Atami!

It being Golden Week, today Jose, one of Jose's friends named Sebastian (half-swiss half-japanese) and I made a day-trip to Atami. Atami is a beautiful little seaside town on the Izu Peninsula, about 2 hours south of Tokyo. It is famous for its hot springs and its picturesque beach scenery.

So, we left at about 9am, caught the normal express train from Shinjuku to Odawara, which took about 100 minutes or so. Then, we caught the Shinkansen for just ONE stop from Odawara to Atami. You are probably thinking "Why would you take it for just one stop!??". Well, it is a 10 minute ride and costs 1240 yen one way, so it's not ludicrously expensive. A local train would take much longer and Jose and Sebastian had never had the Shinkansen experience...

So we got there and headed for the hot spring. It was great! It was on the roof of a hotel; it had an outdoor pool that was about 58 degrees C, a sauna, a spa, a cold pool, and it all overlooked the ocean, as you will see in the photos I will post below. Very nice atmos, and it was only 1000 yen for all the sauna and spa'ing you could handle.

After that we went into town and found ourselves something to eat. It was ramen, and I was a bit disappointed because I wanted to eat raw fish (Atami being a seaside town after all) but Jose and Sebastian were too concerned about spending heaps of money (admittedly, the restaurants were tourist traps and quite expensive).

Next we caught a bus down to the beach, where we went on the sand (it's really dark here in Japan) and found a beach volleyball court! Next to it, 4 random girls were just chilling out, sort of half-heartedly throwing a volleyball to each other. So I wandered over and asked them if they wanted to play with us on the court. They said yes, and we had a fun time!

After that, we heard some drums and wandered over to the source, only to find ourselves in the middle of some kind of festival, with people dressed up dancing and drumming and what not. Very Japanese!

Finally, we bought some beers, sat out on the sort of jetty-type thing and drank them, and caught the train back. It was such a long day but now my skin feels all nice from the sauna and hot spring, the volleyball was pretty strenous (and my pants are now full of sand), but all round it was a fun fun day. Enjoy the pics!


A statue in Odawara


The hot spring, on the roof of a building overlooking the sea!


The view in one direction...


And in another...


And in another!


The Atami Beach...


The Atami Beach again...


Some traditional Japanese dancers (what's this called, can anyone help me? awa odori or something?)


A big taiko drum


The scene of the festival


A dead shark doing it with a dead manta ray...

Japanese kindness

Today a nice thing happened! While eating all alone at the ramen shop near my house, feeling sorry for myself because I have a cold and am tired and irritable, the kind (read: drunk) old man sitting next to me stood up, payed for his meal, then insisted that he pay for mine as well!

I politely asked why, and he said "no no don't worry! your japanese is very good! keep it up!!"

"uh... sure!" i said, and continued eating. He just wandered off.

Free dinner! Thanks, Japan!

Jose's fifteen stitches

Poor Jose! Yesterday while apparently giving a piggy back to a rich, thin Korean girl with big boobs, he fell flat on his face, whereby the glass broke and cut his face.

He is lucky! That is damn close to his eye!

Another job!

Well, as well as my job teaching English to little kids, now I am also teaching piano to a 5 year old Korean girl named Min.

She's adorably cute - really affectionate! Every time she sees me she just runs up and hugs my leg - today she was kissing my hand! hahaha

Best part is, it's mega easy and her mother is paying me 2500 yen per 30 min class, once a week! Awesome!

Monja street

Went to a place called Tsukishima today, a place famous for its Monja-yaki (which is like okonomiyaki but not so much pancake, more like stirfry vegetables i guess) with Jose, and some Taiwanese friends of his from his school. It was OK and mega el cheapo! Only 1300 yen for enough food to fill me + a big jockey of beer!

It was pretty fun I guess. Anyway the real purpose of this blog entry is just so I can deposit these photos here.

So, enjoy, and excuse my weird looking hair.

久しぶり！

Met up with my long-time friend Shiori tonight! This is the girl that I have known longest and still keep in contact with. 9 years! I met her when I was 15!

We (me, her, her friend Asuka and Asuka's friend Mr Endo) went to Shinjuku to eat Okinawan food, which, I soon discovered, is basically anything as long as it's topped with copious amounts of ゴーヤー (go-ya-), a.k.a. "bitter melon". It was OK, I guess.

Anyway it's always funny hanging out with Shiori because it seems that no matter where I go in the world, she comes there within a year or so of my arriving there. First I meet her in 1998 in Okayama, then when I lived in Nara in 2001, she was at uni in Kyoto. Then I go back to Canberra and sure enough, she gets a job at the Japanese embassy in Canberra in 2005. Now I am in Tokyo and she's applying for jobs in Tokyo! I told her that she should stop following me and she smirked and punched me in the arm.

Anyhow, it was a fun day!

Babel

Watched this movie the other night. Pretty good! Lots of drama, and a real fly-on-the-wall feel about it.

Then again, that may have just been me. When I watched it, I didn't realise at the time but there were supposed to be subtitles. Half of the movie is set in the Moroccan desert, and I thought that the point was that you DIDN'T understand what they were saying, thus giving it that "watching people" kind of feel. The rest of the movie was in Japanese and English, and I had no trouble understanding that. I thought it was quite a stroke of genius - make the words unintelligible so one has to actually think about what one is seeing in order to make sense of the movie, instead of just reading what they're saying. This, combined with the story of the deaf Japanese girl all seemed to make sense...

Or so I thought! Thinking it was just a bit suspiscious, after watching in sans subtitles in Quicktime I thought I'd have a quick look at running it in VLC and sure enough, SUBTITLES. And I missed them all.

Still, I guess it at least somewhat demonstrates that it was a good movie by the fact that even though I had no clue what these Moroccan sand monkeys were talking about, I still understood what the hell was going on.

My rating: 7/10

Complaint??

This morning I was phoned up by my boss, who told me that one of the students' mother's had complained about my teaching style. She said that I was "skipping over" exercises, using the teacher's guide during the class (apparently I should have memorised it? News to me.), and not encouraging enough speaking. Riiiiight.

I really don't understand this! In each of my classes we progress through the textbook and activity book - it is usually listening, reading, speaking and writing. Because of the number of classes we have and the number of pages in the textbook, we can make sufficient progress just by doing one double-page spread per class. The rest of the class I fill with English related games - Hangman, English Karuta, Bingo etc.

So here's what I have to say to whichever mother complained:

FUCK YOU BITCH, you got something to say? Say it to my mothafuckin' face.

i-Unit!

Look what I got to see in real life today at the Ikebukuro Toyota Building!

the i-Unit!



Almost makes up for not going to the Aichi World Expo...

Pictures of my place

By request, I took some photos of the place I'm living in...

Looking from the front door - to the left you can see a little of the doorway to the common room (i.e. it has a table, the Wii etc.)


The kitchen. A bit messy. Note the bins - you have at least two in Japan - one for combustibles, one for non-combustibles.


The hallway for all our rooms - it's a bit of a Chinese laundry up the back there.


My totally awesome machine and new speakers!

Some pics of work

Decided to finally take some pics of my workplace today.

It's pretty good I guess. Today I held the first "fun musical english class" which involved me, a bunch of kids, and their mothers in the room (pictured below), with me playing nursery rhymes on the piano while the kids attempted to sing. Ah well, it was OK.

The front of the bulding


The sign at the front door - translates to "Jinyu Family Classroom"


The room where the action happens. Note the lack of chairs (we all sit on the floor - fine for the kids but my knees sure do take a beating)


On another note, I got my first phone bill today. ¥11,022. That's like $130. Oops!

FOSTEX PM0.4

These are my new speakers! I feel obliged to tell you that for the price, they are amazingly good! They're less than a foot tall and about half a foot wide, so don't take up much room. But the power is quite astonishing - I'd never have thought that speakers so little could pump out such powerful sound, especially the bass! They literally shake my room. And the clarity is fantastic too. Hard to believe! Highly recommended.

These days...

Not all that much going on the last few days with a couple of exceptions. Firstly, I have to work on Saturday mornings, which shits me off because it takes nearly an hour to get there (and I start at 10am), then I work for just one hour, then again almost another hour back home. It sucks a bit. But ah well, that's Japan for you. It has its pros and cons.

Anyhow I went out on Saturday night with my friend Takako, pictured in the Hanami post below. We went out to an Izakaya, a Japanese style "pub" (for lack of a better word), but these places also serve good food. Anyway I guess we must've eaten and drank a fair bit because after only an adequately filling meal (and about four beers each) we were set back ¥8000 between us. Still, it was yummy!

Today I went to work from 10, and didn't leave till 7. I probably would've been more upset had I not been able to sneak a nap in at lunch time. Heh heh. It's funny, I keep talking to people about my job and how it's pretty easy and they paid me in advance, and they pay for my lunch sometimes, and how I sneak naps in and stuff and they always say they're so jealous! Haha maybe this job isn't so bad after all! In fact, today one of the mother's of the students "donated" an electric keyboard to the school so (presumably) I can play songs and use them to teach English with. Oh well, might be fun, but jeez, these mothers are gung-ho crazy about surrounding their 3 year olds with English. Does it really have that much effect?

Also today I bought a pair of FOSTEX PM0.4 speakers second hand. Only ¥10,000! Retail is substantially more than that, and substantially more again in Australia. So, a good buy I thought.

Otherwise, life kicks on. Here's a picture of one of my neighbours, Jose (from Spain) with which I end this blog entry.

New Route

I have managed to cut 15 minutes and 130yen each way off my commute to work by rerouting my path. Previously I was going from Nakaitabashi to Ikebukuro (Tobu Tojo Line), Ikebukuro to Takadanobaba (JR Yamanote Line), then Takadanobaba to Minami-Sunamachi (Tozai Line). But now I go Nakaitabashi to Ikebukuro (Tobu Tojo Line), Ikebukuro to Iidabashi (Yurakucho Line) and then Iidabashi to Minami-Sunamachi (Tozai Line).

As boring as that sounds, trust me, it's a big difference!

Wizzout.

UPDATE: I changed it again to reflect the fastest option as discovered by using tokyo-subway. Now it is the Marunouchi line from Ikebukuro to Otemachi. About 5 mins less, same amount of money, only this time I get to look at Tokyo Dome twice a day...

Karaoke Challenge 2007

Karaoke Challenge 2007 has begun! And in an effort to directly compete with Sho, I have recorded myself singing Eternal Flame.

Enjoy!

Maze for blind people

This is outside the train station at Takadanobaba. Seriously, if I were blind I'd be wandering around for days.



Also, see all those pigeons? When I was taking this photo there was a group of about six male pigeons (not in this photo) all fighting over one female pigeon who just sat there in the "copping it" position. It was crazy - one male would jump on her back and just as he's about to stick it in, another male would charge at him and knock him off in a flurry of feathers and squawking. Eventually the female either copped it or flew off in boredom. That's when I thought "Gee, this is just like real life!"

Murder in Tokyo!

Did you guys all hear about the recent murder in Tokyo?

For those of you that can't be bothered reading that article, the gist of it is this: A 22yo British girl named Lindsay was apparently being stalked by a 28yo Japanese guy with plucked eyebrows, however, because she had developed some trust in him she had agreed to go to his house to give him a private English lesson last week. Her bruised and naked body was then found in a bathtub full of sand on his balcony, and he had scarpered from the cops down the fire escape and with no shoes on. He is yet to be caught and arrested.

This happened about four train stops from where I work, and the Canadian girl I work with was her friend! Can you believe it? Murderer on the loose in Tokyo!

Hanami!

Went to a Hanami Party (that's the one where you drink beer under the cherry blossoms in the park) today in Yoyogi Park. It was pretty good except the place was totally PACKED with people. I mean, it's an enormous park with toilet blocks and everything but still, the line for the toilets was still like 40 minutes for the guys and over an hour for the girls. It was fucking ridiculous. But, we all drank beer and had a good time - there were like 6 DJ's hanging around playing mostly dance music and people were getting really drunk and dancing around. It wasn't even a special event, just a regular Sunday, although it is the last day of the Spring Holidays so I guess that was why.

Anyway, here are some pics.

Some of the people in the group that I was with. Notice the other people around the park - well, this was the NON-crowded area.


A girl named Rei.


Me standing in front of a whole lot of cherry blossoms! By this point I think I was a little drunk.


My friend, Takako.

A Vast Improvement

Has anyone else noticed how much Google Earth rocks these days?

Check out this awesome image of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building and Park Hyatt Tokyo.

Visit from the fire department!

Tonight I cooked some gyouza. Unfortunately, it made a lot of smoke. I mean a LOT of smoke. The fire alarm sounded and it was F loud but I couldn't turn it off!! Eventually some firemen came and asked me all sorts of questions, like my name, phone number, who owns the building, how much rent I pay, who I live with, what I'm doing in Japan, how long I'm going to stay, do I have a girlfriend, where I work, how long does it take to get to work, how I like Japa.. hang on a sec, what the hell were they asking me all that for?

... Did they want to be my friends...? Weird.

Nevertheless it was the best gyouza I've ever cooked. Maybe I should do it again and then invite the guys out for all night karaoke.

My two best buddies

I just... oh my god... I just don't know what to say... Where do they find these people...?? I bet they are from space.

Happiness is a new Macbook Pro

Well, I thought I'd just write a little note here to tell everyone that Macbook Pro's ROCK.

Let me list some of the most obvious features (mainly compared to Windows) - i.e. the ones that I can see just by using it for a few hours.

1. It's POWERFUL. Seemingly I can just run anything, and everything at once.
2. It looks WAY KEWL.

... do we need any more reasons?

3. It automatically detects when the lights are low and dims the screen and backlights they keyboard (see post below)
4. No viruses or spyware, and unhackable.
5. Applications don't chew up all the memory, and when you close them they don't leave your computer chugging like a fat girl with a tub of butter. You close it, it's gone. Not that I NEED to close it, since I can seemingly just run everything at once.
6. Fonts look better. In fact, everything looks better.
7. Magnetic power cord!
8. All the good programs for Mac are really good, and furthermore, most of them are free!
9. iTunes works and looks better. For instance, you're listening to music and someone calls you on Skype. Well, iTunes pauses, you make your Skype call, then when you hang up, it resumes playback but fades the volume in.
.... 10. A variety of funny applications, like Photo Booth, with which I took the following photos.





All good fun. Seriously this computer rocks and I hereby order you all to go and get one.

Say harro to my rittre friend...

My brand new Macbook Pro 2.33ghz 15" Laptop. Only 309,800 yen! Lol.

One month!

Hi everyone!

Well, today is the 24th of March and I've now been here for exactly one month! Let's try and tabulate the things I've done in that month.

1. Got a place
2. Got a phone
3. Got a job
4. Got a bank account
5. Got a haircut

Hmm well that's actually about it, but considering I have to do all this crap in Japanese maybe it represents more of an achievement than it would otherwise. I mean, I have become (and am becoming) more and more familiar with Tokyo. I mean I can get around without getting lost now and well, I'm generally enjoying myself! What more can I ask for, really?

Anyway today I went to Akihabara just to have a look around. Then I came back and went and got a haircut. Ludicrously expensive (4800 yen) but I was pretty desperate, as anyone who has seen me lately knows... On the way there is this funny pub that I thought I'd take a photo of. So anyway, here is the photo of the pub, and me after my haircut.

Tonight I'm going to some friend of my housemate's farewell party in Shibuya. So let's see what happens!

Ok ciao for now!


I wonder if they're really hot...


Booyaaaaah!

Day trip to Kamakura and Yokohama

Hi all!

Yesterday I was taken by my new friend Yumie on a day trip to Kamakura, which was the capital of Japan from 1135-1333 AD. Quite a nice place and it's full of historic things to see, in much the same was as Kyoto and Nara are - in other words, lots of statues, shrines, temples and the like. So we went there in the morning (takes only an hour to get there from Tokyo) and started wandering around! Saw the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine, the Big Buddha at Hase (photos below) and a variety of other crazy things, including this weird cave network full of little statues that you're meant to pray at for good luck, prosperity, fertility etc.

Lunch was a big plate of sashimi. It took me 3 damn weeks to get some of that good stuff into me so I was feeling all good about it all day hehehe. Then we went to the beach - well, coming from Australia it wasn't particularly impressive, but then, coming from CANBERRA maybe it is, actually.

On the way back we stopped in Yokohama (it's about 1/3 of the way back to Tokyo from Kamakura) and wow, that place was really cool! Futuristic buildings, tonnes of shops and restaurants, lots of construction and other cool looking things - at one point I saw 4 layers of roads i.e. ground level and then three separate levels of roads suspended by various pillars above it. Seriously, amazing architecture!

We didn't get back till pretty late, and only when I finally got back did I realise that it was St Patrick's day so we quickly went and grabbed a beer and went home. It was such a fun day but a whole day of walking and talking Japanese (like 9am --> midnight) really took it out of me. So I came home, went straight to bed, and slept for a good 13 hours!! Unbelievable.

Anyway, here are the pictures! Seeya!

A "torii" - the trademark of Japan


Me standing in front of a bloody large statue of the B-Man himself. Apparently he used to be in a big wooden temple but it got destroyed by an earthquake.


Another shot, up closer this time. Actually for 20 yen you can go for a walk INSIDE the statue.


Yumie at the beach in Kamakura


Yokohama Night View!

Good thing to remember No. 1.

When you go to a Yakiniku restaurant (that's the ones with the little barbecue on the table in front of you) and you see something on the menu called "Horumon", remember that that isn't a plate of hormones, it's a plate of bits of intestines. Discovered that last night to my surprising delight but it seems my own intestines weren't quite so delighted by the presence of "their own kind" and promptly discarded the foreign intestines along with all the beer I washed them down with.

Once again, adventure at your own peril :)

Roppongi is fucked!!

If you were to ask me "Max Breaker, what is the worst experience you have ever had in Japan?" I would instantly be able to say "Going to fucking Roppongi!!!!"

This place is a cool looking place with lots of restaurants and karaoke and happening things, but it's just FULL of fucked foreigners and darky hustlers!

Walk out of the train station and within seconds you're accosted by someone - I dunno, Africans I guess, darkies anyway, and they get you to shake their hand and then give you a business card saying "Come into my bar! Hot ladies with revolving (sic) titties!! Gentleman's clubs!!!" Worse still, they follow you up the street!!

Anyway they are always offering some stupid deal like 4000 yen for 2 hours of non-stop drinking. And they always promise that there will be "hot ladies" inside for you to talk to. Anyway, we "negotiated" as much as we could with one guy and it seemed to be OK. Sure enough though, no other customers but us and the "hot ladies" were a mixture of overweight darkies and plastic surgery South Americans. Where are all the Japanese girls at?? Jeez.

So they talked to us for a while but I just couldn't be stuffed talking at all. Just small talk. Ordered a few more beers that took forever to arrive. Arrrrrgh the memories of it are nothing but memories of complete shit.

I mean sure, if you're there on a business trip and you just wanna get some P.I.V. ACTION, then sure, you want bitches - japan's got bitches. But it's complete crap going there if you want anything other than foreigner whores!

So there. My rating for Roppongi is a big fat 0 where 0 is the worst and the possible highest score is 10 to the power of a trillion. Adventure at your own peril.

First day at work

Well, yesterday was my first official day at work - although it doesn't actually seem like it yet because all I'm doing is sitting in on classes taken by the current teacher who hasn't left yet and isn't leaving till April. So, it's more like training by watching. Anyway it's ok.

It takes me about 45 minutes to get there, and I have to ride 3 different trains (for those who care, it's the Tobu Tojo line to Ikebukuro, the Yamanote to Takadanobaba, then the Tozai Metro line to Minami-sunamachi). Cost is 500 yen one way but work pays for that :) The worst is when I have to catch the train back late, like Mondays apparently have the latest class starting at 6:30, so by the time i get on the train home (say, 8 o'clock or so), all the office men are on their ways home and the trains are PACKED to SHIT. Last night it was all i could do not to be accidentally felt up on the train! haha no, just kidding. but we still looked like sardines in a train-shaped sardine tin.

Hmm, here's a random thought. For those who don't remember, I have a room with no windows. I was getting the shits because I'd wake up after x number of hours and still be out of rhythm no matter how many hours I slept, I think because my body didn't see any light and it wouldn't know to start waking up - i.e. I'd be all tired even after sleeping for like 13 hours or something. Well, problem solved! Now I set my alarm half an hour before i need to get up, wake up, turn my heater on and my LAMP, reset my alarm for half an hour later and roll over and go back to bed. So I fall half-asleep, start getting warmer, and start waking up a little bit. In half an hour my room is toasty and I'm ready to get out of bed! Works a charm.

Anyway, that's my genius thought for the day. Now I'm off to work! Seeya!

Got a job!!!

Good news everyone! I got a job at a little home-run English school called Jin-Yu English Club. It is run by one woman who started it for her daughters because she was so unsatisfied with the english classes they were attending, so she started her own! Anyway it has about 60 students aged between 4 and 10 or so, and basically they hire one native-english speaker to take classes of about 6 kids at a time.

So yesterday I went and sat in on one of the classes and jeez it looked fun, and easy!! These kids look like they WANT to learn (i.e. it's not part of school so they're only there cos they want to be), and they were all really energetic and happy and actually, their English was pretty good!

So yeah, it looks like a lot of fun. I start on Monday at 4pm - this first week I'll probably just be sitting in and helping out the current, departing native-speaker, this American guy named James, until I get it all worked out and then can take over from him in April.

But yeah, 250,000 yen a month, transport costs covered, and since it's a little school, I can probably negotiate my own holidays and stuff. So new laptop, here I come!

get this everyone...

You guys won't believe this, but i am blogging from a Nintendo Wii! That's right, I am typing each letter by pointing the remote at an on-screen keyboard!

Awesome!

Furthermore, I have another job interview tomorrow!

Ok, seeya!

First Job Interview

Had my first job interview today. I thought it might have been good and it offered 250,000 yen a month. With a company called Kids International.

Was greeted at the door by a mid-20s Japanese girl who spoke unbelievably good english, and she told me to sit and wait. Then an older, balding Japanese man came and sat down and in a thick American accent said "Naaaiiice to meeetcha!" And then he gave me the spiel.

Basically the jist is this. I don't TEACH them anything per se, instead I would be "providing an international environment for 0.5 to 12 year olds". Eat with them, take them to the toilet, wipe their bums as well probably. Sigh. Furthermore if i were to start, first I'd have to do a 4 hour unpaid trial. Then 3 days of 1000 yen per hour trial. Then go on reduced pay (230,000 yen per month) for 3 months. THEN go on full pay (250k/month) from then. Holidays? Well you accumulate 1 day per month. But you can't take any till your 7th month. So in the 7th month, you can take 7 days, but (and i quote) "you can't take them all at once!". Also sick days come out of holidays.

Anyway they were exceptionally nice. They understood that I am "in the recruiting stage at a lot of places" so I have till Monday to get back to them. Honestly, I don't think I'll take it. Sure it looks mega easy but it looks like a big pain in the freshly-wiped 0.5 year old bum. And I want my month of paid holidays like all the school-based teaching companies are offering.

Oh well, regardless, it WAS fun walking through the streets of Gotanda, Tokyo in my suit, although my new shoes gave me blisters on my heels god damn it! It's funny, when Japanese see a whitey, they give them a stare. But when they see a whitey in a suit with a tie and everything (helps if you're wearing sunglasses too), they give a long stare, like they're trying to perceive you from every different angle. Very strange and very noticable.

So, now I'm just chilling out in my windowless basement guesthouse, using my neighbour's computer like he said I could. Still have to find a map of this area so I can find the supermarket - everyone else who lives here or HAS lived here keeps saying there are no supermarkets nearby, but it's cheaper just to eat out at any one of the little food shops that dot the street between here and the station and around. And that's probably true - hell I went to 7-11 for dinner tonight and brought home a big plate of noodles and chicken nugget type things for 368 yen (~AU$4).

Aiight, wizz out.

Some more stuff...

Ok I am borrowing my new neighbour's computer at the moment, so it affords me a few moments to update my blog and stuff!

So, what's new... well, I moved into this place yesterday and then today i went to a shop called Nitori (which is like the Japanese IKEA) and bought $50 worth of stuff. But $50 goes a long way at Nitori! That was a cushion for my chair, two lamps and a set of bedsheets!

Furthermore, when I got home I looked behind this mysterious door (I was just exploring) and found a treasure trove of furniture! Must be left overs from the renovation that happened to this place last year or something. Anyway, using a combination of what i bought and what i "found", my room is looking pretty schmick! Below are some photos.

Also tomorrow I have a job interview for an english-teaching kind of job, except that it's more like babysitting I fear. I mean, the students are between 2 and 8 or something. 2?!?? What am i going to teach them? how to say "poo poo's and wee wee's"? "duck! cow! quack! moo!". All the meanwhile there are security cameras on us so over-protective parents can log in on the net and check what their little diddumses are up to. Give me a break. So anyway, I intend tomorrow to tell them "Thanks for the offer, I actually have a few other offers that I am considering at the moment..." and see what they do. I mean basically I want paid holidays, the ability to take some holidays whenever I want, and to not have to work weekends or public holidays. Is that too much to ask? Seemingly not, since every other company offers it...

Anyway, next time I come on here I'll undoubtedly have news. So until then, enjoy these photos of my room (and my dinner).







(This meal cost me 398 yen. Dirt cheap but tasty!)

You know what i love?

Shinkansen!

Found a place!

Well, I'm moving out of Saitama tomorrow and into Naka-itabashi! Found a great place there - large room, free electricity and internet, clean and renovated building, should be great! All for only 61,000 yen a month and that's INCLUDING utilities :)

So, until i get a computer this blog may not be updated so much, but I'll see what i can do. I'll try and get some photos up at some stage so until then, just know that I am happily making my new life in Tokyo in a cool new place just minutes from the city!

Until next time, then!

UPDATE: Here's the link for the place. I am in room B-08. Also it seems there IS a PC in the common area - well, according to this website anyway - so until I start working that'll be useful.

Only in Japan...

Found some rather amusing items at everyone's favourite store, Don Quixote...

UNIQLO

I forgot to mention that I bought some jeans from UNIQLO, possibly the best store in the entire world. You know how people say Japan is expensive? Well, sure, rent is a bit much and owning a car is practically impossible for anyone who's not a millionaire (because of exhorbitant parking fees and taxes), but food and clothes are DIRT CHEAP! While I was in Shibuya I stumbled across one of these fabulous stores and found a completely cool looking pair of jeans (which, in Australia would most definitely be close to $90 or $100) for 3990 yen or AU$43.56.

I can't remember the last time I found clothes of this quality for such a low price. AND if you're lucky, you can stumble into this store during a clearance and get the same stuff for half price! As for food, well, after buying my jeans I went to a noodle restaurant - you know one of those ones with the wooden bar and the stools - and got a giant bowl of soup noodles with what could only be described as half a pig's worth of pork floating in it, AND a bowl of rice, for 600 yen (AU$6.50).

Seriously, this rocks.

Photos from Shibuya

Went exploring all by myself for the first time today, and decided to go and visit Shibuya, just one of Tokyo's main shopping districts. Check out the lights and signs on the buildings and also, the amazing number of people crossing the road at this busy intersection in the photo with HMV in the background.

(photos still crap - is it the camera phone? or am I just shaking it around or something!?!)

Tokyo is a three-dimensional city!


Q-Front building with giant screen


Honestly, there must be 1000 people crossing this intersection every 30 seconds...


Bright lights in the street malls of Shibuya


Some pretty lights

Response!

Got a response from one of the three jobs I applied for yesterday, saying that I have passed the initial screening process and now have to fill in some email questionnaires and whatnot.

Check it out here.

I told you guys it wouldn't take long! Check out the pay, 250-280k yen a month, that's like between AU$2690 and $3013 per month. Cool!

Cold, cold, cold

Cold and windy today... nothing much occurring.

Applied for 3 jobs today and sent email inquiries about two places to live, so hopefully I'll hear from some of them in the next few days.

Haven't really done anything - except go to the supermarket and eat tsuna-mayo o-nigiri (tuna and mayonnaise rice balls wrapped in seaweed), but soon we might go to this hamburger family-restaurant type of place called "Bikkuri Donkey".

Great!

Got the photos

Ok they are a bit blurry but here are the ones I took in Akihabara. Remember i'm just trying to work out this phone so i obviously didn't have it on night mode or anything. Oh well, let's just say... "the quality will increase".

Akihabara

Went to Akihabara today and actually, took some pictures on my phone. But until I find the damn CD for the computer I can't actually download them. So, when i work it out, i'll post some of the cool photos of it.

Anyway, we explored Yodobashi Camera, a massive camera/electronics store with about 8 levels. On one of the floor we found a whole range of BB guns, like full-on shotguns and assault rifles just hanging there on the wall, hehe.

Went to McDonald's and got (for the three of us) one big mac set, one teriyaki burger set, two chicken burgers and two cheeseburgers - all for 1570 yen! Haha although Japanese McDonald's is still oily - I can feel the oil leaking out of the skin on my face as I am typing hehe.

Oh well, that's it. You can probably expect photos soon. As soon as i work this crap out anyway.

Keitai Denwa!

Went to Akabane and bought a mobile phone today on the AU network - free with a $50 a month plan or something (actually my friend did all the talking for me so she worked out a good deal). These phones can do everything - email, watch tv, play music with headphones, AND you can also use it at the train stations and convenience stores - you put money on it and can just wave it at the turnstiles to catch trains and stuff! Convenient, ne? And i got to pick my own number - well, the final four digits anyway - so you know what I chose?

1 3 3 7 :)

Awesome.

Don Quixote

Went to a shop at about 2am last night called Don Quixote, not far from where I'm staying in Saitama. This shop was absolutely amazing - it's like a variety store, but it sells literally EVERYTHING. AND! It's open till 5am every day! Want a $2500 television at 3 in the morning? No problemo! Clothes, bags, jewellery, all sorts of food (it has a supermarket section), vacuum cleaners, stereos, hell, it's even got Rolex watches. Basically, if it's not in this shop, it doesn't exist.

Need a new electric massage wand at 4:30am? Don Quixote to the rescue!

Registered.

Went to the City Office today and registered as an alien. Despite being forewarned that the non-english speaking staff and the bureaucratic methods by which they check, and check, and check again for the legitimacy of a foreigner's visa etc., the process was actually rather easy and took no longer than twenty minutes!

So, stage 1 is complete, onto stage 2, getting a mobile phone! I think for this one I might need some "native assistance".

Exploring.

Caught the Saikyou-line to Shinjuku today, that's just one of the many big places full of bright neon signs that has a sort of "entertainment-district" (restaurants and arcades and bars and whatnot), but nearby is also a business district full of some unbelievably enormous buildings. One of them, the Tokyo Government Building, has an observation deck on the 45th floor. Amazing night views!! And Tokyo just has this really amazing three-dimensional feel about it - you'll be on ground level, but the streets will be suspended above you, or you'll go down some stairs to some massive underground shopping plazas. It's just so massive, so awe-inspiring. It just "smells like money."

Anyway we just came back and ate japanese curry for dinner, which was good because after walking around town for just a few hours we were starving! So, now we're just going to drink some beers and probably have a slightly earlier night than we did last night (6am, lol!).

Tomorrow i plan to write my resume, but also i have to go and get a foreigner registration card, and perhaps a bank account too...

Ok, enough for now. Seeya!

Arrival

well, it's 9:50pm Japan time and i finally made it. I am now in Saitama, one station out of Tokyo! It's about 6 degrees and I'm about to go ride to the shops and get some beers. God knows, that after lugging a suitcase through the streets of tokyo, changing trains and whatnot, one deserves a 500ml can of the good stuff.

So, more to come...

Moving 40gb of data to an iPod...

... has taken close to two hours.

On another note, packing for a move overseas is utterly shit.

3 sleeps to go!

4 sleeps to go!

Well, here it comes! Only 4 sleeps until I fly to Tokyo. I plan to be there approximately 10 months - from the 24th of February to the 15th of December - and it is still unconfirmed whether I will return for more after that. I am doing a working holiday, so the first thing I have to do once I arrive (apart from find my own place) is find a job! I guess it will be English teaching for now, as I have a degree and a working holiday visa, which should put me a cut above most of the other foreigners there, also it pays anywhere between 230,000-300,000 yen/month.

So much to do before I leave though! Cancel/transfer internet/phone, buy stuff (like gravox which apparently they don't have in Japan), empty my computer onto my ipod, update my resume etc. Crazy times.

I am looking forward to buying a digital camera in Japan and updating this blog with actually interesting stuff for all my fans to read! So, look forward to that I guess... At the very least this way I won't have to write a thousand emails to you all... hehe.

Another!

Oops!

i forgot to post the previous song as well. This one was sort of accidental, but i like it anyway.

bizarre!

Piano music

A new song - this time a long (5m55s - too long?) piano piece.

Actually, I wrote this long ago before I was even able to record (before I had the program, or the keyboard), and just remembered it for like, 3 years until now.

So, finally i keyed it in. Actually by the end of it i was so god damn frustrated, which is ironic because according to the 2 people who have heard it so far, it is quite relaxing (read: boring?). You be the judge.

Chillax!