March 2000

Wednesday 1st March 2000

Had my 36th birthday on Saturday. The way I felt on Saturday morning after a very heavy Friday night was not at all pleasant. I had an extremely quiet day on my birthday, just chilling out. Yuki cooked me a wonderful birthday dinner and we paid a brief visit to an equally quiet Mad Mulligan's.

On Sunday, feeling refreshed, we went to a friend's housewarming party near Yokohama. It was also a joint celebration for myself and another guy from the office who's birthday also happened to be on Saturday. It was the first time I'd had "Happy Birthday" sung to me by a four piece band!

Since creating the Mad Mulligan's web site, I've had two offers of web design work! Very flattering I must say, but I shan't be giving up the day job just yet! What's the going rate for web design? I've also registered my own internet domain name now. I'm fed up with the poor reliability of some of the free services (although my free ISP is very good). I am now the proud owner of:

WWW.RICKTHERAZOR.COM

This address is still in the set-up phase, but will be fully operational in a few days. I was very surprised how cheap it is to do this now.

Sunday 5th March 2000

Well I'm getting a bit impatient now because my web domain name is still not fully assigned. Nothing to do with Japan, it's an American company that's dragging it's feet.

Friday night a bunch of visitors and myself went on a hopeless mission to Shibuya to eventually find a restaurant which had a queue as long as your arm. After returning to Akasaka and eating in their hotel (one of the few places still serving), the night looked like being a bit of a flop. I took a taxi back to Mad Mulligan's for a couple of drinks. To cut a long story short I ended up getting home, via Roppongi, at about five or six in the morning! I was awoken by the delivery man with my new CD cabinet at half past twelve on Saturday morning, no... make that Saturday afternoon.

Yuki and I went to see "The Sixth Sense" at the cinema yesterday. Fortunately the cinema was not full so we didn't have to run to get a seat. In this film Bruce Willis plays the part of a ghost. If you've not seen this film yet, don't bother. It's a really good film, but I've just completely ruined it for you!!!

Today we went to see Oasis in concert at the Yokohama Arena. The merchandise for the concert was very expensive, a simple T-shirt was 3,500 yen, over twenty quid. Luckily an English bloke had followed the band out to Japan, and was selling a much more attractive product, a Man City replica Oasis branded shirt, at only 2000 yen!

The concert was very good, not flashy, just good solid music. One irritating thing about it was the army of stewards walking around beforehand with megaphones telling the crowd an endless number of times that just about everything was not allowed at this concert. Yuki blew her nose, but luckily she wasn't spotted! This does appear to be a bit of a general thing in Japan, the people are forever being told what they can, can't, should and shouldn't do. In England this sort of control would be met with fierce opposition, but here it seems to be widely accepted. The Japanese appear quite happy to follow instructions from officials, regardless of any good reasoning behind such instructions. This is one thing you really have to just accept as a westerner in Japan, or you would regularly boil over with frustration!

Sunday 12th March 2000

Yesterday was "Irish sports day" at the YCAC club, a country club near Yokohama. As part of the Crusaders football team we beat an Irish team in the semi-final, but after several hours standing around in the cold, we were beaten about five nil in the final. I didn't have a clue what was going on in some of the traditional Irish games I watched. It would have been a good day if we had won, or even if the sun had shone, but as it was I was a completely shattered, freezing cold loser.

Not to let the disappointment get me down, Yuki and I went to a karaoke bar in the evening to meet Rob and Yuki's friend, Yasuyo. This Karaoke bar was more like the type you'd expect in England, one large room, not separate booths. One big difference was the availability of musical instruments if you could play. It was the second anniversary party of this bar, so there was a special rate of 3000 yen entrance and all drinks (from a selection) were free - a very good deal. Of our group only Rob, a regular here, got up and sang. He's not a bad singer actually, but I think he ought to keep the day job! Yuki and I rounded off the night at a sushi bar, a lot more cultured and far less greasy than a kebab shop!

Thursday 16th March 2000

Since moving offices to the Akasaka area, the number of fascist busses rolling by has increased dramatically. These busses have megaphones on them and constantly blare out extremely loud fascist messages. If their aim is to frighten off foreigners, they're out of luck with me. Because the normal Japanese people are so pleasant, and I can't understand a word these right wing ignoramii are saying anyway, it's a mere distraction when I'm in a meeting or trying to concentrate on more constructive things.

There is only one group of people that have shown any noticeable racism toward me in Japan. It is not just me, but any westerner (or maybe any non-Japanese, I don't know). Taxi drivers! Most of the taxi drivers are polite and keep themselves to themselves, they probably speak very little English anyway. Some are chatty and very friendly, enjoying the challenge of trying to communicate in our pigeon languages. A significant minority however, will not even let you into their cab. They half look at you and look away again, so as to say "I don't want your custom" (maybe they're thinking something less polite). I got into a taxi earlier this week. The driver was so angry! Not with me, but with the two taxis ahead of him that had refused to admit me. This man was actually very apologetic for the terrible behaviour of his "colleagues" and said that I should write down their numbers and report them. I don't let it worry me, but it does give an insight into the feelings of people who, even at home, must regularly face discrimination.

On Tuesday we had a department dinner to welcome new members to the team. As much as I enjoyed the dinner, and knowing from previous occasions that the whole evening would be fun, I had to leave at nine o'clock. This was because it was White Day, March 14th, the second phase of the Japanese Valentine's day. To not see your girlfriend could be more trouble than it's worth!