After Kevin had had so many days out in Tokyo, we decided that we’d go and see Yokohama on the Saturday. Neither of us had been and it's a city the size of Paris that is more visible from my side of the bay than Tokyo. If Yokohama was in any other developed country it would be one of the largest cultural, financial and industrial hubs, but placed, as it is, next to the largest city in the world, it’s just a shadow of Tokyo. Its Tokyo’s little brother but it also has a lot going for it. It probably has the most multicultural history of almost anywhere in Japan and claims to have the largest Chinatown outside of China. Yokohama is the city with the second largest population and yet it seems to be vastly underrepresented in the guidebooks. I suppose it's a case of why have cotton when you can have silk? Why have Yokohama when you can have Tokyo?
Yokohama station was like all major Japanese railway stations; a vast labyrinth teeming with people. Kevin was on a mission to validate his JR pass and I was on a mission to find the popular import shop that Kathryn had spoken so highly of. I didn’t find any of the pickle that I was hoping for but I did find some quirky and banal English imports, such as Coleman’s Mustard and Lea and Perrin’s. It’s sad how these trivial familiarities have now become a novelty. After we met up with Kevin’s friend from Switzerland, we went on a whistle stop tour of Chinatown and the promenade, then took the worlds fastest passenger lift up what is currently the tallest building in Japan; the Landmark Tower. The view was the best I’ve had yet of Tokyo Bay and the bar at the top was remarkably underinflated in price, which was a nice surprise.
It was raining for most of Sunday and so we took shelter in the underground city of walkways in Shinjuku. There are literally miles of tunnels around Shinjuku leading to shops, cinemas, restaurants and the looming government buildings. There must have been millions of yen invested into these projects over the last few decades. You could probably spend a weeks underground visiting a different shop ever 15mins and you’d only run out of shops after 3 months solid. The network really is colossal. All I wanted was a Uni-Clo, which we found plenty of. I bought myself a nice new pair of trousers for school and they even readjusted the length to my request, free of charge. So much better service than you’d find in the UK.
Tomorrow I’m off to visit Vicky in Yamanashi, the prefecture with Mount Fuji in. Kevin’s currently in Hiroshima but he’s coming up to meet me too. We’ve been promised karaoke, lakes, festivals and Fuji-san. Should be a good weekend. Can’t wait.
Thursday, 27 May 2010
Friday, 21 May 2010
Kevin has landed
I had one of the most entertaining weekends since I arrived. It was the first weekend with Kevin around and so we headed into Tokyo, for a 48-hour bender. After an evening in Roppongi, one of Kevin’s friends kindly put us up in his very un-Japanese sized apartment. He had a spare room that was larger than my entire flat… well almost. The sun was out and so we decided to have brunch in Yoyogi Park, then spent hours exploring some of the most fashionable parts of Tokyo; around Shibuya and Harajuku. Soon enough it was time to start drinking again and so we cracked open some chu-hi (what is fast becoming my drink of choice) and met up with some other gaijin in Yoyogi Park. Kevin couldn’t resist the temptation of buying a fancy dress, one-piece Elmo costume in Don Kihote and as darkness began to fall he was quickly persuaded to put it on. Elmo and I trekked around a Thai festival for a while, looking for dinner and were then invited to an isakaya with Kathryn et al. Once we met up Kathryn, she decided that Elmo was not appropriate for the establishment we were attending, then sure enough an hours drinking later Kevin was again convinced to put the costume on. The remainder of the night was a blur and I’m not entirely sure how we all got home but the train home with Elmo was probably one of the most surreal and hilarious train journeys of my life.
During Saturday night Kathryn had mentioned the Tokyo Design festival and managed to persuade everyone that that's where we were meeting the next day. It was being held in a huge exhibition centre called Tokyo Big Sight, that was on an artificial island in Tokyo Bay. We had agreed to be on our way by 10am, but realistically that was never going to happen. Me and Kevin arrived late afternoon and were not disappointed. The majority of the vast space was taken up by Spitalfield-esque independent arts, crafts, T-shirts, cards etc. artist’s stalls. There was a stage outside that had some unusual but very entertaining bands and in the central hall there were a performing arts stage, where we saw countless Japanese school children throwing some shapes. It had a really great carnival atmosphere and enough people dressed up in ridiculous outfits to keep us amused for hours
Kevin asked if he could come into school one day with me one day while he was visiting. I had a word with one of the teachers and Kevin came in with me on Monday. All the kids were as excited to see the gaijin visitor, as they were to see me on my first day. There were several questions about if we were related ranging from; ‘are you twins?’ to ‘are you brothers’ and the slightly less educated ‘are you sisters?’. We gave a little presentation about Switzerland to three of the classes, none of whom knew where Switzerland was or what languages they speak. The language question also generated some interesting responses. ‘What languages to they speak in Switzerland?’; ‘Chinese?’ ‘English?’ ‘Portuguese?’ and ‘Switzerlandish’.
One of the stranger discoveries of Japanese culture this week was finding out about what a ‘sasumata’ or ‘Japanese man catcher’ is. When Kevin was visiting school he asked me what this two meter long pole with a U shape at the end was. I hadn’t got a clue and hadn’t thought to ask because I assumed it to be something banal, an instrument to open high windows or something. However, a couple of days later I did ask and it turns out it's a ‘sasumata’, which traces its history to a medieval weapon that is used to pin an enemy down and restrain them. The archaic implement often had blades and barbs attached to it, luckily the one in school doesn’t. It would seem that after a few maniacs went into some schools and committed Dunblane style killings, decades ago, someone has managed to market these medieval weapons to schools. Each school has at least one at each entrance and several more outside the classroom. This seems a little odd, when Japan is more or less the safest country in the world.
I seem to have hit a wall with learning Japanese. This is something I was warned about. It all seemed fun learning all the kana and putting the sounds together and miraculously being able to read. Now I have the kanji to master, which is proving far more difficult. It’s an endless struggle and after the students were correcting several of the teacher’s kanji in class today, I feel like I might as well give up all hope. If the Japanese school teacher can’t get her head round kanji after who knows how many decades then how the hell am I ever going to be able to figure it out.
Today the weather was perfect. Roll on next week.
During Saturday night Kathryn had mentioned the Tokyo Design festival and managed to persuade everyone that that's where we were meeting the next day. It was being held in a huge exhibition centre called Tokyo Big Sight, that was on an artificial island in Tokyo Bay. We had agreed to be on our way by 10am, but realistically that was never going to happen. Me and Kevin arrived late afternoon and were not disappointed. The majority of the vast space was taken up by Spitalfield-esque independent arts, crafts, T-shirts, cards etc. artist’s stalls. There was a stage outside that had some unusual but very entertaining bands and in the central hall there were a performing arts stage, where we saw countless Japanese school children throwing some shapes. It had a really great carnival atmosphere and enough people dressed up in ridiculous outfits to keep us amused for hours
Kevin asked if he could come into school one day with me one day while he was visiting. I had a word with one of the teachers and Kevin came in with me on Monday. All the kids were as excited to see the gaijin visitor, as they were to see me on my first day. There were several questions about if we were related ranging from; ‘are you twins?’ to ‘are you brothers’ and the slightly less educated ‘are you sisters?’. We gave a little presentation about Switzerland to three of the classes, none of whom knew where Switzerland was or what languages they speak. The language question also generated some interesting responses. ‘What languages to they speak in Switzerland?’; ‘Chinese?’ ‘English?’ ‘Portuguese?’ and ‘Switzerlandish’.
One of the stranger discoveries of Japanese culture this week was finding out about what a ‘sasumata’ or ‘Japanese man catcher’ is. When Kevin was visiting school he asked me what this two meter long pole with a U shape at the end was. I hadn’t got a clue and hadn’t thought to ask because I assumed it to be something banal, an instrument to open high windows or something. However, a couple of days later I did ask and it turns out it's a ‘sasumata’, which traces its history to a medieval weapon that is used to pin an enemy down and restrain them. The archaic implement often had blades and barbs attached to it, luckily the one in school doesn’t. It would seem that after a few maniacs went into some schools and committed Dunblane style killings, decades ago, someone has managed to market these medieval weapons to schools. Each school has at least one at each entrance and several more outside the classroom. This seems a little odd, when Japan is more or less the safest country in the world.
I seem to have hit a wall with learning Japanese. This is something I was warned about. It all seemed fun learning all the kana and putting the sounds together and miraculously being able to read. Now I have the kanji to master, which is proving far more difficult. It’s an endless struggle and after the students were correcting several of the teacher’s kanji in class today, I feel like I might as well give up all hope. If the Japanese school teacher can’t get her head round kanji after who knows how many decades then how the hell am I ever going to be able to figure it out.
Today the weather was perfect. Roll on next week.
Tuesday, 11 May 2010
Golden times
The other week I came down with a serious case of the manflu. It really wasn’t all that bad fluy symptoms but as I’m a man it really was a big deal. It's a well known medical fact that the only equivalent to the suffering of manflu in womanhood is childbirth. Anyhow, I diagnosed myself with manflu the day before I had a class of 51 elementary (or junior school as we call them) children. It was by far the largest class I had had. I wouldn’t usually take a day off for such a trivial illness and I’ll make no exception in Japan. I had also been warned not to mention illness to the schools. Apparently they send you straight to the hospital for a check up and you have to take a day off as holiday.
It was my first day in the school with the 51 student class and so naturally I did my usual introduction lesson, where I shake every child’s hand as we introduce ourselves to each other. Then they all wanted a ‘high touch’ (or high five, as we might call them). Essentially, due to close proximity and ‘Westernised’ hand gestures, I’m pretty sure I managed to pass on my cold to every child in the town, as I had a class with every child in the school. Not only that but this was the day before the longest string of bank holidays in the Japanese calendar. Oh well.
Considering the fact that I was spreading disease throughout the community, I received one of the warmest welcomes of all the schools I teach in. The principal continually apologised for not speaking very much English and bombarded me with offers of drinks, snacks and help. She invited me in her office and seemed to expect me to use it as my own, when she headed off site for a meeting. At one point, at what seemed to be a welcoming ceremony for the 1st graders she burst into an English speech (with the help of her notes) and gave me a little introduction to the whole school.
The welcoming ceremony was also highly entertaining. It involved 1st years being paired up with older children to play games that always seemed to involve janken (rock, scissors, paper). And the grand finale involved 6 boys surging onto the stage in pink capes to demonstrate how the rest of the hall should dance to the track that had just begun blaring out of the tannoy speakers. No one battered an eyelid. This was apparently perfectly normal behaviour and within moments everyone in the hall was joining in.
Japan has a string of bank holidays around the beginning of May each year, which they call Golden Week. Unfortunately because the Japanese are all workaholics, many of the teachers and students go into school on these days off, mainly get a few extra sessions of club activities, such as baseball, music and soccer. Luckily they understand that I’m a lazy gaijin and so I headed off to a tropical island called Niijima but my first day of Golden Week was spent hiking in the Chiba countryside and visiting a monkey park.
The drive through the Chiba country-side was awe-inspiring. Although Chiba is relatively flat for Japan it would probably be one of the most mountainous regions of the UK. I caught a glimpse of the Tokyo Wan Kannon, which is this huge, white, Buddhist statue that stands proud over the bay. I didn’t really realise how nice some of the country side near me is, until I finally got there.
Our first destination was the monkey park and once we got there, we headed off in the opposite direction on a little hike, attempting to follow some impossible paths. Alex asked an old lady for some directions as to where the hiking route was. She said something about watching out for the river to which Alex shrugged off, seeing the little stream that had emerged down the path after all the recent rainfall. When we finally trudged our way to the bottom of the stream, we were met with a concrete gorge of a drop, which had a fast flowing river flowing about 9 inches deep, across the former path. After some umming and arring and consultation with the girls as to whether they wanted to go on, it was decided that the group wasn’t going to be beaten by a measly river. So one by one we climbed down the ladder and wadded through.
We were all a little exhausted from trudging through mud, streams and rivers and so the rest of the journey was a swift walk back to the car via a couple of lost looking cows. There was a suggestion of another walk that was quickly quashed and before we knew it we were in the Monkey sanctuary being heckled for food. Monkeys live wild across much of Japan and I was informed that these monkeys had a choice of leaving the sanctuary but wasn’t all that convinced by this statement, what with the 12 foot electric fences.
The rest of my Golden Week was spent on the island of Niijima. I had been recommended to go on this trip by some ALTs that went last year and really enjoyed it. I had asked the guys from orientation if they would be up for the trip and pretty much everyone was game. I told everyone I was putting my deposit down and a few days later it emerged that not everyone could afford it and so I had a choice of pulling out and losing half my deposit or going with a couple of guys I vaguely knew, and hopefully making some friends out there. Needless to say I went for the latter.
The island is an 8 hour ferry ride south of Tokyo. It was organised by a group called Tokyo Gaijins, that organise trips and extreme sports weekends for other foreigners that either want a little help sorting out there holiday or would just appreciate some English speaking company. It was very useful. I just paid my lump sum and they sorted out the tent, the bike hire, food and the ferries there and back. It also provided me with a network of English speakers to meet up with.
Strangely enough after waiting for the ferry for a couple of minutes I was approached by a chap that opened a conversation with something along the lines of ‘You’ve got a Sheffield vibe about you. Where are you from?’ I’m not sure if I would say that I’m from Sheffield but it was strange to meet a guy, on the other side of the world, whose parents live at the bottom of the hill from mine. It’s even stranger to think that I might have developed a Sheffield vibe. Anyhow, this chance meeting alone meant that the Tokyo Gaijin event had paid off. I’m pretty sure I’ll be meeting up with James, in Tokyo, in the near future and who knows I may even see him in Sheffield one day.
The 8 hour ferry ride there was very hazy. I remember watching the sun rise (vaguely) then I would estimate I had one hour sleep and then I had to get off the boat. After a very shaky cycle, half way across the island, to the campsite, I had a leisurely and very unproductive day. I experienced my first onsen (Japanese hot spring), which I found to be uncomfortably hot. But this wasn’t any old onsen. This one had the most amazing view of across the ocean with some really dramatic cliff faced islands.
The next day was a little more productive, lots of cycling, as I befriended some charming and athletic Aussies. We briefly visited the glass museum, one of very few cultural attractions on the island. We also headed around to the other side of the island, to a quieter bay, where I participated in a little sea swimming. Other than that the adventure involved mainly alcohol consumption and partying.
The most exciting thing that has happened since golden week is the arrival of my first guest, Kevin. I’m looking forward to a fun few weeks here with him. He’s only been here for a matter of hours so far but the weekends are already beginning to get crammed full of little adventures. I think there may be a trip to Tokyo Disney on the cards too.
It was my first day in the school with the 51 student class and so naturally I did my usual introduction lesson, where I shake every child’s hand as we introduce ourselves to each other. Then they all wanted a ‘high touch’ (or high five, as we might call them). Essentially, due to close proximity and ‘Westernised’ hand gestures, I’m pretty sure I managed to pass on my cold to every child in the town, as I had a class with every child in the school. Not only that but this was the day before the longest string of bank holidays in the Japanese calendar. Oh well.
Considering the fact that I was spreading disease throughout the community, I received one of the warmest welcomes of all the schools I teach in. The principal continually apologised for not speaking very much English and bombarded me with offers of drinks, snacks and help. She invited me in her office and seemed to expect me to use it as my own, when she headed off site for a meeting. At one point, at what seemed to be a welcoming ceremony for the 1st graders she burst into an English speech (with the help of her notes) and gave me a little introduction to the whole school.
The welcoming ceremony was also highly entertaining. It involved 1st years being paired up with older children to play games that always seemed to involve janken (rock, scissors, paper). And the grand finale involved 6 boys surging onto the stage in pink capes to demonstrate how the rest of the hall should dance to the track that had just begun blaring out of the tannoy speakers. No one battered an eyelid. This was apparently perfectly normal behaviour and within moments everyone in the hall was joining in.
Japan has a string of bank holidays around the beginning of May each year, which they call Golden Week. Unfortunately because the Japanese are all workaholics, many of the teachers and students go into school on these days off, mainly get a few extra sessions of club activities, such as baseball, music and soccer. Luckily they understand that I’m a lazy gaijin and so I headed off to a tropical island called Niijima but my first day of Golden Week was spent hiking in the Chiba countryside and visiting a monkey park.
The drive through the Chiba country-side was awe-inspiring. Although Chiba is relatively flat for Japan it would probably be one of the most mountainous regions of the UK. I caught a glimpse of the Tokyo Wan Kannon, which is this huge, white, Buddhist statue that stands proud over the bay. I didn’t really realise how nice some of the country side near me is, until I finally got there.
Our first destination was the monkey park and once we got there, we headed off in the opposite direction on a little hike, attempting to follow some impossible paths. Alex asked an old lady for some directions as to where the hiking route was. She said something about watching out for the river to which Alex shrugged off, seeing the little stream that had emerged down the path after all the recent rainfall. When we finally trudged our way to the bottom of the stream, we were met with a concrete gorge of a drop, which had a fast flowing river flowing about 9 inches deep, across the former path. After some umming and arring and consultation with the girls as to whether they wanted to go on, it was decided that the group wasn’t going to be beaten by a measly river. So one by one we climbed down the ladder and wadded through.
We were all a little exhausted from trudging through mud, streams and rivers and so the rest of the journey was a swift walk back to the car via a couple of lost looking cows. There was a suggestion of another walk that was quickly quashed and before we knew it we were in the Monkey sanctuary being heckled for food. Monkeys live wild across much of Japan and I was informed that these monkeys had a choice of leaving the sanctuary but wasn’t all that convinced by this statement, what with the 12 foot electric fences.
The rest of my Golden Week was spent on the island of Niijima. I had been recommended to go on this trip by some ALTs that went last year and really enjoyed it. I had asked the guys from orientation if they would be up for the trip and pretty much everyone was game. I told everyone I was putting my deposit down and a few days later it emerged that not everyone could afford it and so I had a choice of pulling out and losing half my deposit or going with a couple of guys I vaguely knew, and hopefully making some friends out there. Needless to say I went for the latter.
The island is an 8 hour ferry ride south of Tokyo. It was organised by a group called Tokyo Gaijins, that organise trips and extreme sports weekends for other foreigners that either want a little help sorting out there holiday or would just appreciate some English speaking company. It was very useful. I just paid my lump sum and they sorted out the tent, the bike hire, food and the ferries there and back. It also provided me with a network of English speakers to meet up with.
Strangely enough after waiting for the ferry for a couple of minutes I was approached by a chap that opened a conversation with something along the lines of ‘You’ve got a Sheffield vibe about you. Where are you from?’ I’m not sure if I would say that I’m from Sheffield but it was strange to meet a guy, on the other side of the world, whose parents live at the bottom of the hill from mine. It’s even stranger to think that I might have developed a Sheffield vibe. Anyhow, this chance meeting alone meant that the Tokyo Gaijin event had paid off. I’m pretty sure I’ll be meeting up with James, in Tokyo, in the near future and who knows I may even see him in Sheffield one day.
The 8 hour ferry ride there was very hazy. I remember watching the sun rise (vaguely) then I would estimate I had one hour sleep and then I had to get off the boat. After a very shaky cycle, half way across the island, to the campsite, I had a leisurely and very unproductive day. I experienced my first onsen (Japanese hot spring), which I found to be uncomfortably hot. But this wasn’t any old onsen. This one had the most amazing view of across the ocean with some really dramatic cliff faced islands.
The next day was a little more productive, lots of cycling, as I befriended some charming and athletic Aussies. We briefly visited the glass museum, one of very few cultural attractions on the island. We also headed around to the other side of the island, to a quieter bay, where I participated in a little sea swimming. Other than that the adventure involved mainly alcohol consumption and partying.
The most exciting thing that has happened since golden week is the arrival of my first guest, Kevin. I’m looking forward to a fun few weeks here with him. He’s only been here for a matter of hours so far but the weekends are already beginning to get crammed full of little adventures. I think there may be a trip to Tokyo Disney on the cards too.
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