Time to put some worries to rest. A few people seemed to think I didn’t manage to make it home – fair enough, as it’s been ten days since I touched down in fair England, and I’ve not put together a blog or a video since. Sorry about that. As you can imagine I’ve been very busy catching up with old friends, moving back into my apartment, and trying to convince shopkeepers to accept Yen. Today though I managed to find a spare hour or two and took my old faithful dog for a walk around the woods. So here are some photos! I’m aware this isn’t the first time I’ve done a blog post like this, but then who could get bored of doggy photos?! NODOBY!

Here he is. Still the same (very) old dog. When I left England a year ago I really said goodbye to the dog properly, as we were convinced I wouldn’t see him again, but there he was waiting for me at home last week. He even remembered me, which was pretty heart warming. At least, he remembered me as long as I had a biscuit in my hand.

This somewhat dark and depressing photo is a picture of the road I live on. My house is on the right hand side, more or less in line with the car parked on the road. It’s great to be back, living in a place where not all the greenery has been obliterated, and more importantly, there is so much space. If a Japanese town planner saw this picture, they would immediately put down plans to put eight houses and an international airport in the middle of the road.

Anyway, that’s more or less all I have today. I’m still sort of on my ‘recovery period’ from Japan, but I will endeavor to get a Youtube video filmed in the next few days. The Fuji video is still not done but the shots will probably end up mixed in with another video. Again, not sure exactly how long that’s going to take.

If you are interested, I put all the photos from today’s walk on Flickr. I am still working on getting the gallery up to date, but they will also appear in there eventually. I’ll leave you today with another photo of my adorable dog. Until next time!

821. A rough estimate of the total number of days I’ve spent in Japan. It’s probably a little lower, as this year hasn’t ended yet, but I am rounding up because the higher the number the more impressive! That’s how business works!

I mentioned previously that I’m leaving on August 11th and going back to university. I went into depth in the previous post about what’s going on in the future, so if you’re interested go read ‘Next Year & Beyond‘. Today I’m going to take a look back at what I’ve done in my time here, what I still want to do and everything in between. I will try and keep it fun and light so it’s not too boring to read, with gratuitous use of poorly edited images and non-sequiter jokes. SUDDENLY, GIRAFFES.

Comparing my gap year (when I was 18-19) to this study year abroad (21-22), the most obvious change, and the thought that I find the most comforting, is my language ability. I’m essentially self-sufficient now – back in 2006 I would run for help every time the big bad scary man spoke that weird language. It’s refreshing to think this year I managed to contract a mobile phone, book transport and poison myself with undercooked chicken all by myself.

On the flip side, I do feel like the ‘magic’ has gone a bit. I’m aware that makes it sound like Japan and I are sexual partners, but geography turns me on. I feel like this last year there’s been much less personal discovery for me than last time. I remember my first trip to karaoke, first trip to a shrine, first time realising I’ve been on the wrong train for the last hour. They are still fun (except the last one) but the element of ‘Oh wow!’ is gone. But there’s not much you can do about that. Although she’d been before, my mum’s visit made me check out a couple of places that I don’t really go to anymore, and our last day in Hakone was one of the best days of this year for me.

The other day I was feeling content and happy, like a cat who just ate a whole bunch of fish. So to snap myself out of this mood and return to being the pessimist you all know and love tolerate, I went and re-read this blog post, which I wrote before I came here on my exchange year, in which I set myself some goals. Here’s the final tally;

I am pretty happy with my Japanese. It’s still got a (disturbingly long) way to go before I’ll understand even 10% of what my people always yell at me in the street. Something about how I should put the gun down and step away from the bank teller? I don’t know. Other than that though, pretty much failure on all accounts. Regarding Korea and Hokkaido, I’ve really not done a huge amount of travelling in general this year. Plenty of day trips, but the only real trip I took other than Hakone was my voyage to Nagano, which was awesome. Korea and Hokkaido will still be there next year, so I’m sure I’ll make it then!

As for performing something and Shorinji Kempo, both of them just weren’t going to work. I did go to Shorinji practice once, but it was on Wednesdays which helpfully I work on. As for performing something, I suppose I could have lived my dream of fronting an electro-rock-jazz band, but in the end I joined the racquetball circle instead. It’s all the camaraderie and sweat of being in a rock band, without any of the fame, money or financial potential! Yeah!

I guess it just goes to show you never really know what’s going to come. I made those plans with an image of Sophia University that just wasn’t accurate. I still had a great time, and I even managed to land a job here. So all in all, a pretty cool year. Here’s to another fun 821.

Thanks for reading this huge amount of words about me and nothing but me. I am aware it’s becoming a bit Hollywood-happy-ending, so I will finish with a picture of a t-shirt that my friend Andy and I discovered the other day. I will leave you to draw your own conclusions as to it’s meaning.

Did you catch the England vs Japan World Cup friendly match yesterday? If you did, you probably had the same impressions I had before the match started. ‘Japan have improved, but they can’t beat a team like England’. A fair assumption! But after last night I am starting to think Japan may well have a better chance than Rooney and co.

The game, for those that didn’t see, ended 2-1 to England. Both of the English goals were own goals, meaning in total Japan scored three and England scored none. We really need to work out how to put the ball in the goal rather than asking the other team to do it for us. That said, it was a friendly and the English team were probably told to be a little reserved in order to avoid any last minute injuries.

Now I know, honestly, that Japan doesn’t really have much of a shot at winning the world cup this year. They have got some good players now, like goalkeeper Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi who saved a penalty in the friendly, Keisuke Honda who was blasting shots from miles and miles away pretty consistently throughout, and Tulio. Tulio is the Rooney of the Japanese team. For some reason he plays in defence, but he’s their consistant goal threat. Yes, a goal keeper. Threatening to score all the time. He’s awesome, and I really hope he gets a chance to shine in the world cup.

I’m keeping this update short because, as you might be able to tell, I don’t know a huge amount about football (or soccer for you poor English users!!) but it’ll be interesting to follow this year. I’m predicting Spain win the cup, England scrape through the group stages and then lose to a team like Germany / Italy, and Japan should hopefully win at least one group match. Fingers crossed for every team except America – if England loses to the US I’ll never be able to show my face in the dormitory again.

England play the US on the June 12, and Japan start on the 14th against Cameroon. Fingers crossed!

Hey guys! I am currently in Hakone! Which means there is no way I could have posted this blog! How did I do it? Some sort of zombie science of course!

Anyway, I’m 22 today!

That’s right! I’m not 21 anymore. 20 seems like a long time ago. I can barely even remember being 19!

So yeah… happy birthday me!

Wow. What a year’s it’s been. A lot has changed since I did my review of 2008. We’ve seen the financial world explode, virtually every celebrity on the planet die, and Rage Against The Machine take Christmas Number One. Quite an eventful year, to say the least.  Today I’m going to take a month by month look back, with links to old blog posts. If you’re relatively new to reading this blog, this might well be a good place to start. Also I really should go back and do 2006 and 2007 at some point. But first I need to complete work on my time machine.

If you want a more thorough list of blog posts, hit the archive.

January 2009

Exams in Sheffield. Feels strange, writing this sitting in Japan. Just 11 months ago this seems like an impossible dream. How time has flown, I suppose. I wrote a handful of blog posts, my favourite of which was A Japanese Guide To Skipping Work. I chose this one not so much for it’s topic, but because I think of the ‘comedy’ articles I’ve written it’s one of the best. I had a lot of fun writing it, and it serves as a reminder not to be so damn boring all the time!

February 2009

The hardest month to spell was also the hardest month to write in apparently – just two blog posts make Feb 2009 my laziest month of the year. Apologies if you wasted this month just sitting at home refreshing my blog waiting for a post. You need new hobbies. Anyway, post of the month was the Sheffield Japan Day 2009 – Photoshoot. I had great fun taking those shots and it is a reminder of the work that went into that event – not only mine, but the entire team’s. (Actually, they did a lot more work than I did)

March 2009

I suppose it would be lazy to pick my birthday as the best day, but that’s only because I’m sure you all would too… right? It’s going to have to be Jobs For Kenji The Stalker Robot I think, simply because the post got linked to from a lot of other blogs, and it’s always nice to be part of something, rather than the sheer cold isolation I usually feel.

April 2009

I lied! February was not the only month with 2 posts – April also saw a dive in my writing rate. Apologies again. At least it’s easy to spell. This month was spent back at uni, working away at probably the hardest content we ever studied. (Statistics and other horrors). Most memorable post is Japanese Blog Launched, mainly because I still use it now, and it is nice to go back and read once in a while. Makes me all happy inside to see all those squiggles actually mean something once in a while.

May 2009

Lots of posts this month, I suppose the rest in April did work. I wrote quite a few reviews this month (including D’EspairsRay and Densha Otoko) but post of the month is obviously Japan Day 2009. Watching all that work come together at the last moment was an awesome feeling, as was performing Soran again (video here) and having some fun performing the quiz on stage. (For which I used really old blog content for jokes. They call me ‘unoriginal Mike’, you know).

June 2009

It’s summer! Not that you can tell in freezing England. Anyway, at some point in the haze of complex grammar combination and alcohol, I started thinking about my year abroad. Study Year Targets & Goals is a nice list of stuff I want to do. The fact I haven’t done any of them yet is somewhat scary, but in the new year I’m going to have a lot more opportunity to travel, so I should be able to get some, if not all, of them done.

July 2009

The end of the academic year (I think!) It also marked the end of me studying Japanese daily, which I still regret now, but whatever. It gave me more time to chill out, spend a lot of time with the exchange students and have a nice time before flying to Japan. How Not To Stay At A Love Hotel could possibly be my favourite ‘comedy’ post of the year. It’s sharp and snappy, and I love it when I go back to one of my old posts and smile at a joke. Yes. I’m that sad.

August 2009

A tough month. The countdown to Japan is definitely on. Yet I remember this month really dragging by. I was going to choose my trip to London to get my visa as the post of the month, but I think Sunny Scenes At Stanage, Sheffield is a nicer post – it reminds me of my family, and back home in a nice way. Also it proves once and for all that England does get good weather. I’d also like to thank the special effects team for removing all the driving rain and hail in those photos.

September 2009

Japan! Wooo! I wrote 10 posts this month, the most of any of the year, for obvious reasons. I’m back! It’s hardly changed at all! Hurr..err…yeah! It’s very hard to choose a blog post, but it’s fun looking over them – I think the day after I arrived in Tokyo my writing style really shifted – it’s more ‘upbeat’. Lots of exclamation marks. Like this! I suppose Safe And Sound In Tokyo, despite being a bit of a boring post (no pictures!) is the most memorable. Finally back!

October 2009

Settling in can take a long time, but I remember waking up one day in early October and feeling like I was at ‘home’. Not just the dormitory, but the area I live in. So my photos of Warabi City act now as a nice memento, and no matter where I end up I can remember what it felt like living here. Awww.

November 2009

There’s no way I can’t choose Exploring Like It’s ’06 this month. The new volunteers joined me on a trip to Meiji Shrine. I did honestly feel like I was back, all wide-eyed at the novelty of everything, despite three years having passed. It was really refreshing, and even though they weren’t there, it reminds me of Matt, Nate, Rolf (the volunteers of my year) and everyone else I knew ‘back then’.

December 2009

So here we are. A pretty slow month blog wise, mainly because the amount of time and energy I spent at Sophia was so much. I think Festive Radio Silence is a nice summary post, though. I didn’t really update for a while but it’s nice to be able to read just one article and get a load of information at once.

By my count, I just summed up 12 months in just over a thousand words. That is a scary feat, when you think about it. But it’s done. I hope you enjoyed this post, and I hope you enjoy whatever I write in the future. I also hope Christmas was great for everyone, and that 2010 is another exciting and fun year.

Here’s To A Great 2010! Thanks For Reading!

From Mike @ JapanIsDoomed.com