Day 126: Losing my mind 月曜日・2015年1月19日

Well, I had a check over my exam timetable/reports that are due in, and it seems going to Hokkaido is impossible after all.

For the snow festival, anyway. To get a good couple of days in both Sapporo and Hakodate I would have to get the plane on Wednesday after my two lessons, then missed a couple of lessons on Friday (but absences are excused if there are festivals on, usually) and returned on Sunday. So my plan had been to go on Wednesday February 4th and get home on Sunday February 8th (my mum’s birthday), before an exam the next day (which is risky behaviour, but I REALLY wanted to attend this festival and it’s only on between the 5th and the 11th. So that weekend was the only available time I could have gone.

But I have an exam on February 6th, so I don’t think it’s possible. It’s not worth flying all the way out to Sapporo (which is 1492.3km by the way, or 927miles) on Friday evening so that I can spend one and a half days there. Or is it? But I want to make my trip to Hokkaido worth it by visiting both Sapporo AND Hakodate, and possibly other places if I have time, so I don’t want to spend all that money for a short trip if I’m not going to have enough time and it’s going make me want to go back later anyway. I guess I’ll have to leave it for another time, and go to the Snow Festival if I come back to Japan in the future. I’m sure Hokkaido’s lovely in the spring/summer anyway. I won’t get to enjoy the real snow, unfortunately. We only got one day of snow in Osaka before it all melted the next day, but it’s still snowing in Hokkaido.

Well, there’s Nagoya with Rachel in March, as well as volunteering opportunities at a middle school and a high school, two field trips, and I could perhaps go to Okinawa if I have time left. I’d rather go while it’s not too hot. But the seasons change so quickly here that by the time it gets to March it will have leapt from – wow, it’s 15°C in Okinawa right now – to something ridiculous like 30°C. I mean, it was still reaching 25°C in November in Osaka, and that’s still like British summer. Even though it’s not as cold as Britain here, I think everyone else feels the cold a lot more as the temperature dropped so drastically.

Religion class was… well, it was something different. I was about to write “boring as always” but Shita-sensei at least mentioned other religions this time, like Islam/Judaism/Hinduism. He usually repeats the same old stuff about Shinto and Buddhism and Christianity, focusing on the etymology of their names. I think he’s quickly shoving those other religions in so that he’s covered all the material. And we got our report topic, which is apparently write a couple of pages on any subject at all to with Japanese culture or religion. Which is too vague, too wide, and the notion of “culture” doesn’t have much to do with the class. I’d rather write about any world religion for a class entitled “Religion” than suddenly get told to write specifically about Japanese culture. But hey, I’m in Japan. The report can be in either English or Japanese, but his English isn’t that good. Maybe he’s better at reading than he is at speaking.

But for most of that class, I was doodling elves (Thranduil, Tauriel and Legolas) and also trying a hand at Thorin and Bilbo. If you don’t like Tolkien, then you’re probably going to have to avoid me for the next few days, possibly the next couple of weeks, as I have caught Hobbit fever and I can’t seem to focus on anything else right now. I want to rewatch Lord of the Rings too but it’s the beginning of the week now, and I have lessons. I don’t want to oversleep by watching them all night. Last time it was okay because it was a Friday/Saturday night, but I only have about twenty minutes left before I should be switching my laptop off if I want to get enough sleep for tomorrow. Going on a field trip to the Wakayama prefecture.

Martin Freeman and Richard Armitage are a joy to watch in interviews, by the way.

Anyway, Calligraphy today… there seemed to be a few people missing. Or maybe it was just quieter than usual. And I think I really must be losing my mind, because Fraser started whistling and I thought what he was whistling was “Considering Hobbits” from the Lord of the Rings soundtrack. I whistled that in the shower this morning. I’m obsessed. This has to stop.

Speaking of showering, I went and had a nice long one, and then I came back to my room, my muscles were feeling relaxed, and I stopped and saw the unopened jar of pickles on my bedside table, and for some reason I suddenly felt like I could manage to take the lid off this time. And I was right. One twist, and it popped off, like it was nothing. (I also spilled vinegar all over myself.) So the joke’s on me. I resorted to emasculating myself two blog posts ago when I realized I couldn’t open the jar, admitting I was weaker than men (very painful for someone like me to admit), and it turns out I could do it after all. I’m embarrassed now.

But it did take me three days to open it, so maybe it’s not such a great victory. Still, now I don’t have to avoid jars of pickles. It really was just sweaty hands. Or I was wearing it down day by day, which is why it came off so easily this time. Layla offered to do it for me, so I’m wondering if there’s some special technique to opening a jar rather than the advantage of upper body strength. Still, I’d like to hone my upper body strength too.

Did anything else happen today?

Oh, I managed to find Baxter’s Cream of Tomato soup, when I was in IEON last week, so I had that, along with a ham sandwich, and it felt so quaintly British. Probably one of the more British meals I’ve been able to eat over here. I’m sure other countries must eat like that, but whatever. One thing I don’t think I’m going to get over here is baked beans. Well it’s not like I eat toast here anyway. I’ve not used the grill yet, and the bread slices are too thick anyway.

Oh, and while I was rambling on (and listening to the Lord of the Rings soundtrack), it passed midnight. Okay, I’m going to bed.

Day 122: I finally saw Battle of the Five Armies. End of an era. *obligatory nostalgic sigh* 木曜日・2015年1月15日

Okay, when I said I wasn’t going to wake up at a ridiculous time last night, those were famous last words, because I ended up sleeping 15 hours last night. I woke up at 2pm. Well, it’s not like I had anything planned for today, so it’s okay, I guess.

But I got a last-minute email from Aiko-san asking to go see The Hobbit, so I got ready, and off we went. The only showing that day was at 5:50pm, so I was wary that we might not leave until about 9pm at least, but this film was a lot shorter than the others. And it was better than I was expecting, because the second film dragged and dragged, but this one was over too soon. Some horribly cheesy lines, and certain parts that were supposed to be dramatic ended up being anticlimatized and botched, and then Legolas at some point denies the laws of physics, but actually, I didn’t mind it too much. I think because I actually managed to concentrate on the film without getting bored, which is what happened during the second one.

The film was shorter, and certain parts felt very sketchy rather than developed, so it felt very much like this film was a rushed assignment handed in quickly without checking over and working on the minor details to make it as good as possible. Though the visuals were still aweshum. I watched it in IMAX so it was pretty kewl. Though the 3D glasses hurt my eyes, as I was wearing them over glasses.

But anyway, I felt sad when it came to the end. I want another movie franchise to get all excited about, with the same calibre as Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. I’m feeling fantasy-deprived. I want to go back and watch Lord of the Rings all over again. And I actually really enjoyed the first Hobbit film. I could watch that alone and be satisfied. One aspect I enjoyed of this film trilogy was the bromance between Bilbo and Thorin. Richard Armitage and Martin Freeman had good chemistry there.

Backtracking, we went to the supermarket first, as that one has a HUGE IEON, which is my favourite Japanese supermarket as it sells stuff like herbal tea and other international products. I managed to get taco shells from there last time I came. Speaking of, I’ve not used those taco shells yet. I don’t actually know how to make tacos. It’ll come to me.

I bought a whole roast chicken (with garlic) from this IEON. I think it’s probably the only supermarket in the area where you can get such a thing. It’s huge in there – reminds me of the TESCO Extra in Stockport. Not quite as big, but the range certainly outstrips usual Japanese supermarkets.

I got home, and I finally unfroze one of the bananas at Rachel’s command, and put it in the food processor to see if it would mix. And it worked! Sort of. I put blueberries in it, too, making a more healthy ice cream substitute.

Very melted.

Unfortunately, it tasted too much like banana. I put strawberries on top of it, which made it better, and still managed to keep it healthy. But I need to combat this, somehow. Put more ingredients in it? Add sugar? But that would defeat the purpose of it being healthy… sigh.

But the consistency was pretty good. And as it’s just bananas plus whatever you want, it means it’s good for vegans too. I don’t eat ice cream that often, so this is good for satiating certain cravings.

I also found a BEAUTIFUL baguette in the supermarket, one I think the French would nod their heads at in approval. I did actually see some brie in there too, but I didn’t buy it. I didn’t think to have it on the baguette, which I could have done, I was mainly thinking, “ahh, I have no cream crackers”. But oh well, cheese is very fatty. The longer I put off buying cheese, the healthier I’ll be. I wonder if the brie over here is any good, though? Maybe I should give it a try some time.

Hmm, though speaking of fatty foods and so on, I’ve not exercised since Sunday. I feel like my body’s finally, MOSTLY recovered, thanks to that long sleep. There’s still a few remnants of pain when I stretch, but I think I could easily go on a jog tomorrow. I shall do that. That would be good, as I’ve been immobilized yet eating a fuck ton of carbs. Nothing unhealthy, just a load of pasta and bread, and I’ve not channeled any of that energy into exercise.

There’s an ochakai tomorrow (tea-party?) I think, so I’ll skip along to that. I don’t really have any interesting snacks, though. Just a lot of tea. So I’ll bring that over.

Whoops! It went past midnight already. I got distracted.

Night night!