Sunday 3rd March 2002

Yuki went to Spain with Yoko on Friday to visit Yasuyo. Yasuyo has been living in Salamanca for a few months, she is studying Spanish. I will have to fend fore myself for a week. So far I'm doing OK, I knew that Domino's Pizza has our address on file, I just have to tell them my telephone number.

I went to a party at Ilkka's apartment last night. I was very surprised (this time) when all the lights went out a birthday cake arrived with my name on it! I haven't had my name on a birthday cake since I was a child - even the strawberry wedding cake we had, only had a misspelling of my name on it!

George was at the party. I asked him about the Cameroon tradition of birthday ear pulling. Apparently there is no tradition, he was as surprised as the rest of us! Incidentally, he did think it strange that we give people the bumps!

Just like last week, there was a famous guest at this party. This was a coincidence, you are not required to have a celebrity at your party, however, maybe I should try to get my friend Phil Sharp, the FIFA linesman to come to my "leaving Japan" party while he's here to do the World Cup!

Anyway, last night's special guest was Mera Yoshikazu. You may not have a clue who he is, but if you're an opera buff, you just might know he's a counter-tenor with a fairly high pure singing voice. In Japan he's now quite famous, as he sang the theme song to a very popular animated film, "Mononoke Hime", translated as "Princess Mononoke". He's an interesting man, and not averse to bursting into song at the drop of a hat. He speaks German, which gave me the opportunity to do the same, although I still managed to throw in a few Japanese words for good measure. Marlon thinks German speaking Japanese, and Japanese speaking Germans are the only people I can converse with fluently in "a" foreign language. The thing about Mera san that particularly impressed me was that he came to Roppongi after the party and continued drinking and dancing the night away with the rest of us in the Empty Bar. To cap the night off, some of us went to the Roppongi Tavern to watch Arsenal beat, close rivals Newcastle, two nil live on TV.

Saturday 9th March 2002

Tuesday lunchtime we had the last of this season's birthday parties. Some of my colleagues and I sprang a surprise lunch party for Yamaguchi sensei, our Japanese teacher. If you ever need to learn Japanese in the Tokyo area, check out "Ofin.com". I don't think you could find a more friendly service, and the lessons are tailored specifically to suit your particular needs.

I'm writing now from the lower deck of a two tier train. I'm heading back to Tokyo after a hard day's skiing Naeba. I had to sit on some steps in the corridor for a while until someone got off, vacating a seat. I say a hard day's skiing, because I seem to be getting worse at it each time I go! It was a good trip though, paid for by the company (forty of us went). The hotel, The Naeba Prince, is, I read, the biggest ski resort hotel in the world! Problem is, the Japanese don't like to party quite as much as some others, so it's not the liveliest. The Japanese are always inventing new concepts for the games arcades. One that I enjoyed was a game where you had to pound a taiko drum, following the beats shown on screen. Very entertaining! I didn't have a go on the running machine with a lead attached. On that one you had to try to keep up with an on-screen dog as it chased frisbees etc.!

I'm looking forward to getting home, because Yuki has arrived back from Spain. She wasn't impressed by my total neglect of the washing machine while she was away, but I'm sure she'll forgive me!

Tuesday 12th March 2002

I'm at Ebisu station on the Hibiya line. I've been to the Black Lion. Why do my clothes always smell so bad after leaving a Japanese pub? Maybe it was the same in the UK. I don't know, but I'm pretty sure this stench is uniquely Japanese - maybe it's a different type of tobacco. It could be that I've become more sensitive, but it's more likely, given the number of smokers in Japan, that I actually do smell this bad!

Wednesday 13th March 2002

Citibank again! I have to have another moan about Japanese banks. After entering the bank, you have to queue to have a "consultation" with a member of staff before you are directed to the counter to carry out your transaction. This would perhaps not be a problem if he did not personally try to deal with customers' queries. It's very frustrating standing at that bottleneck while three bank clerks wait, twiddling their thumbs.

I'm now on the subway en route to make my dentist a little richer. While I was waiting to board the train I met someone from the opposite end of the wealth scale. For the first time in Japan, I was approached by a guy saying he had no money, i.e. begging. I have to own up to having half ignored him so he would go away, but it was a bit sad the way that, due to Japanese etiquette, he asked using very polite language, not the you would normally associate with a beggar.

Monday 18th March 2002

On Saturday morning my new LCD projector arrived. The same evening I delivered the old one to the Black Lion to whom I'd sold it at a very reasonable price. In fact, they were so happy with it that Kobayashi san, the owner, gave me beers on the house for the whole evening. A good deal all round I think!

Yesterday, in keeping with my not wasting the whole weekend regime, Yuki and I visited the Edo-Tokyo Museum.

The museum is housed in a strange building reminiscent of traditional Japanese architecture, but not half as attractive. Edo was the name given to Tokyo before it became the capital of Japan. I'm not a great museum-goer, but it was nice to see a bit of the city's history. Some of the greatest exhibits in the museum are the many models of Edo lifestyle and street scenes, another is the life size replica of part of Nihonbashi Bridge.

The cherry blossom is now making its way to full bloom. I hope the weather for the next couple of weeks is stays good. Hanami time only lasts a short time, and wind and rain not only ruin the parties, but shorten the season too.

Thursday 21st March 2002

Today is a national holiday, Vernal Equinox Day. We took advantage of the chance for a lie-in today, by going to Timo and Kikuno's house-warming party last night. I became the new champion of Timo's "Dance Dance Revolution" game. This is a game that was very popular in Japan, and involves jumping around on a square dance mat, making a complete fool of yourself! Almost everybody had a go, including my (and Timo's) Japanese teacher. It was a good party with some very good food, but no celebrity. I won't feel so bad if I can't get Phil to attend my leaving party now!

Today I watched "Lord Of The Rings" in my "home cinema", thanks to high speed internet and cheapening technology, it didn't cost me a penny! It would have been nice to do something constructive with the holiday, but it's very windy and grey outside. This is also not a good sign in terms of the length of time the cherry blossom will hang around.