最後のブログ

こんにちは、みんなさん！きょうは、さいごのブログになりました。

I wish I had another big trip to tell you about, but unfortunately as it's coming up to the end of my term, like you, the only thing I'm up to right now is studying for exams... Still, that's quite a good thing to write about, too.

これは、ことしつかったきょうかしょのしゃしんです。これはぜんぶにほんごでした！

 So when I was writing about all of these great trips, I probably didn't write too much about the studying. After all, that's just the same as school and university at home, so why would you want to hear about that?! But it has been a big part of the study abroad. Being a student in Japan means that you get the free time to do so many lovely things on the weekend, but it also means studying when you have to. にほんごがとてもじょうずになったとおもいますけど。

And through the long hours of revision, at least I found how much I like the packaging of these crisps (they taste pretty good, too)!
The flavour is butter (バター), and the sound large things make when they fall over is バタ, so:

(It's a pun - Japanese is a great language for puns!)

Right now I have a little less than a month in Japan, so when the exams finish I really have to start thinking about how to get home. There's the practical stuff, like informing the local residency office that you're moving out, cancelling mobile phone contracts, and trying to figure out how to get the cool stuff that I bought back to the UK. But there's a lot of other stuff as well.

During my year here I have made lots of Japanese friends, as well as friends from all over the world. We've all gotten pretty close, but when we go home we might not be able to see each other for years, if at all. It makes the idea of going home, however much I miss my family, kind of hard.

On the up side, now I know people from Taiwan, Germany, Mexico and Malaysia. Now when I think about those places, they don't just sound like far away countries, they're places where my friends live. せかいがちょっとちいさくなったきがします。それとおもうと、とてもうれしいです。In any case, with the internet, even if we're not on the same continent we can still keep in touch. Like I have kept in touch with you through this blog, in fact!

I hope that you have enjoyed my little updates from Japan, and I'm really excited to come back and see you in the autumn, to tell you all about it again in person.

ことしブログをよんでくれてありがとうございました。

ほたる

こんにちは、みんなさん！

きょうは、ほたるについてかきたいとおもいます。

ほたるってなにか、わかりますか？

これです：

 Okay, so the picture's a little dark, but that's because it's got to be dark to see these creatures. They're fireflies!

As soon as I heard that Japan has fireflies I knew I had to go and see some. They live near water so the time to go looking for them is now, in the rainy season.

The botanical garden in Uji, just south of Kyoto, was holding a special evening opening week so that you can view the fireflies that live there.

 

これはいりぐちにはいるまえにうつったしゃしんです。日本では、こんなきれいなところがいっぱいあります！





 これはしょくぶつえん（botanical garden）のきれいなけしきです。
あのアニメのようなかおは、はなでつくられました。

 

Fireflies weren't the only creatures we saw on that day - because it was dusk, there were also lots of bats flying around catching insects! I guess seeing a bat is more common in Japan than it is in Britain, because I was the only one getting really excited about them...

コウモリ（bat）をみたことがありますか？

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures to show you of the actual fireflies (and not just because my phone's camera doesn't take pictures well in the dark). When you go to see fireflies, you have keep the surrounding area completely dark, or I guess they get confused. You're also supposed to keep as quiet as you can, but there were so many people in the garden I think that rule would have been a little hard to keep... (Little kids can't help but shout out every time they see a firefly light up!)

では、ほたるをみるのはどうでしたか？
きれいでした！
せつめいできないほどきれいでした！

Fireflies aren't lit up continuously, they mostly flare up and then fade away, so you're forever looking past where one disappeared to see if it will reappear for you. They also seem to fly pretty slowly, so when they are lit up, it's like fairy lights floating among the trees.

どうおもいますか。ほたるをみにいきたいですか。で、みたことがありますか？

みんなさん、次のブログはさいごのになるかもしれません。わたしはがんばって、たのしいブログをかこうとします。

よんでくれてありがとうございます。

あおいまつり

こんにちは、みんなさん！

きょうは、５月にあったまつりについてかきたいとおもいます。

まつりってどういうこと、しっていますか？

Japanese ｍatsuri (festivals) come in many different forms. There are some where you go out on boats to view the moon. There are others where you watch fireworks and eat lots of good street food. But Kyoto also has very lavish processions of people in historical costume. The biggest one of these is じだいまつり (celebrating Kyoto's 1000 + year old history), but the recent Aoi Matsuri had some pretty spectacular clothes as well.

 The festival began in the 6th Century, but it grew very popular in the Heian Period (794-1185), so the clothes you see here are from that time. The procession travels from the Imeperial Palace to two major shrines across the river, where Shinto rites are held. They close off part of the main shoppping streets (Kyoto's equivalent of Oxford Street), and as you can see, crowds of people line the side of the road to see it. Everyone enjoys watching the horses and the oxen pulling carts, and we even made friends with some of the old ladies standing next to us!

 Every year a young woman from Kyoto is chosen to be the "Saio". She plays the part of an imperial princess, who historically would be head of the two shrines. She wears the Heian period 12-layered kimono, and is carried along the parade route in a palanquin. Apparently it is nearly impossible to walk when you are wearing that many layers of clothes!

 This is an ox pulling a cart to the shrine. I say "pulling", but actually it looked like the people were doing a lot of the work, so the ox just had to walk along and look dignified.

By the way, あおい does NOT mean blue here! It's a kind of plant, usually translated as 'hollyhock', and it is used to decorate the acrts and umbrellas. It used to be very common here but apparently it's pretty hard to find in this area, so they have to transport lots of plants from other parts of Japan especially for the occasion.

もうすぐは「ぎおんまつり」というおおきいまつりです。その日はともだちといっしょにきものをきるよていですから、とてもたのしみにしています。みんなさん、まつりはとてもたのしいですよ！


どうおもいますか？こんなまつりを見たいですか？

よんでくれてありがとうございました。

ミランダ

ゴールデンウィーク

こんにちは、みんなさん！

このブログがおそくなって、すみません。じつは、がっきが４月にはじまりましたので、べんきょうでちょっといそがしいです。

日本のがっこうとかかいしゃにはいるのは、だいていいつも４月ですので、いまはみんながわたしのようにつかれているとおもいます！。

ですから、５月になったら小さいやすみがあるのが、とてもありがたいです。

In Japanese this holiday is called 'Golden Week'. It's a little like our May Bank Holiday (and at the same time, too!). The reason Japanese people take a holiday now is because four national holidays fall within one week of each other. It's become a custom to take off the days in between those holidays and travel somewhere nice. A lot of my Japanese friends took the opportunity to go home and see their parents.

Actually my university does not normally give us time off on national holidays (because there are quite a few, much more than the UK), but they did give us two extra days off. The only downside is, we have to make up one of those days next Saturday!

(Don't worry, not all Japanese universities are like that! At another university they had 10 whole days of holiday)

It was super busy in Kyoto during Golden Week, as this is one of the tourist hotspots for Japanese people as well as foreign visitors. There are a couple of important temples near campus (Kinkakuji, the Golden Pavillion, and Ryoanji, with a zen garden), so getting the bus to university was a nightmare!

Anyway, now that everyone's back at work and school, we've just got to keep going until the end of term (which is the beginning of August). Also, the temperature is rising for sure now, today it hit 29 degrees celcius in Kyoto Prefecture! (That's hot even by Japanese standards for May).

みんなはゴールデンウィークで、りょこうするとおもいますか。または、わたしのようにゴロゴロするとおもいますか。

よんでくれてありがとうございます。

のうぎょうたいけん

こんにちは、みなさん！

きょうは、３月ののうぎょうたいけんについてはなしたいとおもいます。

のうぎょうって、「farming」で、たいけんは「experience」ということです。

こののうぎょうたいけんは、ひろしまのちかくにありました。

So in my spring holiday, I spent a week on a farm in the mountains of Hiroshima prefecture. I got to stay in a proper traditional Japanese house, which I'm really excited to show you all! I had been worried that there wouldn't be much to do on the farm in March, because it was still pretty cold up in the mountains (on one day it snowed!) but I ended up exhausted every day.

The reason I wanted to participate in this is because as a student in a city, I hadn't had the chance to explore the Japanese countryside. So many people live crammed together in cities here, and it was interesting to see a bit more of a relaxed way of life. It was also very remote (40 minutes by car from the nearest train station!).

じゃあ、はじめには、このしゃしんをみせたいです。ここは、わたしたちがとまったいえでした。

 You can't actually farm in a lot of Japan because the mountains are so steep. So a lot of people will build their houses right next to the hills like this, and that leaves a lot more space for farmland in the valleys.

This is the the hall. Can you see the sliding doors connecting to the rooms?

In traditional houses there is always a corner of the main room called the とこのま。It is mostlt used to display a wall hanging and flowers (in the ikebana flower arranging style). This one had a scroll painting of a tiger!

There were also calligraphy artworks on the walls of the rooms. It's angled downwards so that you can see it when you're sitting down or from your futon.

 Because this trip was near the beginning of March, there weren't a lot of vegetables to harvest or anything. Mostly we were clearing land so that it would be fertile and ready for new crops later in the year. On one day, that involved making a big bamboo fire!

Did you know that bamboo pops when it burns? It sounds like a gunshot, I was terrified the first time it happened.

The farmer took us out one day to eat at an おこのみやきrestaurant. Because we were near Hiroshima this is Hiroshima-style, where all of the ingredients are layered up on a hot plate. The base is pancake-like, then you have fried noodles with cabbage, bacon, a fried egg, and top it with seaweed and fish flakes. For the Osaka style you just mix everything up together.

どうおもいますか？こんなたいけんしたことがありますか？
イギリスと日本ののうぎょうはどうやってちがうか、しっていますか？

よんでくれてありがとうございます。





はなみ

こんにちは、みなさん！いまはさくらのときですから、はなみについてかきたいとおもいます。

「はなみ」っていうのはなんですか？

「はな」はflowerといういみで、「み」は「みる」の「み」です。

There are a lot (and I mean a LOT) of people in Kyoto right now for Hanami. The cherry blossoms start flowering about now and will stay pretty for about a week or two. I heard that this is one of the busiest times for tourism in Kyoto, because there are so many places where you can see beautiful cherry trees.

これはさくらです。

 

Recently, I went to a Hanami event organised by my university. We went sightseeing in Arashiyama (which is where I also went to see the pretty autumn leaves, Arashiyama is good at any time of year!) and then we had a picnic under the cherry trees.

きょうとでは、きものをきて、かんこうすることができます。These women looked very graceful with the cherry blossoms.

 

みんなはしゃしんをとっています。Now my facebook is full of pictures of cherry blossoms!

これはあらしやまのゆうめいなはしです。むこうがわにはさくらがみえますか？

There was a bit of a festival atmosphere by the river, with lots of places to buy ice cream or the Japanese sweet mochi (pounded sweet rice).  This one is vanilla and matcha (green tea) flavour. Can you imagine being able to sit outside eating ice cream right now in the UK?! 日本では、いまがとてもいいてんきです。

This is the picnic. We spread out groundsheets in this cherry tree orchard and everyone stayed for hours, eating and drinking and admiring the cherry blossoms.

One of my friends made an especially cute bento (lunch box) for the picnic.

ロンドンにもきれいなさくらがありますか？できたら、ぜひいってみてください！

よんでくれてありがとうございます。

じしん

こんにちは、みなさん！もうすぐはるですね。たのしみ！このしゅうまつはきょうとでゆきがふりましたけど。。。

きょうはちょっとかなしいいことについてかきたいです。それは、2011の3がつにおこったじしん(earthquake)とつなみのことです。

As I'm sure you know, Japan experiences many earthquakes a year. I've felt a few in the 6 months I've been here, all just magnitude 1 or 2. I didn't even realise that the first earthquake I felt was an earthquake, until I went and asked a friend! I just thought the guy who lives next door might be moving furniture about.

However, not all earthquakes are that little. I went into a simulator truck earlier in the year, and they set it on the highest setting, which was magnitude 7.

This is the simulator. You sit on a chair, hold tight to the table, and then it counts down. Even braced like that, I almost fell off my chair and out of the truck!

Still, when I heard that the March 2011 earthquake was magnitude 9, I couldn't begin to understand how scary it must have been.

Then, there was the tsunami. It is estimated that most of the people who lost their lives that day drowned when the wave came. It also created the ongoing problem at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

Yesterday was exactly 3 years since that day, and I felt that it was important to remember that tragedy that happened, and bear in mind that sometimes Japan is a dangerous place to live. Before I came to live here my teachers advised everyone on our course to prepare an earthquake pack. That is, a bag with water, some kind of snack, a torch, and important documents like your passport. If there was a big earthquake, you would need to run quickly. Afterwards, the power and water might not work for days, and access to food could be limited. As everyone was reminded in 2011, this kind of thing can happen at any time.

However, we cannot just say that we've learnt our lesson and put that disaster behind us, as people are still suffering. I was in Hiroshima recently, staying in the dormitory of a hostel. In the same room was a very friendly Japanese lady, who recommended a lot of interesting places to visit during my stay. I asked her how she knew so much and she said that actually, she lives there. She was away in Tokyo at the time of the earthquake, and lost her home. She still can't go back.There are many people also in her position, whose houses were either swept away in the tsunami, or are within the evacuated zone surrounding the nuclear power plant.

There are also people struggling to get by in Fukushima prefecture. Since the disaster, although the radiation only affects part of the region, many people avoid buying the vegetables grown in the region, in case they are contaminated with radioactivity. This makes it much harder for the people whose entire lives were changed 3 years ago to earn the money needed to rebuild their towns.

One of my friends at university is from Fukushima, and she told me how frustrated she felt when she went to Australia recently. She told somebody that she was born in Fukushima and that person asked her, straight out, if she was irradiated.

Why am I telling you all of this? On this blog, I have mostly just written about fun sightseeing, or showing you quirky little Japanese things. But this is one of the defining political and economic problems that Japan is facing today. I wanted to tell you that people are still struggling in that area of Japan. At the same time, I guess I wanted to tell you that Fukushima prefecture is not synonymous with radiation, even though a lot of the news about it in the UK concerns the power plant. If you meet someone from Fukushima sometime in the future, I hope that you'll be a little more thoughtful than the person my friend met.

じゃあ、ここでおわりましょう。きょうは、ここまでよんでくれて、ほんとうにありがとう。

If you have any comments or questions, feel free to leave them below.

東京

さいきん、日本のしゅと(capital)のとうきょうにいってきました。だいすきでした！ロンドンより大きくて、どこにいってもおもしろいことがみえるところです。

わたしはともだちといっしょに、5日かん東京にとまっていました。そのあいだ、いろんなたのしいことをしました。

For this blog, I'd like to just share a few of those fun things:

1. しぶや

Shibuya is the famous crossing that, in the rush hour, sees hundreds of people scrambling in every direction when the traffic stops. We went a little later, so as you can see, there aren't quite as many people as there might be. I really recommend looking up a video of it in full swing, it's quite something.

2. ロボット

とうきょうはみらいのとしだっていわれていますね。Actually this kind of sight is not so very commonplace, but you can find lots of exciting technology if you look for it. This is actually just a statue of a Gundam from a famous anime. However, in the nearby Museum of Emerging Sciences (みらいかん), you can see a real-life robot! This is Asimo, created by Honda:

みらいかんで、アシモがじっさいにみえます。アシモは、はなすことやはしること、サッカーもダンスもできるロボットです。

3. よるのけしき

Tokyo is one of the biggest cities on Earth, so the view of the lights twinkling into the distance was quite spectacular!

つぎのブログで、東京からのいちにちりょこうについてかこうとおもいます。にっこというところにいきました。どんなところですか、もうしっていますか？( I didn't know before I went, either!)

よんでくれて、ありがとうございます。

おしょうがつ

あけましておめでとうございます！

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas break. I thought this time I would share some of the things that happen in Japan at Christmas and New Year.

First things first: in Japan you don't get a holiday on Christmas!!!

これは、わたしのクリスマスのひるごはんでした：

 ふつうのおにぎりとかんじテストのふくしゅう。。。

Happily our holiday started on Boxing Day, so we got to go out and have fun after all. In Japan, Christmas is more like a party day, so friends get together and often exchange gifts.
まちのなかはピカピカでした。

そして、ドイツのクリスマスマーケットにいきました。とてもきれいなクリスマスきがありました！

おどろいたことに、日本ではふつうのクリスマスのたべものは、ＫＦＣです。Yes, you read that right. For some reason in Japan a lot of people go to KFC to eat at Christmas, you even have to book in advance! Here's an advert reminding people to book in advance to avoid disappointment:

So after Christmas, of course, came おしょうがつ、New Year! みんなさんはおしょうがつになにをしますか。In Japan, I guess New Year and Christmas are the opposite to the UK; I would normally spend Christmas with my family and go to a party on New Year's Eve, but here everyone goes back to their family's house for New Year. As international students, of course, we still wanted to experience a proper Japanese New Year, so our landlord kindly made us all the traditional soba dish eated on New Year's Eve.

これは、おおやさんがつくってくれたばんごはんです：

めっちゃおいしかったです！

それをたべたあとで、はつもうでにいきました
はつもうでっていうのは、なんですか？
"Hatsumode" is the first shrine visit of the New Year. You can really go at any time in the New Year period, but a lot of people go as soon as they can, so that meant jumping on our bikes just before midnight and cycling the nearest temple, 大覚寺(Daikakuji). Actually Hatsumode is typically your first shrine visit, but our landlord is a Buddhist. Anyway, it was really fun because at Buddhist temples you get to hit the big bell. There were tons of people even though it was the middle of the night, so we ended up queueing for half an hour!

 

We also got おみくじ(fortunes), which is a tradition of Hatsumode. If you get good luck, then that's great, but it's bad then you have to tie up your fortune so that the bad luck will blow away. しんぱいしないで、わたしのは末吉（すえきちgood luck to come）でしたから、うれしいです！

 

 どうおもいますか。がいこくでクリスマスをけいけんしたことがありますか。けいけんしたいですか。

ことしもよろしくおねがいします！

よんでくれて、ありがとうございます。