September 2001

Saturday 1st September 2001

There was a big explosion in the Kabukicho area of Tokyo yesterday evening, thought to have been a gas leak. Forty-four people were killed. I only found out about it when Justine and Keith emailed me from the UK. It's not unusual for me to hear about earthquakes and such like in this way. I don't watch much Japanese TV.

My evening had consisted of a lot of drinking and a visit to a club, then more drinking. When I finally got home in the early hours, I didn't have my key. After ringing the doorbell and phoning Yuki many times to no avail, I gave up and took a taxi to a capsule hotel in Akasaka. I'd wanted to try one of these at some point anyway, so it was not a big problem. My capsule was about three foot wide, three foot tall and six feet six long. The door was just a pull down curtain. It had a TV, not that I was in any state to watch it, and toothbrushes and washing facilities were available. At only three thousand yen (about seventeen pounds) it is ideal for those nights when people miss their last train home or have a barney with the wife!

Tonight I'm off to Roppongi to watch the England Germany world cup qualifying football match. Trouble is it doesn't start until two-thirty in the morning Japanese time!

Sunday 2nd September

I'm a bit tired today as I didn't get in until about five this morning. No regrets whatsoever though, England gave Germany a sound five one thrashing in Munich yesterday! Firstly, I went to karaoke with Marlon, Yukiko and a whole load of their friends. Then I met Charlie and Rob in the new "Tavern" pub in Roppongi to see our boys roast our arch-rivals. Germany actually scored first, so from the point of our equalising goal onward, the night just got better and better. Taking all things into consideration, I don't think I've ever enjoyed a game of football as much as that one. With the background of so many recent disappointments against Germany, the supporters had a well deserved, totally ecstatic night. There were even a few free beers handed out! The bar had rather unwisely (in retrospect knowing the score) offered to give a free pint for every England goal! Unsurprisingly, they did not honour that promise. Regardless of that, it was a fantastic night to live on long in my memory. Let's hope we can beat Albania and Greece now to guarantee the team's trip out here next year for the world cup.

Sunday 8th September 2001

At last! We're now aboard flight PR431 heading for Manila. More about that later.

On Thursday I met up with Steven. Steven is a guy who emailed me after reading "When You're Big In Japan". He'd come to Japan en route to Australia. I met him in Shinjuku. He was to be near the pyramid in front of Shinjuku Station. As I approached, I saw this slim figure dressed entirely in black and wearing a cowboy hat. He was Canadian, so I guess he could be forgiven. Fortunately as I got closer, I realised my cowboy friend was actually a middle-aged Japanese man! Steven was from Toronto, so this was very unlikely to be him. I agree one should not judge a book by its cover, but this was one book I would rather not be seen reading. It turned out we were stood at different pyramids. Steven was a twenty-eight year old with far less embarrassing fashion sense.

Anyway, Steve and I had a couple of beers in the Hub and a bite to eat. I discovered the friends he has in Tokyo had no plans to take him to Roppongi. Now Roppongi is not the most Japanese of places, but on the other hand, this is Japan and Roppongi is the nightlife centre of Tokyo, so I think that makes it pretty Japanese, if not typically Japanese. If you drink beer, and you like a bit of action, then in my opinion, you can't do Tokyo without doing Roppongi. So for that reason, we made our way there. Even though it was mid evening on a Thursday, Roppongi didn't disappoint. It took a while to warm up, but even the Empty Bar was busy by the time we arrived. I won't be renaming it though, as it soon started to revert to its normal state..

All in all, we had a good night, sank a few beers, chewed a lot of fat and admired a few of the locals (Steven also has what is untactfully called "yellow fever") before taking the subway home. I have a feeling he will be back someday.

Back to today. We're flying down to Mactan, an island in the Philippines, near Cebu. It's rainy season now, so I'm just hoping it takes a break now and then. One of the main attractions of the area is that it has, reportedly, the "highest concentration of marine life in the world". Hopefully we'll get some good snorkelling in. I absolutely love swimming through the reef with the tropical fish. I'm hoping to introduce Yuki to Bob. Bob is a big trigger fish I met in Okinawa last year. Yuki says she knows Bobby, Bob's wife! Now I've written that, she's trying to backtrack, but I know it's true or she would never have said it in the first place.

Thursday 13th September 2001

Thankfully the rainy season has occurred almost entirely during the night, when it has rained like I've never seen before. The days have been hot and sunny. We rented out a boat and two crew to take us to some good snorkelling spots - only fifty pounds for the day! Another day, again at a very good price, we went on a fun scuba-diving trip. I've been a bit disappointed with the fish we've seen, and especially with the lack of colourful live coral - the Filipinos have destroyed most of it by blast fishing, poisoning and harvesting for souvenirs. Okinawa was much more impressive in this respect. We did see Bob though! He is the only large fish we've seen so far - no sign of his wife!

Everybody here is after your money. They have no problem resorting to self-pity as they tell you that making and selling shark tooth jewellery is their business, implying they will starve if you don't buy something. We were warned away from going to the main shopping street, Colon Street, in Cebu City, but after getting the taxi driver to drive past it, we decided it didn't look too bad, and went anyway. It was fine, but a place where you should remove all visible wealth such as jewellery (sharks teeth would probably be okay) to avoid it being snatched. We've also been to a couple of huge shopping malls, similar to western ones (except for the security guards on every door). There is a big difference between the people who shop in these malls and those who live on Mactan Island (outside the guarded resorts) and other areas of Cebu. Most people are living in shacks made of wood and tin. Their shops have no security guards, just food, drink and other such luxuries. I imagine this poverty is one reason why they turn to the brutal "sport" of cockfighting for entertainment. These birds are seen on tethers and in cages everywhere.

Although we've been using taxis, the main means of transport here is the jeepney, a small covered truck, originally created from excess US jeeps at the end of World War II. We've tried a jeepney, the fare was about six British pennies. Another very common way to get around the smaller roads in the suburbs is the tricycle, a small motorbike attached to a large sidecar. They can legally carry seven passengers, but often carry more!

The resort itself, Tambuli Beach Resort, is very nice. We have use of two other adjoining resorts owned by the same company, Cebu Beach Club being the best. The Filipinos just outside the gate could only dream of this sort of comfort, and would never consider of paying the food and drink prices. That said, it is still very cheap for the tourists, mostly from Japan. A beer inside the resort is fifty pesos (ninety pence) compared with about two pounds thirty in the UK, and five pounds in Tokyo. Outside the resort, we're told a beer costs only twenty-four pence.

Incidentally, if you go to the Philippines looking for illegal copies of software programmes, be prepared to be largely disappointed. There is very little on offer, and nothing from the big software companies. Malaysia is a much better bet. I personally, of course would not be interested in such copyright theft!

We learned today about the horror in New York. It's been difficult getting details, as we've only got Philippine TV, but from the pictures and the large amount of English mixed in with the Filipino language, it is easy to see what a huge tragedy it is. An American I spoke to said it looked like a scene from a Hollywood blockbuster. It is so unbelievable that such tragic devastation could occur in a place like Manhattan, that it really does seem unreal. I really feel for those innocent people whose lives have been lost or devastated. I feel especially for the crew of the planes forced to fly into those easy targets. God bless them all.

Thursday 27th September 2001

It's 4:33 am, and Arsenal are one nil down at Panathanaikos as the half time whistle blows.

Last Saturday a bunch of us blokes from work went down to Atami for Lee Butcher's stag party. We spent Saturday afternoon to Sunday lunchtime in Atami, which is a seaside town about an hour and a half Southwest of Tokyo. It was a national holiday on the Monday, but still this little town was pretty quiet. Nevertheless, we managed to find enough bars, karaoke boxes and restaurants to keep us supplied with booze and grub. As is normal on these trips, we all had a good laugh and came back with many beer-blurred memories. For some of us, the evening of Sunday was a continuation of the stag do, at the Black Lion in Meguro. That was just about as much as I could take after also having attended a big karaoke leaving party for a colleague on Friday night. Our visit to Yuki's sister's house on Monday took all the grit I could muster! That said, after a few hairs of the dog, it was a good afternoon, and my Japanese niece and nephew are always so entertaining.

Getting back to the present, the second half is underway, and I'm praying Arsenal can at least manage to pull this game back to a draw.