June 1999

Tuesday 1st June 1999

Today I'm writing from a train on my way to visit some companies in Kamisuwa, about two and a half hours from Tokyo, in the Nagano prefecture. I'm on my own because due to a lack of signs within Shinjuku railway station, I missed the train that my colleagues are on!

Anyway, back to my weekend. On Friday evening I went with a large number of workmates and their friends to a Japanese restaurant. It was a very lively, fun night with much more than enough to drink! I have heard since that this was supposed to be a huge blind date - there was a little too much alcohol for that to have worked!

On Saturday evening I went to a party being held by another of us Brits. It was good gathering, not too wild, but very sociable. From there, in the early hours, some of us caught cabs into Roppongi, the nightlife centre of Tokyo (for tourists, at least). We drank beer and played table football, and to my surprise when we left it was daylight and the sun was shining! I haven't stayed out all night like that for years!

I've also had to buy a washing machine and a tumble dryer in the last few days. Washer-dryers are rare here which is a bit odd as the houses are generally smaller than in the UK. Helpful hint: You may not be able to find an appliance for use in Japan with English instructions, but in many stores in Akihabera, the electrical shopping capital of Tokyo, there are duty free sections. Here it may be possible, as in my case to find an export and domestic version of the same appliance. The helpful and in duty free areas, English speaking staff, will probably photocopy the export model's instructions for you. If in doubt try the Laox duty free section (four floors)! Akihabera is the place in Tokyo to buy electrical and electronic goods. It makes London's Tottenham Court Road seem like a local High street!

Thursday 3rd June 1999

I went to my first karaoke bar last night along with my business host. After watching for a while, and certainly after drinking my fair share of some obscure spirit, I sang my first ever karaoke song!!! It was "Starman" by David Bowie although it would have taken some recognising when I sang it! It was a very small bar in the hotel, full it would probably hold 50 people, but there were only about 20 last night. In spite of that, people were constantly singing. The whole time we were drinking we had two waitresses constantly topping our drinks up. It came out in conversation that one of these girls, about 25 years old, hadn't had a boyfriend for about six years. I politely said that I found this hard to believe (she was quite cute), and she said "You could be my boyfriend!"

Friday 4th June 1999

I seem to be getting through my to do list of Japanese customs at a rapid rate. Last night I had my first visit to a sushi restaurant, nowhere posh, but neither was it particularly cheap. A selection of about eight main sushi servings along with a beer cost just over ten pounds. It is easy to pay a lot more. Sushi consists of a piece of good quality raw fish cut neatly into a portion of about two inches by one, placed on top of a shaped pile of rice. Other variations include substituting the fish with vegetables or egg. It was served with four smaller rice portions with fish or vegetables in the centre and a small dish for soy sauce. Each of these servings are held in shape by a very thin band of seaweed. Sushi can be eaten by hand, but more often chopsticks are used. I am doing quite well with these long wooden sticks, although the plastic ones present more of a challenge (less friction, less grip)! To me, sushi tastes very much the same as sashumi, another less intricate way of serving raw fish. I neither love it nor hate it, which at least means I am able to eat it. This will be important for me as I will be having many business meals in Japan, and my hosts will understandably want to treat me to their Japanese culture. Another rather less pleasant experience occurred today. Having been shocked by cold tea on my first trip to Tokyo, I was now presented with a glass of ice coffee. Now there are some in England who drink cold coffee to be trendy, but it's about as enjoyable as swallowing Southend sea-water!

Monday 7th June 1999

Friday night was time to relax. We (a team from Japan and Europe) had been travelling all week so we got together for a nice meal and a few drinks. We ended up getting very relaxed indeed, but not as relaxed as one girl in The Motown Bar. She was all over me! Mind you, if I'd moved she'd have been all over the floor!

Visited Ginza on Saturday afternoon. Ginza is the smart shopping area of Tokyo where many big names line the pedestrianised streets. Here I visited a branch of Medi-ya, a chain which stocks foreign groceries. It's funny how a tin of Extra Strong Mints and a lump of English Cheddar now have that extra appeal.

Then I stopped off at Hibya to visit the American Pharmacy. It's less of a headache to buy your painkillers here! In this same area is The Emperor's Palace. I didn't visit the palace, but merely looked into the surrounding lake. The fish were gigantic! There were lots of koi carp of various colours, many measuring nearly three feet long. They, along with a couple of big terrapins, seemed to sense me watching, presumably waiting for some morsel to eat.

On Saturday night I visited a Pakistani restaurant for the first time for a chicken curry. Nice, but not as good as in the true home of curry, England!

Sunday was a quiet day. After two very late nights in Roppongi I didn't have the energy to venture out. Right now it's Monday night, 10:40 PM and I'm sat in a bar near my apartment having a well deserved beer on my way home from work. Aaahhhhh......

Thursday 10th June 1999

Among other places, I have visited Osaka this week, in the western half of Honshu. Osaka seems to be as built up as Tokyo, but the buildings are generally not so tall. The most notable experience of this particular trip happened last night. We walked into the hotel bar after dinner, there were about six people sitting at a long table against the window (the bar was on the top floor). There were three unfilled seats, but we were nevertheless told that the bar did not have enough room for us. You see there were four of us! God forbid that we should stand in the bar and enjoy a drink. How would the staff cope having to serve in excess of two people each?

I'm now on a train going back to Tokyo. Japanese trains often have "western style" toilets and "Japanese style" toilets. I advise you to use the western ones unless you are particularly gymnastic. The Japanese ones are similar to French ones. I wouldn't like to risk that much on my sense of balance!

I have my first visitor from my UK office tonight. We're going to meet up for a drink. There is a chain of about five clubs and bars called "Gaspanic", a strange name considering events on the Tokyo subway not too long back. Anyway all of these clubs are in the Roppongi area and every Thursday night they sell all drinks at 300 yen, that's way under half price, and even cheaper than back in Britain. I'm not travelling tomorrow, so I think a lie-in will be well deserved and probably needed!

Monday 14th June 1999

Well my lie-in on Friday was needed, but still not sufficient. I "misjudged" how much partying is sensible on a Thursday night. We went to various bars in Roppongi (remember to carry ID, you need it for some clubs and it's the law to carry it in any case). There are far too many bars and clubs in the Roppongi area to mention, but a few of the good ones I have discovered are Geronimo's (happy hour 7-9 daily), Gaspanic (happy Thursday), The Hideout Bar (happy when the spinning red light comes on) and the very famous (in Tokyo at least) Motown Bar. I don't know if the Motown Bar has a happy hour, but it seems to be one of the most popular and lively places in town, and the music is not as the name would suggest. It's a good mix of upbeat sounds.

I recovered just in time to do it all again on Friday night and so paid twice the price on Saturday!

On Sunday, feeling fit and healthy again, I took a walk for a couple of hours from my apartment to Akihabera, a few miles across the city. Along the way I walked past The Emperor's Palace (there doesn't seem to be much to see of the palace) and through the palace gardens. The East Garden was very attractive, with abundant irises of pinks, blues and purples flowering in the pond. Above all it was a good quiet way to relax and get ready for the week ahead. At Akihabera I bought myself a digital video camera, the small very handy sort. I intend to use this for video and still photography by connecting it to my PC. This will probably pay for itself in saved photo processing costs over the next two years! There really is so much to see, especially if you're more used to western culture (or lack of it)!

Thursday 17th June 1999

Went to an engineering trade show yesterday. It was staged in the Tokyo Big Sight, situated in the high tech development area (see 24th May 1999). Had a little trouble getting there. Although the subway system is very clean and frequent (each departure timed to the second), some of the connections are not as straight forward as the London Underground. Some "connections" are so far apart that you feel you've walked half way to your destination! It is also not so easy to get a through ticket to your exiting station, as you often have to go through the ticket gates at a transfer station. On the other hand, at least these long connecting walks are through tunnels in many cases, keeping you out of the hot humid atmosphere above. Another good point about the Tokyo subway system is that if you don't know your fare, it is perfectly acceptable to buy the cheapest ticket and put in into one of several fare adjustment machines at your destination before exiting.

Anyway, I digress, I basically got a bit lost at one of my connections! This was one of the few where it was necessary to go above ground. The lesson here is to always have a street map handy. The connection may look close-by on the subway map, but it's better to know exactly how to walk there.

I eventually reached the Tokyo Big Site where the exhibition was held. Registration was fairly simple as I'd been sent an English invitation by one of my company's vendors. Getting information once inside was another matter. I'd sort of presumed that an engineering showcase in Tokyo would attract an international audience, and hence English speaking sales staff. Wrong! Ninety-nine percent of the attendees were Japanese and very few of the exhibitors spoke English and in most cases, neither did they have catalogues etc. available in the international language. It was however a successful trip. I managed to see a handful of useful companies and picked up their literature. The addresses are usually on there somewhere in English and very often a web site address - always worth checking to see if they have an English version on-line.

Afterwards I had a much more pleasant trip back to the office via the scenic Tokyo "New Transit System", a monorail which traverses the Rainbow Bridge back to the city.

Received my new notepad PC today. Now to figure out how to use it!

Friday 18th June 1999

I'm off to New York tomorrow. I will be attending an old girlfriend's (and still one of my greatest friend's, despite her now living in Sydney) wedding. In order to be able to re-enter Japan with the same visa status it is necessary to obtain a re-entry permit which is affixed into your passport. To get this you must go to an immigration bureau. There are several in Tokyo, one being next to Otemachi subway station. You need to have with you your alien registration card, your passport, a form (found at the bureau) which takes just a few minutes to fill in, and a 6000 Yen stamp available from the post office. There is a post office right next to the bureau in Ootemachi. The process then takes a few more minutes and you are free to come and go in and out of Japan with your status unaffected. The process described here was for a multiple re-entry permit, for a single permit the fee is slightly cheaper.

N.B. Do not think that because your passport visa already says multiple entry, that that is enough. It is not! You were warned.

Saturday 19th June 1999

Decided to have a quiet night last night as I was flying today. It's one thing to make a decision, but it's another to stick to it! Woke up at about 11:30 am with thirty minutes to pack and leave for New York. Caught a bus from a nearby hotel to Narita International airport (3,000 Yen), I think it's the easiest way. There are two international airports in Tokyo. Don't expect to be told at which terminal to leave the bus, ask in advance. Also when you have checked in and gone through the security check, there is no sign for "Departures", follow the very inappropriate "Immigration" sign to passport control.

Monday 28th June 1999

Arrived back from The States yesterday. One thing I had learned from a man in a bar before I went, is that with your re-entry permit and alien registration card, you can join the Japanese nationals' line at the passport control checkpoint. This gives a great deal of satisfaction when you see the long queue for foreigners (by the way foreigners are often referred to by the Japanese word Gaijin). Also keep hold of your baggage claim tag. This is the first country I've visited where you are sometimes asked to show that it matches the one on the luggage you are taking from the airport. I discovered another convenient way to get between the city and Tokyo's Narita airport.

There is an express train called the "Skyliner" which for 1,920 Yen goes from the Ueno subway station to each terminal in just under an hour. This is a reservation only train, but tickets can be purchased at the time of travel if available. I found it to be less stressful than sitting in uncertain traffic on the bus. If this train is fully-booked, there are other slower trains available.

Tuesday 29th June 1999

Just as I begin to recover from my jet-lag it's time to get on the move again. This time it's Hiroshima for a couple of days. My flight is from Haneda, Tokyo's second international airport. Got a taxi from the office to Hamamatsucho station, then the monorail through to the terminal. The whole journey was under an hour.

Well Hiroshima airport is a far cry from either of the Tokyo airports. I've arrived and because of the rain the bus to Hiroshima train station isn't running. The options are to wait over an hour for a bus to a convenient railway station (Mihara) or get a taxi to Mihara. I've opted for the taxi. I'm now standing in the queue. There have been three taxis in the last half hour and I'm sixth in line. At this rate I'll be catching the bus anyway. In Tokyo you don't wait for Taxis, they wait for you! I'm in no real hurry, but I'm very tired. It's difficult to believe that they wouldn't lay on extra busses.

Well, of course no sooner had I written that then the following happened: A bus turned up. All but one of the people in the queue disappeared to get on it. I could see it was not my bus and the gentleman in front of me offered to share a cab to the station. Almost immediately the previous queue returned and retook their places (not unreasonable in Japan), it hadn't been their bus either. Another bus arrived - it was an EXTRA BUS! The whole line, me included, shot off down the pavement and squeezed onto it. The driver got out and loaded some bags. Ten minutes later he still hadn't got back in the bus. Of course the moment, the exact moment, we had left the taxi rank one pulled up, then another, then another. I was saving the company money though by using the bus... To hell with the money, I eventually got a taxi.

I'm beginning to think that this journey is some kind of a test. The taxi driver drove like a maniac narrowly avoiding two collisions. After having reached Mihara in one piece I was nevertheless glad I'd not to have taken the bus. It was a good twenty minutes by cab, so a slow crowded bus would have been a nightmare. I'm now sat comfortably in an air-conditioned bullet train bound for Hiroshima (I think)!