July 2000

Sunday 9th July 2000

After many attempts to anglicise my Palm PDA, Yuki eventually benefited from my failure. I bought an English model in the UK. I have found it incredibly useful for reading the UK news on Tokyo's busy subway system.

Thanks to England's dismal performance in Euro 2000, they were knocked out before reaching the second stage of the competition. It's okay though, because Kevin Keegan, the team manager now realises he made some "mistakes"! Fortunately, after England's exit, I was able to watch some pretty decent football during my holiday.

I've been back in Tokyo since Tuesday, but I'm still suffering a little from jet-lag (not helped by staying out until the very early hours at Plastic club on Friday night).

The weather this week has been quite extreme, with torrential rain, some great electric storms and culminating with a typhoon passing over Tokyo yesterday morning. I'd love to have experienced my first typhoon, but I was asleep until the calm of the afternoon had arrived! We've even had a couple of very insignificant earthquakes this week, the most recent being this morning. My large set of wind chimes are a very good indicator of these smaller earth tremors.

Miscellaneous Observation No.4

Japanese Pornography

There seems to be an anomaly between the Japanese attitude to pornography and their high moral standards. It is very common to see men on the subway reading pornography. It is not unusual for them to openly browse through magazines featuring soft porn images of young girls, and when I say young, I mean generally girls dressed in school uniform (although I don't suspect for a moment that these are really illegal pictures)! Even more popular, are very thick comic books, also featuring explicit sex scenes. This type of thing could be very dangerous in the UK, but it's perfectly acceptable in Japan! By the way, in case you're wondering, I would be far too embarrassed to read these publications in public, and choose not to do so in private.

Wednesday 12th July

I'm currently on a coach bound for Tokyo (yes it's that PDA lending a hand again). Our team from the office has been on a training exercise at Finland Village, a small retreat near Nagano. It was one of those team-building courses where you have to complete strange projects together then discuss why you were so hopeless. By the end of the two days you wonder how your team has ever managed to achieve anything! The most challenging task involved building a raft then paddling it to the other two teams. I have to say, our team built a fine almost seaworthy vessel. Unfortunately, the same could not be said of the team with whom we had to switch rafts. I hesitate to call theirs a raft. They appeared to have taken a pile of barrels,planks, wooden poles and rope and created a floating pile of barrels,planks, wooden poles and rope! As we completed the transfer of personnel, one of their crew, another gaijin named Hawk, joked that we would only stay afloat for about two seconds. This was quite accurate, but an overestimation of about one second! The reason for this task was to demonstrate that we must all trust and support each other. Well their "raft" certainly didn't support us and I was reminded that blind trust can sometimes get you in well over your head (quite literally)!

Wednesday 19th July 2000

I heard this week about a British girl who has gone missing in Tokyo. This kind of thing is really rare here, but it's a reminder that nowhere is one hundred percent safe. The Japanese government have responded by trying to persuade foreign girls from coming to Japan to work in the hostess bars and strip clubs. They say this business is heavily influenced by the Japanese Mafia, the Yakuza.

This disappearance happened two weeks ago, yet I hadn't heard about it until this week. My only regular source of English language news is Fox news from the USA. To call this a news channel is just within reason, although it could never be called a world news channel (they occasionally devote eighty seconds to world news)! Until recently, I was kept up to date by the UK's excellent Sky News channel. Other news services are available on satellite and cable including BBC World and CNN, but if you've ever seen these, you'll know how repetetive they are, okay if you only want about twenty minutes of original content each day.

There are also English language newspapers produced in Tokyo, but my recommendation for keeping up with news from home is the internet. It is very well served with national and local news services from around the world. Tokyo, like just about every city nowadays, has its fair share of internet cafes, as well as internet mobile phone services.

We went to Shinjuku on Sunday. I was going to sell my SLR camera to a dealer. The offer, though, was miserably low, so I decided against it. I'll have to try to offload it some other way. The reason for selling it is that I now take all my pictures with a digital camera. The quality is not quite that of an SLR, but the versatility and costs are much better.

While we were in Shinjuku I managed to buy an inner tube to repair my bicycle, so any day now I could be riding to work again. This would be very useful as I started a diet on Sunday. Although Japanese food is generally healthy, and I expected, if anything, to lose weight, somehow I've managed to get fatter! The big problem is, I think, western food is also freely available, and when faced with the choice between cold rice with vegetables, and a nice slice of pizza, the pizza usually wins. I ought to state that this is not a very strict diet. I feel the need to state that because I'm going for an Indian and a few beers tonight! Sad eh?

Tuesday 25th July 2000

Last Thursday was Marine Day (I think). Anyway it was a public holiday in Japan, which meant the "few beers" on Wednesday night, turned out to be more than a few!

In the evening on Thursday, I met up with Yuki and two of her friends, Yasuyo and Yoko. As you can see, a lot of names in Japan begin with "Y", and in my opinion, sound alike. I often get them mixed up. Unfortunately, to the Japanese, these names are all quite distinct from each other, so I am still not forgiven for using the wrong one! Here are just a few (all girl's names): Yuki, Yuko, Yasuyo, Yoko, Yumi, Yukiko and Yuriko. Now tell me there's no similarity!

Anyway, Yuki, Yasuyo, Yoko and yours truly went for an Italian meal at The Charleston Cafe in Roppongi, popular for its outdoor seating area. After missing the last train we grabbed another beer and a taxi home.

Having worked on Friday and having had a quiet night in, the following day I went to Akihabera (also known locally as "Akiba") to buy a projection TV. I'm a bit of a gadget freak, so it had to happen eventually. I can now watch movies at home on an eighty inch screen (that's over two metres or an equivalent area to sixteen twenty inch televisions)!In rented apartments in Japan it is very unlikely that you'll be allowed to make holes in the walls or ceiling. In order to mount my new toy aloft, I fashioned some very functional hooks from old wire clothes hangers. I then hung these from the air-conditioning grill, luckily, a perfect distance from the screen. I must confess, however to recently screwing a hook directly into the ceiling for my wind chimes (seismometer).

Saturday evening we went to a Finnish friend's birthday party. We kicked off at his apartment then walked to another Italian restaurant in Roppongi, "Sesamo", where every meal includes sesame seeds. After eating came the inevitable few hours partying in some of the area's many bars.

Please don't get the impression that I spend all my time in bars drinking, it's just that the many nights I spend at home watching TV would not make very interesting reading!

Yesterday morning I got around to repairing my bicycle's flat tyre. It's incredibly hot and humid in Tokyo at the moment, but I'll do my best to use it when I can. I need to. In the first week of my diet I lost exactly nothing! I've been eating mostly salads for lunch, but as you know, I've also been to more than a couple of dinners. Luckily beer is not fattening or I'd have to stop that too!

I could not end this entry without mentioning that yesterday Yuki and I had our one year anniversary of having first met. I've booked what is reportedly a very nice restaurant for Wednesday night, "one of the top ten hotel restaurants in the world". I'll let you know.

Thursday 27th July 2000

Having not been to the other nine, I don't know if this is one of the top ten hotel restaurants in the world, but it was definitely the best I've been to. The restaurant in question is The New York Grill on the fifty-second (top) floor of The Tokyo Park Hyatt Hotel in the Shinjuku area. The service was very good, although I've been to many restaurants with good service. The food was excellent, we chose a three course set menu, and the wine was very nice (I'm no expert). The thing that makes this place so great though, is the abience and above all, quite litterally, the wonderful view. You are so high, and the windows are so big, that you almost feel like you are flying. The atmosphere is relaxed and live jazz can be heard coming from the adjacent bar. The food is exactly what you'd expect to find in New York, and the servings are not the pathetic size found in so many so called "good" restaurants. Next time, if there is one, I will try to reserve a table right next to the window. I say if there's a next time, because as you can imagine it is not the cheapest place to eat in Tokyo! Our meal for two, including a bottle of wine, came to just over two hundred pounds! It was a special occasion, and without a doubt, it was worth it!

Friday 28th July 2000

I'm on a coach now travelling to Mount Fuji. One of my colleagues reserved the tickets a few days ago. Reservations are recommended, although I am lucky enough to have an empty seat next to me. The bus left Shinjuku at seven thirty in the evening. It's now nine o'clock and the huge volcano is within sight. Three of us are going to climb to the top of what is probably the most famous image of Japan. From the coach I can see the lights of the many shops positioned along the climb. From where the road stops at stage five, it should take about five or six hours to get to the crater at the top. It should be a safe ascent as Mount Fuji (Japan's highest feature) last erupted in 1707. The idea is to get to the summit in time to see the sunrise. We've bought some warm clothing with us because it's going to be very cold at the top.

Saturday 29th July 2000

I'm now on my return journey to Tokyo. What can I say about my climb? First thing to say is unless you're an avid hiker or climber, don't do it! From all the guides I'd read, it was going to be a long, strenuous trek to the top. It wasn't. It was a full blown climb, suitable only for the experienced or the super-fit. It took me six hours thirty minutes to reach the summit. Both my knees were killing me, I had altitude sickness and I was physically exhausted. On the route up there were quite a few huts selling food and drink. They are not every five minutes as some reviews would have you believe. Having completed the expedition, I'm really glad I did, but had I known what was involved, I certainly would not have put myself through it. A couple of years back I made a feeble effort at the London marathon. It was a piece of cake compared to this. You have been warned! Now I'm just looking forward to getting home and having a nice long bath.

Sunday 30th July 2000

I slept from four in the afternoon yesterday until eight this morning, so in spite of getting no sleep last night, I felt completely refreshed when I got up today. Even my decrepid knees seemed okay, so I decided Yuki and I should go out for the day.

We went to Kamakura. Kamakura is about an hour south of Tokyo on the Yokuska line train from Shinagawa Station. Kamakura was once the capital of Japan, which is strange because so was Kyoto. Maybe I've got that wrong, But Kamakura was at least an important city... I'll check it out later. Anyway at Kamakura there are several sites of cultural significance. We went to just three. The Earthquake BIG... We didn't go to a place called "the Earthquake BIG", but as I was writing the whole place started rocking back and forth, and that could have been the last thing I ever wrote. As I write we're watching a film, and I realise I have another indicator of earthquakes, the picture. It was moving relative to the screen. I'll start again. At Kamakura there are several sites of cultural significance. We went to just three. The Hase Kannon Temple was first. This temple was more interesting than most. One reason is a very large multi-sided wooden library containing the Buddhist scriptures. One turn of the library is supposed to represent a symbolic reading its entire contents and has the same merit. I think perhaps modern bearings have been fitted at some point, because the effort it took to turn would in my mortal opinion only represent reading the intellectual content of Britain's "Sun" newspaper. Secondly we went to the Great Buddha. The Great Buddha is a huge statue of Buddha, which is apparently the second most photographed image of Japan. Coincidentally, second to Mount Fuji. The last place we visited at Kamakura was the beach, just a couple of minutes from the local Hase railway station. This was my first visit to a real beach in Japan. It looked an excellent place for the windsurfers and surfers strutting their stuff among the waves.