July 2001

Wednesday 4th July 2001

Eventually on Saturday night I went on to Bill's Bar and Roppongi. After having visited a few bars, I returned home via the local "Daily" store. Most convenience stores in Tokyo are open twenty-four hours a day.

On leaving the shop with a bag full of instant noodles and beef jerky, I was approached by a young New Zealand girl. She was not too happy, and asked if I could lend her some money to use the telephone. Seeing she was obviously genuine, I was glad to help out. When she offered to get the money back to me, I said I didn't need it, and if she wanted to thank me, she could just take a look at my web site.

She did indeed visit my site, and she sent me an email. With her permission, I have reproduced it here. The reason being, that I think it gives a very good insight into the lives of many of the temporary (especially hostess) workers in Tokyo.

Hi

I,m that messed up crying New Zealand girl who asked your for money last night to make a phone call after being fired from very cruel japanese hostess club after only 2 weeks......!

I,ve just had a quick look at your web site and your wedding photos, they look great, you guys look so happy, i myself actually go married last novemeber, which is the main catalyst as to whay i got fired, this is my 7th time in japan as a hostess, but my first being married, so maybe you can understand how it can maybe change you, well, i dont really think its the marriage thing, maybe just the very secure LOVE thing, I,ve been here 2 weeks and wanted to go home, as I have, like, an unwritten contract with the club, as they paid for my airfare, my request to go home was not met with understanding, even after I tried to explain that I would be quite happy to work a full 30 days to pay my air ticket which always used to be the rule with these people, but to no avail, after some much unfortunate very agressive exchange of words and potential violence they took me back to the apartment, which is actually their apartment, gave me 10 minutes to pack my things and left me on the street with no money, so you can understand that i was quite upset when I saw you, but really if i had,nt I dont know where i would be now, with the money you gave me I managed to contact a friend and am now in Moto Yawata, awaiting confirmation of my flight changes which will hopefully see me leaving tomorrow, as unfortunate as this whole turn of events is, its taught me a very big lesson, I guess I was still trying to lead some kind of life the same as the one I had before I was married, being a free traveller, my husband did,nt mind me coming here, i guess he did,nt want to hold me down, but i miss him more than i thought I would and the hostess thing is a complete contradiction to how I see marriage....anyway...enough ramble.... the people who have helped me have reinstated my belief in guardian angles, and also the belief that even though sometimes things seem really bad, there is good out there.....THANK YOU SO SO SO MUCH......GOOD LUCK FOR YOUR FUTURE , TAKE CARE AND HAVE FUN!!

Susan McKnight

Suze

Nice to know there is still some gratitude in the world.

Friday 6th July 2001

Not much to report except that it's too damn hot! It's the end of the rainy season (it didn't rain much this year), and it's pretty hot, about 35 degrees celcius. The bigger problem though, is the humidity. I've gotten used to it a little over the last couple of years, but it's a bit like walking out into a sauna at the moment. Thank God for air conditioning!

Monday 9th July 2001

It's the early hours of the morning and I'm sat in Poco's Bar in Roppongi, one of my old regular haunts from the days when my office was also in Roppongi. Now the rain has at last stopped at Wimbledon, I can watch Tim Henman's semi-final against Goran Ivanisovich. No Brit has won Wimledon since Henry the Eighth's brother-in-law. Tim is two sets to one up and four to three in the fourth. Fingers crossed!

Wednesday 11th July 2001

Well, Tim got beat. Nothing unusual there, but disappointing.

On a brighter note though, my attendance at the gym is paying off. I've gone from 78.90 to 75.20kg. Pretty good considering I'm still enjoying beers and burgers! It's taken a couple of months or so, but no matter how slow, it's all in the right direction.

Took another trip to Akihabera last night and returned with all I needed to upgrade my PC to a Pentium 4 1.7GHz Cray Super Computer - almost! It's strange though, even with all that power, I still can't type very fast.

Tuesday 17th July 2001

I'm now taking the train back to Tokyo from Matsuo Machi. I've been visiting a supplier. Matsuo Machi is about one and a half hours outside Tokyo. It is a sort of “Nowheresville“, not in a bad way, but in the sense that (at least on the surface) it is beyond the influence of the big city, and there are very few reasons why you would want to go there unless your mother-in-law lived there - okay, so for many that would be a reason to stay away, not to visit! I happen to like my mother-in-law - no really! She doesn't live in the sticks though, she lives quite happily with my father-in-law, in Tokyo. Good. That's that cleared up then - before anyone gets the wrong idea! Anyway, back to the point I was trying to make, it's nice to go to a little non-descript place occasionally, just to put my Tokyo life into perspective. P.S. My mother-in-law is also a very good cook, something Yuki seems to have inherited. I think that's more than enough sucking up for one day, especially as neither of them is likely to read this.

Tuesday 24th July 2001

On Sunday afternoon Yuki and I went to Tokyo Sealife Park. We barely made it in time as the water taxi from Hinode to the park took longer than advertised. It was a nice journey though, because it was a good way to escape the heat and humidity. On the open water there was a very welcome breeze. The Sealife Park is an aquarium complex. It houses very large walk-through tanks with sharks and huge tuna fish (not together of course), and many smaller exhibits showing marine life from Tokyo Bay and many other areas of the world. We stopped off at the restaurant before leaving. It had suprisingly little fish on the menu!

Yesterday, on the way in to work, I went to the "Atre" shopping centre above Ebisu railway station. I entered the centre at ten o'clock, just as it opened. There was some soft muzak playing, and as I walked past the many small outlets that combine to make up this mall, all of the staff were lined up bowing to me. I was like royalty! It was all I could do not to laugh out loud. I coudn't stop a grin appearing across my face - it was so bizzare! After about two minutes, the music stopped and everyone returned to preparing for the day's customers. A similar thing occurs when you leave a shop as it closes, but there are usually quite a few other customers, and they only bow and thank you at the exit.

Tuesday 31st July 2001

I'm now writing from Mad Mulligan's again. They've at last got a working PC again. Last weekend was a pretty tiring one. On Friday I went for a drink with Marlon as usual. On Saturday we went to a party at Marlon's girlfriend Yuki's house, to celebrate the arrival of Marlon's mate, Richard, a guy from England, with whom we'd been drinking on Friday. Then on Sunday it was time to go through our apartment with a fine tooth comb (and a lot of detergent and elbow grease). Yuki's parents, sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephew came round for the afternoon/evening.

I must buy more beer next time. I didn't realise how much we could drink between us! And that's without getting drunk!!! I think it all went fairly well, except my PC playing up on the one day I needed it! I wanted to use it to show the second party video from our wedding - sod's law I suppose!