A new year and a new start...

Well, it's nearing the end of January and I have yet to update...*ahem*

New Year's was a first....

Instead of my usual watching the countdown on the BBC and heading to bed, Pete, Rory and I decided to meet up and do something different. Where a lot of Japanese people like to watch some music contest programme-ish thing called 'Kouhaku', we thought we'd go out instead.
We began in Shinjuku for a bit of Street Fighter in an arcade and then decided to head to the mahoosive temple, Meiji Jingu, located next to Harajuku Station. We ended up getting pretty lost but it was nice to catch up.

Street Fighter

We eventually made it to the temple before midnight. Meiji Jingu's paths were lit with large torches and guarded by boy scouts.

明治神宮

The place was absolutely packed and just before the countdown, it was as if a thousand more people just materialised from nowhere and squashed themselves into the surrounding temple paths. At this point, there was no hope of reaching the central temple grounds where the ceremony was taking place. There was some counting down and then a massive cheer so I guess 2012 had begun at that point. Fortunately, from our position I could make out bits of the ceremony being broadcasted on a large screen. There appeared to be some official member striking a large gong but this was all I saw...

動かないほど人ばかりだった．．．

After the countdown, we proceeded into Harajuku for drinks in 'Hub', Japan's take on a British Pub (not quite but...yeah, a good shot). After that, we pretty much spent the night just hanging out. We actually ended up in McDonald's for the first meal of the new year!

Goofing around in Harajuku

First meal of the new year

The next few hours were spent riding the Yamanote Line in its complete loop and listening to each of the stations' jingles (lots of them are repeated!). Back in Shinjuku, we headed to an izakaya for our final stop but by then we were pretty exhausted so we called it a night (or morning).

So....January. I spent the first couple of weeks repairing myself as a person and finding my motivation again. It took a little while but I'm there. In fact, there was one rather good moment when I was in Book Off looking at English teaching books and this tiny Japanese girl (about 7 years old?) turns to me and starts a conversation....in English!
"Hey", she says, "you speak English!"
I'm a little knocked for six..."Um...so do you. Did you learn it in school?"
"No, I lived in Hong Kong for a little while..."
....I nearly cried. She was adorable, and her pronunciation was spot on. Obviously, the teaching English teaching system in Japan is a load of arse and I really feel that it needs to be reformed. Perhaps that should be my goal? I could SO teach these kids...

Next bit January had to throw at me was some exams...
Well, the German exam I had no idea was actually happening during that particular week just appeared out of nowhere and well...whoops. I basically walked into the classroom as normal (it wasn't exam week so I didn't expect anything) and I thought it was strangely quiet...The teacher opens his mouth,
"So, do you think you need any more preparation time?"
"For what?", I pipe up.
"The test..."
"The what now?" .....(doomed).

So I failed that one (luckily it didn't matter).
Next up was Japanese (the one that does matter). I revised for some time before the test. The teacher had said it would be like the other Japanese tests we'd had and they were a breeze - just a test on the new vocabulary and grammar we'd covered in the previous lessons.....lying cow.
So this test, unlike the others, unlike what we had been told to revise for and had all revised for, was not a test of our Japanese skills per se....it was in fact a test of some general knowledge that we did not know or need to know. One of the questions was a series of famous Japanese Tanka (poems in a 5,7,5,7,7 syllable pattern) with some missing words and we were to fill in these words appropriately...(WHAT??!) The part I know I aced was the grammar part (a tiny portion of the test) because this is what we were told to revise. Bah! I did well, but not as well as the other two tests (98% and 99.5%)....

So, from now until April 1st, I am tooootally free and it feels quite nice.