June 2000

Sunday 4th June 2000

On Friday night I had a few beers and played a few frames of pool (lost every one - I think I'll have to blame Yuki, my team-mate, it couldn't have been my fault could it)? We then went on to a club called "Plastic". I don't often go clubbing, but this place had quite a good atmosphere and very good music, especially for a pensioner like me!

Yesterday we had another fairly strong earthquake in Tokyo. It measured about four on the Richter scale, three on Japan's own scale. This one happened in the afternoon and lasted quite a while, about a minute. It's a fascinating sensation when the whole building starts to rock back and forth (I'm in a sixteenth story penthouse apartment). Unlike some other penthouses, this one isn't full of women posing naked among stories nobody reads! In common with the magazine, there was some swinging. This was, of course, the pictures on the walls and anything else which isn't screwed down. Later yesterday evening my new desk chair arrived. It would have been interesting to sit on that during the earthquake, as it has extremely good wheels! On the other hand, I guess my first instincts should be for survival, not whizzing around the living room floor! After all, I'm one of the few people who've been on the disaster training course. The governor of Tokyo recently caused controversy when he told the police and armed forces to look out for looting foreigners in the event of a major catastrophe. While we're on the subject of officialdom, I think I failed to mention that the Japanese prime minister died recently, following a stroke-induced coma. There will be a general election later this month (I think).

The weather in Tokyo is now getting hot again. Temperatures normally reach around 30 degrees Celsius (nearly 90 Fahrenheit). I found to my cost last night that this seems to be mosquito time. I had to get up at four thirty this morning to track down and splat the sole culprit. Don't you just hate washing your own bloodstain off the wall? On the positive side though, I think I must have really nice blood, as it seems to be more attractive to these little vampires than other people's!

Monday 12th May

No sooner have I mentioned that the weather's hotting up than the rainy season kicks in! It's still pretty warm and humid, but it's also raining on and off every day.

Last Friday I had to go to Disneyland for a company conference. It took forever to get there because high winds had brought down power lines to the Keiyo train lines. I met up with a fellow employee on the train, and after waiting about ninety minutes, we decided to find alternative transport. The roads were all snarled up, the taxis were full, and there were hopeless queues for busses. We made it eventually via various means of transport and a lot of trudging through the strong winds. At our destination we were discussing how we could learn from Mickey Mouse's many year's of success and how we could best use Goofy's services as a consultant. Oops, I'm getting carried away again. Put me down and I promise to tell the truth! The conference was about internal company matters and such like. It was held at one of the designated Disney resort hotels. The business was followed by a party with a buffet and free bar. Very enjoyable, but having drunk through half the night, it really put a dent in my fitness for the theme park on Saturday!

Disneyland was pretty much the same as it was last year. Some enjoyable attractions, lots of queuing, and well choreographed parades. The difference this year was that at the end of the day it rained. Still, I guess this is one of the places in Tokyo people like to visit, especially the kids, who seem to absolutely love it.

As I sit in my apartment writing these words, through the window directly ahead of me, I have been observing the steady progress of one of Tokyo's latest tower blocks. I'm not sure how much of a tower it's going to be, but it's already taller than my building. It seems every time this incredibly strong steel structure reaches the arm of the crane in it's centre, they extend the crane. I hope I'm around to see how they get the crane out of the building and down to the ground. Will they need a crane to do this?

Monday 19th June

Last week I bought a Palm Vx PDA (handheld computer). I'd wanted one of these for a while, but could not get hold of one with an English operating system. A colleague in the office assured me that buying a Japanese one was okay, because I could simply install the English operating system - WRONG! I won't go into detail, but it's looking more and more likely that Yuki is going to get a very nice, very expensive bonus gift! It was ultimately my decision to buy this, but I think I've learnt a lesson here.

On Friday night/Saturday morning I went to Roppongi. I didn't go home until about six in the morning. This wasn't however, a drunken binge, rather part of my weekend plan. Part two of my plan was to sleep then play football on Saturday afternoon. Although half an hour late, I did manage this. Next, after a few beers and some grub in a German style bar (we were unaware of its Germanic flavour in advance), it was time for more sleep. Part three of a plan that was going rather well was to go to Roppingi at half past three on Sunday morning to watch England versus Germany in the Euro 2000 football competition. This was to be the high point of my weekend, and I wasn't to be disappointed. England 1, Germany 0! After so many frustrating defeats, it's great to beat the Germans in such an important game. We still have work to do to progress in the championship, but at least in in our hands now. It was amusing to see the half time commentary by the Japanese TV network. Their block-men and a ball-on-a-stick would put Sky's technology to shame - if humour was the objective! I'm going home on Thursday to England, and I'm hoping I'll have the chance to see our boys (on TV) play in the knock-out stages at a decent time of day. Just Romania early Wednesday morning stand between England and my high hopes.