日本語：「ディズニーランドで三年間楽しみにしていたことができた！」

Almost three years ago, I went to Tokyo Disneyland, and it rained. “Oh well, one day I’ll get to enjoy Disneyland in the sun!” I thought to myself. This time around looked promising. No rain in the morning, and no rain on the commute. So, did it rain at any point in the day?

It didn’t just rain. It snowed.

Yeah, didn’t see that coming. But it was still a fantastic day! I didn’t take my camera but luckily my friend Jon did, so these photos are his.

Here we are, all happy and optimistic! Look at how there’s no water, frozen or otherwise, falling from the sky! It was pretty cold but nothing unbearable – pretty standard early Tokyo weather. We had the choice to go to either Disneyland or Disney Sea, which is more of the same but near the sea. Whoever named that deserves an award. We opted for land for two reasons: Firstly, it was probably colder near the sea. Secondly, when I went three years ago Space Mountain was closed, and I’ll be damned if I’m not going on Space Mountain at least once!

So it was a fun filled day of queues, Japanese practice, and staring. Now I’ve accumulated about 21 months in Japan, and I think I’ve got pretty used to the staring. But this was just something different. I guess early March is not international tourism season for Disneyland because there was about 5 foreigners that I could spot. As a result people were being even more blatant than ever – I think we were in some cases more entertaining than the ride itself. I remember flying past the waiting line on one roller coaster and laughing at their expressions as they followed us with their eyes – Aah! Flying foreigners!

We went straight from the entrance to get fast pass tickets for Space Mountain, which told us to come back at around 12.40. Somehow a wait of three hours had accumulated before 9am. I guess some people really like Space Mountain. We then headed around the park checking out the other rides. At one point the parade went by, and I got to see my favourite character, The Lion King’s Simba. He is grossly under appreciated in Japan. They’re all addicted to that blue alien Stitch.

Anyway, at 12.40 my three year wait ended and I got to go on Space Mountain. At the front, no less! It was fantastic and I recommend it to anyone who wants to experience a roller coaster in the dark. Classic quote comes from the guy sitting behind me, who shouted ‘TOO FAST! TOO FAST!’ throughout the ride about 500 times. It’s a roller coaster, dude. Not a driving test.

The biggest surprise came later on in the day, maybe around 5pm. We were in the 90 minute queue for Space Mountain (to go on it for the second time! It might be 2013 before I get the chance again!) and it started to snow. Snow. Now it wasn’t a huge deal (a lot of the place is indoors or covered) but it makes me wonder what will happen next time I try to go. Fire rain?

It was an awesome day and I would go again in a heartbeat. There’s talk of us going to Disney Sea in the summer, so let’s all look forward to the inevitable ‘There was a black nova at Tokyo Disney Sea’ blog post…

After I gave my speech at the Warabi international event, I spent the rest of the day milling around, meeting other foreigners as well as some of the residents of the city. I also got interviewed by a journalist who mentioned something about doing a column about me. I assumed he would use my most quotable comment as a reference in a story. To be honest, I thought that was pretty cool.

What I didn’t know is that the Warabi newsletter (homepage) has a column in it called ‘このまちに暮らして’ (living in this town) which is about half a page on someone living in the city. Unfortunately I don’t know who was in it before, but in the 3rd edition of the newsletter, it’s me!

Below is the article both in Japanese and translated (by me, there might be a mistake or two). If you really want to, here is a giant photo of the article. (Warning, it’s big!)

Here’s what it says;

去年の９月、イギリス北部のシェフィールド大学から日本語を学ぶため来日したマイケルさん。
市内散策が趣味で、想像以上にまちが都会であることやお寺や神社が多いことなど、驚きの連続だそうです。また、神社を参拝する際に手を洗うといった日本の習慣に興味を持ち、それらを学ぶことも留学の目的に。そんなマイケルさんは先月から東小学校でボランティアを始め地域の触れ合いを深めています。「いっぱい友達がほしいですね」と、蕨での生活を積極的に楽しむマイケルさんです。

I am now aware that any Japanese speakers reading this blog are laughing. Yes, I come across as the most goody two shoes little foreigner ever. Here’s the translation – judge for yourself. See the footnotes afterwards for my opinions.

This is Michael, who came to Japan from Sheffield university, in the north of England, to study Japanese.¹ His hobby is walking around the city², and he continues to be surprised by things like how big this town is, and how many shrines and temples there are.³ Also, as he finds the Japanese custom of washing hands before praying interesting, learning about this is also a goal of his study abroad.⁴ Mike has been volunteering at a junior school since last month, and has strengthened his connection with the area.⁵ This is Michael, who wants to make a lot of friends,⁶ and enjoy his life in Warabi.

1. So good so far…
2. What?!
3. I saw a monk the other day and had a heart attack.
4. Actually true, I love Zen Buddhism.
5. It has also strengthened my knowledge of Pokemon… thanks kids!
6. I wish I’d said ‘I hate making friends’, it would have made this article less predictable.

So there you have it. I’m an exchange student who loves wandering around whilst being constantly surprised by religion.

In other news I’m really sick right now. I took today off from school and I think I will tomorrow as well, as I am confident if a foreigner turns up at a school of young kids looking sick people start to freak out. Oh well, it gives me more time to come up with stupid jokes for my blog study.

Before we get started, I don’t have any photographs of the school or the classes. I’m confident the school would not be wild about me wandering around with a camera. Actually they probably wouldn’t mind, but it just doesn’t feel right, you know? Last thing I want is some school kid coming up to me in a few years demanding to know why their face is on a blog about why it never gets updated. So instead I will break up the text with some of my favourite photos I’ve taken this month. As usual, they’re all collected here in the photo archive.

I’ve been volunteering for about two weeks now, although various things have kept me from going every day. I have to say a thanks to everyone at the school – they’ve been very understanding with my time restraints and so on. That said, it does feel like aside from when I go to English classes I am in the way – I’m not trained to teach science, maths, Japanese or whatever. I am trained however to answer questions like ‘Do white people hurt their eyes a lot?’ Although most of my answers are ‘What?!’

Yes, these kids are just bursting with hilarious comments. I’ve heard so many that I’m preparing a separate blog post for them. Being able to speak Japanese is great when, instead of translating examination articles on global warming, you’re having the world explained to you as ‘A place where the Japanese, other people, and cats live’.

English class is so much fun. I honestly still do enjoy teaching at Junten, but coming here has really reinvigorated my love for teaching. We use quite a bit of Japanese in the class, so it’s great practice for me. It’s also obviously a lot less serious than Junten. We do a lot more role playing, and obviously the kids are more energetic and interested. Probably because they for the most part do not know the horrors of cram school. So far we’ve been teaching the names of foods, and how to say things like ‘Do you like fish?’ and so on. Next week is sports, so I’m preparing for a week of acting out golf swings and tennis serves.

I’ve been to a handful of other classes. The most memorable was calligraphy class. I was sat at the back (next to a terrified student) and had a go at writing the Chinese character for love (愛). Here is the result!

I then spent the rest of the class explaining why I was able to read ‘北朝鮮の核兵器の問題’. (The problem of North Korea and nuclear weaponry). No, we don’t study Japanese in England. No, I am not North Korean. No, I do not own nuclear weapons. The kids find me being able to speak Japanese interesting, but I think in a different way to most. Rather than say “Wow, a foreigner who learned Japanese! How great!’ and so on, they instead say ‘Oh, you can speak Japanese? Well I have an awesome lunch box.” It’s definitely nice for people to speak to you in the same language they use with their friends or family.

The best part of the day is definitely lunch. The kids are very chatty and friendly, although sometimes it does get a bit tedious answering the same questions over and over. (Favourite colour / food / Pokemon) After that there’s one more class and then I go home. The classes are only 45 mins with a 10 min break between each one, so I basically spend 3 to 4 hours a day speaking Japanese with cute little kids. Probably not the most effective way to revise, but still fun. Might be a problem if I start speaking like a child in interviews…

Anyway that’s all for now. I’m having a great time and am determined to step it up and get more involved with the school. Hopefully I will have plenty of exciting things to write about, too.

Yep, this post takes the award for ‘most ominous blog post title ever’. But it’s actually a good news post! From now until about August 15th I am on holiday from Sophia. I was a bit worried – I don’t really know many people in my local area (aside from the people living in the dormitory) and I didn’t really have any big plans. I mean, I’m going to be going to Tsukiji Fish Market (again), Kyoto (again) and Hakone with my mother when she arrives. But until then I didn’t really have much planned.

However, at the Warabi City international event (the one I did a speech at, blog here) I met Masako, who has helped me get a job volunteering at a local primary school! Yaaaay! They’re being very understanding that I have plans over the holiday, and as a result I’m going to be helping out 4-5 days a week!

The most exciting thing is that I won’t be helping as an English teacher. I mean of course if I’m joining an English class I will end up doing so, but primarily I’m there as a ‘general aide’. I’m not totally sure what that means but I am assuming it involves lots of cakes.

Now obviously because it’s a school full of tiny kids, taking photos / video for this blog is probably not viable. Even if I get an ‘OK’ from the teachers, I don’t want some furious Japanese school child finding their face on my blog in years to come. But I will keep you updated on anything funny I witness via the wonderful medium of words (and occasionally Youtube videos I suppose!)

In other exciting news, I have an interview on Wednesday at my old volunteering school. I think they’re quite keen to hire me once I graduate (probably starting in early 2012) so this interview is probably mostly going to be about what I need to do and what I’m going to be teaching. Again, hopefully it will involve cakes.

Finally, my bi-annual blog redesign is coming up. I have something that is similar to the current design. I like the minimalist white look, and a lot of people have said this is the best design the blog has ever had, which makes me glad. So look out for that!

May 4th 2010 Update: I wrote a post about Advanced Japanese at Sophia here.

Recently I’ve been asked a lot of questions about my course at Sophia. Originally I just replied to the emails but as a lot of them had similar questions I realized writing this FAQ would be useful both for me (as a time saver!) and for people interested. If you have any questions that aren’t on this FAQ, please don’t hesitate to send me an email, and I’ll either add it to here or reply to you privately.

1. What Is Sophia Like? (Accurate: 2010)
Easily the most common question, and also the hardest to answer. I’m going to answer question in relation to my experience and that of other exchange students. I’ll start with the good points. It’s right in the centre of Tokyo, making it nice and easy to get to (although not so much if you end up in one of their distant dormitories, like I did…) and also handy for going out. The building and it’s facilities are, for the most part, really nice and modern. The library is big and useful, apart from the annoying ‘Please be quiet in the library’ announcements which are by far the loudest thing in there.

OK, the bad points. Whilst I think Sophia is a good university, I think it has a long way to go in terms of exchange students. That is 100% true when it comes to management. I hate to say it, but the people in the international department office are beyond unhelpful, they are downright uninterested. I’ve been to them more than once asking for help or assistance, and every single time they have let me down. On top of that, the system Sophia uses is very strict. Despite explaining multiple times that I cannot, as a UK student, receive credit for English language classes I am being forced to take six hours a week of them. I know this is standard procedure by friends at other universities (for example, Chuo) are taking all their classes in Japanese. Sophia has good support for exchange students, but if you want to experience real university life as opposed to the foreign experience, forget about Sophia.

I know that gives Sophia a hugely bad image, but that’s just me. I think if you can get credit, or if you want to study something alongside Japanese, it’s a great system. But it is very strict. Interacting with non-English speaking students is also a challenge, as everyone in your department will speak English. I advise joining a non-recommended circle or club to get around this.

2. What are the Japanese classes like? (Accurate: 2010)
Quite good, I think. Yes, there’s a lot of memorization and plenty of words you will never use, but that’s just a fact of language learning. Especially under the Japanese approach. The teachers in general know what they’re doing, and when you go into higher classes there’s good chance to practice speaking. In comparison to my course at Sheffield the amount of work is far lower, although I don’t know how much I do in comparison to other universities.

My only complaint is that the textbooks are really old. I wish they’d change them. I am sick of reading about what people think of the employment system of 1994.

3. What is your curriculum like? (Accurate: 2010)
You have to take at least 10 hours a week of classes. Mandatory Japanese will take up between 6-8 of these (or more if you take the intensive course, although I didn’t so I know nothing about it). As a result I have to take these daft courses in history and so on. The university will not let you take courses taught in Japanese unless you have passed JLPT 1. Yes, it’s an incredibly stupid restriction, especially on students who don’t need to pass classes. If you want to try to fight this limit I wish you all the best, but you will be going up against the ever lackluster FLA Department staff.

4. Should I go to Sophia? (Accurate: Forever? I guess?)
I think it depends on your ability. If you’ve never studied Japanese or you are beginner / low intermediate (JLPT 4 or JLPT 3 level) I would say yes, definitely. The beginner classes, from what I can tell, are pretty good, and there’s English support on hand. The Intermediate and advanced (JLPT 2+/1) classes are good too, so from an academic standpoint I would say yes. But for those who want to immerse themselves in Japanese I would seriously reconsider. You will be speaking English at least six hours a week in your English taught classes. There is no getting around this, the university is ridiculously dedicated to these rules. I would say a university outside Tokyo (for example Kanazawa or Okayama) would be more suited to the ‘All Japanese All The Time’ approach.

5. Do you like Sophia? (Accurate: Until I die)
I am 50/50 about the place. Some days, when I manage to avoid the bizarre administration, speak a decent amount of Japanese and generally get the feeling I’m in Japan, it’s a great place. Very international, lots of people mixing a lot and it’s a great time. Half the time however I just feel like I’m in a state university in America. If I could choose again, I would not choose Sophia but that’s because it has too many exchange students in my opinion. But I think as far as academia goes it’s a great university.

I tried to be as honest as possible in this FAQ. As you can imagine it’s probably not what Sophia want to see on the internet but I value honesty so I’m going to post it. Who knows – maybe one day they will allow us to enter other departments, and that simple rule change would I think make a huge difference. I don’t see it happening any time soon, but it would be lovely.

I hope this has been useful in letting you make a decision. Obviously, everything here is subjective. It’s my opinion that I based on my experiences. I’m sure there are plenty of people at Sophia who love every minute of it. I’m just not one of them.