I started Japanese classes on Tuesday lunchtime. The teacher is a lovely lady called Nakamura-sensei and she came armed with textbooks, videos, flashcards and loads of patience. She needs it. My Japanese is pathetic. It's just Tim and me in the class and it's quite fun. I find myself in the silent phase again. My head knows what I want to say, I build up to it and out comes a splutter and a couple of Spanish verbs. Ugh! Talk about rusty. I feel like an old Cortina that has just been pushed out of the garage after a very long, cold winter. It's a strange feeling being mute. I understand what is being said, but I can't remember how to respond. I know I can't speak in English, but I'm bursting to express myself. I want to say that I can do this, just let me warm up a bit. I remember this grammar function and I used to know all these verbs and adjectives. Just give me time. My teacher thinks I'm in the wrong class and starts looking for a beginner's class to send me to, but I want to stay where I am - I can do this.

I wrote an email to Tim after the class saying that I can find a lower class so that I don't hold him back, but he's really sweet and tells me to stay. I didn't intend to study much, but I find that just going to this one class has encouraged me to do just that. I wrote to Nakamura-sensei telling her that I enjoyed her class and I would like to stay. I am even going to dust off my flashcards.

Nihongo kantan? GILL

Just in case I don't have enough things to do this semester, I registered for Japanese classes at my university. I haven't studied one little bit in almost 2 years. I work in an English bubble, shop at Carrefour, come home to my Irish husband, watch LOST and read books in English. Apart from the odd run-in with the dry cleaning lady, when do I need Japanese? I have enough basic Japanese to manage my daily interactions and when I don't, 3 lovely ladies at work help me. So why am I bothering? Guilt mostly. You've heard of computer-assisted language learning (CALL)? Mine is guilt-induced language learning (GILL). I took the quiz that we give our students at the university to see whether they are mainly intrinsically or extrinsically motivated language learners. Both my scores were zero. I need to re-write the quiz with the following items for people like me:

- Do you think it's lame that you haven't learnt any new words in 2 years?
- Are you embarrassed that people who have just arrived in Japan know more kanji than you?
- Are you sick of miming every time you try to speak?
- Do you feel yourself cringe as you have to point at the pictures on the menu in the restaurant?
- Do you realise how pathetic it is to talk to students everyday about their language learning when you aren't applying the strategies to your own learning?
- Do you break out in a sweat when someone asks you for your phone number?

Yes, yes, yes. Full marks. I am starting a course in GILL.

Daytrip to Yokohama

There are some nice things about living in Japan. The trip to Yokohama with Chantal was lovely. We saw an excellent exhibition on Pompeii, dined at the curry festival and ended up singing Clash songs at a karaoke place behind Sakaragicho station.





This last picture isn't Yokohama - it's Baytown where we live. Pretty nice, eh? I always feel like this park has been modeled on Port Meirion in north Wales.

Stressed out at the dry cleaner's

So it's May. How did that happen? Seriously, I have been so busy I didn't even notice it creeping up or the fact that I have neglected my blog! I won't bore you with the million things I have going on, but be assured that they are all fun things - there are just a lot of them! None of them involve hiking unfortunately.

Anyway, time to blog about Japan....Can I complain please? Sorry to be such a whinging Brit, but blogging about annoyances ought to be therapeutic, let's give it a go....

I have a phobia about dry cleaners in Japan. There, I've said it. I feel better already!

My Japanese is terrible, but I can usually manage and make myself understood in most day to day situations. The dry cleaner's is an exception and I dread having to go to the damned place. I put it off as long as possible which only makes it worse when I eventually do get there with a bag full of whiffy clothes. What is it with the questions??

Q1: "Do you want a crease up the front or flat ironed?"
OK, reasonable question given our experience in Mexico (Mexico blog), but sometimes it's just bloody obvious
Q2: "Are these men's or women's"
Kind of insulting. Annoys me every time. I feel like they really saying "These massive, giant, enormous size 10 (gasp!) trousers have to be men's ones". Um, no - they are mine actually. This argument works well if David is with me as they can see that my trousers would never fit my 6ft 5 husband, but when I'm on my own, they just think I'm trying it on to save 20 yen).
Q3: "Do you want this dry cleaned?"
Do I have to explain why this annoys me?
Q3: "What fabric is it, I can't read the English label"
Oh god, this one really gets on my nerves. I regularly take linen trousers in and the label is in English and I tell them the Japanese. This is totally unnecessary because it is SO OBVIOUSLY linen. We go through this charade each time where I say "linen" and they repeat back (it takes 3 people) "rayon"? "polyester"? aaggghhhh!!!!
Q4: "Do you want the $%@**^$%*^*$%E% treatment?"
I have no idea. Please take pity. A foreigner struggling with basic Japanese is not going to know specific dry cleaning terms. Stop asking questions, just stop it and take my stuff.
Q5: "Do you want the %^&%^E^TE%^E@@$&** service?"
Will I ever be able to function properly in Japan?
Q6: "Do you have your member's card?"
Damn! I forgot it again. This means I have to answer more questions... what's my phone number again? No I don't have Chinese characters for my name. Can't I just write it down in English? katakana is too hard!

Finally, they take my stuff, my money while they continue to talk non-stop. I follow nothing. NOTHING! I walk away with a receipt (which I always seem to lose) a hand full of tiny 5 yen off discount vouchers (which I never seem to be able to refuse even though they are worth next to nothing and I will throw them away as soon as I get home) and a damaged sense of self-efficacy.

Today David had to drop some of his suits off and I was going to wait outside as 2 visits in one week is just too much. Then I thought, maybe I'll just go in and observe and get some more material for my blog, but I was very disappointed. No questions, no hassle, nothing! Why do they pick on me? I think in future I'll either send David or take my chances and stick the things in the washing machine.

Glad that's off my chest.