Trick

Here is a 10 minute clip from Japanese TV show, Trick. This is from the first episode, where Naoko (Yukie Nakama) meets Dr. Ueda for the first time.

Whats goin on ?

So, again I am not keeping this blog as up to date as I would like, but the lack of a computer and other things in my life have made it difficult to get online regularly.

Here it is as quiet as ever. Spring has snuck up on us here and made the days considerably warmer and more pleasant. Cherry Blossoms have begun to bloom, filling Japan with rose tinted beauty.

The downside to this is the return of my nemesis.

The Kagawa Mosquito.

Last year, on my trips to visit Shiori, I was like the local blood filled pub for these little bastards.

So far in about a week, I've gained about 5 bites...maybe I'll start a Mosquito bite blog....

Last weekend myself and Shiori hooked up with Jen (on of my co-workers) and her boyfriend, Paul, who works in Tadotsu. It was cool to get out and about again, even though I still miss my friend back in Saijo.

I am beginning to feel like an outsider at this school. Not living in the clique area of over priced NOVA accomodation and having made my intentions clear about applying for the AT position in my branch I have a feeling that I am being excluded. Maybe I am being paranoid, but its a little weird.

I have my AT interview scheduled for Monday, so fingers, toes and other bendy body parts crossed!!!!!

Um...what else...I am also into a cool Japanese TV show that Shiori has on DVD with English subtitles called Trick. Imagine a funky, actually funny Jonathan Creek with the strangeness of say, Spaced or the League of Gentlemen. It stars the lovely Yukie Nakama as a magician who with the help of an assistant Physics professor, try to prove that there is a trick behind every spiritualist. The chemistry between the two leads is great, the humour is clever as it jumps from slapstick to innuendo to black humour with ease.

Anyhoo, I am off to kill a mosquito thats circling me like a hungry vulture...

NOVA teacher murdered

In the news over here is the sad and shocking story that a 22 year old NOVA teacher from Coventry, UK was found murdered in Tokyo yesterday.

From the BBC report -

A woman found buried in sand in a bathtub in Japan has been named by police as 22-year-old missing Briton Lindsay Ann Hawker.

Colleagues identified the body of the English teacher, from Brandon near Coventry, found on a fourth-floor flat balcony in Ichikawa, east of Tokyo.

The cause of death is not yet known but there were bruises on the victim's face, the BBC's Chris Hogg said.

Police are hunting a man who fled the apartment in Chiba prefecture.

The full story is here -
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6498019.stm

BEER!

The Japanese LOVE beer. Which makes life somewhat difficult for me when I am in the supermarket or convenience store deciding what golden brew to purchase.

The main brewers are Kirin, Asahi, Sapporo, Suntory and Orion. I have included some links to their official sites below.

http://www.kirin.com/

http://www.asahibeer.co.jp/english/

http://www.sapporobeer.jp/english/

I think that Kirin is my favourite and has a large selection of different beers, lagers and malts.
Japanese breweries also produce beer for different seasons, so it is common to see Autumn, Winter and Hanami brews.

Taken from Wikipedia-

Japanese beer had its start during the Edo Period when the Dutch opened beer halls for the sailors who worked on the trade route between Japan and the Dutch Empire. Japanese-style commercial brewing has been exported to much of southeast Asia and factories are spread throughout the world.

Beer is the most favoured alcoholic drink in Japan. It was introduced in the early Meiji period from Germany. Major makers are Asahi, Kirin, and Sapporo while small local breweries supply distinct tasting beers. Lager beers are most common but beers made with lower grain contents called "Happoushu" (low malt beer, sparkling alcoholic drink) have captured a large part of the market as tax is lower on these products. Drinking beer with salted boiled beans, edamame, is known as a favourite summer pastime for adults.

Also, check out - http://www.brewers.or.jp/english/index.html

This has some history and facts about Japanese beer!!!

Bloc Party!

On the 6th I headed back to Osaka for another live show with Evan. This time Bloc Party. I loved their first record "Silent Alarm", and have been impressed with their follow up " A weekend in the City" (from which the above video is taken).

Having met up with Evan, dumped our bags and had something to eat and drink, we headed over to Namba Hatch to rock out. And they did indeed rock the place. Evan saw them at Summer Sonic a few years ago and later said that they have tightened up as a band.

The mainly Japanese crowd were really enthusiastic and got into the spirit of things in the unique Japanese way.

After our two Japanese friends that we'd made at the Wolfmother gig, and also came to this concert, took us to a small rock bar called Rock Rock, where they claimed Bloc Party would be. We were skeptical about this, but the place had good music and beer...

After about an hour 3 members of the band turned up...and we got autographs and spoke to Gorden Moakes the bassist and Russell Lissack the guitar player....

A good night!!!!

Official Website

www.blocparty.com

Tokyo 5 - Yokohama

So the final evening/day of our trip was spent in Yokohama, which is the second largest city in Japan and treads on the coat tails of Tokyo. Yokohama seemed on first impressions to be more open than Tokyo and the bay area in which we stayed was quite beautiful (despite the strong wind!).

The Pan Pacific Hotel was amazing. We were on the 23rd floor, with some amazing views of the bay, and had access to a private bar area, which looked out onto the city too. The staff were great here and its one of the best hotels I have stayed in.

We took a trip to Yokohama's Chinatown which is the largest in Japan. It was pretty cool, with plenty of Chinese food and atmosphere. I found it a little strange why Street vendors kept giving me their horse chestnuts for free...

I definately recommend Yokohama for a few days if you travel to Tokyo. It's a nice diversion and has an atmosphere of its own.

Yokohama

TOKYO 4 - erm, Tokyo!

So on the third day of our trip the weather worsened. We had be fortunate during our two days at Disney for clear blue skies, and a gentle breeze, but on Friday, the skies darkened and the heavens opened. This didn't really deter or dampen my spirits. I wasn't waiting in queues or outside for large portions of the time.


My first impressions of Tokyo ?

Massive.

The Sprawl (for those that know William Gibson).

Hectic.

Cramped.

Exciting.

Those are only a few things that I could say about this huge beast of a city. In many ways Tokyo is Japan INC. It's face to the world. A neon drenched hub of activity, with masses of concrete and steel and yet with smaller peaceful moments found in unexpected places. Tokyo was a surprise, a joy and a disappointment. It is a contradiction of a city.

ODIBA

This is were we stayed our second night, and in the morning we decided to have a look around the place. Most of Tokyo is shopping, shopping, shopping with wierd moments in between. If you're looking for tradition head to Kyoto or Nara, but in Tokyo the range of shops and items on sale is fantastic.

Check out the photo of CondoMania. Yes, a shop that is an exclusive Condom Only shop. And it's unsurprisingly a lot of fun.

We also wasted some time at Joyopolis, an indoor amusement park, which has photo's dotted around of the many celebrities that have been there. Michael Jackson, Leonardo Di Caprio, Freddie Prinze Jnr....(well not ALL celebrities).

AKIHARBARA

One of the most (in)famous districts of Tokyo is Akiharbara. It's main claim to fame is that is a sea of electronic shops, and therefore is a magnet for the Otaku (Japanese for geek). If you want something electric, you will find it in Akiharbara.

It's also famous for a strange kind of Otaku sexual fantasy. The maid.

Therefore, as we excited the station small groups of girls dressed in short or leather (or both) maid outfits were trying to elicit men to visit their Maid cafes. Which is exactly what it says on the tin. Maids serve you tea. In short skirts.

Japanese sexuality is an odd thing.

Shinjuku

After we'd had enough in Akiharbara we headed across to Shinjuku, which although busy is a much more "normal" shopping district. The one thing that struck me about Shinjuku, apart from the size of the station is the smell of curry! Shiori informed that the CurryPan (delicious curry bread) is famous in this area.

Shinjuku

Shinjuku....bloody hell, I can never escape NOVA!

Akiharbara

Akiharbara..famous for electronics. And Maids. Well attractive Japanese girls dressed up as maids...

The maid theme even goes as far as Vending Machines. Maid Coffee anyone ?

Odiba

This striking building is the Fuji TV headquarters..a bit more striking than the Beebs Television Centre eh ?

This is a rather striking sign for a shop called "CondoMania"....guess what they sold....

Tokyo 3 - Monogatari Onsen in Odiba

So, after saying farewell to Disney we headed on over to Tokyo, and our first stop was the Monogatari Onsen in Odiba. I will talk more about Odiba in my next post, as I want to talk about the Onsen where we stayed the night.

After two long days of walking and waiting, the relaxing waters of an onsen sounded like a Godsend. We made our way, heavy luggage in tow across to Odiba, and arrived at the onsen just as it started to rain.

We had plans to go out for dinner, so instead of choosing the wonderful Yukata, you can see me wearing in the pictures below, we were given temporary orange ones, and shuffled through the shops, upstairs to the rooms.

Our room was a nice traditional tatami room with an outside bath and shower/steam room. Sleeping on the futon later that night was great. I'm not sure if this was because of how tired I was, the outside bath I had taken or the softness of my Futon.

The Monogatari Onsen was a really nice place to crash and relax after the two hectic days of Disney-ness!!!

www.ooedoonden.jp

Oedo Onsen Monogatari

Tokyo 2 - DisneyLand

After spending a great night in the Hotel Miracosta, it was time to get up fairly early, check out and avoid the queuing crowds at Disneyland. Thankfully we were able to leave our luggage at the Miracosta and head off to the Park with a fairly light baggage load.

To get from DisneySea to Disneyland you can walk or take the rather fun, monorail, see my photos below. In fact the monorail also offers great views of the park (like the one above).

Luckily at Disneyland we avoid the queues for entry, either because we were late or not many people were coming...it proved out to be the former. Disneyland was PACKED. Although not as bad as I'd feared, but still busy.

This is mainly due to the amount of kids that come here. DisneySea is more adult themed, with a little less of the cuteness that saturates Disneyland. Mind you, the Spinning TeaCup ride is a dizzying blast and Pooh's shop is really cute.

The amount of snacks avaliable at Disney is mind boggling...Hotdogs, Pastries, and most importantly, POPCORN. They have a myriad of flavours here, from Caramel and Salted to Strawberry and Honey. Most bizzare, and quiet nice is Curry flavour!

The parades here lacked the impact of the shows at DisneySea, but that didn't stop people lining up at least 2 hours before a schedualed show.

As for the rides, again the FastPass system allowed us to take the Big Splash Mountain ride (again well done to Shiori!!!!) and for me to take the Big Thunder Mountain rollercoaster. We also had simple fun on an electronic raceway, which proved I am not a great driver!!!

I had much more fun at Disney than I thought I could. Somehow I'd always avoided the supposed magic of the Florida and Paris attractions. But being there makes you feel like a child again...