Memories of Japan

Wow, it's hard to believe that almost a year has passed since the earthquake in Japan... I guess now's as good a time as any to reflect on my time in Japan. It gives me something to blog about anyway :)
I guess a good place to start would be exactly one year ago - 10 March 2011, the day before the quake. I don't remember anything about the daytime, really, except that I was in the lab, naturally. I do remember that the evening was a blast, though. A bunch of us went out to the all-you-can-eat pizza place, Shakey's, before hanging out in the Dayztown video game arcade and a little bar nearby. Strange how things can be so normal one day, then go so badly wrong, huh...
Anyone who I talked to while I was in Japan knows how I used to whine about the labwork, which I really did hate - killing mice is not for me - so for today's blog, I'm going to try and think back to the good times, of which there were many :) So let's take a trip back through time, to late summer 2010...
I think the first really good memory I have of Japan was the matsuri. Being a lover of manga and anime, I'd heard a lot about them, and seen pictures of them, but to actually experience it myself, it was awesome. Plus, being in the evening, it wasn't so oppressively hot as it was in the daytime, which was perhaps one of the first negative points I discovered upon reaching Japan. Sadly, I didn't take my camera with me so I have no photos from the matsuri at all, just memories ^^'
Going through my photos, I guess the next positive point is Tsukuba University's campus. Though I didn't really appreciate it when I first got there, on account of the aforementioned heat, and the drone of cicadas, the campus really does beat the one here at Manchester hands-down in terms of greenery and scenery. Being a country boy, I like lots of open spaces and trees and such, so cycling around Tsukuba, the campus and the city itself, is so nice :) Here are a couple of good example pictures (albeit from later on in the Japan experience):

Sakura tree in full bloom in the spring :)

The road out of the northern dorm of Ichinoya

The pond by Ichinoya

Hmm, I think Tokyo should be next on the list. As luck would have it, Tsukuba is connected via the TX Tsukuba Express line to Tokyo, specifically Akihabara Electric Town, a.k.a. otaku heaven :3 In addition, two of the stores I frequented the most are a stone's throw away from the station - Yodobashi Camera (an enormous skyscraper of a store with electronics and such, and an entire floor devoted to toys and games (where I bought Pokémon Black and my Snivy plushie)) and Book Off (part of a chain of second-hand book stores in Japan, with the Akihabara one being far larger than the Tsukuba branch).
As well as Akihabara, a couple more places of note which I visited in Japan were Harajuku (although this was for the Meiji Shrine rather than all the fashion outlets), Hamamatsucho (where the Tokyo Pokémon Centre is :D) and Keio Chutobu (which I'll cover in more detail later)

The bridge by Harajuku Station

Meiji Shrine, Harajuku

Ah, I see the next block of photos I have are devoted to our ascent of Mt. Tsukuba. That was quite a journey, to be sure! The cycle ride there took a good hour, and the ascent took quite a while too (well, for us men, who DIDN'T take the cable car XD), but the scenery was great, and as some of you know, I love to walk :) The view from the top was beautiful, naturally ^^ The cycle ride down was a bit dodgy though, as it was very steep and punctuated by the squealing of everyone's brakes XD However, the evening was just as fun as the daytime ^^ A couple of us went from the mountain to a party with some of the permanent foreign researchers in Tsukuba, then on to a couple of the local bars - Hot Staff and Gold Rush, which I visited several more times after that night. But anyways, back to Mt. Tsukuba for some pretty pictures:

On the way to the foot of Mt. Tsukuba

Almost at the top!

Me at the peak of Mt. Tsukuba :3

View from the top ^^

I can't remember when this happened exactly, as I have no photos, but there was a big fireworks festival in the neighbouring city of Tsuchiura, another long cycle ride away. Despite being in a bit of a bad mood that day, the festival was still a lot of fun; I don't think I've ever seen more impressive fireworks in my life :D After walking through the mahoosive crowd of people who were standing on the (cordoned off for the occasion) roads, we managed to find a place to sit on a grassy bank, albeit about half a mile from where we'd parked our bikes XD Again, I don't have pictures of the event, but suffice it to say that it was spectacular!
Now, as fate would have it, my brother happened to be homestaying in Japan in the same year as I was studying abroad, so at the end of October we got to meet up in Tokyo, which also meant I could meet up with my secondary school Japanese teacher, and an old sixth form classmate of mine who was also ryuugaku-ing at the time. Although things were cut a bit short by the onset of a frigging typhoon, we still had a blast - got to see Kaminarimon and Asakusa again, along with Keio Chutobu, the same school I homestayed at in my youth. There's only one word to describe it -　なつかしい！ And, of course, it was great seeing my brother again after the couple of months we'd been on the other side of the planet from each other :)

Kaminarimon, Asakusa, Tokyo

The shopping street behind Kaminarimon, at the start of the typhoon

My brother in a very fetching Anpanman mask XD

Following swiftly on the heels of this was my 20th birthday, the age at which people can legally drink in Japan, so I could finally have my first *cough*legal*cough* alcoholic drink in Japan. Being the party animal that I am (ha-ha), I decided to split the festivities into two nights - the Friday night-Saturday morning, to welcome in my birthday, and the Saturday night, to see it out again. We were at Hot Staff and Gold Rush for the former and, much MUCH more fun, an okonomiyaki place and Cybex for the latter. I could talk all day about Cybex, so I'll just condense it into three main points:

1. Pool and table-tennis tables
2. All-you-can-eat ice cream and all-you-can-drink soda and soup
3. KARAOKE!
   

Aside from the introduction of (I shit you not) 96% alcohol vodka to the party (incapacitating three people, no less), it was pretty much the best birthday party I could've had :D And in case there was any doubt, here be pictures:

Early December saw my visit to the Shimoda Marine Research Centre for the Asia-Oceania Biology Student Network (AsOBiNet) casual conference. I signed up originally thinking all of the Manchester ryuugakusei were going, but it turned out just two of us were. I was rather reluctant to go after I found out I'd have to present my research (I hate presentations with a passion and I had nothing to present, really), but in the end, it was awesome. It was winter and starting to get very cold, so being by the ocean wasn't quite as nice as it would've been in the summer, but it was still a very fun few days, plus it let me see another bit of Japan I wouldn't've otherwise visited.

The Centre had its very own beach :D

Mike striking a pose XD

The scary-looking island. We can only assume that this is where they hide the monsters :O

Although I didn't take any pictures, Christmas was a lot of fun. It was weird and rather sad not being with my family for the occasion, but I got to spend it with a few friends, old and new, plus a very unconventional Christmas dinner of gyoza (I will speak of culinary matters in another blog post, as there is so very much to say on that, and this post's turning out to be very long as it is), followed by karaoke on Christmas Eve AND Christmas Day :D
I did a little more travelling for New Year, going down to Yokohama to vist my Japanese friends who I homestayed with back in secondary school. Seeing them again after so long put a big smile on my face, and to top the trip off, they took me to a place caled Kamakura, a very pretty town with lots of temples and shrines, which I adore :D

The queue to the local shrine in Yokohama, with people waiting for Hatsumode

Me in front of the daibutsu (big Buddha) at Kamakura

Although not restricted to any particular time of the year, some snowy pictures here remind me of my many late night/early morning excursions with my good friend Derek. Most of the time this consisted of a quick cycle down to one of the many 24/7 convenience stores for soda and candy, but on this occasion we went for a ride around campus to see how it looked in the newly-fallen snow. Naturally, it was both very pretty and very cold, although there was a slightly creepy moment in the pathway under the library where we were a little concerned we were about to get attacked by zombies ^^' Fun times.

Outside my dorm, in the snooow :3

Ah, the British vs. American rivalry XD

The icy descent into zombie hell beneath the library XD

At some point in the year, I forget when, my tutor (another guy in my lab) took me to a place called Tsukuba YouWorld, which I'd heard of but not found previously, to check out an electronics store. After the first cycle following the road, I eventually found a shortcut which was very beautiful, cutting through woodland and parkland. Next to it, as luck would have it, there was a small bookstore undergoing a closing-down sale with... wait for it... about three-quarters off the price of EVERYTHING. I got the whole series of Love Hina (15 volumes) for the price of a single book, as well as some books of... questionable content... for a friend (there was nothing in that section which tickled my fancy sadly ^^'), and took several trips to that store in the month or so before it closed.

Again, not restricted to a particular time of year, the next part of my Tsukuba photo file is composed of (admittedly blurred) shots from one of our many nomihoudai (all-you-can-drink) parties. As the name implies, once you've paid the set price, you're able to drink as much as you want for a period of two or three hours, which also includes quite a bit of food served throughout the evening, conveniently. Although I did end up drinking more than I should have on a couple of occasions, it was one helluva laugh! And, to make a good night even better, most of the time these parties ended with a trip to Cybex for some good ol' karaoke!
After weeks of delaying, February saw my return to Izu Prefecture to see the Kawazu Sakura festival with a couple of friends. The town has a bunch of early-blooming sakura trees so, rather than waiting until March, we got to see our first sakura in February. The word 'sakura' should instantly evoke images of beauty for any of you who know anything about Japan, and with good reason - they look absolutely stunning. Kawazu is just a few stops on the trainline away from Shimoda, meaning that we also got to see the ocean again :D The trip was definitely worth the hideously long train journey to and from the place ^^'

Right after walking out of the station, we were met with the beautiful sakura ^^

Perfect time to get me a new display picture XD

We three intrepid explorers, and Bear-Cat

Not too long after that was the earthquake, but as this blog's for reminiscing about the good times, I won't dwell on that, other than to say that Tsukuba was comparatively unharmed, being mercifully distant from Fukushima.
Anyway, happy thoughts - the weekend before I left Japan, most of us who hadn't already left the country got together for hanami - flower-watching - as the rest of Japan's sakura trees burst into flower. Seriously, it's something everyone has to try and see at least once. Just for good measure, here are a couple more photos:

We all ended up playing frisbee XD

Lastly on my list for today is the day before I returned to the UK. I wanted to see my friends in Yokohama once more before I left the country, so the day before I was due to fly home, I stayed at their house once again. It was, of course, sad to say goodbye, but I'm glad I got to see them again before leaving. As if they hadn't done enough for me already by that point, they put me up in the Narita Hilton the night before my flight so I'd be well-rested before the long journey home :')
And thus ended perhaps the best year or so of my life thus far. Seriously, all things considered, it was an amazing time. The only major thing I'd change would be that I wish I'd've been taking classes rather than doign a research project there, but then, had I done pure Japanese at Manchester, I wouldn't have been able to study at Tsukuba, and wouldn't have met all the awesome people I met there... But anyways, the project there is long since over, and I still have the amazing memories of all the happy times :D
Phew, that was quite a post. If you read that all the way to the end, then thank you for being so very patient :) If not, I won't hold it against you, and I'll try to be briefer in future ^^'
So, until next time, sayonara ^_^

Japan in a nutshell - lots of smiles with good friends ^_^