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 spiders 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