Weather: cloudy, but no storm · Lunch: Wakashachiya · Dinner: KFC · Sleep: phew, this was great
Luckily the storm missed us by a wide margin. But I faced a problem: I simply ran out of shower gel. Well, I did use it up nicely, so it’s no wonder. After lunch I can buy a new one — luckily I’ve got a pretty good routine for this by now.
Lunch and sightseeing
First I started the benchmark and the simulation. Then I decided: if we got off so lightly from the storm, I’ll go sightseeing. This time, by way of exception, I’ll show a lot more pictures and write less.
First, Wakashachiya, with ebi shrimp and udon. The usual procedure. And imagine — I understood everything! That they’d brought out two shrimp, with udon. As if I’d been at home, served by a kind waitress. It was a very strange, and honestly good, feeling. Once again I ate really well; I love Wakashachiya’s food.
Then I decided to look around the city a bit, rather than going straight to the dorm. I saw a more residential part of Nagoya, and then suddenly a big contrast with new, modern buildings and luxury flats.
Then I got to see Japan’s slightly harder side too. I was at a very modern building — the strange thing was that it was full of brochures, newspapers that looked like study material, a customer service desk. I couldn’t even imagine what it was. Then I translated the sign: a prep school for the graduation exam (more precisely: for the university entrance exam)! And on Saturday too it was full of students.
I’m aware that in Japan the graduation exam is very exhausting and very stressful. And I remember: I myself took the whole thing very seriously. Then, unfortunately, in those times everything meant something a bit different in Hungary than before — or even than now. It was very easy to get into the Technical University too (for comparison: I had 444 points out of 500, but people were already admitted to the engineering-informatics programme with 341 points). In Japan the situation is unchanged: getting into universities — and especially the better universities — requires very high scores. So school is a hard place here in Japan; at 7 in the evening the students were still casually coming out of the building.
Fundamentally this doesn’t change my attitude much. Of course this world isn’t entirely foreign to me either. I, too, got a stern telling-off at home if I didn’t perform as I should have. I come from an intellectual and partly teaching family; for us, learning wasn’t decoration but duty. Perhaps that’s why I looked at this Japanese cram school not only with unfamiliarity, but with a kind of strange familiarity too. In any case I also understand if it’s a bit much for someone. For me it’s more of a strange and slightly dazzling impression that so many resources go into education — which, all in all, I think is perfectly fine.
As a child, it still seemed a funny scene when Usagi Tsukino (Sailor Moon) got an earful at home over her bad grades (in the ’90s, Dragon Ball and Sailor Moon were decidedly popular in Hungary). As an adult, though, walking in Japan in front of a Saturday-evening cram school, this old anime joke suddenly took on quite a different light.
On the way back, I also came across something else that confirms what works well for me in Hungary — though it’s really a point against big-city life. The big city has lots of parks, lots of green space. But it’s still a big city: Nagoya is Japan’s third-largest. Per household, there’s very little green space of one’s own (obviously this is the case in Budapest too). It’s at times like this that I realise how different it is that I lived almost my whole life in a village, and could go out to the forest or the floodplain anytime. What I like in both Hungary and Japan is that, visibly, when there’s an opportunity, they try to preserve nature and greenery. We Hungarians can obviously still strengthen this — but that’s more just a positive signal in this direction.
In the evening I went back to AEON Town. I didn’t much want to eat anymore. I bought a soap refill and a hand wash. Then I went to KFC and bought a set. Except that for some reason they understood it as takeout — although there was plenty of room — and this time, by way of exception, I insisted that I wanted to eat there. So I asked for a tray for my portion.
After that I went to Gongcha. This time I bought something new: a peach iced tea. The wild thing was that they recognised me, smiled at me, greeted me especially, and helped me. It always feels good when people smile at you and are kind. And when I got the tea, one of the girls even remarked that I come around here a lot. To which I just said that I love tea, thanked them politely, and bowed.
These aren’t big things, obviously. But it felt really good just now: I often feel I’ve truly been here almost a month.
The storm’s state in the evening
Luckily the storm gave Japan a wide berth. It didn’t reach Tokyo either. One downside: by the afternoon it became the usual warm, humid weather — which, compared to Hungarian conditions, is ultimately bearable. Especially next to the current heat dome, for which I wish everyone endurance — and everyone take care of yourselves back home!
Photos
