Verbs beginning with K

Almost every verb I have learned so far in Japanese seems to start with 'k'. So far we've accumulated kakimasu, kikimasu, kaemasu, kaerimasu, karimasu, kashimasu, kakemasu, kimasu, kakarimasu, kaeshimasu and kirimasu. It's getting beyond a joke.

I now have a sofa and fridge! I'm gradually approaching the point where I have most of the things I need. Still on the list, though, are a shelving unit on which to put my rice cooker, kettle and (yet to be bought) toaster, a folding dining table and a rail to turn the futon cupboard into a makeshift wardrobe. I also still have tons of jobs to do - many of them lingering from the list at the weekend (whoops!). Once it's looking a bit better I shall take some pictures and put them up here.

Fuji-san and 'illegitimacy'

I am now the proud owner of a washing machine. It has glue scabs on top but I love it anyway. I am a little alarmed that the only connection involved appeared to be jamming a flimsy-looking plastic hose onto a tap that comes out of the wall, and a bit of plastic that looks like it's been stolen from a vacuum cleaner being shoved into a plug in the floor. I always thought this kind of thing had to be done by a plumbing professional, but the removals guy who delivered it was perfectly confident to connect it himself. On his head be it if my kitchen floor floods...

Little-known fact of the day: under the Japanese constitution, children born out of wedlock in Japan (the word 'illegitimate' is used prominently) are entitled to only half the inheritance rights of those born within a marriage. Astounding. That and more came as part of a lecture on the koseki system of family registration, which took a little while to get going but was actually a really good insight into various aspects of the politics of personal identity. In Britain I had never really connected issues such as gender status, surnames, inheritance and shotgun weddings, but in Japan it's possible to connect them all through analysing how the family registration scheme works. I am profoundly grateful that I never have to fill in the form (unless I naturalise and become a Japanese citizen), apart from anything else because it looks fiendishly difficult to understand.

I know it's still over two months away, but I wondered if anyone had given thought to what's happening at New Year? I only ask because someone mentioned New Year plans earlier today and I got to pondering what I'm doing, given that it will be one of my few appearances in the UK in the near future.

We had a very exciting moment in morning break today, when we trooped up to the rooftop of the school building and were rewarded with a startlingly clear view of Mount Fuji looming over the buildings in the hinterland between it and Tokyo. Lots and lots of places claim to have this view, but it's quite rare to actually see it - it tends to be visible only in the mornings and in exceptionally good weather. There was (apparently) a typhoon somewhere off in the Sea of Japan, which caused a day of continuous rain and wind here in Tokyo yesterday. I can only conclude, with my distinctly limited meteorological knowledge, that all the bad weather was somehow used up and we were left with clear blue skies... geographers (or those better informed than me), enlighten me, please...

Also, is it bad that I've now gone to the same cafe for breakfast enough times that they know my order without having to ask? I feel faintly profligate but justify it to myself on the grounds that I do study as I sip my espresso and blood orange juice (not at the same time), and also because I have yet to have a fridge that works, though that will soon change. I fear that now the rot has set in, I might just carry on going there on the way to school.

Final plea: any suggestions for which iPhone apps I just can't live without? At present I'm intrigued but bewildered - any suggestions welcome.

Dubious noodles

So much for my saying more was coming soon... apologies for the delay. I did temporarily lose my laptop power cable (I found it cowering under a duvet at the back of the cupboard), if that's any consolation.

I'm distinctly underwhelmed by my air-conditioning-cum-heater thing. It's meant to be two in one magic (or so the estate agent said), but it's suddenly got all autumnal and cold here and the machine is not cutting it so far - it hums and flashes but the air is definitely not 22 degrees Celsius.

I also had one of the first bad experiences of my 'order something you can't read and see what you get' strategy of ordering off Japanese menus. I knew it would be udon noodles, because that's all the restaurant did (though I think I overheard the couple next to me ordering tempura... jealous!), and it had the word 'miso', meaning soup, but beyond that I hadn't a clue. It came with two white slabs, about an inch across, two inches long and half an inch thick, which didn't taste unpleasant but equally didn't taste of anything much. The weird thing was the texture - they were really chewy, but in a Chewits kind of way - they stuck to your teeth and were a bit hard to swallow. Given that the other ingredients in the noodle bowl were pork-based, I have a horrible feeling that they were bits of lard. Having never eaten slabs of lard before (the one time I nearly did, in Spain, I was so freaked out by the bristles I found in the soup that I had to dispose of it all immediately), I can't be certain, but still, not so good. There were also scallop-sized white globs which were soft and tasted quite nice. At the time I fooled myself into thinking they were some kind of shellfish, but in retrospect I think I was in denial - they must have been more succulent fat from some other part of the pig. I guess that for what it was it was well-made - it's a really cosy little husband-and-wife restaurant, and everything smells delicious - and the broth that the noodles were in had a real depth of meaty flavour; it's just a shame about the pig fat.

I had to have coffee and cake to recover. Tokyo is blessed with lots of exquisite little patisseries, and in Higashi-matsubara there's one which doubles as a very nice tearoom. The lady running it was lovely, but the French labels on the cake were evidently an affectation: attempting to order 'gateau de pommes et noix' got me nowhere, so I had to resort to getting up and pointing. There seems to be an unwritten rule that all slices of cake in Japan must have a wrapper made of silver foil covering all bits of the cake that might have been in contact with other slices. I don't understand why, but I applaud the ingenuity of using muffin cases in a clever origami fashion to wrap the cake up. Those of you who have seen my attempts at origami will know that cake-wrapping is another career that's not for me...

I have a to-do list on my desk and it's glaring at me. So far I've done five and a half things out of twenty-four. I recognise that this does not represent good progress. I think I'll try to do most of the cleaning-related things today - spurred on by a cleaning-products-buying binge in the 100 yen shop (think Poundland but so much more), I'm in the right frame of mind. Assembling the flatpack bookcase and trying to get a bin system going to cope with the extremely complicated recycling rules might have to wait.

Right, I should go and do something productive, preferably from the list... though I also have a shirt to iron in preparation for meeting the current and previous chairmen of Daiwa Securities (the bank who put up the money for the Scholarship) tomorrow after school. Lots of bowing will be involved, I should have thought. We also have to do a brief self-introduction in Japanese, which will be less fun, but I'm sure it will all be fine. The week after (or next week if you count weeks starting on Sundays, as happens in Japan and Oxford) I'm off for the bank holiday to the Daiwa Securities board members' corporate retreat in Hakone, next to Mount Fuji, complete with its own luxury onsen hot spring bath...

Two kinds of pilgrimage

Apologies for the long delay in writing this - the internet won't be connected to my flat until Thursday, and although I got an iPhone on Sunday, I don't yet have the necessary precision in my fingertips to write a whole blog post with a small touchscreen keyboard!

Lots has happened since my last post - Victoria came to stay for a little while, and we went to Tsukiji fish market and Nikko. I've wanted to go to Tsukiji for years - I remember visiting the Sydney fish market in 2005 but nothing compares to the Japanese version, the biggest in the world. It's all over at Tsukiji by 11am each day, and to see the best of it you need to get there very early. We arrived at 7.00 and a few places were already packing up, but we still saw a lot - it was astonishing. There were tuna as big as me lying on enormous wooden slabs, being sliced up with massive band saws - I've only ever seen those used for woodwork before, never fish! As we walked past, an eel two feet long with a deep gash in its neck wriggled at us... there were gigantic crabs, blowfish, lobsters and clams live in tanks. Everywhere you walk there are miniature electric trucks zooming around you - crossing an aisle means taking your life in your hands. After we'd looked around for a while, we went for a sushi breakfast - the best sushi I've eaten in a very long time. It's not cheap but the fish is the absolute best quality, and the fish spills over the rice in very generous portions. The restaurant we were in was very quiet so the chef (in a mixture of slow Japanese and bits of English, with lots of pointing and other gesticulation) explained what everything was for us and dressed some of the sushi for us. The sea urchin (uni) was wonderful - I'd never tasted it before, and its bright orange colour and gloopy texture didn't initially seem all that appealing, but it had a rich marine flavour and was just delicious. Pictures to follow if I can purloin them from Victoria when I see her next month. I'm already planning a trip back, perhaps in time to see the legendary tuna auctions this time, although that would mean getting there at 5.00am, before any of the trains start running... I appreciate that my getting up this early may seem somewhat unlikely to you, if you've seen me struggling to get to 9.00am lectures, but I think I have it in me if it comes with a sushi reward.

Nikko was gorgeous - a pilgrimage town about two hours north of Tokyo, it's set amongst wooded mountains at the edge of a national park. The annual autumn festival was on Saturday - 800 people dressed in various traditional costumes, including samurai-wear and a few people dressed as 'evil magistrates' (that was how the English-speaking announcer described them, at least), some riding stallions, paraded up the hill from the town to the biggest shrine complex at the top of the hill. Victoria and I managed to nab a prime viewing spot right next to the main tori (ceremonial gate) so we could see the whole thing coming up the hill. The shrines themselves were breathtaking - there was a curious mixture of majestically large things, like the ornate inner gate at Toshogu (which is also the mausoleum of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the shogunate that ruled Japan for 250 years until the Meiji restoration of 1868) and very delicate things, such as the wooden carvings of 'see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil' monkeys. We also visited the Rinnoji Buddhist temple which was serene and beautiful. Again, I wish I could put some pictures up - coming soon, I promise! After a solid few hours being dutiful tourists,　we felt we deserved a treat, and the Rough Guide alerted us to the former holiday home of an American diplomat, which is now a very smart teahouse. Proper strong coffee and very good chocolate gateau, taken on the terrace looking out over a garden filled with trees that were turning golden for autumn, was the perfect end to a great day.

More when I get the internet in my flat - stay tuned...

Another day, another enormous misunderstanding with comic consequences. We were role-playing the buying of cake in a patisserie - a very important situation to be able to cope with - and the teacher, Ueno-sensei, was pretending to be the customer. I was supposed to be the shopkeeper, but didn't grasp that from what she said. She beckoned to the front of the class, but in the Japanese style, with hands flapping downwards, which I mistakenly thought meant I should crouch on the floor... she looked absolutely horrified. I did ask in English what I was meant to do, because I know she speaks excellent English, but she's not allowed to use any English in the classroom, so just replied in Japanese that I didn't understand, hence my reading of her gestures as 'get down!' rather than 'get cake!'...

The typhoon came and went with no consequences in Tokyo other than a windy start to the morning on Wednesday. There was more damage elsewhere in Japan, and I think a few rail lines were temporarily closed around here, but I saw nothing different at all. There's been absolutely gorgeous Indian summer weather ever since the typhoon - we've (not very scientifically) concluded that the low pressure of the typhoon has sucked up all the nasty rain, leaving us with beautiful sunshine. Any geographers out there who can tell me if that's true?

I've booked internet connection for my flat for 22 October, which means I'll only be without a connection for just over a week. In that time I'll have to make do with internet access at school, which shouldn't be too bad. I'm planning on getting a mobile phone that can send emails quite soon, so I'll pass on new contact details forthwith. I also have Skype - max.irving - do feel free to call me (though not at 4 in the morning, please).

It's been a productive few days food-wise as well. Yesterday we had a wonderful lunch of okonomi-yaki, which is a filled pancake with cabbage, egg, spring onions and a range of toppings - I had pork and mixed shellfish, which turned out to be luscious fat scallops, morsels of cuttlefish and an enormous king prawn - cooked in front of you on a hot plate, served with a spatula and dressed with garlic mayonnaise and special sauce (like a thick mixture of Lea & Perrins and hoisin sauce). Today we had a classic (by British standards) curryhouse lunch, with amazing all you can eat enormous naan bread, pilau rice and some very good mutton and lentil curry - they had more familiar-looking things as well! I had thought I would miss curry, as I definitely did whilst in Spain, but this place, Samrat, is a real find.

I have a language buddy arranged for me at Hosei University, whom I should meet on Monday. So far I doubt I will have much of interest to say - there are only so many things you can say along the lines of 'what is under the chair?' or 'how much is it for one slice of cheesecake?' - but it will be good to have someone to practise with.

To end, I should say that the above is a picture of us outside school, taken before we knew quite what we had let ourselves in for...

Typhoons and Turtles (nearly)

I want to start this post with a lament for my shoes. My best umbrella efforts notwithstanding, and despite having been sprayed before leaving England's temperate climes, my shoes now have a horrid grey water line about halfway up the top, from the incessant rain there's been over the past three days. Incessant because tomorrow there is (apparently) going to be a typhoon! Exciting and nervewracking in equal measure. At the end of lessons today at Naganuma school (where I learn, or at least attempt to learn, Japanese every morning) there was the standard Big Ben bell sequence, which marks the beginning and end of each class, and then an announcement in quickfire Japanese, of which the only word we understood was 'taifu' (guess). The teacher then explained that, although the typhoon is expected to make landfall tomorrow during the day, lessons would continue as normal. I asked what happened if the typhoon struck while we were there and the teacher said that, if we were in the eye of the typhoon, it would be remarkably calm and we could easily get back. Of course, if we're not in the eye of the storm then we might just have to stay in school until it clears up a bit. Great. The word is that it's unlikely to be more than a heavy rainstorm - no serious Philippines-style destruction is forecast - but still, I have a flat rental contract to sign tomorrow...

We also had an induction session and welcome party at Hosei University, where we'll be attending a series of special lectures given just for us scholars until December. It's a huge university, one of the 'big six' which are all prestigious institutions in Tokyo. I'm going to get a Japanese language buddy so we can both practise, and apparently I'll also be assigned a faculty member 'in a field close to my own' - though they're a bit worried about that as they don't really teach linguistics. I don't mind, though, it's not as if I need to go to a lab or anything like a research scientist might want to. There might be an interesting lecture or two to attend, though at this rate I won't have any time left to do anything else! Still, it's good that there are so many opportunities. It was nice to meet some students at the party as well.

This afternoon there was a lecture (another one!) given by Professor Arthur Stockwin, general authority on all things political and Japanese and one of the people who interviewed me for the scholarship. Three of us decided to be groupies and go - it was interesting, so I'm glad we did - and we got a commemorative photo in true Japanese style to mark the occasion.

I've also been alerted to a slightly disturbing trait I didn't realise I had until recently. For some reason, I seem incapable of remembering the Japanese for 'could you say that again, please?', a phrase I often need to say in class. The only thing I can normally think of to convey this is an inquisitive 'mmmm?' sound, accompanied by raised eyebrows and an upward jerk of the head. It's been compared to the gesture a turtle might make when coming out the water (?!). It's now got to the point where all five of the others crack up if I do this, which makes me forget what little I've understood of the question anyway. I'm yet to go a whole day without doing the move by mistake, but I'm aiming to have a turtle-nod-free day before the end of the week. Watch this space...

I have a flat!

Very exciting news... I won't be homeless! The landlord of the flat I liked has just got back to me and told me I can move in from Tuesday 13 October. I would have preferred it to be a little earlier, as that's the day before I have to check out from the hotel, and apparently I'm not allowed to store anything inside before that date, even though it's completely empty, but I'm not complaining (much). I'll email the address to everyone as soon as I can find the bit of paper that has it written in the Roman alphabet. I'll also post some photos if I can borrow someone's camera, so you can see the 'before' shots; once I get a mobile (which shouldn't be too long now I have an address) I can take my own photos.

Now the shopping starts in earnest... when they say 'unfurnished' here, that means you have to buy a hob, lights, curtains... Luckily I have a Japanese volunteer (who's already looked round lots of flats with me and interpreted into English) who's offered to help me buy furniture. I'm hoping to get big appliances like a washing machine and fridge second-hand through the equivalent of Freecycle.

In other news, I went to a very nice glossy shopping centre called Tokyo Midtown yesterday. They have an art gallery on the 2nd floor that specialises in 'art in daily life' - beautiful things that are also useful. The theme of the current exhibition was traditional Japanese paper, washi, which can be used for all sorts of things, from origami cranes to decorative kimono for Shinto festivals. They had some amazing Buddhist sutra scrolls from the 8th century with immaculate calligraphy in gold leaf. Incredible that it's survived this long - when I think back to what dreadful condition many medieval Spanish manuscripts are in these days, it's hard to believe things are in such a good state here.

Academic geekiness aside, I also made significant progress in one of my top priorities: the hunt for a shop in Tokyo that sells Marmite. I know I could just bring some back with me when I come back after Christmas, but there's satisfaction to be had in finding it on sale somewhere in Japan. Precce, a very luxurious supermarket in Tokyo Midtown, sells Vegemite (the Aussie version of Marmite) but not the good stuff. Still, I must be close now.

The view from Roppongi Hills

This is us Scholars, Mr Fujii (an ex-ambassador to the UK, and now chairman of the Mori Arts Museum and trustee of the Daiwa Foundation) and Kono-san, who looks after everything for us out here, on the 51st floor of the Mori tower in Roppongi Hills, the tallest viewpoint in Tokyo. You can see Tokyo Tower (like Blackpool tower in red and white) behind us. Pretty good view!