Another update from the land of the rising sun.
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Hello you lot, Hello you lot, yep, its time for another update from the land of the rising yen as Dave I calls it. I`m getting use to living here now, and don't think of it as just surviving. I have the Subway all sorted, you take two maps with you, one in English and one in Japanese and if you need help, all you do is go up to a member of staff and point at where you want to go. It seems to work out in the end.
We had to go on the JR lines and not the Subway, so that was a new adventure for me. The carriages only have a few seats and they fold up so that there is maximum room to get commuters in at rush hour. And I thought that the Shinjuku line was bad! We missed the stop because we were on an express that didn't stop at the ET station. We had to get of at the next station and Reza had to ask how to get back to ET. I was glad he was there so he could ask the questions and understand the answers!
The first piece I ate had incredibly strong Horse Radish (Wasabi) on it and it almost took my head off. Boy, does that stuff clear out your sinuses! About the only bit that I can say that I hated was the squid! Fish flavoured chewing gum mixed with wallpaper past. Even the wasabi did nothing for it.
Saw "Lost in Translation" on Friday and was expecting a different film. I think that they could have done a lot more of the East meets West kind of thing but wimped out and just put in some "L or R" jokes. "Lip or is that Rip?" I did think that they did get the insularity of foreigners right though. It has taken me 5 weeks to start to talk to non-western people and then only in western Pubs. In the end, I think that the movie could have been set almost anywhere and didn't use the fact they were in Japan as much as they could have. Maybe, if the main roles had not been people with money but, more working class and had to travel on the Shinjuku line to get to work and not use taxis all the time, it would have been more real and more funny!
On the way back I went to a 100yen shop and got myself a big drinking glass. You can get all kinds of things and all for 100yen plus tax! (That's 55p) Its amazing to see what you can get for such a low price, Pencils and Note Books to Mops, even Frying Pans! It is better value then the pound shops in the UK are. Then went to the supermarket Ito Yokado to stock up with food. There was no one giving out samples, which was probably a good thing! Was asleep by 10 because I was so tired out from my cycle.
In the Pub we sat next to two Japanese girls who both spoke good English and I had a natter with both of them. When the parade was about to start, we asked if they wanted to join us and they did. Because of the crowds, the group as a whole, kept getting separated and I stayed with the two girls but when the parade had gone by the two girls decided to follow it and I thought that it would be better to stay near the others I had come with. I never saw them again but then again, oh well. Some people emailed Margaret but she said, "How am I supposed to answer the question, "where are you" ? By saying next to a tree?"
When the parade came back down the road on the other side for some reason there were more displays then when it had started out. After the parade had finished Margaret said that it was not as big as last years, but I was quite happy with the photos of what was there.
We tried to get some free beer but the stall wasn't there and then went to have Sunday lunch a 3:30.
Met an English girl from Dulwich and we talked about people who storked Bross... :)
Towards the end of the evening we met up with a couple of more Japanese girls that knew Ako, Wakana and Yuka. Margaret tried to teach all three of them Irish Dancing, Yuka did do Flamenco but they are not really that similar and I think we were all far too gone for it to ever of had a chance to learn anything.
When it was time to leave, I decided to walk to Roppongi station as I needed the fresh air to clear my head. I was glad I did as I saw a bunch of Japanese Cyber Geisha Punks with all the hair and everything. Didn't take their picture though as the battery had gone flat in my camera, well it had taken 119 photos!
Monday morning was a bit of a problem but did manage to get into work.
Lets see what next week brings... One thing you can say about Japan is that, it`s never boaring!
Cheers me dears.
Paul Fincher.
[Week 1] [Week 2] [Week 3] [Week 4] [Week 5] [Week 6] [Week 7] [Week 8] [Week 9] [Week10] [Afterwards] |
Not a lot happened at the beginning of the week. Except that we got a Prespanel back from a demo in India and it had been dropped during its return. Three metal pillars had been snapped off! We didn't have any here in the office and it was decided that Reza would take me to Electric Town after work, to find some replacements. 
I have been to the Electric Town once before with Tom-san when I first came to Japan, two years ago and it is still a Techno-heads dream. You can get anything for 13amp fuse through all kinds of lighting to the latest home cinema systems. PAL /240V no problem. And as long as you have your flight ticket home, you save the 5% Consumption Tax (VAT to us). Not only did we get the pillars but I got a CF USB reader/writer and 256K Compact Flash card for about GBP35. Reza got a wireless LAN box for his home PC as his stuff has turned up from Canada now. I toyed with the idea of getting a 1Gig MP3 player that also took CF but it was still a lot of money and the instructions would have been in Japanese.
On Thursday Matt took me out for lunch at a Sushi bar as he wanted to tell me that he has handed in his notice at his work and is going back to carry on studying in Canada. I`m sure that Louise has told him to make me eat as much raw fish as it takes for me to start to like it, its one of her missions, you know.
You have to have the wasabi with Sushi as it kills any of the bugs that might be in the raw fish. I`m still not sold on it. Even the tuna, that I think, is the best Sushi, is better cooked in my opinion! Matt had California rolls that are an American invention that has found its way back to Japan. I can't tell the difference between them and Japanese Sushi. Maybe the wasabi is less strong.
Saturday I went for the longest cycle I have done so far in Japan. It started out with me going to the Electric City but I get there too early in the morning and most of it was still shut, so I headed north. I did about 40miles in all. Check out the Bikey-san page for more on that adventure.
Sunday Margaret had invited me to go to a St Patrick's day parade so after having my brunch of Japanese bacon and egg sandwiches I set off to meet her and the rest of the gang at the Morrigans Irish Pub (was Dirty
Murphy's) on the other side of town. 
The menu was mostly brunch kind of things but when the waitress came over she said that they did curry or roast chicken. As I don't think much of Japanese curry I had the chicken and very nice it was too. But I did find having rice with it instead of roast potatoes a bit funny. Akiko jumped up at one point and throw herself at a waiter, we thought that maybe she had found the love of her life but it turned out to be an old friend of her brothers who had been in the US for a long time and she hadn't see for years. 
We went back to the Irish Pub after and settled down to doing some drinking. Met lots of American Irish, Oz Irish, Japanese Irish and even one real Irish, Irish (not Margaret). She asked me if I wanted her to Shamrock me but I said, "not in public."