Our life in Japan in five photos
To mark the fact that we have been living in Japan for around 250 days, I roped in Wil to contribute to another one of my posts. For this post, we have both picked five photos each that depict life in Japan for the each of us. This is not our favourite five photos of our time in Japan (as they would be impossible to choose) but photos that best capture our lives here.
Qiraat’s Five Photos
Beyond the metropolis
Countless mountains with magnificent peaks (that I have no desire to climb), dense forests, rolling hills, fast flowing rivers, lush fields producing delicious rice, clear lakes, active looming volcanoes, impressive and not so impressive waterfalls, steaming hot springs and even some pleasing beaches mean that Japan has more than its fair share of scenic spots.
We spend a lot of our time outside of Tokyo in a very deliberate attempt to see as much of the country as possible. This photo represents our trips to see the abundance of nature that Japan has to offer that we are very lucky to be able to see. There is no denying that I am a city girl (you should see my efforts to pack for a “trip to nature”...my essentials include safari hat, thermal top covered in gold spots and a shocking pink raincoat with lipstick to match) but I do really value our trips out of the city.
Japanese culture
This photo represents getting acquainted with Japanese culture be it through visiting shrines and temples (and learning about the difference between the two!), going to bombastic festivals, eating Japanese cuisine, visiting museums and galleries, or just good old people watching.
I think I take in most festivals and cultural events at a superficial level without really appreciating their significance.
Genki 1 - Japanese textbook
This was my first Japanese textbook (I’ve not spent enough time with the second one to have taken a photo of it) and this photo represents the time and effort I have put into getting to grips with the basics of Japanese. I feel like a total genius when I understand a single word I hear a passer by say or recognise one of several thousand kanji on a sign but that is only 0.001% of the time and I am totally clueless the rest of the time but I will take that 0.001%!
Japanese is consistently mentioned as one of the hardest languages for English speakers to learn (no one seems to have written an article about the hardest language for Urdu speakers yet) so the struggle is real but I have enjoyed it most of the time. I seem to have attacked learning Japanese with more gusto than lots of people I have met who are only here for a short amount of time.
But right now I am having a love-hate relationship with Japanese. I am seriously beginning to wonder how much time and money it is worth investing in learning Japanese. This is because realistically by the time we leave my Japanese levels will still be pretty basic (i.e. I will be able to have transanctional conversations but not the sort of conversations that really enable you to get to know someone and become friends) unless I choose to invest all my energy in learning Japanese.
If anyone reading this has lived abroad for a relatively short amount of time I’d love to hear your view on learning the new language.
My smart phone
This photo of my phone may seem a bit boring but it represents how ridiculously reliant I am on having a smart phone to aid daily life in Tokyo. Navigation, translation apps, researching where to go to when in a particular area, taking photos and instant communication with everyone back home are all made effortless because I have a smart phone.
Most of these activities are things I used a smart phone for when I was at home in the UK but life without a smart phone would still have been relatively easy but having one just improved and made things simpler. But in Tokyo I feel my smart phone plays a different role - it is an enabler that lets me to do things that I would have otherwise have found difficult or daunting. It feels like a necessity and facilitates my life here far more than I had imagined or realised. To be honest, I feel assured and confident that should something go wrong I’ll be far better at sorting it out or asking for help if I have my phone on me. Plus it means I can use Instagram.
The Guilt Baguette
Put simply, in Tokyo I am a twentysomething (for now!) on a career break trying to have as much as fun as I can. I was finding it hard to select a single photo that summed this up. Contenders included photos of (i) days out with friends, (ii) one of the many cafes that I have been to that fall into the category of “a little bit too nice” and (iii) my attempts at Japanese arts and crafts that my mum would insist on displaying if she could get her hands on them. But I settled on a photo of the Guilt Baguette.
You’ll no doubt be wondering “what is a Guilt Baguette?”. No, it’s not a baguette I eat when repenting my sins although that should totally be a thing.
The Guilt Baguette is a term I coined for the baguettes I started buying for Wil on my days out. It was not something I intentionally sought out to do but I just found that when I’d be out enjoying myself, whilst Wil was at work, I’d stop at bakeries I passed to see if there was something I could take home for Wil. Wil loves bread and so a baguette with a perfect crust was an ideal little present. So although I am out and about having loads of fun, I feel a tiny constant pang of guilt and that is why nothing sums up my lady of leisure lifestyle better than the Guilt Baguette.
Wil’s Five Photos
Work
Unsurprisingly, one of the main features of my life in Japan is the reason we are able to live here at all - my job. This means I spend most weekdays in and around Otemachi, the financial district in central Tokyo. Fortunately the area is impressive in its own way - with skyscrapers to rival American cities, the well preserved main railway station and the eastern edge of the Imperial Palace gardens (one of the largest green spaces in the city). Combined with my welcoming team, this means that works is less of a chore than you might imagine!
Bakeries
Before coming to Japan, you are unlikely to be aware that it has the best bakeries in the world. While the quality is consistently high, it is the sheer variety and inventiveness of the goods which makes them stand out. Every one is stacked with enticing and questionable flavour combinations, animal or seasonally themed items, and densely packed breads. The main challenge is not over-indulging given their ubiquity across all corners of the country!
Driving
Japan has excellent public transport in cities but if you want to make the most of the rest of the county then it pays to get behind the wheel. The landscape is littered with natural and man-made sights, with the verdant mountains and sweeping coasts making the drives an attraction in of themselves.
As such, whether in Kyushu in the south or Hokkaido in the far north, we have covered hundreds of kilometres in our small but mighty hire cars. (Fortunately Japan also drives on the left so minimal learning curve for me, and Qiraat can focus on being the resident DJ.)
Heat
Having arrived in the midst of Tokyo’s coldest winter for 50 years and the enjoyed a few months of pleasant spring weather, I think I was complacent going into a Japanese summer. A lifetime living in the UK does not adequately prepare you for 3 months of “35 degrees, feels like 45 degrees”, with many days pushing higher than this. We just had to come to terms with dripping with sweat about 10 minutes after leaving the house (unless you can deftly hop between air conditioned trains and buildings!) I have never looked forward to autumn more keenly!
(NB. This was actually one of Japan’s worst summers on record, and some other parts of the country were even worse hit. Given the aging population, a significant number of deaths attributed to the heatwave so we are conscious of keeping perspective when complaining about our day-to-day annoyances.)
Photos
Photography has always been one my favourite pastimes but moving to Japan has really allowed me to take it to the next level. Armed with my phone and a new camera we indulged in when we arrived, I have set about comprehensively cataloguing our life in Japan. Fortunately Japan offers a wealth of photogenic moments, from densely packed cities to stunning natural landscapes, so the challenge is choosing when to put the camera down rather than struggling for inspiration!
Setting the scene for as I wrote this blog:
Location: I started writing down ideas for mine in a mediocre Indian restaurant in the Roppongi area in Tokyo and Wil wrote most of his sections on the train from Tokyo to Twitter.
Weather: It is still warm!
Soundtrack: Hmm, I have no idea what Wil was listening to but for the bits of mine that I wrote at home I tried listening to the UK top 50 playlist and it was terrible - a true sign that I can no longer call myself a “twentysomething” for that much longer.
Bonus fact: We are going to the Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix soon. It is the 30th race at the Suzuka circuit - depending on how it goes, I may do a separate blog on it some time soon!
