僕の友達が嫌い。

Saying bye-bye

As I'm leaving tomorrow, these last few weeks (but mostly yesterday) I have been saying goodbye to the people and places I know in England. It was indeed hard to consider leaving behind the thrills and super high level of excitement that comes with living in Doncaster. However after one whole sorrowful minute I have come to terms with this.

DONNAYYY

So, "what is so lovely about this place you live Sam (the awesome)" I hear you ask. WELL brace yourselves. I have taken a selection of pictures that best highlight that place which I was born and raised and it's spectacularly interesting atmosphere.

'Gizza Sausage roll an' a pasty luv'

 I'm mean look at that Da Vinchi-esque portrait of a restaurant to the left. The home of Doncaster's fine dining and haute cuisine, Greggs. It's deliciously floppy pasties serve a county and may or may not been the main cause of the general chubbiness.

I can't think of a funner place.

And what's this? A "fun" "house"? Recently due to the spate of hot weather there has been a 'All the fun of the Fair seaside comes to Doncaster'. As you can guess from the title of this event, it consists of random pieces of reject funfair attractions being strewn all over the streets with the pretence of Doncaster becoming coastal. There was a beach (2 square meters of damp sand complete with wasps), a hookadook with waters so green it may have bred a new sort of algae. and the pride of place the FUN house. However to me it seemed more like a death trap as a child rattled the loose barriers to the tune of 'Under the sea' from the little mermaid.

Friendlingtons

On a (only marginally) sadder note, I said goodbye to my friends in the UK this week. I promised I wouldn't embarrass them on my blog, but who cares now I wont be here for their revenge :)

Lauren 'owl eyes' Woolsey

Sarah 'squinty' Watson

John 'cake lover' King

 Thanks for a great summer guys, see you when I'm back or maybe even later this year if you come visit (John)

OH!!!!

I nearly forgot the highlight of Doncaster!

look at its ebony cuboid frame!

And on that note. I'm uninviting England to my birthday party and I'm outa here!!!

日本的な準備

Preparatory doings.

Today I did the same as every day. Procrastinate Prepare for the impending linguistic death that is my year abroad. 

Armed with the sound advice of  my residence abroad co-ordinator of "make sure you learn more than you know" -__- Anki has become my number one pal in my attempt to become ready for what ever dastardly grammar and kanji Meiji throw at me in their call allocation test. This combined with Tobira's (my second year textbook) vocabulary gems:

- 偏差値  [へんさち] : 'deviation score indicating the degree of difficulty of each school's entrance exam' 
- 紅葉　[もみじ] : 'Japanese maple'
- 暮れなずむ夕暮れ　[くれなずむゆうぐれ] : 'lingering evening glow after sunset'
- 山伏　[やまぶし] : 'itinerant buddhist monk'
and 白鷺　[しらさぎ] : 'white egret'

I now feel fully equipped to deal with common day to day situations in Japan. Especially if my large pet bird gets stuck in a tree in the evening.



I also invented an extreme art form called procrastaparing. And this lead to an exploratory venture into the wide variety of traditional Japanese culture, from extreme chop-sticking to the ways of the silent ninja.

Here is a picture montage of my training. *cue Europe - the final count down* 


Kanji by the thousand? CHECK

KANJI

Saying KAWAIII at small animals? CHECK

Practice Kawaii

Name every street in Tokyo? not quite...

not enough guidebooks

Japanese gaming culture master street fighter? In the making.

Otaku - training

 Extreme chopsticks! gotta get them cherries.

箸道

 I also mastered the gentle and sophisticated art of the tea ceremony....

茶道

So, I think I am now fully prepared, and apparently have nothing better to do than to spend my days messing about. But in all seriousness I have learnt so many new kanji compounds and words and repeated them most days of the week that I feel ready to take whatever they wish to throw at me :) bring on N2. (in a year)

クラゲランプの必要はない？なぜなの？

Packing carefully / stuffing haphazardly.

Today I pack. A wise man once said "to become clever you must gain something everyday, but to become wise you instead must lose something". Now, throughout my previous travelling excursions I have lost and forgotten so much I must now be the wisest wizened monk around and, as such, should seek my own advice.....

Samfucius

Samfucius say: Monkey who hurriedly packs banana, will later have no mango.

So, heeding this, instead of stuffing everything within a 1m radius into a bag, cursing the moment I realise I left my emergency mango on the bedside table... I instead aim to get everything in order with time to spare, so that in the inevitable event that I have again forgotten an important exotic fruit, I have ample time to go and get it.

What to take? or not to take....

Now that is the question. Move on Hamlet we have bigger concerns now, primarily my jellyfish lamp. My parents have deemed it "unnecessary" but I cannot imagine a reality where a bobbley floaty mood lamp would not make Japan a better place. 

Jellies :)

I've separated the rest of my packing into categories: Clothes, study, apothecary, electronics and "crap". Now, I use the term "crap" but what I really mean is "my tasteful and interesting trinkets". This includes but it not limited to; cat shaped soft toys (Pamilo), goggly eye window sucker things, Pokemon figurines and a catapult pencil. The lamp obviously too falls into "crap" and sadly I have to report after much consideration I have been forced by its need to be filled with water, to leave it at home.

So, I have started shoving everything I own into the 2 bags I am taking to Japan, steadily whittling down the amounts of things I actually need and trying to stuff what seems like an entire library into a rucksack. My sister and her boyfriend made a gallant effort to aid me in this via a check-list and a lot of squishing. Tasha's uncharacteristically furrowed eyebrows of intensity and general willingness to help, make me feel she cant wait to move back into my room.

"I'm bored Sam, why do I have to do this?"

The rest of my packing went as smoothly as shouting at clothes-tetris can go, and I am pleased to report I have managed to squish an adequate amount of "crap" into my 46kg luggage allowance. ^_^

Tardis luggage.

I'm now packed up and ready to go, with 1 week to spare, I guess i'll just sit next to my bags with an eager face for 7 days. Watch out Japan.

The catapult pencil wont be classed as a weapon will it..........

そのかっこいい人は誰？

My lovely face.

This is me.

This is me. right there, to the left. I thought i'd write the first post of my soon-to-be amazing photo blog a little early to properly get to grips with the whole E-diary malarky. 

SO...

What can I say really? I am called Sam, i'm exceedingly charismatic, interesting and modest. I'm currently 20 whole years and a little bit old and I am studying Japanese at the University of Manchester. 

Things I like: 

1. Narwhals and Whale sharks (also recently Beluga too)

2. That Joe guy. 

3. SPACE~~ and sciencey stuff

4. A Day to Remember 

5. (begrudgingly) Game of Thrones. HEAR ME ROAR! <-- (thats for you Chris)

6. CATS with normal names, e.g. Marcus and Simon.

7. Maroon.

Ok!

So what is the Purpose of this? I'm going to Japan! Tokyo to be exact. I am spending a year studying at 明治大学, where I will eat sushi to my hearts content and buy crazy Japanese trinkets!!! gain much and varied knowledge regarding the Japanese language and culture. I will most likely forget to update this blog and the posts I make will be chocablock full of spelling and grammar faux-pars and I apologise in advance.

Stay tuned.