懐かしいなぁ

Today’s been quite...nostalgic. I can’t tell whether or not that word sounds natural in English anymore. It’s one of those words I never said before learning Japanese, but you end up saying and hearing the Japanese equivalent - 懐かしい - a lot when you’re in Japan. The literal translation would be “nostalgic”, or more naturally, “brings back memories”.

Today’s been nostalgic for a few reasons. I bumped into an old friend from my Japanese class earlier and we had a good chat. Then to kill time before playing football tonight I thought I’d visit the Arts Tower as it’s been recently refurbished. That’s where I had all my Japanese classes in first and second year, and it hasn’t changed much, just looks a bit newer. The paternoster lift is back working again so I had a ride on that. And right now, to kill time again, I’m sat in Western Bank Library computer room, the very place where I wrote my application to JET in fourth year.

Learning Japanese at Sheffield Uni was always a lot of fun. The language itself is interesting and kind of obscure, but back in first and second year there was also our study-abroad in Japan to look forward to. It was always a great motivation to make sure we knew our stuff.

Lately I’ve been considering whether I want to go back to Japan after I’m finished with this masters course. I am enjoying life in the UK at the moment, but it does lack that excitement you get every day in Japan. By now the novelty factor with things like British food and football has mostly worn off, but I am still enjoying the things you miss out on when you’re not here. I’ve been enjoying British TV a lot lately, and I’m also going to loads of gigs. I only went to one during my year in Aomori.

Also, the cherry blossoms are starting to bloom here in Sheffield. Again, this is something I would never even notice had I not been to Japan, but there it’s a really important time of year. To most British people the cherry blossom is just another tree, but when I see one it reminds of Japan.

I spend most of my time doing things that aren't related to Japan at all, but when the country has been such a big part of my life in the past, I think it's good to be reminded every now and then.

Big London trip

On Tuesday everyone on the Broadcast Journalism course went down to London.  Every year the department organises a trip to the capital so the students can visit various organisations and hear from a selection of speakers.

After arriving in London around lunchtime we dropped our things off at the hostel the department had booked for us.  It was actually my first time staying in a hostel.  I've visited friends at hostels but never stayed in one myself.  There was ten of us in a room and we decided to spend as little time as possible in that room.

In the afternoon we went to the Guardian offices at Kings Place.  The foyer was adorned with props and costumes from this advert, and we ended up hearing a lot about the paper's concept of 'open journalism' during the afternoon.  We heard from the Deputy Editor, Head of Multimedia Production, and from the Mobile Editor and Web News Editor, both of whom are ex-Sheffield University students.  Now I am doing a course in broadcast journalism and the Guardian is a newspaper, but they do place a lot of emphasis on audio/visual content.  Also, they're generally at the forefront of online journalism and are looking to halt production of the physical newspaper and move to exclusively online within the next few years.

As I said, we discussed the idea of 'open journalism', which is basically a style of journalism that places emphasis on interaction between the journalist and the readers.  I was impressed by the speakers, as they all seemed to be wanting to create great journalism above anything else, and the fact that they are owned by a trust rather than a private company gives them the freedom to do this.  They may not be the most profitable newspaper at the moment but it seems like a great place to work.

On Tuesday night we had dinner at an Irish pub, then, as one of the group was an Arsenal fan, we went to watch the Arsenal game at a pub on Euston Road called The Euston Flyer.  There was a great atmosphere and great beer and food.  After that we returned to the hostel and had a few more drinks in the bar there.  The whole place felt like an episode of Byker Grove as it was filled with 17/18 year olds and the decor was extremely bright and garish.  There was a table football there though and we enjoyed playing that.

The next day we were up early to visit the Houses of Parliament.  In the morning we got a tour, then watched prime minister's questions (on TV), then heard from a variety of speakers including MPs and political editors/advisors from the broadcast industry.  I'd visited once before in secondary school, but I really enjoyed visiting again, and especially learning about the storied history of Parliament.  We take the practices of Parliament for granted, but they're actually a result of centuries of various events and evolution.

In the evening we returned to The Euston Flyer to watch the Tottenham game as one of the group was a Tottenham fan.  After it finished we returned to the Irish pub for a few more beers, then back to the hostel bar and played some more table football.

On Thursday morning we visited BBC Television Centre in White City, and while this was probably the part of the trip I was most looking forward to, it turned out to be the most disappointing.  Compared to the Guardian offices, the BBC offices felt quite dull and a bit shabby.  This probably wasn't helped by the fact that many of the BBC's employees are in the process of relocating to MediaCityUK in Manchester.  We got to see the desk used for the BBC News at Six though and heard from a few different employees.  But again, compared to the Guardian there was less of a sense of creativity and innovation.  More than one speaker said the BBC is traditionally slow on the uptake of new ideas and that meant they hadn't fully implemented systems that use things like Twitter yet.  The Guardian has and is ahead of the curve on such things. We were also told that landing a job at BBC Television Centre could take years and a lot of working for free, which is not something I'm necessarily prepared to do.

In the afternoon we were free to do as we pleased and a group of us went to Regent Street.  We went to Nike Town and played on their massive table football and then visited Hamleys, and played more table football.  We then travelled to Covent Gardens and had a beer before returning to The Euston Flyer in the evening to watch the Sporting Lisbon game, as one of our group is a Sporting Lisbon fan.

We all caught a train back to Sheffield around 9 and arrived back in Sheffield around 11.  On the way back my mate realised he'd left his suit jacket at The Euston Flyer, so he gave them a call and told them he was part of the group who'd ordered lots of sandwiches and beer over the last few days.  They said they'd gladly post the jacket to Sheffield for free. What a pub.

All in all it was a great trip, but it's funny how good it felt to be back in Sheffield after only being away for a short time.  Maybe it was the lack of sleep I'd had or the fact that I knew I wouldn't have to pay London prices every time I went out, but as soon as I stepped out of Sheffield train station I could smell the fresh air and it was great.

And then on Friday I had some good news as my voice was heard on BBC Radio 6.  The Forge Radio station manager was on the Steve Lamacq show to take part in a feature called 'Universities Challenged' and they played a highlights package from the station, which featured myself.  You can hear it here.  Pretty cool.

Finally, today marks one year since the Tōhoku earthquake.  I was lucky to be in Aomori and not experience the damage and destruction that other areas of the country did.  You can read the post I made after the quake here.  It still amazes me just how well Japan pulled together after the quake, tsunami and nuclear disaster, and hopefully the lessons learnt will make the country safer in the future.

The past week

On Monday night I went to see my mate's band at Soyo in town. They're called The Lion Works and they're a combination of The Smiths, U2 and Arctic Monkeys. Each song had a different vibe though and the guitars and vocals were especially good.

Me and a couple of mates from uni went to see wrestling legend, Mick Foley's stand-up comedy tour at Sheffield City Hall on Wednesday. You can find my review of the show here.

On Thursday it was my band, Spheres of Chaos' first performance in over two and half years, and I'd organised the gig. We played at the Green Room in town with a couple of French acts who've been on a UK tour - seal of quality and John Makay. I've known seal of quality for a while through Gamewave and I've also released some of his music on Pterodactyl Squad. When I heard he was coming to the UK on tour I offered to put on a Sheffield date, and the whole event turned out really well. We had about 40 people come, there was some great music and it was good to get back together with the SoC guys. The Green Room have even asked me to put on a monthly night.

Last night I went to the Steelers game with a mate from uni who covers the Steelers on Twitter for a service called Sheffield Breaking. We both got a free media pass to the game and afterwards we filmed an interview with Steelers player, Rod Sarich.

Star Wars in 3D

Last night I went to see Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace 3D at Cineworld.  Everyone knows TPM was a huge disappointment, but it's still Star Wars and I thought the addition of 3D was a good enough excuse to go and watch it again.  The podracing and final lightsaber battle were the best scenes for 3D, but as the film wasn't originally designed with 3D in mind there weren't that many moments when it was used effectively.  I'd rather watch a film in 3D than not in 3D though.  The most enjoyable moments of the film are still those that look forward to the future of the saga, such as Obi-Wan meeting Anakin for the first time.  Qui-Gon is also a great character.  But some things like the accents of the Neimoidians, Jar Jar and the wooden script make you wonder what Lucas was thinking when he made this.

The whole experience reminded me of when I went to see Episode III at the same cinema.  I went to the midnight showing with some friends, then went back later on the same day with some other friends and we took our lightsabers.  It also reminded me of when I went to see The Empire Strikes Back: Special Edition in 1997.  That was a re-release of the original and the way I first got into Star Wars.  I'm sure these 3D re-releases will introduce a whole new generation to Star Wars in the same way.

I'll probably give Episode II and III a miss, but I look forward to seeing IV, V and VI in 3D.

Offline

After finding my Game Boy Advance SP and all the games I started playing Pokémon Gold. I chose 'CONTINUE' when the game loaded and found myself in the middle of a game that I half remember. I remember all the Pokémon in my team but I don't remember how I got to where I was and how much of the game I'd completed. After playing it again I still think Pokémon is one the greatest games ever made, and I even found my N64 and Pokémon Stadium 2 so I might load my team up onto that and have a go. 

We only just got internet at the new house today (I've been using an Orange USB dongle to check emails, but it's too slow to do much else) so I've been filling my time with things that don't require an online connection, like video games, DVDs and books. I've been reading Roger Ebert's autobiography, Life Itself and in it he describes growing up in the 50s and 60s and how simple and slow-paced life was back then. Without the internet I've actually enjoyed leading a slow-paced life myself, and I've made the decision not to waste that much time on the internet like I used to.

Uni started up again this week. We got straight back into things on Monday by learning how TV news works. We were given a quick explanation, then we all had a go at working the camera and sound, controlling the autocue and presenting. It was enjoyable and quite different to radio news as, unlike radio, you have someone in your ear telling you to speed up, slow down or smile. 

On Tuesday a guy called Paul Kerley came from the BBC to talk to us about audio slideshows. I went in to the lecture not knowing whether it would be useful or not, but as Paul showed us some of his work and explained how slideshows are unique to the web and exist somewhere in-between radio and TV, I came to see their function. Making an audio slideshow involves a bit more than just choosing some photos and music, and we've got to make one as part of our assessment this year. That should be fun. Here's one example of Paul's work for the BBC.

Moving house

So we finally moved into our new house on Wednesday.

Me, my bro and my sister actually moved out of our dad's on January 27th, but we couldn't move into the new place for four days, so we took all our stuff to our mum's one bedroom flat. It was comical how cramped it was.  There were mattresses, boxes and bin bags everywhere and it looked like a hoarder lived there.  There was just enough room for my brother to sleep on the sofa, but I went and stayed at my aunty's place. My sister stayed at her boyfriend's.

After moving all the stuff to my mum's on the 27th I went to Manchester in the evening to see TNA at the MEN Arena.  I wrote a review of the show for a wrestling blog and you can find that here.  It was great, even if we did spend a lot of time on the road both there and back.

Staying at my aunty's was good. She's one of those people who cooks a lot, so I ate some great meals there.  Then February 1st came around and we moved all the stuff from my mum's flat to the new house.  Other than looking on Google Street View, neither me or my sister had actually seen the house until we turned up to move all our stuff in - my brother and mum had done most of the house searching.  It's a three-bedroom place with a dining room, and I have the dining room as a bedroom.  It's quite spacious.  Although I forgot how much stuff I have. When I went to and came back from Japan I had very little with me, but through this move I've been reunited with a lot of stuff that I'd left at both my dad's and mum's houses.  A lot of it isn't worth getting out the boxes, so I've just shoved the boxes in a corner along with my drum kit, which I haven't unpacked either.  I toyed with the idea of selling my drum kit, but I figured I wouldn't get much money for it so it'd be better to hang on to it.  I don't think I'll be setting it up here. I will be practicing with my band, but we can do that at a practice studio in town.

I'm working quite a bit over this weekend and then I'm back at uni on Monday.  Signups for Forge Radio are on Monday as well, so I should be starting up with Gamewave again soon.

Exams and essays are over

I had my last of two Media Law exams yesterday.  It took a lot of effort to revise for these as the subject matter is so dry and factual, but I should have passed both. The lecturer did make the module about as interesting as he could, spicing things up with controversial court cases and celebrity gossip, but I'm glad we won't be doing law again next semester.  My essay for the Ethics and Regulation module is also done, so I'm free now until classes start again in two weeks.

This short break has come at a good time as we're meant to be moving house this week. We've found a house in this area and we're just waiting for references to come through now.  I'll be moving in there with my brother, my sister and my mum.  It's good we're staying in this area as it's halfway between uni and Pizza Hut - ideal.

I'm looking forward to this Friday as me and a mate from uni are going to Manchester for the TNA 2012 Maximum Impact IV Tour.  Sting and Kurt Angle will be performing, and it just got announced that Hulk Hogan will be there as well, so it should be a great show.  Speaking of wrestling, we also have tickets for Mick Foley's stand up show which is coming to Sheffield City Hall at the end of the month.  Then the day after that my band has our first gig.  I'm booking a show in Sheffield for a mate who's coming over from France, and I thought it would be a good excuse for my band to have our first gig, so we'll be writing and practising hard over the next few weeks - we've only had one practice up until now.

First post of 2012

New Year's Eve was fun. A British friend from my time on JET had come back to the UK for Christmas - he's still working in Japan on JET - and he came up to Sheffield for a friend's house party. As he was in town he wanted to meet up and invited me to the party. I hadn't met the girl whose house we partied at before, but she'd studied at Kobe University the year after me and is working as an English teacher in Kobe now. That meant we'd lived in the same halls and had some mutual friends. It really is a small world when it comes to British people in Japan. A few of the other people at the party had some connection to Japan, and there were a couple of Japanese people there as well.

It was good to talk Japanese and talk about Japan for the first time in a long time. Since coming back from Aomori in August I haven't spoke much about Japan. To be honest, talking about it on NYE got me itching to go back. There was one guy at the party who's starting an English teaching job in Osaka this month, even though he's never been to Japan before. He's gonna have a great time. As for my Japanese ability, it's still there but it's very rusty - I had to think for a second for words which were once second nature.

Preserving my language ability is one reason I'd like to go back. I always remember when I was in Kobe us exchange students went on a trip to a college for older folks and we all got to talk with the students there for quite a while. They gave us some advice on life, and one of the guys told me about how he used to be fluent in English but he stopped speaking it and now he can't speak it anymore. I don't want that to happen with my Japanese ability, and I don't want to lose touch with Japan. It's been an important part of my life for the past few years and if I were to never use my understanding of the country or my Japanese skills again I'd be losing something I've worked these last few years for. So 2012 started with me thinking of returning to Japan.

For now I have my masters to deal with, and this past week I made a start on the essay for a module called Ethics and Regulation. It's as boring as it sounds and I attended less than half of the lectures, so it's been strange writing an essay without having learnt much on the subject. I've done quite a bit of reading though, so the essay's turned out OK. Once it's done I'll start revising for the law module - I have two exams on law - then the new semester begins again at the start of February.

Living arrangements for the coming year are still up in the air - I don't know where I'll be living come February but I'm gonna have to find something soon.

The Pixar Story

I recently watched a documentary called The Pixar Story.  For the most part it focuses on John Lasseter who's the creative genius behind Pixar.  He's had a fascinating life, starting off working as a sweeper at Disney's  Tomorrowland, getting a job as an animator at Disney, being fired for being too daring, then starting Pixar which was eventually bought out by Disney.  He's come full circle as he's now Chief Creative Officer at Disney and has also overseen the running of Disney's theme parks.

As the documentary points out, Pixar is something of anomaly - every one of its films have been a huge success.  It's also been a game changer, moving Disney and many other studios away from traditional animation to computer-animated films.  The reason for Pixar's success has been the studio's zeal and dedication to creating something that's high quality and will stand the test of time.

Watching The Pixar Story you see the melding of technology and art and how this led to the formation of Pixar and the phenomenal success of computer-animated films.  You also get to see an artist follow through on his passion and create something that millions of people can enjoy.

Christmas 2011

Christmas this year was a lot of fun and made up for my sub-par Christmas last year.

It started with a long lie-in, then after I'd got up I walked over to my mum's place where my brother and sister were. My mum cooked us all breakfast and then we opened all our presents. Notable things I got include a Star Wars wallet, some books I'd been wanting, PJs and a Mick Foley action figure.

At around 2:30 we went over to my aunty's house, which is nearby, and enjoyed a couple of beers while watching Jingle All The Way.  By around 5:30 Christmas dinner was ready and my aunty had cooked a feast which has to be up there with the greatest meals I've ever eaten.  For the first time in a long time I ate so much it physically hurt my stomach, but it was worth it.  After that we drank some more, listened to Barry Manilow and played Scrabble.  We rolled home around 11, full and happy.  It was great to see my mum have such a good time.  She had drank quite a bit of wine but I hadn't seen her laugh like that in a long time.

Today I was back at work at Pizza Hut, but it was strangely quiet.  The weather this Christmas has also been a bit odd.  It's really warm in Sheffield for this time of year, so no snow.  It's an interesting vibe.

I'm working every day for a bit, but I'm off for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.  I have a friend coming up to Sheffield for the 31st and we should be going to a house party.  He's a British JET CIR who's still working in Japan but he's back for Christmas. Haven't seen him for a bit so it should be fun.