I got a phone call from a Yonesaka-san at 9.30am. It had been a long night before, with me getting hooked into watching past Doctor Who episodes (I’ve been catching up!). Yawning and fighting off the lingering effects of a strange dream involving me falling between mountains and trees, I answered my phone.

A barrage of hot, accented Japanese hit my ear with no less force than a traditional wake-up call with a pail of water.

Wuh..? “Gr…grapes..?” I muttered dazily. “A farm..?”

His name didn’t ring any immediate bells, nor did I fully understand what he was asking me to do, but it seemed to involve grape-picking. And perhaps an afternoon lunch? I wasn’t sure, but he had my number and knew my name, so it was a safe bet I’d met him somewhere. I suggested to meet at 1pm and called my friend Dave to get him in on the business too.

“Come on Dave!” I pestered to my grumpy comrade not at all pleased to have been woken up early on a Sunday. “It’ll be an adventure! Not quite knowing what we’re doing or with whom…”

“Fine…fine. Call me again at 12 so I can get ready”.

I could hear his scowl down the phone line.

Roll on 1pm and Mr. Yonesaka rolls up in his car to pick me up. Yes, I thought so. I’d met him a couple of times at the city hall and briefly talked about grapes. I’m terrible at remembering names and faces. I usually have to meet someone on 5 separate occasions before I sign their name into my long term memory. Exceptions seem to almost exclusively involve cute members of the opposite sex. Go figure.

Arriving at Mr. Yonesaka’s house and personal grape farm, we were treated to a light lunch of cake before going out to cut some of the gorgeous 巨峰 (kyohou – purple Japanese grapes). The season is almost over, Mr. Yonesaka tells us while entertaining his 2 year old granddaughter Hina-chan (or Hee-chan for short!) He would let us take a couple of boxes of the expensive fruit home for ourselves!

It was hot work and the blasted mosquitoes got me again and again, but ultimately good fun doing a little photography and playing with Hee-chan as we gathered the grapes. It seems Mr. Yonesaka wants to recruit us to help out again next year! If the taste of the chilled kyohou we picked is anything to go by, I certainly won’t be missing out another chance to grab some! Mostly seedless, edible skins and simply divine. A far cry from the fuss and mess of eating normal Japanese grapes!

Also had a nice little experience of 人情 (ninjyou – compassion/kindness) from a little old lady in my apartment block the same day. I had so many grapes that I gave a couple of bunches to my landlord and the lady that was talking to him at the time. A couple of hours later, I have a ring at my door and the same little old lady is standing there looking a little nervous but clutching a big box of laundry detergent and energy drinks.

“You can use these, right?” she offered.

“Yes, yes. Thank you very much” I grinned in reply watching her totter off again.

Ahh, always nice to interact with the neighbours. Hope she enjoyed the grapes!

I’ll be writing up a post with some of the tips and tricks for language study that you all mentioned to me pretty soon, so stay tuned for that too!

3rd Place Winners

Taking home a block of Tofu note paper or a kanjified loo roll are:

Sabine
KYO
Dave Gardner
M Fox

Congratulations to you all! I’ll be sending the prizes out randomly, so it’ll be a little bit a surprise what you get ;).

2nd Place Winners

Receiving tofu note paper *and* kanji toilet roll are:

J
Ntsebo Yukiko
Tony

J tells us to try learning by singing, Ntsebo talks about slowly building up your studying and Tony recommends making a hardcore t.v. schedule!

1st Place Winners

Oh yes. Kanji loo roll, tofu papers and a handy Japanese phrasebook go to:

Crowbeak
Tracey Lee
Rene
Vassasu

Rene kicks us off with a neat blog post talking about the importance of correct intonation and accent and how learning grammar can be made easier by absorbing the patterns naturally. Crowbeak instructs us on the importance of using real sources and information when learning the language and gives plenty of great examples. Tracey Lee tells us 4 ways to boost your studying by directing your language study to fit your own interests, staying organised, chopping and changing things up and practising real communication. Finally, Vassasu drills us a load of different options in an amusing Youtube video. (Anybody sending me Hard Gay pictures of themselves will be banned! :P)

Star Prize Winner

And finally, we get our star prize winner. It wasn’t easy, and I had a tough time making the decision over some of the other more creative entries, but Alexandra’s insightful comment won me over by making me think more deeply about language learning and its roots in childhood. Well done Miss Rowland! You’ll be receiving the full set of stuff: the Japanese phrasebook, Kanji toilet roll, tofu note paper, Potechi no Te and a personalised thank-you postcard from me :).

Alexandra Rowland

**********

So if your name is on the list, get in contact with me (if I haven’t got to you first!) I’ll need to verify your email or IP address in order to match you all up before getting the goodies on their way to you!.

Sorry to all those who didn’t win this time. There were a lot of thoughtful entries and people who were clearly making a great effort, but only 12 prizes to hand out :/. There will be competitions here on Gakuranman.com in the future though, so stay tuned and keep studying hard :). And naturally, a big, big thank-you to Flutterscape for donating all the awesome prizes. If you haven’t done so already, go an check them out for buying cool stuff from Japan in the cheapest and easiest way possible!

Until next time!

*Update* Here are the winners!

Flutter me quick

Flutterscape though, is different. It’s on the ball, flying with the latest web and technology trends to deliver a simple solution to a problem many people have longed for: just how can I buy stuff from Japan? And moreover, how can I do it cheaply and easily?

With ‘Casual Selling’, says Flutterscape. In a nutshell, regular people who are lucky enough to live in Japan photograph products at their local stores and shopping malls. They then upload the pictures to Flutterscape and create a listing of the product – they ‘flutter’ it, as co-founder and CEO Takehiro likes to say.

Then, shoppers from around the world browse the catalogue and order items they like. The user ships the item to Flutterscape and then Flutterscape ships the item to you. You can also make special requests and have the users in Japan go shopping for you. How cool is that?!

So that’s what fluttering is all about. As a little treat to Gakuranman.com readers, Takehiro let me choose some neat little gifts from Japan to send to you. Let’s take a look!

The prizes!

Potechi no Te – Handy Potato Chip. Keep your laptop or textbooks clean and snack while you work.

Point and Speak Phrasebook Japan. Great for beginners with lots of colourful illustrations!

Authentic tofu packaging note paper. Doesn’t get more realistic than this :).

Kanji Loo Roll – for studying during those ‘relaxing’ times on the toilet.

There will be 12 winners in all, arranged in different sets:

Star prize: Japanese Phrase book + Kanji Toilet Roll + Tofu Note Paper + Potechi no Te + Personalised postcard from Japan written by Gakuranman! (1 winner)

1st place prizes: Phrase book + Kanji Toilet Roll + Tofu Note Paper (4 winners)
2nd place prizes: Kanji Toilet Roll + Tofu Note Paper (3 winners)
3rd place prizes: Tofu Note Paper (2 winners)
3rd place prizes: Kanji Toilet Roll (2 winners)

How to win?

Simple. Just answer me this question:

What is your best advice for learning a foreign language?

Everybody is eligible to enter – even those already living in Japan! Your advice can be about learning any foreign language – it doesn’t have to be about learning Japanese.

Leave a comment/blog post/video and tell me about your success story, an invaluable tip or just simply a creative method you have used to make language learning more fun!

Oh, and for those of you after the Star Prize, well, you’ve gotta give a little more ;). Impress me. Bonus points for making interesting blog posts, youtube videos or a really, really insightful comment. Even better if your advice is about learning Japanese!

You must also visit flutterscape and choose the item you think will have the most Facebook ‘Likes’ by the end of the competition.

Just head on over, browse around for something really cool and then tell all your friends about it. Get them to ‘Like’ it to improve your chances of winning. I think it’s a great tradeoff – more people learn about Flutterscape and you get the chance to win the big prize!

The deadline

How long do I have? I hear you ask. Until the 20th August 2010 25th August 2010 – extended! About 2 weeks away. Get blogging, vlogging, commenting and Liking on Facebook :). With all those prizes, the odds of walking a way a winner are pretty darn high!

Follow me on Twitter to keep abreast of the updates :): Gakuranman on Twitter.

After meeting up with Mayumi, we sorted out travel. It’s pretty easy to get to from Umeda, the main station in Osaka. Just head out on the subway to Osaka-ko, the bay area. You can even get a special ticket that gives you unlimited subway access and a pass to the aquarium for one day to save you money.

As expected for a sunday, the place was packed full of families with excited kids and a few couples. (Aquariums are generally thought of as date spots in Japan). But although the atmosphere was animated, it didn’t ruin the great experience.

As aquariums go, this one is among the best I have been to, sending you plunging down several across different habitats that contain ecosystems, all connected to one-another in the great ‘Ring of Life’. The aquarium itself days that it is based on the Gaia principle expounded by James Lovelock – very simply that everything in the world is connected and balanced. I think the next photo captures that feeling.

The main attraction is a huge tank hosting many different creatures, the star being the plankton-eating Whale Shark. Huge and graceful, two of colossal animals swim around inside. Feeding time was interesting too, seeing the whale sharks opening their huge mouths, sucking in litres of water and filtering out the tiny particles of food.

Another of the stars was the strange Manta Ray. Ishigaki island where I went scuba diving in April has a famous spot for seeing the creatures, but I was unlucky at the particular time I went. Hopefully next time though! I was busy photographing the half-enraged Porcupine Fish (ハリセンボン), a favourite of mine for many years :p.

Of course though, what really got me grinning from ear to ear and elbowing aside the little kiddies next to me was the jellyfish section. I think I maxed out my camera SD card here. Still tricky things to photograph because of the lack of light and movement. This is one thing I really want better quality at high ISO settings for.

After the aquarium, we spotted a new set of capsule toys at Umeda station! Special squishy jellyfish figures for the summer. Oh yeah! These things are really sucking my money up ^_^;.

We took the JR trains back to Nagoya using the Seishun 18 Kippu. It worked out overall that I only used 3 days of travel on the ticket, so I have 2 spare days for a mini trip sometime before the end of September! Where to go next eh?

I’m now resting at home, trying not to count the numerous mosquito bites I received or rub my sunburn up the wrong way. Work as usual tomorrow morning. I always find it quite ironic that we speak of holidays and vacations as time off to recover from work or re-charge. I often feel just as if not more tired after a good holiday than I did before leaving! Tried in a good way, mind. I got to see that little bit more of this amazing world in 8 fulfilling days of adventure, art and nature.

Signing off for this trip, then. *Smile*.

Rokko Station near Kobe. That was the starting point. The destination: the famous Maya Hotel – an old haikyo halfway up a mountain consumed by swarms of nasty insects, green vegetation and moisture. The whole place screamed of the power of nature.

To get there Florian and I had to hike up the old route, now blocked off to prevent people accidentally reaching the dangerous hotel. It was a hard 45 minute slog and even in the mist and relative of coolness of the early morning we were sweating buckets and breathing heavily. We finally reached the place without too much trouble though and peeked inside.

At first we were puzzled. I could hear the distinct sound of footsteps inside, tap-tapping around and the buzz of angry bees grew louder around us as the insects moved in for a closer look. It was decision time – face the intruder or the bees. Yeah, screw the bees. We dashed for the cover of the cool interior…

Empty. But still the sounds of footsteps. Or… wait? Not footsteps, no. Water! Water dripping all over the place, on mouldy carpets and floorboards, echoing all around the first floor of the hotel. Ahh, what relief! I could have sworn somebody else was inside…

With there being a cable lift right next to the old hotel, we needed to move quickly. The plan was to move down from the roof and shoot the interior a little later. That way we would minimise the risk of being seen from the cable lift. So up we went, right to the roof.

I’ll finish this haikyo story in a later post as I can’t edit the pictures for good effect on this simple net cafe computer. So keep and eye out for a proper Maya haikyo post at a later date!

For our second destination of the day, Florian took me to Takada Ranch. He has a good posting of it on his own site from when he visited in Winter, which I recommend you check out – Abandoned Kansai. Today though, what a terrible place! Summer had brought to life every horrible creepy crawlie imaginable and the place was swarming with mosquitoes. I stood still for less than 10 seconds and I already had dozens of them attacking me!

Naturally we didn’t stay long and I didn’t grab many good photos. An old can of boss coffee with some ‘blood’ stained handprints on the wall of this old house. And a rather spectacular bamboo forest hidden at the back.

Otherwise the bugs just drove us out. Utterly nasty, but a fulfilling day. Florian was great conversation and a fun guy to do haikyo with. I look forward to more at a later date!

But all was not lost. A quick phonecall to explain the situation and the friendly staff at Happyraft figured out a solution for me. I would get the next train and arrive just in time for the Half-Day course. Then, after lunch, I could join the second half of the Full-Day course. Sounded good to me! I thanked them for the flexibility and hurried to catch the next train to Oboke – the heart of wilderness in Shikoku.

But somebody from above definitely wasn’t smiling on me this morning. In my haste getting off the train to meet the member of staff who had come to pick me up from the station I left my tripod on the upper rack to have a trip of its own to Kochi. This didn’t bode well, I thought. I really need that tripod for my haikyo photoshoot tomorrow…

For now though, that was put to the back of my mind. I slipped into the wetsuit and shoes loaned to me and joined the rest of my morning team.

The Oboke river, swollen from the heavy rainfall the day before, surged much harder and higher than usual. It was going to be a fun day for sure!

Me grinning like an idiot before the day’s rafting. It isn’t called Happyraft for nothing – they make you smile!

The team was a sprightly bunch consisting of 3 girls, 2 boys and a few rafting guides. The girl named ‘Boo’ had been several times before and keeps coming back for more!

Off we go!

I was expecting more of a steeper route than the one we took, but apparently that is the Koboke River and the water was too high for us to take it today. Perhaps next time eh?

Still, there was no shortage of fearsome waves and rapids. Truly good fun – and we didn’t capsize even once! Well, except for this moment:

We kept the ‘wheelie’ going for a good 10 seconds of so, but I think our guide wanted to get us wetter :p.

Here you can see me (left) facing off against the other guy on the boat, Hage. Our team members would spin the boat around and we’d see how long we could stay standing. I won (just)!

And the day wouldn’t be complete without some rock jumping. Here’s my terrible backflip.

After a hearty lunch of sandwiches, fruit and biscuits, I joined a new team for the rest of the day. The weather quickly turned though and a fresh load of heavy rain poured down upon us. Pretty nice when you’re wearing a wetsuit, actually. It almost made the whole rafting experience feel a little more dangerous and realistic.

Very atmospheric too. Would love to come back here and go hiking sometime! I had a few trains to catch though, all the way to Kobe, so I left around 4pm. I had asked a member of staff to call the train station about my tripod earlier that morning. This being Japan, there was a very good chance that I would get it back, but perhaps not today. It seems I was in luck though – he had managed to arrange for it to be put on the same train heading back to Takamatsu and I picked it up from a friendly member of staff once back. I love Japan at times like these.

I didn’t waste much time getting to a manga cafe in Kobe. My chain of choice too – Media Cafe Popeye. Slightly more expensive than your average place, but usually better quality. I’m now sitting in a flat mat-type room listening to some curious noises from a couple’s cubicle behind. Those soft moans and whispers…are they doing what I think they are..? Still, it’s time to sleep. Up early for ruins exploration and haikyo tomorrow!

So what to do? I asked myself. Milling around the station, I weighed up my options. I could always go to Dougo Onsen I suppose… But that will be several hours by train. Just for a bath. Hmm… Walking past some tourist brochures, I remembered the other islands left in the Seto Inland Art Tour. Teshima had sounded pretty cool when Aki told me about it back at the lodge on Naoshima. A heartbeat chamber and storm room? And there are local buses running all the time. Sold. Rain or not, Teshima it is.

Sod’s Law continued to mock me however, as the moment I arrived on Teshima, the weather brightened up and flooding sunshine splattered every corner of the island. Oh well, rafting tomorrow if I’m lucky…

Catching my first bus (they are all free on Teshima), I arrived close to the Heartbeat Chamber. Teshima was full of rusty and decaying objects, so for a haikyo maniac like myself, just wandering around the island itself was like viewing art.

The Heartbeat Chamber was lived up to the hype. I was plunged into a pitch black room, alone, and walked carefully forwards with various jerky sounds of heartbeats filling the air and a single bulb flashing in the middle of the room along with the noise. The black portraits hung up around me were quite spooky when illuminated by the dim light. As I got closer to the huge speaker at the other end of the room, the heartbeat got faster and louder and the light flashed with more and more intensity. The picture above gives a pretty good idea of how little light there really was in the room.

Back outside I stumbled upon a rusty van half hidden in the undergrowth. Some gorgeous reds and oranges in the paintwork there.

At the next location, too, a fascinating old Japanese sign aged and weathered by the sea wind. It’s quite odd how a hobby like urban exploration grabs hold of you. My eyes naturally seem to pick up on anything and everything around me that is in a state of decay. I see many, many more haikyo buildings and signs now than I ever did before I became interested in the hobby.

In this particular area of the neightbourhood there was an abundance of haikyo houses. Or at least houses that seemed abandoned. It’s very difficult to tell in Japan just judging by the state of the building. I’m often surprised at what sort of structures people live in here! I came across a couple that I explored by myself, but they didn’t yield much in the way of interesting shots and the summer heat killed my appetite for serious exploration, especially when it involved scrambling through the weeds and overgrown vegetation around most of the houses. The shot above though was from one haikyo house that had been made into an art exhibition. There were many old objects inside really bringing out the character of the place. Apparently the house belonged to a fisherman.

Many critters were out and about too. I caught a turtle sneakily hiding in the grass. He wasn’t too pleased at my holding him though.

Also, some bizarre insects – dragonflies perhaps? – who landed on the road in front of me upside down and lay there motionless. I’ve never seen this before, but can only guess that it is some sort of mating ritual..?

Lots of beautiful green rice plantations under the vivid blue skies. This really is a rural island.

Another art exhibition made out of the windows and sliding doors from many different houses all slotted together to form a tunnel. Looks like haikyo really can be a proper form of art!

This was one of the more interesting art pieces, but I was disappointed not to be able to see it at night. Apparently it is connected to equipment that make it flash different colours when things happen in the universe. You know, like when stars explode and whatnot.

And last but not least, the Storm Room. Another old Japanese house converted into an intriguing art exhibition. Sitting in the slightly dank room, a low rumble of thunder echoed outwards from the walls. Suddenly rain started falling against the sliding doors and the lights flickering on and off. The fans in the rooms being electric were also affected by the apparent oncoming storm, springing to life randomly. I love the sound of rain, so I sat in the room listening to the storm coming and going for quite some time. This could definitely qualify as one of those ‘Power Spots’ that are popular in Japan right now. Basically places people can go to and feel relaxed and re-energised.

Well then, let’s hope the rain holds off tomorrow so I can get a day’s White Water Rafting in. It’s supposed to be the best one in Japan! *Grin*.