Summer in the City and the air is clean

Hey there
Sorry for the long hiatus, it’s been summer- things to do you know. Well since my last entry I’ve been on a trip to Kyoto (Lovely) a day in Osaka (Unbelievably quiet) Disneyland (Fun) and various places in Tokyo.
At Kyoto I did all the main temples and shrines, there are a lot there though so only the important ones got a look in. I really liked Nijojo castle which had ‘nightingale’ floor boards outside. The boards shriek, supposedly like a nightingale, when walked on, the purpose being to warn of any ninja assassins creeping about. I had a really nice bike ride along the river that bisects Kyoto. I couldn’t believe a big river going through a major city could be so clean. There were swans, ducks, frogs, fish and millions of dragonflies. It makes sense those environment rules were drawn up there. I was disappointed with Osaka it was deserted when I went there. I did enjoy going on a big wheel located slap bang in the middle of a skyscraper. Incredibly engineering. Generally Kyoto was peaceful and had a much more relaxed feel to it than Tokyo. The station is an incredible building too, with 17 floors as far as I could tell, and a walkway on the uppermost with a good view. I did my first onsen in Kyoto. An onsen is a hot bath, it’s very popular here. A bit like having a sauna in Scandinavia. It was a bit too hot for my liking. One of the baths had an electric current running through the water. I hated that one, it was positively painful. Like touching an electric fence.
Oh yeah and at one of the temples I saw some geishas. Well Alex thought they were but I was fairly sure they were men. One had an Adams apple and another was far too ugly to be a geisha. Interesting nonetheless.
My company has had some face changes recently. Aby who sort of lost her mind quit then changed her mind, then quit again then changed her mind again, then quit again. I hope she gets better. Isy and Kat are the two new teachers, both seem lively and cheerful (genki is the word in Japanese) and I reckon both will thrive.
Disneyland was more fun than I was expecting. I managed to do almost all the main rides, which is apparently rarely achievable. I took a day off work and went on a Thursday and I found it packed. I dread to think what a bank holiday Monday would be like. The best ride was a Toy Story rollercoaster with laser guns on the carriage. As you go around you have targets to shoot at. Brilliant fun.
We’ve had some exciting weather recently. Two typhoons have hit in the past fortnight. Last night my apartment lost some roof panels to the wind. Very dramatic. And there was a big earthquake on Thursday (4 on the Richter scale). I barely felt it, but it went on for a minute. Normally they only last 10 seconds.
I’m planning to go snowboarding sometime over winter, it’s meant to be dead good.
Oh yeah I almost forgot. Last week I went to one of my kindergartens for their sports day. I went for dinner with the teachers afterwards and everyone took it in turns to do a short (but not that short) speech. I assumed I would be overlooked, not expected to make a speech in a language I barely know. Oh no. They stared and waited so up I got and rambled using the little Japanese I do have. Then, having exhausted all my vocabulary I stopeed speaking and waited for the flutter of applause. And waited. They wanted more. So I switched to English and rambled in my preferred language. Then I realised they didn’t understand a word I was saying so I relaxed a bit and kept saying the same things in different ways over and over. Finally I finished and got a round of applause (richly deserved I think). Phew.

Shrine on

Hi there
Well been quite busy recently. My schedule’s a bit easier now (actually nearly halved) due to some lessons being cancelled in the summer time when the KG’s are on holiday. I’m loving it. I went to a festival in our nearest city, Tsudanuma, on Saturday. It was brilliant fun. Makato, a mate from football organised it all for us. I went with Dan, an old teacher here who’s back for an extended summer holiday. Makato had got us proper costumes (a male kimono, called a hapi, weird plimsoles with a separate big toe, and headbands). Each shrine had it’s own uniform and set of ‘worshippers’ to carry them. Our shrine was quite small but I reckon it must have weighed a couple of tons or so. It took 32 of us to carry it. It looked as though it had a golden snitch on the top. We had a course along the main roads of the city to follow, in all carrying it for about 3 miles in the blazing heat. Thankfully we had numerous stops and helpful spectators kept chucking buckets of water over the cavalcade and felt quite light headed by the end. I had massive bruises on my shoulders the next day, it was painful but worth it. For some reason though, whenever we were just aobut to stop for a break, our leaders (the ones abusing their power with their whistles) decided to muck around making us go a 2 steps backward, 2 steps to the right, spin around, lift the shrine fully a few times before letting us rest. Sadists.
We’ve just had two more Japanese teachers join the company here. I’ve been getting to know them ‘cause I’ll be working with both of them. June and Kaoru, two of my present teaching partners, are leaving at then end of August. I’m sad because I get on with those two better than my other partners, but the new teachers seem nice. We all went out on Friday night for a Hello/Goodbye meal which was a friendly drunken occasion. I’ve been going to the beach most weekends and went again yesterday. Got quite a tan.
Oh yeah and this week I finally got around to organising my holiday in August. The holiday’s called Obon and it’s one of the only 3 weeks in the year that everyone seems to go on holiday so foreign flights are ridiculously expensive. Therefore I’m going to Kyoto for 4 days. I’m quite excited by the prospect of going on the Shinkansen, the super bullet train. Kyoto’s meant to be beautiful and is close to Osaka so I’m going to visit there too. I’m going on Aug 10th. I’ve had to pay for it already so I think money will be a bit thin by the end of this month, but I’ll be ready.
Oh yeah I got pulled over by the cops the other day in my tiny little backwater town. It was a bit scary. The squad car rolled by slowly, both policemen staring at them. Then they pulled over and asked for my ID card. They kept asking my questions but I didn’t understand what they were saying. They seemed satisfied with my ID card. Steve (one of the teachers here) also got stopped a few days previously and was told some gaijin (white) terrorist had just entered the country from Korea so there was a massive search going on. Intriguing.
Going to a reggae party tonight which should be interesting. I’ve yet to see how on earth the Japanese and reggae can exist together, should prove illuminating. Then I’m going to a massive festival in 2 weeks. I’m really looking forward to seeing the Darkness. I’ll keep you posted.

Bad Grandad and Kamikaze Takashi

Well hello again. Japan seems to be well and truly hotting up for summer, it’s a sweltering 29C today with very high humidity. I seem to run the scale of sweatiness from a mild glaze first thing in the morning to sticky as jam after a days teaching. I’m getting used to it now just.
I’ve had a fairly long and tiring, but rewarding week teaching. I had a bit of a breakthrough with Kenta, my worst student. He actually answered some questions this week, instead of his normal crawling under the chair routine we act out most week. I’m getting a little annoyed at some kindergartens I teach the seikas at. There’s a huge difference in the way we get treated at different KG’s. Some treat us as part of the school and are generally helpful and friendly. Some however, generally ignore us and treat us with disdain. One KG told us we are not to use the front door because people will see us. So now we have to use the side entrance to avoid detection. In another KG during Seika I’m completely ignored by the classes teacher. I was trying to ask one teacher for a hand, and it took 3 times and the silence of the seika class, who were all watching intently, before she acknowledged me.
I had a big night out in Tokyo last week after we’d had training at a KG in Machido. Was a fun night from what I remember. We went to a club in Roppongi, the heart of the city nightlife. It was a late night and good, but unfortunately I had my phone and wallet pinched. The phone luckily was abandoned and handed in by someone later, but the wallet has been a hassle to sort out.
I had a much nicer weekend this week. I went to Odaiba, a reclaimed strip of land in the bay of Tokyo with stunning views of the Tokyo seafront cityscape. There’s even a small beach. Watching all the buildings light up at sunset was brilliant. The rainbow bridge is nearby and quite impressive, though disappointingly it’s not painted in rainbow colours. Not sure why it’s called “rainbow”. I had a go on the Ferris wheel there and the views were even better. On the way back I experienced my first ever traffic jam at midnight. Frustrating and slow but a first all the same.
Oh yes and in the past two weeks I’ve been n the receiving end of two acts of extreme Japanese kindness. Both were complete strangers who I got chatting to and then spent an entire evening eating and drinking all at their expense. The first happened in a little izakaya in Yakuendai, a small town a few stops along the railway line where I go to Japanese lessons on Friday. I popped in for some food with Aby after class and got chatting to a married couple called Takashi and Naomi. They’d just got back from holidaying in Australia and so I think were still in the holiday spirit. We had a nice evening talking about Oz and baseball and anything and everything. We even got chatting to the next table, 2 career women from Tokyo and then had a izakaya wide discussion on music which was really weird but nice. Takashi occasionally felt the need to mention he was a "kamikaze” and a “hari-kiri” which was a bit disconcerting but I think he meant it in a nice way. Then to top off all their kindness they drove us back to Kamagaya Daibutsu, a good 40 minute drive from Yakuendai. Nice people.
The second time was when I decided to go exploring a city called Matsudo I travel thru every Thursday. I see loads of neon from the station but I normally decide I’m too tired to have a look around this week, but I’ll do it next week. Well I finally did it on Thursday and had a cracking time. I was having trouble ordering at an izakaya and this chap helps me order and offers a few suggestions as to what to have. I got chatting to him and he took a shine to me because I’m the same age as his son. Akioshimamura suggests going on to another bar so I say ok. He keeps telling me about how he’s a grandad at 46 and has children in Australia and London. I was a little worried when, as we start driving his stereo blasts out Car Wash. Then he put’s on Sex Machine and I got a little more worried. Then “I Will Survive” and I’m fairly close to panic. But then we stop and get out and go into a hostess bar. Phew!
Hostess bars are a national institution here. It’s not the same thing as a hostess bar in England. It’s mainly a way for stressed, overworked and socially repressed salarymen to have a drink and a chat with pretty girls before going home to there family. It seems a bit weird to me but it’s how it goes here. So we have a chat and a laugh there for a few hours. Akio, as I now call him starts showing me his bodyguarding karate tricks. He claims to have been an international bodyguard but he claims a lot of things. Akio takes it upon himself to offer my services as an English teacher to anyone in the bar who’s interested and collects a few names and numbers. This guy missed a calling as a salesman. I was getting a bit tipsy by then and, thinking of the early start the next day try to angle to leave. So we go off and start driving back. He said he would drop me off at the station for the last train but after a few minutes we stop and get out and go to another hostess bar. The guy’s addicted. We only stay there an hour, sing a little karaoke (My John Lennon impression goes down well) eat a bit of soup, drink some lemon soju then leave. All night he keeps referring to himself as 'Bad Grandad' which makes me chuckle. He does now take me home but he’s telling me stories as we drive and his gesturing during these stories is making us swerve all over the road. Then he tells me he doesn’t have a licence but it’ll be ok if we get stopped. Why I ask. “It’ll be ok”. Yes but why? “It’ll be ok”. I give up trying. Eventually I get home, after a few wrong turns and stops for directions. As I’m leaving he issues me a Sushi challenge because he doesn’t think I can handle any Japanese food. I’ve accepted so that should be interesting.

First impressions

Hey there. So I finally thought I’d better get round to starting this thing. Sorry about my slacking, I’ve been busy, honest. I’ve been in Japan now for about 7 weeks and I’m really enjoying it. My first week here was a bit blurry, mainly due to getting over a fiendish few days holiday in Seoul on the way here. Then I moved into my apartment, which by the way is sweet, and started to properly settle in. I’ve been teaching a while now and really like my students. Most days I do about 10 lessons and some days I have up to 10 extra lessons before the normal lessons. They’re knackering those days. A really nice aspect to the job is that most days involve a lie in. My general working day is 12:00 to 8:00pm including travel. The sheer abundance of train time has meant I’ve had time to practise my hiragana and katakana reading, I almost recognise all the symbols now. My fellow teachers are dead nice. I work with:
Steve; my closest friend here but a Londoner. He talks a lot and sometimes comes out with some really stupid things which I find incredibly funny. (He’s mentioned a desire to buy and wear a pair of white gloves. What for? “To look like Mickey Mouse”)
Aby; a quiet girl from Devon. She took us all by surprise at our first karaoke session by doing a blinding rendition of a Nirvana song. She’s a dark horse.
Kate, a lively girl who’s taught here for a few years and knows the ropes. She has a faint Liverpool accent (to my ear at least, she’s from Stoke) and thinks most people are lovely. And tells you about how she thinks they’re lovely.
Chris; a hip hop fan who used to manage an M + S store. He’s sound and really sarky. Some people!
Rich; a thespian from Essex who swears like a trooper and smokes like a chimney. If something annoys him, it’s “dogshit”. He and I have similar taste in music and such like.
Alex; a proper teacher (with qualifications and everything) from Brighton. She’s cool, well into her karate and has a bit of a Jerry-Springer-guest sister.

I had a holiday last week. I went to Yokohama for a look around. It’s got a huge Chinatown but it was absolutely jammed due to being Golden Week. I saw a juggler juggle 3 chainsaws which was pretty damn impressive. I went up the tallest tower in Japan. The view was stunning.

I went to a J-League match, the Urawa Reds vs Kasima Antlers. It was at one of the World Cup stadiums which was well nice. I went with a Kashima season ticket holder so I supported them but we lost. The chants were extremely well organised by teams of people with loudhailers at the front of the crowd, and it didn't let up all match. The atmosphere was pretty good although I didn’t think much to my footie snack. I bought some octopus doughballs which were quite rough. The Japanese people I was with all had baked potatoes! And yes the crowd do pick up their litter before leaving the ground.
I went to weird little Hans Christian Anderson theme park. It seemed to have ignored all his characters and gone instead for the Danish theme with a life sized Danish windmill and small Danish farm. And a Danish suspension bridge. I didn’t understand it either.
I went to an arcade and had a go at baseball batting practise which was much harder than I expected. I only managed to hit a few of them.