Captain`s log, stardate god knows what........

Today it was (and still is I think...) snowing here very heavily - and it is very cold. For me to say that means it really is cold. Riding around on my bicycle today running errands was not much fun as I felt at times that I had lost the use of my fingers (and not just my fingers at that!) but the warm environment of the Internet cafe brought solace to my freezing body.

Yesterday I had my first Japanese `lesson` with a friend called Tomomi in Numazu (a city about 30 mins by train from Gotenba) and it was really good fun. The more lessons the better. I also think that I will try to arrange lessons at my school as I am entitled to 24 one-hour lessons during the year - I need to sort that out. I also bought a book on how to learn Hiragana and Katakana symbols (so I will able to read a bit of Japanese writing - there are 46 characters in each alphabet I think!) but Kanji (the Chinese character language) can wait as its far too difficult and has thousands of characters. Most signs are written in both so just learning the easier ones will be a start.

I also played five a side football with a group of guys in Numazu - they often go to the restaurant run by my Japanese teacher and they are a mix of Brazilian, American, English, and Japanese. They are all OK at soccer too but I fitted in quite well and will play again - maybe every week. The team name is `Shake Shake` after a hostess style bar in Numazu which I haev been told that all the members of the team want to go to but none of them has had the b**** to do so as yet. Also, the team haven`t won a game yet when they have played eleven a side (in the summertime) so the incentive to win, in my opinion, is to arrange to go there to celebrate the first victory. Can anyone help me on why the bar is called `Shake Shake`?! Answers on a postcard please!

I have no bizarre experiences to report today however there was one funny thing that happened this week. I was taking the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Nagoya on Friday for a training course at head office and on the train they have a trolley service like in England but like 100 times better. On the return journey (at about 9pm) one woman was pushing a trolley selling ice cream and other kinds of snacks and another lady was walking up and down with a tray of cups of coffee and tea and boxes of food. They were both approaching the automatic doors that lead to the next carriage when all of a sudden the doors open and a man comes running through shouting something incomprehensible to me into his mobile phone - and, not noticing the second lady, crashes into her and sends her careering down the carriage - miraculously she managed not to spill any coffee or tea but did nearly break both her arms in the process of this (all for the company, eh?). Meanwhile, a salaryman who was half asleep suddenly exploded into the land of the living and must have squeezed on of the five or so pens he was holding in his hands that tight that the end flew off and landed perfectly in the cup of coffee I was holding at the time. I wanted so much to pick it out, dry it off and give it back to him but I couldn`t keep a straight face so I pretended nothing had happened as he hadn`t even noticed! The things you experience when you least expect them...!!!

The Great Shinkansen - I will get a better picture soon!


So with all this going on one could not blame me for laughing (or anyone else for that matter - but nobody else did!) and trying not to make it obvious to anyone that I was laughing - but I did get one or two: `Why on earth is he laughing?` looks but maybe it was OK because I was the only foreigner in the carriage and most people were looking at me curiously anyway. It made me consider the possibility that this kind of event happens all the time in Japan and no one really gets affected by it. To be honest, I felt as though a nuclear bomb could have gone off and no-one in the carriage would have noticed.

It took me back to my first day when I was travelling up to Gotenba in the local train when just as the doors were about to close a man came flying (literally!) through the doors and crashed into the opposite doors - picked up his briefcase (which had flown in just before him!) and dusted himself off as if it was the kind of thing he did everyday and trusted Japanese train timetables implicitly. Again, no-one seemed to pay any attention to this or actually notice it but I`m sorry, it was very funny, and I had to laugh. Maybe my sense of humour is just different - or weird! Please tell me - you all know me well enough.

Until next time.....

So here we are again. Another week gone - that‘s four by my count - and I`m still enjoying it very much - not that I thought I wouldn`t for one minute. This week has been pretty much the same as last with the exceptions that I now have an umbrella - it cost 200 yen from the 100 yen store !!!!!!! - a contradiction in terms or so you might say - and I have joined a library in a larger city called Numazu about 30 minutes away by train from which I can loan English language books, music and videos - oh joy! The local Internet cafe manager has also lent me his VCR so I can watch films and other video type programs (!) in the comfort of my own apartment. Oh, and I also came by a rice cooker - as I only have one stove in my kitchen and cooking more than one thing is extremely difficult and involves a bit of juggling - which will no doubt prove very useful in the days and weeks to come.

I had a little housewarming party on Friday night - for which I cooked Japanese curry and rice - a wonderful tasty dish for those of you who haven`t had it - if you live in London and want to buy the mixture you can get it at the "Japan Centre" in Piccadilly Circus or the same thing but cheaper at "Rice Wine" - a Japanese grocery store on Brewer Street in Soho - you see I was doing my homework before I left. Also on Friday it was Valentine`s Day (yes it is celebrated here as well!) but it is not traditional to send flowers and cards as it is in the UK - the tradition is for women to give chocolates to men - the men have their turn to give to women on March 14th - called "White Day" - but candies and sweets and not cholocolate should be given. Complicated uh? Not really - I just kept saying `arigatou gozaimasu` ("thanks very much" for those of you who have no idea what that means!) when receiving chocolates from my students - I get the feeling that I will need to make a lot of candy puchases for White Day. I really should have made a list of who and what.

I bought a bicycle today - picture to follow of course. It cost about fifty pounds and is like a saving grace to be honest as it means I can now venture to the extreme and more commercial parts of Gotenba after work instead of just frequenting the same old places. Also, to cycle here is very commonplace and I was told that I really could go "anywhere" on my bicycle - not sure whether the DIY man meant that I should go to Hokkaido though (for those of you who don`t know the geography Japan, Hokkaido is the northernmost of the four islands which make up Japan (and it is very barren and cold in winter and a very long way from here) along with Kyushu and Shikoku in the south and the main island of Honshu. I am located on the main island in a region called "Chubu" which is quite central. There is also a region of the main island called "Kinki" - cute, eh? Oh and by the way, "cute" is the most overused word in Japan - everything is `cute` in its own way and even I have been referred to as cute on a couple of occasions. Comments in agreement with that would be welcome, but I would prefer "Anata wa kakoi (?) desu" - means "you are cool".

Well thats about all for today - as I write this email I am watching Michael Stipe and REM giving a concert on MTV - yes they also have cable TV in the Internet Cafe. Take care, and keep in touch. Mata ne....

Here are some photographs from around Gotenba and Hakone.

(1) View of the local neighbourhood from one side of my apartment


(2) View of Mount Fuji from near my apartment


(3) The local shrine in Gotenba


(4) View of Hakone from the onsen hotel window


(5) Me in Yakuta at the onsen hotel in Hakone


(6) A view of the stream running through Hakone


(7) Me in the street where I live


(8) Another view from my apartment


(9) View of Mount Fuji from near the school


(10) A view from my classroom window

So here is my next entry after a two week delay - sorry to those of you who religiously check it everyday and then have to be disappointed for the rest of the day.

Lots to tell so where do I start. Are we at war yet I wonder as I haven`t seen the news much these past few weeks? I read about the space shuttle disaster - the last thing I expected to see when I looked in the paper. Japan has three English newspapers - the Japan Times, the Daily Yomiuri and another one. In Gotenba station we can get the Japan Times for about 70p, so at least I can read the news although it basically comes from the US papers. I also hear Man Utd are doing quite well - David Beckham seems to be on the cover of a lot of magazines and he has just done a TV commercial for J-Phone mobile phone compnay (owned by Vodafone) with his wife which is a bit weird - they must be getting desperate.

Well, about my apartment. First the heating is sorted - a nice repairman came to my place and fixed the heater and he also fixed the sink tap which was leaking and the extractor fan in the bathroom which seemed to be struggling a bit and he also did a very thorough inspection of just about everything else in the apartment - so I have to say that I was impressed. And today I finally went to the supermarket and bought groceries - I haven`t actually cooked a meal yet as just seem to go to Seven Eleven every evening to pick up something. Gotenba has a couple of really good noodle bars and a couple of great sushi shops although they are a bit of a walk away from where I live.

Inside my apartment


I spent about half an hour on Saturday night walking around in the pouring rain with Lisa (the other native English teacher at GEOS) trying to find a bar which wasn`t a hostess bar and a bar that when we tried to enter we didn`t get stopped by a Japanese gangster type saying `Japanese only`. So we decided to call on the manager of the only Internet cafe in Gotenba, Ono, a really great guy from Brazil, to take us to a bar. He was quite happy to do this and we went to a bar called `Majolica` which was surprisingly, open, and western style with darts, table football and pool. Beer is cheap (well cheaper than other places) and in no time I was into a game of darts (rules of whcih I still don`t understand) with some Japenese guys who seemed very excited by the fact I could play (and quite well), so this could be a regular pastime for me in the future.

Let me sidetrack and tell you about the Japanese and umbrellas. Basically, they should be carried on your person at all times even in baking heat - or so I think. Outside the local izakaya (Japanese style bar), there is a sort of machine that you stick your umbrella into if its raining and it puts a plastic bag around it - bizarre - no surprise to say then that when I tried it it didn`t seem to work but I think I was pushing the umbrella in at the wrong angle and missing the opening of the bag. I was soon shown the error of my ways. And get this, when we went to the Tokyo Museum on Sunday (see below) there were about four large crates outside the entrance for people to lock up their umbrellas while they look around the museum.

Lets just say that on Saturday night while walking around in the rain I got a few bizarre looks from the locals who all had their high tech umbrellas and were probably thinking something along the lines of: "you stupid foreigner - where is your umbrella?". And I would have replied, (and probably not been understood), with the following: "Well I would have an umbrella but when I went to the internet cafe last week the really great Burberry umbrella that was left for me by the former teacher was stolen - maybe accidentally - but no-one has seen this woman since so I figure she thought what a great umbrella and I`ll accidentally take it my mistake". Anyway, never mind - I will have a replacement soon although I am currently comparing quotes.

Last weekend I had the pleasure of going to a Japanese hot spring (or `onsen`) in Hakone which is about half an hours drive from Gotenba and is famous for its natural environment and hot springs. I spent about three hours in the hot spring just getting in and out of the water as I felt like - I will leave you to make up your own minds about how it would feel to be sitting outdoors in a large pool of very hot water at about 11pm at night with an air temperature of about 2 degrees Celcius and steam rising all around you like you are sitting on top of a pressure cooker. For me, it was one of the most relaxing things ever. I recommend everyone to try it sometime.

On Sunday I went to Tokyo for the first time with a couple of colleagues - we have to take an express bus from Gotenba station and it takes about one and a half hours to get to Shinjuku station (central Tokyo) and costs about nine pounds one way. Its actually pretty good and all the announcements are in English also so it helps a little and doesn`t mean I have to sit there nodding a little and making a continuos `ah` sound when listening to a Japanese only announcement. The first bus is at seven o`clock and the last one back is at eight thirty so its not so convenient. Maybe next time I`ll stay over (maybe in a capsule hotel) and then I can experience a bit more of the nightlife. Anyway, yesterday we went to Ueno Park in north east Tokyo (I think) to the Tokyo Museum (lots of paintings, pottery, calligraphy and statues - so two hours was enough for me) and walked around the park itself which is a bit on the scale of Hyde Park in London. In the middle of the park there is a kind of Trafalgar Sqaure pigeon frenzy going on with a couple of mad Japanese giving out pigeion feed.

In and around Tokyo Museum - Ueno, Tokyo







After the museum we went to Meiji Temple which is near Shibuya in the south east (one of the more happenening and trendy areas of Tokyo) - we were fortunate enough to see a traditional Japanese wedding procession and just about every visitor including me taking pictures of it - the bride looked so nervous that I bet she felt like making a run for it. I think this temple is also famous because the Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi visits it every week at the same time to pray for the war dead.

Japanese Wedding Photos from the Meiji Shrine - not mine unfortunately!





A few more shots from around Meiji Shrine





So finally for today I just want to tell you a few things about Japanese toilets. Sorry but I don`t have a picture of one - well not yet anyway! They are simply wonderful - especially the ones in restaurants or high quality hotels etc. They have heated toilet seats (with temperature settings for the perfect level of comfort) and water sprays to wash your you know what when you have finished (with adjustable angle of direction and type of spray - massage type or intermittant type). Its all so bizarre that you just have to try it. Unfortunately my apartment toilet doesn`t have these additional extras, although I did plead with the repairman to install me a more up to date commode. Maybe I can get a free umbrella if I order one.

Until next time........and y`all take care.