Still no Certificate of Eligibility. At this rate I could create a dramatic symposium about its life story. What is deeply worrying me is the fact that it takes around a week to process the visa and then I need to book various things like plane tickets and travel insurance. This would be fine, if only if it wasn't for the nagging dates creeping up on me. I leave the UK in 6 weeks and so far I have done nothing. I can't do anything. How can I book my plane tickets, if I don't have the document that says I am entitled to be in Japan? It would be a waste of 600 quid. I've been told, don't book unless you have this golden ticket and so far I don't. I even don't know where I'm going to be living....


.....in 6 WEEKS!

I'm tempted to see if I can actually enroll in classes in Japan as an exchange student with the bizarre addendum of not actually residing in Japan.

Hoo-de-fucking-hum

.. and yet the world keeps on turning. Yes it just keeps on turning.

Still no Certificate of Eligibility (*grumble* *grumble*) If it doesn't arrive tomorrow, I'm going to go medieval and send off some e-mails.

So to liven up my mood a little here's another one of my favourite little niche bands at the minute. The utterly pick up and listen: "Two Door Cinema Club"

Its been a while since I blogged about my year abroad in Japan (some 6 to 7 weeks away I reckon.)

To show how completely unprepared I am, here's how Project Year Abroad Japan stands at the moment.

Certificate of Eligibitly? Nope.
Student Visa? Nope
Plane tickets? Nope
Accommodation in Japan sorted? Nope
Travel Insurance? Nope
Shipping costs evaluated? Nope
Extra Japanese studying done? Nope

So there we go, I've done nothing so far to contribute to the Year Abroad. Quite frankly, I can't be arsed booking plane tickets and possible hostels at the minute. As I've said over and over again it just seems like one big pain in the logistical arse.

If things do go to plane and I can be bothered then I will possibly fly out on either the 6th or 13th of September. Hopefully the CoE will arrive tomorrow, meaning I have to get up early. I'm still a bit annoyed at the uni I'm going to. I still haven't had explicit info on when we can arrive in Japan (thankfully the girl I'm going with had the hindsight to ask and has now booked her plane tickets.) I also don't know where I'm going to be living next year. Its all quite frustrating giving the fact it takes 5 working days to send documents to and from Japan. Time is not our side. Admittedly they only have a few international students, but that doesn't mean they can leave us in the lurch like this.

Anyways, I'll reserve criticism and/or judgement until I get there. It still hasn't sunk in yet. I haven't made any plans whatsoever. I honestly don't know what I want to do or see. This is partly due to the entire experience waining somewhat since the two years I started this course. yawnage. I just want to eat some good ramen again, you know?

My favourite new sound at the minute is coming from a fantastic little trio called 'We Have Band' - sounds like a kitsch English punk band with a love of Japlish, but sadly its not, its something a bit more hopeful for my future Ipod playlist.

I thought the comparisons with 'Hot Chip' are a little off the mark, as they certainly have their own unique little identity to them. I can't quite put my mark on where on the electro-rock scale they fall and if I was hastily drawn into making a definition, they would probably fall flat into the centre of 'electro-rock band' or 'rock-electro-band'.

I can't think of too many bands that are happy to throw in bizarre Russian lyrics into their songs (as was the case with the brilliant 'Time After Time' which featured the vocals of Yulia B. and the remixing of Pavel Khvaleev.)

The killer off their upcoming eponymous album (due to be released on the 15th of September) is the amazing 'Hear it in the Cans' which just about sums up the complex dilemma of this rock-electro scaling system in the music industry today. Finally, the song 'Oh!' - exactly as it sounds, will leave you with a feeling of being chased down a large spiral staircase by a floating ghost to this haunting yet subtle melody.

The icing on the cake is their fantastic dub remix of Bloc Party's Halo (kudos to Cannibal Cheerleader.)

The Mercury Music Prize nominations are out today.

I'm really happy that Bat for Lashes got some recognition, as I'm a big fan of her work. Her music reminds me of the Chromatics, which isn't exactly a bad thing at all. She'll also be appearing in Sheffield in October.

Bat for Lashes - Daniel

Friendly Fires, I'm not such a great fan of, although I certainly don't hate their stuff. I've heard a few of their songs remixed, which do sound a lot better than the originals. Their stuff has seemingly been around for ages (or maybe that's just me.)

Kasabian are probably the biggest name out of the list. And they have been around for ages. "West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum" is their third studio album after their quite disappointing 2nd album "Empire". I think the new album is a welcome return to their old stuff which is kinda good.





My vote is however torn between two artists:

The Invisible and La Roux.

The Invisible are probably the lesser of these two artists but without a doubt one of the biggest sounds out there. Its like a marvelous melange of electro, pop, funk, jazz and RnB. I am just in love with their stuff at the minute.

The Invisible - London Girl

Following on is the enigmatic La Roux, whom I first discovered on the Kitsune Maison volumes with their track 'Quicksand' remixed by the electro-magicians Autokratz. Listening to their stuff unremixed sounds a little snoozy Sunday waltz through the shores of elctropop-ville with a bottle of cognac and some valium. I thought that 'Quicksand' without Autokratz shifting the vocals and composition around was a little flat, but I have been reasonably impressed with her other stuff suck as the brilliant tune 'Bulletproof'. La Roux seems to be the bookies favourite at the moment, and in most years it tends to go to the more renowned artists (Elbow, Arctic Monkeys, Klaxons.) So potentially Kasabian could steal in here. However there is nothing to suggest an unlikely winner from Speech Debelle or Sweet Billy Pilgrim.

So there we go. My heart wants it to be The Invisible - purely just so they get some short-lived recognition (although, I would far want them to stay a bit esoteric) whereas La Roux is the more natural choice. I am however, completely biased towards my preference to electro music however.

At the moment, I'm watching the Simpsons, yes the Simpsons in Japanese, yes that's right... Japanese. *ahem* Anyway, it sounds strange, but it really really helps when you can recite the lines in English ad verbatim and then see how they fit into the Japanese style translation. Its also useful for vocab as I'm picking up words through known context of the episodes.

Anyways, its really strange hearing the voices of Marge, Homer, Bart et al done in Japanese. In many ways, the Japanese voices are eerily similar to that of the voices in English. You see in Japan, voice-actors (声優 - seiyuu) are artists next to major movie stars, authors and sports-stars. With the massive proliferation of the animated art-form, people who provide voices for a cartoon are simply not niche actors - they make a tidy profit out of the business.

Chief Wiggum's voice is typically nasal (not unlike the robust deep gravelly accent in the French syndication) and Krusty's is neigh on spot on. Even in japanese, you can also hear the clear Mr Burns intonation in the voices. But Marge's voice is so damn highpitched and squeaky in the Japanese version of the show. If you are a fan of the show, you'll know that Marge is anything but high-pitched and squeaky. She sounds like she's just smoked a packet of several Marlborough cigarettes. That's my one main gripe with the Japanese version so far. The rest is well done. The seiyuu working on the Simpsons have done a fine job. They have taken the original and attempted to rework the original sounds of the characters albeit suited more to a Japanese eardrum.

Given the fact that the Simpsons is an American comedy, many of the jokes can't cross over well - this is more so in the latter seasons where the cultural references are far more explicit than in the earlier works (which are some of the finest TV programming in history imho.) Even some of the jokes still fall on deaf ears towards us British viewers who need a slightly more in-depth working of American pop culture - but for these misses it delivers mostly quality hits we can laugh at. Although we obviously don't share these same references we do of course get the added bonus of the language - in which we get to hear the Simpsons in its truest form. That is to say the English language and the wonderful voices of Dan Castanella, Hank Azaria and co.

I always think its interesting how TV programmes in Japan are often repackaging and sold off to the west and horribly misconstrued and badly translated. One of my favourites is a show called Crayon Sin-chan (クレヨンしんちゃん) which is about a little boy living in Japan who always gets up to crazy hijinks. (Trust me its a killer.) Unfortunately, this show has been shown several times in the west as Shin Chan, and the dubbing is simply horrendous. In the English version, several jokes play on the fact of Shin Chan's crude behaviour rather than his very clever wordplay. Many of those who would encounter this programme would think it to be a very banal and basic Japanese cartoon about a rude little boy. But sadly its anything but. It has some funny gags in it, based entirely around the comedic use of wordplay in Japanese. For example, one episode sees Shin-Chan playing junior football at his school. In arguing with the opposing keeper about how Shin-Chan can't score past him, the goalie remarks about his tetsu no kabe - lit. 'the wall of steel.' However, Shin-chan mistakenly hears this as ketsu no kabe - lit. 'a wall of butt-cheeks.' and promptly imagines the keeper mooning every shot that gets fired at him, much to the goalie's chagrin.

You see this is how Shin-chan works. He is an essential master of the word-pay and cultural misrepresentations purely associated with Japan and the Japanese language. I think its impossible to translate and doing so just gives the show an entire kick in the balls, because it loses the magic of why it is so great in Japan. Can you image the Simpsons being mutated into something that deviated from the original intentions of the American writers?

As I've said earlier, I think they've done a good job translating it, but some of the jokes and wordplays even in Japanese fails, leaving many Japanese to become quite confused over that is happening. I suppose it becomes a difficult line to draw when you are stuck between keeping things truthful as a translator and sizing up the relevancy and accuracy of what you are translating. I don't why it is but I am drawn to watching the Simpsons in Japanese, but then horribly turned off whenever I see a game or anime dubbed into English.

I think its a clear connection of how the world works in this equation. The Japanese simply do voice-acting better than we do. And I think that is down to the rich heritage of the format in that part of the world. We simply can't compete in terms of market stakes.

However, in the land where the noble seiyuus are lauded, its not always a bed of roses. You may of course remember that the Simpsons branched out into their own little movie. I've just watched it on blu-ray and I still think its freaking hilarious. Now, you'd think if Fox decided to realise this in Japan, they would use the voice-actors who have been doing this show in Japanese for the past few years?

You'd be wrong. In fact Fox decided to switch the actors for the movie. Japan probe takes up the rest of this story.

The little clique of diehard fans (the show is very much a niche show over there, same way many anime shows are over here) were naturally outraged and thus began long standing campaigns to get the original voice actors back. Can you image if they made a movie of a long-standing TV show in the UK and then decided to replace the original cast of that TV show with celebrities in order to appeal to a wider audience on cinematic release?

Anyways, you may notice a lot of Japanese on the Simpsons from time to time. I'm thinking the one where they go to Japan and also the one where Homer phones Japan. Let me tell you, they keep it real. They don't mess about and the Japanese they speak and show is spot-on. Its fantastic attention to detail, although I think this partly due to some of the writers being Japanese-American. (Ken Tsumara who worked on the earlier seasons for example as well producer Richard Sakai.) You'd think with such indepth knowledge and attention to detail for the English audiences, they would allow the same level of detail and continuance for the Japanese?

I haven't slept for the past few days. I haven't showered for about a week either. All I can hear in my head is the sound of '99 Luftballons' and childhood memories of the Berlin Wall. I'm a nostalgic quivering wreck of nerves, a giant ball of sweaty pubic hair and alcohol fueled vitriol. I'm losing weight thanks to pure laziness and a desire to eat nothing whatsoever. I'm not even depressed. But I'm not even happy either... What the hell is wrong with me?

Hast du etwas Zeit für mich, dann singe ich ein Lied für dich...

Japan is now firmly on the horizon. My certificate of eligibility is winging its way to my doorstep sometime this week (bizarrely my Uni have decided to send it themselves rather than it coming direct from the Japanese government) and now its just up to me to finalise travel dates etc. Whilst I would love to go early, its a matter of studying and preparation. If I was to leave at the end of August or even the first few days of September - I would be going with zero preparation, both mentally and logistically. Simply put I haven't prepared much for Japan. I don't even know what I want to do when I get there. Erm yeah. The entire experience is kinda flat at the minute. Its like I don't care tbh, but at the same time I do but am powerless to change my opinions or mood. I don't know how I'm going to survive out there for a year, leaving the UK behind. I've still yet to feel excited about this. Its feeling like one giant inconvenience.

Auf ihrem Weg zum Horizont, hielt man für Ufos aus dem All, darum schickte ein General

Japan is basically like one giant blur on the horizon. Something I've waited for two year but now the entire experience is leaving me with the mood of complete apathy. I'm more interested in leaving the UK and experiencing being a student elsewhere rather than experiencing Japan itself. Japan has just become a friend to me, rather than an intimate lover.

99 Kriegsminister...Streichholz und Benzinkanister.

My Japanese lnguage ability has taken a nosedive of late and I really, REALLY need to start studying again. I've simply forgotten so much and I need to get these fears out of my head. So much kanji, grammar and vocab - I've simply been to preoccupied with wasting time and have neglected the Japanese. My goals have simply not been set.

Well fuck that.

Ließen keinen Platz für Sieger, Kriegsminister gibt's nicht mehr...

That's not gonna keep me down.

Und auch keine Düsenflieger, heute zieh' ich meine Runden....

Because, tomorrow I'm back to these kanji and stomping Japanese to the curb.

Seh' die Welt in Trümmern liegen, Hab' 'nen Luftballon gefunden

You hear me Japanese? You are going to fucking die!!!!

Denk' an dich und lass' ihn fliegen

*ugh* I probably need to get some sleep and possibly a change of song.

Grades are in and after thankfully staying awake until 3am on Friday night, I managed to log into our university's network before everyone else did the following morning and routinely crash the server, giving people a long anxious wait over their results. Its a common occurrence sadly. I do wish they would just e-mail our results via our departments.

Anyway, I was reasonably pleased with the grades, although I felt my score for Classical Japanese was a little poor, but considering I didn't do much work for it and missed a ton of lectures post-Easter, it was more than a justified 2.1, albeit a low one. 2.1 was also my grade for Contemporary Society, again quite surprised but I normally okay on these types of things now. I also somehow managed to pass Japanese Language IV fairly successfully with no major hiccups. So now there is officially nothing stopping me going to Japan next year and then progressing onto my final year of uni.

I just hope in that final year, I can boost my grades somewhat because I am still so close to obtaining a 2.1 overall and need to push myself a little harder on all my subjects on return from Japan. I guess now that the YA looms, I've just gotta hope that I push my Japanese on and improve on my return to Sheffield, one year and a bit from now.

I've calculated that I have about 40 to 50 days until the dreaded Year Abroad, which is absolutely nothing really. The moment July ends, the shit will really hit the fan as then I know that from a month from then, Japan will seem very close. Anyways, I'm still having some huge reservations about the year abroad, some good some bad. The major ones is the lack of info surrounding where I will be living in Japan and secondly the whole rent payment procedures etc. Simply put, I have organised nothing for Japan yet, aside from buying clothes etc. The other little niggly ones are basically about the whole orientating myself in Japan and meeting many new and old friends again.

I'm a little sick of being back home at the moment. Basically because I miss my personal space and time a lot. Its just a compendium of small little things that are slowly building up and irritating me. I just want to do my own things and am annoyed at various little things getting in my way. I'm a person who often just likes to be left alone to get on with things and don't always like the incessant protrusion into my activities throughout the course of the day (and night!)

In many ways, I would love to the leave the UK right now. But I know with nothing planned and with nothing revised (my kanji and vocab list builds up by the day) it would be a pointless endeavour. Ultimately I want my Japanese to reflect the two years worth of hard work I've put in and not just the past 3 months I've wasted.

Mentally I feel a lot more stable, thanks in no part to regular exercise and a medium-to-good diet. This becoming an important process of my summer so far because it is helping keep my mind focused off other things that are causing me a little distress (women, japan, money, my language ability etc.) One of the great paradoxes of life is that we seek some type of end-goal but are less willing to take that journey that allows us to get to that goal. Like a incredibly long run, a huge marathon that we take, its always the final few steps, those final few miles that are the hardest. Right now, I'm about 2 miles away from the finishing line, I've come so far so I can't possibly quit now but these 2 miles seem like 2,000 and I'm fraught with how to deal with them.

However compared to last year, the summer seems to be flying by so far thanks in part to this routine which is keeping me more active and less brain-dead on the computer speaking to some random Japanese girls on MSN. I think coming back late from Sheffield and moving all my stuff out has had a good impact on me, as it was the 14th of June I came back last time and by about late July, I was becoming bored rigid.

Anyways, I'm just waiting for my wonderous certificate of eligiblty to arrive soon - which will allow to get my visa in Edinburgh. Hopefully that should arrive in about 2 weeks from now. And the fun of planning my journey begins!

Jaa ne.

I'm loving this band at the minute. They are an electro-pop band from Russia and are probably going to be cutting it up on dancefloors and radio stations very soon. They are called Telsa Boy and you should probably check them out.

Spirit of the Night




Electric Lady



Why is the 80's electro-funk type stuff so popular these days? Still, you gotta love it! *dances*

Exam results are out tomorrow and to celebrate, I think I am now officially single again. Huzzah! Or at least by default I'm single again. *shrug*

I'm not looking forward to the results quite frankly, and more to the point - I don't care one jot. Not one little bit. Nada. Nothing. In fact, I might not even bother looking up the grades. Its pointless. I've probably failed or possibly scraped a pass. Meh, its only Japanese. I mean its not even that important a language or culture. There I said it. I want to go on a big rant against Japan but I really couldn't be arsed, because I'm still feeling a little sick and a bit sad now that singlehood is back on me. Oh well, should have some fun in Japan. NOT. :-p

laters folks.

I'm typing this message at the minute and feeling like utter shite. My throat is red raw, my sinuses feel all blocked up, my lungs feel tired and my joints are swelling. Its fair to say I'm under the weather.

This is all magnified by the horrors of Swine Flu that is hanging around the world at the minute. If indeed, I am one person in a million to have contracted it, perhaps I should feel slightly lucky that I have been bestowed as one of the first thousand odd sufferers in the UK.

In all honesty, I think I have contracted what my Japanese flatmate had last week and its only just kicked in. The most annoying thing is, is that I'm trying to hit the gym three times a week and study Japanese at the library and this goddamn cold/flu/virus whatever is preventing me from keeping to my schedule. It might be God's way of telling me that I should be overweight and not be studying Japanese during my 'time off'. Well whichever way theologians and philosophers wish to mewl about it, I feel like absolute crap right now. I hope to this comedian up in the sky that it clears up soon. Thank God, I'm not feeling like this two months down the line, otherwise it may be quarantine in Narita airport time.

I would love to know how one surives in Sheffield without a laptop, an Ipod, a book to read or quite litterally in the case of me - absolutely nothing in my room.

This is the harsh reality facing me at the moment, as I sit all alone in Sheffield, flatmates deserted in a room that has been stripped clean, waiting for the soul-filling journey that will take me from the City of Steel to the City of Donny and then onwards onto Darlington, then home-sweet-home. The past 22 months or so have been the greatest and most emotionally challenging of my life and it is one to which I close a chapter to with thanks to the people who have made this possible, and then onto writing a new chapter with the large emblazoned headline of Japan, which will become the starting point of the next 14 months or so of my life.

Its very sad to leave the people I care about in Sheffield; close and random friends, inspirational guides, well-wishers, my teachers and lecturers and everyone else who has supported me in making this small dream become a big reality. What I am facing at the moment is a huge pivot in my life, the turning point not just for the here and now, but possibly for the rest of my life. I enter the tunnel as one man and will leave it as another - for better or for worse.

I start my life again at ground zero (albeit with a few friends and classmates in Japan to help me if I get stuck) and enter a mystical world which I do not see as the glittery lights of Shinjuku or the hazy sunsets of a cherry-blossom spring in Yoyogi Koen. I see this chapter as representing anything but Japan. Japan is merely a by-word, something that is environmental to my changing state of being, a changing state of my inner-self from one form to the next.

This change is confronting me with tons of emotions that range from dangerous interpretation and cynicism to childhood excitement and anxiety. Every single one feels like a sharp prickly pin-drop that pierces into my sweaty, clamoured body. It keeps me awake at night. Its all I ever think about. Not the journey of simply going to Japan - but the journey that will awaken me spiritually and emotionally. I hope that this journey brings me fortune, and helps me discover myself and what I want to do - because right now I am unsure of what the future brings to the table and whether or not I want to eat what is front of me regardless of how juicy it may seem to the person standing next to me.

Yes, I will miss Sheffield. I will miss everyone who has had a part in my life for the past 22 months. But ultimately, I am going to miss the person who is sitting here typing this and who leave the UK in the next 2 months. I will miss him. Because I don't know if 14 months from now, he will be the same person.

I am being told that Sheffield will not be quite the same without me, but I think it is me who will not be quite the same without Sheffield.

And it is that closing comment that ends this rather turbulent chapter in my life. Thank you Sheffield for all the memories, onwards Japan and the potential wonders it may bring.

Today was Canada Day (what do you mean you didn't know?) so to celebrate, I donned my Toronto Maple Leafs top and headed off to Whitby for some sun, sand and sex sunburn.

Whitby is a cracking little town. It takes about 1 hour on the train from my hometown - which is only because of all the little scenic stops along the way across the stunning Esk Valley. Its an beautiful added inconvenience in a sunny day such as today.

The photos are now on Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24695970@N04/sets/72157620826086386/

The weather was baking hot, even though the day started off pretty cloudy. The entire UK is being slowly oven-roasted at the minute, with temperatures in the capital expected to hit around 35 degrees (!!!) Oh well, this gives me good preparation for Japan, albeit without the raging humidity. The UK gets about 50 to 60% relative humidity, whereas Tokyo averages slightly higher at around 60 to 70% - and trust me that extra 10% adds even more to the heat.

At the moment, I am planning more routinely for Tokyo now - given that its going to be slightly warmer than the UK. I won't be needing any winter wear most of the time, so big stuffy coats are a no-no as of now. I would imagine even in January, Tokyo doesn't get as cold as the UK does or can do. But still, I think am going on the basis of it will be like the UK + 5, the extra 5 accounting for temperature throughout the year.

Anyways, enough of that. I'm back off to Sheffield tomorrow to clean the flat, my room, get my deposit back, buy a backpack, possibly get some nandos, have some beer and then say my teary goodbyes. ;-(

Back on Saturday and into the 'routine' of using my summer productively, as of July 6th. Argh! These kanji and vocab are killing me.