Week 2 in Japan

So, unlike last week nothing has really happened! We've had a few drinking parties to meet friends of the family here but otherwise we've been working on the farm cutting eggplant and boring things like this!

Yesterday (13/11) we went to Sawarda after work. I didn't really understand what we were doing there ( all we were told was 'we're going for a drive!' ) but in the end it was pretty fun! The area we went to was full of old looking buildings.

The leaflet says that Sawarda was recognised officially as a distinct area 300 years ago by the Tokugawa Shogunate, the new merchant class then self governed the area. Most of the buildings along the Ono river (which you can see in the picture) were storehouses which then took goods to Tokyo/Edo by boat. The area grew really prosperous which led to 'Sawara Culture' of trying to outdo Tokyo/Edo culturally.

One of the places we visited was the house of Inoh Tadataka who wanted to measure the size of the earth. He created the first accurate map of Japan by travelling on foot for 15 years around the country. He started from his house and the monument here translates to 'From this first step'.

Tadataka's house was really dark and plain, the person that took us, and the person who owns the farm said that when he was younger he lived in a house like that and he really hated it because it was so dark. 

This was only a small part of Sawara, if I can muster the energy on my next day off I'd like to go back again and see the rest!

Also, fun fact:

Hokkaido was called Ezochi in the Edo period!

江戸時代に北海道は 蝦夷地と言う。

This is the view from the smaller greenhouse around lunchtime. I thought it was warm in the UK! It's snowing in Hokkaido and amazingly sunny here. 

That's what I said but it's pretty cold here in the evening since we're in a traditional Japanese house. We're still going to bed early because it's warmer to do that! Also, it's nice getting 8 hours sleep! Since I haven't done that since university it's strange...

Day off in Sawara! Not much going on but there's lots of nice views and it's very sunny today! Boyfriend thought it would be cold so we're both wearing lots of layers! 

The above are Google 'Auto-Awesome' photos. We visited the shrine and walked around there. There was lots of empty coffee cans which we picked up and put in the bin. Later on I wanted to walk back to the farm from the station but we only got so far before one of the friends of the family pulled over and offered us a lift! Boyfriend thinks that this was our thanks from the god of the shrine. Probably not but it was pretty good luck for him! (I still wanted to walk)

Attempt to take photo of food. I don't think I'll do it again... It was yummy and looking at it now makes me hungry. We went to Denny's for lunch although despite what you might expect I don't think they sold a single hamburger! We've been eating lots of Japanese food so it was nice to have something we recognised from the menu! Saying that, all the food had a Japanese twist. This is my dessert (not a main meal) and the ice cream is green tea flavour and it has sweet red beans from Hokkaido as the side topping.

I also found this at the drugstore... These are Sailor Moon branded sanitary towels? I've since been informed that it's not uncommon for girls who grew up in the 90s to call their menstrual days 'Sailor Moon's visiting day' so rather than this being a random campaign it's a company picking up on trends. Still a little strange... The towels have little moons and starts printed on them and they come in different sizes and with or without wings! They're actually a full range.

In other news Dia from The TaxPayers' Alliance will be on BBC Question Time this week so you should watch it and be amazed at the TPA's awesome stance on everything. I'm also physically incapable of staying away from the new website now that it's launched.... So far I have not logged into the admin console but I now have a page in my notepad called 'Things to add to the website to make it more awesome!'

Also. Finally hit 25,000 words on my novel for National Novel Writing Month. I took 2 days in a row off so I'm actually behind but I'm slowly catching up to where I should be.

As last week, if you want updates as I post them please follow me on G+ unless you only want to see my pretty photos (none this week!) which you can find on Tumblr (along with other pretty reblogged things) .

See you next week! 

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A Week in Japan

I've actually been updating Google Plus with everything but I didn't realise that you can't go back and change which circles can see which.

So. Boyfriend and I are on a 6 month tour of Japan with a working holiday visa. You can read some of his updates from before the trip here. He's also been keeping a video diary on his facebook page with some 1 minute videos from places we've been, I'll ask if he can put them on youtube so we can have everything together!

JOURNEY

The flight from Heathrow to Narita was about 10 hours and 30 minutes. Here are updates from the journey!

Somehow we made it into Japan and navigated around the airport to the post office in the other terminal so we could pick up pocket WiFi. As you can tell by this update, it's working!

Here's a picture of a giraffe Heathrow side. Boyfriend kindly got in the picture to fill the weird gap. You can ignore him, focus on the giraffe. It was cool.

Boyfriend and I have a habit of pulling funny faces in the camera. It might just be my habit that I've dragged him into actually. I feel that I look strange when I smile? I don't know.

The flight attendant really liked the earmuff/headphones Mother bought me before we left. She thought I made them myself. I'm not that cool...

I emailed work people to say I got here safely and got a load of replies about potatoes! It's going to be a month or two before I see any of those though... Maybe I'll just ship them one to keep them satisfied?

3 DAYS IN TOKYO

When we got to Narita we took the Express Train into Tokyo, at the moment you can get a discount if you're foreign and you show your passport. We didn't know that but one of the station attendants told us it was cheaper if we bought it at the desk and they gave us a pamphlet explaining it. It's only going from the airport though, not the other way around!

Food, food, food from Japan.

First is Melon Soda which I think is pretty normal but each time I bring some back from the Japan Centre or flick through pictures people go 'What on earth is that?!' Mostly because it's radioactive green? It tastes good though!

Second are Sweet Potato sweets and cake that were being sold at a stall in the underground. I might have mentioned that went I left the UK more than one person demanded Japanese potatoes as a present, not believing that they were really a thing. It's a little early to buy presents for home but here is the proof that such things exist!

The theme is 'Pretty Things From Today'.

The green pictures are from Kyu Shiba Rikyu Gardens which is a national garden that has been recreated to resemble what it looking like during Edo Tokyo. I don't remember who the garden belonged to but it was a high ranking person in the Tokugawa Shogunate.

I'm proud of those photos because I played with the setting available on my phone camera and I think the result is pretty nice! I didn't even edit these photos because I just like looking at them and thinking: "Hey! I did pretty well with those!"

The last photo is from a brand called 'Gelato Pique' which I like. They mostly do home ware and AMAZING pajamas that I would never wear because they're too fuzzy / soft / easily stain-able. They're pajamas and not loungewear which makes them unsuited to someone who doesn't get dressed on Saturdays.

In the bottom corner of that photo you can see the 'Gelato Pique Cafe' where we had coffee today. It was a really sweet / cute place! Even the staff uniforms were put together and neat (by the way, in the main store the staff wear their own brand to work = pajamas). The cafe and the store were facing each other and I was amazed at how much the two stores were alike in theme and atmosphere yet sold completely different goods. 

Boyfriend was excited about visiting the Pokemon Centre today which was a lot of fun but when we were in Shibuya I realised I had a few things on my map to do in the area.

We only managed one in the end; the One Piece store on the 6th floor of the Parco building. They had some REALLY cool stuff but in the end I settled for a photo booth sticker with Matthew. We were TERRIBLE in the photo booth, as it was printing it cycled through the photos of people who had done it before us and it was obvious we didn't know what we were doing....

Here's a picture of Boyfriend with Luffy and Chopper. Why is he in the picture and not me? He's not supposed to be in the picture at all, that's why. He photo bombed and got kinda into the posing so I felt that I had to include him as well....

Yesterday we went to 'Sunshine City' in Ikebukuro. One of the things on my 'to-do' list was visit J-World which is where there are lots of Shonnen Jump related activities.

We went on a weekday so the rides weren't all open but there was still lots to do. There were quite a few people there because there are prizes and special goods that you can only buy here and themed goods in the cafe that are only available for a limited time.

The crowds were 90% female! I think there were 2 unaccompanied Japanese males and some foreign males but the majority of the males were accompanied by a girlfriend!

FIRST WEEK IN IBARAKI

So now we're doing our first WWOOF on a farm in Ikabaraki on Itabashi Farm. I'm super happy because I can speak lots of Japanese and I finally get to experience living in a Japanese style house. It's pretty cold!
I'll update about that next week. We're going to be here for 3 weeks so I have to save something for later!

We work 0830 to 1130 and then 1330 to 1600 Monday to Saturday. It's pretty easy work and it goes quickly! There are two other WWOOFers here apart from ourselves although one is leaving tomorrow and everyone is very friendly!

Today we are in Inashiki. It took us 2 hours to get here from Tokyo. The work sounds like it will be relaxing and give us lots of free time. We've only been here for half a day but it's going well so far!

***

Sunday was our 'day off' even though we haven't had any 'days on' yet! We went to Narita for no particular reason. There's a famous old shopping street called Omotesando which we spent most of our time walking up and down.

There was also a festival going on although most of the activities started in the evening during the day there was a 'Yuzu-chara' festival which included lots of mascots from different places. I really liked Sanomaru from Sano in Tochigi.

The festival was held on the save day as 3-5-7 Day where all the 3/5/7 year olds get dressed up and blessed at the temple so there were plenty of little people running around. We walked through the temple and through the 'peace gardens' at the back. We did a lot of walking! We were really tired afterwards!

Yesterday we visited a sake brewery. I was trying to follow the Japanese conversation rather than the explanations so I don't remember much of it but the smell was amazing! The sake is made from water and a special variety of rice that is difficult to grow.

The water is drawn from the well in the photo and the rice is grown in the fields behind the brewery. The process takes a long time but I've forgotten how long, I think it's a minimum of 8 months but the fermentation is the longest part. The room the culture is added to the rice and fermentation happens in is kept at 30 degrees.

The other photo is the final stage in brewing. The liquid has to be kept constantly in motion or it would explode over the size of the container the same way bread does when you proof it (or my bread does because I forget about it and leave it for too long). Now there's a machine to do this but I took the photo as a check was taking place, before machinery this had to be done by hand 24 hours a day.

Please excuse the pretty terrible photos; I didn't have much time to adjust my camera settings!

OTHER PHOTOS

These photos have yet to go on G+ because I've nicked them from Boyfriend today. They're photos of me because my family has complained that I'm not in any of the photos. Two from our day out last Sunday and one from today because Tobi is leaving today to go on other adventures so starting tomorrow it's just myself, Boyfriend and Rin. Possibly more on Rin next week?

I've now realised that there aren't any dates on these posts. Can you live with that? From now on I'll try harder to be better at this blogging thing. I guess I'll just learn a little at a time!

So if you want updates as I post them please follow me on G+ (which I am using specifically because nobody uses it and who wants all this on facebook?) unless you only want to see my pretty photos (which I haven't posted here) which you can find on Tumblr (along with other pretty reblogged things) .

See you next week!

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4 Days to go

So I'll be in Japan in 4 days.

Actually I'll be on a plane in 4 days. I don't arrive in Japan until November 5th.

Last night I got a card and presents from the office for my trip. I'm happy about the card but I wasn't expecting presents. And there's been quite a few collections already for people who are actually leaving so I feel doubly selfish about it. Still, I guess nobody forces people to give money... Apart from peer pressure.

But that's not what I wanted to talk about!

I'm not really thinking about leaving too much because then I'll just be sad about it but if I just go with the flow one day at a time I know I won't have the capacity to be sad. I really am looking forward to it, but it's difficult to focus on the things I'm looking forward to instead of the things I'll be missing out on. I'm waiting for the 'perspective shift' that happens when you move on and can focus on the things in front of you. This is my own problem; I find it difficult to concentrate on things that aren't in front of me.

In order to leave I've been getting my room / life as clean and uncluttered as possible so I can just slip right back into it.

This is my postcards wall. I’m not sure when I started collecting postcards but it’s a pretty cheap habit.

The theme of this collection is ‘Summer ‘. Pretty original. The top three are things that I did and the bottom four are ‘A Summer of the Past’.

Things like this I've been changing so that when I come back I get depressed because it's like I never left!

I guess I'm updating this blog and not my tumblr one then. Tumblr makes it so easy to post photos that I wondered which one I was going to use.... Honestly this isn't really the place for me to post introspective things like this.

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LANGUAGE AND PERSONALITY

Or as this study puts it: The Language OF personality.

If you didn't want to click through, this is an old study (I remember posting about it on facebook a few years ago), that created word clouds based on personality traits using data gleaned from social media sites.

It's a curious thing. I tried to go through this list of clouds and see what I would be classified as based on my own language on facebook (just because that's the account that I've had the longest):

I most strongly correlate with the introverted (left) and openness (below right). Interestingly I used more 'introverted words' when I was younger and more 'open words' now.

Agreeableness seems to be synonymous with religion. I think less conscientious people are basically teenagers. Less neurotic people talk about volleyball at lot?

People who mention anime are more likely to be introverted, less contentious and neurotic. I'm guessing that these people are also teenagers who think  everyone else would feel depressed all the time too if they could just see the way the world was. Thankfully I think everyone grows out of it (personal experience) although it takes some more time than others.

Finally, based on my disinterest in sharing my feelings online and preferring nouns I'm probably male.

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WHY I'M NOT WORRIED ABOUT NET MIGRATION

The way things are going right now it sounds like everyone is worried about net migration figures. A while ago the latest figure was published and the Government is now set to miss it's target of getting net migration under 100,000 by 2015.

Specifically people are worried about low skilled immigration and if UKIP are to be believed most of this immigration is coming from within the EU, specifically Poland. Students are fine (as long as they're paying high tuition fees and thereby covering those of home students) highly paid people who require an employer to sponsor them are fine. Holiday makers are fine. In fact everyone is fine apart from people who are here illegally and low skilled workers.

And should we be worried about low skilled workers? If everything is being done legally then they're just as cheap/expensive as domestic workers and surely a domestic worker would have greater command of the English language and be more able to perform well in interviews, applications etc.

So really the problem is either 1) Illegal working conditions in which people are fudging visas/getting paid below minimum wage 2)Immigrants having greater skills in English or greater ability to work than current domestic workers.

Issue 1 is a problem with border control. Issue 2 is a culture problem which I think is being overblown by the media and encouraged by the welfare system.

So I'm not worried about immigration and I would argue that most people aren't worried about it other. I'd argue that most people are worried about border control more than immigration. Which is why I really don't understand why there's always focus on these net migration figures!

I've been informed it's because there's an overcrowding problem. I disagree. I don't think we have an overcrowding problem. I think we have a regionalisation problem. This is just an extension of the general infrastructure problem that we're having due to London being the only place that is growing. On top of the immigrants are the only thing stabilising our population right now because although it might not feel like it, family sizes are getting smaller and people are living longer. The reason Germany isn't doing as badly as everyone was predicting is in a large part due to the free movement of EU citizens.

Immigration is not the big deal it seems to be. Illegal immigration, yes. But that is not represented in the net migration figures.

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WAR ON WASTE ROLLS INTO CANTERBURY

Intern blog for the TPA.

Link: WAR ON WASTE ROLLS INTO CANTERBURY

TLDR: We went to Canterbury. It was sunny. Nobody is surprised by the amount of money the local government wastes.

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INTERNING AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BUCKINGHAM

(This isn't really a review, more just raising awareness of the University of Buckingham. If anyone reading this was thinking of applying or wanted more information then please feel free to message me.)

After finishing my course at the University of Buckingham in December I was invited back to the economics department as an intern until April. The University had only just got funding for offering such internships so I didn't know much about what I would be doing and it wasn't paid;I was only able to claim back expenses but I knew I wasn't ready to move back home yet so I was happy to take the opportunity.

I interned mostly with Dr.Castañeda looking at optimal currency areas which mostly consisted of collecting data. If I'm honest I didn't work as much as some of the other interns (there were six of us) but I was happy for the work whereas another intern didn't complete the full term and another missed a deadline by quite a large margin.

I learnt a lot about how to use excel and go about research, which you think I would know about already, but there was only one module during my degree in which I had to look up raw data.

The way the work was structured was very flexible and I had to set my own hours and milestones. I was able to do a lot of things in the local area that I didn't have time for during my degree while also being to attend events such as The Freedom Festival. The skills I learnt using various features of excel and databases actually helped me with my next internship too.

In summary, I think if you want to go into research or academia then this would be a useful internship for you. It also allows for more freedom within the University. Two of the interns I worked with have stayed on until the end of July doing some more in-depth projects and both of them are going on to do a master's in October whereas the rest of us decided to move onto other skillsets.

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