Last Thursday I went back to the town where I used to live to visit some old students and to pay a visit to one old student whose husband is currently in hospital. I arrived pretty early, as I wanted to spend as much time there as I could before coming back to Tokyo for a couple of evening classes. I don’t know if you’ve ever had that feeling of wanting to know what’s changed when you visit a place you used to live. I did notice that a new café had opened up right across from the station but apart from that everything else looked pretty similar. One thing that will never change about Gotemba, though, is the fantastic view one can get of Mount Fuji from just about anywhere in the town.

Quite simple, the day was great, and I was able to spend a really good time catching up on things and having a relaxed time. First off, we went to a recently opened to the public attraction – called Chichibunomiya Memorial Park – which is basically the house and grounds where Prince Yosemite (Chichibu), the second son of the Emperor Taishou, and his wife, Princess Setsuko, first daughter of the Ambassador Tsuneo Matsudaira?used to live.

The Prince had a love for sports and had also studied in England (naturally!) but he was notorious for his criticism of the expansion of war policy during the war periods. Overall, though, his personality was cherished among Japanese citizens. All this will obviously mean something to the Japanese people who are fortunate enough to read this!!!

The Princess used to visit Gotemba every summer when she an elementary school student and stay with her friend, Masako Shirasu. From that, she developed a love for Gotemba and the surrounding area and she lived in the house every summer even after the Prince passed away in 1953 from tuberculosis. She engaged herself in the eradication of tuberculosis and it was her will to donate the memorial park to the city of Gotemba. OK, thats the end of the history lesson!!!

Anyway, it was a beautiful place in which to spend a relaxing morning, before eating a long and delicious lunch and spending the rest of the afternoon chatting in a combination of both English and Japanese (yeah, I guess it is slowly getting better!). One thing I did notice about Gotemba, however, was that the weather was no different – a little wet and windy, and of course, humid! I’m already looking forward to my next visit.

On Saturday, I went ten-pin bowling with a group of friends. I have to mention it simply because I managed to get my first ever `turkey` - for those of you who don’t know, a turkey is three strikes in a row! I had on numerous occasions in the past had two strikes and then had somehow failed to knock down all ten a third time running (although I did get 9 many times!). Therefore, upon releasing the third ball and watching the impact with the pins I was again thinking back to those unlucky episodes from the past and feeling that had failed because from the corner of my eye I could still see one pin still standing - until that is, one of the other pins (which was spinning violently) managed to flick into the standing pin and fulfill my dream of a turkey!

In that particular game (which was pretty ordinary up to the point of the first strike!), I went from 71 points after 7 frames to a score of 146 after 10 – so obviously I was pretty stoked. I attched a picture below - my score is on the second line - honest!! The second game was better – 151 (again after a late blast) – but the third saw normality return and only 128. Overall though, I was pleased with myself, as it was the first time I had bowled for about six months! Bring on the next one!

As you can see (very clearly!) the turkey takes me from a pathetic 71 after 7 frames to a quite respectable 146 af the end!!! By the way, I beat the guy bowling last if you were wondering!

Take care of yourselves, and I hope to write again soon.

Kevin

Good afternoon. How are you today? It`s hot again as usual here in Tokyo. I promised I would try to write on a more regular basis and so far I’m keeping to it.

This weekend was pretty eventful. On Friday I went to a friend’s birthday party drinks and then did all night karaoke until 5.30am. It was my first time to sing karaoke for so long and as usual it was a hoot! Getting home at around 7am, sleeping for five hours and then teaching two private English lessons before rushing off to another engagement is a pretty good way to live – it stops you becoming bored or complacent.

The other engagement I mention was a summer fireworks display in a city north of Tokyo called Kumagaya where a good friend of mine lives. It was so hot that I decided to slip into my `jimbei` - a traditional two-piece Japanese outfit worn by men, usually in summer. However, once again I was without the necessary footwear – `geita` (which are like flat clogs made from wood) – so I wore my Nike sandals! A good combination if you ask me and I think people appreciated my effort. However, even with the supposedly cooler jimbei on, I still felt so hot.

Summer festivals are commonplace all over Japan – a little bit like the ones in England – and feature song, dance, food stalls and sometimes a variety of games but unlike England, usually fireworks too. They are always fun and enjoyable to attend and I always especially like the variety of colourful `yukata` - another traditional outfit worn by both men and women – they always look beautiful, especially the purple coloured ones! Pictures to follow – I just need to get them developed and uploaded. I must buy a digital camera – so much more convenient!

The firework display in Kumagaya was pretty good although it seemed that there had to be an announcement for every single firework that was set-off. This seemed a little unnecessary to me although it extended the show and allowed for more conversation and time to hang out together. Compared to the fireworks I had seen the week before, I think these were better overall although a little bit stop-starty!

I said before that on Friday I had done my first all-nighter of karaoke, so maybe to your amazement, I did another one on Saturday night – this time for probably a little longer. My friend Mark had come up from Gotenba for the fireworks and as I had not seen him for almost two months and had nothing much to do the next day, I decided to stay up and hang out with him and another two Japanese friends, one of whom had invited me to the fireworks and who lives in Kumagaya. So it was kind of local for her! By the way, the hideous picture of me below was taken at an Izakaya after the fireworks display - there has been some discussion over whether it is actually me or someone pretending to be me. Answers on a postcard please!!!

Sunday, however, was a struggle – two all-nighters running and about four hours sleep does not go down too well these days although I did have a really good time. Now, from Kumagaya to where I live now is about two hours door to door and as I had private lessons later that day near to the station I was to transfer at in Tokyo in order to get home (plus the fact it was raining heavily and I didn’t have an umbrella!) I decided to find a cheap capsule hotel, take a bath and sleep for about seven hours. So, I did just that and felt much better for it. I finally got home at around 9pm, studied some Japanese and went to sleep pretty early by my standards.

This morning was fun! I had agreed to start a new business class from 8.30 to 9.30 at a company about 10 minutes by train from my house (about 20 minutes door to door) so I set my alarm for seven with the best intention of finding the place, having a cup of coffee and doing some preparation. The alarm part was fine, but somehow I managed to slip back off to sleep and woke up again at 7.56 with 34 minutes to go until the start of the lesson. I quickly though `taxi` and `run` and somehow I managed to make it to the company with 12 minutes to spare – actually, I was pretty surprised I made it so fast although thinking about it I do live pretty close.

The class went well and nobody knew otherwise, although I was pretty pissed at myself for managing to lose one of my favourite cufflinks on the way from my apartment to the taxi. I probably dropped it somewhere in my haste! Anyway, all is well for now, and I have a class tonight, which should be lots of fun!

By the way, you can also check out my other photos on-line at the following link - I added a new album called "Japan New":

http://f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/keveds2003

I bid you all good day and hope to be in touch soon,

Kevin

Konnichiwa! Ohisashiburi desu. It’s been a long time. So I guess this is my first entry for quite a while so I apologize to those of you who check religiously for new material everyday and are usually disappointed – I imagine you will be delighted today!

Anyway, so what’s been happening? Well, I’m still living in Tokyo and have now been here for about four months. It’s a truly amazing city and the more I live here the more I seem to see and become aware of. That may sound like an obvious thing to say but there are times when I walk around the same area, transfer at the same subway station, or eat in the same restaurant for the second or third time, I always seem to get a different perspective on things. It can always be guaranteed that I something will happen or I will learn a little bit more about something – I guess it’s all part of becoming accustomed to a new place. One thing doesn’t change though – and that’s the heat. It’s been very hot here since I arrived here and the humidity is sometimes really uncomfortable. Thank God for air conditioning – especially in the trains!

Since the end of July I have been living with a Japanese couple that are the same age as me as they had a spare room available, and I needed somewhere to live for two months between university teaching contracts. I know the girl’s mother from where I lived before so I guess they are not complete strangers. The apartment is pretty small but it’s in a nice and trendy part of Tokyo and very convenient for getting into central Tokyo. It’s a good situation for everyone because the rent is cheap and I can practice my Japanese (which is slowly getting better) and they want to learn English at the same time. So, the evenings are usually a mixture of English, Japanese and confusion!!!

Having a two-month break between university teaching contracts (the next contract is due to start on September 21^st – my birthday!) is not the most convenient thing in the world but actually I am managing to keep busy. I have part-time teaching jobs in the evenings and on Saturdays and a few private students whom I teach during the daytime (but no kids I’m happy to say, apart from the daughter of a friend from Gotemba!). I am also going to start some early morning business classes from next week to bring in a bit more money. I have recently been trying to get a job to teach solely business or financial English and I have also been investigating the possibility of teaching in accountancy colleges similar to where I studied for my ICAEW accounting qualification.

Also, I am going to Taiwan to visit a friend in early September for a week. I am actually looking forward to taking a break and getting out of the city for a while. However, I think it will be hotter in Taiwan than it is in Tokyo although I will be on vacation so it won’t bother me as much. I was planning to come back to England for a while in the summer but I couldn’t find a cheap enough flight and the availability on the ones I did find was so bad I was on a waiting list with no chance to fly. I am planning to come back in December for a few weeks for Christmas and New Year – after that I am not quite sure yet.

People keep asking me about my success with the opposite sex here, so I guess I should say something about that. To be honest, I have had some slight problems lately. I was dating one girl a little bit older than me and after about two months dating happily I found out she was married! Naturally I made a quick escape route! It was strange because I actually found out from her best friend and then I patiently waited for her to tell me herself. I’m still not sure what I think about the whole situation but obviously the sooner the better to have found out something like that the better.

On top of that, there is (maybe that should be “was”) also another girl the same age as me who I am really fond of (she used to work for the same company as me), however she is proving difficult to win over and she is also so busy at work I can never get a chance to see her unless I really push it. She told me she liked me very much but it was obvious from her questions and attitude at our last dinner date that she had a problem with the fact that I didn’t have a career plan for the future and that she didn’t know where I would be in a year or so. I tried to explain to her that future plans and decisions are sometimes made on the basis of chances or opportunities that present themselves at the time, implying that if she liked me enough and gave me a reason to focus on and commit to her then I may be able to give her the answers she wants. I am still not sure what will happen but as usual I’ll try my best! To be honest, it’s pretty easy to meet girls here (if you go to the right places!) but it’s no so easy to get to see them on a regular basis, as they always seem so busy! Or is it just me? – I don’t think so somehow.

Anyway, on a happier note, this weekend I am going to see a summer fireworks display with some friends. Summer festivals and firework displays are a big part of Japanese culture and it’s really great to see people wearing traditional Japanese dress – kimono, yukata and jimbei – and enjoying themselves. Last weekend I went to a friend’s apartment to see another fireworks display that was really great – we had a great view from the apartment window.

After the fireworks (and quite a bit of delicious food and drink), we watched the Asia Cup Final on TV (the Asia Cup is the Asian equivalent of the European Football Championship) – Japan versus China from Beijing – Japan won the game 3-1 in China’s backyard so it was a great evening all round. The final itself wasn’t a classic, but the quarter and semi-finals were amazing games – the quarter seeing Japan win 4-3 in sudden death penalties after the referee had decided to change ends midway through the penalty shootout due to loose turf around the penalty spot, and the semi seeing Japan win 4-3 while playing with 10 men for about 70 minutes of the game. All in all, it was a pretty exciting tournament. Speaking of sport, the Olympics start in two days time, although I wonder how much I will actually get to see because the coverage will be pretty late here in Japan.

Anyway, I will stop there for today. I wrote a bit more than usual today, and as I always say, I will try to write more again soon and more regularly. I will also try to put some more photos on the website at some point.

Until next time, look after yourselves,

Kevin