Good evening! Half way though June already doesnt time just fly by.

Recently I have been doing quite a lot of exercise, including quite a bit of running - mostly on the treadmill in the gym but also on on the roads. I am now doing a 10km run two to three times a week and for someone who wasn`t used to running more than 5km in any one run up to a month ago I think I have made significant strides (no pun intended) in the past month. However, there is simply no fun in running for me and the best part of any run is the last few seconds when you know even if your legs give way, the momentum of the treadmill will take you over the distance even if you are flying through the air waiting to hit the ground with a bang. Time honestly seems to stand still and one hour of running often feels like ten. Admittedly, I have only just entered the 10k club and have to get used to making it the minimum distance I run, but boy is it a struggle. I think I hit the famous `wall` about three or four times during a one hour run! I often wonder how many glasses I would fill if instead of making my t-shirt and shorts soaking wet, my sweat could be siphoned off somehow so that when I`ve finished running I don`t feel as though I have been running in a thunderstorm. Anyway, luckily I have enough energy to write this blog tonight, and although its been 90 minutes since I finished the run, I am still trying to cool down. Lets hope that it gets a little easier - my target is to be able to run a half marathon by the end of this year (that about 20k) so please keep your fingers crossed.

One other thing that I wanted to write about was the `pusher`men and women who work in the Tokyo Metro and at other train stations to help with the movement of commuters on the amazingly overcrowded morning rush hour trains. For example, just check out the following video I found on You Tube!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0A9-oUoMug&feature=related

Its a really amazing thing to actually see in all honesty. I travel though a station called Oimachi in the mornings to connect to Hamamatsucho on the JR Keihin Tohoku Line, one of the main lines running from Kanagawa, up through Tokyo and on up to Saitama. Its gets crazily busy in the mornings, especially in the cars at closest to the exits at the stations where most people get off. You have to think that some Japanese commuters are preprogrammed in the sense that each morning they need to take the same train and they will take that train at all costs - even if its means hanging on to the frame of the door when it is 99% sure they are not going to get on - until the pusher man comes to their rescue. To me, why would you try and crowd into carriage 3 when carriage 4 is only twenty metres further away from the exit at the next station - why make it more uncomfortable. I have also seen people (usually well built businessmen) charging into the crowds and just pushing themselves in - and I know exactly how the people inside feel - you just physically cannot move. To be honest, if I was the pusher man, I would just start pulling people out and make them wait for the next one but they are ultra polite and try their best to make sure everyone is pushed in with the minimum of pain - all very efficient. However, it is just me that thinks this or is it crazy for a developed country to flaunt health and safely regulations so badly on its railways makes me wonder what will happen if there is an accident - I think many people would die as a result of overcrowding accentuating the problem.

I often feel like saying to people `Why dont you take the next train? Its not like you need to wait very long!` but again people just seem to be on autopilot and although the fact that they try to enter the train makes it more unbearable for everyone else including them, they just don`t seem to mind. I sometimes calculate (quite sad I know) that in one carriage there may be anywhere up to 150 people (about 25 sitting and 125 standing I kid you not) and at nine carriages per train thats about 1250 people per train give or take and on average there is a train every four minutes on this particular line so 15 trains per hour is about 18,000 people per hour. Maybe its more, but I have no idea how to verify it. Sometimes your mind just gets lost in amongst all the craziness. And try to deal with the situation when a train is 2 or 3 minutes late which means the number of people waiting is almost double what it would be if the train was on time and there will be almost double the number of people on the train as it comes into the station - you can see where I am going with this. Thank the Lord I only have to take that train for 3 stations - it really can be 8 minutes of pure hell.

All in all its been a pretty uneventful day really (even the journey to work was pretty average today). Its pretty humid and pouring down with rain at the moment and the forecast for tomorrow is not much better. As I said on the last blog, we are now in the middle of rainy season so we have to expect and accept quite a bit of rain at the moment.

Will write again soon. Look after yourselves.

Hello again! Hisashiburi desu!!!

After a lot of (friendly) pressure from Mariko (my fiance) I have decided to relaunch my blog after about four years, even though I do vividly remember actually writing a post about two years ago, but I guess it either didn`t get posted or something mysterious happened to it. Anyway, here goes again and this time I will try to keep some regularity to it.

I think at this stage its a good idea to fill you in on the past 4 years and I will try to do that in one paragraph. After working for the company I mentioned in the last blogs from before, I left them about 15 months ago after a good three years and joined a small Japanese audit company, where I continue to be today. In terms of living, I moved from the place I was living in Shibuya to an apartment in a very nice part of Tokyo (near Jiyugaoka) in September 2006 and am still here today. Lastly, and defintely most importantly, at the end of March 2006, I met the lady that I will be married to later this year. Mariko is from Kochi City in Kochi Prefecture on Shikoku Island (the smallest of the four major islands that make up Japan) and we actually met in my former company`s offices after a networking event organised by a good friend and ex-colleague of mine. At the time, Mariko was working for a bilingual recruiting firm doing Ad-Sales and has recently moved on from there to a large American IT company based in a very modern (and pretty new) shopping, business and entertainment complex called Roppongi Midtown. As you may have guessed, she speaks great English. Anyway, since that first meeting and no doubt as a result of my romantic courtship and her acceptance of a few of my unique ways, things went from good to better to great, and I finally proposed to her in January of this year in the suite of the hotel in Tokyo in which were staying at the time. She said 'yes', and so we will be married at the end of September here in Tokyo at a very well known Shinto shrine followed by a hotel reception, and then followed a few weeks later by a wedding in England at the start of November - its all very exciting.

Well, what else can I say in this first post back! I guess the weather is always a good topic of conversation, especially in a country with four seasons. A couple of months ago we had Sakura (cherry blossom) season and since then the weather has gradually been warming up and now we have hit rainy season (albeit a week or so early), or 'tsuyu' as its known in Japanese. In most of Japan, the rainy season lasts from the beginning of June to mid July, while it affects the islands of Okinawa about one month earlier. Hokkaido, Japan's northern most main island is barely affected by the rainy season - lucky them! It doesn`t actually rain every day but it can always be expected to! So heed to the warning and always carry an umbrella!

The other thing at the moment that could have big implications here is the Japanese bid for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. Tokyo made it to the shortlist together with Chiacgo, Madrid, and Rio de Janeiro. The winning bid will be announced in October 2009. Tokyo is touting "the most compact and efficient Olympic Games ever" with a dramatic setting on the waterfront of Tokyo Bay, an area used in the past primarily for industry and shipping. The area will be redeveloped and the waterfront will be revitalized with housing, retail, and entertainment venues, with some from land reclaimed from Tokyo Bay. Whether Japan (and specifically Tokyo) needs the Olympics is another question and not one for me to answer, however if Japan does win the bid it can be assured they will host a memorable event. Anyway, we shall see.

Another interesting thing happening in Tokyo is the construction of the 'Tokyo Sky Tree', which when complete will be one of the tallest buildings in the world with a height of about 610 metres. Contruction started last year and the Grand Opening is scheduled for Spring 2012 and although still a while away, I think people will be looking forward to the great views of the city, which will undoubtedly be better than those you can get from Tokyo Tower. Albeit probably Tokyo`s most famous landmark and a place which has a place in the heart of most Tokyoites, the main observatory stands at only 150 metres, and whilst there is a special observatory at 250 metres, the Sky Tree will be something different altogether. It will interesting to watch the progress of how it shoots up into the sky - we might even be able to see it from our 10th floor balcony (top floor of the block by the way!).

OK thats all for today. Watch this space for more posts soon.......