This is Nagasaki

So...the plan is to go to Nagasaki with my Seminar III class on the 21st/22nd November, which I'm pretty excited about!!

Nagasaki isn't too far away from us here in Kumamoto. This once little harbour village grew into a diverse port city and became a major Imperial Japanese Navy base during the First Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese War. However, it is the nuclear incident which Nagasaki is well-known for.

During World War II, Nagasaki was subject to a nuclear attack, along with Hiroshima, due to it's importance regarding it's wide ranging industrial activity including the production of ships, military equipment etc. The atomic bomb, nicknamed "Fat Man", destroyed the north of the city and killed around 40,000 people at 11:00am, 9th August 1945. In total, it said that around 80,000 people were killed by the bomb by the end of 1945. Six days after this detonation, Japan announced it's surrender which ended the Pacific War, and therefore WWII.

Since then, the city has been rebuilt with new temples, and churches (due to the increase of Christianity in this area) along with memorial structures etc. However, some rubble has been left as a memorial like the One-Legged Torii Gate.

Nagasaki sets a strong example of perservearance and peace.

Sight seeing spots include:

Nagasaki Peace Park

Gunkanjima

Glover Garden

Mount Inasa
Dejima

Sofukuji Temple

China Town

Kofukuji Temple

Confucian Shrine

Dutch Slope

Oura Church
Meganebashi Bridge

I am really interested in seeing the Peace Park, Gunkanjima, the view from Mount Inasa, Oura Church and the temples and shrines (ok so pretty much all of it! Yayyy exciting!)

Typhooooooon

昨日、日本に「メロウ」と言う台風が来た。イギリスでは普通台風は来ないので、私は楽しかった。しかし、熊本を通りすぎたので、私は少しざんねんだった。でも、台風が来なかったことであいかわらず日本はあんぜんだからよかった。

Computers in English Task

今日はヴィキーとみき

とりょうとゆきが一緒に熊本で二つの神社にさんぱいした。神社はおもしろいやきれいを思

った。ここでたくさん写真を取った、みきくんは神社について説明した。初めて行った神社は、牛追いの神がいる神社。次の神社には、味噌の神が住んでいるということだった。神社を見ることが楽しかった、多く見たい！

あとで、よしのとゆきとヴィッキーは一緒に　Ouchi Cafe で昼ご飯を食

べた。野菜カレーを食べた。まじおいしかった。このレストラン一押しする。サービスは早くていいで食べ物が安かった。
みんなでありがとうううう！楽しかった！

Seminar III ... Office Hours

On friday, myself and some friends from the dorm and Japanese friends visited a restaurant for some food and drink. On the table next to us were a group of people who appeared to have come straight from their job at an office to this restaurant where they drank lots of beer and downed shots, all encouraged by their boss.

To me, this seems bizare. In England, drinking vast amounts of alcohol in this manner would more thank likely be frowned upon rather than encouraged. Also, it is very rare that people would socialise in this way with people they work with.Don't get me wrong, people do go out if they work together and there are office functions, but it seems to be in a different manner.

One of the Japanese friends who was with me commented on how they don't like this part of Japanese culture and that they would prefer to work in England where socialising and work is more separate. In Japan, it seems that working hours run till late at night, and even if you are drinking, I would have thought you would have to be in a 'professional' state of mind as you are with your boss, or maybe I am wrong?

From seeing this it made me curious as to how businesses function in Japan, and what is classed as 'office etiquette'. Personally, I wouldn't like to get drunk in front of my boss, but if I had this attitude when working for a Japanese company I wonder whether this would hinder my job prospects and relationships with colleagues and my employers.

Round 1!

金曜日時に天気がよくなるレストランに行った。らめんとぎょうざを食べた。おいしかったね。後でビールを飲んだ。隣のテーブルにもビールを飲んでいる会社員達がいた。たくさんビールを飲んでそして声が大きかった。それを考えさせられた。仕事はイギリスより日本に異なっている。
過ぎの日Round 1!に行った。大好きね！ここでたくさん物ができことがある。テニスをしたり、ローラブラードをしたり、ゲームなどをした。もう一度行きたい！

Seminar III 自己紹介 and 今日の議論

自己紹介
始めましたカーリーです。熊本学園大学の２１歳留学生です。イギリスから来ました。リバプールジョンモーズ大学で専門は日本語と国際ビジネスです。私の町は「ノチンハム」と言います。今年、熊本に住んでいます。楽しみです！熊本が好きです！日本で旅行したり日本語が上手になりたいです。友達になりたい人は、会った時に「こんにちは」と言って下さい。よろしくお願いします。

Hello, my name is Carly. I am 21 year old exchange student at Kumamoto Gakuen University. I am from England and study Japanese and International Business Studies at Liverpool John Moore's University. My hometown is Nottingham, but this year I will be living in Kumamoto. I love Kumamoto! Whilst in Japan I would like to travel and become excellent at Japanese! I'd like to make lots of friends so if you see me please say hi!

Today's Discussion: ...................

Our topic of conversation initially came from Alexa who noticed that Japanese people tend to look at us foreigners weird, they may point and laugh, giggle under their breath. Sometimes they stare in shock, or look at us in disgust. There are varied reactions but the fact is, from just being a foreign student in Kumamoto, we will get reactions just by walking down the street.

My friend Kie is from Thailand and also studies Japanese. She had an amusing experience when asking where a shop was in Camitori, Downtown. She approached a middle-aged woman and despite asking directions in Japanese, the woman actually ran away from her. I think experiences like this we must not get offended, as it is just the langauge barrier and unfamiliarity that may intimidate non-English speaking Japanese people. And besides, it was hilarious to watch! However, I can't help to wonder that the situation would be very different in England. Due to our multi-cultural society I don't the the above incident would have occured.

There are other occassions when small children have wispered 'gaijin' and giggled amongst each other, sometimes they say 'hello' and its very cute, and they are always surprised when we answer back especially in Japanese. Yes, we are walking AND talking gaijin :o) However,adults seem to be slightly hostile and seem to just stare at us because we look so strange.

An interesting point was raised about the school education system and because pre WWII English classes did not exist, the older generation (70/80+ year olds) are willing to talk quite happily to us once they realise we know some Japanese and don't attempt to speak in English. During my homestay weekend I stayed with a family, including the grandmother who also lived there. She was so pleased to just be able to speak to me, although here dialect was very difficult to understand so conversation was limited! Below this age range there seems to be an emphasis on Japanese people having to talk English to a foreigner, and so the stress on this would obviously cause anxiety about their own langauge skills and may feel inadequate to talk to foreign people, therefore resulting in someone running away! The sad situation is, I want to speak Japanese!I'm here to learn and speak Japanese, and I really don't want people to be scared of me :o( I'm nice really!

Rainy Days 雨の日

最近たくさん雨が降った。イギリスを思い出した。傘を買わなければならなかった。晴れて欲しかった！それから、授業後に帰った。つまらなかった！