‘Five Facts’ was Originally posted by: sarazucker
昨日から今日も福岡の天気は暑いになりました！昨日天神へ行ったし一蘭の博多ラメンを食べるし会社へ行きました。仕事はもっともっと面白いになっています。今アイフォンとイポッド・タッチーで使う方のウエブサイトの作ります。それは始めのアイフォン・サイトですが進むは早いだ。来月の一日まで終わるはずである予定です。短いですが俺はコンフェデントですよ！
今日授業の後に友人とテニスをする予定です！楽しみにするね！明日の晩は僕の友達、ウィリアムさんの誕生日パーティーすごい嬉しいになると思って。遊ばんね！
日本語書いてをすみませんですがよく練習で上手になるのために。
Tonight I had my heart broken by a girl dressed as a thundercat.
So I played last night in a support slot for some of friends at a little bar out of the city and into the Fukuoka prefectural wilderness. Well, wilderness is probably unfair, but it’s really fucking far away.
The main act was a few people I know playing a mix of jazz and old pop classics. I dumbed down considerably to offer some Radiohead, Beatles and Belle & Sebastian - no gig is complete without it - and a few originals which have been waiting to see the light of day for a very long time.
The reception was good, I was told that I had ‘an energy’ which others lacked, and that I should try my hand at some more vocally challenging stuff. I think I will.
I also saw my English friend, who I’ve not been in touch with for a week or so, and apologised for my being a complete dick during that time. I promised to tell her what’s been going on just as soon as I can figure out what to tell her. The thing is, she has intimated in the past that she thought something was going on between me and that girl, and I had always flat-out denied it, mainly because it is she who is the subject of my true affections I suppose. But then, it turns out she might not be as straightforward as I’d imagined anyway. That’s for another day.
I ended up grabbing a cab after the show - mainly because the trains didn’t start running for another two hours - and meeting a friend in Tenjin for a couple of drinks and some late-night ramen. I got back here at around seven as the sun began to arc over the happy hills in the distance, and spent most of the day alseep. In short, it’s been the perfect Saturday. It’s really quite liberating to be free of the constraints of such things as licensing hours, and public transport which is untenable and often unavailable. The Fukuoka subway network is open in the AM before the bars even shut, making the drunken journey home a painless - though a little nauseating - experience. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve taken the 5:36am train bound for 筑前前原 from 天神 to 藤崎.
So I have a couple of my family members coming out to see me over the next couple of weeks whilst I”m on spring break, and I’ve trying to come up with cool, interesting things to do with them during there visit, preferably without leaving the city limits. This list might be of some use to anyone else spending a short time in our wonderful city.
TO BE COMPLETED
Reason enough to love Fukuoka.
My Englishness has been fleshed out here in longform on several occasions, and I’ve explained how it has both positive and negative effects on the life of a foreigner in Japan. One plus point of my being an Englishman here, I’ve yet to mention as yet.
It’s the same wherever you go, and for however long. People seek comfort in the familiar. For my American cohort, that means sticking within their own groups, and largely being impenetrable to local influence. For me, it’s slightly different. There is only one other Britisher at my entire university, and we don’t constitute a group in our own right. So, my solace in times of need, comes from elsewhere.
I have met a lovely English girl with whom I spend a lot of time, and we have in our friendship the opportunity to unwind and talk, like only two people of the sae extraction can. Through her - an English school teacher here - I have met several other English, Scottish and Irish people, and it’s become a pleasant escape from the American-ness of my home, and the Japanese-ness of… Japan. I’ll be at a gathering of these folks tonight for cocktails and Thai Curry in Hakata, before decamping to some bar or another on Oyafuko Dori - Fukuoka’s bar hotspot.
My own frailties as a human being tend to make these larger social gatherings less enjoyable. I feel that I am far better company in small groups, and tonight should prove interesting in that regard. I find it hard in those types of scenarios to impress upon people the kind of person I am, and usually seek solace with familiar faces.
I suppose most people are the same. It just depends how well you can cope in those sorts of scenarios. Some people become horribly extroverted in order to cover their complete lack of actual personality, some people hit the drink hard. Others - me included - retreat to the smokers corner and indulge in man chat to pass the time.
I guess that your ethnicity when overseas is like foreign currency. The American Dollar is waining, The Chinese Yuan is irritating in it’s unpredictability, and the British pound has a rightful sense of superiority which causes problems with international trade.
Heroes of the Week: Belle & Sebastian
You never just ‘walk down the street’ in Japan, for fear of missing gold like this.
PS: 今日博多弁を少し勉強しちゃった分かるの人と？
Translation:
Saying Thankyou in Japan differs greatly according to where you are. Complicated, no?
PS: Tonight, I’ve been studying Hakata-Ben a little. Can you understand it?
I’m currently enjoying, rather a lot - the following:
THAT IS ALL.
