There isn’t really a deep meaning to today’s blogpost title; I just watched The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy while I made takoyaki, and my first fall semester exam (Linguistics) is tomorrow morning, so I kind of mashed the two topics together. My octopus was due to expire today so that’s why I decided to make the takoyaki (not to mention the excessive amount of eggs in my fridge that I need to eat up within the next 12 days), and I had one piece of ham left to cut up and put in as well.
I substituted the takoyaki flour for okonomiyaki flour because I thought I had takoyaki flour and I didn’t. I doubt there’s much of a difference between the two anyway. I also thought I had tenkasu. If I do, I don’t know where I put it. I also made one batch worth’s too much takoyaki mix and it’s still sitting in the mixing bowl. I can’t make any more takoyaki because I’ve used up all the octopus and ham. The only thing left to put in it would be chopped spring onions, and anyway, I’m full. I had three batches, which is already one more than I can usually handle by myself, as I was trying to use up the chopped octopus and ham, and I forgot to try and make it last an extra batch. Not sure what to do with the extra mix. What a predicament.
Apart from that I sent another package to England (and I have yet ANOTHER exchange to sort out after this one… it seems everyone wants their Japanese snacks), and I think I’ll write some postcards soon too as I have too many of them sitting around and only… *calculates*… seven months left in which to send them? Wow, time flies. But I’m not even halfway through the year yet and it feels like I’ve been here for ages. Maybe that’s the side effect of the semester coming to an end. Can’t wait for that nice long spring break.
I can’t remember if I mentioned this but I said to Rachel I might go to Okinawa in March so as to avoid the burning hot summer sun, but then she pointed out that it would be a chance to experience proper tropical climate, so I think we should hopefully be going together in summer at some point with friends. She also implied “bikini season”. So I have six months to get a beach body, or at least one that doesn’t offend people… ah well, fuck ’em if they’re offended. Japanese standards for skinniness are ridiculous, anyway. And I am NOT staggering around Okinawa in heavy jeans like I do every summer.
But I still have time during spring break, so I’m not sure whether to go to Fukuoka and Nagasaki or to Hokkaido. I think I’d like to go to Kyushu while it’s cooler (as I’m going to Okinawa in summer, it seems). Ennh, money though. Well, I won’t be coming back to Japan for a while, so I might as well try to get what I can done.
I keep changing my mind on what I’m going to do. At the beginning of January I was discussing with Rachel possibly staying an extra year in Japan, then about a week after that I changed my mind (being easily dissuaded by my mum so I mustn’t have wanted it that much after all) to wanting to come back here and work as soon as I graduated, and now I’ve changed my mind yet again. The Japanese work environment is one of the worst in the world; English teaching also doesn’t look so fulfilling as they teach kids all the wrong grammar so that even kids who really try end up speaking fucked up English and then even when you (a native speaker) try to correct the system, you’ll be shrugged at and told, “well, it’s in the textbook, so…”
I’ve been told (and have experience) that in Japan, that there’s only one way of doing things. “Well, this is the way it’s always been done, so this is the right way.” Case closed. There’s also the impenetrable glass ceiling which is even thicker and crueler than the one in England. Another thing: you’re taught to blend in, not stand out. “The nail that sticks out will get hammered down.” Hopefully that’s not the case everywhere; I hear at Osaka University (or some other Japanese university, I have no idea) they’re trying to take a new approach when helping the students find work after school, and tell them to stand out and be creative with their outfit rather than wear the same things everyone wears, and be more creative than stick with the same clean-cut hairstyle, etc. I’m going to stand out regardless in my interview anyway, and oh well, so will my outfit I guess.
…It’s just occurred to me that professional environments in Japan don’t like dyed hair. But a) I’m European and blonde was my natural hair colour anyway so hopefully it looks better on me, b) I’m taller than most Japanese women and even some men, so hopefully they won’t see my roots and won’t be able to tell that it’s dyed, haha, c) it’s not really a “professional-environment” type of job anyway. Or at least I hope it isn’t. I could be doing anything from shop assisting to receptionist-type work depending on what they land me with (I don’t get much of a say as it’s a big company where it’s first come first served).
One of my Japanese friends (who’s moving to Europe this year) advised me not to work in Japan if I could help it. It’s a great place to visit, but not to work in. Another friend has a friend (European) who works at an international company in Japan (Swiss, I think) and apparently the work conditions are a lot better and more like a European company. Everyone leaves on time, no izakaya, no overtime for no extra pay, no peer-pressured socializing until the early hours. Certainly no karoushi (death from overwork). At least I hope not.
But I don’t really want to work in a company anyway (unless it’s temporary, and in Japan, it’s weird for someone to hop from job to job as most enter a company then stay with that same company until they retire), and so with the grim reality of the less-than-ideal working conditions and yet my degree pointing towards a job that may work with Japanese… I’m left wondering what to do. My motivation has suddenly taken a huge nose-dive upon realizing that.
An idea I had was come back to Japan after graduating in England and be an exchange student again for a year (maybe in a different location this time, or come back to Osaka again… it’s nice and central after all). That way I can feel like I’m working for something in my degree, so that I can do proper research and be better at the language when I come to do it. But I don’t know yet.
Ahhh, it’s all such a mess. But I guess I’m going to just have to take what life throws at me. In the grand scheme of things, I suppose it doesn’t really matter if I do end up in Japan working, or England, or where the hell ever in the world. My ultimate dream is to be a writer, and I’ve got all my life to write. In fact, writers (and Richard Armitage) are like fine wine: they improve with age.
(I know Armitage isn’t that old, in the prime of his life in fact, but I remember watching him as Guy of Gisborne in the BBC TV series Robin Hood around the same time Doctor Who started up again, so comparing what he looks like now to what he looked like ten years ago… well, his hair is definitely nicer, anyway. Or maybe because he makes an utterly fabulous Thorin Oakenshield. I don’t know.)
Again, I’ve gone off topic. I’m unintentionally procrastinating; I need to do some more revision for tomorrow’s test, as I want the best possible score I can get. I’ll carry on with that now. Night!
naiveinnippon 