December 2002

Damn - December again! That makes this ‘diary’ a year old. Anyway, time for a small change. Now, I’m going to do more frequent, smaller updates under a given title, as shown this month.

The holidays

I often get asked if I work Xmas day in Japan. Of course I do, as Japan, despite the TV shows, the shops and all the adverts does not celebrate Xmas as such, not being a Christian nation. However, the adverts and shopping sales are hard to miss. The ’thing’ for Xmas then is geared more towards girlfriends/boyfriends, and many go on dates or to hotels on Xmas Eve - like a souped up Valentines day. It often surprises foreigners that Xmas decorations in Japan go up at the end of November, and often come down on Xmas Eve - it’s purely a look and doing an ’event’ - something which is a popular part of the culture.

Xmas day is like any other, and most of the euphoria is gone.

The big thing in Japan of course is New Year and it’s associated holidays - Oshogatsu - but I’ll cover that next month. Another December holiday is the 23rd, which is Emperor Akihito’s birthday and another day off work in the snowboarding season is always a good thing in my humble opinion.

Universal reaction

It’s often said - and it’s true - that irrespective of race, gender, creed, opinions or attitude, we as a species have more in common than we have dividing us. Sometimes it becomes out in very small ways. One event happened last weekend on the slopes of the Rusutsu snow resort in Hokkaido. A line of people were waiting for the chair-lift, just standing around when a child of about 4 or 5 on skis came screaming down the slope, obviously unable to stop. As the people in the queue tried to clear a path for the youngster, only one word could be heard from the child - “Okaaaaasaaaan” - and you don’t need to be a linguist to know that means “Mother!!” in Japanese. Needless to say the parent was in hot pursuit at a speed that on a normal day would qualify for Olympic trials. It’s also needless to say that once the child came to a halt in some powdered snow with his mother, the first thing he wanted to do was get on the chair-lift and back to the top, in better emotional state than his rather shaken mother…

Winter sports

As many people will know, I’m an avid snowboarder, and December means it’s time to get the board out, wax it up and speed down some of Japan’s best mountains in the name of entertainment. Japan not only has a great selection of slopes, it also has some great facilities. There’s nothing better than spending hours on the slopes, gliding through powder or speeding down steep inclines, then relaxing in a natural hot-spring (onsen), or an outside onsen (rotenburo). We even managed to go one better in Hakuba last week, when we found our guest-house had a real log fire. Needless to say we planted ourselves in front of it before deciding what we needed was a hot coffee, with some whisky. We asked the owner/barman if he knew how to make Irish coffee, but he didn’t; however, after we explained what was in it, he seemed keen on having a go, so after he consulted a few web pages, he presented us with his first ever Irish Coffees, and I have to say, they were excellent. Of course, that started the ball rolling, and a few others in the ‘bar’ were curious to know what this drink was. Japan’s winter sports facilities are excellent - big hotels, good slopes and good transportation in general. Just don’t go to one near to Tokyo on a national holiday as I did last year and rarely got above walking pace as the place was packed. Still, an interesting experience.

Music

I don’t think I ever mention music on this site. Japan has a HUGE selection of music, and whilst some people deride it as ‘western’ rip-offs and J-Pop, it isn’t (and there is a lot of decent J-Pop). Recently, I’ve been listening to a lot of Utada Hikaru (a very famous idol, recently married to a photographer). Also known as the FOMA girl for being the point person for Docomo’s third generation of mobile phones. Her music is very J-Pop, but well produced. I like Dragonash too - funky hip hop from some of the craziest looking guys. If you like a bit of rock, try old masters B’z, a very talented duo who do some songs in English but combine Bon Jovi elements with a very complex percussion section, and a better guitar.

November 2002

Well, I finally moved house, and I can’t decide whether to put (even more) of it on this page, or whether to write another page for it. I guess I’ll put it in here, and make it look more epic. As I mentioned last month, I found a place, which is a process which can take a load of effort and an amount of patience. This time, I had to physically move stuff.

I eventually relented and decided to hire a moving company instead of just a truck and get my friends together as a removal team. This was probably a good move, despite the cost - even though I had taken a few days off work, packing took a lot longer than I expected, so had I not had that company sorted out, the move day itself could’ve been tough going. Before I go further, I just want to impart some common sense advice: don’t go out to a friend’s leaving party the night before you move. No matter how many times you say ‘I must go before 9pm’, you know the barman is going to be shoving you in a lift at 12.30am. As it was with me.

Anyway, back to the moving company. They sent a rep around about a week or so before to survey my stuff, and gave me a quote. We haggled a bit, and I got something which didn’t seem too extortionate, and of course, I was weighing it up against doing it myself. He also gave me all the boxes and tape I’d need there and then. I started packing things up, but you know how these things are - I found books I’d forgotten about and started to read them which delayed the process even more. The mental note I made was to put all the interesting things I found on the way into one box, and go through it when I’d finished everything else. Everything did get done eventually, if only because I was surviving on 3 hours sleep for several days, which is nothing new for me, but not very compatible with moving. The movers did a great job, even with the fridge and the expansive drinks collection. They covered the lift and corridors with protective covering , and hand carried everything. We then agreed where my new place and off they went. I went by train though, hoping to be there a good 30 minutes before they were, but I forgot my cash card, and had to turn back to get it to pay the company, which made me about 30 minutes late. Ah well, they were asleep in the truck when I arrived. The same system was used at this end too - everything was covered with protective board as my meagre possessions were carried in. I must say, I had more ‘stuff’ than I thought, although I did take the opportunity to throw a lot of old stuff away, which had accumulated in cupboards and such.

So there I was in my new place, with a load of boxes to sort out. Fortunately a few friends came over to help out and then we got to the serious business of pizza and some PS2 action. Of course, it doesn’t end there - I still had to make an attempt at cleaning my old place, which I did over 2 trips. It’s difficult to know whether or not it’s worth cleaning an old apartment in Japan as the agents are inevitably going to charge you for a lot of stuff as standard, no matter what condition the place was in: tatami mats to be replaced, and a general cleaning. They’ll also fleece you for every mark too as ‘wear and tear’ in Japan is paid for out of your deposit, where as in most places it’s a function of the rent. Not here.

If I haven’t said it before, I’ll say it now: moving in Japan is expensive, so once you decide it has to be done, just bend over and think happy thoughts.

As for my new place, I really like it of course - better location, newer building, cleaner area, better restaurants and a generally lighter atmosphere. The new apartment has much better design points - more phone points, more electrical points, better shower, much more natural light and air conditioners. Nice. A bit smaller, but compensated for by the better design.

So that should be the end of my moving adventure. I know it sounds like the experience itself wasn’t a good one (hell, moving is meant to be one of the most stressful things you can do) it’s just that it was monotonous, though I’m proud to say that I organised it all myself, and all in Japanese. I learned a few things on the way, such as like how to ‘gomi’ a sofa (have it taken away as rubbish). I got into a call loop between two of the local government departments, and eventually said, ‘Look, I’m moving on Saturday and my sofa isn’t, so here’s my mobile number, and please call me when either of you know whose responsibility this is’.

The next day a nice chap from one of the departments called and explained in detail what I had to do, and when I could leave the sofa out. Basically, for large items you have to arrange for them to be picked up, and pay for the service. You buy some labels from a convenience store, stick them on the sofa, and it should disappear on the given day. All rubbish (gomi) in Japan is assigned a day to be picked up - days for recyclables, burn-able and non-burn-able are the norm, and yes, I know the definition or burn-able is very broad. It does seem to work, though there was a scandal in Kanagawa-ken a few years back when it was discovered that they were just burning everything - including paper for recycling.

So this is the first update from my new place - same Mac, same desk, new chair and new lights. I’m glad it’s all over, and I can get back to my life! Life hit me my first morning when I realised I needed to get a new train pass (teikiken) when I learned I couldn’t get it at my local station, but only at Tokyo - still, it’s next to my office, so no problems there. On the subject of trains, this line - Den En Toshi - isn’t as crowded as the old one I rode - in fact, when I go to work in the morning at 6.30am I can actually sit down!!! It brings a big smile to my face and feet knowing that.

Finally was bringing my mountain bike from my old place to my new one - I thought it would take about 150mins or so going all the way across Tokyo, as I wasn’t familiar with some of the roads around my new place. It all went well for about 15minutes when a huge rain storm started…and I decided to keep going, arriving at my new place after 2 hours, completely drenched, and my bike covered in road dirt. On the plus side, I didn’t get my map out at any point and relied on poor sign posting and instinct. Next time, I’m putting the bike on the truck.

Anyway, enough of moving - next month I’ll be back to raving about snowboarding…ah, the good old days.

October 2002

OK, no rant this month, I promise. OK, maybe just a small one. For the really observant, I’ve removed the disclaimer at the top of this page. I think most people know that I like Japan, but that doesn’t stop me having a gag at it’s expense. It’s been a damn busy month!

The first thing is that I’m moving - from the north-east of Tokyo to the south-west. Now moving is a bit of a chore anywhere in the world, but of course, Japan just has to put a little twist on it.

Firstly, finding an apartment. There are lots of magazines which come out weekly which are just bursting with floor plans, such as Chintai, which goes for about 300yen a week. The apartments are rather confusingly organised by rail line though, not by town. However, the delay to print can mean that some of those choice apartments have gone before the magazine hits the shelves. You can try these magazines, and their websites, or you can call the agents. Some people even employ a finder to help. This is what I do (and a large number of other people - especially foreigners for reasons I’ll explain later). Basically, you pay this person 1 months rent (which you’d pay an agent anyway) to help find you an apartment. This person will call landlords, arrange viewing times and all that, but also gets the new apartment plans fresh off the press, and a good one will be able to help you narrow it down based on your criteria and landlord. Mine even deals with my old landlord, to sort out move out dates. If you want to know who I use, mail me. I mention the landlord as the individual involved can greatly affect how the search goes. The helper usually knows many of the landlord companies and that can help too in the ‘wheel-greasing’ which is integral to business in Japan. It can also tip the balance in your favour if the landlord is unsure about letting foreigners move in. Some landlords truly are hesitant due to language barriers (my new landlord was like this, but I had a quick chat with him on the phone and the next day he accepted my application), though some just don’t like foreigners, end of story. This is all legal here too - some floor plans state ’no foreigners’ (next to the ’no pets’ bit), some just reject applications. It should be said here that if you are a white foreigner you stand a slightly better chance of success than say, someone from a south-East Asian country due to local prejudices. Either way, it’s a bit annoying when you see it. Personally, I think if people want to be racist, that’s up to them…but to lose money over it? (Wow - I’m turning into such a capitalist!) That’s another reason a finder is good. Another thing which can go in a gaijin’s favour is having a company as guarantor (like mine does for me) - in fact if you’re going to work in Japan and have to find a place of your own, that’s a good question to ask your new employer.

Reikin. Key money. Everyone hates this. Except landlords. Basically tenants must pay a ‘gift’ to the landlord for letting them move in. The average is a stunning 2 months rent. Some places (such as old buildings and government funded apartments) have zero key-money, some places have one month’s rent. Most of the good places have 2, and some have 3 months worth. Once this money is paid, it’s gone. You don’t get it back. On top of that, you still have to pay 2 or 3 months deposit. Therefore, it’s possible that you could be facing a bill of up to 6 months rent up front. That’s a steep bill, which is why people don’t move more than they have too. Mind you, most apartment contracts are for 2 years, so if you want to stay longer, you have to pay a ‘renewal fee’, which is usually 1 month’s rent. It’s better not to think about it, and never convert it to your home currency.

Feeling ripped off yet?

Opinion is divided as to whether it’s a buyers market here. I think it is and the landlords are trying like hell to make you think it isn’t. My finder (Sasage-san) says he’s seen more ‘discounted’ apartments in the last 3 years than ever before as people move out from Tokyo to Saitama and Chiba, and just suffer the commute. It has to be said that the landlord/renting business is the last bastion of the bubble. However, me being me, I like to play the game and hopefully not offend anyone in the process. I’ve been teaching Sasage-san the ‘bluff’, and how to spot when others are bluffing. This helped me get better terms on my new place, simply by telling the agent I would think about it as there were things I wasn’t sure about. However, I was sure he didn’t have a tenant lined up, and was running out of time to fill the room (as agents may loose commission percentage from the owner they are working for). I asked for 4 changes to the contract, and some better joinery in one of the rooms and they caved in and made the changes. I encourage friends to push a little bit harder, and often you can get something, and if you can’t, just try somewhere else. Japan is at least trying to compete internally, even if it doesn’t quite make it. I should give Sasage-san credit, he is the face that gets talked to/at, and it’s sometimes a difficult place to be between a business oriented foreigner willing to haggle down a bargain, and a conservative building owner who thinks people should pay what he asks, and should be happy to have the opportunity. He does a great job, and shields people from what I’m sure are some less than complimentary comments. I’ve heard him on the phone to agents pleading the case that not all gaijin play pianos at 3am and kill the neighbours cats.

Some people successfully get places without a finder, but personally, as expensive as it sounds, that person can really ease a move. However, the truth comes on November 16th when I move.

September 2002

Rant Warning! No matter what anyone tells you - it’s just a building. You’d think it was a glowing phallic symbol of the new vigour of the Japanese economy, a nail in the coffin of the recession. But it’s just a building. I know, I work in it, and it’s definitely just a building. You don’t know what I’m talking about? You haven’t seen it in the magazines? You haven’t seen dozens of the ubiquitous ‘variety’ shows on TV being held in the shops? For those in Japan - are you under a rock? And for those outside of Japan, that was introduction to Japan’s latest amusement park…Maru Building. Check out the website (E and J). In fact, a search on ‘Marunouchi Building’ yields thousands of results. However, I’m way ahead of myself. Here’s the basics: The land between Tokyo Station and the Imperial palace was the most expensive piece of real estate in the world apparently, and certainly the most prestigious in Japan. However, as the buildings got old (most post war and 60’s/70’s), people moved to the more fashionable areas such as Shibuya and Shinjuku (the latter being more earthquake resistant too) - or went bankrupt!

Post-bubble Marunouchi languished a little, looking for those high profile companies. Then, about 6 years ago, the old Marunouchi building was targeted for demolition and the new building was being speculated. After a long construction period, the new building opened. I won’t go on about it too much - check the websites - it’s basically 6F or so of very expensive shops, with 30F of offices above it. Now, I think it’s a great building - I now get my morning tea break whilst looking over the Palace grounds from 100m up over Tokyo. I can see everything. It’s amazing. However, venture into the shopping area and it’s a mass of older people looking at some of the faux original architecture around the first floor office entrance (a few pieces of the 1920’s Maru Building struts are on display - this building and location has heritage), to the girls desperate to look around the very expensive clothes shops. People are coming on day trips. When it opened a few weeks ago we had to fight through the crowd to get to the office lifts. Even now there is a throng of people in it from dawn to dusk and beyond. It truly has been made a symbol of an economic rebirth. To add to this gleaming concrete and glass star, they’ve re-laid Naka-dori, the road linking the building and thus Tokyo Station with Hibiya, Yurakucho and Ginza. A golden line of shopping along freshly cobbled streets. Don’t get me wrong, it’s amazing to see, well designed, and has really invigorated a rather dull tourist/business area.

But it’s just a building.

Is it the end of the recession? Nope. It’s getting worse, but still no one wants to see it. You can’t ‘apathy’ your way out of recession whose roots are in the way business is done in Japan. Flawed banks, inbred ownership, and a government which still believes it’s 1860 and can ignore the outside world. Japan has been sliding for years, but it has further to go. Last week a bond sale by the government was under-subscribed. No one wants to lend the Japanese government money through bonds. It’s debt rating stinks - Moody’s and S&P rate it below many African countries. The government is arguing with them; arguing that Japan is a special case. In some ways it is, most of it’s debt is held in Yen. To get out of it, they could literally just print more money, but that would seriously devalue the currency, and cripple it even more. Theoretically, I have a better debt rating than the country I live in. A Polish colleague couldn’t help but have a small chuckle when, a few months ago, Japan slid below his homeland on Moody’s ratings list - something he never expected to see. I can’t cover the whole Japan economy thing here, but it’s actually very interesting. I often get asked by Japanese friends why I get fired up about it. It’s basically because I pay taxes. Taxes which pay for meaningless jobs, pointless ‘public works constructions’ run by an old boy network keeping people in jobs which don’t exist. All but one Japanese rivers has a concrete bottom now, and vast tunnels through mountains echo with the odd car which uses them. That’s the old guard, men in charge because they’ve reached a certain age, about 200 I think.

What about the young guns? They can barely get funding - all the banks are up the hilt to the old firm they can’t lend to new possibilities. The true irony is that they daren’t call in debts as some of the big companies may collapse…and they own large blocks of that stock. Witness Sogo last year when they took 2 smaller banks with them. A cruel twist is that some banks are happily foreclosing on small enterprises to support the balance sheets whilst not touching the mountains of Yen owed them by big companies. I’ve met so many smart young Japanese wanting to start a business, they’d love to - indeed Japan continues to have a great heritage of small businesses - but they can’t get money to even rent a place. Not only is Japan choking now, it’s poisoning it’s future.

OK, need to slow that down. All countries have issues, the difference here is that it kind of happens in slow motion, to the point where it’s frustrating that people just don’t seem to see it. Right. I’m off to get some gyudon and beer, relax in the ofuro before that obaasan kicks my arse.

August 2002

Another month of heat and fun! Despite the heat, myself and a friend headed to Naeba in the mountains for a weekend of Airsoft at ASCS 2002, where about 550 airsoft fans group into teams of about 30 and run around forests and clearings in 30 minute games shooting each other with 5mm plastic pellets (which biodegrade). Of the 550 or so participants, only about 20 foreigners play - and 15 of us play in our own team called the Tokyo Gaikokujin Butai. Actually, at 15 people, we’re only half a team, so we joined a 15 man Japanese team to make a full team as such. The game is really popular in Japan and the ASCS is the largest annual meeting. Unlike paintball, it doesn’t hurt so much, the guns look very realistic and it’s pretty cheap. When you feel yourself get hit, you shout hit and walk to the team hospital, and come back into your game for your second life - if you’re hit again then that’s it, you have to sit it out. I don’t play very often, but it’s always good to get out of town for a while and meet a pretty broad cross-section of the Japanese population - from biker kids dressed as anime gang members, to salarymen dressed as an LA SWAT team , to a bunch of guys in their 40’s dressed as nurses - OK, that was just for the last ‘game’, which is really a free for all ‘use all your ammo’ game where you have 2 teams of 250 vs. 250 over an open field. There were quite a few teams this year and we played each in a league. Actually, out of 13 teams, we finished 5th which was pretty good. Definitely a good laugh. Check out this site.

July 2002

This has been the month where we’ve all tried to come down from the high of the World Cup and get back to real life, stop drinking, and save some money. However, in Japan, that’s pretty much impossible to do, so you may as well just go and enjoy yourself. July brings a lot of festivals from Jazz to Reggae and of course, the Fuji Rock Festival held in Naeba, which usually attracts a lot of great foreign bands and is well worth going to. There are also the beach parties and general outdoor music festivals. It’s important to remember that Japan is very hot and humid right now - my weather app claims it to be 36 degrees C on most days, with humidity running between 80 and 90%. It feels hotter. This is also the month when many communities hold their matsuris - their Summer festivals. They run from June to August usually, but seem to peak in late July. They include a lot of traditional dance, music, theatre and such, but also great food and beer sold from small stands along the closed streets. It’s always a lot of fun, and a great chance to see the community pitching in. There are often the mikoshi too - a large wooden shrine carried atop shoulders by 20 - 50 men and carried to the local temple amidst a great deal of clapping, dancing and shouting. Having seen one of these from under the mikoshi I can tell you it’s a lot of fun, but can really hurt your shoulders! There have been a few earth tremors, and some great thunder and lightning which came down right on top of my area. This month also saw me change my mobile phone (keitai). For the last 2.5 years I’ve been using J-Phone, and only 3 months ago traded up to the latest Nokia NM02. However, I managed to loose it after going to the cinema one night. I’ve only lost my mobile once before in Japan, and it was handed in to the Police so quickly it was waiting for me at the Tu-Ka shop I’d gone to cancel it. This time, I kept calling the phone, but the power ran out before I could find out where it was. OK, so I went to J-Phone shop to cancel that phone and see how much a new one would cost. The same Nokia phone (cost 6000 yen when I upgraded) with my old number was 20,000 yen, so I explained I didn’t want to pay that much…loyal customer blah blah, but it’s pretty normal to get better prices on phone hardware when you upgrade, but I’d lost mine so I had to pay full price. I know, you can poke hundreds of holes through this financing idea (truly Japanese mobile phone economics are just as strange as those all over Europe and America). I could get a cheaper deal if I became a ’new customer’ and took a new number. To cut a long story short, I decided that if I was going to change my number, I may as well get the phone I wanted. I could’ve got the Nokia - built in camera, great user interface, and Nokia’s very intuitive number index, but I decided to leave J-Phone and try Au, the KDDI brand. They’ve rolled out a lot of cool hardware, first CDMA in Japan, and now many of their phones have GPS. Anyway, I bought the SonyEricsson AU model, which is bilingual and has a ton of great features, GPS, web browsing. Getting a cell phone is pretty simple - take your gaijin card or passport, a bank book (to prove you have an account and a business card can be useful too. Interestingly, DoCoMo began to insist on upfront deposits for phone to foreigners a few months ago after they claimed that many foreigners were getting phones using them and never paying the bill. They provided false addresses for the bills. I don’t know how widespread that is , but I do know that changing cell phone number is a bit of a nightmare, but I managed to e-mail all my friends and let them know my new number, and my new phone e-mail address…not to mention inputting all those numbers again. Moral of this story - don’t lose your phone - and make sure you keep all those numbers in your PDA. Right , time to go sit back under the air conditioning.

June 2002

Well - this was one hell of a month! I went to see 2 World Cup games, watched countless more in small bars, did a 3 day tour of Oita, and even found time to update the website, and go on holiday to Bali. Photos HERE. Anyway, for the Japan related stuff. The World Cup has been an amazing experience here in Japan, as it has solidly filled the airwaves and newspapers for a solid month - schedules for the TV channels were changing as the tournament progressed such was the fervour that was being whipped up as Japan won their first EVER World Cup game, and the championship delivered shock after shock. I won’t go into that here, just how it was seen in Japan. I was lucky enough to be in a beer garden on a rooftop in Shinjuku…surrounded by about 20 Japanese fans determined to enjoy themselves, and about 100 just warming up. Of course, we all joined in and exchanged songs. Interestingly, the screen was surrounded by a stage where live bands would play, and around this we all sat..until Japan scored and a ‘pitch invasion’ of the stage began, and we all ran around like idiots hugging :-). I guess you had to be there. After the final whistle we all descended below into Shinjuku Alta square to scenes I haven’t seen since New Year 2000 - almost 3000 Japanese fans, in blue, red, and the grey of business suits singing and dancing….again, we joined in in the name of…er…having fun. There must have been 200 police there who fortunately had nothing to do except bizarrely ask people not the stand on the grass. A great evening was had by all, and on the packed Yamanote-sen home, we all sang the names of the stations as we passed them. I have so many great memories of the World Cup - such as being in one of my favourite izakaya’s in Hibiya, and after many beers and watching re-runs of the Japan vs. Tunisia game, I amazed the locals by explaining I was supporting 3 teams - England, as my home country, Ireland as most of my foreign friends are Irish, and Japan - because I pay tax here!! We even managed to get a chant going of ‘Zeikin Zeikin!’ (taxes taxes!). It was a double bonus for me that the hooliganism that has followed European football over the years, and something the Japanese press had seized on and who were making Doomsday predictions about how English hooligans were going to pillage the country was absent. It was interesting to watch the press desperately searching for foreign hooligans, and as the event closed, far more Japanese University students had been charged with rowdy behaviour. Added to that was the support the Japanese people gave England and Ireland…if only because they thought Beckham was cute. A weird event was at Haneda airport as I prepared to fly to Oita to watch Sweden vs. Senegal (a great game in searing heat)..the metal detector went off - it was my belt buckle - prompting the assistant, who seemed like a nice lady at first, to check my shoes, my pockets, and stick her hands down the front of my trousers a way to check the back of the buckle. Yeah, OK, I was smirking, but many onlookers looked totally confused…anyway. The highlight was watching a bemused TV crew grab 2 England supporters and ask if they were drunk and partying after the Argentina game to receive the reply that they were going home as they had to be at work in the morning! I hope many people who came to Japan saw more than the dullness of many of the suits, and the staidness of the ‘Fuji ni Geisha’, and saw some of the passion, the people and the fun that Japan has in it’s heart. Now if I could just get people to understand the offside rule.

May 2002

Well, this month has brought me into contact with the British embassy, as I need a new passport. It’s not as painful as it might sound, in fact, it only took a week. Basically, I downloaded the form from the website, filled it in and got two rather disturbing pictures from a photo-booth and took them to the embassy, where I handed it all over with my old passport and JPY9000 in cash and was told to come back the following Thursday which I did. True to their word, my new passport was ready, along with the embassy as the issuing office on the back page which is kind of cool in itself. Also, the serial number which runs along the bottom of the ID page on most passports is NOT on my new as it is an Embassy issue. I’ll let you know if this makes any difference when I go to Bali next month. All I need to do now is go to my local ward office (kuyakusho), show them my new passport and get my new gaijin card (as we all call the residency card), as my passport number has changed. That should take just a few hours of waiting. Following that is a trip to the immigration office to get my re-entry permit and visa re-stamped into the new book. For those who don’t know, if you work in Japan as a foreigner, but wish to leave, say for a holiday, and come back, you have to get one of these stamps from the immigration office before you go, or face hard questions on your return. Fortunately you can buy a 2 year unlimited one, which is what I have. I recommend checking out your country’s embassy website - the UK one here is really useful I generally have nothing to do with them, but I must admit, I was impressed.

April 2002

Well, it’s warming up here in Japan and the World Cup fever is starting to ramp up - it seems everyone on the trains is reading football magazines to be in the know when the Cup starts. Actually, off on a related tangent, it’s quite common in Japan for people to study things - often in private or in classes at night to get good at something before they show it off to their friends, rather than learning in front of them. One good thing about this time of year is that it’s warm enough to do things, but not too hot like it’s going to get - definitely the cheapest time of year for electricity bills! This month (as well as March) is also when the school year starts, and when people at Japanese Institutions often start new jobs - sometimes whether they like it or not. For example, at the City Hall I used to work at, people would rotate between the Education centre and heritage…in some ways this is a good thing, but also in others not so much - partly as people aren’t interested in the job, but also as they may have been good at their last job. An interesting system though.

March 2002

Well, March is the time to pay those taxes! For foreigners who get paid from off shore, this is the time you get a nice bill. However, there’s much more to March than that. The biggest cultural event of course is the o-hanami - the cherry blossoms, the time of year when for a week or so, pretty much everyone camps out in a part, drinks sake and admires the view. It has to be said that even though there is cherry blossom all over the world, they occupy what few beautiful places there are around Tokyo, and when they bloom, they look all the better in contrast to the stark greyness of most of Tokyo. March was also the month when the Tokyo MacWorld show, so I took a national holiday and got on the train down to the bay (yes, Tokyo is a big city by the sea) and check out Tokyo BigSight - I’ll try to get some pictures up soon.

February 2002

Following my return from the UK, I’ve been able to get down to some serious snowboarding. Japan has some great snow-sports areas, not just on the main island of Honshu but also (and especially) on the northern island of Hokkaido. Personally I prefer Hokkaido - just a bit more spacious, indeed it is a beautiful place, and a very different feel to it than Tokyo. This month I went to Shiga-Kogen and to Kusatsu. The latter of these is a great place if you want a bit of snow-sports and a lot of onsen - the natural hot spa baths available in areas where the water runs out of volcanic areas. Many hotels offer hot-water baths too - just not the volcanic type, but still worth a go. For real fans, there are the outside ones - rotenburo - where you can relax in steaming hot water, surrounded by snow - and of course, a quick osake from a floating tray. The snow-sports facilities in Japan are excellent though, and if you’re in the country between December and April, it’s definitely worth having a go. Check out some of the pictures on the Japan photo page.

January 2002

Well, I survived another oshogatsu - the Japanese New Year celebrations; essentially, on New Years Eve, many Japanese go to temples around the country to see in the new year. It’s a good excuse to eat omochi, wear some traditional kit and join the crowded masses around some of the major temples. On a more contemporary note, the Tokyo Tower is something of a hub for celebrations too. The period just after New Year is always slow - most things aren’t open - so make sure you have plenty of cash! I should point out that ATMs in Japan are usually only open 9-7 daily. I’m not joking - only Citibank and a few Japanese branches have 24hr cash points. I’m still surprised by this.

December 2001

Well, first piece on this page…kind of wondering what format to go for. I think I’ll just type and see how many people complain. :-) December in Japan has an interesting meaning to many foreigners here - and by association, to a fair number of Japanese people too – it’s the time of the annual Japanese Language Proficiency Test. This is probably the most widely recognised test and qualification in the Japanese language for non-native speakers. It has four levels, rising from level four to level one which is pretty much native level. I went for level 3. It should be mentioned that this test is very academic - it’s all about kanji, grammar and a bit of listening - there’s no speaking component. . Anyway, it was sheer hell, and I’m sure I failed, if only for 3 reasons:

*I didn’t study enough; *I was in the UK for the 2 weeks before speaking English all the time; *I’m crap at Japanese.

For those people reading this,who may be thinking of starting to learn Japanese, it is a very interesting language and has a lot going for it as an academic pursuit. If you live in Japan, then you should be learning the lingo in my opinion!! Anyway, let’s say you’re not in Japan, but want to learn Japanese, what’s the best way to go? Well, look for a local course, find a Japanese teacher, or try to find some sympathetic Japanese people living locally. As you can tell, I think the best way to do it is by meeting people. However, if you can’t do that, or just want a text book, I would recommend “Japanese for Busy People”, which focusses on getting practical basics of language and reading sorted out. A good series of books.