Eddie R.I.P.

Eddie, from Frasier, passed away today. 16.5 years old. Sweet Eddie.

I Peel Pretty

Saturday was really nice. Rebekah and I went to Enoshima beach, which is just past the big Buddha in Kamakura.



Enoshima is a small island connected to the mainland by a 600 metre bridge. It's very touristy but at the peak is a shrine. The story is that a man was to be executed but as the executioner lifted his sword, a bolt of lightning struck it and the man was spared.

At most shrines and temples is a money box covered by a grate, and you put money in before you pray. However, at this one, the box was in a pond and you had to scoop up money from the bottom and then throw it in. Not as easy as it may look because the coins bounce off the grate.




The sand on the beach wasn't a particularly nice colour but it was fine and the sea was warm, although I saw a jellyfish. And, randomly, Harajuku girls.



It was a really fun day, but I got quite burnt and I'm only just peeling now.

CONGRATULATIONS ELLIOT

Well done, fantastic result!

The Day That Wasn't

I thought I was working tomorrow so that I could clear next week, so I went to the gym and spent a good two hours there. But I had a funny feeling in the back of my mind. I got home at 12:30 and checked my shift swap form to find that I was working today instead. At 1:20!!

No time to shower, or get dressed properly, I ran to the train station and just made it on time.

The plan was to update on all goings on here since the blog's hit a drought (albeit not an Andy Murray low) lately. Tomorrow it is then.

Who Would've Thunk It?

Bye Bye Henman. 'Nough said.

Continental

Out of the eight remaining countries, six are European.

Shame then that it'll probably be Brazil and Argentina in the final.

Okey-Bokey

Next time you want to say 'Okey-Dokey', change the 'D' to a 'B'.

In Japanese, it means 'Giant Erection'. It's funny saying it in lessons, acting all innocent and ignorant and watching the students' reactions.

Who said childish humour was childish.

Toppatsu*

Steve's girlfriend arrived last night and, well, you can guess the rest. Damn these paper-thin walls. My lack of sleep, coupled with my staying up to watch the footie the night before, means I'm exhausted, and feel rubbish.

It's Rebekah-San's birthday today, and Jody found out that she got a job in Italy, and I'm not up to teaching today so we're heading to the beach to crash. I feel a little guilty cause I'm not really really ill but it's all good.

*Toppatsu is Nova's term for 'sick day'. Strangely, it has nothing to do with Japanese.

Thailand, Baby!

Guess where I'm going?

Bangkok and Ko Samet/Ko Chang on the 3rd July - 7th July.

A little expensive but really want to go somewhere, so I'm happy. Mt Fuji season is a little later in the month so I'm going to trek up it then.

So Proud

Congratulations. You played honourably, graciously, and gloriously.

It may be the end of the World Cup, but it's only the beginning of the end for a new fan. You converted me. I screamed, I felt sick, I have no finger-nails, but it was all worth it.

Image Of The Week #9

A special this week - taken in the Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum.

Ramen is a famous Japanese dish, basically where Pot Noodle originates from. It comprises of meat, vegetables and noodles in a big broth, but has many variations depending on where in Japan you are.

This museum is designed like Old Tokyo and has several restaurants where you can buy bowls or taster bowls of different Ramens. The sky changes colour, sirens go off, and the staff give performances like you would see on the Edo streets of days gone by.

Speechless

Thank you Andrew for the most incredible parcel. I was hoping for the last few episodes of the TV programmes I'd missed being here, but instead I got every episode of every season of every show I like. You're an absolute star. It's so professional looking, and must've taken a lot of time and effort. Thank you.

Just To Let You Know

It's now 1:40am, and although I didn't book a holiday (going to try again tomorrow), I did join the gym. Come on you boys in blue.

Congratulations

You might have taken an extra year to graduate, but

CONGRATULATIONS IAN!!

You deserve it. As the old saying goes, "If anyone has, Ian Haz".

Bigger Old Day Today

It's a bigger day than I realised...

Today marks 3 months since I arrived in Japan. A quarter of the time I plan to spend here. It's speeding by.

North East West South

In other words, News!

Steve, the American guy that moved in the day after me, has decided to leave. All he does is talk about his girlfriend, although they've now been apart longer than they were together. She was coming to stay for a few weeks, but now he's decided that when she leaves he'll go back with her. She arrives tomorrow and they leave on the 6th July, so I'll be (hopefully) abroad. It will be weird that he leaves, since we had our training and explored Tokyo together.

I hope it's the right decision. He's going back to nothing, except his girlfriend. I just don't want there to be problems or they split up then he regrets leaving. But that's up to him to find out.

We get a new guy very soon after. The next day in fact! Thomas Alexander, or Alexander Thomas, from Britain.

On top of that, and rather bizarrely, I'm getting on well with Bruce.

Big Old Day Today

Today's a very important day. Expensive, tense, but very exciting.

I've managed to get the 3rd-7th July off and I'm going to book a holiday this morning. I'm thinking Thailand at the moment, but depending on what happens at the travel agents, I could be persuaded to go somewhere else; Guam, Hawaii, Taiwan...

I'm also going to join the gym later today. For living in a healthy country, I'm getting fat. It's expensive, but it'll give me the motivation to exercise. Plus they have free funky classes, such as Latin, Hip-Hop and Ballet and supposedly it's all old Japanese business-men so that'll be hilarious!

And, finally, it's the decider. Japan vs Brazil. Japan have to win by two goals difference to qualify, so the dream is pretty much over but I'm still positive. It's on at 4am, I think I'll have a sleep first.

I'm Addicted

Sleep or Australia vs Brazil from 1-3am???

Sick To My Stomach

I've never felt this way before about a sports match.

Japan, I know you drew but you played brilliantly.
Go Kawaguchi. Amazing penalty save.

Students Say The Stupidest Things #11

This blog entry has been given a '15' certificate.

A bit of explanation first. I was doing a Man-to-Man lesson on movies with a 22 year old innocent female Uni student. We were guessing movies by asking 4 questions - 'Was it good?', 'What's it about?', 'What genre is it?', 'Who's in it?'.

She was very good and knew a lot about movies. We shared similar tastes so were shouting out the answers excitedly and laughing when we both realised we liked the same random movies. We got on to rubbish movies and I decided to do 'Meet the Parents'*:

Student: What genre is it?
Phil: Comedy. Supposedly.
Student: Who's in it?
Phil: Ben Stiller.
Student: What's it about?
Phil: Umm, a man goes to his fiancee's parents' house...
Student: I know, I know, BIG FAT WILLY!

Haha, no joke. This happened. I couldn't stop laughing because, a) it was so funny to hear, and, b) it was hilarious to hear this innocent girl say that and not realise the meaning behind what she'd said. I still have no idea where the outburst came from. Priceless.

*Ben Stiller. Enough said.

International 'Happy Fathers Day' Fact

Happy Fathers Day for those of you in America, Japan and Britain. But not for Australians.

Yet, Australians, Japan and America share Mothers Day on a different day to Britain.

Answers on a postcard* please.

*a blog will suffice.

Delerious

I'm so so sleepy. I'm writing this, and going for a nap before the footie. Work was hard, and coupled with the insane amount of football I've been watching, I haven't slept much lately. At least the match is on at 10pm tonight.

It's very tense though; if Japan lose, that's it. Sayonara.

I was so tired that I switched on auto-pilot on the way home. It took me a while to realise that people weren't staring funnily at me in the train station because I was a foreigner but because I'd left my umbrella up. I found it hilarious which scared them even more. It's true that in such a safe country, the scariest thing they have to fear is foreigners.

On a happier note, I had "kids' training" last week and have been giving children English lessons ever since. I had a Man-to-Man today with a seven year old and he was adorable. I was teaching jobs and when we got to train driver, I went 'Choo Choo' and he fell on the floor laughing. We ran around for the rest of the lesson going 'Choo Choo' and he was so proud when he showed his mum after the lesson and she copied. Hmmm, I think I know why I'm tired.

Zzz

The. Greatest. Advert. Ever.

The trains here are pretty fantastic. Above each door are two TV screens - one shows useful information - exit details for the next station depending on which carriage you're in, next station, delays etc. The other is purely adverts.

My favourite is for a Lucozade-type drink - GABA - click on the word. Let it load and press play.

The woman is wholly adorable. She dances, she sings, and she looks Bjorkily-cute. Until she turns into a psychopath serial killer! What's with the horror-genre schizophrenic cuts at the end?! And her smile is so demonic and possessive that you don't even notice the bottle light up. It's a highlight of my day, and cracks me up every time.

Only in Japan.

The Start Of Summer

Tonight was the first noticeable night that it wasn't dark until late.

Roll on Summer, even if you are humid and full of mosquitoes.
I still love you.

The Ins And Outs Of aeiou

Today, I went on a sort of (date/Japanese lesson/ice-cream fest/walk around Tokyo) with one of the Japanese staff in my branch. It was fun, but the language barrier is a weird and complicated machine:

Phil: You ate Natto for breakfast? Gross.
Kiho: Well it was at 11. So between lunch and breakfast.
Phil: Oh, brunch.
Kiho: Like where we work?
Phil: No, that's a branch. Same word as the stick on a tree.
(Phil points to a tree branch, and then to the stump)
Phil: And this is a stump.
Kiho: Like you put on an envelope?
Phil: No, that's a stamp. A stump. A branch. And Brunch.
(Phil slams his foot down).
Phil: And that's a stomp.
Kiho: Wait, start again.

I am a good teacher, honest.

Separated At Birth?

Random Observation #7

Why is it that whenever they show replays of goals/fouls/shots on the football, they always show a much better view from the 'Reverse Angle'? If it's more clear, why don't we just always watch the match from this said 'Reverse Angle'?

NOVA Students Say The Stupidest Things #10

Discussing boring films:

Phil: So what movie have you fallen asleep in?
Student 1: Pokemon. I took my children.
Phil: Excellent, and what about you?
Student 2: Emmanuelle. It got past the good bit and so I was done.
Phil: I’m sorry?
Student 2: There were couples there, there and there. And me there.
Phil: You paid for it but fell asleep?
Student 2: I paid for it three times.

NOVA Students Say The Sweetest Things #5

In VOICE, discussing “what ifs”

Phil: If you were the opposite sex, what would you do?
Male Student: Take you out on a date.

Image Of The Week #8

Yasukuni-jinja torii (gate), in Kudanshita, is the largest in Japan - eight stories high and weighing 100 tons of high tension steel plates.

Come On England!! Japan Is Huge!!

Good luck tonight (it's on here at 1am; matches are 10pm, 1am and 4am!!). One of the girls downstairs is from Trinidad. How often is it that you meet someone from Trinidad AND England play them in the World Cup!? It's very tense, something about the loser swimming naked across the river. So England have to win.

Everyone was pretty disappointed here with the Japan-Australia match the other night, although the Japanese are all so high-spirited and good-natured that they say they don't mind. Still, I can see it in their eyes when we talk about it.

The nation is football crazy - 90% watched the match. One student has (and is planning to) watch every single match!! In fact, TV sales increased by 60% last month. They don't really have bars or pubs here in the same style as England, and coupled with the bad times the matches are on, everyone's watching at home.

Watching football here is strange - most TV's have bilingual buttons and many programmes can be dubbed in English, such as the News or movies. But the World Cup is purely in Japanese. It's funny, because in the middle of the incomprehensible commentary, you suddenly hear 'offside-o' or 'yellow-cardo'.

Monday night was crazy coming home. The trains are so busy that they usualy stagger the shift times. There are three evening rush hours (starting at 7, 9 and 11)- but no-one worked late that night so the 9pm rush hour to get home for the 10pm kick-off was ridiculous. I've never felt more like a sardine in my life.

The city is unbelievably overcrowded. It's the biggest in the world - with 30 million people.

To put it into a crazy perspective, there are 23 main areas/wards of Tokyo. Shibuya, one of them, has double the number of people living in Amsterdam, and Shinjuku has twice the population of Dublin. And there are 23 areas!!! HUGE!

Enjoy the match. And that mind-blowing statistic.

At Least Italy Won

My other team - come on!

Happy Birthday Elliot

We’ve been on the run, Driving in the sun
Looking out for #1

California, here we come
Right back where we started from

Hustlers grab your guns, Your shadow weighs a ton
Driving down the 101

California, here we come
Right back where we started from
California! Here we come!

On the stereo, Listen as we go
Nothing’s gonna stop me now

California, here we come
Right back where we started from

Pedal to the floor, Thinkin’ of the roar
Gotta get us to the show

California, here we come
Right back where we started from
California! Here we come!

Ultimate Disaster

The Japanese are so polite and reserved, no fouls, nothing. The Australians played dirty.

And Japan should've had a penalty.

The Whole City Roared

Half-time - 1-0!!!!!!!!

Go Nakamura

(I'm eating meat, and screaming at the TV. What's happening to me?! What's next?!)

It's A Big One

After the dull dull dull match the other day, I'm extremely excited.

I predict Japan will win 2-0.

And if not, I can change it and pretend I was right. Hindsight's a beautiful thing.

Wish us luck.

The Battle Of Hastings

Omen Day is over, but today is 10/6/6.

However, unlike the whipping we got back then,
GOOD LUCK ENGLAND!

(The times suck over here - tonight it starts at 10pm but that's the earliest time, most are 3am-ish)

Happy Birthday Oli

Oli it’s your birthday
And God bless you this day
He gave me the gift of a little brother
And I'm proud of you today

Oli it’s your birthday
Happy birthday Oli
Oli it’s your birthday
Happy birthday Oli

I wish you love and goodwill
I wish you praise and joy
I wish you better than your heart desire
And your first kiss from a... girl

Oli it’s your birthday
Happy birthday Oli
Oli it’s your birthday
Happy birthday Oli
Yeah!

NOVA Students Say The Sweetest Things #4

This is my most-favouritist thing I’ve ever heard in my life:

(Discussing family relations)

Student: My mum’s mum is my grandma.
Phil: Yep.
Student: So what’s her mum?
Phil: Ah! That’s your great-grandma.
Student: Really, thanks.
Phil: Can you guess what her mum is?
Student: Umm, no,
Phil: It sounds a bit silly but you can work it out.
(pause)
Student: Fantastic-grandma?

We both fell about laughing. Brilliant.

NOVA Students Say The Stupidest Things #9

Student: I bought a car.
Phil: How is it?
Student: Delicious.

Happy Omen Day!!

At the beginning of each of my classes today, I started off with a little 6/6/6 conversation. This is the result of one such attempt:

Phil: So, who knows why today is special?
(Students umm and err)
Phil: It helps if you're a horror movie fan.
(long pause)
Phil: And it's unlucky.
Student: Ooh, I know, it's Friday the 13th!
Phil: Except for it being Tuesday, right?
Student: Hmm...

Anyway, stay safe and keep away from young boys*.

*So tempted to make a Michael Jackson joke, but it's too easy.

Dancing To My Own Tune?

A few weekends ago, I went off to the largest club in Japan, for a rave that was being talked about on Radio 1. I’m not into trance music so thought I’d get bored after about ten minutes. I packed iPhil full of tunes so that if I really got desperate I could bounce along and pretend I was loving it.

AgeHa was based in Odaiba, so automatically I was impressed. The only problem, it’s quite a trek there and the 6 am journey home sounded depressing. However, there were free buses from Shibuya so that was perfect.

I went with a few people from work and got to the actual club just before midnight. The place itself was incredible; it had its own gift shop and food arena! The main area was packed and had cool light effects all night. However, the best place was the outside bar with a swimming pool in the middle. A few drunken people ended up in there over the course of the evening, and morning. The pool area overlooked a beach and lake. Check out the AgeHa website and click on facilities to see pictures and a layout of the place.

I thought watching the sun come up would be amazing but I ended up inside because Paul Van Dyk (a supposedly hugely famously international DJ, with a rather unfortunate surname) DJ’ed. Actually, I got really into it and the time flew by. If I’m really honest I have no idea why the DJ was famous; to me he didn’t do anything different compared to the guy before him. After all, it’s not their songs, they just press ‘play’ and ‘next’. Or am I being very naïve?

It was only when we left the club at 5:30 that I went outside for the first time since it was dark. It was bright and had that smell of morning. I wasn’t actually that tired but instead just rode on the free bus back to Shibuya, and spent the rest of the day chilling in Tsunashima Park playing cards with friends.

Sadly, it caught up with me the next day at work.

Oh, Odaiba

Odaiba is an artificially-created Island on the bay of Tokyo. Although it began life as a waste-disposal area, the reclaimed land* was seen by the then-Mayor as a gold-mine. Work began in 1985 but by 1991 funds were low, Tokyo-ites unenthusiastic and the Mayor kicked out. However, in 1996 Fuji rezoned its headquarters here and since then it has flourished.

I fell in love with this area, which is reached by Shimbashi (future-world) by a monorail over the Rainbow Bridge, and if I decide to move after six months for a change of location I’d request here.

Some of the highlights include:

Venus Fort – an Venice-themed shopping mall with an ever-changing ceiling depending on the time of day.



Toyota Showroom – the largest in the world, with games, simulators, test-runs and, this lovely model. The car, not me.


The concert piazza – it just happened to be Hawaii week.


The beach – artificial, and you can hire a dog to walk along the beach.

Joypolis – a cool 3-floor Sega theme-park. Loads of awesome rides but my favourite was ‘Room of the Living Dolls’, aka ‘The Scariest Experience of my Life’. You sit around a table in a room with dolls placed the whole way around you and a human-sized doll to the left. Headphones are given to you and the lights go off. In the pitch black, you hear a creepy woman tell you a story. Of course, I couldn’t understand much apart from ‘You will die, you will die’. The headphones were incredible as it sounded like people were walking around you. Wind blew from behind to cause the sensation even further. A girl starts singing and the woman goes crazy, then a shotgun is fired and it’s freaky. The room lights up and the dolls eyes are bleeding and, through strobe lighting, the big doll jerks. It was terrifying, but I loved it.

Here are some shots of the view to Tokyo. Sadly, my batteries died before evening so I’ll go back and get some night-shots.



Such an awesome place. Sitting across the bay at sunset watching the sun go down and eating a burger, I can’t describe why but it was the first place I felt that I’d really accomplished something in coming to Japan. Another one of the top places I’d show someone if they came.

*I was kind of expecting a place like Springfield in The Simpsons episode with the garbage disposal and the golf course is all bumpy with rubbish bursting at the seams. But alas, it was fine.

100th Post - Woo!!!!!!!

Thanks for sticking it out with me! Sometimes I can write a lot, other weeks I get writer's block. But either way, it's been fun.

I guess this is a good place to tell you all my really big news. Some may have heard through the international grape-vine. But here it is, it's official:

I'm no longer a vegetarian.

It became too hard here and most things were served with meat. The more I ate, the easier it became. But strangely, it was never a question of digestion (ooh, that rhymes) as it never upset my stomach, but I felt guilty because for 11 years I'd been fussy and here I was being lazy. So thank you to everyone who's had to go out of their way preparing special food for me.

I eat meat usually every day now, and I'm starting to like it more and more. At first, I was craving it, like Brad Pitt in Interview With The Vampire. Like what I did there - comparing myself to Brad Pitt!

I miss veggie food and will eat it back home. Along with a nice Steak.

Happy eating, and happy reading. See you at the 200th! x

Happy Birthday Barbara

(taken in Yokohama, June 1st)