An Update...Part 3...and a promise for blogging consistency

Firstly, lets get things straight...(ahem!)....this blog has suffered from a lack of care recently....

So, again here is another update and a promise to all of you blog-readers wherever and whoever you may be....I promise to try and keep my blog interesting and up to date with a post at least once a week.....


A few weeks ago, myself and Rie tracked down Ichi-Ran ramen near Ueno station. My friends Brad and Evan had told me in the past how delicious the Kyushu based noodle shop were. Ichi-ran are famous for Tonkotsu Ramen (pork ramen) and it did not disappoint. You can choose the softness of your noodle, how spicy you'd like the soup, what size you'd like your onion and how much garlic and oil you'd prefer.

Rie went super spicy, due to her love of all things hot, whereas I was more conservative and went for more oil, as I find this helps the flavour....

Myself and Rie also spent a Sunday afternoon in Odaiba, which was nice.

Here is a typical photo of Karaoke....when Brad returned to Japan, a few weeks ago for his wedding. We met up in Asakusa, had lots of beer and Karaoke...much fun was had by all!!!

Blogging to Ghosts

To be honest, I have found it harder to blog this time. I can blame my intermitent internet access or too much work or the fact that I would rather spend time with Rie. However, my real impasse on the blogging front is that I may be writing to no one.

I don't think anyone is reading this time.

Last time, my family, friends and the occassional stranger would enter my blogosphere.

Now, I just don't know....

Back in Japan AND back online...sort of...

Finally!

I know it has been a while...but here I am back in Japan and back online....my appartment has no internet access, and I avoided going to the internet cafe for my first few weeks here. It was nice to be liberated from the interweb for a short period, but I felt that it was time to get back on the blogging horse.

I have a lot to say, so I will try to break each section down.

The flight from the UK

The Cathay Pacific flight from London to Hong Kong was pleasant enough, despite taking around 13 hours. I managed to get my baggage through check in without it being over their 20kgs limit, despite my worrying the previous day. 20kgs is not a lot when you are moving to another country, but I did my best, and hoped this would last me....

My aisle seat proved to be a good choice. I had a lot of legroom; could access my baggage easily; take strolls down the aisle to the toilet and not have the inconvience of being boxed in. I ended up watching "Defiance" and a few TV shows. Listened to some ambient chill out music as I tried to sleep (not successfully...it was a wierd kind of in between sleep)...and drank plenty of water....

At Hong Kong airport, it was deathly quiet....quiet unlike the last time I'd passed through. This was mainly due to it being around 7am....the flight to Narita wasn't so luxurious, but still pleasant enough and only took around 2 and 1/2 hours.

AEON

At the airport I was met by a fellow Brit and AEON trainer called Allan, who was a kind enough chap. Another AEON new recruit, Alex (from Mexico) had arrived and we chatted for a while as Allan forwarded the luggage we didn't need to our schools.

We met up with other AEON newbies and hung around until the rest of the flight arrived. In the end there were 13 of us who now had to be miraclously guided across Tokyo to Saitama prefecture and the town of Omiya by two trainers..Allan and Jane...and somehow they did it!!!

At the training centre we were welcomed and shown to our rooms...I was lucky enough to have a large room with only 1 room mate...a fellow Brit called Greg.

I won't bore you with the endless tales of training, but I will say it was tough and packed with lots of information and work. If you did your homework and worked hard, then it came back to reward you.

In the week, we had to give three lessons. Two part lessons to actual AEON students and then a full grammar lesson or "Roundup" lesson to some of our classmates and Japanese AEON trainers.

I think I did well during the week. I got back into the swing of teaching, made some new friends and learnt some new skills.

MOTOYAWATA

So on the following Monday (after the week of intense training) we said our goodbyes and were escorted to various train stations where our school's Manager was waiting for us. I was met by Aya at Akihabara, and found myself to be lucky, as I had a kind and genki manager. Motoyawata was a busy, suburban centre and the school is right next to the station.

My co-workers are ALL great, my students seem good and after 3 weeks I have to admit that I have been lucky to have got a good school...

My appartment is in Shimosa Nakayama, one stop down the line from the school, and my Suica pass is paid for by the school. I have about a 10 or 15 minute walk to the station and then a 2 minute train ride....!!! Lucky eh?!?!?!

The appartment is clean, and larger than I expected...it is already feeling like my home....

Rie

So I met Rie, in Ueno on my first Sunday, back in Japan and it was an emotional day for both of us. We went to Ueno park and saw the Cherry Blossoms, had some dinner and just felt blessed to be together again. This reunion fired me up for the rest of my training and I worked really hard so she would be proud of me...

The following weekend we spent Saturday and Sunday in Asakusa, which is a beautiful part of Tokyo...

Since I've been in Ichikawa, she lives about 10 minutes (by bus) from me. We have spent a lot of time together and it's been amazing...!!!!

On Wednesday, I met her Mum, who is lovely and Peko chan, her dog...CUTE...!!! Then we went to Disney Sea yesterday, after Rie got free tickets...

So, I am back in Japan....and loving it!!!!!!

An Email from AEON

After writing a letter to my school in Motowayata, I was surprised (in a good way) that they replied to me via email. The email was sincere and friendly and I hope that I am getting a good deal here (as I know from past experience how the school can shape ones experience).

http://www.aeonet.co.jp/school/school.php?sno=1213

This link will take you to the actual school's website! If you click on the スタッフ紹介 tab (staff at Motowayata) you can have a look at my future co-workers...and just think, my ugly mug could be up their one day.....

BBC 4 - Japan season

So, BBC 4 have a season of Japan scented programmes for our amusement. These include films, documentaries and the like. Tonight, I watched "In Search of Wabi Sabi" with Marcel Theroux.




http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/japan/

Japan's New Model (Robot)

Japan got the first female fashion robot who will hit the Catwalk at the Tokyo Fashion Week.The HRP-4C robot is 158cm tall and weighs 43kg including battery. The robot is actually not tall enough for a fashion model. The Japanese are in love with humanoid robots and every year they get better. The HRP-4C already has some smooth movements, but the Actroid already had skin. Now they AIST researchers need to combine the looks of the Actroid and the movements and technology of the HRP-4C and they got something. The Tokyo Fashion Week starts next week.

G7 - Drunk Japanese Minister...

At a recent G7 meeting, Japanese Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa, appeared "drunk" with incoherent rambling and appearing to fall asleep.

Nakagawa blamed the incident on "Cough Medicine" that he had taken for a cold and a couple of sips of wine. Either way it was a massive embarresment for the world's second largest economy, and Nakagawa has now quit his position.

"I have caused trouble to the prime minister and other people," Mr Nakagawa said. "I apologise for causing a commotion through not taking enough care of my health."

Gomenasai

Well, as the title of this post states "Gomenasai"...or sorry for those of you who don't understand any Japanese...I am have been fairly busy with work, and organising things for my trip that I've let the blogosphere slide....

Well, hopefully I am back on track now...

Waiting on the date

After my trek through the snow in London all I could do then was wait.

Or so I thought.

The kind chaps at AEON informed me that I could go ahead a book my flight, as long as I remembered to run the flight itinery past them beforehand. Now I have travelled with JAL (Japanese Airlines), Virgin Atlantic and BA in the past, and they were great bar the latter.

There were also some carriers I wanted to avoid. Namely Air China, Aeroflot (Russia's carrier) and AirItalia. So I hunted high and low for a resonably priced ticket and in the end decided that a return was the best option as it was cheaper.

I found a good range on www.netflights.com and in the end discovered an excellent deal with Cathay Pacific. My itinery was okayed by AEON and my details are -

London to Hong Kong on 2nd April @ 12:35

Arrive at Hong Kong on 3rd April @ 07:10

Hong Kong to Narita on 3rd April @ 9:25 arriving at 14:55.



The good things about the Economy class seating onboard Cathay Pacific are 1. Legroom (32 inches) 2. New "Clam" seating (meaning seats are fixed and won't recline backward. The seat slides down) 3. A 9inch TV Monitor to whitter away all those hours!!!

For a more detailed synopsis and a rather groovy "virtual tour" visit the website.

http://www.cathaypacific.com/cpa/en_INTL/whatonboard/previewthenewseats

And then today (Thursday) my passport was returned, VISA and all!!!!!

Fingers crossed......

Volcano!

Major news networks reported yesterday that Mount Asama (pictured here), 145 km north of Tokyo, has erupted spewing smoke 2km into the air.

Residents living close to the mountain have been advised to be cautious, and chunks of rock from the eruption have been found up to 1 km away.

A huge eruption occured in 1783 and killed around 1500 people.

A trip to a snow covered London to get my VISA....

The Snow was about 6 inches deep!

The rare sight of a Bus !

Bravely I battled the elements....he he..




Green Park

The Japanese Embassy

So I awoke this morning to find reports on the News that London had been covered by the worst snow fall in nearly 20 years. Sadly for me, this was also the day I had intended to venture into the capital to get my VISA sorted out.

As you can see from the photos above, I made it. The bus journey up took about 2 and a half hours, which was pretty good, and I was lucky that the Victoria Line had been unaffected and the Embassy was based near Green Park tube station. For those not au fait with the London Underground system, this is one stop from Victoria.

As I slid and slipped down the street toward the embassy, the usually busy London streets were almost free of traffic. I was only in the embassy for around 20 minutes, then spent some time in the nearby Green Park.

Waiting

So, after what seems like an eternity of waiting , I had a phone call from Lars (one of the recruiters for AEON) who informed me that my Certificate of Eligibilty had returned from Japan.

What this means for the uniniated, is that I can now travel up to the Japanese embassy in London and get my VISA put into my passport!!!!

This makes my return to Japan official!!!

In the mean time I have been busy fitting study into every night. Even if it is just 10 minutes where I will refresh a line of Hiragana, or an hour spent learning from my Minna No Nihongo textbooks, this has become part of my routine.

But the dream is becoming a reality. April 4th approaches. Closer and closer, like the whisper of a long coveted promise.

The Security Robot

Everyone recognises the iconic image above. Paul Verhoevan's distopian classic, about a cop killed in the line of duty then re-assembled as the ultimate cop/cyborg remains, in my eyes, a Science-fiction classic.

Combine the idea of the security-bot with the Japanese love and fascination of anything robotic, and you arrive at the T-34.

Although not as cool, or human-looking as Murphy, the T-34 moves at 6mph on small wheels and is controlled in real time via a series of images sent to a mobile phone. However, you are more likely to laugh than scream in terror at the sight of this dinky machine.

http://www.techdigest.tv/2009/01/video_tmsuk_t-3.html

But how can this R2D2 of security robots defend himself, or detain potential criminals ? Well, the T-34 is equipped with a Net throwing device that can entrap the unsuspecting bad-guy. TAKE THAT!!!

Today is....

During my previous time in Japan, I discovered that the Japanese have many National "days". Whereas the UK, has to deal with the relatively dull No-Smoking Day, the Japanese celebrate days such as "Ocean Day" and tomorrow (January 11th) is "Salt Day".

Yes, you read correctly, tomorrow is Salt Day in Japan. Named as such from back in the 1500's, when a Japanese warlord heard his enemy was low on salt and magnanimously sent him some, salt in those days being a valuable commodity.

Below is a list of some of the "Days" that litter the Japanese calender...

Jan. 7th - Nail Clipping Day

Jan. 15 — Strawberry Day. Like many special calendar days, Strawberry Day was derived by playing with Japanese sounds. Strawberry growers chose the 15th day of the first month to celebrate their favorite fruit because the Japanese word for strawberry, ichigo, can also represent the numbers one and five. Days that follow with similar word/sound links are designated with an asterisk

Feb. 1 — Odor Day. Sponsored by companies that wish for an odor-free world.

Feb. 20 - Allergy Day.

March 3 — Ear Day.

March 8 — International Wives Day. Note that there is no "International Husbands Day."

March 9 — This is a trifecta of holidays, with Escalator Day, Barbie Doll Day and Thank You Day all celebrated at once.

March. 15 - Shoe Day.

April 4 — Yoyo Day.

April 10 — Wife Day.

April 11 — Guts Pose Day. "Guts pose" is a Japanese-English term that refers to a gesture of victory.

April 15 — Helicopter Day.

May 3 — Garbage Day

June 1 — Gum Day.

June 4 — Bug Day
.
June 17 — Belt Day.

Aug. 7 — Nose Day

Oct. 18 — Frozen Food Day.

Nov. 1 — Dog Day. Meanwhile, Cat Day is Feb. 22.

Nov. 3 — Godzilla Day. Godzilla has earned this honor for all the times he's outright flattened Japan. Oddly, this is also Japanese Culture Day.

Nov. 8 — Cutting Tool Day. Cheese Day, is dead ahead, on Nov. 11.

Nov. 10 — Toilet Day.

The entire calendar — in Japanese — is at www.jidousha-shunjuhsha.co.jp/calendar.html

Taken from Japan Times (http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20090110td.html)

Tokyo Punch

I stumbled across this by accident. Here is a series of animated adventures about a British Gaijin called Howard who comes to the city of Tokyo Punch on a working holiday. Cue a series of mishaps and cultural misadventures.However Howard is a slug and the Japanese have been replaced by ants (see what they did there..or rather Monolith studios, a French company working out of Tokyo).

Below are some links the site and an episode from Youtube.

http://tokyopunch.com/

http://uk.youtube.com/user/cyberfred123

The £70,000 Tuna.

The Japan Times has reported that, on Jan 6th, in the famous Tukiji Fish Market, Tokyo that the most expensive Bluefin Tuna of the year was sold at auction for a staggering 9.6 Million Yen.
Basically this translates as buying a Tuna for roughly £68,581! Which is a hell of a lot of John West Tuna flakes.

This was the first auction of the year at Tukiji, and the fish weighed around 128 KGs and was caught in the waters off Oma. Tuna caught here are considered a delicacy and in 2001 an Oma Tuna sold for a whopping 20.2 Million Yen or £144,306!!!!

But who would buy such a fish ?

Apparently the £70,000 Tuna of 2009 was purchased by a a Hong Kong sushi bar owner in cooperation with an upscale sushi restaurant in Ginza, Tokyo. The Hong Kong restaurateur also paid the highest price at last year's first auction at Tsukiji.

"Many countries are now reducing their tuna catch due partly to catch controls.
In November, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas agreed to cut the Atlantic bluefin tuna catch quota for 2009 by about 20 percent from the 2008 level to 22,000 tons, setting Japan's fishing quota at 1,870 tons for 2009, down from 2,345 tons for 2008. Japan's quota for 2010 is 1,697 tons."

JAPAN TIMES.

Links below for more information on the Tukiji Fish Market.

http://www.tsukiji-market.or.jp/youkoso/about_e.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsukiji_fish_market

The New HooverVille

Here is a sad tale from Japan, but one I fear that will become prevelent in the coming days. I have taken the whole article from the Associated Press rather than paraphrase it.

TOKYO (AP) — A tent village set up in a Tokyo park for the country's growing number of jobless filled up so fast that it was moved Saturday to a government building to accommodate the overflow.
The government offered a ministry hall late Friday, responding to a request from volunteers, to house more than 250 unemployed and homeless people after the first comers quickly filled the tents, according to the shelter's Japanese-language Web site.
The homeless can stay in the building through Monday, and job counseling and other efforts are under way to place the people in other locations, it said.
The tent village that volunteers and unions opened on New Year's Eve highlights the serious social costs of the global recession for the world's second largest economy.
The government estimates 85,000 part-time workers will lose their jobs between October and March. Another 3,300 permanent employees are expected to become jobless over the same period.
Temporary workers have been the first to be fired in the latest wave of cutbacks as Japan's exports and company investments crashed after the U.S. financial crisis.
Temporary jobs at manufacturing were illegal before 2004, but today top companies, including Toyota Motor Corp. and Canon Inc., routinely rely on temporary staffing to adjust production to gyrating overseas demand.
Japanese Communist Party Executive Committee Chair Kazuo Shii, who visited the village, said the government needs to do more to help the unemployed.
"It is unforgivable that Japan's major companies have thrown so many workers out on the streets at the end of the year," he said.
For decades Japan promised lifetime employment at major companies, and government welfare programs for the jobless are still limited.
The tent village has also drawn some who have been needy for years.
Shigeru Kobayashi, 65, who has been unemployed four years, lives in the park.
"People talked about a recovery, but it never got good anyway," he said with a grin. "I'm unemployed. All I have is heart."
Tamotsu Chiba, 55, a theater producer and volunteer at the tent village, said he found the energy of the volunteers encouraging.
"There are so many different kinds of people here. This has given me a feeling of hope about Japan," he said.

By YURI KAGEYAMA

Tokyo Lost

I have just bought a book (with a handy Christmas voucher) that seems to be the proverbial Bee's Knees on finding your way around and living in Tokyo. I know I will be based in Ichikawa city, Chiba, but Tokyo is such a sprawling, fascination metropolis that I thought a guide on the city (who isn't Rie) would be handy. "TOKYO -The Complete Resident's Guide" seems to have all the information a resourceful Gaijin like me needs.

However here are some links to websites for those of you thinking of visiting Tokyo.

http://www.tourism.metro.tokyo.jp/english/

This is the official city website. Useful for municipal information, and a solid place to start.

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/japan/tokyo

Lonely Planet are a travel institution and their guide on Tokyo is as well presented as you'd expect.

http://www.planettokyo.com/

Not one of the "Big Fish", but still quirky enough to hold the travellers interest. It even provides some basic Japanese and the site is easy to negotiate.