Ultimate Crumpet

Hello and long time no speak!

This edition of the Ultimate Crumpet is brought to you from the southern hemisphere. I am currently with 3 of my Japanese co-workers sat in the conference hall at the 34^th World Heritage Committee in Brasilia, Brazil!

My ID Card for the World Heritage Meeting. My ID photo was taken after I had been for over 48 hours so I wasn't looking or feeling too fresh.

Talks are currently going on simultaneously in English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese and I’m sat on a chair surrounded by scraps of paper with illegible scribbles I’ve made all over, an electronic dictionary with some fresh batteries and a headset that transmits what is being spoken by the committee and all state parties into English with the hard work of dedicated interpreters sat in tiny booths at the back of the conference hall.  The committee is currently voting on whether a world heritage site should be registered as a site-in-danger giving me some time to fiddle about on my laptop and not requiring much of my concentration!

Sneaky pics of the the Conference Hall. Shit is going DOWN.

This is a crude photo of the conference room that I’m in now (not meant to take photos oops!) but gives a good idea of what’s going on. There is a long table at the front of the room with large projected screens behind. On the table are the main committee such as the chairman, the secretariat, rapporteur, legal advisors and some others who keep the conference going and make any final decisions. Then in front of them, spreading across the hall, are lots of tables that are each taken up with different state parties like Japan, the US, Cambodia etc all of whom can make comments and vote on all the additions and amendments to the World Heritage list and its inscribed sites.

I’d like to explain exactly how I ended up being in Brazil with work – seeing as job is in Japan. To be honesty, this business trip came about very suddenly and was quite a shock to me when I first heard!

In mid-April, I was stood near the lifts outside my office and bumped into two members of staff at the world heritage site office who struck up a conversation which went something like the following:

Mr. X: Hello Jason! How are you? Do you remember me? I am Mr. X (Obviously not his real name!) from the World Heritage site office – we met once a long time ago!

Me: Ummm, Hello! Yes I remember you – it’s been a while, how have you been? (I didn’t remember him.. oops!)

Mr. X: Not too bad, oh by the way –would you like  to come to Brazil with us in July and be an interpreter for the our group at the world heritage committee meeting?

Me: Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?!

I didn’t quite believe what I heard and was pretty sure he was joking about going to Brazil but it turned out that he was deadly serious! Suddenly I was being dragged to lots of meetings and given seemingly endless mountains of translations and preparations to do before the actual event.

Entrance to the 34th World Heritage Committee meeting in Brazil.

The reason why we are here now is because Shimane Pref. is home to a World Heritage Site called “Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine and its Cultural Landscape” which became became a listed World Heritage site in 2007. However, the people in charge of the site wanted to make some minor modifications to the boundary of the site such as adding a nearby town and some old transport routes used for moving ore, silver and everyday goods.

A proposal for the modifications was drawn up by the prefecture and submitted to the World Heritage Committee to receive a draft but not conclusive decision on whether or not to approve the changes. It turned out that the committee approved the changes which then set the ball rolling for me and my co-workers coming to Japan to the actual committee meeting where the final decision will be made!

I am here as an interpreter and translator for the Shimane Prefecture delegation. The majority of what is being discussed at this conference apply to or concern Japan/Shimane but when the discussions that do come around, I’ll be forced to do something that causes me to feel more stressed and pressured than anything else I have ever done… Simultaneous Interpretation.

Wikipedia has a pretty good explanation of Simultaneous Interpretation and exactly what I’ll be doing:

In simultaneous interpretation (SI), the interpreter renders the message in the target-language as quickly as he or she can formulate it from the source language, while the source-language speaker continuously speaks; a spoken language SI interpreter, sitting in a sound-proof booth, speaks into a microphone, while clearly seeing and hearing the source-language speaker via earphones.

I’ll be sat with headphones on listening to the English and putting the English I hear into Japanese as quickly as possible and speaking into a microphone all whilst trying to keep up with what is being said.  It’s the same thing that you see on live television when someone who doesn’t speak English is interviewed and you hear someone interpreting what he or she is saying and speaking at the same time (well about 2/3 seconds afterwards) in English.  I have had a couple of times before now when I’ve done simultaneous interpretation and I’ve found it very difficult simply because of the amount of concentration it requires. It may sound like I’m complaining about having to do this but nothing could be further from the truth. I’m actually very excited about the opportunity and see it as an extremely good opportunity to put my language skills to the test but it is just very nerve-wracking knowing that people are depending on you to give them the information instantly and more importantly – accurately.

I am lucky however because I have the chance to record what is being said in English too and have the opportunity to do a self-review of my performance later in the evening where I should have some time to do a proper and thorough write-up of the discussions in my own time.

I tried doing some trial runs this morning with my co-workers when I interpreted discussions about the states of different World Heritage sites around the world. I feel that it went rather successfully despite having absolutely no prior knowledge of the site and the vocabulary that would appear regarding case (for example, one discussion was about illegal logging occurring within a World Heritage site in Madagascar) and I’m feeling a little more confident about when the time comes to interpret discussions about Japanese sites.

I’m going to leave this post here for now and shall report back after my time to interpret and translate comes around… provided that I actually survive the experience! My head feel likes its about to explode just thinking about it! I should stop procrastinating whilst in the conference hall too and pay greater attention to what is happening to other World Heritage sites!

Wish me luck and see you on the other side!

Let me start by saying I’m sorry for the sudden disappearance. Ultimate Crumpet is back now and you can all expect a number of updates throughout this week. For the last few weeks I have been truly snowed under with work (writing a 90 min speech about The Beatles, writing and translating articles for a CIR newsletter, preparing materials and interpreting for foreign delegates visiting Shimane and organising my first official events. All of this has seen me sitting at my desk from morning til late afternoon staring directly into a laptop screen and tapping away at a keyboard for hours on end. This then obviously resulted in my wanting to stay well clear of my computer when I got home from work and hence a general absence from the world of information technology! Anyway – The work load has been intense and my willpower/motivation was tested but I have today just said sayonara to the last of the work so now I am FREE!    In the wise words of Hiro Nakamura, “YATTA!”

It has been a while since the first instalment of Home for the Holiday and almost 2 months since I was actually there so a lot more has happened between the holidays and now. I hope to fill you in on most of this but please bear with me, as it will take some time for events to catch up to date. I will keep the rest of this post relatively brief and will get back on track with Japan/JET Programme related content.

I talked last time about how food was a major highlight of my time back at home and just reading back over the last post has got me really craving some good ol’ british cooking. Hmmmm…

I am getting off the point already! This is the grip that food holds over me!

So after being in Liverpool for a good week or so and spending Christmas with the family and enjoying all the perks of being home, I made the trek over to London to spend a few days down south in the capital. Whilst I was there I got to see Avenue Q in the theatre (a very adult-oriented and themed skit on Sesame Street), which was really enjoyable. I did not know what to expect when going in there but the whole thing was superbly executed and the crazy mix of nostalgia and adult humour hits you like a bulldozer from the get go. There are muppets on stage accompanied by their puppeteers but after the first five minutes you begin to forget that there are even people controlling the puppets and are too busy laughing to focus on anything else. With songs like “Everyone is a little bit racist” and “The Internet is for Porn” – how can you go wrong? Highly recommended!

I headed back to Liverpool just after new years for another week spent at home before heading back to Japan. During that last week there is really no story to be told! I was mainly indoors – sleeping, eating and generally relaxing and that  was just what I wanted to do. Of course I popped into Liverpool town centre a few times and did some shopping etc but relaxation was the mission and I must say mission accomplished!

The time to head back to Japan and back to work eventually rolled around and I flew back Manchester and arrived in Osaka at around midday on the 9^th. Five hours after touching down in Japan, I was in Osaka Castle Hall standing in a huge arena waiting for Muse to take the stage. That’s right – I went to a gig straight from getting off the plane! I was incredibly jet-lagged and I kept falling asleep every time I sat down but once Muse took the stage then all traces of tiredness and jetlag disappeared from me and I was sucked into the sheer electric excitement of the crowd. I have been to a fair number of gigs in Japan and it is very rarely that I see a crowd looking so alive! The entire hall was on their feet, including all the people who had tickets for the balcony seats. Before Muse started there was a arena-wide Mexican wave sweeping around and I don’t think a single seat was in use for the entirety of the gig. Muse were on tour for their latest album “The Resistance” but played a healthy mix of new and classic songs. I have to give credit to the sound and lighting crew for the incredible show they put on to support muse. Behind every great band is a whole bunch of unacknowledged and unknown folks that work incredibly hard to make that band great!

That just about sums up my lovely time at home, I know I missed out huge chunks and details but it really is time that I move on and actually do some explaining about the place I am now living and working in! Thanks to all that stuck around during my absence – you’re dedication shall be rewarded with many a silly picture and videos in the near future! For now I shall say GOOD NIGHT!

Home.

I’ve been using the word a lot over the last few weeks but for very good reason – that is where I was over the Christmas and New Year period. At Home! I never truly appreciated how great it is be at there until I had been separated from it for an extended period of time. I lived away from home when I was at university, popping back every couple of months for some delicious home cooking and some quality time spent melting into the sofa in front of the television and I did pretty much exactly the same this time around after heading back from Japan.  The phrase “home is where the heart is” really rang true when I with my family and the better half Nelle Macbeth over the holidays. This time around, I had been in Japan for little under 5 months but stepping back through the front door back in Liverpool, it honestly felt like no time had passed at all.  It seemed like I had only just popped around the corner to the shops and hadn’t even left the town, let alone the country and I was surprised at how immediate readjustment to life back at home really was.

My amazing granddad Tony passed away a few months ago whilst I was in Japan and I was determined to spend Christmas with my family this year as it has always been a time when all my family come together and I could not spend this time apart from them, especially so this year. My biggest concern with going home was not the cost but if I would be able to get the time off work. With my current job I find myself being asked to work at numerous events on weekends and in the evenings (outside of usual work hours) and for working these I can claim time in lieu or daikyu to take time off during usual work days. Thanks to a week long interpreting gig I did in November, I had managed to rack up around 5 full days worth of daikyu and combining this Japanese national holidays and a smidgen of annual paid leave (nenkyu), I was able to spend a full 3 weeks back in England over Christmas and New Year – and I enjoyed every minute of it!

If I had to describe my experience back at home in one word, It most certainly would be – foodalicous. What? That’s not a word? It most certainly is! I think you”ll find in the dictionary between fandabadozy and foxymoron. I work quite closely with another bloke from England in Matsue, my ALT counterpart PA Rob, and for the last month or so we were discussing what should be my first meal when I get back to England. For those of you that don’t happen to know both Rob and I, you should know that according to real scientific research carried out by real scientists in a laboratory where experiments of a scientific nature are carried out scientifically – 98% of our intensive discussions revolve around food and the consumption of said food. You’ve been scienced! Anyhoo – It was a toss up between a Full English Breakfast or a Roast Dinner. Both are equally delicious in their own amazing ways but my first meal was completely unexpected but trumps both of them. As I stepped through the door and walked into the kitchen, a full pan of Scouse (a type of stew and THE dish of Liverpool) was waiting for me along with the customary mountain of white bread waiting to be buttered up and dunked in.  It was the perfect thing to shake off any post-flight grogginess. Thanks mum!

Food was a major theme across my time back in England and most of my time in England was spent eating or at least considering what to eat next.

This is what happens when you lose control when making toast.

As you can see, I got my desired breakfast in the end when I cooked this beast (click for full size image). The Full English. Fry-Up. The Big Boys Breakfast. The Works. Whatever you want to call it, it was bloody delicious. Funnily enough when I started cooking it, I only wanted a couple slices of toast but it seemed to escalate and I lost control and ended up with this bad boy.

I think I will stop the food talk there because:

1)    It is saddening me that I have extremely poor access to the ingredients to make this food and therefore making it close to impossible to recreate accurately here in Japan.

2)    I don’t think I can hold your attention much more with my textual drooling over food that has long since been digested.

3)    There are many other, more interesting things to be said and shall be said in the next edition of Home for the Holidays: Part Two – The Turkey Strikes Back!

I shall depart by bestowing upon you a final fun food fact – Foodalicious may be the word to describe my holiday back at home but “Fattening” was a very close second. I amazingly managed to gain an extra 5 kilograms (just under a stone) during my time home but – I don’t regret a single minute of it!

In Japan, Business cards (known as 名刺 meishi) are used very often when meeting  business partners and are seen as a very important and integral part to introductions, almost as much as a handshake it seems. Business cards are so important that there is a whole set of rules and etiquette one must follow when presenting and receiving business cards. If these are not properly followed then you risk creating a poor first impression and potentially souring the rest of the meeting. I believe the same is true for any first impression you make upon a person be it in a business sense or just at a party – however that initial impression is made it will have a true impact upon how the other person views for you a period of time.

My work business card - Apologies about poor picture quality!

Upon arriving in Matsue, on my first day at work I was taken to the business card printing room of the Prefectural Office and placed an order for my own cards because I was told I would need them within no time. Little did I know how little time that actually was. I was whisked away to different departments within the Prefectural Office, over the road to the Shimane International Centre then over to the City Hall to make my Alien Registration Card (or gaijin card as it is affectionately known as) and also meet the gang over in the City International Affairs Division.

At each of these places, everyone in the office stopped what they were doing, stood up to face me and were waiting silently for a short self-introduction from myself before they went about introducing themselves. After I managed to blurt out a few random words of Japanese about being from Liverpool and how much of  a pleasure it will be work alongside everyone, everyone shuffles closer to me one by one with a business card ready in hand and a expectant look hoping that I would whip out a card of my own. I did not.

I was told that my business cards would take a week to make. One week to print my name and details on a piece of card and cut it into rectangles. “Oh well, I probably won’t need them this week anyway!”, I thought to myself when I ordered them but it had suddenly come very clear to me that they were needed straight away and I honestly felt like a bit of prat standing there collecting dozens of little pieces of paper from all these people I had just met.

I made a small apology to everyone saying that I had just arrived and had no time to create my own business cards yet but I promised I would come back along once they were done and give them all my own, special piece of card. However despite all of this, I did feel like I set the wrong first impression by stumbling into their office whilst everyone was working – interrupting them all from work for around 10 minutes so that I could talk about myself and how I just happen to be born in the same city as The Beatles and then go on to be so cheeky as to steal a bunch of their precious cards without giving any of my own! Perhaps I was just far too nervous on my first day but that is honestly how I felt at the time.

Of course, a couple of weeks pass and I return to each of the places I previously visited on my first day and gave all the appropriate people my shiny new business cards and all was well with the world. 5 months into JET and I have a small mountain of cards stacked up on my bookshelf from all sorts of people I have met since arriving and have since lost the ability to remember any detail about. I’ve always known that I am dreadful at remembering names so I quickly got in the habit of jotting a tiny bit of information down about the person on the back of their cards to help remind me who they were whenever the time ever comes that I need to contact them.

I mentioned etiquette at the start of this post and I will post a video soon showing some of Japanese business card exchange etiquette in action. There are probably many videos like this already in existence but I can tell you now that none of them feature the Ultimate Crumpet!

For the time being however, I will leave you with this. An example of how NOT to receive a business card. CRUSH!

You have to admire the intensity of this guy though…

Hello and welcome to Ultimate Crumpet! Allow me to introduce myself – my name is Jason and I will be your guide during your stay here.  I’m a 22-year-old Englishman who graduated from Sheffield University last year with a BA in Japanese Studies. Nice to meet you!

I’m currently residing in Japan – specifically Matsue, Shimane Prefecture, working as a Co-ordinator for International Relations (known simply as a CIR) and Prefectural Advisor (PA) on the Japanese Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme.  You may have noticed that the JET programme has a whole wealth of abbreviations that are commonly used amongst its participants and will be used here on this blog too. Here’s a very brief guide to some of the more common JET (and therefore Ultimate Crumpet) abbreviations:

JET/JET Programme – Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme

ALT – Assistant Language Teacher

CIR – Coordinator for International Relations

PA – Prefectural Advisor

JTE – Japanese Teacher of English

CO – Contracting Organisation

PC – Programme Coordinator
Phew! There are a bunch of others floating about within JET but these are the most commonly used so try to keep them in mind! I must admit when I first arrived in Japan on the JET programme and thrust into the 3 day crash course Tokyo orientation before being sent off to our various contracting organisations, these abbreviations were being used constantly and I felt extremely confused and out of the loop but you soon get used to it.

Now that is out of the way, what exactly is Ultimate Crumpet and how on earth can a crumpet be ultimate?

Ultimate Crumpet is simply the title of this blog and (sadly) completely unrelated to the actually content you will find here. This is a blog from a current CIR on the JET programme and aims to provide an insight into an individual’s work and social life in Japan. I sincerely hope that what you will find here may prove to be useful and informative source for insider information about life on the JET programme and life abroad in Japan.

Moreover, I created this blog as a way of letting family and friends back at home see exactly what I am up to here as I am generally pretty hopeless at keeping in touch with everyone on a regular basis.  For this reason, not all posts will be work or JET related but merely some random info into recent events. Credit for the design of the ultimate crumpet you can see at the top of this page goes to the lovely Nelle Macbeth.

I will also be posting photographs and videos from my life here regularly to help further illustrate and support what I write as I have no confidence in my own writing and descriptive abilities! Links to my photo albums/video channel can be found in the links column.

If you are here hoping to find the recipe for the ultimate and tastiest crumpet, I can tell you that now that a full blog is rather unnecessary – Just slap some butter and jam on there! Simple.

I hope that you enjoy reading this blog – Please stick around and do try the complementary virtual crumpets on offer. All comments and suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thank you and farewell for now!