Plan B Review

Thought it might be a good idea to let you know how things have changed since the "Half Time" post and see if I can check off a few of the goals I set myself at that time.

Now that the project is done and my timetable isn't being disrupted with intermittent quarantining, the past two weeks have actually been fairly normal, or as close as things can possibly get to that. The timetabling is much much better this time around - only one late afternoon lesson Tuesdays Wednesdays and Fridays, and a large wodge on Mondays and Thursdays. The timetable is now entirely taught in Japanese, which while being horrendously difficult I'm sure is healthy somehow, the language equivalent of eating broccoli or something. That said the classes are actually interesting - one about comparing Korean culture to Japan's, one about the place of kanji in Japan and why you only really need to know around 1,500, and one about globalisation and the "McWorld" phenomenon. So basically lots more free time, lots more interesting and useful lessons and much more language. Timetable gets a tick.

Let's see if the rest of the list has come to fruition...

1) Escape university.
Well, um, not really. One or two other students have managed to join the Nagoya Frisbee team I think, but I still don't have much hopes for much proper engagement with the city. I spend as little time as I have to at university now anyway, and that's about it.
2) Get a job.
Big success. I teach English to one student for ¥3000/hour (about £19/hour) twice a week, and could probably find another student if I felt like it. I've also secured a translation postition with the university online course department - they wanted someone to go through their syllabi and course descriptions and things to put them in English. That one goes at 60 words to an hour paid (an hour roughly ¥1000). It's good for me both for my Japanese and by wallet. So yes, earning lots, feeling more like I'm actually working towards something rather than just wasting time around Nagoya.
3) More self-study.
This too a success. I've started studying at least half an hour every day, and also the translation job pushes more Japanese my way. Having a completely Japanese timetable also works wonders too, so happy with this one.
4) Write a Japanese sakubun at least once every two weeks.
Kind of. I've signed up to an online writing course that has one small piece to write every week, but only about 400 characters. If I ever meet my tutor I'll ask her to check through them before I put them online, but there's really not a lot you can say in 400 characters. Will have to expand them or something.
5) Move to the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) Level 1 kanji.
Aha, no. This is oddly conflicting with the next goal, in that I'm not going to change kanji lists while I'm studying for a different test. I'm going to make JLPT2 as good as it can be before July 5th.
6) Take the JLPT Level 2 test this year in July.
All signed up and rearing to go. Studying specifically for this one now in my own time. Haven't received any confirmation for it yet though, hope that's not a bad sign.
7) Try and join a theatre club.
Hmm, not really. Would have liked to, but I think I've just resigned myself to the fact that I might as well just spend all my free time either wasting time on the computer, earning money for translating or studying for the JLPT. Variety was fantastic in Sheffield last year, and I do very much miss it now, but I think that I have two months or so left in this country and the more work I can do now the less I have to do in 4th year.


Overall then things have improved around here. It's still not great or anything half as good as the fun I was having this time last year, but it's better. Having my head down and working towards things is maybe not exciting or riveting but it's better than wandering around with nothing really to latch on to to call your purpose. On top of that more travelling planned - I'd like to finish Japan off with a visit to Kobe and a visit to Okinawa, and then back to the dormitory for some frantic packing and boxing of things before leaving Nagoya for the last time.

I'm both looking and not looking forward to it though. It's something that's difficult to describe - Japan is quite a marvellous place in a number of ways, and it's great to wander around it and just be in its bizarreness and difference of everything. I can easily see how people could make a life out here, however hard that would be to begin with. However, I miss the "extra-ordinarity" of what I had in the UK. I once thought that what I had encountered here in Nagoya was "the Normal". There are people, there are jobs, there are restaurants etc but nothing really special leaps out at you apart from what you yourself find special. Back in England with my friends and family there something extraordinary was always happening, no matter how insignificant, it was extraordinary and outside "the Normal". Perhaps this is therefore a good thing, that I get to both experience the blandness of normality in a country which is by nature intriguing, and that I get to understand what it is that I left behind in the UK and how special it actually is.


PS. Having got bored one day I decided to get a bag of compost and some strawberry plants from the garden-centre and see if I could create anything. The original plan was tomato plants because they're effectively foolproof but they weren't selling any, so I figured strawberries were still red and a fruit and worth having a go at.

They're well developed now, even spilling over into another small container of earth I had lying around and they even managed to produce four strawberries! Although one was bad and I ate the other three to see if they were bad as well. Since the plants seem determined to grow in all directions I'm nudging them towards the balcony wall bit to see if I can get some vine-action in them growing in and out of the holes.

Also, there're loads of little white spidery things all over some of the leaves - they're not making holes or anything and they wash off very easily, but I'm pretty sure they shouldn't be there. Any suggestions on a postcard to the usual address.