Profiscor on the Your-Japan Blog Network

Sorry for the absence I tend to get writer’s block a lot!

Happy BeLATEd new year to everyone!

I’m not really a skilled writer and I didn’t really expect people to read this, and now that they are I tend to worry if I can keep up the standard. But hey, nothing ventured nothing gained!

Also thanks to people who have posted comments along the way! I really appreciate you guys taking the time out to do so. I really appreciate it. And if you have anything you want to ask me, just e-mail me at inazumanoue@gmail.com (and no it doesnt mean anything in Japanese haha)

Anyway, the story continues.

Satori drove us all the way to their university, which I later found out to be the Nagoya Private university. It’s incredibly beautiful and all of the students get given macbooks by the uni! The buildings are beautiful and their refresh room even has plasma sreen TV’s!

Satori was always saying how he and his family didn’t have money so I wondered how he would be able to afford going to a private university since the fees are much higher.

We got to the car park and walked to one of the buildings which I later found out to belong to the language department. This place is nothing like Tsukuba dai. They even have ther own Mos Burger, INSIDE the language studies building.

While I was busy staring at the Mos Burger workers, wondering if they were students or just locals, the bell rang and a few hundred students rushed to their lessons. Satori’s friend, who I had also met in England a year after meeting Satori, came to greet us with a cheeky grin and said “You don’t remember me do you JUST KIDDING!”

He then bowed and said that he had class and skipped away.

Smith: Er,…Who was that?

I didn’t have a chance to answer because this was when Satori took us to the dining room. The weather was getting really warm now and I was starting to regret my choice of clothes…and shoes.

Yes, that’s right, ontop of everything I decided to wear my 4 inch high heel boots for this trip. Call me stupid and call me crazy but at the time of deciding to wear them, my reasoning was that “If I was going to be a stinky mess for one day without a shower, at least I’m gonna wear me some good shoes!”

And now I could feel the blisters forming. Oh well.

The dining room was something in itself. Beautifully decorated inside, and even had the local radio station playing the latest Japanese-pop through the loud speakers. Definitely in a class of its own comapring it to Tsukuba dai where the buildings have a rather socialist feel. You know, bland colours, high rise and look all the same.

The bell rang for lunch and we were joined by everyone that I had met in the UK 2 years ago from the Nagoya exchange programme. It felt really strange because the people were the same but everyone had changed so much. Satori for one thing, has improved his English so much that ne no longer needs a dictionary and can understand my spoken English without me having to slow it down at all.

Ayako is still as beautiful as ever but she has a more grown up dress sense than she did 2 years ago.

We were also joined by Satori’s Cheeky friend from before and his other even more cheeky friend who was introduced by Satori as having the “Most Interesting English”

He looked down the table, gave me a thumbs up and said “APPRECIATE!”

If you say so…!

We were also joined by my other course mate’s penpal, who during the course of meeting him in England had fallen madly (and scarily) in love with him. I mean so much so, that when he didn’t give her his university residence address she sent him countless gifts through the univeristy Japan Centre once she had returned to Japan. She’s really nice other than that. And really rich.

She seems to have changed now though, and didn’t mention him once.

Lastly, Satori’s friend Yasu came and sat down with us, though I think he had to be persuaded by the others since he probably had other plans this lunch break. When I met him for the first time he struck me as having too much of an interest in women, and according to Satori, puts on an act around them making them believe he’s a gentlemen, when apparently he’s really not.

I got that impresson when I met him in England too. He gave me his e-mail address out of the blue even though I had only met him once.

Satori, being the nice guy he is, always struggles to say nice things about Yasu, but never says anything bad.

Lunch was almost over now, and for once I didn’t mind all the stares from the other students. It almost felt like we were the cool kids, sitting at the cool table at lunch time. …As cheesy as that sounds. But I did enjoy the attention.

Next up, Satori took us on a tour of the university as we waited for Ayako to finish her classes for the day. She would have to go to the station later and today, since Satori had his dad’s car, he offered her a lift and it’s 40 minutes by car from campus.

Satori told us how happy he was to crack a “Little Britain” joke and have people understand it and he did this the whole day.

We waited for Ayako in the foyer of one of the buildings and I took some photos while chatting with Smith and Satori, and ask expected there was a Little Britain joke every 5 seconds.

While I was enjoying the view of the lake that this particular building overlooked, Satori said something about people at this university having so much money and I asked him how he was able to pay for a private university since he had said before that his dad cannot afford the fees.

Satori told me that he had been given a bursary by the university and would only have to pay them 100,000 yen for all his years of study. My respect for Satori suddenly shot up, though dont get me wrong, It was already high before.

The bell rang and Satori eagarly pointed out the foreign teachers passing by. I pretended that the prejudist American teacher talking down to one of the students didn’t bother me and nodded and smiled. Perhaps a defence mechanism to deal with a sometimes ignorant, xenophobic race, but I can’t stomach it. It makes my stomach turn when I see, usually middle aged overweitght professors taking out their frustrations on people who dont deserve it…But people will be people I suppose.

After dropping Ayako at the station, Satori took Smith and I to see our coursemate doing the same programme as us, but in Nagoya instead. They’re doing their projects at Nagoya public university which is quite famous in its own respect.

Satori took us to see one of our coursemates who then showed us round his halls of residence and his area of the univrsity. At first, when I heard that they have amazing luxurious halls with air conditioning and an ensuite shower I was jealous, but upon seeing everything with my own eyes, I realised that I wouldn’t trade the fact that I could go to Tokyo pretty much whenevr I felt like it, for this pile of bricks and mortar.

I realised that it meant more to me than living in luxury. I’m stilly young and I can slum it for a few more months and then live in the comfort of my own home and then English university accomodation when I get back.

Seeing my coursemate was like a breath of fresh air. It reminded me that England and my university really wern’t that far away and I could hack it here and I could do this thing!

We spent ages talkign in the foyer of their halls of residence and little by little all of the people at lunch turned up and we decided that we should go to dinner at one of the places nearby which apparently was very good.

By this point, my feet were killing me and I knew that my body was exhausted, even though coffee was keeping my mind awake, but by this point it just all seemed worth it, seeing everyone and getting to see Satori before he jets off to England. I really just wanted him to know that if he neede anything my family would happily take care of him, since he was really going there not knowing anyone.

Next up, the clan finally decided that we should get going to the restraunt since Smith and I only had a few hours left before we had to catch our bus back to Tokyo, so after a short walk we arrived at the place at which my coursemate likes to frequent. Satori had been oddly quiet at dinner, but he had been up for almost as long as I had and had also been driving us around the city so I didn’t blame him for being quiet.

Oddly enough, my Nagoya coursemate’s favourite place was a Chinese one. I had never had Chinese food in Japan and was wondering if it would be different to the taste of Chinese food we get back in England. Though when I’ve been up for more than 24 hours I tend to lose my appetite and didn’t fancy trying anything new, as antisocial as that sounds.

I don’t remember the topic of conversation at dinner ebing ery interesting. It seemed like all the people were being forced together and didn’t really want to be. I kind of felt like this was because of me and since Japanese people are polite like that they would just grit and bear it.

Once dinner was ending and I gave Satori my food to finish, since he was still hungry and my stomach was disagreeing with my choice of food, the Nagoya students joked about dinner being on Satori and everyone laughed except him. Instead he quietly finished my chaahan, got up, went to the counter and paid the bill.

Suddenly everyone looked at each other and seemed regret making that joke. I got up and asked Satori if it really was okay. Satori always mentions that he doesn’t have that much money so paying for 7 people’s dinner including his own must have cost him quite a bit. Though when I asked him he insisSted that it was fine and he wanted to thank me for making sure that he would be okay in England and nomatter how many times I insisted, he wouldnt take my money, nor anyone elses for that matter.

So as our time in Nagoya was drawing to a close, I felt as if I had done the right thing by not choosing Nagoya. The city itself wasn’t for me. I believe every city has a certain feel that either goes, or doesnt go with your state of mind. Sure Nagoya’s a real city, different for the tourist-proof Tokyo, but it still wasn’t for me.

The air was still warm outside as we walked back to the residence halls and after saying goodbye to the others, Satori, Smith, myself and our other coursemate drove into the centre of nagoya. By this time Ayako would have finished her part time job at the bank and would come and meet us in the station.

Satori found a parking space nearby and we walked to the station. Though my feet were telling me that it wasnt near enough! Satori told us that he forgot something in the car and ran back. He told us to carry walking to the station and he would catch up. Smith and our other coursemate talked to each other about something, but I wasn’t paying attention. I wanted to take in the back streets of the city. For me, coming to a new place and taking in the life is the most important thing.

I watched the cars go by and the backstreet clubs signs light up. There was also some kind of show in the background because they had big trouper lights shining up into the sky, and I could see them reflect on the clouds.

Satori caught up and we arrived at the station but about an hour early for our bus, so we enjoyed the Nagoya Station christmas lights and I got a few nice snaps of them. I was in survival mode now and I was really uncomfortable and tired, and actually looking forward to the overnight bus.

Standing outside the station, laughign and joking, it felt really nice to have seen Satori again and I couldnt help but think about the future and wonder if Satori and I would stay friends, and wonder what that would be like.

Satori helped us locate our bus company and stayed with me and Smith still they called out our bus number. It was time to say our goodbyes. Though when I said goodbye to Satori he handed me a bag and said.

“Do you remember back when we were in London? Back when we were in Trafalgar Square, and you handed me a bag…A really heavy bag with the dictionary and thesaurus I couldnt afford in it?”

(It was nothing really, I had some money set aside and it broke my heart every time he looked at them at bookshops trying to learn all he could before we had to leave, so I did what anyone would do!)

Then Satori handed me the bag and said “We’re even now yeah?” and waved me goodbye, leaving me there stunned.

I quickly joined Smith in the queue and got on the coach, we found our places and sat down and I opened the gift. A pair of the most beautiful Converse shoes I have ever seen, with a comic strip design all over them and a girl on one of the shoes who looked like menext to a speech bubble saying “They are so cool! I love you Converse!”

I looked at them, and then I looked at Smith…And then I burst into tears. (Don’t ask, it’s a girl thing)

Smith then told me to stop crying as he was so touched as well that he was on the verge of tears too. I kept thinking, and still do think that I don’t deserve them. They really are so beautiful.

So there I am, sitting on a late night bus to Tokyo, with a pair of converse in my lap, looking at them and crying. Definitely a moment to remember…!

(And yes, everyone was staring at me, before you ask)

Trackback URI | Comments RSS