August 1999

Tuesday 3rd August 1999

Saturday night I went with a friend to the "Body 'n' Soul" jazz club. The music was good although not my favourite style. The thing that struck me here was that although the club was just right, dark, small and a bit smoky - the smokiness is easy to find in Japan - even in a restaurant, the people were watching the music as if it were a classical concert. Nobody was boogying in their seat, nobody was chatting away. Everyone was facing the band attentively. I understand this is the Japanese style, but I prefer the atmosphere of a western jazz club - even one with clean air!

On Sunday evening I took my girlfriend Yuki (rhymes with cookie) to the George Benson concert. It was at a place called Tama Centre. It's a park about an hour west of central Tokyo. The concert took place by a lake in an area where the grass is sloping toward the stage like an auditorium. The weather was fantastic, not a single cloud. George Benson was brilliant. He played a mix of jazz-guitar, blues songs, and best of all, a fair selection of those mega-hits of the early eighties. I was in my element! Even the Japanese eventually got up and danced. It really is odd for me to see someone listening to "Give me the night" without even tapping their feet!!!

Didn't end up watching the Charity Shield between Arsenal and Manchester United, but when I checked the web at 1:00 am was delighted to see Arsenal had given Man U their first beating since last year!

Thursday 5th August 1999

Being English, I think it's about time I talked about the weather! The rainy season appears to be over and we're coming into hot and sticky season. The temperature is reaching the mid thirties centigrade most days and more often than not it is sunny. That's a bit hot for me, but what makes it worse is the humidity. Just walking down the street can make you sweat like crazy. I often ride my bike to work, it's a sort of uphill then down hill route, so at least I get to freewheel towards the end. When I take the subway (walking is possible but not for me in this humidity) the exits at Roppongi Station are always manned by people giving out little packets of tissues with an advert on the back. These are very useful because by the time I settle into the hottest corner of the office, I need to soak up the lake forming on my face! In particular I never knew that the area between your nose and upper lip could sweat so much!

The Japanese lessons are coming along quite well. I have a good teacher at work and am now also learning a lot from friends outside of work. It seems to be the case that the more you learn, the easier it is to learn even more. I often find myself speaking in English, then realising I can say that in Japanese, so I stop and start again (sometimes)! Something I thought would be a real headache, isn't proving to be so bad. That's the different levels of politeness in the Japanese language. It's always safe to use the most polite form, but also the other forms can often be derived easily from this.

Wednesday 11th August 1999

Visited Kyoto University on Monday. It is interesting how in a country with such a high level of technology, the laboratories are about as tidy as my bedroom when I was a teenager! Maybe this is the atmosphere boffins enjoy, or maybe they are just so engrossed in their research that they don't have the will or the time to "tidy up"! This particular university was extremely well equipped, but somehow I can't see a similar "atmosphere" existing in a university in the UK!

Tuesday 17th August 1999

On Sunday night (rained off from Saturday night) I went to "Tokyo Hanabi Festival". Hanabi is a firework festival, basically a firework display. There are many hanabi festivals at this time of year in Japan. A couple of years ago I saw a New Year's Eve display at Sydney Harbour. There was nothing at the Tokyo display to rival the display which turns the whole of Sydney Harbour Bridge into one fantastic firework, but excluding this finale in Sydney, the Tokyo display was far more impressive. It lasted almost one and a half hours! The sky was constantly lit up with the best display I've ever seen. The noise was tremendous. It really was amazing! It was also so well organised. Everybody (thousands of free tickets) had room to sit on huge plastic sheets. The fireworks, which I guess were about two hundred metres away, were even directed to cascade toward the audience.

Yesterday after work I saw a poster in Roppongi subway station, advertising the previous night's Hanabi Festival. I asked the guard in my best pigeon Japanese if I could have the poster. He got on the phone, I thought to ask for permission, but then told me to go to the station office. Was I in trouble? Had my little knowledge of Japanese become a dangerous thing? I went toward the station office in the ticket hall, only to be met half way by an official with a new rolled up copy of the poster. What a result! The sort of souvenir money can't buy. Just goes to show, never be afraid to ask, they can only say "No".... or "Yes" in this case!!!

Friday 27th August 1999

Last Saturday night was the night of my housewarming party! About twenty five people turned up to celebrate my "new" home. Of course it's not new, but it's only just accrued enough furniture to feel like a home. The food was excellent and none of it prepared by me! It was a combination of some shop bought fare highlighted by some fantastic dishes put together by friends. With three of them being experienced cooks, I think my touch would not have done much to improve things! The neighbours only complained twice, so I think it was a pretty successful evening! When I say evening I of course include the hours leading up to sunrise!

Sunday was a pretty laid back day. Went to Yoyogi Park (didn't see Yoyogi Bear) and chilled out for a while. That was, of course, after being taken on a trek to a nearby temple. You can't beat a good long walk when you're dead on your feet!!! Around the perimeter of Yoyogi Park there were lots of bands playing - I mean real bands - full drum kit, the lot! Also nearby is a street called Takeshita Street. This is a concentration of cheap boutiques, many selling American clothes.

On Wednesday I went to Ashikaga, just under two hours from home. After our business meeting, we were treated to a traditional Japanese steak restaurant. The beef was so tender it virtually melted in your mouth. Had another long day of meetings on Thursday. The business went fairly well, no thanks to the interpreter. She was awful. Her English was excellent, but she did not stick to translating, she tried to understand the issues at the same time. This would actually probably have helped if she hadn't started questioning our comments rather than just interpreting them! The last straw for me was when she came over to our lunch table at a restaurant (me, four English and a Dane), and started confusing the orders for us. After three and a half months, I think I am just about capable of ordering chicken in a basket without professional help!