Monday, 31 January 2005

Eye Mate Tokyo

On my way home from work tonight (just half an hour ago) on my train was a regular guide dog (pretty much the same as the ones we see in Australia). It was pretty unusual, in fact it was the first one I had seen in Japan. I noticed on the back of it's colar and headgear it said "Eye Mate Tokyo" which I assume is the organisation which trains the dog. What was interesting was that when the man and the do got off the train, his commands were in English, despite hime obviously not being exactly fluent in the language. It was kind of funny (bad I know!) when the man was yelling out "READ! READ!" and the dog didn't understand that he was trying to say "LEAD! LEAD!".

The dog stood there really confused. The fact that half the passengers were transfering to another train on the same platform didn't help matters. He didn't know if his master wanted to leave the station or change trains. I bet the "READ!" commands didn't help either. The man was very, very frustrated.

Sunday, 30 January 2005

Bowling and Singing!

Went bowling last night and karaokeing tonight in celebration of Carmen's farwell! Tonight was the last time I would see her for a while though she might be working in Hong Kong so I might see her in September!!! :D

Friday, 28 January 2005

Pokemon The Park 2005

I'm so there! Check out Pokemon The Park 2005!!! Just like out of the 6th movie with Jirachi! Yes, everyone, I'm still a Pokemon freak! Can't wait for this.

How old am I again? ;)

Wednesday, 26 January 2005

Week in Review

Did a fair bit this week! Last Tuesday Brenton and I went and saw Sumo! It was great to see but I can honestly say that there's no way I'd go again. We sat there for about 4 hours and each match almost always lasting no longer than 5 seconds (I'm not exagerating!). Most of the audience didn't seem that interested in it though there was one guy a few rows down that was a little too enthusiastic with his jumping up and down and clapping 30 claps a second. I guess he really likes his sumo!

The day after Sumo I headed into Shibuya and bought my ticket for Bejing! I'll be flying out 6:10pm on the 23rd Feb and getting back 7:20pm 28th Feb. Should be great! I only wish my Lonely Planet Bejing book would arrive so I can plan out my trip more! I've decided I'll get a hotel when I arrive (no booking). I've heard too many stories about dodgey hotels on the internet in China.

Carmen from work had her farewell party the other night. I didn't drink too much as I was still hungover from Ash's birthday party the night before! Good times. Getting pretty social lately!

I'm planning a trip up to Sengendai before I go to Beijing. Long time readers will remember Sengendai is the city where I wanted to live in Japan. Looks like I'll finally get to see it!

Tuesday, 18 January 2005

Observation.

Well I was a bit sick last night and so was Carmen, so we called off the Fish Markets last night and while I'm feeling better today, Carmen's actually feeling worse so she'll be missing out on Sumo today. I still havn't decided if I'm up for it today. I'm waiting to hear back from Brenton.

Also worth noting is that I had my 1 year observation a few days ago. This will have a big impact on wether my contract gets renewed for another year. I think it went pretty well, and the guy that observed me says it went well. we havn't sat down and talked about in in depth yet though. Here's hoping! I'd like to stay until at least December.

Wish me luck!

Saturday, 15 January 2005

Back in the flow...

Have pretty much settled into Nova again now. Actually it only took about 5 minutes to get back into it. Everyone seems to be much more positive this year. Could have been that we all needed a break or that a certain someone is less present this year at work. ;)

Two guys are leaving at the end of this month; Carmen, a great gal from Canada and Kerry, a fellow Aussie from Sydney. It sucks that so many people are leaving but I'm sure we'll get to know some great new guys as well who take their place.

Have organised to go to a Sumo match with Carmen and a few guys from work before she leaves. Might try and fit in the fish markets as well which I've been wanting to see for a while.

Oh, I caught the final Sailormoon musical on Wednesday night with Yosenex which was great! We got to know these two gals from the states who were also anime fans so we grabbed some food afterwards. Good times. It's a shame the musicals might not be returning. Here's hoping the rumours are false.

Friday, 7 January 2005

I Heart Japan

Wow... you know, my enthusiasm for Japan has really changed after my 3 week stay in Australia. Don't get me wrong, Australia still has it over Japan in every possible way but as soon as I arrived at the airport I was actually feeling happy to be back in Japan!

It's really strange, I don't know why my oppinion is now so positive! I was digging the scenery yesterday and I even had a nonstressful trip on the train from Narita to the Ueno (though I did unintentionally ride on a first class express train for a few stops. I just thought they'd fixed the trains up). I pretty much stayed in yesterday arvo and watched a few dvds while catching up on some sleep.

I decided to head into Tokyo to grab myself a new business suit and while waiting at our station, the most pleasant thing happened to me; a complete stranger said good morning to me! (In Japanese of course!) This made my day and really did change my idea of the average Tokyite. This just goes to show how everyone represents their country, whether visiting another country or simple going about your day in your local city. He went out of his way to make me feel welcomed and now I'm posting my account of what happened online for others to read and perhaps their (i.e. your) oppinion of Japan's people will change for the better as well.

Moral of the story? Say good morning to a complete stranger.

Sales are on in Tokyo!!! Got 40% off a designer suit and I love it! Great service. Had a blast at OIOI in Ueno. The guy that served me didn't speak any English, but we managed and had a bit of a laugh about it. I was very suprised to find that they sell the trousers of the suits, uncut/tailored. When you buy them, they get you to try it on and they clip the legs up to the proper length and I now get to pick up my trousers next week, completely suited (Excuse the pun!) for my body width and height! Great stuff. (I got to take the Jacket home today!

After shopping, I checked out the FINAL Godzilla movie; Godzilla: Final Wars and I loved it! I walked in expecting Japanese film cheese, but was blown away by the high speed story, great special effects and some great sequences set in Sydney, Australia!!! The Japanese Godzilla battles the USA Godzilla in Darling Harbour, and then moves on to Circular Quay! The first thing to go is the Centrepoint Tower, the Harbour Bridge is decimated offscreen, and then the Opera House gets completely obliterated!!! I loved this movie! I've only seen a few Godzilla films, but from what I saw almost every monster in the entire history of the series cameoed in this film with my two faves getting a lot of screentime; Mothra and that 3 headed golden dragon thing whose name I can't remember.

5 stars!

Sunday, 2 January 2005

Evolution

I've recently become aware of several changes that I have undergone since being back in Australia. One (which I'm happy has happened) is that I'm now ready to return to Japan. I love Australia, and firmly believe that as a country and people we have it over Japan in every conceivable way, but now I'm refrshed, reenergised and ready to finish what I started... though perhaps for not as long as I originally thought, simply because... well, Australia's better.

It's far too easy to start bitching about Japan (as anyone who has lived and worked in, not visited Japan will tell you). Racism, lying, aural hygiene, lack of self worth and identity, a completely decimated environment and lack of understanding of other cultures and countries...

...the positive features of this country are so artificial and emotionally sterile that I'm physically cringing while writing this. I'm returning because:

a) The money's good.
b) Travel to other countries (especially Asia) is shit cheap.
c) A deep sense of denial wherein I believe that a country as famous as Japan has got to be better, right? Maybe I just missed out on something in first few months?

Japan is a country which has actually benefited from it's stereotypical image shared by the rest of the world. Ironically most of this image is positive where the actualy issue is the opposite.

1) Japanese people are so polite! (While I have met some genuinely nice people in Japan, I've found the majority to lie and completely rewrite their own memory so they can see themeselves in a positive light. Plus there's the profound racism which is simply accepted as a part of life in Japan. They love Tom Cruise, but they wouldn't sit next to him on the train.

2) Japan is so clean! (This really depends of your definition of clean. Yes the shopping malls and stations are cleaned on a regular basis but the citizens constantly spit and urinate in public, 80% of the population appear to smoke and 0% of the restaurants and bars are smoke free. My health has been seriously affected by my stay here.
Something else worth mentioning is the disrespect for nature. Most people see it as a force to be controlled (hence the concrete parks) and think deforestation is a sign of social strength and that whales are the cause of fish shortage (nevermind the fact that Japan eats about 2/3 of the world's consumed seafood). Littering is common place, as are backyard burnoffs despite them being illegal. We have a river near our house with numerous carp that constantly jump here and there out of the water. We joke that they're trying to escape from the pollution.

3) Japanese people are so smart! (70% of high school children didn't know the Earth revolved around the Sun & in school, they deemed Pi as being too hard so they replaced it with "3".)

4) What about the technology! (Don't even go there. In most aspects of day to day life, Japanese society is about 20 years behind Australia).

As I said, it's far too easy to bitch about Japan. I forgot where I was going with this...

Anyway, I'm heading back and am looking forward to saving up at least AU$10,000 by December and traveling to other parts of Asia and maybe even a trip to Europe (I bought myself a Teach Yourself instant Spanish set today and a Teach Yourself French One Day Course CD to help me prepare myself.)