Today is Election Day. I, along with the rest of the country world predict a landslide victory for the opposition party, meaning the end of the LDP’s grasp on Japanese government for the past 50 odd years. Personally, I have minimal or less than minimal knowledge of politics, and despite my best efforts over the years to pick up some basic understanding (taking Politics classes for a year / reading the paper / participating in low level conversations on the subjecct), I still have no clue.

Anyway, today was the very first time in my life that I participated in an election. Up to this point, I have not been an eligble registered voter in the countries I have lived in. Admittedly, there was the regional election earlier this year that I did not participate in… but this it the national election!! Some might wonder why someone who has difficulty remembering which party the Prime Minister belongs to, is allowed to vote. One thing I do know is that, borrowing a catchphrase from another electoral campaign, “We want change”. Japan has had 4 Prime Ministers in past few years, each one worse than the one before… we need another Koizumi-esque person with character, charisma, and most important of all, the ability to fix stuff.

So, I went to the polling station, which was like 5 minutes away. I wasn’t too sure what to expect, but I was somewhat surprised at the low-tech nature of it all. Apart from the barcoded paper that was delivered by post to identify each one of us, everything else was hand written. I mean, no proof of identify required, just saying “yes, that’s my name”… then, it was writing the name of your candidate on a piece of paper… followed by checking a couple more boxes for other positions (which I didn’t really understand). Where was the barcoded or electronically readable voting forms? Good luck to whoever has to read my handwriting!

Influenza

In other news, swinging back to Monday. The guy sitting next to me looked seriously ill on Monday, coughing and spluttering everywhere. Thankfully he got a mask by mid-morning, which eased my tension… but by mid-afternoon I hightailed it out of there and headed to the other office to complete my work day. Anyway, he took the next day off which was a relief, but he returned on Wednesday to torture me again.

I’m not sure if it was him or some other factor but by the end of the week, I was feeling pretty rough. To be honest, I was feeling rough on Monday. [ I should have taken my manager's advice and headed home on that day ... ] Thursday, I had a scheduled day of, and I felt refreshed after that…. returning to work on Friday – eugh, again.

Anyway, finally the weekend and some relief… but, it’s funny… the whole week I’d been on the verge of being sick – as soon as the weekend hits, so does the full on being sick thing. Ok, not exactly sick…just a slight temperature and a major chest infection and throat swelling. I pretty much slept from 6pm to this morning on and off… my voice is sort of back and at least I can breathe easier but I have half a day to fix this before work tomorrow T_T.

It ain’t influenza thankfully, but it ain’t something I like having…

License

So, in an eventfull week… I got my driver’s license!! After 7 odd years of pissing about and never actually taking the test, on Thursday (my day off), I got the actual card!

It all started back in the UK, before university even… I started taking lessons, practicing with my dad, etc etc… then uni came and screwed up my whole schedule… having to cancel the driving test because of exams… and then deciding I didn’t need a license in London…

Coming to Japan, a few things made me realise I needed a license – 1. the fact that I had put it off so long and I had no reason to anymore, 2. I needed a pastime of sorts, 3. one time when I spoke with my granddad, he mentioned it as one of the things that a guy needs – (something like: money, education, driver’s license) … I think this was the material list… I think we also had talks about the immaterial list like compassion, etc etc… but I’m getting off track.

So I took up driving lessons in Japan too. After dillydalling around in Japan too… trying not to take too many days off – trying not to fail the test too many times – and also taking “required” courses like First Aid, etc… I got my license! woooo~~~!

You know, I’ve been so used to not driving, it seems strange to think that I can sit in the driving seat / rent-a-car / plan road trips etc…

hmm, where to? who with… Now, that’s a very good question.

This is likely to be my last post from my long stay here in Japan. I have mentioned time and again the wonderful memories I have made during the last six months and it is with a heavy heart that I will be returning back to London. I cannot begin to put into words how I feel and what I will take away from the time I spent here but I feel that I may have changed and grown; that I suppose I cannot judge for myself and I will let others see for themselves.

I’ve been unwilling to write an entry in this blog as I have yet to convinced that it’s a good idea to leave behind my trusted LJ account. I have consideredt splitting my blog up into serious commentary and general blogging across LJ and here but I reckon I won’t really have the time or enthusiasm to continue with both in parallel.