The last three to four weeks have been nuts: juggling study and two part time jobs has been pretty exhausting... but rewarding, and I think I have it under control now.
So the last three to four weeks, in no particular order.
University is pretty good. I'm taking advanced Japanese classes and beginners Chinese classes. Not sure about how many friends can be made out of current classmates as they all come across as too young and into different things. There was a strange coincidence in my Japanese class as there is a guy who was at the same school as me when I was sixteen. Took me a while to realize because he's grown and his attitude has apparently changed a bit for the worse since. He doesn't seem to recognize me at all - in fact he's too f***ing cool to even say hello, which suits me fine. I live content with the knowledge that I know who he is and he doesn't know who I am. I get a kick out of the international atmosphere of the place: Japanese is the only language that a Russian classmate and I can use to talk to each other. Meanwhile, the library is heaven, everything the UL at Cambridge should be: seven floors of modern facilities, total quiet and privacy. Many students go there to sleep.
Tokyo Art Beat has been pretty time-consuming work but has been the fuel to the new fire of my social life, which is a great bonus. I've met a lot of interesting people in the last two weeks and it led to me writing a short 200 word preview of an upcoming exhibition for the Japan Times, which was published a couple of days ago. Hopefully will lead to more, longer freelance work.
My photography exhibition is coming up at the beginning of June. Slightly concerned about number of things that have to be done by then, but know it will be fine.
Just came back from three well-earned days of holiday in Osaka, where I stayed with Emily. Despite it being Golden Week and millions of Japanese people thronging into the countryside we managed to go to two places that were free of all this hullabaloo. One was this mini-hike to an abandoned temple in the forest. It was literally this Alice-in-Wonderland experience: we walked to the edge of the suburbs of Osaka, down a backstreet and there the concrete ends and the woods begin. Within ten seconds the massive city had completely disappeared behind us and we were deep into this dense natural landscape - woods, mountains, rivers - psychologically a million miles away from urban Japan. I can't describe how rare and unusual it is to have this experience in Japan.
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2 comments:
"I can't describe how rare and unusual it is to have this experience in Japan."
Which doesn't make it any less special. (I'm currently in Japan, and I've had a couple of these experiences myself, so I know they're worth sharing.)
:-)
No, my fingers are still intact... it's good to be busy, but I did find my limits in the end. But I had doubts about the workload before even getting to Japan, so at least I have a good sense of what is and isn't too much to take on. Feel better now. And you, what have you been up to lately?
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