Hitoyoshi Trip: Sunday

Sunday morning.... much time was spent [in my case, at least!!] recovering from the night before, eating and drinking half a barracks' worth of vittles to try and stave my hangover and cleaning up.

We got a taxi about 10:40 to Sengetsu Shouchuu Museum. One warning... HOLD YOUR NOSE WHEN YOU ENTER! The place stinks! However, it was quite interesting seeing how shouchuu was made. Ironically, having some tasters helped quite a lot.

After that was the samurai house and the remains of Hitoyoshi Castle, which I found really interesting. I actually want a samurai house like one we were shown!

At 12:30, those who didn't raft either got lunch form a restaurant whose name I've now forgotten o went to a combini.

 I tried some kind of basashi and had cold soba noodles, which were much nicer than they actually sound.

After a small kerfuffle getting all our tickets and luggage sorted out, we got the SL steam train from Hitoyoshi to Kumamoto. I slept, ate shouchuu ice cream and gazed all around at various intervals.

The only really bad things I can think of is that we didn't get more than one chance to get to go to onsen and that on Saturday night, we didn't realise we weren't supposed to drink the wine :/... Anyway, really glad to have donn this and sorry for not beingn there last week

Hitoyoshi Trip: Saturday

As part of this class, we went on a trip to a place called Hitoyoshi, stopping at Arase and Kawabegawa along the way.

Firstly, Arase Dam (see below).

Our guide, Mr. Nakashima, runs a group lobbying against the dam that may or may not - although most likely never will be - built in Kawabegawa. He told us about how sweetfish were dying out in Arase because - thanks to the dams - the water can't flow properly so the sweetfish get lost and die because they have no idea where to go.
 However, good news! A 'fish ladder' (WOT) had been built so fishermen could still practise their livelihood....but for some odd reason there was no water in there at all as far as I could see.

After that - and a long ride up a high mountain road *turns green*, we stopped off somewhere to have a look at a little island and hear some more from Nakashima. Apparently, people used to live on it, but in reent times it's more often than not submerged due to the increase in silt in the river.

This done and lunch bought, we made our way along more high mountain roads (X&) to Kawabegawa. We went there as there's been a lot of controversy in Japan about whether to build a new dam or not for the past 40-odd years, and it's not over yet.

I'll attach a document Nakashima-san gave to us in another post explaining more about it.

In Kawabegawa, villagers have been made to move from low down in a valley to somewhere higher up due to the Japanese government's plans. Most of the buildings left down below are to do with industrial building, I think.

This done, we made our way to Hitoyoshi Craft Park, where I had a go at making a keyholder. Didn't turn out brilliant as it was my first time doing something like that, but I'm pleased with the results. Some other people made rings or knives.
 _:_:_
Everyone tried to make their way to the Akikake Gymnasium (where we'd be sleeping that night), but got a bit lost on the way.

However, we made it there in the end and the rest of the evening was spent relaxing; volleyball [which I was dire at, but no matter], TV and karaoke were just some of the choices of activities on offer.
 All good fun.
Except I got WRECKED and had a huge crying fit [for reasons I'm not going to go into]. Still, people here are genuinely nice so that's cool.

Hitoyoshi

Just thought I should say that I'm rather looking forward to Hitoyoshi. You probably already know I'm not doing the rafting [due to extra cost, even with it being good value on the time front], but I'm looking forward to seeing the town and - hopefully! - making something.

One thing, however.... if I make a knife, would Customs allow me to bring it home?!

Whale Wars Addendum

As much as I enjoyed that episode, I thought that it didn't go into as much detail about the whaling situation in Japan as I think it could have done [no mention of embezzlement or bribes].

However, I did like the fact that Japanese whaling and environmental activists are both criticised.

Also, I'm not entirely sure how Hiroshima and whaling would be connected in real ife, or even if they ARE actually connected.

_:_:_

Just reading an article on Japan Today (here: http://japantoday.com/category/entertainment/view/cove-star-calls-on-hollywood-to-save-dolphins) and I'd actually like to see The Cove. Wonder if there's any way to do so [I assume it's not out on DVD or anything yet?]

Whale Wars

NOW I think I know why it's so bad to kill whales... or at least, part of the story why!

I know this article's only from Yahoo! News, but nonetheless it's pretty cool to know that something as base as whale poo can help our planet: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20100616/tsc-whale-poop-fights-climate-change-stu-c2ff8aa.html

The title for this post comes about from the name of a reality TV show in an episode of South Park.
 _:_:_

The story: One of the kids (Stan) is at a whale and dolphin park for his birthday treat and a whole pile of Japanese randomly kill all the dolphins and whales there. Stan is so upset about how the day went that he goes to his three best friends (Kyle, Kenny and Cartman) to tell them of the problem, only to find that they're playing a videogame where you are part of a band, complete with insturments for controllers.
 This video shows how apathetic/uncomfortable the kids are in response to the issue [WARNING: Some bad language, but it's only 1:30 long. Sorry about the bad quality, but I didn't upload this myself]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5whxrvlb4Q



After that, Stan tries to get his friend Butters to help him with the cause. Butters says no but tells him about Whale Wars, an [apparently real!!] US reality TV show about an environmental activist group who try to prevent illegal whaling. Stan joins them, is unimpressed with their 'stinky butter' 'weapons', lights a flare gun and sinks the ship.
  As Whale Wars becomes more popular, Kenny and Cartman join Stan just to be on TV.

A battle between the Whale Wars team and the team for another reality show - Deadliest Catch - ensues, with the three children being cptured and taken to Japan where they learn from Emperor Akihito that whaling is done in retaliation for the Hiroshima bombs and shows Kenny, Stan and Cartman a doctored photo of a fighter plane with a whale and a dolphin on board. Stan declares that as a fake and shows then Prime Minister Hatoyama the 'real' photo.... with a cow and a chicken on the plane instead.
 In the end, the Japanese go on a rampage killing lots of cows and chickens and Stan's dad congratulates him for making the Japanese "normal, like us."

Mental Health

I have a friend who may be bipolar or have clinical depression and I've noticed that in the university publications that us 留学生 had delivered to our home addresses before we came to Japan, there is no mention anywhere of counselling, and I have absolutely no idea how they'd be able to get get help if they were to come to Japan.




Just from what I've generally observed through watching the news; reading newspapers et al is that mental health is generally kept quiet about, which makes me think that it's more than likely a taboo subject out there.

I think it would be a very interesting topic to cover - if indeed a complex one - although the fact that there could be some painful issues brought up makes me think that it might be best to leave it out for now.

Something slightly more relevant coming up soon....

1b: Communication's Lost Addendum

I should mention that I alwasy find conversation a sruggle because there's more often than not at least one word I don't understand, but I never have writing materials on me when this happens [and no,using my phone hadn't occured to me!!] and I have such a bad short-term memory that by the time I try to file this one word/conversation away in my mind, it's lost in a black hole *spooky echoing voice* forever.

2: 敬語の悪夢とほかの健吾の礼節

ついて、このポストは敬語ではなします。

イギリスに敬語がありませんよかっただよ！！そして、礼節の意味合がありわけではないんです。真正直のような言うにしろ、礼節の争点で思いましたことはないんです。

私の知っ ている限り, 英語は特定の礼節のような単語がありませんの同じように日本語があります。

フランス語の礼節の謙語にもだけ本当に二つの「あなた」があります： "vous" [ブー] は "君たち、あなた" に等しいで言葉と"tu" [テュ] は "君" に等しいで言葉です。このテーブルで見てうださい： http://www2s.biglobe.ne.jp/~cama/france/lecon/lecon3/tu_vous.html


礼節の質問はずいぶん複雑です。　ほかの謙語の礼節はだろうか。

1: Communication's Lost

Continuing with the communicatino theme in class, I'm going to mention a few more experiences of communication problems I've had.

_:_:_
Firstly, an incident that happened last Sunday. I was at a festival with my choir club and all the other choirs of Kumamoto [the 60th one, apaprently]!
After rehearsals - which were from 9-6 and before which I'd had no time ot clean my teeth or wash or really do anything to make myself look vaguely presentable - , some people took bikes into town while myself and about 3/4 others took a bus in.

 On the way to the bus, I remember a conversation taking place between myself, the senpai and another member, both of whom were asking me whether I had a busy schedule. I remember saying that I'd planned on going home at half 7, but the senpai said something like "Heeee-eeee? But it starts at half 7".
 Apparently everyone was going for drinks, and I'd thought it would be a relatively peaceful (?!?!) 1 or 2 before heading home, which I would have had enough money for along with the bus there and back.

I just remember being in an utter panic and responding with the first thing that came into my mind because I thought not responding at all would be very rude. So I ended up saying I was going to go along for drinks.

HOWEVER.... when we got into town, it turned out that EVERY SINGLE PERSON who'd been at rehearsals that day was there and we were going for tabenomihoudai; but [in my mind at least] nobody had told me this.^

In the end, the only thing I felt able to do was fake a stomachache. The senpai from choir accompanied me on the bus all the way back to university and gave me a hug before I went upstairs to bed.

I felt a little bad that I was missing out on all the fun of tabenomihoudai, but frankly I'd been stressed enough at rehearsals without having to sit and talk and drink with a load of people who I'd never met before and would perhaps never meet again.

^ One thing I should add is that as part of being Aspie [I may or may not have mentioned that I have Asperger's Syndrome in a previous post], change and routine disturbances are not always appreciated.
 I can ususally handle change to routines and if something ends up cancelled at the last minute, I might get annoyed for a few minutes but then calm down and understand why.
 However, in this case as I was stressed about finances, my inability to speak Japanese, being so scruffy and being on a big stage in front of a load of people, I found that something was bugging my eye in the lifts on the way up to the tabenomihoudai place.
 Then there was the fact that I spent most of the time while I was there hiding in the toilets and calling a friend in tears.

_:_:_

I did tell a couple of people that I didn't have enough money to do much but I don't think they listened.  Or maybe my attempts at vaguely hinting I wanted an early night missed.
 But I'll tell you something I learned that day:

• Slow DOWN. Don't respond straight away with the first thing that you believe makes sense to you and the other party in a vain attempt to be polite - stop and think, even if it maybe means having to pull out a densji jisho in the middle of the road or something.
• Bulid up self-confidence in speaking Japanese. On reflection, I think this is by far the biggest hurdle I have facing me.
• If you say you're ill, then you will be looked after as best as possible!

First one in a VERY VERY long time... sorry!

I'm sorry I wasn't in last week's class. I don't feel comfortable divulging the reasons in such a public space, if that's OK.

Seeing as I've not written one for almost two weeks, there's a lot for me to witter on about. So much, in fact, I may have to do several 'short' (haha!!) entries, seeing as everything I want to talk about wouldn't really fit together cohesively in one that took up the whole of your average computer monitor.

じゃ、よっし。。。。

人々＝くそ！Unless, of course, they're on Lang-8!

http://lang-8.com/13545/journals/496888/%E4%BA%BA%E3%80%85%EF%BC%9D%E3%81%8F%E3%81%9D%EF%BC%81

今ひるのゲミ・コールは、二人の女性の間に立ちました。そして、一番大切の理由はビルは私に「７時前に帰りたい」と言わしました。
そして、ビルの帰りたい時間がわからなかっただか ら、「６時」とまちがわしました。

Sadly, I don't know how to say "I didn't think people could stoop that low" in Japanese yet.. I WAS going to put 'Japanese', but of course that's unfair racial stereotyping. ALL races have a few individiduals that don't play nice.

But yeah, that really got me VERY VERY angry.

Just a little thankyou....

Cheers for coming to Rob's 21st meal on Saturday night, Masden-sensei! It was totally unexpected, but sweet of you to do so.

*sings and headbangs* Communication Breakdown, Communication Breakdown

*stands upright again* OK, so that's all I know of that Led Zeppelin song. Whoo, that felt good!

Anyway, Masden-sensei [Ummm.... what SHOULD I call you on here?] seems to have taken note that a fair few of us wanted to move on from the topic of genders, as our new topic is Communication.

I think this is quite a good choice as - although less likely to be controversial than the last topic - it's still a good wide one and has plenty of scope for differences between countries to be shown.

Several of us gave examples of communication problems;

Kie mentioned that both male and female Japanese have stood her up (no, not necessarily like a date!) despite having told her 「だいじょうぶ」 i.e. indicating that they COULD meet her, which surprised and annoyed me. I was surprised because I thought that if they couldn't go, the Japanese would just say that they couldn't go and not feel a need to give a reason/excuse.
This was mentioned by Carly.

*****

One example I gave - which I was grateful to my Mum for having mentioned to me when she came to visit in April - is that sometimes, when you ask a Japanese person a question, the response you get will be completely unrelated.
_:_
 One day in mid-late April, when I was a new kid and looking for a classroom, I walked up to the nearest student I could find, showed her my time table and asked *puts on slowly, badly spoken Japanese with excessively strong English accent which will be written phonetically here for the purposes of entertainment* 「この,クラス[extra emphasis]は・どっこ・[/emphasis]です・[emphasis]か。[/emphasis]」
The response I got was "Oh, you have this teacher? [Can't remember who it was I was having now]. She is very kind".... and then she walked away! WOT.
N.B. I know that どっこ isn't how you say "where"!

My group discussed ひつよい i.e. the sort of pervy men who categorically take no for an answer [in the context we used it for]. In Japan, it'd appear to be the case that it tends to be foreigners who are like this.

At the end of Thursday's class, we all got into a circle and had to answer a question with Yes (blue card) or No (red card), although several people also used Sometimes/Maybe (yellow card).
I put forward a question about whether body lanugage in Japan was different to that in the UK and there was a lot of discussion about gestures.
 On reflection, perhaps this question was vague, so Masden-sensei came to the rescue again and asked whether people can read body language of those in their own country. I immediately put the red card on because.... well, I struggle with reading people full stop, basically!


I was surprised, but also very relieved, to note that several Japanese people also put no to people of their own country. Misa mentioned that the Japanese do tend to be fairly hard to read as they don't show emotion as much as Westerners do.

_:_:_
Before I finish off, I think I should mention the final statistics we were shown about gender pay gaps arond the world and attitudes towards women working after marriage and housewives.

See here: http://bunkaseminar.blogspot.com/2010/05/some-statistics-about-gender-equality.html
While the amount of Japanese in full-time permanent work - rather than on temporary contracts - is decreasing all around, women are often the first ones to be laid off. *DEEP BREATH* Now, I shall be mature about this.

Also, the thicker lines on the first table show that while fewer men and women want women to be housewives, there are more women who want to be housewives than men wnating women to be housewives. Unfortunately, forgotten what the dotted ones represent now.

Although things on the work front for women are generally better than they used to be; there are still some rather large hurdles ot overcome.

The third table in the above link shows the gender pay gap in Japan to be higher than [in order of lasrgest to smallest pay gap] Germany, the the US, the UK and Sweden. This taken from looking at the left column.

Thought about it now....

I'd like to move on in a bit. Not right away, but soonish. My masochistic side is not as strong as it once was.


One thing that may or may not be discussable, but which certainly crosses my mind a lot, is decency. I'll go into more detail and include some self-indulgence whining that is so vital to these blogs in my next post, assuming nothing else especially interesting comes up in the meantime.

Yet another reminder that being female sucks!

In Thursday's class, we watched a video from the 1990s about how differently men and women were treated when doing different things.

Here are my notes made while watching it [not exactly ad verbatim for ummm..... VERY good reasons]

Video from 90s.                                                                                                   てんじょ（う）＝ceiling

If a woman wants a test drive (in the US), the salesman will insist on doing it [Citing insurance reasons].

(VERY VERY RUDE WORD THAT I SCRIBBLED OUT DUE TO PARANOIA OF ANYONE ELSE SEEING IT DESCRIBING HOW I FELT ABOUT THE CAR SALESMAN). <--だめ！！！　She got $9400.... instead of $9995.

Man gets $9200->$8900 and is allowed to drive the car himself.

No law protecting women from being pressured to pay higher price for a car.

Some private golf courses don't allow women to play.... and women are seen as less shilled than men & g pushed to later/more undesirable tee times.

Cincinatti newspaper: of course,

Previous job as manager (woman), but talked to about being a receptionist

W Men & women react differently to the discrimination faced by both genders.

Men find it hard to see the problem.

Generally assumed black president will rule before a woman will
the US [HAH! Prophecy, perhaps?]  

                                                       里心がつく　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Email tutors
                                                                                                                                                                                 Fukuoka/ bout Amakusa/


じめじめ　＝ depressing (な/の)                                                                                                                                                                                     Minamata/ Hitoyoshi
_:_:_

As pathetic as that sounds, watching that video put me in a bad mood for the rest of the day.I spent a lot of the time sat there jaw open in horro and shock, wanting to scream expletives about pathetic the car salesman, golf course owner/clerk and the man offering the job as a planning manager [I think] were.

Other things learned from class

Women usually end up paying more for things than men do

Men treated more importantly than women, generally.

Women paid less than men in some cases

_:_:_

Having got into 6 groups aftere the video, my group (Mira, Yutetsu, Shoma, Marina, myself and maybe someone else) got discussing the question of whether fashion was something we liked or felt pressured to follow.


I brokenly tried to say I felt that it worked both ways and that I tried to avoid the pressure as much as possible.
_:_:_
At the end of class, we all sat in a big cirlce like we usually do, with 3 colours of card to each person.

Bill's group discussed the question of whether the mother was more important to the children than the father or both were equally important.

I said both were equally important at the time because both parents play an influence at the time, but on reflection I'm not so sure.

On one hand, there's the common stereotype that the daddy goes out to work while the mummy looks after the children. But the there is the possibility that both parents work, or that there is a single parent for whatever reason. Or even - SHOCK HORROR *GASP* the daddy looking after the kids while the mummy goes to work.
 Of course; in these modern, tolerant times, we have to take gay couples of both genders and polyamorous relationships [however many people of each gender] into account too. But that just confuses thing even further, so whatever your orientation, let's just stick with the typical heterosexual married couple.

I almost want to say the mother, but am loath to do so for some reason I can't figure out. What I thought was REALLY odd, though, was that one guy said the father was more important [talking only from a guy's perspecitve] because he'd teach his son all about certain aspects that only happen to males. Stuff like.... making fires;something else that'd only apply if you ever decided to venture somewhee with a lot of woodland; and [one would hope!] the implication that he could help explain to the son what was happening during puberty and adolescence.

* * * * *

I think a day trip to wherever we're going - if feasible and possible - is a great idea. Sure it could potentially be more knackering to some and a bit rushed, but it'd more than likely be cheaper and you can do quite a lot in a day.

_:_:_

As far as I'm concerned, I'm in two minds about whether to continue on the topic of gender identity or not. It's really interesting and it certainly makes me think about how relatively lucky the UK is generally speaking.... but the same time I don't know how much more reminding that men are superior to women I can really take. But then again, being a bit of a masochist, I'd want to push myself further and further.
 I'll have to go away and think about this, hopefully remembering to give an answer in my next blog.

My inner angry feminist is rising once more....

Men, be scared. Be very scared.

Herbivore Men Part 2

Hrmmmm.... not too good at updating this frequently, am I?

前マスデンに「ビデオでありがとうございます」と言う忘れましたと思う。ごめんね。だから、今は「ありがとうございます」。

あいにくに、ビデオ

そして,所在ないし好奇し、一番大切と正しい理由、クイズに答えるとおもいました。

クイズは、マスデンも「ありがとうございます」と言うがいい。このクイズは草食性男子に当て付いてけどちょっとかまいませんだよ。

The image can be found at http://bunkaseminar.blogspot.com (2010/05/05) if it doesn't work here. As an extra precaution, I'll type out the questions. I'm going to answer in English only to save time. Sorry for the lack of showing off there XP

_:_:_

1.      Do you pick up girls? I would if I knew how to and girls were interested in me. Having Asperger's Syndrome doesn't exactly help with the 'social ability' thing, either :/.
That being said.... when men have been interested, I've always been the one buying the drinks for them. But only if I'm interested back.
And if you try to flirt with me, use pick-up lines or make any overt attempt to impress me, you can just take yo lame azz home.

N.B. One thing I found interesting is that the term 'pick-up' is much less sexual in Japan than how I as a Brit would conceive it. I'd probably say 'going out on the pull' en lieu de 'picking up'. In Japan, it's jut going out and talking to people whereas in the UK it's anything up to a one-night stand. Which I assume is always sexual. But then again it could just be that the Japanese tend to be a lot more quiet about the sexual side of things than the English.

2.      Do you confess to a girl that you like her? I think I would.... again, apply this to both genders. 

3.      Should the man pay on the first date? GUGH! Honest to God, I **FUCKING HATE**  the fact that people believe there's this idea that men 'should' pay on the first date.  Anyway, most of the time, I let him pay and make sure I bring plenty of money that day because it's easier to go along with what society wants than anything else. And I suppose it makes the blokes feel emasculated....
With both genders, I'm more than happy to go Dutch [wonder where that came from?] or even pay for both of us if I can afford it right from the off. But there we are.

To summarise: No, but he'll always try to anyway so STFU cos ur only a wimman bych.Do you want a car more than a bike? I can't ride a bike and don't want to learn to drive, so the Asperger's side of me [i.e. the one that takes everything literally] would say neither.
 However, from a status point of view, I think I'd say a bike. A car's fine as well, but not if whoever my potential date decides to sing its praises constantly. 

I was surprised at how nearly everyone in the class wanted a car over a bike. Admittedly most cited convenience, but there were some who secretly preferred the perceived status a car has. All of them were girls *rolls eyes*

4.      Do you have high ambitions to be successful? I think so...  probably unrealistically high, actually. I mean, I can barely understand simple questions put to me in Japanese because I panic and stop listening the moment I realise that I don't know this one little word ANDLYKOMGIHAVETOHAVEHAVETOFINDTHISWORDINMYDENSHIJISHOORELSETHEWHOLEWORLDISDOOMED D:.... BUTIDON'THASDADENSJIJIHSO D: tOt T-T..... and yet I still want to be a translator or an interpreter. Annoyingly, I have the ambitions but not always the impetus to follow things through properly!!

5.      Do you go drinking with your boss? First answer would be yes if I worked and if Japanese and English work ethoses were the same. However, on second thoughts, I'd be scared of getting fired from having drunk too much and made a total fool of myself. Not so sure that bosses would be prepared to look after me while I had my head in the toilet bowl/sink for the 3rd time that night. I suppose if they were, then that'd be a testament to how awesome they are as a person.

6.      [The wording to this one makes me giggle inside as it's such an old-fashioned translation] Do you think it is not "cool" to spend a lot of money on primping? It's fine as long as it doesn't get in the way of other things/people and [in my ideal world] You have some brains and personality to go along with your looks.
Also, it just wouldn't be practical to spend ALL your time on your looks.

7.      Are you the "take the reins" kind of guy? I think generally not, tbh.... I prefer to observe from a distance and make a move when I feel comfortable doing so.

8.      Do you like drinking alcohol more than eating sweet things? Yes! The effects are better, alcohol has more variety and I've basically all but lost my appetite since coming to Japan.

9.      Would you choose work over friends and family? Don't think so.....

Now, I swear there's one missing that I can't fine now! ¬¬

P.S. I'm quite surprised at how therapeutic it feels writing on this. 

P.P.S. Yes, I am bi. 

We're all going on a summer holiday...

Now, before I write about anything else, I should write about that proposed trip in July.

The choices thus far seem to be Minamata, Amakusa and Hitoyoshi. 


All of them have potential and all I know is I want to see somewhere else in Japan. I've been to Yamaga and Aso thus far.


Maybe at some point if I ever remember/can be bothered, I might mention some stuff I got up to while camping there.


Never been camping so often in my life.... and none of them have been in a tent!

草食性男子 part 1

_:_:_ Bear in mind that from now on, this post will be in a mishmash of English and Japanese. Yeah, I admit it, I'm showing off._:_:_

先週の木曜日に、われわれは草食性男子のドキュメンタリーを見ました。草食性男子は日本に新興の象そうだ。
So, Thursday just gone, after having talked about Minamata disease and the dam controversy in... Hitoshi prefecture, if I remember correctly; the subject of 'herbivore men' (known in Japanese as 草食性男子/そうしょくせいだんし/ soushokusei danshi) came up and we watched a video about them that had been on the TV show Cool Japan the night before.
No, that doesn't mean they're vegetarians! And nor does it mean a term my mum came up with that I won't put down here as it was rather adult.

Herbivore men are, from what I've seen, a gentler, sweeter, less brutish kind of male figure.

Those in the UK who've never heard of herbivore men before but watched them in action [on TV or IRL] are probably thinking that these guys are:

1. Metrosexuals [as in the sort of straight man who takes A LOT of pride over his appearance and acts as a good boyfriend/husband/whatever other role he has to fulfill. Think along the lines of David Beckham]
2. Gay; which I can't imagine many Japanese men full stop - never mind the herbivores - would be very comfortable about telling.

Neither is true. Herbivore men aren't as stuck-up as metrosexuals and even if they WERE gay, would it really matter?

A lot of people looked confused/uncomfortable watching it. I however, saw these sweet, kind, down-to-earth, family-orientated men who were more than happy to talk about their girlfriends' appearances and go shopping with them; and an almost cloying - but somehow not unpleasant - feeling of.... almost-love(!!) came over me.

Worryingly, I even found myself swooning and wondering whether there were any boys like that only to realise that I did actually know the likes of the herbivore man outside of Japan.

そして、可笑しい理由どうしても、草食性男子は本社会に悩みと思います。

　草食性男子は家族と友達より儕輩と監督と入りびたります。草食性男子はお菓子で食べますより酒を飲みます。アグレッシブじゃない、けど「愛してる」と言うけして。かれでなんぱで興味ない。

ショッピングが大好きと恋人にうたいますでうれしい。
If it counts for anything, the fact that they never really say "I love you" and are quite unromantic doesn't bother me in the slightest!

Now, why would any of this be a problem? Certainly judging by the looks of things, none of these personality traits seem to be doing anybody any harm.
But company bosses say that it gets lonely without their herbivore colleagues at parties along with everyone else and that it's impossible to get to know a herbivore beyond a very basic work relationship.
And as anyone particularly familiar with Japanese culture knows, afterhours socialising is vital to the average work ethos.
This could be interpreted as harming the workforce.... somehow.

The 草食性's lack of interest in sex could be interpreted as harming the country's birth rate as Japan - like much of the rest of the developing world - is ageing faster than the rate of reproduction. Of course, we need babies to make up for the elderly and to look after future generations of the elderly once they've grown up. Balance, really.

Also, Japanese girls tend to find the fact that 草食性男子 are reluctant to pick them up annoying.

However, along with the 草食性男子 are the carnivorous women. We didn't find much out about them except they're a lot more proactive in dating than their male counterparts.

Anyway, before the next part, here's a link on what carnivorous women are: http://jccabulletin-geppo.ca/crosscurrents/of-herbivorous-men-and-carnivororous-women/

Aso and a baguely relevant observation from then

In advance: excuse the wierd phrases here and there. Translations provided at the end.

I would put lots of pictures in here but it's now almost half midnight and I can't be bothered to look up the HTML I need, so there. BUT, I will include one of everyone once we got to the top

_:_:_

OK, I was later than I planned to be writing this entry [procratintion 4TW*, righ?], but on the 17th [Saturday just gone], several of us took a trip to Aso.
Since I'd arrived in Kumamoto just over a month back *GASP ZOMG NOWAI DAT TYME ALREDII?* and heard about Aso, I had the idea that it was a mountain.

Apparently, it's not a mountain but a mountain town with 5 peaks.

There's

• 猫山(Nekoyama aka Mount Neko)
• 高山Takayama aka Mount Taka)
• 中山Nakayama aka Mount Naka)
• 杵島山Kishimayama aka Mount Kishima
• 烏帽子だけEboshi-Dake. Now, I'm not sure whether Eboshi-Dake is just a familiar name or whether that's the proper name used without the 山 [I asum?], which was the one we climbed. Anyway, apparently this name translates to 'goose-barnacle' because of its shape.

It was a BEAUTIFUL day although I did get absolutely covered in mud.

And now for something that I hope is relevant......_:_:_

There was a couple among all of us who, judging by my very limited understanding of Oriental languages other than Japanese, sounded like they were Chinese. Although the furthest I ever saw them go was hugging, they were doing it a lot. This surprised me as I'd have thought that it'd be much less frquent than it was.
Not that I minded much. Just an observation.

* * * * *

TRANSLATIONS

* * * * *

4TW - For the win. Id est, a good thing.

*GASP ZOMG NOWAI DAT TYME ALREDII?* - (gasps) Ze Oh My Gosh/Goodness/God [whichever you prefer], No way! That time already?
Actions are often written in between asterisks by myself, thought I'm not the only one by any means.

文化演習３の＊＊一番＊＊！！！！

みんなさん

はじめまして。私の名前はエマ・セルインです。私は２２歳のリバプール・ジョン・モーズに学生です。あそこで日本語とフランス語をべんきょうします。

二週間まえは一番クラスの文化演習でしたとグルプで生すいりました。

このグループの中はマリナさんと愛さん。

マリナと愛は20裁です。マリナの趣味は旅行することと音楽を聞くすることです。愛の趣味はショピングことするとダンシングすることです。

私の日本語はまだ上手じゃありません、ごめんあさい。

次に何が起こることが面白いのに私でわかりません。

次は：阿蘇、温泉と大いに泥。