Graduationnnnnnnnn

Some pictures and blah.

Me & Emily

Oh NO the parents. 

Me & Paulina 

Vivian, Marc, Me, Paulina & Emily

Cayley, Me & Emily

Me & Grace

Ruben, Tom, Me, Vivian, Paulina & Cayley 

Hat throwing, missed the hats off though..

Kat, Marc, Me, Ruben, Vivian, Tom, Paulina & Cayley 

Too far

Emily, Stefano & Me

Ruben, Cayley, Ian, Me, Tom, Kat, Vivian & Paulina 

Recent Adventures

Well, how grand.
The University ordeal has been over for a week now, and I have done a grand total of: not much.
Applied to more jobs than I've had hot dinners with zero results so far. Not that there's ANYTHING decent out there, unless you're interested in recruitment consultancy. Which, in case you were wondering, I am not.

ANYHOW
Louise Howard's birthday was celebrated in style earlier this week;

It was all very quaint, apart from the fact I was nearly frozen into hypothermia by Hard Rock Cafe's aircon.

This, my friends, is England. No need.

Also just in case anyone cares, I rode the new horsey today. She's called Royale and is an absolute B E A U T ♥ Pictures soon oh yes. 

Oh, and AND.
At this exact time in exactly one month, I will be in the Leeds o2 Academy, stood in front of  MORRISSEY!!!!!!

THE 4 YEAR ORDEAL IS OVER

My last exam was this morning.
GOOD BYE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER.

Useless degree: check.
No job prospects: check.
Massive overdraft: check.
Waste of time: check.

Lets all get on with our lives.

one down, one to go

Well, only one exam left before I finish university foreverrrrrrrrrr.
I'm done with language now too. We had the advanced reading exam the other day. It wasn't as bad as expected; one gender translation and an essay on 不登校. Now all I have left is Japanese Theatre exam next Tuesday. In English.
 I celebrated this victorious return to not worrying about kanji by:

Chucking out a big pile of useless notes from first, second and final year,

Going riding. On my favourtiest horsey, Lady ♥

And we also all went for a jolly garden party at one of the lecturer's houses.
LOL.None of the other lecturers turned up of course. Shows the respect for us. Thank you for being the first year of mugs to take this course. Etc. Not.

Graduate me out of this shit hole!

13,178 words later, dissertation is DONE!

Yes, it has been a long and stressful week in the world of dissertation.

Thursday was a hard day in the life of many, including our house...

I finally finished writing at 10.30pm. Then I had to format the bastard; page numbers, table of contents, double spacing (which I do not believe in) blah blah blahhhhhhhh. Then we headed to print them out. At 1.30am, £12, 88 pages and lots of stress later, it was done. The next morning we had to trot on down to get the buggers bound, another £7. 

THE FINISHED PRODUCT:

Well THANK GOD FOR THAT.

Post-dissertation hand in celebrations included a trip to the pub with the chimpsquad...

....followed by a further trip to another pub with other dissertation celebrators and a few tag alongs

Cayley even consumed alcohol because of the stress. O M G

Only two exams to go until freedom. 

日本のホラー映画とハリウッドのリメーク

１９５３年に公開された「雨月物語」という映画は小説をもとにして、ホラージャンルにとってかなり大切な映画だった。この映画は浪人と迫害された女がたくさんいたので、１９６０年代の江戸ゴシック映画に大きな影響を与えた。１９７０年代の怪談ピンク映画に恨みを持つ女の数が増えてきて、伝統的な幽霊のイメージは人気が出た。江戸ゴシックと怪談ピンク映画という二つのスタイルで四谷怪談やぼたんどうろうなどの有名な怪談が使われていた。１９８０のホラーは殆どスプラッター映画だった。スプラッターとは、暴力や殺害シーンが多い映画のことで、視聴者は男性が圧倒的多数だった。しかし、１９８０年代の後半にスプラッター映画は問題になって、このような映画を見る人は実生活で暴力犯罪を犯す恐れがあると思われるようになった。だから、１９９０年代に日本の映画産業は新しいスタイルを探して、もっと心理的に怖いホラー映画を作り始めた。初めはいろいろな「怖い話」のテレビ番組が公開されたが、このジャンルの一番有名な作品は「リング」という映画だ。
この心理的に怖い映画は「Jホラー」と呼ばれて、江戸ゴシックと怪談ピンク映画と同じような幽霊のイメージを使っているが、暴力の代わりにサスペンスが一番大切な要素だ。
以前の日本のホラーだけでなく、Jホラーは１９９０年代のアメリカのホラー映画と全く違った。そのとき、アメリカでスプラッター映画はとても人気があった。普通のアメリカのスプラッターはモンスターやストーカーがいてたくさん人々が殺される。しかし、モンスターにしろ人間にしろ、結局は負けるだろう。一方で、Jホラーは幽霊や見えないものを使って、この物の呪いなどは止まりにくい。例えば、「リング」の貞子という幽霊は呪われるビデオテープを作って、見た人は１週後死ぬ。自分の命を救う方法があるが、呪いを全く隠滅するのは無理だ。この呪いそのものは本当のホラーだと私は思う。

「The Ring」は２００２年に公開されて、Jホラーのリメークの最小だった。「The Ring」は作るのに４千万ドルかかったが、興行収入で２億ドルを設けた。
この映画は最も成功したホラー映画・成功したリメークの一つだといわれている。というのは、公開のとき欧米の視聴者にとって、「The Ring」はとても新しいスタイルだったのではないだろうか。
「The Ring」の話の筋は「リング」と大体同じだったが、日本の代わりにアメリカを舞台にして、俳優はみんなアメリカ人だった。「リング」と比べて、リメークは特殊撮影が多くてもっとはっきりした筋の説明があった。「The Ring」のあと、日本のホラー映画をリメークするのは大変人気になった。この日本の映画はアジアで大ヒットしたので、リメークの成功と利益が保証された。

しかし、日本の映画とリメークのどちらの方が怖いの？勿論、人によって意見が違うが、私は６０人の意見を調査することにした。半分は日本人で、半分は欧米人だった。
調査に日本の映画とリメークの写真があって、回答者は一番怖い映画を選んだ。映画の選択は「リング」、「回路」、「呪怨」、「ほの暗い水の底から」と「着信アリ」という５つの有名なホラー映画、そしてこの映画のそれぞれのリメークだった。
全体的には、日本人は日本の映画の方が怖いと思ったことがわかる。すべての映画で日本人の回答者の５０％以上は日本の映画を選んだ。いろいろな理由が挙げられたが、一位は「特殊撮影があまりないから」だった。化粧にしろCGIにしろ、リメークは特殊撮影が多くて怖くないということだ。二位は「日本の映画の方が心理的だから」だった。見えないものとサスペンスを通じて、多くのことが想像に任せられるということだ。三位は「日本の映画の画像の方が強いから」だった。一方で、リメークを選んだ欧米人が多かった。この主な理由は「リメークの特殊撮影のほうがいいから」だった。二位は「リメークの幽霊の方が怖いから」、三位は「無気味なシーンが多いから」だった。

次、「日本のホラー映画がリメークされるのはなぜか」と６０人に聞いた。
３０人は「日本の概念などが分かりにくい」という理由を挙げた。日本のホラーは民話、伝統的な信念や死生の概念が多いが、欧米でこのような概念の意味が失われる可能性がある。
１０人は「日本の映画は説明があまりないので、分かりにくい」という理由を挙げた。例えば、「ほの暗い水の底から」という映画で、幽霊が本当に存在するのははっきりしないが、欧米人は説明が好きで、もっと論理的な映画が欲しい。
９人は「欧米人は特殊撮影が好きだ」と思って、そして６人は「欧米人は字幕が嫌いだ」という理由を挙げた。

このような結果を見ると、日本の視聴者と欧米の視聴者の好みが全然違う。日本のホラー映画で曖昧さが多くて、特殊撮影を使わないのはいいことだと思われるのに、アメリカで他のスタイルが怖い。新しい視聴者の好みに合わせるために多くのことが変えられる。

Today...

I had my last ever ever ever class!
After 19 years of sitting in a classroom, I HAVE BEEN LIBERATED.

In other news, I am actually wondering whether Steven Patrick Morrissey might possibly be God?
Consider that your thought for the day.

The 30 Day Photo Challenge, Day 30: A picture of someone you miss

MY BABY

***

And on that note, THE END of this bloody 30 photo challenge. Which clearly took alot longer than 30 days, considering I had a week where I just could not be arsed.

Anyway, I shall also take this opportunity for a good bloody rant about how crap my life is!! I can't wait to graduate. Seriously. I'll be lucky if i do even graduate though, LETS FACE IT. And on top of the fact the whole thing is a shambles, I am SWAMPED....

-Presentation for theatre class on Abe Kobo. (Yup, I didn't know who he was either.)
-Essay for the same class. On Kabuki.

-Three more presentations for reading class on academic nonsense. And one of them has to be filmed :(

-Grammar coming out of my ears.

-I still have to deal with the fact I want keigo to get out of my life.

-Another ridiculous oral exam to prepare for.

-Translation woe.

-The small matter of my 12,000 word dissertation.

Get the picture?

The only highlight of the week is horsey hour on Monday.
I want my life back.

I want my soul back.

Plzthx.

JUST FOR THE RECORD.

I cannot flipping wait to get out of this stupid university.
SICK OF THE WHOLE BLOODY LOT.
ROLL ON JULY 14TH.

The 30 Day Photo Challenge, Day 04: A picture of your night

I'm presuming this wants a picture of a typical night. This picture sums up pretty much every night out since I started uni. LOL.

東京乗馬倶楽部 The revised exam version!

留学をしていた間、私は乗馬をしたかったのですが、このスポーツは日本では珍しくそのためそれにかかる費用が高すぎました。だから、東京乗馬倶楽部で厩務員として働いていました。
それは、ボランティアの仕事でしたが、そのおかげで週二回無料の乗馬レッスンを受けられました。
多くの面白い人に会って、そして日本の職場を経験することができましたから、私にとって、本当にすばらしい体験でした。今日は、その体験から学んだこと、そして日本の乗馬倶楽部とイギリスの乗馬倶楽部の違いについて書きたいと思います。

馬房を掃除したり、馬を洗ったり、手入れをしたりすることは私の仕事でした。この仕事を通して、大切なことをたくさん学んだと思います。
まず、言葉だけでなくスポーツでさえ、国によってやり方が違います。自分の国のやり方に慣れるからといって、それは一番いいやり方や唯一の方法だというわけではありません。
例えば、仕事を始めたとき、日本で馬の乗り方がイギリスとちょっと違うことに気がついて、最初は「この方法が間違っていて、変だ」と私は思いました。しかし、自分の意見を強く主張するわけにはいきませんでしたから、思い切って新しい方法を使って乗ってみました。まもなく、もっと乗りやすくなってきて、色んな方法があるのが私にわかりました。

馬の乗り方や世話に関しては、違いがたくさんありました。

例えば、日本の乗馬倶楽部で、多くの馬はもともと競走馬でしたから、号令が違います。このような馬はテンションがありますから、より気をつけたほうがいいです。乗馬の道具なども違って、新しいスタイルに慣れるのに時間がかかりました。

また、日本の馬産業を取り巻く状況や雰囲気が違うのもわかりました。
イギリスで、馬に乗る人々はお高いとよく言われています。それはいつも本当ではありませんが、イギリスの馬の世界ではイメージや地位がとても大切で、お高い人が多いと思われているのではないでしょうか。
多分、どこに行っても、このような人がいますが、イギリスの乗馬倶楽部と比べて、日本ではとてもいい雰囲気があり、東京馬術倶楽部でみんなは仲良くやっていて、私を快く迎えてくれました。

多くの人は「外国人にとって、日本の職場に入るのは大変だ」といいます。大企業について私は全く知りませんが、仕事を見つけ、東京乗馬倶楽部に入るのはあまり難しくなかったと思います。もちろん、言葉の壁があって、特に日本語の馬の専門用語は大変でした。でも、みんなは馬が大好きだったからこそ、はやく溶け込めました。
このように、私は東京乗馬倶楽部で仕事をすることによって、たくさん大切なものがわかるようになりました。
イギリスと日本の文化は違っていて、乗馬でも相違がたくさんあります。初めてちょっと変でしたが、今その相違はいいことだと思います。
私の国で馬が好きな人はステレオタイプが多いですが、日本でそのステレオタイプはあてはまりません。
さらに現在の日本の職場についてのイメージは一般化されすぎているのではないでしょうか。だから、「本を表紙で判断してはいけない」ということわざは本当にそのとおりだと経験を通じて実感しました。
私は東京乗馬倶楽部で多くの優しい人に会ったり、すごい馬にたくさん乗ったりしましたから、生きている限り、この経験を忘れることはないでしょう。

a rare update.

I love it when I forget I own a blog for 2 months, then come on for a sweeping update at 3 in the morning.
WHERE TO START?
I'm back in the UK, but you already knew that.
I'm in the world's COLDEST fucking house in sunny Manchester. Honestly about -20 in my bedroom.
I have a pet!
Meet Peanut, the 6 month old Russian Winter White dwarf hamster!

She is small. And fat. And rather noisey after hours.

What else?

Well I went to MONKEY FOREST with my crew.

My crew (freezing their bottoms off in Stoke-On-Trent) just incase you want to visualize it..

Unsurprisingly, we saw monkeys. Many, many monkeys.

What else what else?

Oh yeah, I quit my job at Wetherspoon.

Basically because I was sick of being taken for a slave.

University, of course is disgusting. I hate dissertation. I hate writing essays. I hate having to have an opinion on things I don't have an opinion about. (And for someone like me, who has many opinions, such a case is rare.) I WANT TO BE A FIRST YEAR AGAIN!

And, someone from Keio sent me some long awaited pictures of Northy :(

WANT HIM NOWWWWWW



Hanami & exciting times

We went to a Hanami festival in Nakano this evening.
It was nice but a bit bloody cold. Don't know how these sakura are surviving.

My rather exciting moment is that today we discovered that aside from Keio University's ridiculous sports club riding society (the kind where you get up everyday at 5am to train), there is also a Horse Riding Circle. They ride once a week, for a good price and the best bit is.... they ride at Tokyo Riding Club!!!!
This means, I GET TO SEE NORTHY EVERY WEEK.
I AM EXCITED.

Last day at Tokyo Riding Club

My 6 month placement at TRC finished this month, today was my last day there.
It was quite sad to say bye to all the horses, I will miss them. Yes, all 46 of them, even those that dribbled on/ mauled/ attempted to assasinate (delete as applicable) me.
I'll be going there for some riding lessons though, so I will see them all again.

For my last (free) ride, I got to ride....
wait for it......
NORTHY.
What absolute sheer and utter luck. I was praying for it all day, and it happened.
He was my first ride and my last ride there :)
He was as good as gold, as usual.
We had our photo taken....

Yesterday, I had placement test for second semester at Keio.
It was... ya know, test-like. Easy in some parts, stupid in others.
Hope I didn't do exactly the same as I did on it last semester, or I'm in for a bollocking come Friday, when we have to go to meetings with our tutor.

Isn't it Easter soon?
I don't even know when it is. It could be today for all I know. (Except, you know, its a Tuesday, not a Sunday...)

Lots of fun information..

So I'm just going to post a lot of useless information. Which might be useful, for those people who didn't get to Japan yet.. I dunno. Whatever, I'm bored. Jetlag doesn't allow sleep.
So I've been here nearly a week now, which is always the part with the most effort because theres so much frigging paperwork and stuff to do! Keio University LOVES paperwork.

Paperwork >(
The day after I arrived I had to go in to the university for an orientation meeting. This was basically to register as a student, get student card blah blah blah. It involved paperwork.
Once that was all done I had to go register with the ward office. Finally I worked the subways out and trotted along. Interesting Japanese conversation that was, but we finally got there. The office check your passport and visa, and then give you a sort of certificate, to confirm you've done the alien registration. (Because it takes about a month to get the card..) With the certificate, you can then open a bank account and get a mobile phone.
So, that was my next job. There was tonnes of Keio students at the bank, so they were pretty much ready for it! Didn't take long to do this, fill in the forms and get the bank book, now just waiting for the bank card, which takes about a week. Mobile phone was pretty much the same procedure. Fill in the forms.. choose a phone.. be very confused about how it works for the next year :D

Culture Shock?
No. Still waiting. CULLLTUUUURREEEE SHOOOOCKKKK WHHHERRRRREEEE AAARREEE YOUUUU? Since everyone in England and America is convinced that you'll get culture shock. I really haven't. I guess knowing stuff about Japan helps.

Getting around..
Really isn't difficult as I thought it would be. The subway maps look daunting, but really, they're not too bad.

23 days until Japan

On the 8th of September I'll leave for Japan. I'm going to Keio University for an academic year, to study Japanese, as part of my degree. So, from now this blog will probably be about though. Hmm I don't know maybe it will be useful for future people, and I probably should have started it sooner. But anyway, I'll record plenty of useful (?) shizz on here. Maybe it would have been nice to have something similar to read myself. I don't know.

Anyway, so I've done with my first 2 years of Japanese Studies at Manchester University, and I'm ready to go. My Japanese? Hmm, I'm pretty confident I can survive. My dictionary will probably come in handy at first! But I'm not particularly worried right now. My written is definitley better than my spoken, but no doubt that will all change soon.

This whole process started quite early on in my 2nd year at Manchester, when we had to start thinking about where we wanted to go. This being the first year for Japanese at the university, there was only 16 of us going, so there weren't that many universities on our list. There were 4 in Tokyo (Keio, Meiji Gakuin, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies & Rikkyo), two in Osaka (Osaka University & Kansai Gaidai), Kobe University and Kyoto University.

So four cities, but it wasn't a difficult decision- I decided long, long ago that I was going to Tokyo. I was determined.

We were given an application form and we had to number the Universities from 1 through 8, 1 being our top choice, 2 our second, and you get the picture. Keio was my first choice, followed by Meiji Gakuin, Rikkyo and TUFS (yes, you get the picture, it HAD to be Tokyo!) Then we all had to write an essay, explaining why we had chosen the university and the city in question. I waffled about all sorts of things: the reputation of the university, where I had friends in Japan, the fact my university had horse riding facilities, the fact the area was good for my dissertation research... You name it, I thought it up.

It was several months later, after Christmas break, that we got our placements. Our residence abroad tutor at Manchester allocated our places. It went off grades, attendance, and where he felt we would be best suited.

I got my first choice of university- Keio! So I was pleased. In most cases there were a few places at each university. It was only Kansai Gaidai and Kobe where there would be one student from Manchester placed. No body seemed to worried though.. everyone was pretty happy with their placements.

BUTTTT it wasn't that simple. Our tutor had chosen where he thought we should go, now all we had to do was apply to the actual university themselves. Ahh more paperwork. How I love paperwork.! /end sarcasm>
Each university had different forms, so once we got them it was just a case of filling them in. Grades, previous employment, reasons we wanted to go to the university.. And the first visa application form. This was just general details such as date of birth, address etc that would be sent to our university, so they could then send us the Certificate of Eligibility.

It took a while for all this stuff to be processed, and everyone waited with baited breath to see if they had been accepted. Ofcourse everyone was, so it was all fine! I was also chosen for a JASSO scholarship by Keio University. This is a sum of ¥80,000 on arrival, and then ¥80,000 per month- thats around £500- which will definitley come in handy in and around Tokyo!

The next thing I had to do was apply for accomodation. This was pretty simple- they sent a guide to all the different accomodations, and I chose a shortlist of 4 that I would be happy to live in. Most of Keio's accomodation is actually in Yokohama, the city that borders Tokyo (kind of like Manchester and Salford, I guess?) There was only one decent looking accomodation in Tokyo- a place with 35 international rooms in Setagaya-ku. I put this as my first option, but as expected I didn't get it. I did get my second choice though- Shimoda Student Village, in Kohoku-ku, Yokohama. I wasn't really bothered at all- Kohoku-ku is very close to the border of Tokyo. I'm sure it will be fine. It isn't TOO far from the university campus in Minato-ku. The accomodation is mosty international students, self-catered and ensuite. That will do me :D

Once this was done, all I had to was wait for the University to send the Certficiate of Eligibility. This certificate basically gives you the okay to get a study visa. The certificate arrived early August, and then it was off to London to apply. That only took a few minutes. Now I'm just waiting for the visa and my passport to be posted back to me. It only takes 3 days.

So moving on from all the hassley part. Hm, I don't really feel scared.
I mean I guess I will be a bit apprehensive at first. But whatever, it will be an adventure.
I guess I'm excited about all the different people I'll meet. And all the places I'll go in Japan.
And my dissertation research. Haha is that sad? I'm defintiley excited about doing that. Im going to be looking at how traditional Japanese ghost stories and folklore have influenced all the J-Horror films in Japan. I'm hoping I might be lucky enough to get an interview with Hideo Nakata (director of Ringu), as one of my tutors has contacts. I'm also making steps to contacting Takashi Shimizu (director of Ju-On/ The Grudge.) If I can get an interview with him, I will fricking SCREAM. The Ju-On/ Grudge series is my absolute favouite as far as Japanese horror goes, and I fear I probably do have a slightly unhealthy obsession with it. I don't know what it is about J-horror. I've never really been scared by horror films, and don't have much time for most of that American crap. Japanese horror is a whole different kettle of fish though compared to all that slasher rubbish. It doesn't really scare me, I just think its kind of fascinating. Is that weird? Sorry.

So what will I miss?
Obviously I'll miss family and friends and stuff. But I guess I'll be kind of prepared for that already, as I have been living away from home for two years now.
It will be weird to think that my university friends that aren't in Japan (ie my housemates over the past 2 years and othe friends I've made) will still be in Manchester, and graduating before me! But thats life, right?

I'll miss my friends from outside university too. I suppose I better mention good old LOUISE HOWARD, loyal commenter of this blog so far. And of course Rachel Taylor. What am I going to do when I can't be here to witness her prom? Known this lug since she moved in next door to me aged just SIX YEARS OLD. Oh my how she has grown ='] I'll miss our trips to Morrisons too. LOL. Most people go on days out to nice, quaint places. We go for a day out to Morri'z.

I suppose I'll miss Manchester.
YES MANCHESTER. With its rain and its grimey streets. I'll miss those random days out in Gorton, thinking we're up market! I guess I'll even miss Rusholme. Don't think I'll miss the pigeons though.

And what else? Well I think you can guess whats coming next.
I don't CARE what people say, I will miss this pony so much I don't even know what I'm going to do without her. Well someone better sure as hell take care of her.
I just pray to god shes there waiting for me next year when I get back! Even though she probably wont even notice I'm gone. Apart from the distinct decrease in carrots and polo mints, maybe ;) Special Little Pony ♥

Anyway I'm sure this is quite enough for now because I've been waffling for quite some time. I shall update again soon, I'm sure you're all so excited to follow my adventures!

Finally some research I can actually be arsed to do..

So I just started my research on Japanese ghost stories, folklor and J-Horror for my dissertation. Although the main bulk of it shall be done from September, in Tokyo. Anyhow, you better pray I don't get cursed, people :) And lets hope I get my interviews with Hideo Nakata and Takashi Shimizu! BYE.