July 1999

Thursday 1st July 1999

I have to start today with some bad news. The downpour which caused me such a headache getting to my hotel last night, led to mudslides and other problems, killing over twenty-five people in the area. Puts my travel problems into perspective I think.

Life however, just as elsewhere, goes on for the rest of us. Last night our business hosts invited us to a Japanese barbecue. A Japanese barbecue doesn't consist of a pile of bricks in the garden with a couple of juicy steaks. Instead it's a restaurant experience. The guests sit around a table, that has one, or more small glowing fires set into it. Lots of dishes ("all you can eat" in this case) of bite size tasty food are available, including beef, chicken, prawns, scallops and vegetables. It's then just a matter of putting the food onto the cast iron grill plate and cooking, eating, drinking and repeating the process as many times as you can manage. The food was absolutely delicious, especially the tiny little steaks, and it's all accompanied by the usual salad, sauces and sweets.

Dinner over, our hosts picked up on a comment made earlier, and took us to a top class karaoke establishment (that would be a contradiction in terms in most parts of the world). At this place, in central Hiroshima City, each guest (it would be very wrong to call them singers) is accompanied by a hostess. That's a hostess, not a prostitute, this is a respectable place, remember! Anyway, once again it's an all-inclusive unlimited drink deal, and there?s a fine selection available (it?s more a scotch and soda place than a beer swilling one). The rest is pretty obvious, you're given a catalogue of songs etc., etc. I murdered "Starman" again to name but one. The other notable thing in Japan though, is that it is usual to have your own room for karaoke, although the bigger public places are available for budding pop-stars. Our party was eight people plus the hostesses who also join the "singing". Actually the girls can sing pretty well, and even if they couldn?t they're quite funny, not to mention being drop-dead gorgeous! Well it's time to go for breakfast now and prepare for another day's work. By the way me and the laptop are doing fine. All we need now is to be able to contact the outside world when on the move.

Monday 5th July 1999

Friday night I visited my local bar on the way home. It must have been fate that made me move to my particular apartment, because the nearest bar is "Rick's Bar and Restaurant"! For those of you who don't know me personally, that's my name. It's located in the subway of Kamyacho station (Hibya line). Apart from being named after me, well after the proprietor's son actually, it's a cosy, friendly place where you can just stop for a beer, or have a casual dinner party in a very relaxed atmosphere. It's a bit like "Cheers" when I think about it - comfortable. I usually sit happily at the bar with my pint of Miller and occasional pizza. In fact I am such a regular now, I have been awarded the staff T-shirt (well it does have my name on it)! If you go there be sure to say Rick sent you, that's Rick the Englishman, not Rick Junior. It may actually get you a free drink (the owner's words, not mine)!

On Saturday I went furniture shopping. I visited a shop recommended by one of my friends at "Rick's" (I love the sound of that). It's a place called Otsuka International Design Centre (IDC). It's very near the Tokyo Big Sight (Kokusai-Tenjijo Seimon station, Yurikamome line monorail). This store is amazing. I've never been so impressed by furniture before. It houses a huge collection of items from many countries, including a big selection of traditional Japanese pieces. One of its best attributes is the range of prices - from very reasonable to "Surely they've added too many zeros". There are staff available (English speaking if required) to walk you around the four fantastic floors. I perused alone for a couple of hours, then got somebody to accompany me when I'd chosen. It's a membership store, but membership is free and no ID is required. I bought a desk, a beautiful Japanese dining table, occasional table (what does that mean?) and a sofa-bed. The dining table will have to become a coffee table when I return to England (it's a bit low). I just can't wait for the delivery on the seventeenth!

Yesterday I bought myself a bicycle. I got it second-hand from an American who'd advertised it in "Tokyo Classified", one of a few publications aimed at gaijin in Japan and Tokyo in particular (some others are: "Tokyo Q", "Tokyo Notice Board" and "The Alien"). With my new wheels I rode to Akihabera, electric Mecca. I have to confess here, I did something a little dishonourable ("Shock horror!" I hear you cry). I went to a shop to buy a telephone/answerphone. It's a Japanese domestic model for use here in my apartment. I was given an English photocopy of the basic instructions before being told they were out of stock. I agreed to come back on Tuesday. Armed with this "valuable" document, I found a cheaper model by the same manufacturer on my ride home. Well it was half the price! I don't need a cordless in my apartment, I'm never more than five seconds from the phone. I think I'll still be able to sleep nights (unless my new phone gets calls from Brits who've miscalculated the time difference)!

Thursday 15th July 1999

Well it's been over a week since my last comment. I guess things are beginning to settle down and my surroundings are becoming a little more familiar. Being English I really should talk about the weather! Right now we're in the middle of rainy season. It doesn't rain every day, but it does most, and it really can rain here. Even if it's not raining, the sun has become a very rare visitor, and despite the rain it is still too hot and humid to even think of wearing a coat! The essential accessory in Japan is an umbrella (although oddly for Japan, people generally don't seem to have very expensive ones). There have been several reports on the Japanese news over the last week about lumps of concrete falling off of the railway flyovers and tunnels, one even ripping though a strip of a bullet train's roof! It appears to have sparked off a full scale investigation, but there are thousands of miles of elevated tracks an tunnels in Japan, so if there is a serious problem, then it's a big one! Oh, there has also been a "harmless" leak of coolant at a nuclear power plant!!!

I have seen, and more often heard, something which I'd have been puzzled by had I not been forewarned. There are big dark coloured busses and vans which drive around Tokyo playing very loud music and making proclamations through PA systems. These vehicles are adorned with the Japanese flag and the flag of the rising sun, sometimes just painted on, sometimes trailing from the rear. The occupants of these grim busses are making an effort to promote "Japan for the Japanese". They are an ultra right wing organisation similar to the British "National Front", but thankfully apart from the noise, I have seen no direct action from these antagonists.

One other small surprise for me last weekend was a problem I had at Akihabera. I wanted to buy an MP3 player (a very new solid state digital personal stereo). I looked for a good couple of hours, getting soaked in the process, and most shops either hadn't heard of them or didn't have one. I found one eventually in a musicians' shop. This seemed so strange, since I thought all the latest and greatest things were available there. My untested theory is that perhaps when an article is in short supply, it is distributed to the department stores first where a higher price can be demanded.

It's now 8:00 am. The strangest thing just happened! I have a large set of wind chimes hanging in my apartment. With the windows closed and without the slightest draft they just rang out a few very clear notes. Now this either means I have a ghost (maybe the last person to "move out" took the quick route - this is the financial area), or it was an earth tremor. I live on the top floor of the block, so I guess the effect would be amplified, making my chimes a very sensitive seismometer!

Thursday 22nd July 1999

It was an earthquake! That was my first and I didn't even feel it. I'm a bit disappointed really! The weather hasn't improved much. Yesterday one man was struck down by lightening and another drowned as he took the lift down to his flooded basement. That's one to remember!

My second instalment of furniture arrived on Saturday. I now actually have a home, not just a collection of empty rooms. I've even bought a big tropical plant (an earlier attempt at keeping two more fragile specimens alive failed miserably). I was OK with tropical plants in the UK, they didn't seem to mind being neglected for weeks on end.

Now I have my nice new desk I thought it was time to upgrade the computer sitting on it... that and the fact that I had screwed up my old one. I bought the latest and greatest Pentium III 550MHz with over 6Gb of hard disk. Despite that, it'll probably be scrap metal by the time I return to England! It took me a whole day to convince my PC it wasn't going to speak to me in Japanese, but still I can't figure out how to use this strange keyboard!

By the way, did you know the Japanese eat fish flavoured biscuits!!?

I see things in Tokyo every which have very little impact on my own life, so haven't found a way to include them in this account. I've decided to give these interesting things their own little entries called "Miscellaneous Observations". It took me ten minutes to settle on that title! Anyway, here goes with the first one...

Miscellaneous Observation No. 1

Shibuya Girls

This label applies to a girl who is into a particular street fashion, very popular among girls in their teens and early twenties. These girls can be seen all over Tokyo, but I guess their name is derived from the area where their concentration is greatest, Shibuya. They all look very similar and to the outsider they look quite funny. The Shibuya Girl look starts with a fake tan. Many Japanese make the English look pretty pale anyway, but these girls look exactly the colour it says on the tube. Next comes the make-up. Pale colours seem to be the thing, pink, almost white lipstick and eye-shaddow, to show off the "tan". Below one eye, stick on diamonds and glitter are applied to give that extra sparkle! Very bright flowery dresses, yellow, pink etc. also seem to give a good contrast. They're very like beachwear. I forgot to mention the hair. That's bleached a light brown colour, sometimes streaked with grey. No need to go bright blonde as in the west, because almost every Japanese person has naturally very dark hair. An alternative to the dress, or sometimes as well as, is flared trousers, real flares, like in the early seventies! But, the piece de resistance is the shoes. These really are equivalent to the worst excesses of the Glam Rock platforms, and if you take the height of the people wearing them into account, these are far worse!

All-in-all these girls look fairly ridiculous as they struggle down the stairs to the subway, but think back, can you not remember a time..... I certainly can!

Monday 26th July 1999

Last Friday I visited a company in Tsubame Sanjo, Nigata Prefecture, about two hours by bullet train North West of Tokyo. Tsubame Sanjo is the Japanese equivalent of Sheffield, famous for making knives and forks. The company had its own excellent museum illustrating how products had developed from natural materials to plastics over the last couple of hundred years. It included a fantastic selection of classic cars - even an old Austin Seven! Lunch was Tempura. This is a selection of fish and vegetables fried in a light batter - very nice. Eating it was a little uncomfortable though because I've not got used to this sitting cross-legged on the floor yet! They also produce a lot of Sake around here and as a gift from the company I was given a selection of five regional Sakes. Sake is rice-wine, but stronger than conventional wine at about twenty percent alcohol. It can be drunk hot or ice-cold, these ones are to be drunk from the fridge.

On Saturday I went to a barbecue with my friends from "Rick's". I got to meet the real Rick! If I remember rightly, his name is Rikushi, Riku for short. A very cute five-year-old. He amazed me when in the car he said as plain as anything "Hello, how are you"! The barbecue was excellent, about forty of us by a river with great food, hot sunshine, good company and just a little beer! I was very honoured to have been invited along. We even finished the evening with a big display of fireworks (not strictly legal)!

On Sunday night I was listening to Inter-FM and they were offering free tickets to a few callers, something like the tenth to the seventeenth callers. Anyway, I called in and now have tickets to a jazz club on Saturday night. That was good luck, but it gets better... I called again about half an hour later and got two tickets to an outdoor George Benson concert this Sunday! He is one of my very favourite musicians so I am "over the moon"! I just can't wait! Add to that the football season starting at midnight Sunday and it looks like another very good weekend for me!

Wednesday 28th July 1999

Went out to dinner with one of my workmates and eleven of his friends (all Japanese) last night. The people in Japan are very much like those in the UK when they are in relaxed surroundings. They are a little more reserved than the British in business situations, but once the karaoke starts, they outperform us confidently and wholeheartedly! I learned something useful last night. In Britain there is that thing we do where we pretend to steal a child's nose with our hand, well the resulting gesture made with the thumb and fist, is in Japan, a very rude one! As mentioned, we went on to a karaoke club. It is amazing to watch some of these people perform! They really get into it!

Friday 30th July 1999

Yesterday I had "Natural Disaster Training". It was held at a public institution in Tokyo specially designed for that purpose only. It included a 3D film where even the seats shook to simulate an earthquake, resuscitation training and crawling around smoke filled corridors. The bests parts though, were the typhoon and earthquake simulators. I experienced a Richter Scale 7 earthquake. Not something I'd like for real! It was very useful though and I recommend it as it is always better to be prepared for these things, it was fun too.