Wednesday 3rd April 2002

On Sunday afternoon Yuki and I went to Yoyogi Park for a hanami party, it's the only one we've been to this year, the weather has not been too good and the season is now over. On Sunday we did manage to catch the tail end of the blossom.

On the way to the party, just beside Harajuku Station, we saw the usual crowd of weirdly dressed youths, but this time there were many more than I'd seen before. I took a couple of pictures, but I really have to go again with the time to get some good shots. The distinctive style of their outfits is sort of "goth meets French maid meets doctor meets patient"! Apparently, this fashion is exclusive to this one very small corner of Tokyo.

At the party was a group of people who play and sing the traditional Okinawan music. Their main instrument is the "Okinawa shamisen", similar to a eukelele, but with only three strings and with bodies made out of a food can or even snakeskin!

Back in the UK Keith and Justine have been preparing my flat for sale. This letting experience has not ended well, my tenant left the place in a terrible state. There were pet droppings on the floor, the place needed completely redecorating and Rentokill have had to be called in to deal with an infestation of mice. The dishwasher was so filthy it had to be thrown out, as did the carpets and cooker which where all fitted new when I came to Japan! To add insult to injury, the guy left owing three months' rent, only one of which was held as deposit.

Throughout the whole rental period the Barry Allsuch estate agency has been taking (stealing?) fifteen percent of my rental income. What the hell was I paying for? I have conflicting stories from them as to when they have visited the property, and in any case, any visit would have been greeted with the smell of animal urine. Ironically, the girlfriend who lived for a while with my tenant, worked at a veterinary practice! Apparently she was bringing her work home with her. To cap it all, I then got a message on Monday that my central heating and hot water boiler is beyond repair! Can it get any worse? I have a feeling this is not the end of the story.

I'm on my way to a Hawk and Wakako's party in Kasai. I spent this afternoon at my first J League football match. It took place in the Tokyo National Stadium, near to where I play five-a-side. It's the home ground of my chosen team, FC Tokyo, they're fairly local and not in the bottom half of the table.

Shortly after arriving (the ticket was 1500 yen), and about one hour before kick-off, almost the whole home crowd got up and moved across to the other corner of the stadium! I have no idea why! Perhaps they had instructions to make the place look more full on TV. Before the game started the teams lined up before their fans and took a bow - very civilised. Somebody - probably the club, then handed out red and blue flags for the spectators to wave around. The support was actually very good, there were nearly fifteen thousand very well behaved fans singing and waving their flags to the orchestration of a couple of guys at the front. Just before the start, and at the request of the English announcer (why English?), all of the home supporters stood up, held their scarves in the air, and sang (well some of them sang) "You'll Never Walk Alone". It was quite spooky and brought back memories of the Hillsborough tragedy in England where many fans were crushed to death, it really sent a shiver through me. A chant I was even more surprised to hear later in the game was, literally translated, "Shit referee"! I was shocked that they would say such a thing, but they were one hundred percent accurate! As for the quality of the football, it wasn't great, but it did get better in the second half, and then there was a thirty minute period of golden goal time (something that doesn't happen in the English Premiership). The game still ended in a one all draw, but I'd had a good afternoon out.

Monday 8th April 2002

Eventually got to Hawk's party. A lot of the conversations were centred on the World Cup, and who had and hadn't got tickets, there was even a Swede there to make things interesting (they're in England's group).

Spent yesterday relaxing and editing my wedding video. The Anniversarry is next Monday, and I had that as a deadline to produce the first DVD! Looking very touch-and-go now.

Friday 19th April 2002

Not surprisingly, I missed my deadline. New deadline is when I return to the UK.

Yuki and I spent most of last weekend at her parents' apartment. Now that both their chicks have flown the nest, they've made a few changes at home. In fact the place was hardly recognisable! They've had it proffessionally decorated, but not just that, they have new doors, an entire fitted kitchen, new lighting - remote controlled of course, and new flooring. They have kept a couple of rooms with the traditional tatami mats. These are tightly woven straw mats that have a nice soft feel to them. These mats have a distinctive smell, one I was not too fond of when I was house-hunting three years ago, but one that I have grown accustomed to.

Yet again, Yuki's mum served up a delicious spread of food. I never go hungry (or short of a beer) at their place, and it (almost) all tastes so good.

On Sunday morning we had a little PC training session! We showed Yuki's parents how to use the laptop we bought them to send and read emails, and also to surf the internet. I also showed them a few games that were installed, at least if they give up on the world wide web, they have some use for this little lilac box (I painted it something similar to Sony Vaio colour to smarten it up)!

On Monday evening Yuki and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary. We have to remember that the fifteenth was not our official wedding, but we decided to celebrate the anniversary of the ceremonial wedding. We went to the Four Seasons Hotel, to a very posh Italian restaurant called "Il Teatro". It wasn't very busy so the service was exceptional, the meal too was exquisite. It seemed a little unfair on the pig to serve it up on the same plate as the truffles it may well have helped locate, but besides that, the food was very agreeable. We took our time and enjoyed a very nice dinner in the most opulent of surroundings. Of course, all this came at a price (let's just say, I have bought cars for less)! My thanks go to Ashley, a drinking buddy of mine in the Little Euro, for the recommendation and booking the table.

Talking of the Little Euro (formerly the Black Lion), I am currently making an improved web site for littleeuro.com. The manager of the pub is Scott, the same Scott who originally managed Mad Mulligan's. madmulligans.com has since disappeared as payments were not kept up to it's hosting service (despite many, many reminders from me). The same guy who has failed to pay that account, has also failed to make a success of Rick's. It should actually also not be called Rick's now, as he agreed when he took it over, to change the name. Anyway, next Friday sees the closing of Rick's. That'll be a bit sad for me, and I guess also for Yuko who managed it when I arrived from England. I have been promised the small sign from the front of the bar as a souvenir. Rick's is where I met Yuki. With the current occupant's record, I think I'll probably have to go down there with a spanner to be sure of getting my intended prize!

Tuesday 30th April 2002

It's just after seven thirty in the morning and I can clearly hear the wonderful sound of a marching band wafting through my balcony door. It's coming from a nearby boys' school. They sound great, and I wouldn't be surprised if they are practising for some World Cup event. Yuki's probably not too happy though, as she's still in bed!

I've been up since four o'clock though watching football. I'm intent on not missing any Premier League games from England now, as Arsenal are looking more and more like becomming champions this year. However they still have to play closest rivals Manchester United away, and you may remember our last close championship race in 1999, when Man United clinched it on the last day. I have to give Freddie Ljungberg a mention, he's been a real Arsenal hero the last few games. There's also the small matter of the FA Cup Final on Saturday against Chelsea!