So, I am in Japan for a year

[r-18]

you could always apply to a home health service provider...

[skankfish]

Originally Posted by Cicada

Speaking of living in Japan and Nagano-ken, I`ll probably be unemployed sometime between one and three weeks from now, with not much money to survive on. Someone give me a job!! (No, really).

My site has a lot of solid information for finding a job in Japan :D /plug

[Cicada]

Fuuuuck. I`d gotten a job offer from a great hostel and started spending my money. Got an e-mail late last night telling me they`d confused me with someone else. I`d cancelled a really promising interview on the day because I had this other offer, can`t go back to it. Now I have no job. No offers. No interviews. An e-mail full of rejections. Dwindling money. Shit shit shit.

[Cicada]

Had another English-teaching interview today. Went ok but afterwards I naturally thought of everything I SHOULD have said. So fingers crossed, It was probably my last good chance to stay in Japan. That being the case, why have I spent the last 4-5 days indoors on the internet when I`m sitting in the middle of Tokyo. Not sure If I can bring myself to go out today, but definitely doing some sight-seing tomorrow. Maybe start in Shinjuku, then Zoshigaya, then if there`s time go down to Odaiba. The next day either catch-up on Odaiba, go see Nagakin Capsule Tower in Tsukiji and to the University Art Gallery in Ueno. After that I`ll probably need to rent a dorm room for two or three weeks since I`ve been at my cousins too long and it`s obviously starting to get to him.

[r-18]

maybe you should tell the guy in the next room to turn down that damn anime op and try to make a galgame with him.....

[mussolini]

Okay, so I know it's nothing major, but I figure this is as good a story as any to tell you guys.

So, I'm in a country-townish area. Small community. Today, there was a festival. What did that involve for me? Well, let's go through what I did.

So, got up in the morning, got dressed, went out to help set up banners, came home, ate breakfast, relaxed for a few hours, got handed a happi by my host mother, and then went out to the festival proper.

So, myself and all the other young to middle-aged men in the neighbourhood walked to the local shrine. Got equipment out for the festival. Then, some people got dressed in shishi things (like Chinese-dragons, but lions, green, and with two people in each, in this case), and the procession headed up to the shrine proper, with flutists, and children/old men playing gongs. At the shrine, the children and old men played the gongs a lot, and then the shishi did a dance, accompanied by badass drumming and flutes. For a long time. Then, a man dressed as a woman, a boy dressed as a tengu, and two men dressed as a shishi, performed a sort of play. I didn't quite understand, but I think the tengu was fighting the shishi, and the woman was interfering. Eventually the tengu won.

Anyway, stuff got packed up, and then the men headed out to visit homes. Basically, in groups of four (two guys as the shishi, one with a basket, and one on the flute), we wandered around town, going into people's houses. The guys who were the shishi howled and danced in the doorway, while the flute guy fluted, and the basket guy (that was me) took an envelope full of misfortune in the basket-on-a-stick. However, this wasn't the most important thing. The most important thing was that, at pretty much every house, there was some combination of at at least one (usually two or more) of the following: free nuts and crackers, free chocolate, free beer, free sake, free soft-drinks, free coffee, free onigiri, etc. that we were urged to eat. Here's a paraphrased, loosely translated conversation I had with one of the older men.

"(mussolini), do you want beer?"
"Well, kind of, but I'm not twenty... (drinking age in Japan is twenty)"
"How old are you?"
"Oh, I'm eighteen."
"The drinking age in Australia is eighteen, right?"
"Yes."
"Beer! Beer! Drink beer!"

Been hankering for something like that for months, so I was rather pleased. In short, Japanese festivals are excellent. They not only bring the community together and encourage people to get along, but they also give people a good excuse to wander the streets and pilfer alcohol from their neighbours. That said, maybe it's the alcohol that brings the community together and encourages people to get along... Well, either way, it beats any secular or religious celebrations I've ever experienced in Australia - and this was a small town.

Long live まつり！

[ZoundX]

^sounds really nice hope I get to experience something like that If I ever go to japan

[skankfish]

Did a similar thing last year. Glad things are working out for you.

[Barabuch]

It is indd an unforgettable experience to live in a foreigh country. I've been living in UK, in London for 10 months and I would never forget it. My English has improved a lot, I got new friends from all over the world and I've seen the culture I've been admiring for such a long time:) Going to Japan sounds awesome for example as an exchange student but probably they require Japanese more or less fluent don't they?

[mussolini]

Not really. I'd been studying Japanese in school beforehand (which is part of the reason I wanted to come here) so I had a pretty decent advantage, but other people who came at the same time just sucked... My Japanese has improved quite a lot (I've been reading Dragon Ball in Japanese, mostly without a dictionary, which I wouldn't have even dreamed of attempting before I came) in eight months and so has theirs (but they still suck), so there's no official requirement (I assume for most organisations) and you get by without it because you pick enough Japanese on which to get by on very quickly. I guess it's be like that for most languages, too.