. After all we're not trying to audition for one of these casting shows (and still sing better than some candidates.

One of the highlights of the last karaoke night were Axelle (France) and Chris (US) singing "My humps" by the Black Eyed Peas while Chris sang the female part and Axelle the male one. Chris also excelled at 50 Cents "Candy Shop"... And we found out that it's quite an achievement to sing Destiny Child's "Survivor" without collapsing of breath shortage (and WE did not have to dance as well). Kathrin and me even found a German song to perform, "99 Luftballons" by Nena. It was the only one available to us and it's not the best representation of German speaking artists we think...

The really daring and those who can read hiragana and katakana fast enough (I'm not one of them yet) would go for Japanese songs. Some of these sound pretty horrible, but are probably fun to sing. Check out this really popular one by Utada Hikaru on Youtube:

http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=2U0myXslSng

Enjoy some sugary J-Pop with an pretty kitsch video!

Missing 1st of August? No!

1st August, our National Holiday - would I have missed it being so far away from Switzerland? I have to tell you - NO! Fukuoka awaited me with a party that at least matched our 1st of August fireworks and celebrations.

On Friday evening there was a 1.5 hour firework at Ohori Koen, the city's big park right next to my dorm. Traditionally you wear a yukata (light summer kimono) for this event, so I decided to buy one (see previous post). As I had no clue how to put it on, especially the obi (belt), I got dressed at the shop where I bought the yukata. Like a princess in the middle age ;-). I basically just stood there holding out my arms and the shop assistant put it on and pulled the obi tight and made a beautful knot in the back. My yukata is light blue with purple flowers and a purple/yellow obi. Of course it does have the typical wide "Lord-of-the Rings"-type of sleeves. With it I wore Geta, the traditional Japanese shoes (sort of a flipflop) and a kitsch little flower thingy in my hair. I felt a bit strange walking back to the school in that though, it felt a bit like dress-up. Also the Geta were really uncomfortable and the yukata tightly wrapped, so I could only walk in tiny little steps.

GenkiJACS also provided a few yukatas to students, so there were more of us getting dressed up. Everybody looked really nice in it. We then walked to Ohori Koen together.

There were masses of people at Ohori Koen. I had read somewhere that the hanabi (fireworks) usually attracted about half a million of people. Ohori Koen was indeed very crowded, there were police men trying to bring some order into it, stalls with foods and drinks and a lot of people dressed up in yukatas. The fireworks were quite nice. Interestingly it weren't the large and impressive crackers that seemed to be the most popular. It was rather the cute smiley faces and heart shapes that made the people go oooh and aaah. This seems kind of logic if you see the Japanese's preference for cute things. Back home these would certainly not impress people much.

I needed to quickly go to my dorm to change shoes after. I could barely feel my feet anymore and was really uncomfortable in the Geta. So I changed to my more comfortable Clarks ballerina which still looked nice with the yukata. We went back to school and then headed for ramen and gyoza with two Japanese friends.

Later we joined the big international party at "La Bohème", organized by "Fukuoka Now", the region's English magazine. The place was really nice with a library-like sofa corner and a big rooftop terrace. Those dressed in a yukata got additional free drinks at the party, so good for me.

I talked to quite a few Japanese people throughout the night and had so much fun (well, my GenkiJ friends complained about me being away all the time). Again I had to notice that Japanese people are not all that stiff and unapproachable as people like to think in Europe. I got chatted up and introduced to more people easily and people were really cool. The only downside to the party were the Djs. There were three of them, but somehow they still didn't manage to permantly play something and there were a few awkward breaks in between.