Thursday 7th December 2000

I've been back in Japan for a few days now. I had a very enjoyable time in "Old Blighty" and with my colleagues in Finland, including the annual drink-up in a half empty Helsinki nightclub!

Yuki was duly surprised to receive her new engagement ring (so thanks for not telling her)!

On the day I returned to Japan, I was roped into helping coach a bunch of kiddies (about eight years old) to play football. It was fun, but most of them really were not interested in being coached, they just wanted to kick the ball and score goals. If that attitude continues, they could one day be as skillful a player as me! Think about it. Their regular coach was once a professional player in the J-league.

I've been doing a lot of research into how best people can get to Japan for our wedding. I've eventually come up with a scheme at about eight hundred pounds for five nights including flights and hotel. I've also just had conformation that we have tickets to the UK for New Year. They are via Copenhagen, but we're still wait-listed for direct flights. These tickets are about 1,400 pounds each due to it being a very popular holiday time for the Japanese. Luckily my ticket will be paid for by the company as part of my contract conditions. Yuki's new job has caused us to spend Xmas in Japan, so I think I'd better start looking for a venue for Xmas dinner, maybe the Tavern in Meguro.

Thursday 14th December 2000

This week has been quite a good one for me so far. Last Sunday I spotted four used 21 inch Hewlett Packard monitors for sale in Akihabera. As my PC only had a 15 inch display, I decided to buy one. I returned to the shop after a couple of hours to get one, but alas, they'd all been sold. The next day I again visited the shop, and to my delight, they had three more! It's exactly the same as the one I use in my office, with a very big, very flat screen.

On Tuesday I took a day's holiday. I went to Harajuku to do some Christmas shopping. One factor in deciding to go to Harajuku was that Virgin Atlantic are running a competition all month, with the top prizes being return flights to London. The questions and prizes change every hour and are displayed on a huge red billboard. At three o'clock I submitted my sixth entry to date via my i-mode phone. "i-mode" is NTT DoCoMo's name for it's internet enabled mobile phone service. If you are not lucky enough to be a winner, you are emailed minutes after the end of the hour. I received nothing this time. Two hours later, I got the mail I'd hoped for. I'd won an economy class return ticket to London! By far the biggest prize I've ever managed to win. I couldn't have done it without the help of several people, the guy who told me of the competition, the passers by who translated the question for me, and Yumi from my office, who when called, found the answer on the internet (How many Virgin Cinemas are there in Japan?... Answer 5.) Now with some further help from Mahoko, our office librarian, I am expecting my flight coupon to arrive any time now. Excellent!

To round things off I and a couple of colleagues were treated to a delicious dinner by one of our top suppliers last night. The venue was Nobu Tokyo, a well known, very expensive restaurant, with sister restaurants in London, New York, and Beverly Hills. On the way to the restaurant, I got on the wrong train, and remarkably the doors reopened, giving me a chance to correct my mistake - that just doesn't happen in Tokyo! And although it didn't mean much to me, at a nearby table were sat two famous Japanese actresses, Makiko Esumi and Mami Kumagai. I didn't know them, but they were very attractive all the same!

Thursday 21st December 2000

At the end of last week I was presented with a leaving card and a gift from my colleagues. I'm not going home, just moving to a different office at the end of the year. Incidentally, a leaving card in Japan (at least, in my case) consists of a white board, about ten inches square, with its edges trimmed in gold.

On Friday evening we had our company Christmas party. It was held in a local hotel. It was a very informal event, but the food, as always, was excellent, and the drink was free. Even Father Christmas himself attended! Father Christmas has obviously been on a bit of a health kick this last year, because he's lost his fat belly and grown to six feet, seven inches tall! I, on the other hand have not been keeping as fit as I should. I don't think I've got any shorter, but I'm beginning to look like the more traditional Santa! After the official party, it was off to a new bar called "The Hobgoblin" in Akasaka. This bar is very much like a British pub, and is run mainly by western staff

On Saturday my Virgin free ticket coupon arrived. Yippee!

On Wednesday I went by train to Toyohashi, not far from Nagoya. As my colleagues were arriving later, I took a stroll around the town and eventually found a nice beer and wine bar. I don't think there are many foreign visitors to Toyohashi. The staff in the bar were incredibly friendly to me. In Tokyo us gaijin are commonplace and no longer get any special attention. It was very nice to be in a place where it was more useful for me to speak Japanese than for them to try English, although all three knew some basics. I felt very welcome here and even obliged the chef when he requested that I sing "Yesterday" with him on the kareoke machine! He probably regretted it once we'd started! I spent the next day in Toyohashi doing business, then returned to Tokyo to watch the one one draw between Japan and Korea (football) on TV. By the way as soon as I return from the UK after my New Year holiday, I have to fly to Korea for the first time. It will be interesting to see the difference between Japan and South Korea, as my impression is they would both be very similar.

It's quite strange being in Tokyo during the run-up to the festive season. Christmas is just another working day here. I, luckily, have enough holiday to start my break at the end of business tomorrow. Yuki, unfortunately, will be working on Xmas Day! The shops are getting very busy with people buying Christmas gifts, but the holiday in Japan, doesn't begin until New Year's Eve.

Monday 25th December 2000

It's Christmas Day. Yuki's at work and I'm sat writing this. I've been to both my local bars for a pint in each and I'm now listening to Talksport radio on the internet (live from the UK). I had planned to be in The Tavern for Christmas lunch, but left it too late to book. We went there yesterday though, and had an early dose of turkey.

On Friday after work I had a small leaving party with my work mates. In the New Year I will be working in a different office in the Meguro area of Tokyo. We had a very good night and I was very pleased with the turn out. Had terrible trouble trying to get a cab afterwards. A first in Tokyo, apparently due to the high number of office parties. We had to walk to Roppongi. Having reached Roppongi, it would be a shame not to pop in for a quick beer wouldn't it? Got home at about four!

Saturday evening we went for a meal with Yuki's family. The restaurant was a good Japanese place in Ikebukuro, Tokyo. The central feature is a big pond full of fish. The fish are not ornamental though. They are ingredients. Nothing really wrong with that, all fish that reach our plates were alive at some point, the difference is, they were usually dead before they reached the plate. Among the food we ate were a squid and at least two fish from the pond. The squid and one of the fish were still moving when they arrived on ice covered serving dishes. Quite obviously, these poor creatures had been filleted and sliced into strips while they were still alive. What do you do in that position? Should I have refused to eat and protested at the cruelty, or appreciate that I'm in a different culture and keep quiet. What I actually did was eat the fish, but also show how uncomfortable it made me feel to be eating a live animal. Please excuse the graphic detail, but what they had done to the fish was remove all the meat from its body, then cover it in a mound of ice, leaving the head and tail poking through. The two ends were joined by what looked like just the backbone, but it still managed to twitch its tail. The squid had been chopped behind its head, and the front end was still managing to move its tentacles (which were later deep fried). Incidentally, despite the gore, they were both pretty tasty with soy sauce!

Yesterday morning we went to Shinagawa to renew Yuki's driving license, quite a different process to in England. In Japan, drivers have to renew their license picture, queue up for an automated eye test, and watch a good driving video. After our pre-Christmas Christmas lunch we went to Ginza. We picked up Yuki's resized engagement ring and did some more Christmas shopping. We spent the evening at home with some wine and cheese, exchanging gifts and watching films. For the Japanese Christmas Eve is the big occasion, but not a time for parties. It is when any young Japanese who wants to hold on to his girlfriend will at least treat her to a romantic meal, if not a night in an expensive hotel (booked months in advance).

I found out at lunchtime that Mad Mulligan's (who's web site I've finally got up on air at Madmulligans.com) are doing turkey tonight. That confirms my plans for this evening!