Into the second year...

And so the second year of the Ice Cold JAPAN Experience begins! As of Sunday, the 24th of February anyway. Here's hoping for another exciting and adventurous year in the Land of the Rising Sun!

これからも、よろしくね！

An icy day for the Ice Cold Max

It's been snowing for about 12 hours straight in Tokyo! Here are a couple of pics.

Roll your own

Came across this unbelievable story tonight on digg.com

Can you believe that?!  Imagine, there you are thinking you've met the person of your dreams, someone so similar in so many ways, both adopted, etc.  Things start heating up and then one night, you go out, have a few glasses of vino rosso, head back to the pad where things really start heating up... oh god!

Before you know it, you're head over heels for this person.  A strong, magnetic, almost impossibly perfect relationship seems to plan itself out in front of you.  You can see the whole future ahead of you and you feel completely satisfied with it... and then... and then... ...!!!! Oh god it is just too unbelievable...

You've gotta feel for these two.  Jesus, if that was me I'd be lopping off my third leg, gouging out my eyes and loading myself up on so many drugs until I forgot what the hell had happened.   God only knows how much therapy they'll be needing!

Back in JP

Arrived this morning after a grueling 27 hours or so of travelling -  Canberra to Sydney (bus), Sydney to Singapore, Singapore to Narita, Narita to Tokyo (Skyliner)...  I came home, ate some sushi and then went straight to sleep for 4 hours. 

I don't know what people mean when they say "The journey is half the fun":  sitting in a plane doing fuck all for hours on end doesn't really float my boat...!

Anyway, back in the big city and looking forward to another adventurous year!

Summer Holidays

Spent the last 3 weeks back in sunny Australia.  The first week and a half or so was in Adelaide visiting Mum, Peter, Simon et al, and the second week and a half spent in Canberra with friends from back in the day.

Most noticeable thing when arriving back in Australia?  The smell of the gum trees.  Such an unmistakeable smell...  Nice, though!

It's a strange point in my life, I feel.  After spending ten months in Japan, and knowing that I am returning for at least that again, coming to Australia was "going on holidays" rather than "going home".  In all seriousness, going back to Tokyo now feels more like I'm "going home".

Furthermore, three weeks was just too damn long for this holiday.  I remember before I came how happy I was at the thought of three weeks doing SFA, but now I couldn't be more excited to be going back to that crazy, adventure filled Tokyo life. 

Anyway, thanks to everyone for making my stay as enjoyable as it was!  It was a damn good holiday and I'll be back in December!

Sometimes, Japanese children are just too cute not to post on a blog.

Exhibit A: Four year old Ayane. Photo taken whilst she is wrapped around my leg between fits of laughter.


Even the Ice Cold Max melts at a sight like this :~)

The best deodorant in the world....

... is this one. Not because of the smell, but because of this unbelievably awesome name.



Now just watch all the chicks wet their panties over me.

A scene while bike riding...

A little shot I took while riding my bike in Nishi-Shinjuku today...



Not a sight you see everyday in Australia!

The Untapped Market: Korean Mothers

Something I`ve discovered in the last couple of weeks is the number of immigrant Korean women who are living in Japan, are married (usually) to Japanese men, and have children. The children are often attending International School, and so study English a hell of a lot more than their native Japanese counterparts. This in turn causes their mothers to realise that their own English levels are far below the standard required to efficiently supplement their child`s learning while at home, and thus presents an interesting and practically unlimited source of work for private English teachers such as myself.

What brought this on was what occurred today. I gave my second lesson to one Korean mother, who was referred to me by the mother of my one-and-only piano student, also Korean. While having this lesson, she told me that another friend of hers is coming immediately after the lesson because she, also, has a young child at International School and feels she needs to be able to speak more English. However, when it rains it pours. That one friend turned out to be two friends (now a friend of a friend of a friend!), and the two of them both informed me that many of their other Korean mother friends are similarly interested in taking lessons!

Incredible! I didn`t even have to search for them. It seems that in this case at least, once your foot is in the door, work will find you! Happy days!

Trip to Mt Fuji and Hakone

Hi everyone!

Yesterday I got back from an overnight stay near Mt Fuji. It was really quite amazing. It's a bloody huge mountain!

We rented a car and drove out of Tokyo. It is only about 100km from the centre of town so it wasn't a difficult journey. As we approached, we saw the giant mountain peeking out from behind the clouds. Really quite impressive.

We drove up as far as we could (halfway) and got out to have a look around. Fuji is divided into 10 stations, 1 being the bottom and 10 being the summit. So after driving to 5, we decided to walk to 6. It was chilly but the sun was strong - a little too strong as I was to discover after we left by means of a terrible sunburn. Anyhow it was a pretty easy path, a bit gravelly with all kinds of volcanic rocks and whatnot. The view was fantastic, however.

We left, and drove about another 40km to the place we were staying, near Lake Saiko at the bottom of the mountain ranges. Quite a nice little place - like a bed and breakfast but for only $50 a night each including breakfast! Great views of the mountains from our window.

The next day we drive off to Hakone where we discover an even bigger lake called Ashinoko and we find a whole lot of (what the Japanese refer to as) pirate ships transporting people around the lake. So, we took a cruise on one of them to the other side, had lunch, and then cruised back again. On our return we took a ride on the Hakone Ropeway, a big long cable car system taking you up and over the mountain. Good fun! During the ride you go over the Hakone hot springs - quite literally hot gas bubbling out of the ground, and a strong smell of sulphur.

After that, we drove back to Tokyo, though the roads were jam packed and it took us at least an hour more than it should've. We took a break and drove down to Odaiba in Tokyo Bay and had dinner, took a few more photos, and then came back home.

It was a great weekend! Fuji-san is really impressive so I recommend it to everyone.

If you want to see the photos, well, I hope this link works.

Give me a break!

This screenshot was taken at roughly 7:15pm. And it really does feel like 38 degrees :(

UPDATE: It's now 12:35AM on Saturday Morning and WeatherDock tells me it's 31 degrees, feels like 34. Fuck, shit, give me a fucking break.

Burger King in Tokyo!

Burger King is back in Tokyo after a number of years away! I went there last night, to the one in Nishi-Shinjuku's I-land Tower and got the good shit, the Double Whopper.

My verdict: Delicious, and absolutely enormous. They use NZ beef, which I guess is close enough to Aussie Beef for me to be at least moderately patriotic.

Happiness is...

The final instalment of the HP Saga!

My new place!

So, two weeks ago, Takako and I moved into a 60 sq. metre 2LDK apartment in Honancho, only 5 stops from Shinjuku. Here are some pictures!

The living room: those stupid paper curtains have since been replaced. Also there is now a yellow armchair that doubles as a massage chair in there too.




The kitchen: came with a free gas cooker (most people take them when they move out).




My bedroom: well, at least, my new desk in my bedroom.




The bathroom. You can't see it but there's a pink toilet seat cover on the toilet. Damn girls.




View from the living room - on the left is the kitchen, my bedroom and bathroom. Right is Takako's bedroom.



Anyway, it's pretty nice! Spacious due to our lack of furniture, but still comfortable and easy to clean. No wuzzas!

I'm lovin' it.

Tokyo McDonald's new menu item:



And yes, it was as delicious as it sounds.

Seriously....

The mother of one of my students, wearing probably the best T-shirt in the world.

Driving in Tokyo ROCKS!!!

So, today I rented a van and drove it around Tokyo, moving house! The moving was pretty hard work but driving the van around Tokyo was TOTALLY AWESOME. Such an amazing feeling of freedom, with the a/c cranked to max, cruising arond... jesus... it was awesome.

I want a car.

Here's the van I rented...



... and here's what we filled it with!

Moving out

Well, I'm finally moving out of this guesthouse and into more permanent accommodation, namely, the aforementioned 2LDK in Nakano-ko, 5 stops from Shinjuku. Should be good! I've just finished packing and, luckily, I haven't accumulated much more stuff than I arrived with, save for some speakers, a laptop, a keyboard... but they're all boxable so no wuzzas mate.

The room certainly looks empty, with, well, practically nothing in it. Still, I couldn't be happier!

Next stage, next dream!

Photos from last night's Karaoke and drunken partying

A selection has been made for your enjoyment :)

Karaoke pictures! Me, Takako, Vince, Catherine, and Lance.





















Quite shitfaced by the end of it, I got carried through Ikebukuro... Vince was far worse though.



Vince then got so drunk at home that he went crazy. Destroying the house etc. When he wrestled me...



... I took him down...



...and we carried him into his room.



Get in there you drunken lunatic!

omfg wtf vince!!!

Thanks Vince, for last night getting so destructively drunk that you set fire to the flyscreens and then released two powder fire extinguishers in the doorway of our place. Even my laptop keys are covered with the shit. Further thanks for not cleaning it up despite being in our now-blanketed-in-pink place all day.