Friday 12th January 2001

I'm on board Asiana Airlines domestic flight number 8836 from Pusan to Seoul.

Yuki, her two friends and I spent the New Year holiday period in St. Albans, UK. It was interesting to see them struggle with things I would consider routine. Buying fish and chips to take away seemed like a major undertaking.

Having Yuki's friends with us, I was persuaded to go to London's main New Year celebratlon in Trafalgar Square. It was actually quite enjoyable and getting home went smoothly too.

Between shopping trips we managed to visit Cambridge, the very impressive London Eye and some more local places.

After Yuki's pals returned to Japan, we visited Oriental City, the supermarket in North London which sells east Asian foods. Yuki was well pleased with the extensive range of familiar Japanese items on sale. We also treated our friends Keith and Justine to a meal at "Sukiyaki", a Japanese restaurant in St. Albans. The food at there was very authentic, except for the rice - the most important part to a Japanese person! The staff were all Japanese, and very surprised when I ordered the drinks in their native language. Five minutes later, when Yuki joined us, all became clear!

Saturday 13th January 2001

I'm now on a JAS flight from Seoul to Tokyo. After arriving back in Japan in the New Year I had to fly to South Korea for a meeting in Pusan. Pusan is a seaside town and the second biggest city in Korea.

The Korean people seem to be a lot more relaxed than the Japanese, not so concerned with extreme politeness. Korea is also not as obsessed with cleanliness. Home for many Koreans are high rise blocks which are situated in large clusters. Unlike UK tower blocks, the Korean ones are very smart buildings looking almost like very tall houses.

In Pusan I had two traditional evening meals. The first was a Korean barbecue, very tasty and accompanied by kimchee, Korean side dish of cabbage fermented in lots of garlic and chilie. After the meal we went to a bar where we drank lots more booze and sang murdered a few songs on the kareoke machine. The second night's meal was more like a Japanese one, with raw oysters and strange vegetables, but with lots more chilie. It was also accompanied by a display of traditional Korean dancing and drumming. The morning following the second one I felt quite unwell and actually had to get the driver to pull over on the way to the airport, so that I could feed the plants on the grass verge! I arrived in Seoul to snow and ice and well below freezing temperatures. I took a 70 minute taxi ride in heavy traffic from Kimpo Airport to the city (about 20,000 won, equivalent to about twelve pounds). I got dropped at Itaewon, where I met up with a couple of friends from work. Itaewon is the area where the pubs and clubs are concentrated and also a favourite hang out for American servicemen. Thanks to my iffy tummy, I drank slowly as I watched the others merrily throwing one beer after another down their necks. I was just happy to last the night (to 3 am) without falling by the wayside. Falling, however, was something my Finnish friend Timo managed very well as we slid and skidded our way back to his apartment! This morning, actually early afternoon, Timo took me on a very quick tour of Seoul. It was less crowded than Tokyo, both in terms of people and buildings.

Thursday 18th January 2001

I spent Saturday evening to Monday morning at home. Sunday was Yuki's birthday. We spent the day in Shibuya, shopping and watching a film. The film we saw was "Dancing in the Dark" featuring Björk (when I'm at my own PC I can find those strange letters)! I recommend this film so highly that I will not give away the plot, except to say that I've never heard so many people crying in a cinema before. I'm not sure if that's just due to the movie, or if it's something to do with the soft nature of the Japanese.

At an ungodly hour of Monday morning I had to leave home to catch the six o'clock train to Kyoto. I met some colleagues and we continued together to Kumihama, a small town about 3 hours north of Kyoto. This area of Japan had experienced particularly heavy snowfall, about a metre deep. Everything looked so crisp, white and clean. At one stage just about one hundred metres from our destination, the driver had to get out of the train to open some frozen points manually, in order to continue his journey. We had another traditional meal for lunch with raw fish etc. Just what I didn't need with my stomach still recovering from Korea. In the early hours of Tuesday morning, having spent the evening back in Kyoto, my fears about eating lunch were realised!

On Wednesday I spent my second day in my new office in the Meguro area of Tokyo. As usual, it will take a while to get things running smoothly again, but receiving my new laptop from the company has certainly helped (the old one was becoming less reliable than British Rail - with or without the wrong kind of snow on the line)!

Wednesday 31st January

Last Thursday was Timo's stag party. Timo is the guy I stayed with in Korea a couple of weeks ago. In true Finnish tradition, he didn't know the details or even the day of the party until it was sprung on him. One thing his party had in common with my Japanese stag do, was the fact that there were girl friends in attendance - not the done thing at all, but I can't abandon my female guests who have flown so far for so few days. I will also have a more traditional stag party in the UK in March - men only!

Timo's party began with an all you can eat and drink meal at an izakaya in Akasaka. We then went to a large karaoke place in the same building (a room for eighteen people is very large for a Japanese karaoke establishment). Finally it was off to Roppongi to see how much more it was possible to drink. One of our stops was the "Juan Chito" latin bar (I call it "The Empty Bar"), which was almost empty as usual. But to my surprise Suzuki san told me it is not an empty bar any more. He has increased the bar's only popular event, salsa lessons, from twice weekly to nightly - and it's worked! He has customers every night. Good for him. For so long I've been telling him I'd help him in his quest to attract more customers, and done absolutely nothing.

On Friday after work a bunch of us went to my new office's best local bar, "The Little Euro". It used to be called "The Black Lion", a good solid name for a British pub, but the new landlord, who I know from his former job as a barman in Mad Mulligans, decided it would have a wider appeal with the new name. I don't know if he succeeded, but I hate the new lilly-livered name, and inside it's by far the most traditionally British pub I know in Japan. There is still room for a "genuine" British pub if anyone out there is interested.

Saturday was the day of Timo and Kikuno's wedding. It was held at the Nogi Shrine, not far from Roppongi. It snowed a lot making this a true "white wedding". As it was held in open sided shrine buildings, it was also pretty cold! I picked up a few tips for my up and coming event, but nothing to be too worried about.

The evening reception was in the "Satin Doll" jazz bar in Roppongi, a place with far too many sofas and tables to be safe! This party was quite unlike an English wedding party. It was very organised, in fact timetabled, with speeches, several musical performances and a few games all arranged. I would like to get this organised part over with at our first party (the lunch), and have a slightly more informal second party. After the party many of us walked to a nearby Finnish bar called "Aurora". Apparently, there are two Finnish bars in Tokyo! This is where the night ended and the morning began. Then we caught a taxi home.

On Sunday evening we had a few friends around to watch a DVD (newly installed into my PC) on the big screen. It really felt like a mini cinema!