Tuesday 1st January 2002

Happy New Year, or as we say here, "Akemashita omedeto"!

We're celebrating the new year Japanese style with Yuki's family for a few days. Last night on the stroke of midnight we arrived at Kumano Jinja, a local temple. We queued for about thirty minutes to get to the actual temple, during which time we were given a hot milky looking sake based drink, and we passed the stall selling Darumas. Daruma is a legendary figure who sat and contemplated for so long that his arms and legs disappeared and he became this almost spherical being. The Darumas on sale are made of papier mache and their eyes are blank. The idea is that you buy one this year and paint its eyes in, then next year you bring him back to the temple and ceremoniously burn him on a big bonfire. Each time somebody bought a Daruma (available in all sizes), the stall staff sang and clapped a happy and chant. Another stall was selling decorated arrows made from wood and paper. These were Yuki's parents' offering of choice, and are dealt with similarly to the Darumas. When we got to the front of the line we threw our coins into the big wooden box, made our wishes, clapped our hands a couple of times, and, naturally, bowed. We were then given a small dish of sake (also called Nihonshu), then made our way home. I made a couple of calls home to wish people a Happy New Year, even though it was only mid-afternoon on New Year's Eve in the UK!

New Year's Day has its own special breakfast consisting of a few strange foods not particularly to my taste, but most having a symbolic meaning. I think my least favourite thing of my breakfast was , a gooey paste called mochi, made from rice (although the soup it was in was very nice). It's very difficult to chew something that after you bite it, it just sticks back together in your mouth! Drinking Nihonshu with breakfast was a bonus though! Mochi is also used to make an ornament called a kagami mochi. Two balls placed on top of each other, with a mikan (small orange) on top. This is supposed to guarantee rice to eat for the coming year. Another nice touch that differs greatly from England, is that the majority of New Year cards are actually delivered on New Year's Day! Typically they are in the form of postcards depicting the year's Chinese horoscope animal and a photo of the sender's family, and showing a lottery number which can be compared to a list of winners in the newspaper.

Wednesday 2nd January 2002

Yesterday afternoon we went to see the Tokyo Daibutsu (big Buddha). This was located at a temple not far from Yuki's parents. It is a huge black Buddha situated outdoors. This temple was also very busy with people banging a gong and/or throwing coins before making their New Year's wishes.

Today Yuki's sister and her family joined us and we had New Year get together with loads of food (some cooked especially for the gaijin) and plenty of beer. Yuki's sister's kids are so cute. I had great fun with them making loads of origami bits and pieces. Funny enough, as a kid, I too was interested in origami. Maybe it was a sign!

Saturday 12th January 2002

Last night was Jim's fortieth birthday. A group of us got together at a restaurant to spring a surprise party. The restaurant (I don't know its name) had a jail theme. Every so often, all the lights would go out and guards would run around causing havoc. We even ate in a big prison cell! After the restaurant, we went down to Paddy Foley's, a bar which is almost as Irish as Jim himself.

This morning I received a package from the nice people at Panasonic. Yuki gave me the world's smallest digital music player for Christmas, but it only came with Japanese software. I emailed customer support and they sent me an English version. I did manage to use the Japanese version on Japanese windows, but I couldn't understand half of the menus.

Saturday 17th January 2002

Last Saturday we went to an Italian evening at Yukiko's house. Yuki baked a quiche lorraine, not very Italian, but it was very popular all the same. Three of the guys at the party were from the Cameroon. One of them, Ari, spent most of the evening in the kitchen cooking a few dishes from his country. If it hadn't been for the pasta he served up, the nearest thing to Italian all evening would have been the Belgian furniture! Yukiko's parties are generally low-key affairs with time for plenty of idle chat and lots to eat. This one was no exception. It is quite rare for Japanese to have the sort of drunken gatherings we have back home. It is interesting, though, to be at a party where people are chatting in about four languages all at the same time.

Monday was Coming of Age Day, a national holiday in tribute to girls who have reached the age of twenty in the previous year. We saw many of them in the subway stations going to and from various temple ceremonies. Monday was also Yuki's birthday, though unfortunately, not her twentieth!

We spent the afternoon and evening at the house of Yuki's auntie and uncle (who incidentally speaks very good English). It wasn't just any house, it's a very modern, bright and airy house, designed by a friend of her uncle. Yuki's immediate family and her cousins were also there along with her cousin's wife, a fashion model, almost as good looking as the one I married! No, seriously, my wife is a model. She hasn't had an assignment for a while, but all those mother and child magazine ads and toy box pictures pay true testament to her status as one of Japan's finest! One of the top features of the house for me, was the automatic toilet seat! Something triggers it to lift as you enter the room. I didn't discover whether it lowered itself again, because, like the light in the fridge, you never see what happens when the door closes. Of course like most homes in Japan, the toilet features many other electronic facilities, for example seat heater, retracting bidet spray, etc., etc., etc. In my apartment the heated seat only toilet seems vastly inferior. Having said that, I don't keep it plugged in anyway. Sitting on a wet thing with your pants down and being connected to the mains, just don't go together in my mind! I think they have yet to install vacuum into lavatories. Another mod con in uncle's house is the elevator! What a great, and very practical idea, especially as you get on in years.

Last night I took Yuki for a birthday dinner. We went to a restaurant called Salvatore Cuomo Bros. on the top (forty-second) floor of one of the Atago Green Hills buildings (recently built to block my view). It was a very nice, very busy Italian restaurant. The mushroom risotto was just heaven, try it! We managed to get moved from our original table as one became available by the window. We had a great view over Tokyo including Tokyo Tower and Rainbow Bridge. It wasn't cheap, but for a special occasion it wasn't unreasonable.

I have no idea of his poor unfortunate circumstances, but I've just been sharing a train with the world's most disgustingly smelly man. He was obviously homeless, and judging by the way he was calmly pinching out tufts of his own hair, not a well man. I'm sure he has some good reason to be in his pungent state, but to avoid being physically sick myself, I had to change carriages at the first opportunity.

Wednesday 23rd January 2002

Now for a more agreeable story about hair. I went to the barber shop yesterday. I'd been trying to hold out until I go to England at the end of next week, but my hair was becoming a real mess. That and the fact that I have precious little time to do more enjoyable things when I go home, persuaded me to take the plunge. I've always been a bit worried I'd get some hatchet job because they didn't understand me. How wrong can you be? This was an experience I hope to have at least a few more times before I return home.

I'll try to describe the whole process, although it may be difficult to remember all the details. I was served immediately, no waiting around pretending to read magazines. I said I wanted my hair cut very short (It's difficult to go beyond that kind of depth)! He asked if I wanted a shave. I didn't need one, but after some thought decided I would indulge. After being very securely, but not uncomfortably, sealed around the neck, a quick spray of water covered my bonce. This was followed by a hot towel placed on my crown for a few seconds.

Let the cutting begin! This was about the only familiar part of my treatment. The barber meticulously followed my instruction to remove "half of my hair" (he had suggested one third - he's probably used to slightly more regular customers). He supplemented my instructions to give me the JIS (Japan Industrial Standard) haircut. Then came the shaving brush, but only to apply foam to the edges of my haircut. Can't go leaving any untidy borders! He applied the shampoo, then proceeded to give me a rigorous head massage, checking to see if it was too strong and even asking if I had any areas which were in particular need of a soothing scratch! This lasted a couple of minutes and was extremely invigorating. After tipping forward and having my hair rinsed, conditioned and rinsed again, I sat back as he sprayed on some sort of tonic, and applied a hint of menthol under my nose.

Massage part two! He started by bashing and kneading my shoulders and back with his hands. Then to my surprise, he produced a massage machine! A bit like one of those things that smoothes off newly laid tarmac, but smaller and not so heavy. He pressed this first to my shoulders, eventually pushing me toward the sink to get to my lower back.

Time for the shave. A rolled up towel was placed behind my neck, and my chair reclined almost flat. I think I could easily have fallen asleep at this point. He lathered up my face and went to work with the cut-throat. This process was given as much attention as the haircut, with several alternate applications of shaving foam and hot towels. Even the hair on my earlobes, between my eyes, and on my forehead was razed, and I didn't know I even had hair in some of those places!

To finish off there was a final trim, a little gel and a blow-dry. With the right application of heat and wind, I could almost have passed as a Japanese salaryman by the time I left my chair.

Lesson learnt! Don't shy away because there's an easier, less challenging way, be bold and give things a go, you may be pleasantly surprised. And at only 2,600 yen (which I'd previously thought was expensive), it was a real bargain!

Monday 28th January 2002

Actually, it's been Tuesday for five and a half hours in Japan, but I'm at Helsinki Airport waiting for a bus for the last leg of a twenty four hour journey.

I've just withdrawn my first euros (€) from the cash machine, and after spending four of them on a burger and a coffee, I also got my first euro coin in the change. I have to say they are quite smart, and it will make travelling through Europe less of a headache. I hated getting stuck with a pocket full of notes that were not enough to be worth exchanging, and filling tins with coins that would never be used. Ironically, on this trip I am also visiting Denmark and the UK, two of the few European Union countries who have not yet made the decision to join the single currency! As a result, I still have to use three separate monies

The bus just arrived and I'm sitting on it looking out at the snow. I always think Finland is at its most beautiful when it's carpeted with a bright white layer of snow. As kids growing up in the south east of England, we used to pray for some decent snow. There is enough snow here now to cause some considerable chaos if it were England, but here life goes on almost as well as in the summer.

So far in Tokyo this year we've had a couple of light snow showers, but good snow is about as common in Tokyo as it is in London. Yuki and I will be seeing some snow soon though, as I have booked (entirely in Japanese) a weekend trip to a resort near Nagano. When I phoned to enquire about the booking, I, as usual, immediately asked if English would be okay. On those few occasions when it is not okay, I surprise myself with how far my basic Japanese gets me. It's very satisfying to think despite the struggle, you got through and achieved the right result!