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Today I spent again at the film set I have talked about before. This time, the location was in an old machiya-style house in Kyoto, and there were scenes with talking involved (not by the extras though).

I could get a bit more insight into how movies are made, which was interesting. For example, every time somebody was speaking, the take was repeated “sound only”, with the speaking person talking straight into a microphone. And that was although during filming the scene, sound was recorded also; I presume that it’s better or easier to cut in the conversation later.

It was also interesting that there was a cameraman to film the scene, and somewhere else somebody else was sitting whose only job it was to focus the camera via remote control. I had no idea the cameraman wouldn’t do that himself, but maybe he’s simply there to make sure the shot is from the right angle and shows the correct cutout.

Also, as my friend remarked, the whole thing ran very smoothly. Nobody needed directions (except the actors, of course), everybody knew exactly what to do, how to do it, and where to do it. I can only speculate as to how this is possible – the crew was quite large – but obviously, those are all professionals.

Of course, once again, the whole thing took hours, mostly of waiting. At least this time, the group of extras was much smaller, and to my mind, also more interesting, so we had some nice conversations going on. What I did not like was that there was no compensation whatever this time. As we were working/waiting over lunchtime, at least paying us a bento would have been a nice move…

Hello, I’m back. Kind of… I have overcome my cold from last week, so I am up and running again. Unfortunately, now I have developed ear problems: Especially the right one feels “blocked” somehow – just like when you get water into it. The feeling itself is annoying, and I obviously have problems hearing properly and on top of that, there is some background white noise sound.

Since this condition has now prevailed for more than a week, I decided to see a specialist. As the whole thing started when I had the cold, I thought it would be some sort of sinus infection going awry, and that it could be cured with simple antibiotics or some such.

No such luck: The doctor informed me – after a hearing test – that I had developed ALHL, acute low tone hearing loss, and that there was no fast track cure for this. He had problems determining a cause, as I could rule out the usual suspects of stress and tension in the neck. Listening to loud music might be a factor, but I’ve been doing that for ages now, not fitting the “acute”.  

For the coming week, I am on medication: there is one diuretic the usefulness of which I don’t understand (but it is commonly given), and a couple of other things that seem to be more for reassuring the patient rather than doing anything in particular (vitamin B12 anyone?) At least I have found out that the condition may go away just as spontaneously as it has occurred, in about 75% of the patients. That’s something.

I spent all morning at the doctor’s, together with a friend of mine. Looking back I’m not sure it was a good idea to take her along because now I don’t know whether the doctor is actually capable of speaking English and whether I could go there on my own. He carried on his explanations in a breakneck speed Japanese; even my friend whose English is exceptional, gave up translating at some point and only gave me the gist of what he said. Oh well, with a bit of luck I will not have to consult him again any time soon. We’ll see.

My Austrian friend has not only brought me a whole suitcase full of goodies, but apparently also the latest virus on the loose in the kindergarten of his two children. That means that I am having the first serious cold since I came to Japan, and I feel terrible. Hopefully the pain in my ears does not point to a middle ear infection, that’s the last thing I need right now…

What I really need is some rest, lots of hot tea, and maybe a book or two. The Nutella has been provided, so I should be safe at least on this account. I shall retreat from the blog into my bed for a few days; I hope to be back again soon.

Japan is a dangerous country, it has this tendency of sucking you in and never letting you go again. This week alone I have heard from two friends whom I have met at my old house and who want to see me again. One of them returns to Japan every two years or so for a month or two; the other was my housemate at Ebisu’s, who returned to his country after five years in Japan. Both of them are in Kyoto right now, and I think both of them will keep returning here for the rest of their lives, unless they finally give in and settle here for good. I am curious to see them again, and as they will stay for at least a month, there will be ample opportunity to catch up.

Another friend of mine – who had stayed in Kobe for a year – has also returned to Japan, but only for a two-week business trip. As he is Austrian, and he had mentioned that he would travel with an essentially empty suitcase, I took the liberty of giving him a long list of things that are hard or impossible to get in Japan. The list of goodies he unpacked this morning on my kitchen table comprised the usual jar of Nutella and other sweets; special bakery goods from Austria including Lebkuchen, a type of gingerbread; and some odds and ends like my favourite Austrian wine, a small bottle of Kernoel (pumpkin seed oil), and other delicacies essential for (Austrian) cooking. I had a hard time deciding which sweets to eat first – and I settled on a bit of Lebkuchen, it’s the right season, after all.

And then, when I was already elated about all the nice things I had received and was busy putting them away, a postman brought a large and heavy parcel from another friend in Austria, with two more bottles of my favourite wine, and three enormous jars of Nutella. And a very sweet letter on top of it.

I am an introvert, I have troubles meeting people, and being surrounded by too many strangers – at parties for example – stresses me out. As such a person, when living abroad where even basic communication is difficult, it is easy to feel alone and unloved sometimes.

Not today though. Thank you so much. I love you too!

The Japanese government is about to pass a new security bill which will allow the Japanese military to actively fight in other countries, outside of the UN peace keeping missions they could already take part in.

Effectively, this means a renunciation of the Japanese constitution, in particular article 9 where it says that “...the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as a mean of settling international disputes.” With the increase of military spending in recent years, this article has already been seriously weakened, but the new laws would completely put it to rest.

Obviously this is causing a great stir in the National Diet, where a former Supreme Court justice asked all members of the house regardless of party affiliation to “…respect intelligence, decorum and reason, or at least pretend“; and a young student of one of the many parties of the opposition called for the politicians to act as an individuals and “…please be your own person.” Yesterday it went so far that people started an actual fight, and today there was a motion of no-confidence against Shinzo Abe, the current prime minister.

And even the otherwise rather placid Japanese people have been in uproar. As a vast majority of them are against the new legislation, there have been numerous demonstrations all over Japan and around the National Diet itself. There was even a demonstration in Kyoto, and a friend of mine, who only went to the speeches in the beginning, said she was surprised at the length of the subsequent march through town.

I guess that the bill will pass after all, regardless of all the voices of reason from in- and outside the Diet. Already eager business men are rubbing their hands in anticipation of great weapons exports from Japan. It seems today everything is for sale, if just the price is right…

Oh, if you are interested in the exact words of the Japanese Constitution as it was written in 1946, you can download it for free from project Gutenberg!

I have just returned from a daytrip to Ono machi, a small town near Kobe that boasts to be the Soroban town of Japan…

Right now, I am too tired to post any details, and I will need time to go through my photos too, but you may expect a full report on Wednesday!

I’m not feeling well, I am very tired for no obvious reason. Today, I slept almost all day, and I’m glad that it’s not too hot at the moment. My energy is very low and has been since my return from Korea. At least I know it’s not kimchi related this time. Hopefully this – whatever it is – will pass soon…

Today, April 22nd, is Earth Day, and many events take place worldwide to support the environment and its protection, or at least raise awareness in that respect. I am not aware of any local events here in Kyoto, so I did not participate in anything, although there may have been some in Tokyo or in other large cities around Japan.

However, I tried the Ecological Footprint Calculator on the Earth Day homepage. You have to choose the country where you live (or the one closest to it) before you start calculating, because obviously, your footprint not only depends on your own actions, but also on societal factors that are a bit harder to influence for the average citizen.

I did two different calculations, one for Switzerland, as a central European, and the one for Japan. Interestingly, the questions are very different in both calculators, for example there was a large section on recycling for Switzerland, which did not feature in the Japanese one at all. In both there was the question “How much of your food is produced locally?”, which I found a very tough one to answer. I mean, I know that the rice I eat is definitely Japanese, but even the Japanese chocolate I consume so much of is made from imported cocoa beans… The strangest thing I encountered in the Japanese questionnaire was the question for the size of your home. Apparently, the average Japanese lives on something between 150 and 200 m^2 – that can’t be right, surely?

Anyway, me living in Japan means that my lifestyle would consume 1.8 Earths if everyone did it that way (the calculation for Switzerland gives a result of 2.4 Earths). How large is your footprint?

It’s finally done and over: My house in Austria is sold. Well, in fact it was sold last year in June, but because of a notary who did not work quite as fast as he could have, because of some considerable back-and-forth that lasted about half a year, only now I was legally able to get the money. I then had to wait for some other assets of mine to be realised, and finally, this weekend I have transferred the whole amount to Japan.

With the exchange rate where it is right now and the fact that Japanese Yen have two more zeros than the Euro in general, I am feeling very rich right now. Very rich indeed, my account is showing millions right now. However, I’m still by far not rich enough to buy that house I have talked about a few weeks ago, but I think I can start dreaming of something. Right now, I prefer not to buy anyway, but maybe 5 years down the road…

However, had the whole transaction been finalised last week, I would have gotten even more money out of the transfer, but with the Euro essentially in free fall since the beginning of this year (thanks Angela!), I think I should be happy to have gained that much just by changing my Euro to Yen. Isn’t it interesting that when you already have a lot, you still crave for more?

I know it’s not quite time yet, not even here in Japan, but I’ll be going out soon, and I wanted at least not be late with my well-wishing…

All the best wishes for 2015 for all of you!