JET Application Then

So I finally handed in my second JET application.  As with all of them (I presume) it took a long time to get sorted; and the very fact I managed to pull the barrels of information together is a minor miracle.  Thanks to all those who helped, I wouldn't have come this far without everyone.

If anyone is watching from JET, please please please please please let me go to Japan...

This is what a room of JET application looks like.  All this goes into a giant envelope and is whisked away to the embassy in London.

My stomach is turning already, simply thinking about how (if) my application will be received.  As with all these things, something will almost certainly have been forgotten or lost either in creating the folder, or in translation.

This is the thickness of all the papers required for application.  This isn't the complete pack, it only gets thicker.

I would be interested to know how much of a backside ailment the original scheme was, in terms of forms and filing.  The infamy of Japanese beaurocracy leads me to believe that it was always, and always will be this annoying.


Check out the TV times in the background too.  Please don't steal all the sensitive information that is (probably) present in these pictures.  Ok then, you can steal my identity, but can I have it back when you're done?

Hull University.

So I went back up to Hull in order to retrieve a few pieces of paper, that were otherwise not forthcoming.  After a couple of weeks of telephoning anyone who would listen on university grounds, and sending a number of e-mails, I eventually gave up and headed up there.

It took me five minutes to get these pieces of paper, because of the stellar direction given to me by Matt, the prince of (the) English (office).

The train journey was originally going to cost me £200, so I obviously got a different train.  The journey up was relatively uneventful, but the journey down sucked.  It took me about 5 hours, whereas the opposite journey took me three.

Anyway, seeing as I was in Hull for three years, with no kind of definitive (positive) memory being created while I was there, I felt it fitting to take some pictures and write about it.

The university itself is quite good.  Depending on the department you'll either be enrolled in the middle of the pack (in terms of all English universities) or somewhere further down the ranks.  Luckily for me the English department ranked extremely highly in England, and therefore ranked highly within the university itself.  I don't know where it is now; but I have a funny feeling it will have slipped now a few of their more prominent (see:amazing) students have left.  (Me of course.)

The facilities are pretty good, with sports on tap for those who want to participate in organised events, and a well equipped (if small) gym for those who like individual exercise.

The whole place is clean, and the library (where you'll spend your entire third year and masters year(s)) is extremely well equipped.  Unfortunately there are far too few computers in the building itself, so you'll need to bring/buy a laptop in order to use it to its' full potential.

The town itself is as horrible as people say it is.  There are certain areas that are completely rundown, in the most spectacular sense of the word.  If you like hardcore drugs, crime and occasionally murder, these areas will be your second home.

The town centre has been newly renovated, but as was expected, it's already starting to become a bit ragged around the edges, even though it's only a couple of years old.

I guess any university experience comes down to what you make of it, and to that extent, to be perfectly frank, it doesn't matter in the least bit which university you decide upon going to, because if you throw yourself into it, you'll have fun either way.  As such, Hullian accommodation is extremely cheap, and living there is cheaper than anywhere else in England.

This is the English department.

The guys and girls of the English department office are awesome.  They epitomise the friendly Hull ethic you hear others always talking about, and basically make administrative tasks pleasant.  Other departments torment you at every turn, the English department helps you all the time, no matter what th problem is.  Fantastic.  There are a huge number of companies out there that should wake up and take note of the customer service of this particular group.  Seriously.

This is the central boulevard, as it were.  This walkway links all the major parts of the university, from science departments to computer centres.  The Library is on the left, well hidden behind the moulting tree.

The new parts of the university, such as the busines school occupy a giant concrete wart just behind the library, and are best avoided if sanity is something you value.

The university is situated a fair distance from the city centre.  Around forty minutes by foot, or fifteen to twenty on a bus.  As such, I chose to take no pictures of the town centre, in favour of plotting my route back home.  I made this journey almost every day for a couple of years.  It's really strange to think that I did that and have no real emotion towards the university itself; bar the people I worked with, or had dealings with.

Some say inanimate objects take on a life of their own, but I think this only applies to cars, or vehicles.

This is the complete journey from university to house.  The photo above is looking back towards the university, and the one here is forward looking, onward to my (old) house!

This is looking down Newland avenue.  My (old) house is right at the end of this road, and then at the end of another road.

All I could think about when I was walking down this road was chenzi, and what a waste of a year that was.  It's unfortunate when bad memories are stirred up by simple sights such as this, but I guess it serves as a warning and reminder to my future self.

All the little things brought back memories for me, and all I could think was how big a waste of time she was.  Sigh.

This is halfway down the street, past her house, and nearing the right angle left hand turn that signals disembarkation from Newland avenue.

The houses on the street in which I lived are quite enormous, Victorian style beasts.  In true Victorian style they seem to have been engineered to withstand nuclear attack, even though they couldn't have perceived this threat during their construction.  You can tell modern construction, simply because it is flimsy in comparison to the building it's placed upon.

Left turn at the bottom of Newland, and we're halfway there.

This part is the most treacherous when there are fewest cars, because most people think they can take the corner at forty, despite being in a van or similarly ill-equipped vehicle.  This has led to more than a few near-death pedestrian experiences.

Luckily, all my bikes got stolen in Hull, so I rarely had the opportunity to traverse this particular corner by bicycle.  The extraordinary crime rate of Hull probably saved my life.

There's no one preparing, selling or taking drugs in this little cut-through alleyway, so it's not really a true depiction of my walk home.

Hang a left out of the drug addled alleyway, onto the street of no return.

From the street of no return, one must turn right onto the street of concrete bleakness.


This street is often ravaged by wild gangs of youths, wearing nothing but tracksuits; it is my belief they are attempting to emulate their parents, however more study must be done in this field to ascertain the true reason for the northern obsession with tracksuits.

To highlight the concrete bleakness that is this road, I took three photographs at three distinctive point along the road.

They are distinctive in that they are points through which other road intersect, and are a five minute walk apart.

The reason for the three photographs?

Essentially it's a game of spot the difference.

This road looks exactly the same, from one end to the other.  It is a horrific eyesore, and the only saving grace (a park on the left hand side, for about 3/4 of the road) is blocked by trees and hedges...  Good work, city council planning.

This is the thoroughly pleasant road I lived in for two years, enjoying a lot of what it has to offer.

Now I can't remember anything about it, or the house I lived in.

It's not even non-descript!  It has character!

So I spent a couple of hours with Josh and Joe.  A couple of beers for the trip home, and all is good.  Except of course the two hour stopover on the platform because no alternative arrangements were made by the train company.

And Joe, the monster from the deep.

He pretends to be English, but he's actually chinese, even though he's still learning the language.  (He's from Hong Kong.)

See: This for more information about what just happened.  (Joe got racially bullied, on the internet.  This is against new government guidelines on living, as outlined here)





And that was my trip to Hull, for a day.  It bought back a number of bad memories, a few good ones, rekindled my belief that Hull is the friendliest place in the universe; and revealed my apparent apathy to life.

Puri Kura!

Here are some pictures we took while we were in Japan.  Puri kura (print club) are the photo booths used for passports, only they are stickers, and you can add whatever accoutrement's you wish.

This is the inside of the print club!  It's not as bright as this picture makes it out to be, but it is almost like being in some kind of inquisition...

The machine has some kind of pheremone excretion device, that secretes a small that cannot be resisted by women.  They flock from all around to take pictures in these things.

Here is my lovely assistant!

Displaying the money required to satiate a Japanese girls' desire to be photographed.

I had to stealthily take this picture while we were in the arcade.  No photographs allowed!  Except for the ones inside the booth...

Cute rules, remember?!

And here are the pictures I took from inside the booth.

They're now stuck on my computer, good memories.

So Twitter Then.

I want to know what it does.

http://twitter.com/NotAzebu

I quickly cut out some pictures and stuck them on there, and having done this I moved onto the main site, to try and familiarise myself with the design.  The only problem is I don't know what it actually does.

What is it?

What does it do?

Can someone please tell me this!  I am confused!

In other news:  Me and my friends from university were playing a game that involved cartoon style graphics.

It has planes, but they're really difficult to control, the challenge:  Fly upside down, picking up passengers under a bridge.  The results:  Somewhat mixed.




And this is how it should be done:



The fun we have...

A Heads Up!

Should anyone be reading this in England.

There are absolutely tons of really good films on film four in the upcoming week!

Check it out after 8PM, almost every day.  There's Tokyo Sonata, Death note and Kamikaze girls, to name a few.  I've not seen the last one yet, but it sounds pretty interesting.

I'll probably review it if it's any good.  Or if it's terrible.

On another note, the JET application is coming on a pace, but it does look like I'll have to visit Hull.  What a pain in the backside.  Maybe I'll make a special guest appearance if I have to go up there.  Drop by the house, all surprise like.

A Shrine to my Travels

A collected all the items I had acquired during my all too brief stay in Japan and made a little shrine out of them.

I feel kind of strange putting all these things together, because they take up hardly any space at all; and far from epitomising my trip, it sits on my desk mocking me, whispering in my ear that it's an inadequate grouping of insignificant items.

Ok, so it doesn't whisper to me, because that would make me certifiable.  But this small collection of items is only a small gateway into the experiences of all those decades ago.

Wait, I only travelled there... How many days ago was it?  And I guess this is my worry.  Like my (minor) Japanese language skills, I feel the experiences and memories will wane over time; I don't know what will be left after the lighter, less significant memories evaporate.

And here is the travels corner of my room.

The swiss made, chinese, swiss army knife from chenzi; the sphinx head from Egypt, the chinese dolls from the budding doctor I met in america, all those years ago.

And now the Japanese accoutrements.

It looked a little bare before, but the Japanese elements, with their personal touches, make this corner of my room all the more inviting.

What is there to Write about in England?

So I'm debating whether to keep this blog running.

My thinking is that, generally speaking, there are very few interesting things to write about while in England.  This is not to say England is disinteresting.  I'm sure it's got a lot to offer anyone who is interested and willing to put themselves out and about; I am not one of these people however, and I feel a blog of my time in England would simply deteriorate into a monotonous, moan laden diatribe.

On the other hand - a moan laden diatribe posted on the internet would plot my trajectory perfectly.  The highs of Japan will contrast the monotony of England perfectly; and everything has highs and lows.  A skewed view of my situation may give rise to resentment at a later stage, and should I ever feel Japan has treated me badly, I can look back at my diary and see just where it ranks among past experiences.  Should I find myself unemployed while in Japan, I can look back at the job I will (hopefully) hold in England, and say: 'well teaching here is a damned sight better than stacking shelves in England.'  Or I might say, 'well teaching here is a damned sight worse than winning the lottery in England.'  Of course, one might be wishful thinking, and the other might be wishful thinking.

So for this episode of 'Sam, the chronicles thereof,' I'm going to show you all some pictures of my journey homeward bound.

I flew back on a jumbo jet which was nice, although I did pay a premium for this.  I think I've finally made some sense of the pricing system put in place by the airline companies.  Essentially, the bigger the plane you fly on, the more expensive it is.  The size of the plane is dictated by the length of the journey.  Therefore, a journey with a stop costs less!  My theory is being patented as we speak.

There's a cartoon called 'gundam,' over in Japan, and it has a dozen different spin-off series.  It's so popular that a giant life sized robot (the series' trademark) was erected in Tokyo.  Unfortunately it was dismantled a month before I arrived, but it was enormous.

Anyway, the reason I bring this up:  This ship (see: train) looks like it has been styled on the mythical gundam.  It's due to hit the rails in  2010, and will serve as one of the express trains (I think.)

I can't wait to hop on one of these mean looking things when I come back!

The last thing you see before boarding the plane back home...

Hope to see you soon too, Japan... *cry*

This is the plane I flew back in on.

This is taken from Heathrow, and for possessing a camera inside an airport, I was half expecting to be shot on sight.

Luckily I survived, to bring you this.

My views on HSBC have changed somewhat since they refused to send me a replacement card in Japan. The world bank, my arse.  They tried their best to strand me in the middle of Japan with no money.  Good going, guys.
Boycot all HSBC products people!

The plane was comfortable though, and crewed by a large number of very nice people.  Even though none of you will ever read this, thank you very much.

The reason the checks will take longer.  Not because they're making it harder to get in.  Not because they're turning away more people.  Not because there's more, harder work to be done in order to arrive in England.

It's because they want to ask more questions.

Good going guys.

And on that note; this is the end of my travel home section.

Or is it?

Back in England.

So I'm back in England now...

So...  When can I go back to Japan then?

Anyway, seeing as nothing interesting is happening here, I'll put up some photographs and videos of my last day in Japan.

I can't remember what Fumie was trying to explain here, but it's an interesing picture.  Well done for ignoring all the flashes, Fumie!

Nice jumper too...

I don't remember what was happening here.  I think it's something to do with one of the Japanese classic TV series.  It was the progenitor of american shows like Power Rangers and things of that ilk.  Uramon, I think.

Looking good...

The next Calvin Klein models.

It took a few attempts to get this photo.  Japanese people can pose like no others, I take a few attempts though...  Sorry about that.

Also, Mado-chan is wearing full kimono, and it looks fantastic.

What you can't see in these photographs though, is the underwear worn with kimono is another full size kimono, and the example she was wearing was even prettier than the outer kimono!

A lot of effort goes into wearing these things.

In this photo, slap bang in the middle, is a real life geiko.  In order to become a geisha, (of which there are only a thousand or so in Japan now), a girl must start as a trainee of sorts, then become a maiko, then a geiko, then a geisha.  She's going to be a geisha someday, and it's an incredible privilege to spend time with her, in an incredibly informal and fun situation.

Tourists spend weeks looking for a geisha, to no avail.  Meeting one in this situation, how lucky am I?!?  And spending time with a Buddhist monk.  What an amazing place Kyoto is...

A nice picture, with everyone in...

Except mado-chan, who is taking the picture.

Looking good; guys.  This is how an upalupa looks, in case you were wondering what's going on.

Upalupa is especially vigorous in her depiction of her namesake.

Again, looking good guys :)

Look at the flowers behind Takako's head.  This was unplanned, but looking at the video of her singing, is entirely appropriate.

(Check out the video at the end of this post.)

It's worth noting that geisha even look elegant when drinking.

It was a couple of days after halloween, so there were a few trinkets in the house.  These  devil horns made a few interesting pictures...

Cute.

The hat never comes off though, I think it's glued to her head.

This is one of my favourite pictures.

The pumpkin hat did the rounds, just like the horns.

This is also the default face of Takako, if she isn't smiling then something is seriously wrong.

I don't know what that hand is doing...

And where is that hand coming from as well?

I'm pretty sure it's not mine.

And then it all comes a cropper.

Nice hat there, Mado.

There are lots of photographs, so there's a lot to get through...

Fumie is looking miffed, or drunk or something...  Cheer up!

We had an excellent guitar accompinament for the whole night, thanks to the extra housemate Oishibashi picked up while I was away.

Obviously, the entire night was fantastic fun.  Thanks everyone!

So the layers when wearing kimono are:

underwear
under-kimono (I've forgotten the name)
kimono
Obi (this is the orange belt, and has several more layers of its own, including a hard board to keep the shape)
haori

This is why it takes an hour to put everything on.

 The girls by candlelight.

Nice picture.

Hello there, upalupa-chan.

Looking good there, for a Japanese lizard thing!

OH MY GOD!

AVERT YOUR EYES!!!!!!

It's a monster from the deep!














Ok so now onto the videos:

This is a game I taught everyone; originally it was a rugby drinking game, but I adapted it for the housemates.

Unfortunately, they were all a lot better at the game than I was.  This is basically the reason for me taking this video, because I was immediately eliminated.

As you can see from everyones reactions, it is a lot of fun.

The second video requires something of an introduction.  Mado told me that Takako was a terrific singer, so I asked her to show everyone.  We all thought she was going to do some karaoke style pop singing.  Click on the video now please.



It's only thirty seconds, and the sound quality is abysmal; but jesus.  She is absolutely fantastic.  Amazing.  Superlatives run out...

I want to go watch her live somewhere.

What I did Today:

What I did today was get very wet.

I decided to go to the botanical gardens; and seeing as today is my second to last full day in Kyoto, come hell or high water I was going to see these gardens.

Knowing this, He gave me high water.  It's the most rain I've seen since I've been here (including the 'typhoon' (if you want to call it that) because I was asleep when that hit, so I didn't really see any of it) and it finally enabled me to put on my waterproof trousers!  They saw some in anger use, finally!

The gardens are actually really nice, and they fit the tempo of the area to a nicety.  Kyoto is a relaxed city, if that's not an oxymoron.  It's certainly a lovely place to be, and I wouldn't mind teaching in this area.  Hell; I'd love to teach here.

After that expedition I went chinese dress hunting.  Kyoto is as traditional as it comes, and with that come traditional values.  Traditional values essentially means there are no chinese shops in this area, let alone ones selling chinese dresses.  I will continue my brave search however; maybe into the furthest reaches of Tokyo, who knows.

On another note, JET applications started today.  I spent an hour filling in the forms I'll need, only to find out their 'save' option doesn't appear to work.  It's going to take a considerable amount of time to complete, that's for sure...

If you're reading this JET officers:  Please let me come back here!  Please!  I'm begging you!

I'll put the photographs of today up when I have some time, but at this rate that may well be after I arrive back in England.

Of my Living in Kyoto

So I promised to explain my housing situation while I was in Kyoto, but never ended up writing about it. This was for a number of reasons, mainly there were more interesting things to write about, but there was also a severe lack of time.

I'm now beginning my second stint in Kyoto; and although I'm staying in the same house again, the number of people has changed, some new faces have moved in, some have moved out.

To explain the initial situation: J-hoppers ran out of space for a night, so I had to move out. They asked around for me, and a five bedroom house was available, for around the same price as I've been paying throughout this trip. Not really knowing what to expect, I walked into the house to find an old american woman and three Japanese girls.

The american woman moved out after the first night (not because of me, I might add) and I was left with Madouka, the excellent cook in all my 'how to,' movies, Fumie the hard working, hard drinking foil to Hiromi; who is an alien. I use the word alien advisedly, because I've seen several of them first hand; if I say any more, you might not wake up tomorrow though, so I'll stop there.

Hiromi is definitely an oddball; she's Japanese in terms of passport ownership and citizenship, but beyond that she's the least Japanese, Japanese person I've ever met. She speaks lots, is outward, loves speaking in English and Japanese, generally tends to love playing around. All in all, not very typical for a Japanese person.

In fact everyone here is extremely outgoing, and extremely hard working too. Hiromi pulls 12 hour shifts at a massage place; the temptation of assuming this was some kind of seedy operation was too much, so I booked in and was surprised to find it's a normal place. No yakuza or illicit dealings going on here.

Fumie has two jobs, and is trying to find a third for the weekends. Everyone here employs on a part-time basis, due to the service industry being as it is over here: flooded. So everyone gets part time jobs or 'Be I To.' Think German for that one.

We had lots of fun moments together in the house, usually involving cakes and beer or wine. It was very nice.

Then I went to Osaka.

And now I'm back with an australian guy who I met today, Fumie again, and Hiromi again. Also, there's a mysterious third woman, who I've not met. Madouka moved out to find a place with an oven, which she now has; and is extremely happy about. Although she says it's a little quiet at night. (Compared to our parties (that happened every night incidentally) a silo would seem quiet).

It shall be interesting to see what the new girl is like. Frankly, I've met three girls who are extremely special, and frankly, amazing. To expect anything of this new girl beyond a polite and curteous nod upon greeting, would be to expect four consecutive national lottery wins. Of one hundred million pounds each. It's not going to happen. I have therefore steeled myself for the inevitable let down of finding out she's normal, without becoming too hardened to become insensitive to genuine niceness.

She will have to walk in wearing a jesters hat and a tuxedo of some kind in order to steal the limelight from the other girls, though.

I'm off to go play some taiko with Mado-chan (Madouka). I've been sneakily practicing the Mario theme tune, and will somehow manage to get an incredible score and will therefore look like I'm a natural at this fantastic game. Of course, she will never know...

On a side-note. When is your beard too long? In Japan, this point comes when a girl walks past with her boyfriend and grabs his arm, holding it tight; just because she looked at you.

I think I will shave tomorrow. Maybe wash a few times, in case there are other reasons (gaijin-ness aside) for my repulsiveness.

The Great Camera Review!

In importing this post from openoffice there were a number of formatting errors, as a result the following post is probably going to be all kinds of screwed up.  Sorry about that.

So in Japan there's a department store called Yodobashi camera. I don't know how to spell Yodobashi in Japanese, if I did I would write it here now. This begs the rather obvious question of how I know which store is Yodobashi, and which isn't. This is easily answered by a Japanese phenomenon I am going to call, 'jingle fever.'

It begins when you leave the airport on the first day, and continues until you leave the airport on your final day. I suspect however, that the jingles continue long into the memory. I know the final lines of the Yodobashi theme tune for example, and I've only been in there a few times to peruse their goods and buy a mouse.

Cute sells here, cute sells a lot of things. If porsche wrapped their latest hypercar in a fluffy hello kitty outfit and bought it here, they would sell out in seconds. 'It's okay dear, we can live in the car...' This barrage of cute doesn't stop at the visual and endorsement aspects of daily life, it also hits your eardrums. If eardrums could acquire plaque...

The train stations have a little jingle when a train is coming in, and when an announcement is being made. Every department store has its' own theme. The convenience stores here even have their own themes; seven 11s is particularly funny, as they manage to leverage the final three syllables of e-le-ven into a two syllable tune – becoming le-ven. Therefore, all Japanese people call se-ven e-le-ven, 'se-ven lev-en.' It makes me smile, no matter how many times I hear it.

So coming full circle to the beginning of this post; I can spot a Ydobashi from fifty paces, not by the visual cues, but because of the jingle that rings out around the shop.

I've taken a number of pictures of the business district around here, because there's some serious work going on. There are more department stores (presumably department stores) going up, and they are gargantuan. The Yodobashi is twelve storeys of shopping floors with a further four or five of storage (at a guess) with five floors below ground, two for shopping, three for parking. This sounds very tame height-wise, by Japanese standards; but the surface area is enormous. Everything here has an american influence, and their street design is no different; so everything is arranged in blocks. The Yodobashi takes up half a block in all directions. It's massive.

So now we arrive at the actual point of this post. Drumroll please... The great camera review!

I've wanted a DSLR for some time now, but haven't really had the need for one. (Need is subjective of course. I don't need a camera like I need, for example, air.) Coming to Japan has shown me that actually, having an exceptional camera would afford great picture taking opportunities; and I've steeled myself for some kind of DSLR purchase.

So Yodobashi camera, despite the name, aren't solely camera based. It is however in their origins, and they have an entire floor dedicated to photography equipment, so there's no better place to go in order to try them out bar perhaps being a camera reviewer of sorts.

Depending on your approach, the first choice is either make or model. If you go with Canon, you are stuck with a few 3rd party lenses and Canon lenses only. If you take the Nikon route you have a larger range of lenses in the Nikon range, and a large number of third party lense manufacturers. Having nosed around the lense section though, it seems Canon, despite having a smaller range, is still well catered for.

This is important for the simple reason that once you've got a couple of lenses for whichever model, switching to a different manufacturer is going to be far more costly. No one wants to replace lenses when they have perfectly good ones sitting on their desk.

This makes the manufacturer choice all the more important.

The Nikon D3000 caught my eye; so I tried that out. From the top down, both Canon and Nikon (the two I narrowed it down to) have an identical menu system from the top of their range through to the bottom. This means if you've picked up one of their other cameras, you're immediately familiar with the one you're holding now. This is extremely good in theory, and works particularly well for Canon. Not for Nikon however, as their menu system is not very intuitive. After finding the setting for 'change me to English,'(日本語) (Japanese I think) navigating is easy enough, but changing settings can prove to be a pain in the backside. And finding them was a little tricky too. That's not to say this system is impossible to use; with a little practice, and some custom menu settings in place I'm sure changing what needs to be changed would be easy enough.  I believe the Canon does have the advantage here though.

I think this is primarily due to the Canons' menu layout. The Canon has a two menu system, where half a dozen different menus are selectable at the top, then depending on which has been chosen, a number of options are displayed. The Nikon seems to just throw everything at you all at once.

Both have customisable menus, which means you can put the settings you change most often right at the top of the menu list, for immediate access. I think overall Canon gets the nod here, but after a little practice they'd both be usable.

The D3000 was pretty light, and easy to use overall. The body was a little small, but that's probably good in the long run. One complaint I have about all the Nikon lenses I tested was the fuzziness of the focus ring. It felt like it'd been oiled one too many times, it slid around with no effort and required a more delicate touch than the Canon equivalents; I don't do delicate.

The D3000 was pretty solid overall; but then I moved from there onto the big daddy. The D3. This is the camera for professionals, and has the professional price tag. It's heavy, and big, and generally feels great to hold. This is where I move on to complain about the Nikon cameras a little more. All the cameras have a large number of focus points to choose from; but being able to choose which the camera should use is a pain in the backside with the Nikon, where it's simply a single button press with the Canon models.

The Nikon has so many buttons and things to press and twiddle that I spent five minutes figuring out how to get it to autofocus on what I wanted; when I managed to set this up however, it was amazing. I don't know how many fps it shoots, but it was too fast to review them all. Obviously I can't talk about image quality, but they seemed sharp when I reviewed them on the screen, and the focus worked perfectly every time. Of course it's indoors and the conditions are perfect, but the cheaper Canon SLR's missed a trick every now and again when continuous shooting; one would turn up a little blurred. Maybe it's just because it's in the shop and has probably been brutalised by the customers.

Overall, I think the D3000 is a little too whimpy. The D3 is probably out of my price range, considering it costs as much as a car...

The big daddy Canon offering wasn't available on the shop floor, but the next best thing, the D7 was available.

In a nutshell. I want this camera. It's brilliant. The menu is a piece of cake to run through, the settings are easy to change on the fly, even for a complete beginner like myself. The focus options are intuitive to use, being mapped to a single button on the body, instead of being buried inside the menus like the Nikons. The zoom and manual focus of the lenses were a treat, while the autofocus was damned near instant. I want this camera! It's a shame about the price though... Another car would sit on the forecourt if I bought this camera.

If a millionaire is reading this, please buy me the D1 mk4 when it comes out. If Jesus is reading this, please buy me the D7 or the D5 mk2. I can't afford either, but one can dream, right?

In light of the entire post being about cameras, and not my travels, it is worth pointing out that Osaka is not very nice. It doesn't have as many big attractions as the other areas (it has a zoo and stuff like that) besides the Osaka castle, which is fantastic, there's not a lot else to do other than shop, eat and drink. (Well, to this untrained eye it seems this is all Osaka has to offer. (Of course there will be more under the surface)

Maybe that's why it's hedonistic?

On a separate note, I'm back to Kyoto tomorrow.  Yay!

Chinese People: Be quiet!

So a couple of days ago I transferred accommodation once again, this time arriving in Osaka.

First impressions are everything in Japan, and my first impressions of Osaka were...

Well let's just leave it at 'not favourable.'  If I were a magic eightball, I would probably say something along the lines of, 'the outlook is bleak.'

I arrived extremely late, because I was having so much fun in Kyoto that I forgot I was supposed to go to Osaka; (a couple more Kyoto posts to arrive on your desktop at a later date) so I didn't have anywhere to stay that night.  This is not uncommon, as I've not booked accommodation since I've been here, travel information or other tourists have provided me with places to stay.  Not to mention the amazing house I stayed in, and hopefully will stay in again before I head back.  (More on that later, as well).

So I met a dutch guy, a Japanese guy, and then an Italian guy on the train from Kyoto to Osaka.  The first two were here on business, the Japanese guy was showing the Dutch guy around, because the Japanese guys' company buys a lot of stuff from Mr.Dutchmans' company.  This surprised me, I didn't think Holland had much of an export industry.  Anyway, they were shocked at my lack of preparation, and I explained that things usually end up alright in the end.

At this point the Italian guy hopped onto the train.  So we were all laughing at my struggling with my bag, (or maybe it was only them laughing?) and a conversation started.  It turns out the Italian guy was on his way back from a sightseeing trip, so I asked him where he was staying.  This is how I ended up where I am now, and is pretty much in keeping with the philosophy of my trip so far.

I've not seen the Italian guy since, but your name is Fabio, and I thank you, sir.  Your English is also excellent.  And yes, Japanese people are afraid of everyone non-Asian, don't worry, it's not just you, you don't smell.

So the first day of actual exploring began extremely late, due to me being very tired and forgetting to set my alarm.  I won't tell you exactly what time I awoke, for you would be ashamed; let's just say it was well into the afternoon.

I went for a soak in the sento, which is kind of like an indoor onsen, which is like a natural hot spring bath thing.  So it's essentially an indoor hotspring bath affair - I promise it's a lot better than it sounds.  A short while later I went and found a restaurant, sampled some more of Japans' delicacies and headed around the area.  I spent an awfully long time walking around, and have a vivid map of the area in my mind.

Unfortunately I walked into the red light district of Osaka straight away, which reminded me tremendously of Amsterdam.  And this pretty much sums up my impressions of Osaka.  It's like a European city.  If you read Chris's (the photographer) website, you'll notice he uses the word 'hedonistic,' a few times when writing about Osaka.  To be honest I think 'hedonistic,' was on his 'word of the day,' calendar when he was writing his website, because it appears a few times.  I would describe Osaka as, 'dirty,' if I were brutally honest, and 'extremely interesting,' if I were feeling particularly kind at the time of writing.

It is dirty.  It is more dirty than Tokyo, and Tokyo has ten times the population living in it.  Having now been to a few areas, there are some clean tourist and working areas, but generally speaking it's not an attractive place to look at.  There is a far higher concentration of homeless than in Tokyo.  Even counting for the fact that my accommodation is probably in the worst area (the price is ridiculously cheap; to the point of it being cheaper to live here than in an apartment) in Osaka, it has a serious homeless problem.  I stayed in the area reknowned for deprivation based problems in Tokyo, and it wasn't as bad as here.

Brothels and homeless aside, everything is extremely cheap, and the people are extremely friendly.  If you haven't spotted where this is going yet, I think Osaka should twin with Hull.  I wouldn't be surprised if they already were.  The people in both cities seem to be extremely simple, straight minded people who want to live their lives in the moment, rather than looking for the big bucks cities like Tokyo or London offer.

I noted in an earlier post that it's the similarities that astound me, more so than the differences.  Although Hull doesn't have the population, or economic importance of Osaka, both are very similar.

I walked into Osaka expecting to see something akin to what I'd seen elsewhere in Japan, and was shocked to see something so completely different.  I walked into Hull expecting the worst, but it did me well; and I'll never forget it.

So we now move onto the real purpose of this entry:  I visited Osaka castle today.  It's just about the only kind of culture in Osaka, as far as I can discern. (Zoo's, while fun, don't count as culture.)  Upon walking around I was attacked by hundreds of small school children, and Chinese people.

The children I don't mind, they run around and shout, are obnoxious and occasionally say hello.  The Chinese on the other hand, were annoying as hell today.  They barge you out of the way, like the elderly Japanese, as if they own the place, (regardless of age) and walk around everywhere shouting.  Even if there are only three people in a room, myself and two Chinese, my eardrums still bleed by the end of the encounter.  Listen up China, you will soon rule the world, we all know this, but you don't have to take Americas' approach to travel; THERE IS NO NEED TO SHOUT EVERYWHERE YOU GO.  Really.  No need.

Apart from this, the trip was generally successful; I enjoyed Japans' second best castle (according to an old boy who sat down and started a conversation in Japanese I only barely understood) and am now looking forward to Himeji, Japans' number one castle.

This is Osaka.  The little brother of Tokyo, and 'hedonistic...'  Apparently.

You can actually see the sky here, which you can't in Tokyo; that's a definite plus on behalf of this medium sized city.

This is on my way to the castle.  Again, lack of planning only slightly hampered my expedition, as I ambled around asking anyone who would listen where the nearest train station was.

This is the first time I've seen a european university advertised in Japan.

It's fitting that Japans grottiest city has ties with Scotland.

Nuff' said.

This is a college of sweets.  Instead of beckhamology, it teaches you how to make cakes and whatnot.  What an absolutely fantastic idea; why don't we have these in England?

Next time I walk into a university, I want to be bombarded with offers of how to make chocolate cakes.

If this doesn't happen I will be seriously disappointed.

The curve of the road accentuates the height of the buildings.

Even though they're not as high as the ones in Tokyo.

And even though they're too high to be considered as picturesque as the ones in Kyoto...

This place feels bigger than the imperial palace, even though it might/might not be.

There are a number of visible towers overlooking the outer walls, and the moat is collosal.  There were people fishing out of it.

You can see the modernity of the city nestled in the background of this picture.

This is a picture for all the horticultralists out there.

I think they're chrysanthemums, based on my limited knowledge of Japanese, I took a guess at the name.


Feel free to correct me.

This is the main castle building poking out from behind some trees, and infront of a large number of clouds.

The clouds didn't post a problem, and the view was fantastic, as you'll see below.

This is taken looking up at the eight storey building.  Of course, despite being shorter back then, the kings of this area knew how to build luxuriously, so each ceiling is tall enough for me to stand tall in; which is a nice feeling.

I still have the crippling need to bend into every doorway, just incase.  I fear this will make me look a fool in England.

Inside it's just basically a giant tourist attraction.  It's been gutted so many times in so any different wars that there's nothing left of the original place, so they just put in a lot of plastic and showy lights.

The view from the top.

It's really a lot better than even this picture shows.

From up here you can't see the dirt, so the city looks like any other metropolitan area.

Notice the giant golden fish?  Because I didn't, until I'd reviewed the photograph.

It's just a nice picture.  That's all I can say for this one.

Looking back at the castle from the ubiquitous koi pond.

It's amazingly peaceful just metres away from all the schoolchild based hubub right at the base of the castle.

It's a really nice place to just sit down and take in the surroundings.  It's  free too, until you enter the castle proper.  A lot of businessmen and women were enjoying lunch at the time of me taking this photo.

Every city in Japan seems to have its' iconic feature, usually a tower.  Tokyo tower, Kyoto tower; and this monstrosity that seems to have grown out of the ground.

This pretty much sums up Osaka.  It's ugly, but it's big and not going anywhere fast, so get used to it.

Well; that's my opinion anyway.

And you can see this thing from everywhere, just like the other towers in the other cities.


That's it for the blog entries today, I'll add my other Kyoto pictures, including the matsuri pictures at a later date.