Anxiety, coping in a foreign country, and life in general.

This is a bit different that usual, but I thought there is a chance this type of information could be useful to someone who might be cause in a similar situation as me, mentally, and if I can help anyone I would really like to!

Long story short, I've pretty much had anxiety my whole life, in every aspect of everything I do. I've broken down into a sobbing mess in front of my entire class at uni, and at college I used to throw up before presentations so bad I got sent home. Sometimes I cant answer the phone and I start to shake and my mouth dries up, sometimes I have put every single item back in a shop because I just can't face the cashier that day. It varies day to day, but most days there is still something.

To be honest, I think anxiety cost me a good degree, it pretty much affects everything I do or think about doing in my life. Some days I can probably pass as pretty normal, I can force myself through things, like generally when I've had a customer-facing job, it almost feels like I zone-out to get me through the day, my 'work character' I guess. But after a long day pretending everything doesn't make me shake I would go home and cry or something.

Maybe this is all irrelevant, why am I blabbering about this? Well, obviously I flew half around the world to a foreign country by myself, to live with a family I never met before who mostly speak a language I am faaaaar from fluent in, and that in itself is a pretty anxiety riddled experience. 

BUT I think this whole thing has actually helped me a lot.

I mean, it's completely down to my exact situation. This could have easily gone the other way for me emotionally if I wasn't with a perfect family with a perfect job, and two cute poodles to pet whenever I feel stressed. So, I wouldn't say this is the best thing to do for everyone, but for me it just happened to be.

It's strangely relaxing, if I struggle to talk to someone new, it's shrugged off as a language barrier, and Japanese people generally become more patient with me, slowly helping me form sentences and not getting frustrated because I didn't know what to say. Often they will also just throw out every single English word they know to try and finish the conversation, and that's strangely comforting. Half of my anxiety is getting stressed because of how people react to me being anxious about something, and my experience with people in Japan is that they want to help.

I don't really think my anxiety will ever leave me, maybe that's because at the moment I just can't imagine doing things worry-free, but I suspect I will learn to live with things eventually instead of eliminating them completely. But my point is, coming to Japan was a huge risk which ended up (probably) in my favour. I've gained a lot of confidence being here alone, maybe I still haven't really made a lot of friends, that kind of close social interaction still makes me too anxious and eludes me, but apart from that various parts of my personality have greatly improved and I just hope this feeling continues when I return to England in a couple of months. 

Sorry for this much more personal ramble, as I said at the start maybe sharing this kind of experience might make people consider doing something different and scary to help themselves overall! Who knows...
  
I have a LOT of posts queued up to write about a whole lot of different things, so normal viewing should resume shortly, either way thanks for reading my anxious waffle, please feel free to ask me any questions, and for now, またね〜 From Osaka!

 

Japanese Diary - A brief recap!

Okay, we are absolutely going to gloss over the fact that I haven't posted in too long and I'm just going to pick up where I left of by filling in the massive gap with a wonderful recap of all the things worth noting in between! (Shhhh just go along with it)

So, where did I last leave off? Sometime in September I think (uhhhh)! Since then, I've done a ton of stuff, my mum and sister Tamla came to visit me and we went to Nara and Disneyland and a load of other stuff, I finally went to Kyoto, went to pet expo, I took a JLPT exam, I actually went home for Christmas (but still managed to do some cool things!), my friend Alex came back with me from England and we spent New Year together, I've visited a ton of temples and shrines, I baked a lot, a POKEMON GYM opened nearby, I bought a lot (I dress way cuter now) and pretty much the list of things goes on.

I swear, this will just be a brief post and then I will bombard with loads of extra posts about each major event individually until I've made up for my lazy absence! So with that, lets go!

Okay, so, to start off, in October I had the wonderful pleasure of being visited by my mum and oldest little sister Tamla for 10 days! It was a very jam-packed week and a bit to be honest, we managed to fit so much in and were completely exhausted by the end of it, but it was their first time visiting Japan and we had so much fun! I'm going to be writing about the week in it's own post I think, there is just toooo much to fit in to here, and it includes two days in Tokyo and Tokyo Disneyland, a day in Nara, a trip to the top of the Umeda Sky Tower, and more!

In November I FINALLY after being here SO LONG made it to Kyoto for a day trip! I went with a Japanese friend, my teachers daughter Erika, as she goes to Kyoto University and could show me around! We spent time around Gion and the shrines and gardens, and then we to the Kyoto University School Festival to have a look around! I ate some chameleon yakisoba, made by the science clubs food stall (It changed colour when you added lemon juice! it was amazing!) and we wandered around various university club exhibitions, including the calligraphy, origami and pokemon club, and held a cute lizard in some sort of science related club room, and there was traditional Japanese dancing to watch too, it was all pretty busy. After that we went wandering round a few of the shops near Gion and found the KitKat Chocolatory store. Now, anyone who knows me knows how much I love kitkats so this was pretty much heaven for me!

In November I also went to pet expo with my host family and the dogs! It was a pretty incredible experience, a huge convention hall filled with people and their pets, sooooo many cute dogs, almost all wearing clothes, some wearing sunglasses, there was a goat on a lead and a stall from a company that organises pet weddings, complete with cake!

Another thing I did with my host family was visit Tanzan Jinja, a shrine on a mountain nearby, to view the momiji, or the autumn leaves. It was a rainy day, but it was actually breathtakingly beautiful to see so many colours in the leaves, and I took so many photographs! My personal reccomendation is for everyone to visit Japan in the Autumn, it is really the best season to see Japan in all its beauty, without the heat of summer, or the price of spring!

Behold, my expert photography skills

December started off with me pretty immediately taking the JLPT at level N5. Exams are scary, but I revised hard and still have no idea if I passed, the results should be coming out next week!

I then spent half of the month back in England, Christmas is a pretty important time to spend together in my family and there is absolutely no way I could have coped not seeing them all over Christmas! I also got to spend some lovely time with my boyfriend, Jason, long distance relationships are hard but not impossible, but it did feel so much better to be together again! I also got to enjoy my AMAZING Christmas present from him, which was tickets to the Pokemon Symphonic Evolutions orchestral concert in London! There was something truly magical about listening to all of the music from the pokemon games being played in a theatre by the London philharmonic, especially when it ended with a sing-a-long of 'I want to be the very best'! But overall I had a pretty typical Christmas surrounded by my family, it was really great!

The end of December, when I returned to Osaka, I was joined by my cool friend Alex 'The Blue Girl'. As my host family were going away for a few days over new year and didn't want me to be lonely, they said I could invite a friend to stay if I wanted to, and then we proceeded to cram as much activity into every single possible minute that we could whilst she was here! We did Nara, Kyoto, soooooo much shopping, went to Expo City, we stayed overnight in a buddhist temple on top of a mountain, on new years ever we went for midnight at Fushimi Inari shrine in Kyoto, we went to an owl cafe, literally just so much that its getting its own blog post!!!

So yeah, maybe I have had a lot going on the last few months but that still doesn't excuse me from my lack of posting. ごめんなさいいいいい！

Okay, that was a not so brief catch up, but more detailed accounts of some things will be following... sometime I guess, but for now, またね〜 From Osaka!

Life in Japan - A Q&A session

Since coming to Japan, I've had a bunch of different people ask me similar questions about living in Japan/getting a visa/Japan in general, I thought this might be a good time to do a Q&A blog post. There's probably some things people have been wondering and never asked, or didn't even know they wanted to know. I also wanted to write about what are common questions to ask before coming to Japan, but I realised I had been doing so much research for almost half my life on coming to Japan, I'm not actually sure what is common knowledge any more!

Visas

I have done an awful lot of research on the different type of visas a UK Passport holder can get for coming to Japan long-term. I feel like I know a lot, not everything, but a fair bit, and I should really share that knowledge as a lot of people don't even seem to know the basics of visas.

Q: What's a visa?

Visas are cool little stamps that go into your passport, that allow you special access to stay in certain countries. The most common that you've probably had before is a holiday visa, you don't need to apply for these, they are issued automatically upon landing, and usually valid for around 90 days. With a British passport, we have access to the most countries (173!) that we can just go to without applying for anything.

Q: What type of visas can I get and how long do visas last?

Japanese Holiday Visas last 90 days. They are actually renewable, but it's at immigrations discretion and if they suspect you want to stay longer because you are working it will be denied, as it is illegal to work in any way on this visa.

I am currently on a Working Holiday Visa. This is valid for up to 1 year from date of entry to Japan, but sadly non renewable past that. Working Holiday Visas entitle the holder to work pretty much full time when they are in Japan, excluding activities that involve selling alcohol or work in the entertainment sector. Working full time however, is not encouraged really, it's supposed to be treated as a year long holiday with the option of working to supplement your activities.

Probably the most common for foreigners looking to stay in Japan long term is an ordinary Working Visa. I find mainly Americans are on this visa, as they don't have the Working Holiday option. A Working visa is different in the way that you need to have a job in Japan first, to sponsor your visa. I think technically you can come on a holiday visa (for 90 days) and then switch to a working visa once you've found a job but personally I think that's really risky as if you don't find anything quickly it could mess up your plans having to leave and re enter.
If you plan to come to Japan for school long-term (longer than 6 months) you can get a Student Visa sponsored by the school, once you have applied and been accepted. This can be with anywhere from a language school to a university, though language schools usually have more relaxed entry requirements, and it can be difficult to get into a Japanese University, especially if you are proficient in the language. Student visas are usually valid for the length of your course plus a couple of months after, though they can be extended if you want to stay at school longer, or need to resit a year, as long as the school is still willing to sponsor you.
There are a few other specialist type visas too, such as a cultural visa, which is quite uncommon and not many are granted every year, and spouse or dependant visas, which I think are self explanatory.

Q: How do I get a visa, and how hard is it?
For a working holiday Visa like mine, I had to go to the Japanese Embassy in London in person to apply, and return a week later in person to collect my visa once it had been granted. Prior to that, I had spent almost a month preparing, as you have to write two short 'essays', a personal statement and an itinerary, explaining why you want to come to Japan and what you plan to do (and it has to be fairly detailed), I also needed 3 months worth of bank statements, with cleared funds of over £3000 to prove I could sustain myself here, and there was also an application form and photos I had to provide. Really, it wasn't that difficult I just had to be meticulous in making sure I got all the details right as if you are denied you must wait a year before you can apply again. Apparently they also only accept 1000 visas a year too, with April being the start of the new year, but I didn't have any problem with that and from my researched I gathered it's not really an issue, not that many people from the UK actually use this visa!
I can't really speak for the difficulty of the other visas, but usually if they are sponsored your contact in Japan initiates the process so I think there is a lot less preparation involved.

Life in Japan

I'm no expert, but I've been here 4 months now (plus 1 month last year) and I'm pretty used to living here now. Also, like I said earlier, I have done extensive research on living in Japan for at least 10 years of my life, I know a lot of things that aren't even necessarily relevant to how I'm living now but might be helpful to someone living alone etc. Who knows.

Q: Why did you go to Japan?
Since I was about 12 it has been my dream to live in Japan. I love the culture, the language, and Pokemon, I decided a long while ago even before my first visit here, that I wanted to stay for a while to experience everything properly. Originally my plan was to apply for the JET Programme. Even though I think I will never ever be able to be a teacher I even prepared to get a TEFOL qualification to teach over here. Luckily, this amazing opportunity to be an Au Pair came up, and to be honest its the perfect situation for me.

Q: What do you do in Japan?
My official job here is as an Au Pair, but I'm not really a traditional Au Pair. The family I am staying with have no children, instead I take care of their dogs (two cute poodles, Kuro and Shiro) and help with the housework as it is literally a mansion so there are a lot of things to do every day. I also spend a lot of time exploring (shopping) and I have Japanese lessons once a week.

Q: How different is Japan (to the UK)?
You can pretty much assume it's almost the opposite. But I really do love it here. There are a lot of cultural differences that I think really make sense in Japan, people are much more kind, you can absolutely not wear shoes in the house, everywhere is always clean and I have yet to eat a meal that wasn't completely delicious. There are a few things that feel a little difficult to get used to even still, the weather is a big one, arriving just before summer started meant that I was leaving 12C England for 35C Japan and that was hard to adjust to. There are also some terrifying bugs here that I can not cope with, and it's no joke or stereotype that there are robots everywhere. Well, maybe not everywhere but there are a few common shops that employ robots to greet you or help you and my morbid fear of robots makes it difficult to accept that.

General Japan 

I do know a bunch about Japan, honest.

Q: Are you allowed to use forks?
It's just kind of expected that foreigners don't know how to use chopsticks. Even now when older people see me using them I get all sorts of unnecessary praise for it, it's kind of funny.

Q: Do the cats meow differently?
It has come to my attention that some animals have different accents and that is true it is weird.

I hope you all enjoyed question time! If there are any unanswered questions though, please feel free to ask me, I guess I can keep this post updated and link to it somewhere!
So for now, またね〜 From Osaka!

Japanese Diary - Catch up!

Sooo.... It's been kinda a while since my last post - a month, oops! Actually, in total I've been in Japan almost 1/3 of the entire time I have here! I can't believe it really, it's been going so fast yet also I feel like I could have been here forever! Anyway, I thought since it had been such a while since my last post I should do a little summary of things I've done in the time. I actually do have a couple of bigger posts on the go at the moment, but procrastination and the fact I cleared up my laptop enough so that I can play games on it now has been getting in the way (Guild Wars 2 by the way, if anyone plays my user name is Roverandomness.4891). 

So what have I been up to these past weeks? Well excitingly, I've had a few visitors to Japan. I've also been investing a lot of time in baking, daring rescues, terrifying bug encounters and UNIVERSAL STUDIOS EEK!

First, I'll just let you all know even though I know you're dying to hear about it, bug encounters are getting their own post, because there is a lot to say about bugs, really there is. Also Universal Studios will probably be getting its own post sometime too, a detailed one once I've been again... ;)

Onto my catch up though, a couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of meeting up with Kyoko and her son Tyler, who I actually know back from Torquay in England, although Kyoko's from Osaka originally, so it was pretty awesome to meet up whilst she was back visiting family! For anyone around the Devon area (of England), you should pop by Kyoko's place, aka the best Japanese restaurant ever, Maido Japanese Noodle Bar, you will not be disappointed!

We hung around Shinsaibashi for the day, for those who don't know Shinsaibashi is pretty much Osaka's equivalent to Harajuku in Tokyo, and it's great there! There's also an area called Amerika-mura, or America town, where everything is kinda American-y... But from a Japanese perspective, it's interesting anyway! In Shinsaibashi, we ate really good pizza, and wandered around loads of shops (including a really big Apple store!) until we stumbled across a newly opened Cosplay Cafe!

Weapons and props display, all handmade!

Cute balloon mascots

Anna and Elsa!

Base 2_5 had literally opened two days before so they were still establishing themselves, and upon entering we were greeted very enthusiastically by a couple of sweet girls in cosplay, and they showed us around and told us about a lot of the various props and handmade pieces that were around, and posed with us for loads of photos! They also told us to come back in a couple of hours, they have a daily cosplay show in the afternoon, so we decided to do just that. We came back a little early, and sat down to have drinks and cake before the show started, and my dessert was amazing! Strawberry and mango ice cream with chocolate cake and strawberries and cream, in case you were wondering. Japan really knows how to do dessert well. The show that day was an abridged version of Frozen! Both cosplayers looked great and their singing was pretty much perfect, too. After the show we spent a while getting photos with all the cosplayers, we also got interviewed by a TV news crew who wanted to ask me loads of questions about cosplay and it was terrifying T_T Unfortunately despite watching out for it, I never got to watch the show, that's probably a good thing though that all that awkwardness is hidden away forever.

Since Tyler really didn't want to go home, we continued to wander around after that, walking to Namba and exploring some more shops, and a small hidden shrine where you poured water on a statues head before praying, it was cute. Koko and Tyler had a plane to catch back to England though, so eventually we parted ways but I had a fun day!

Obviously we did purikura too

The next visitor I had was actually a weird one, one of Jason's friends from work finally decided to visit Japan after I helped him with visa stuff (He's from Nigeria, so he even had to apply for a holiday visa!) and he spent a few days in Osaka where I showed him around, and we went to USJ whoo!

First stop though, was the Pokemon Center, of course. I've been there tons already (maybe I should make a post about it sometime?) but Zino hadn't so of course we had to go, and as usual it was great. I bought some cute pokedolls and pikachu shaped cake moulds, Zino bought a pikachu pillow the size of me and then a snorlax plush that was even bigger. Still no idea how he got them back on the plane. But the highlight of my trip was Pokken.

If you don't know about Pokken, it's a Pokemon x Tekken fighting came crossover that released in Japan on arcade machines a couple of weeks ago. Arcades are still a pretty big deal in Japan, and the games that come out on Arcade are always being updated and sometimes have huge queues of people waiting to try them out. I've been waiting to try Pokken since the day it came out, and they installed a few machines in the Pokemon Center so perfect excuse to try some, as it was later in the afternoon and no queues, so I got a few games in! You play against other people online though, so actually I had no idea what I was doing and lost the first few times, oops. After Pokemon Center we just wondered around for a while, discovered a new shopping centre I never knew existed and ate cake and ice cream of course.

Welcome to USJ

Next on the list though was USJ. Like I said I won't go into a lot of detail as its kinda big and deserves its own post, but just know there were minions EVERYWHERE, Harry Potter world was amazing but no way were we waiting 3 hours to queue for the rides, I got a souvenir Butterbeer tankard, and everything was really really expensive. 

Welcome to Hogsmeade!

Apart from Harry Potter world though, it wasn't actually as busy as I was expecting which was pleasant, but there still wasn't a lot of time to do everything we/I wanted. We didn't even manage to eat anything the whole day. But I think now I know roughly the layout and structure, next time I go will be a lot more efficient. And skip Jurassic Park its good but not worth how soaked and uncomfortable it made me.

As for other things that have been going on, I've actually been having a really great time baking in Japan! People who know me in person will definitely know that I LOVE cakes and baking, and often don't know when to stop, making 50+ cupcakes at a time and just wanting to bake all the time. Well, here it's not a lot different. With the added bonus of having an entire industrial sized kitchen all to myself, fully equipped with almost everything I need (Except an electric whisk!!!), baking in Japan is super fun and although finding the ingredients I need can be a little bit of a challenge, I've baked a lot. It's also really great that my host family loves cake, especially my 'English' cakes. So far, Apple and Cinnamon Loaf cake and Choco-Orange/Peanut Butter Chocolate Brownies have been at the top, but I've also make lemon drizzle cake, Victoria sponge, strawberry cupcakes and a Strawberry trifle, the trifle being particularly as I made the custard and Strawberry Jelly from scratch, as they are not ingredients commonly found in Japan. Over the next couple of weeks I want to try making Checker board Icebox Cookies too, and pretty much anything else I come across. 

Individual Victoria Sponges, Strawberries and Cream Cupcakes and Lemon Drizzle Cupcakes.

TRIFLE!!!

 Okay, this is probably it for my mini update, I'm going to go work on all my other really long posts now and try and make some sort of schedule ahahahahahaha. As always if you've got any questions you'd like to ask me about living in Japan, leave me a comment and I'll try and be as helpful as I can.

So for now, またね〜 From Osaka,

Japanese Diary - Mount Fuji! 富士山はのぼりました！

 “Everyone should climb Mount Fuji once; only a fool would climb it twice.” - Japanese Proverb

 

So, last weekend, I climbed mount Fuji.

Me, at the 5th station before we started. There are no after pictures.

There is a lot for me to say about this trip, a lot happened. First of all, for those that missed my last post on the topic that explains what I am doing and why, you can read that here.

For the most part, we managed to stick to the plan I outlined in the previous post. Except when I said it would take around 5 hours to get to the 8th station. Because it actually took us 9. I think that pretty much sums up the tone of this blog, as in, I am not cut out to be a mountain climber. Or a hiker. Sometimes walking up a hill is too much. It was hot when we arrived at the 5th station, despite the fact it was around 8am, it was already 30C, and we knew it would only get hotter. 

We stayed at the 5th station for around an hour and a half, as advised, to acclimatise to the altitude, having breakfast and making sure to buy our commemorative hiking poles to help up climb the mountain, as well as get them stamped at all the huts on the way up as a kind of ultimate souvenir. At the end of it, I have to admit, its a pretty cool thing to have. After we actually started walking, the first hour or so is a complete lie. Most of it involves walking mostly horizontally, I guess it felt a bit like a tutorial in a video game, there were small, slightly easier bits of everything that was to come. 

Despite using the word 'easier', it took me approximately 25 minutes to realise I had made a mistake in wanting to climb this mountain. The sun was absolutely blazing down. It was probably the clearest day that has ever existed, no cloud cover at all, and supposedly it was to be the hottest day of the year as well. Brilliant. I started off sensibly. Coverings on my arms and legs, wearing a hat, sunglasses from the glare etc. but it wasn't long till the heat got the best of me and I couldn't possibly stand to be under so many layers of things. Huge mistake NO.1. In around 30 hours I would be suffering from second degree burns (Yes, second degree!) on my face and arms, literally covered with painful blisters and a heart filled with regret. DO NOT FORGET TO TOP UP YOUR SUNSCREEN! ESPECIALLY ON A MOUNTAIN! I also found out after that because of the thinner atmosphere the suns rays are extra strong, which makes complete sense but never occurred to me because I've never been so high up before.

Aaaaaanyway. As I said, it wasn't long until I realised I had made a mistake. It was, however, very long until we reached anywhere like the "hotel" (quotations very important, you will find out later) we had booked to stay in overnight. The hotel was at 3400m, on the 8.5 station, so a pretty decent climb. I think we had just gotten past the main 6th station when I started to struggle badly. The heat was really getting to me, and there were so many steps! I was already finding it difficult to lift my legs high enough (though to be fair, some of the steps came up to my hips) and the heat and brightness was making it hard to even look ahead. We made a few kind Japanese friends along the way, though. Odd people would see me struggling and shout 'Ganbatte!' to encourage me. I don't think even £1million at the top would have been able to encourage me enough. But it was okay, there was already no going back (the down path and up path are separate, so no way to go back really!) and we still unknowingly had 7 hours of walking ahead of us. Yay. We pressed onwards, stopping briefly at every hut on the way to purchase additional stamps for our walking sticks, which were fire branded on which is pretty cool. All the water in my bag had already become hot, as in actually hot, so I was forced to keep buying cold drinks at extortionate prices because I really can't drink hot lemon water (its not like lemon tea at all).

At some point, as well, the path started to change. What was once an incredibly uncomfortable, zig-zagged walk, with ridiculously huge steps and a painful rocky floor up the side of the mountain transformed into something else. It became and almost vertical actual rock climb, where using both hands and hoping you didn't slip to your death was a real thing, and not made any easier carrying my ridiculous walking stick. Maybe 'slip to your death' was a slight over exaggeration, but at some points if you slipped it would have been completely reasonable to seriously injure yourself, some falls were probably almost 10 feet, needless to say I refused to look back, or look down, and somehow I made it with only near falls and a twice twisted ankle.

It was still really pretty, though.

Some pain, and hours later, we got past the 8th station (I think), and all of a sudden it hit me, bad; Altitude Sickness. There are very strict instructions when climbing the mountain, detailing Altitude Sickness and that if you feel sick at all, get off the mountain, as if that was a super easy thing to do. I decided to just keep going to the hotel, and I was lucky enough that my hiking buddy Quentin was able to dash ahead and get me an oxygen cannister. It was sorely needed and I think I wouldn't have physically been able to go on without it, though I could barely go on with it, so that's not saying a lot. 

From this point, it was nearly 2 hours still to the hotel, and the sun had started to set. Though it was still around 20C at this point, the wind was actually so cold that it felt around 5 or 6 degrees, especially without the blaze of the sun, so even though the extra layers were super constricting, we were forced to put our 'winter' clothes on, but it was a constant struggle between freezing wind and exhausted heat. Also, at some points the wind was so strong, it blew me over. On a tiny marked path on top of a mountain, that's a pretty scary thing, especially as it started to get darker and darker and I kept thinking to myself, 'we're never going to make it to the hotel, I'm going to die on the mountain'. A little dramatic, I guess, but I remember feeling that very strongly. As we approached the hotel and I could see its lights, as it was already almost completely dark, my legs were no longer working but I managed to drag myself up the last bit of rock, as Quentin ran ahead (like seriously, he was fine and could still run up the steps and I have no other alternative but to assume he's some sort of vampire) to check it was definitely the hotel and let them know we were there.

Now, the hotel. Technically, the place is called the Fujisan Hotel. TECHNICALLY I think its a hotel. Do not get the wrong impression. When you walk in, the entrance/dining area is decent, what you would expect from a mountain hut thousands of meters up. Dinner was fairly decent, but after all that walking/climbing, I probably would have eaten anything (Cute side note: I must have looked absolutely miserable because they drew a smiley face on my food in sauce in an attempt to cheer me up). 

So they checked what time we wanted to be woken up, as most people leave early in order to get to the summit before sunrise so they said they'd wake everyone up around 2am, and showed us to the sleeping area, that sleeps 700 people apparently. So, it was a bunkroom, both sides of the room were filled with floor level beds and a bunk level of beds, but when I say beds I mean 700 sleeping bags lined up with about half a foot of room per person. It was REALLY cramped. I don't really know what else I was expecting, but we paid 8500Y each for the privileged of sleeping on the mountain not outside, I guess. Seriously though I have never experienced anything like that before, pretty sure battery chickens have more room. Some random person was next to me, already snoring before we even got there, we also had to use our bags as pillows, as there was no other space to keep them. I just can't even get over this experience, it was probably my worst nightmare possible, and on top of all that, the toilets were UNISEX. There was trauma I will never be able to unsee or unhear. Anyway, pretty much 5 minutes after dinner I decided I was ready to sleep, I could barely move and wanted to pretend I was home in a lovely cosy bed not on a mountain. 
Of course, I didn't get a wink of sleep.

The close proximity to other humans combined with disgusting stranger sleeping noises, the insufferable heat and the fact I couldn't breathe, I spend around 6 hours lying there with my oxygen cannister around my face praying I didn't suffocate. This did however, give me time to think about things and I decided there was absolutely no way I could continue up the mountain, especially in the dark. I had already been advised against going any further, and although I was gutted to get this far then stop, I think I would have needed to be air rescued if I tried (in hindsight, that would have been the best outcome).

The sunrise from Mt. Fuji, at 3400M high #Japan #mountfuji #fujisan #sunrise

So I stayed in the 'hotel' whilst every single other person left, and happily had two hours of sleep with actual space to breathe, before getting up myself at 4am, so go and watch the sunrise, which to be honest couldn't have looked much different from a couple of hundred meters higher. After waiting another 5 hours for Quentin to return from the summit (During through which I went over a lot of 'what if he went past and left me', he didn't though, obviously) we started our descent because I really didn't want to be waiting around.

But something that is not obvious on the way up, the way down (a separate path) is pretty much just a slide made of rocks. It takes 3 hours to get down, with one toilet hut on the way, and it's just sliding on the side of your feet and trying not to topple over yourself and land face first in the dirt, or try not to topple over the edge as the zig-zagging of the path has a very steep drop. Also I'd like to take a second to talk about the toilet. It's 200Y for the toilet (like every other one on the mountain) and that is supposed to go towards cleaning and general care of the mountain. I thought the unisex toilets were bad enough, as I walked into this one, a woman came out crying and shaking her head, telling me not to go in. Oh my god, I should not have gone in. I can't even explain what was going on. All the toilets on the mountain are chemical, and I think one just exploded. Like, literally exploded. I don't know how I managed to not throw up.

So there's not really much more to it now, we finished sliding down the mountain, completely exhausted, by around 11am, and our bus left at 8pm. So we ate a lot of ice cream and pancakes and drank a lot of cola whilst we waited at the 5th station, all day. I also used it as an excuse to buy souvenirs, and some great omiyage (a (usually edible) gift to take back when you've been travelling) to bring back to Osaka, in the form of a cute sponge cake in the shape of Fuji with white chocolate drizzled over the top! It was too cute to resist.

I still don't really know what I was expecting from this challenge. From a distance, climbing Mount Fuji seems like the ultimate, perfect thing to do whilst in Japan. In reality, unless you love difficult physical challenges and are in really good shape, you'll probably appreciate the mountain more from a distance, like going past on the shinkansen. Of course I don't want to discourage other potential climbers, this was my personal experience but I don't think it as easy as it seems, definitely nothing like most of the climbing guides I read in preparation (despite how it sounds, I was VERY prepared!) and probably the hardest physical challenge of my life. Either way, it is over now, I have some pretty awesome souvenirs, some very unique memories and the ability to tell people I climbed Mount Fuji. I guess that's all I really did expect to get out of it, anyway. I'm also really grateful to have been able to do this all in aid of Rowcroft Hospice and I hope the money I've raised will be of some small help to this amazing organisation.


And for now, またね〜 From Osaka, and as always feel free to ask me anything you're curious about!

Bonus picture:
All the traffic cones in Kawaguchiko
looked like Fujisan...

Japanese Diary - Japanese Lessons!

Since coming to Japan, I knew one of my main goals was to become better at Japanese, so of course the obvious thing I needed to do once I got here was join a language class. I was lucky enough to be introduced to some free, volunteer based Japanese lessons pretty quickly, and although I was originally prepared to pay for classes I'm so glad I have these now instead!

The format seems a little strange at first; the class is run by volunteers and is for learning both English and Japanese. So Japanese residents are there as well as foreigners, and mostly they are teamed up to talk to one another and learn from one another. Although, most of the volunteers do speak both languages, so in my case I was paired with a volunteer, Soma-Sensei, and she teaches me a little more formally (print outs from work books and kanji drills etc.). It's pretty good, especially since she used to be a teacher before. She also kind of chose me, as she loves England, which is cool. She lived there for a couple of years, in Reading too! So she was really excited when I said I lived near there (even her email address is her old Reading Postcode!). As well as that though, every other week there are slight changes to the format, where people are asked to form small groups and talk about a specific subject etc. which is great from a getting to know new people side, as well as being forced to communicate with people who may not share English as a language!

In all, I think these lessons are great for me! I'm already learning a lot, and the chance to talk to natives who are really interested in talking to me, as well as talking to other Japanese learners at a similar level to me is really helping me to cement concepts such as grammar patterns, which I struggle with! Now to just cram vocabulary in my own time and I'll be good... eventually. I really want to aim for N4 in December, maybe I can do it! (Or not...)

This is kind of a short one, but I thought it was an important thing to talk about, if you know where to look then finding quality language lessons is possible!

But for now, またね〜 From Osaka

Japanese Diary - Mount Fuji!

In a bizarre turn of events, it turns out that in just 10 days I will be climbing Mount Fuji with a friend I met here in Osaka. We kinda talked about it for a little while, then all of a sudden we've started booking things and making sure we have appropriate climbing gear?!

Ah, for a little more clarification, Mount Fuji is actually only open to climbers (that aren't professional, and crazy) from early July to early September, as that is the only time that there is little enough snow to actually reach the summit. Apparently its tough, but manageable for amateur climbers. Which is good, as my experience with mountains is 'once I walked across Dartmoor for about 10 minutes, then back to the car'. But I should be climbing it over a weekend, here is my plan in a little more detail:

 We will get an overnight bus from Osaka to Tokyo on the 24th July, arriving at Kawaguchiko station (near Tokyo) at 8.30am on Saturday 25th. From there we will get the shuttle bus to Mount Fuji’s 5th station, about 1/3 of the way up the mountain. After adjusting to the change in altitude for an hour or so (and probably grabbing breakfast)  we'll start climbing Fuji's Yoshida trail, the easiest and most popular trail, and hike for around 5 hours till we reach the 8th station, where we will be staying overnight and leaving again around 3am to hike the last hour and a half to reach the summit for the sunrise. Then I can't wait to post postcards from Japan's highest post office, and have ramen on the summit too. Then we have a 3-4 hour climb back down before getting the bus back to Osaka (ready for work on Monday morning waaah)

I also felt like I really wanted to make this for a good cause, so I decide to set up a just giving page to support Rowcroft Hospice! They do really amazing things and it would be really great if I could do this cool thing whilst also raising a bit of money for them.

Please feel free to donate towards me here!

Have some Mount Fuji Facts (possibly to beef this post out a little and make you think you learned something) 

Mount Fuji (Fuji-san, 富士山 in Japanese) is the highest volcano and highest peak in Japan and considered one of the 3 Holy Mountains (along with Mount Tate and Mount Haku). Fuji is a perfect, beautiful stratovolcano about 60 miles south-west of Tokyo, with an exceptionally symmetrical shape making it into famous symbol of Japan and an important element in Japanese art. It is a popular destination for excursions. More than 200,000 people climb to the top of the Mt Fuji every year. The last eruption of Mt Fuji was in 1707–08. Between 2000 and 2001, seismic activity under the volcano was at slightly elevated levels, rising concern about a possible reawakening of the volcano. 

Gotta get to the top of that...

I'll be posting at least an update when I have finished, maybe even something from on top of the mountain (It has WiFi now...) So keep tuned~

But for now, またね〜 From Osaka

And maybe please consider donating for my climb that'd be cool of you! Click :D 

Japanese Diary - Wakayama Adventure World

Adventure World, Zoo, Safari Park, Research Center and more...

As a treat, for my arrival in Japan, and as Maikens last weekend in Japan, my host family took us to Wakayama for a weekend to visit ADVENTURE WORLD! After my experience at Ueno Zoo, I wasn't too sure what to expect from this, but I did some research beforehand and it seemed overall positive. And it really was! WAW is a really weird mix of zoo/safari/theme park, and is most famous for it's excellent Panda breeding program, 7 have been born at the zoo to date, and it is the most successful Panda breeding centre outside of China. In fact, two adorable baby panda twins were born last December, so they are at a cute toddler stage at the moment, and when we visited.

Red Panda!

There really was so much to do at Adventure World, but first things first, we arrived two hours before it opened to get in first to run to the safari booth and book tickets on the car safari, because that's how the Japanese roll (Also it was already pretty busy when we arrived, and half an hour before it opened there were a few hundred people queued behind us!) The car Safari was such a great experience too! I'm so glad we got onto it, I got some great pictures too! But first of all, after we got a slot on the safari (for later in the day) we headed over to the Arctic zone to see the penguins and Polar Bears! It was almost polar bear feeding time, and although I love the penguins and appreciate their cuteness (I got tons of photos) I was really excited to see a polar bear in a better environment than in Ueno zoo. Although maybe the enclosures could have been a bit bigger, it was definitely a great improvement on the Ueno area, most importantly these bears were inside so they had a lovely temperature controlled cool place to rest (In Ueno the bears were locked outside until it was time to go in :( ). The bears were so beautiful and it was amazing to see them diving into the water to chase the food as it was thrown in, though one bear was quite grumpy and even stuck his tongue out, it was cute! After that, we wondered around at our own pace for a while till it was time for the safari. I was really excited to find a section called 'Wan Wan Garden', which was a huge area filled with dogs, you could just go and sit or play with! There was a ton of different breeds of dogs, from Labradors to Jack Russels to Corgis, and although most of them were sleeping were sleeping when we went in, the ones that were awake were so friendly! 

Only in Japan
This dog just wondered around the park, smiling at people <3

When we finally got to the safari, it was so worth it! I've never been on any sort of safari before, and although it wasn't truly in a huge open space (It was still within the zoo, as you could walk around the enclosures on the walking safari) It was still a pretty big series of areas (lions, tigers, bears and cheetahs were separated) and the animals really did come up SO CLOSE! At one point a Tiger almost escaped from its area into the cheetahs, it was exciting but they managed to scare it away with a siren and bribes of meat. It was also so interesting to see the kinds of animals that lived well together... there were some strange giant cow animals that happily loved alongside the cheetahs for no reason, but neither hurt the other, which is good I guess. One day I'd love to go on a real safari, but for now this was a really amazing experience!

No zoom, he was almost at the window of the car!

Next we went to see the star attractions; the baby pandas! It was kind of a long queue around the panda area, I think we waited for 30 minutes, but there were signs saying that the wait could be over an hour! But basically, in the panda room, its a continuous line of people walking past to see them, so even after ll that wait you only really get a minute or so to walk past, and take photos. I really didn't mind though, it was amazing to see the pandas so happy and playing together (it was the two babies and the mum, I believe) and I still got some really cute photos as I walked past!

 

One of the Panda twins~

We also saw two different shows through the day, the dolphin performance, which was beautifully choreographed and really interesting to watch, but my favourite was the second, Animal Magic. It was a really varied show consisting of loads and loads of different trained animals from dogs, to otters, to goats and horses, to seals, and it was really entertaining, in a whoah kind of way, and it was really funny too. All of the animals were trained so well, so really fun to watch, my favourite part though was when a few sealions came out to do tricks, followed by one fat seal and he was jiggling along and I loved him!

Of course, when we stopped for lunch, all of the food options were completely adorable. 99% of things were plastered in cute Panda decorations, but I went for this adorable Tiger Donburi (Rice bowl) and it was tastyyyyy! めっちゃ美味しい！ It was also a pretty hot day, so there was tons of ice cream and other cool treats to be had pretty much everywhere. Churros were also really popular, and I finally got to try castella pastries, in the form of cute little baby animals.

The food is adorable no matter where you are in Japan.

That about sums up my trip to Adventure world, well, at least all I can remember anyway! I left this post waaaay too long! If anyone wants to know anything more then please leave a comment and I'll get back to you!

So for now, またね〜 From Osaka