This was going to be a long post. I have lots to say as I have done a lot recently. Unfortunately I decided at the start of my nice long post to update to the new version of blogger. As I am in japan, and the new blogger runs through google which automatically detects your location, my entire blog and all the instructions got translated into japanese. It has taken me until now to find out how to get it back to english, and even then I suspect from the help boards that it will be japanese again when I next sign in. I am taking deep breaths.
So, as I am getting up at 4.20am tomorrow to go skiing for 3 days and it is now 10.30pm, I am going to bed and will have to write an even longer blog when I get back.
If I can sign in.
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Monday, November 20, 2006
Rain
The weather outside is very grotty today. It has been raining heavily all day, and all of yesterday too. It is properly cold now too, and I had thought that once it gets cold the rain stops but it seems to overlap a bit. I have been told that it will be very dry by christmas though.
Once we got our driving licences we went down tot he Izu peninsula for a weekend. We stayed at a lovely hotel with an outdoor Onsen (like a hot bath only everyone is naked and very very clean) and views over the ocean. We even slept on a futon which was far more comfortable than I expected. I had 4 onsens in 2 days and the best nights sleep in ages!
We drove down in a hire car with another couple of friends. Will did most of the driving, and did a very good job, especially since we were following another car driven by Brendan, a crazy australian who changes lanes at a moments notice. We almost got stopped by the police because we were speeding to keep up with Brendans car, but they changed their mind and just passed us after we pulled over. We think it was probably because they saw us turn around in the back of the car, realised we were Gaijin (foreigners) and decided it was too much bother. Unfortunately this meant we lost Brendan and spent the next 20 mins trying to find him.
When we got back it was all hands on deck preparing for Family Festival. This is like the school fete, only the parents all get really involved and run stalls selling all the different foods and drink from their home countries. Since there are about 50 nationalities at ISSH, this is quite an event. I am singing and playing various bits and pieces in the faculty band, so I had to be there at 7.30 to set up, then on duty 10-4 and 2 hours of specific shifts in the middle. By the end of the day I was dead on my feet but it was a good day. The school raised 14 million yen through the day, which was especially impressive since it was - you guessed it - raining all day. keeping the water out of the PA and all the guitars was an all day job. Fortunately, since we were playing outside and the weather was grim, very few people heard our set so we are able to keep most of the same songs for the christmas party. Every cloud...
Will's mom was here for that weekend but she was staying in a hotel about 40 mins bus ride away. We went over a lot and saw her as much as possible, then she went off sight-seeing around the country. She stayed with us for the last few days and we had a great time showing her all the sights, but we were so tired by the time she left. Even so it was fun and we got the spare room sorted so other people can come now.
Our Japanese lessons mini course has finished now. I have got a load of cards with conversation snipets written down, and translations for lots of things like how to change the air con to a heater (very useful right now) and have got very good at directing taxi drivers. I have got a flat tyre on my bike and a rash on my face to match some sort of weird reaction my eyes have had for a few weeks. At one point I had 4 different types of drops in my bag. The doctors here are excellent though, very thorough, so hopefully the latest ones will clear it up. We will see what happens with my skin though. I know a lot of people react to japanese cedar so maybe that is it. I have been sneezing a lot so you never know.
This weekend I was playing piano accompanying 2 seniors from school in a singing competition. I had forgotten how nervous I get when I play for people I know! There was a recital on friday for the entire high school plus staff ( I didn't know about this when I agreed to play for them). As I sat down at the piano, I could hear my 9th graders on the floor next to me going " is that Mrs George?!" "I didn't know she played piano!" and "can you see how much she's shaking!". Great. Lets just say it wasn't my best ever peformance. When the time came to go up for the second girl, I was terrified and focused on the fact that I had only ever practised with her once cos she never showed up, and she had learned the piece with the music teacher, so I wimped out and asked that teacher to play. It seemed sensible as she knew the piece and I didn't! The next day was the competition, and since there was nobody I knew there and I wasn't worried about the second girl (who incidentally didn't make it to the competition - and her name is Rain. Apt.), I played much better. Phew. The kid gave me Y10,000 in gift vouchers to say thankyou too, which shocked me! I was very grateful. I am getting an electric piano from Will and his Mom for christmas, so at least if I do it again I will be able to learn the pieces and practice properly. I can't wait.
Our main thought now is names for our band at the christmas party. My favourites so far are "Affray in a Manger" and "we who sing disorient are". Any suggestions will be gladly received!
Once we got our driving licences we went down tot he Izu peninsula for a weekend. We stayed at a lovely hotel with an outdoor Onsen (like a hot bath only everyone is naked and very very clean) and views over the ocean. We even slept on a futon which was far more comfortable than I expected. I had 4 onsens in 2 days and the best nights sleep in ages!
We drove down in a hire car with another couple of friends. Will did most of the driving, and did a very good job, especially since we were following another car driven by Brendan, a crazy australian who changes lanes at a moments notice. We almost got stopped by the police because we were speeding to keep up with Brendans car, but they changed their mind and just passed us after we pulled over. We think it was probably because they saw us turn around in the back of the car, realised we were Gaijin (foreigners) and decided it was too much bother. Unfortunately this meant we lost Brendan and spent the next 20 mins trying to find him.
When we got back it was all hands on deck preparing for Family Festival. This is like the school fete, only the parents all get really involved and run stalls selling all the different foods and drink from their home countries. Since there are about 50 nationalities at ISSH, this is quite an event. I am singing and playing various bits and pieces in the faculty band, so I had to be there at 7.30 to set up, then on duty 10-4 and 2 hours of specific shifts in the middle. By the end of the day I was dead on my feet but it was a good day. The school raised 14 million yen through the day, which was especially impressive since it was - you guessed it - raining all day. keeping the water out of the PA and all the guitars was an all day job. Fortunately, since we were playing outside and the weather was grim, very few people heard our set so we are able to keep most of the same songs for the christmas party. Every cloud...
Will's mom was here for that weekend but she was staying in a hotel about 40 mins bus ride away. We went over a lot and saw her as much as possible, then she went off sight-seeing around the country. She stayed with us for the last few days and we had a great time showing her all the sights, but we were so tired by the time she left. Even so it was fun and we got the spare room sorted so other people can come now.
Our Japanese lessons mini course has finished now. I have got a load of cards with conversation snipets written down, and translations for lots of things like how to change the air con to a heater (very useful right now) and have got very good at directing taxi drivers. I have got a flat tyre on my bike and a rash on my face to match some sort of weird reaction my eyes have had for a few weeks. At one point I had 4 different types of drops in my bag. The doctors here are excellent though, very thorough, so hopefully the latest ones will clear it up. We will see what happens with my skin though. I know a lot of people react to japanese cedar so maybe that is it. I have been sneezing a lot so you never know.
This weekend I was playing piano accompanying 2 seniors from school in a singing competition. I had forgotten how nervous I get when I play for people I know! There was a recital on friday for the entire high school plus staff ( I didn't know about this when I agreed to play for them). As I sat down at the piano, I could hear my 9th graders on the floor next to me going " is that Mrs George?!" "I didn't know she played piano!" and "can you see how much she's shaking!". Great. Lets just say it wasn't my best ever peformance. When the time came to go up for the second girl, I was terrified and focused on the fact that I had only ever practised with her once cos she never showed up, and she had learned the piece with the music teacher, so I wimped out and asked that teacher to play. It seemed sensible as she knew the piece and I didn't! The next day was the competition, and since there was nobody I knew there and I wasn't worried about the second girl (who incidentally didn't make it to the competition - and her name is Rain. Apt.), I played much better. Phew. The kid gave me Y10,000 in gift vouchers to say thankyou too, which shocked me! I was very grateful. I am getting an electric piano from Will and his Mom for christmas, so at least if I do it again I will be able to learn the pieces and practice properly. I can't wait.
Our main thought now is names for our band at the christmas party. My favourites so far are "Affray in a Manger" and "we who sing disorient are". Any suggestions will be gladly received!
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Driving Licenses
I am posting a special update just to fill everyone in on the unbelievable bureaucracy of Japan.
Today we tried to get Japanese driving licenses. First of all we needed to get colour photocopies of our documents so that we could get JAF (like the Japanese AA) to translate our licenses. This was the easy bit. We left the house well before 9am on our holiday to go and do this. Next we had to get to the JAF offices. This required 2 train trips, but we didn't realize that it was 2 differently owned lines, so wasted a few hundred yen paying for the whole journey and then having to pay again when we changed trains. Grr.
At the other end, we found a map of the local are and tried to compare it to the online map I had copied. Fortunately Will spotted a few minutes into our route preparation that North on this map was actually downwards. We very nearly walked out of the station in the wrong direction. When you get lost here it is very difficult to spot and/or correct, because there are so few visible landmarks or signs that mean anything to us. We left the station, and then followed my little drawn map. Unfortunately it had a small mistake (online map mistake, not copying mistake) so we still managed to walk around in a big circle for 40 minutes. Eventually we asked a man for directions (and managed to understand them! Yay!) and found the place. They were very helpful and fairly quick and we soon had nicely translated licenses.
Next we had to make our way back to another station (much easier train ride) to meet a friend who had already got his translation but needed to get the licence. It is a problem to get the licenses because the office hours are 9-3 so you have to go on a day when we are off work but it is not a national holiday. Today was the only available day before Christmas, so we were keen to get it done. It was also important because we are going away for the weekend with the aforementioned friend and his wife and hiring a car. For which we need a valid licence. So we were all keen to get it right.
We found our way to Shinagawa station, a huge and confusing place. We needed to change here to yet another privately owned line. What we didn't realize was that where there are usually 2 ticket machines that you walk through to validate the ticket, here there was only one, but you still had to validate the ticket from your old journey as well as for the one you were about to take. I will come back to this problem later, so remember it.
We managed to buy tickets, get through and ask someone which train we needed. The train came and we got on it. By this time it was 12.50. The highways office closes for lunch from 11.30-1pm (in such a short day - I know) so we wanted to get there for when it opened. Unfortunately, whoever we asked about the train clearly wasn't concentrating, because it was a Rapid train - like an express, that didn't stop at our station. So we got off at the next stop and got the local train back to the right station. Phew. Then we walked to the highways office.
We got there and found the right place, queued up for the very small window and handed over our documents. The first thing they said was did we have our old passport to prove we had lived in the UK after the licenses were issued. Who carries an expired passport to a new country!? Well, Ben apparently but normal people just don't. Luckily, I had taken our marriage certificate along (just as something official and just in case - inspired) and they seemed to accept that as proof we had been there at least and resident. They took all our papers from us and we had to sit and wait for ages to find out if we were on to the next step. It was like waiting for a mortgage application or an exam result. While we waited, some other people were being called through a secret door holding money and getting sorted quickly. I don't want to know.
Meanwhile, our other friend Mark (Australian) was having problems. He had forgotten his passport first off, but even with that he was stuffed. He had 2 categories on his licence, and the Japanese officials said he needed a piece of paper from the Queensland DVLA equivalent stating when he had passed each category. This would allow him to have a licence for a car and a 125cc scooter, even though he had taken an exam for a 250cc. Japan have no middle category, so he will have to take the 400cc exam to be able to ride the new 200cc vespa he has just bought. If he can organise the bits of paper from Australia. He also has problems because his passport was renewed while he was living in the UAE, and he has no idea where his old one is. He was not happy. Eventually he went home with his fingers crossed that at least one of us would get ours so we could hire the car tomorrow.
We were approved for ours, but that wasn't the end. We had to get new photos taken because the passport sized ones were too big. Then we had to have an eyetest (truly pointless - Will couldn't see half of it and still passed) and go back to the original window to get a lot of stamps and pay a lot of money. Then we had to go to have our official photo taken, and then wait an hour and 10 minutes for the card to be ready. So we went to a Japanese fast food place over the road and had rice and boiled meat, which was actually more appetizing than it sounds and very cheap. Eventually we got our licenses. Yay!
Now we just had to get home. We got the train back to Shinagawa and tried to go back though the single ticket machine. For some reason, everyone else was fine but I was blocked repeatedly. A man tried to help and got confused. In the end it turned out I hadn't validated my last journey as I came through, so I was stuck. I had to wait while the attendant took my card and left me standing like a lemon til he came back. I never want to go to the highway office again! We got home at 5.20pm. Japanese bureaucracy is really something to see.
On the upside, yesterday I found a Next and bought clothes in english sizes, then went for a fantastic chinese meal, and tomorrow we are going away for the weekend with friends to relax. We can even drive there!
Today we tried to get Japanese driving licenses. First of all we needed to get colour photocopies of our documents so that we could get JAF (like the Japanese AA) to translate our licenses. This was the easy bit. We left the house well before 9am on our holiday to go and do this. Next we had to get to the JAF offices. This required 2 train trips, but we didn't realize that it was 2 differently owned lines, so wasted a few hundred yen paying for the whole journey and then having to pay again when we changed trains. Grr.
At the other end, we found a map of the local are and tried to compare it to the online map I had copied. Fortunately Will spotted a few minutes into our route preparation that North on this map was actually downwards. We very nearly walked out of the station in the wrong direction. When you get lost here it is very difficult to spot and/or correct, because there are so few visible landmarks or signs that mean anything to us. We left the station, and then followed my little drawn map. Unfortunately it had a small mistake (online map mistake, not copying mistake) so we still managed to walk around in a big circle for 40 minutes. Eventually we asked a man for directions (and managed to understand them! Yay!) and found the place. They were very helpful and fairly quick and we soon had nicely translated licenses.
Next we had to make our way back to another station (much easier train ride) to meet a friend who had already got his translation but needed to get the licence. It is a problem to get the licenses because the office hours are 9-3 so you have to go on a day when we are off work but it is not a national holiday. Today was the only available day before Christmas, so we were keen to get it done. It was also important because we are going away for the weekend with the aforementioned friend and his wife and hiring a car. For which we need a valid licence. So we were all keen to get it right.
We found our way to Shinagawa station, a huge and confusing place. We needed to change here to yet another privately owned line. What we didn't realize was that where there are usually 2 ticket machines that you walk through to validate the ticket, here there was only one, but you still had to validate the ticket from your old journey as well as for the one you were about to take. I will come back to this problem later, so remember it.
We managed to buy tickets, get through and ask someone which train we needed. The train came and we got on it. By this time it was 12.50. The highways office closes for lunch from 11.30-1pm (in such a short day - I know) so we wanted to get there for when it opened. Unfortunately, whoever we asked about the train clearly wasn't concentrating, because it was a Rapid train - like an express, that didn't stop at our station. So we got off at the next stop and got the local train back to the right station. Phew. Then we walked to the highways office.
We got there and found the right place, queued up for the very small window and handed over our documents. The first thing they said was did we have our old passport to prove we had lived in the UK after the licenses were issued. Who carries an expired passport to a new country!? Well, Ben apparently but normal people just don't. Luckily, I had taken our marriage certificate along (just as something official and just in case - inspired) and they seemed to accept that as proof we had been there at least and resident. They took all our papers from us and we had to sit and wait for ages to find out if we were on to the next step. It was like waiting for a mortgage application or an exam result. While we waited, some other people were being called through a secret door holding money and getting sorted quickly. I don't want to know.
Meanwhile, our other friend Mark (Australian) was having problems. He had forgotten his passport first off, but even with that he was stuffed. He had 2 categories on his licence, and the Japanese officials said he needed a piece of paper from the Queensland DVLA equivalent stating when he had passed each category. This would allow him to have a licence for a car and a 125cc scooter, even though he had taken an exam for a 250cc. Japan have no middle category, so he will have to take the 400cc exam to be able to ride the new 200cc vespa he has just bought. If he can organise the bits of paper from Australia. He also has problems because his passport was renewed while he was living in the UAE, and he has no idea where his old one is. He was not happy. Eventually he went home with his fingers crossed that at least one of us would get ours so we could hire the car tomorrow.
We were approved for ours, but that wasn't the end. We had to get new photos taken because the passport sized ones were too big. Then we had to have an eyetest (truly pointless - Will couldn't see half of it and still passed) and go back to the original window to get a lot of stamps and pay a lot of money. Then we had to go to have our official photo taken, and then wait an hour and 10 minutes for the card to be ready. So we went to a Japanese fast food place over the road and had rice and boiled meat, which was actually more appetizing than it sounds and very cheap. Eventually we got our licenses. Yay!
Now we just had to get home. We got the train back to Shinagawa and tried to go back though the single ticket machine. For some reason, everyone else was fine but I was blocked repeatedly. A man tried to help and got confused. In the end it turned out I hadn't validated my last journey as I came through, so I was stuck. I had to wait while the attendant took my card and left me standing like a lemon til he came back. I never want to go to the highway office again! We got home at 5.20pm. Japanese bureaucracy is really something to see.
On the upside, yesterday I found a Next and bought clothes in english sizes, then went for a fantastic chinese meal, and tomorrow we are going away for the weekend with friends to relax. We can even drive there!
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Excursions
I have been reprimanded for not updating for a while. Sorry. We have been busy as usual here although it has been an unusual few weeks. It was excursion time at school from the 4th October. This is a compulsory trip that all students go on for three days each year. Each year group goes to a different place and it is really nice for everyone to get to know each other and be out of the city for a few days. Every full-time teacher has to go on an excursion with one of their classes.
I went on the Grade 6 excursion (the same as Year 7 in the UK, age 10-12) to Yamanaka-ko, a lake at the foot of Mt. Fuji. There were 38 kids and 5 staff. It was a lovely green place, surrounded by mountains, and we stayed in the YMCA on the shores of the lake. Unfortunately, about 2 hours after we arrived it started to rain and it didn't stop for the entire time we were there. I am assured Mt. Fuji was right outside my window but I didn't see it at all over the 3 days. Even so, the rain didn't stop us doing all the activities we had planned, including a half day hike up the next highest mountain in the range (about 4000 ft). About 1/3 of the way up we went into the cloud and from that point on saw nothing, not even the other end of our group. Again, I am promised that the view was
worth the climb but I didn't actually see it. I am beginning to think Fuji is just a big con that they draw on postcards but doesn't exist. The 3 days were tiring but good fun really, I only hope we have better weather if I go anywhere else.
We have finally had our new bed and sofa, which took some doing with the Japanese delivery men, especially with some things missing. I had to ring a Japanese friend (actually Korean but she speaks Japanese) to translate the message that they were going to go back for the things. I was quite impressed that we managed to agree the items and sort out the delivery times without help though. The new stuff has made the apartment look so much better, I feel more at home here now. It was very bare before and I felt like I was living in a hotel room. There are still a few things we want but we have no money left after the Ikea day. They will have to wait.
One of the teachers at school is running a short course of Japanese lessons for the new teachers. We have been to 2 so far, and covered quite a few basic things. We learned a lot of it before we came but she is able to explain why things are done certain ways, and she has been teaching us how to bow and personal things like our names and addresses which is great. I am trying to practice my writing - I am far far behind Will. He keeps reading odd things like manhole covers and getting all excited, but it really is useful for him to be able to work some things out. I am looking forward to being able to read menus the most, it is scary not knowing what is coming to eat!
At the weekend we went to a fair at another international school just up the road - Nishimachi. Each international school has a fair in the autumn where parents and other interested people run stalls of food and drink from their
home countries. I managed to get a proper bacon sandwich!! I was soooo pleased. It was from the Irish stall (there was no British stall there) so I asked the man where he managed to get the bacon from, but he said they had it flown in specially from Dublin a few days before. I couldn't believe it. The bacon here is useless. That is probably the thing I miss the most at the moment, although robinsons orange squash and bisto gravy are close runners up. Our school is holding the fair (or Family Festival) on November 11th, so maybe I'll be able to get another one then. The photo is Will and Ben at the Canadian Stall.
We had a bank holiday last monday so we decided to go to Odaiba for the afternoon. This is a part of the city that
someone decided should be like old fashioned blackpool. so it has a fake beach (which faces the city skyline just to complete the illusion), wooden promenade and little stalls selling ice-cream etc. Except that it is Tokyo, so you also have designer shops, no cash points and people screaming at the top of their lungs in the hope that you will come to buy something from them (this is a feature of most shops and department stores here - never mind that by coming any closer to them you may well be deafened). Still, it was a lovely day and the monorail ride around the bay to get there was worth the trip. This is some of the views and me at the station in Shinbashi (on the way home). 
The workers on the plot next door have finally finished, yay! They have been demolishing a building for over a month (due to end on 30th september but didn't) and it has been such a pain. There was a massive digger and it kept making our whole house shake as though we were having an earthquake, only on and off all day. And they started at 7.30 on saturdays. When I say finished, I mean the plot is now flat and there is no digger anymore, but this is Tokyo so I expect someone will come along and start building on it soon. We are just hoping we have a few saturdays worth of lie-ins first. Building projects here are notoriously long and all a bit dodgy. We saw a man perched on the arm of the digger being waved around to weld some bits outside our kitchen window. No helmet, no goggles, gloves etc. They are crazy people.
We had our biggest earthquake so far on saturday morning in the early hours. It actually woke me up, which was a bit disorienting. I opened my eyes and had to concentrate to figure out why the bed was going side to side. It was a 5.3 which officially is "moderate" but it was long and big for us. Will slept through the whole thing.
Thats all til we get paid. We can't do a lot til then!
I went on the Grade 6 excursion (the same as Year 7 in the UK, age 10-12) to Yamanaka-ko, a lake at the foot of Mt. Fuji. There were 38 kids and 5 staff. It was a lovely green place, surrounded by mountains, and we stayed in the YMCA on the shores of the lake. Unfortunately, about 2 hours after we arrived it started to rain and it didn't stop for the entire time we were there. I am assured Mt. Fuji was right outside my window but I didn't see it at all over the 3 days. Even so, the rain didn't stop us doing all the activities we had planned, including a half day hike up the next highest mountain in the range (about 4000 ft). About 1/3 of the way up we went into the cloud and from that point on saw nothing, not even the other end of our group. Again, I am promised that the view was
worth the climb but I didn't actually see it. I am beginning to think Fuji is just a big con that they draw on postcards but doesn't exist. The 3 days were tiring but good fun really, I only hope we have better weather if I go anywhere else.We have finally had our new bed and sofa, which took some doing with the Japanese delivery men, especially with some things missing. I had to ring a Japanese friend (actually Korean but she speaks Japanese) to translate the message that they were going to go back for the things. I was quite impressed that we managed to agree the items and sort out the delivery times without help though. The new stuff has made the apartment look so much better, I feel more at home here now. It was very bare before and I felt like I was living in a hotel room. There are still a few things we want but we have no money left after the Ikea day. They will have to wait.
One of the teachers at school is running a short course of Japanese lessons for the new teachers. We have been to 2 so far, and covered quite a few basic things. We learned a lot of it before we came but she is able to explain why things are done certain ways, and she has been teaching us how to bow and personal things like our names and addresses which is great. I am trying to practice my writing - I am far far behind Will. He keeps reading odd things like manhole covers and getting all excited, but it really is useful for him to be able to work some things out. I am looking forward to being able to read menus the most, it is scary not knowing what is coming to eat!
At the weekend we went to a fair at another international school just up the road - Nishimachi. Each international school has a fair in the autumn where parents and other interested people run stalls of food and drink from their
home countries. I managed to get a proper bacon sandwich!! I was soooo pleased. It was from the Irish stall (there was no British stall there) so I asked the man where he managed to get the bacon from, but he said they had it flown in specially from Dublin a few days before. I couldn't believe it. The bacon here is useless. That is probably the thing I miss the most at the moment, although robinsons orange squash and bisto gravy are close runners up. Our school is holding the fair (or Family Festival) on November 11th, so maybe I'll be able to get another one then. The photo is Will and Ben at the Canadian Stall.We had a bank holiday last monday so we decided to go to Odaiba for the afternoon. This is a part of the city that
someone decided should be like old fashioned blackpool. so it has a fake beach (which faces the city skyline just to complete the illusion), wooden promenade and little stalls selling ice-cream etc. Except that it is Tokyo, so you also have designer shops, no cash points and people screaming at the top of their lungs in the hope that you will come to buy something from them (this is a feature of most shops and department stores here - never mind that by coming any closer to them you may well be deafened). Still, it was a lovely day and the monorail ride around the bay to get there was worth the trip. This is some of the views and me at the station in Shinbashi (on the way home). 
The workers on the plot next door have finally finished, yay! They have been demolishing a building for over a month (due to end on 30th september but didn't) and it has been such a pain. There was a massive digger and it kept making our whole house shake as though we were having an earthquake, only on and off all day. And they started at 7.30 on saturdays. When I say finished, I mean the plot is now flat and there is no digger anymore, but this is Tokyo so I expect someone will come along and start building on it soon. We are just hoping we have a few saturdays worth of lie-ins first. Building projects here are notoriously long and all a bit dodgy. We saw a man perched on the arm of the digger being waved around to weld some bits outside our kitchen window. No helmet, no goggles, gloves etc. They are crazy people.
We had our biggest earthquake so far on saturday morning in the early hours. It actually woke me up, which was a bit disorienting. I opened my eyes and had to concentrate to figure out why the bed was going side to side. It was a 5.3 which officially is "moderate" but it was long and big for us. Will slept through the whole thing.
Thats all til we get paid. We can't do a lot til then!
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Harajuku
This week has been very busy, everyone is really tired at school and we have a lot of weeks to get through yet. Two kids actually fell asleep in one of the physics lessons this week. James, the teacher, tried to get the class to leave without waking them so they would be all confused, but they woke up. Monday was mini-day, when the parents come in for an afternoon and have a mini lesson with each of their kids teachers. Very scary. We also had something called Spirit Day on friday, which is a bit of an American thing. Different year groups have a different theme and the kids all dress up in the theme (we had Disney characters, past fashion, future careers, jungle fever etc) and then at the end of the day everyone goes to the gym and all the sports teams do little performances and there's lots of cheering and shouting and they get people to do silly things. Apparently they do it a lot in the US and call it a pep rally. It's supposed to raise school spirit, and the kids did seem to enjoy it, especially the bit where the PE teacher had red full body paint and a feather boa to strut about as tickle-me-elmo. Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of that.
Last weekend I went for sushi for the first time here (it smelled too fishy for Will - he had a subway). I really enjoyed it, and it was cheap too. I did keep getting wasabi though by accident, which is really foul stuff. I must be more careful in future.
The food here is really good and if you know where to go you can eat reasonably cheaply. The supermarkets are expensive anyway so it's sometimes cheaper to eat out than stay in, especially Japanese food. Today we had ramen for the first time, which is basically noodles with different meat and veg in a sort of broth. Very tasty, I shall be having it again.
On sundays just outside the main Meiji Shrine in an area called Harajuku there are lots of girls (and the occasional boy) who dress up in various silly outfits
which they seem to think are cool, and hang around on a bridge. It is a truly bizarre sight. Apparently a few years ago they loved to have photos taken and would pose for tourists, but now they only want to see the professional photographers (of which we saw none) and turn away from everyone else. It sort of makes you wonder why they even turn up, but I suppose its a culture thing. Anyway, they are entertaining to see. 
Just around the corner from the Harajuku girls there is a group called the Rockabillies. These are mostly middle aged to old men who wear leather and 
have huge black quiffs and dance around in the street to (as far as we could tell) bad covers of the Supremes and grease songs. Very odd, but again very cool to see. This was the 2 youngest ones with our friends Wendy and Diny.
When we thought we had gawped at strange things enough, we went and gawped at the Shrine. The building itself is very plain but interesting, and set in a huge green area which was a lovely break from the noise of the city. There were traditional Japanese weddings going on, which were quite prestigious, as the Meiji shrine is the biggest in Tokyo, so it's sort of like getting married at
Westminster Abbey. We felt a bit bad taking photos of these people we didn't know, but apparently people get married there to be seen, and they didn't seem to mind. The kimonos and bridal outfits were so detailed, they must have taken hours to put on. We were kept amused by the make-up artists running around the groom before the main photo - he didn't look very happy with all the powder. 
Last weekend I went for sushi for the first time here (it smelled too fishy for Will - he had a subway). I really enjoyed it, and it was cheap too. I did keep getting wasabi though by accident, which is really foul stuff. I must be more careful in future.The food here is really good and if you know where to go you can eat reasonably cheaply. The supermarkets are expensive anyway so it's sometimes cheaper to eat out than stay in, especially Japanese food. Today we had ramen for the first time, which is basically noodles with different meat and veg in a sort of broth. Very tasty, I shall be having it again.
On sundays just outside the main Meiji Shrine in an area called Harajuku there are lots of girls (and the occasional boy) who dress up in various silly outfits
which they seem to think are cool, and hang around on a bridge. It is a truly bizarre sight. Apparently a few years ago they loved to have photos taken and would pose for tourists, but now they only want to see the professional photographers (of which we saw none) and turn away from everyone else. It sort of makes you wonder why they even turn up, but I suppose its a culture thing. Anyway, they are entertaining to see. 
Just around the corner from the Harajuku girls there is a group called the Rockabillies. These are mostly middle aged to old men who wear leather and 
have huge black quiffs and dance around in the street to (as far as we could tell) bad covers of the Supremes and grease songs. Very odd, but again very cool to see. This was the 2 youngest ones with our friends Wendy and Diny.When we thought we had gawped at strange things enough, we went and gawped at the Shrine. The building itself is very plain but interesting, and set in a huge green area which was a lovely break from the noise of the city. There were traditional Japanese weddings going on, which were quite prestigious, as the Meiji shrine is the biggest in Tokyo, so it's sort of like getting married at
Westminster Abbey. We felt a bit bad taking photos of these people we didn't know, but apparently people get married there to be seen, and they didn't seem to mind. The kimonos and bridal outfits were so detailed, they must have taken hours to put on. We were kept amused by the make-up artists running around the groom before the main photo - he didn't look very happy with all the powder. 
After the wedding we went shopping. We wandered around the Shibuya district, a huge, extremely busy shopping area, and stumbled on a street festival. These little festivals are everywhere here, there are a f
we dotted around most weekends, but even then we were surprised to find one smack in the middle of the city.
Today we went to Ikea and spent a fortune. I won't post photos, it is just as painful as Ikea anywhere else. I won't be going back for a good long while. In the meantime, we will soon have a new bed and sofa (yay) so I am happy.
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Hi again, I have now managed to get some photos of the apartment on, so you can see where we are living. It is still a bit bare at the moment but it is fine for us and I'm sure it will be covered in all our rubbish soon enough so I shouldn't moan.
This is the lounge. (Will is wearing shorts although it might not look like it.) We have added a TV to the picture since this was taken which is good.
The door he is facing is our bedroom, and there is another one next to him to the other bedroom. These are the bedrooms:
Well, one is more a photo of the wardrobe but it was difficult to take a shot in there!
Anyway, the other doors you can see are the
bathroom on the right, again it is hard to take a photo of the room, but really it is a sink in a little room, then a shower room with a very small bath straight on (the whole room is the cubicle) and a toilet off to the right.
The other door on the left of the lounge is to the porch or genkan, a little foyer at the front of every house with shoe storage because everyone must take off their shoes. In some restaurants with tatami mats you still have to do that here, but I haven't seen it happen yet. We have a huge closet in there where we hang the washing to dry.
On the right of where I was standing is the kitchen. There is zero preparation space in there. Actually no surfaces to do anything on. It is very odd. We have got a tiny chopping board which we wedge onto the draining board and any plates we dish up just have to be balanced wherever we can find. The washing machine in the corner can be useful for this but it has a sloping lid. At least one plate has landed in the clothes so far. Otherwise the kitchen is great although I do miss having an oven.
So that is where we live! I will just slot in one more picture which is the lounge from the other direction, with the table and chairs.
See, at least one little bit of anywhere I live is homelike (ie messy) in no time!
This is the lounge. (Will is wearing shorts although it might not look like it.) We have added a TV to the picture since this was taken which is good.
The door he is facing is our bedroom, and there is another one next to him to the other bedroom. These are the bedrooms:
Well, one is more a photo of the wardrobe but it was difficult to take a shot in there!
Anyway, the other doors you can see are the
bathroom on the right, again it is hard to take a photo of the room, but really it is a sink in a little room, then a shower room with a very small bath straight on (the whole room is the cubicle) and a toilet off to the right.
The other door on the left of the lounge is to the porch or genkan, a little foyer at the front of every house with shoe storage because everyone must take off their shoes. In some restaurants with tatami mats you still have to do that here, but I haven't seen it happen yet. We have a huge closet in there where we hang the washing to dry.
On the right of where I was standing is the kitchen. There is zero preparation space in there. Actually no surfaces to do anything on. It is very odd. We have got a tiny chopping board which we wedge onto the draining board and any plates we dish up just have to be balanced wherever we can find. The washing machine in the corner can be useful for this but it has a sloping lid. At least one plate has landed in the clothes so far. Otherwise the kitchen is great although I do miss having an oven.
So that is where we live! I will just slot in one more picture which is the lounge from the other direction, with the table and chairs.
See, at least one little bit of anywhere I live is homelike (ie messy) in no time!
Sunday, September 03, 2006
Still Here!
Hi everyone, we are still surviving and mostly enjoying ourselves. Our main annoyance now is bugs. Urgh they are horrible. We have had cockroaches and mosquitoes mainly but the s
piders here jump a lot and run fast which can give you quite a shock. Not as much as a cockroach over an inch long appearing behind your head when you are in bed though. I can cope fine with spiders etc but the cockroaches really do make my skin crawl. This photo shows our little boxes on top of the bedroom aircon. One catches the bugs and the other keeps them away, so hopefully we won't have to deal with dead ones. Fingers crossed.
We managed to get a TV finally this weekend. It isn't bilingual but we have connected a DVD player so we can watch films and we have loads of comedy series. The teachers all swap too so there is plenty to watch. If we can get cable then we should be able to get news and a few other bits in english.
I am trying to take it easy with the rice based alcohol. The Chu-hai in particular tastes like pop and goes straight to my head. When we are out with a big group drinks just keep appearing in front of me which is very bad. I am determined to make an effort to pay attention in future. Westerners in general seem to be in agreement that Ume-chu hangovers are just awful.
We had our first earthquake this week too. I was in the bar of a hotel at the time, on the 22nd floor, and the whole place just shook and all the glasses were sliding around the tables. We had been taken there by one of the older teachers to show us the view, but it was quite a cool place to be for the first one. It measured 4.9 on the richter scale. Will was in our apartment at the time and thought he had ripped the door off the inges until he looked outside and saw all the telegraph wires swinging around. It sounded like a big rumbling bang, if that makes sense. It was definitely interesting.
This weekend we went to Shibuya. That is the place with all the lit up billboards and the huge crossing that is always used in films about Japan. There are so many people it is amazing. The station in particular is incredible. 1.6 million people go through there every day. I couldn't really imagine that until I saw it. We pushed and shoved our way around to a (very slightly) quieter street and found a brazilian carvery which was fantastic, then we staggered our way back to the station because we were so full. We went on to the hotel where I felt the earthquake, called the Westin in Ebisu, which is 22 storeys high. The bar is on the very top floor and a little on the expensive side, but the view was amazing, all the lights over the city, so we had cocktails and sat there digesting. We didn't leave until 1am, and had no idea that it was so late. The trains had stopped so we had to get a taxi back, but they are not as expensive as you would think if you are not going too far. The next day we went back to Shibuya for shopping. Busy is all I can say. It is a place that has to be seen to be believed.
So people will have to come out and see it for themselves!
Jennyx
piders here jump a lot and run fast which can give you quite a shock. Not as much as a cockroach over an inch long appearing behind your head when you are in bed though. I can cope fine with spiders etc but the cockroaches really do make my skin crawl. This photo shows our little boxes on top of the bedroom aircon. One catches the bugs and the other keeps them away, so hopefully we won't have to deal with dead ones. Fingers crossed.We managed to get a TV finally this weekend. It isn't bilingual but we have connected a DVD player so we can watch films and we have loads of comedy series. The teachers all swap too so there is plenty to watch. If we can get cable then we should be able to get news and a few other bits in english.
I am trying to take it easy with the rice based alcohol. The Chu-hai in particular tastes like pop and goes straight to my head. When we are out with a big group drinks just keep appearing in front of me which is very bad. I am determined to make an effort to pay attention in future. Westerners in general seem to be in agreement that Ume-chu hangovers are just awful.
We had our first earthquake this week too. I was in the bar of a hotel at the time, on the 22nd floor, and the whole place just shook and all the glasses were sliding around the tables. We had been taken there by one of the older teachers to show us the view, but it was quite a cool place to be for the first one. It measured 4.9 on the richter scale. Will was in our apartment at the time and thought he had ripped the door off the inges until he looked outside and saw all the telegraph wires swinging around. It sounded like a big rumbling bang, if that makes sense. It was definitely interesting.
This weekend we went to Shibuya. That is the place with all the lit up billboards and the huge crossing that is always used in films about Japan. There are so many people it is amazing. The station in particular is incredible. 1.6 million people go through there every day. I couldn't really imagine that until I saw it. We pushed and shoved our way around to a (very slightly) quieter street and found a brazilian carvery which was fantastic, then we staggered our way back to the station because we were so full. We went on to the hotel where I felt the earthquake, called the Westin in Ebisu, which is 22 storeys high. The bar is on the very top floor and a little on the expensive side, but the view was amazing, all the lights over the city, so we had cocktails and sat there digesting. We didn't leave until 1am, and had no idea that it was so late. The trains had stopped so we had to get a taxi back, but they are not as expensive as you would think if you are not going too far. The next day we went back to Shibuya for shopping. Busy is all I can say. It is a place that has to be seen to be believed.
So people will have to come out and see it for themselves!
Jennyx
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Azabu-Juban Festival
Life in Tokyo
A Week in Tokyo
Hi Everyone,A week in Tokyo is a very expensive and exhasting thing.We have been to the Azabu-Juban festival and had a pretty cool time. The streets of a normal central Tokyo suburb were packed with people and stalls at the side of the roads selling all sorts of food drink (mainly alcoholic) and junk, some kinds of normal market stands selling farm produce like corn on the cob and eggs kind of thing.
Loads of people were dressed in traditional Japanese dress and looked really impressive. Even one of the teachers from school dressed up, although he is married to a japanese woman. I looked like a tourist but I couldn't help staring, it was great.The food and drink were great there was everything from Yakitori (mmmm), there were fish cooked on wood fires and the most disgusting thing I could ever think of salted cucumber. I had some dough balls with octopus in (I can't remember the name) with "Bulldog" sauce they were ok but I couldn't eat it all, I felt a bit queasy at the tentacles. The octopus is mainly red here so it is that bit more obvious what you are eating.
It was amazing that everyone was drinking and pretty much getting drunk heavy chu-hai (rice wine with flavours in lemon/apple/grapefruit) drinking going on but there was no fighting or disturbance of any kind. Everyone crams into the small streets and barges past each other but there is no hassle its impressive. It does take forever to get anywhere though.
Plus the litter situation was crazy they had no litter on the floor and there were proba
bly about 10,000 people in these streets people handing out flyers (mainly in the shape of plastic fans so people were grateful) and if they dropped one flyer they then made a special effort to pick it up. then there were of course many many extra people (council employees) doing extra litter collections and policing. It was all really clean. A good example was when a I went to throw a plastic container in the bag next to the bin, it was full so a lady sat next to the bin came half way to take this plastic off me to put in the bag hidden behind the bin. Everyone seemed to care and was really friendly.
There was also traditional dancing to a Japanese taiko drum and music. The drummer was cool. It's a big drum around a couple of foot wide which they hit with a b
ig kind of stick, but it was the hitting on the side of the drum and throwing inbetween the drum beats that was impressive. There was a hard core 20 or so older ladies dressed in full traditional dress that danced around in a circle doing the traditional dancing. I call these dancers a hard core becuase they must have danced for around 4 hours just while we were there making all the actions and then taking a couple of steps forward as part of the dance and making their way round the black sanded courtyard area which is a childrens playground most of the rest of the year. The best thing about this dancing was that anyone could join in, the ladies would show you what to do as you mimic them as closely as you could. I had a go and it was tricky because so many people were doing it and I kept losing sight of the little old lady, but still good fun. 
There were about 100-150 people dancing all at once and made a sight. (dark picture above I know but the man in the black t-shirt is mark, an australian teacher).There was a place for modern Japanese culture in another nearby square but to be honest this was nothing on the real thing a couple of sisters in impossibly short shorts and tight white T shirts singing and dancing around to J pop tunes, they were called Toutou and one of our number managed to get a CD of theirs, they were followed by a kind of Nsync/Black eyed peas boy band with a girl thrown in all in white who we were transfixed and then embarressed to watch so we went to mingle in with the crowds.
I haven't been able to put more photos on yet so I will leave it at the festival for now. I will try to get some of the apartment/sports night/izakaya soon because they are cool too.
Bye for now,
Jenny x
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