Cool Or What

So it’s Monday the day after the Party or to be precise it was a few days ago and Monday means a work day. Can’t moan really as we’re only working five days a week right now, give it a while though an I’m sure we’ll be doing more.
Anyway off to site we all go and this time we have Leo in toe, like I say I’m not going to mention that much about work because as we all know it is a four letter word after all.
Just wanted to set the scene, taking Leo around site with one of the Japanese site managers “Abe San”, San means Mr in Japanese.
Check out the photo, do we look cool or what, probably or what you’re all thinking, must be the chin straps on the hard hats. You have to wear a chin strap on your hard hat in Japan, got to be safe you know it might fall off.
So that was the site tour over with, actually we had quite a bit planned for the rest of the week as we were going back to some where near Tokyo for some meeting and to inspect some material.
Fast forward a couple of day and we’re in Tokyo and it’s Tuesday the 26th, caught the Shinkansen again getting a bit of an expert on the trains here, never been on so many in such a short period of time. On that note it must be twenty years if not more since I was on one in the UK think they were still run by British rail at that time, if they’d been as good and punctual as the ones here I’m sure I’d still be using them, actually I’m not sure that i would but it sounds quite good.
Check out the photos the sign caught my eye, never been to a Psycho market before, wonder what they sell there, the other one is of the four most famous character figures in Japan snapped this in the station, don’t ask what they’re call I was just told by one of the Japanese guys with us that they were famous.
Enough of this drivel, got the meetings over and we’re on our way back to Utsunomiya, Leos going back on Wednesday so he’s staying in a hotel at the airport so we left him in Tokyo, we have another guy coming over this weekend though, just to keep the numbers up, actually we’ve got more meetings
Oh one other quite funny thing did happen earlier on this week, we all went out for lunch at an Italian restaurant, that dinner to you and me.
Have been there before but a Leo was Italian though we would go again as it was quite nice. Good job they had pictures or we would have been up the creek with out a paddle so to speak last time we had a Japanese person with us.
Ordered the main meal everything went well than it came time to order deserts, which by the way all looked really good. Leo is asking what they all were he went through them all from start to finish, there were nine of them. Like I say they all looked really good, I’d noticed while he was asking what they were the waiter was fiddling with his hand held electronic thingy and some time it bleeped a bit, this is Japan you don’t need to write any thing down the orders go straight to the kitchen from the hand held.
It dawned on me that maybe when one was pointed out and asked about the guy took it that we wanted it, no problem we told him we only wanted three and picked one each.
To cut a long story short when the deserts came, guess what we each had a plate with three on, thanks Leo, but they were really nice and it was to late then so we all tucked in so it was back to the gym for me that night.
Just remember when in a restaurant in Japan don’t point at everything if it looks good, or you could get more than you bargained for.
Am running out of things to write about at the moment as have not really do much exciting, oh have been looking for an apartment though. I’m getting close to choosing one. Actually the one I wanted has gone and I’ve seen quite a few now and I’m getting fed up with looking, so am probably going to pick the best of the rest, will keep you posted on developments so Tarar for now.

The Party

Got back to Utsunomiy about 7pm, uneventful train ride just as i had come to expect.

Was going out later meeting a guy called Mike down the pub at about 10pm, I'd met Mike in the Gym and told him i was going to the Lion Head, my favorite pub, not really but when there are only two English style bars in a city of half a million people you don't have a lot to choose from, even if one of them is pretty bad it has to be you second favorite, that's my thinking at least.

Got to the bar and Mike was there he was talking to two girls who he introduced me to, they could both speak pretty good English that was a relief, if I'd had to relay on my Japanese then the conversation would have been over pretty quick, Mike on the other hand could speak Japanese well as he'd been in Japan for 10 years.

We all went to the second favorite bar, Iceman you don't have a lot of choice here, it turned out the both the girls were going to Megumies party tomorrow (Sunday) how that for a coincidence in a city of 500 thousand, guess when people say it's a small world they mean it and it sure was tonight. had a good night anyway.

After Mike and everyone had gone and i was walking home met another couple of guys i knew, there's quite a few Brit's here who teach and had bumped into them before at the Lions Head. to cut a long story short went went up a club called Birdland with them, before any one says you're to old for clubs i already know that but i went anyway. Shouldn't have gone because it was 4 in the morning before i got home but all in all it was not bad, felt a bit like a kid again had to have my hand stamped when i went in, you could only see it under black light though,

Next day borough the party, so off i went to buy some beer and a bit of food was in a bit of a rush as usual so not exactly sure on the food i bought some meat on a stick things and what looked like bits of pizza and some sort of fritter things as well as the beer.

Off Fred and i went to the party, it was at Mike and megs house, good job he was driving as i didn't have a clue where it was, but we got there that was the main thing.

Got in and there were about 15-20 people, mostly Mikes students who he taught English to, got talking to one older guy (73) who was real interesting. Japan is a pretty mountainous county and he was climbing the 100 highest mountains in Japan and he had done 70 of them. Apparently in Japan this is quite a romantic thing to clime the 100 highest mountains and lots of people do it, some you can just walk up but it's obviously pretty steep others you need full mountain climbing equipment.

The two girls just to the left of Fred arr the girls i met last night at the lions head, one of them is what they call here a chalk artiest. Basically she designs and produces menu boards for restaurants and bars, saw some pictures of her work and it looked very professional.

Forgot to take my camera to the party so not a lot of photos this is on that the girls took.

Party was good though and everyone was friendly, like i said before they were all English students so they all wanted to speak to you. food was good as well

Party was supposed to finish around 8pm, actually pretty much everyone left bang on time, must be that Japanese punctuality thing, needless to say Fred and i stayed to polish of the beer and Saki with Mike and Megumi. got a taxi home as driving over here while drinking is a definite no no.

Tokoy

Fred and I went to Tokyo last Saturday to meet one of our people who had flown in the day before, so took it as a bit of an opportunity to have a bit of a quick look round.
We took the Shinkansen which is a bit expensive but it’s faster than the regular train, I’ll try the slower one sometime though it’s less than half the price of the bullet train.
Trip was pretty uneventful, nice and smooth and like clock work we arrived at Tokyo central about 50minuets later, trains run on time over here and I get the impression that it would something really unusual for a train not to leave on time or arrive on time. Anyway arrived in Tokyo and met Leo in the station which is in easy walking distance of area of Tokyo called Ginza, this apparently means Silver Mint. It’s the high end fashion section of the city with lots of high end shops and restaurants, which obviously I wasn’t there to shop being a Yorkshirman and all that, we did go for a walk through it though.
It’s also close to the Imperial Palace so we decided to give that a look, it was about dinner time so we decided to have something to eat and get a drink before we went.
First restaurant we got to was Italian, don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before but it seems to me that the Japanese really love Italian food, there’s a heck of a lot of them here.
Food was good though, a bit of a tip for anyone going to Japan food in restaurants is usually a lot cheaper at dinner time, they all have lunch menus and the same food at night can be twice the price if not more.
So off we go to the Imperial Palace, didn’t realize until we got there that we couldn't’t go in they do tours apparently but not when we were there so we just walked round the out side the wall and the moat and took a couple of photos..
Defiantly worth a look especially as we were so close pity about missing the tour, there’s guards outside in little pillar boxes just like at Buckingham Palace, no one actually lives inside now a days though, like I say pity we couldn't’t’ get in the grounds outside were nice though and well kept
That was about it for the Palace especially as it was red hot and humid and we’d done enough walking around and decided to have a look around the Ginza district, so of we went.
Could tell as soon as we got to the shopping are that every thing was expensive most of the shops didn’t even have prices in the window, that’s always an indication if you have to worry about the price don’t come in.

We walked a long way, right down to the river lot more of the same lots of shopping didn't really have much to to do any exploring so this posting will be mostly photos, did see a pretty neet river cruise boat though would be nice to go on when i have more time.

It was pretty interesting though shame we did not have much time this trip, will definitely have to do it again when i have more time. I was going out Saturday night and we were going to a birthday party tomorrow, it was Megumis boyfriends birthday a guy from Canada called Mike who i had never met before, but there was food and booze to be had after all.

Took a few photos while we were looking round the shops, like i say did not have alot of time so will take a better look next time.

Have also been trying to learn a bit more Japanese, it can't be that hard can it even kids speak it, saw a guy taking his dog for a walk while we were in Tokyo he sopped at the side of the road said something to the dog and it sat down, see what i mean even dogs understand Japanese so there must be some hope for me learning a bit more.

We decided to walk down to the rive much more of the same lots of shops, shame we did not have more time to explore, but maybe next time. Did see a pretty neat river cruise boat though, will have to give this a go sometime. There were some really nice scooters as well, took a photo of one but missed some of the better one which had great paint jobs and little coloured LED's all over them.

Took the bus back to the station as you can see form the photo of Fred and Leo, had to get the Shinkansen back to Utsunomiay as i was going out later.

Hair Cut Sir

Went out last night and didn't wake up until about 9.30 this morning. Was supposed to meet Fred at 8.30 to go to site so as you can see was running a bit late. From looking at my phone Fred had tried to call me, guess i had slept through it, also thought i had set my alarm for 7.30 but either i didn't or I'd turned it off and gone back to sleep, such is life.

Being late wasn't really a problem we didn't have much to do today except go to site and take some progress photos. Have been feeling a bit rough all day but it's my own doing. I'm going to go to the gym soon and will see how i feel after that, may even partake of a little more liquid refreshment if i feel up to it tonight, after all it is Friday.

Had just popped out for something to eat last night, went to a bar i had found a while ago called the Lions Head to get some fish and chips. It's supposedly based on an English/Irish pub or what everyone thinks that to be here, Fish and chips were pretty good even had vinegar, the chips were more like french fries though but not bad at all.

While i was tucking in to my fish and chips a couple of guys came in, one of them i had met the other day and it turned out to be his birthday. One thing led to another and before i knew it was 2 in the morning and we were up in a club called Birdland, bit of a strange club I'd been there before the music was a bit strange, a cross between Jamaican reggae and rap, actually it's more of a bar that plays music and had a dance floor.

Finally went round to Fred's and off we went to site to take some photos, won't go on about work but just check out the little old lady in the photo. Not sure how old she is but looks to in her mid to late 60's if not older, she's still wearing a hard hat and working on a construction site, wow.

Almost every time i see her she stops and talks not sure what she's saying but she's always real friendly. I took her photo, and she posed with some kind of V for victory sign then off she trotted back to work.

On the way back to town we stopped at some kind of second hand shop which was like going into Aladdin's cave, lots of things from TV's to fridges and Pechinko machine's, which by the way are a really big thing over here. Pechinko is like playing the old machines they used to have at the fair in the UK, you know the ones with the ball bearing that you flick up, a bit like a small vertical pin ball machine but it sure is big here and they have lots of what are called Pechinko Parlours, think you can win money like on a slot machine

Also yesterday went to try and open a bank account as i wasn't at work and had an appointment at 3pm to look at some apartments. Went to the post office as i had heard it was also on of the biggest banks in Japan. Had hoped that someone would be able to speak English but when i went in it soon became clear though that i knew more Japanese, that's not likely though. It's probably more likely that no one wanted to talk English in case thy made a mistake, they think it makes them look bad, anyway need to go back with an interpreter.

After that though i would go and get my hair cut at least i though it was a good idea at the time, found a little hairdressers once again no communication. After a bit of time trying to explain what i wanted, think i had got there but I was still a bit nervous about how short she was going to cut it and by this time i was sweating a lot mainly because it was about 90F in the shop.

Anyway suddenly the lady turns round runs out of the shop and shouts up at the next floor, apparently it's and English school, the teacher comes trotting down and down and hey presto instant communication and i got my hair cut. The lady had to keep wiping the sweat of my head as we went though it made it hard to cut she kept laughing and saying service service, she did know a couple of word of English it seems. In the end she gave me a hand fan. It must have looked a bit stupid for anyone watching to see a westerner having his hair cut fanning himself to keep cool, luckily i was the only one in the shop else i would have felt stupid as well. To her credit she got it done, will go back there again now all the hard work is done I'm sure she will remember me.

After the hair cut it was off to see the apartments, had gone into a estate agents earlier in the morning, not sure what they call them over here but estate agents will do. This time using my very limited Japanese some pointing and gesturing the guy knew some English all this together got me three apartments to see later that afternoon. Went to meet the guy and he took me round to see them, all of them were OK but nothing i think I'll be bothering with. There are hundreds a apartments here most of them are pretty small, took be back to the times of living in a bedsit in my youth which is a long time ago. Did see one the other day which was pretty nice it was a brand new build but it only had one bedroom and was a bit far out it had but it did have TV in the bathroom not sure how anyone can do with out one of those, you could sit in the bath and watch it but it didn't sway me.

Joyful Honda

Went out to a place called Joyful Honda last Sunday, no it's no connection to Honda the car company, apparently Honda is a very common name over here a bit like Smith or Jones in the UK, well at least that's what i was told.
It was a lovely day and of course the place was packed and so were the roads. Didn't really know where it was but had heard of it and that it was big so i guess it was some where on the ring road or what ever they call a ring road over here.
Set out driving luckily i picked the right direction and found it in about half an hour, Joyful Honda sells everything from rubber bands to band stands just to say it's big is a bit of an understatement in it's self.
Parked the car and went in, the first place i saw was a bakery and a sort of Shish Kebab come meat on a skewer type place, of course i couldn't resist, it was about that time to eat after all. Had a few skewers which they warm up for you while you wait, most were OK but did not really cotton on to the chicken cartilage and breast ones, the chicken breast was good but the cartilage was definitely a no no, the rest were great though, even i i wasn't exactly sure what they were. After that it was on the the bakery bit, got some kind of custard filled kind of pastry and it was good, like i said in an earlier blog i may come back bigger than i went as the food is pretty good.
Wasn't there to buy anything just to have a look around and kill a couple of hours, did come across some other restaurants while looking around all looked good but gave them a miss as i was full.
Had a bit of a walk round the tool department, some of the things they use over here for digging are a bit strange, could just see someone wielding one of these in the rose bed, probably wouldn't be a pretty site.
Checked out the food and Sushi departments not forgetting the booze section. Had a quick whizz round the whole store but when you're not shopping for anything specific it gets a bit boring, basically it's just a big supermarket, seen one seen em all, just variations on a theme.
Check out the pre-packed squid and giant bottles of Saki and Soju below, squid looks yummy if you like that sort of thing.

















After Joyful Honda was back into town and off to the gym to work of the bakery.
After the gym went out to the local Indian restaurant, yes they even have those here as well.
Went with a friend of mine, we each had the Lady's curry. Before you say anything it's called this because it's a smaller portion, two different types of curry some rice a plain nan some sort of onion barji, very nice i was surprised how good it was as i am not a great fan of Indian food.
Sounds like i am always eating but honest there was about 6 hours between meals.
After that back to the hotel to watch my one and only TV channel that is in English, CNN and trust me you can only watch so much news and American news at that.

Came over here thinking at i could at least stream some channels on BBCi or 4ondemand, but since i get here find out you can only watch these Internet service's if you are in the UK, life's a beach sometimes ain't it, beggars can't be chooser though and even CNN is better than nothing at all.

For the last week or so have been trying to find an apartment, when i do hope to get some form of cable or satellite channels, the apartment hunting is not going so well at the moment. loads of apartment but most of them too small or too far away from the areas i want to be in, actually there was one i wanted but i unmd and rrd a bit and it was gone, will find something else though.

Squid And Chips

Joined a gym a couple of days ago, haven't been for a while so will have to get back into the swing of things, joined for 3 months cost about $180 similar price to what i would have to pay in the UK. I saw the gym yesterday while walking around waiting for my visa appointment, decided to come and give it a go. It was a bit of a trial finding out the cost and everything else, normally it's about 10,000 Yen or 50 Quid a month but they had a deal on, join for 3 months for 6,300Yen a month. Like i say it was a bit tough finding all this out but then they brought out a girl who could speak pretty good English and it all got better from there.

After joining had to go through a bit of an induction, which was just questions really, the only thing that stuck out was that they would not have let me in if i had any tattoos, not many people in Japan have tattoos and i think they are looked on as a bit of a stigma.

Got to say after getting in everything was spotless, but it should have been as it was all new, there was an O2 room, which is basically just a room where they enrich the Oxygen supply and you just sit in there and chill out for a while. It also has these total body massage chairs which sort of hugs your body like giant bucket seats in a car, it then vibrates and massages while you listen to music in a dark room, will give them a go at some point. Been going for a few days now and everyone is nice and want to try and talk, but it's hard work. Did see the girl who had helped sign me in the other day,she's one of the trainers there. Get this she had just had here hair dyed red not bright red just a shade really but her boss had told her that red did not really go with the image of the gym and not to do it again.

Got a car the other day as well, you have to pay for parking everywhere you go even at the hotel bit of a liberty if you ask me as I'm paying for the hotel. I'd rather see it included in the price then you wouldn't know anything about it, bit like tipping when in the states would rather not have it to do it, all these little extras seem a little bit much especially as you have to pay for parking every day and it's a bit of a pain.

Parking here can be quite novel at the hotel for instance they don't have much land so they have a type of multi story car park arrangement. You don't drive up it's sort of a multi level lift system, you drive onto a platform the attendant gives you a ticket presses a button and up goes your car on an elevator. It's all automated you just drive in it's got a little turntable that turns the car around so you can drive out when you come to get it back you get an electronic ticket telling it where the care is position in the system, when you want your car back you just insert the ticket press a button and hey presto your car arrives as if by magic from somewhere up above, all pretty cool. Actually the attend does it all they don't let foreigners loose pressing buttons around here, but it all seems to work well and you see these type of things all over the place.

Another odd thing happened the other night or should i say morning wasn't sure but though i had a pretty vivid dream about the hotel rocking. Not sure now if it was a dream or not because when i did get up put on the news and guess what there had been an earthquake in northern Japan, 7 on the Richter Scale which doesn't mean an awful lot to me except that i know it's pretty high.

Like i say can't be sure about whether it was a dream or not now but it was a bit of a coincidence and felt very surreal to say the least when i heard the news. They did say that the tremors had been felt in Tokyo and we're are a bit further north than that, like i say not sure about it now.

Same day went out to a supermarket a bit further afield and guess what, almost tripped over a Buck Rodgers toilet seat, $280 worth of the latest technology in a seat which seems to be all the rage over here.

After this it was off to meet Fred to get something to eat, which is where the title of this blog comes from. We got a few things as you can see but one of the dishes was a plate of chips and the other was some deep fried squid, hence the title, which i thought went well together, i don't mean the food just the title. Don't really like squid but am told by Fred that it was yummy, but I'll take his word for it at the moment.

Got to say everything else seemed OK and that anything to do with the sea is definitely on the menu over here.

The Japanese really like fish and everything that goes with it and especially sushi.

More to follow am just trying to get up to date.

Legal Alien

Went to get my visa the other day, not a problem after getting Megumi to help me with the forms yesterday, did have to wait around most of the day until my ticket came up though. Only problem was I'd pulled ticket number 61 today even worse than yesterdays 41, the machine showed that there were 45 people in front of me.

Anyway had a bit of time to kill so thought i would go for a wander round town as it looked like It would be about 3 in the afternoon before it was my turn, and it was only 10,30 in the morning when i drew lucky number 61.
On walking round town checked out a few supermarkets, food all looked pretty good, and it looks like you can get pretty much anything, i was surprised at the prices as it wasn't as expensive as i thought it would be. Sushi's a big thing over here and i don't that any self respecting supermarket over here doesn't have a Sushi section, a lot of it looked real good even though I'm not a big fan. Cakes and pastries also seem to be a big thing over here which is a good thing because I've got a bit of a sweet tooth, so may

come back a bit bigger than i went.

Did the supermarket thing, all this looking at food had made me feel a bit hungry so of i go to see what Utsunomiya had to offer, looking round it had a lot ranging from literally thousands of small Japanese restaurants that would be packed with ten people in them, these were mostly in the side and back streets off the main drag, almost all of them though looked like it would be good to go in. The usual suspects were all here as well MacDonald's, KFC and other local burger chains.

Italian restaurants seem really popular here if i passed one i must of passed a dozen and just in the little area i was walking around. Finally settled on a sort of Japanese noodle fast food place, went in sat at the counter for a couple of minuets until a guy pointed at a sort of slot machine thing in the corner.

Had seen a few people around it but just figured it was some form of one armed bandit type of thing. Felt like a bit of a plonker as it turned out to be where you got a ticket for your meal, how could a Englishman know that i ask you.

luckily it had pictures on it and i could just feed it in money push a button and get a ticket, take it to the counter give it to the waiter and literally about two minutes later i had my meal. It was all a hell of a novelty and pretty strange be but it was such an efficient system i was quite impressed. Didn't really know what i had got but the picture looked OK and i had sort of vetted it for squid and the like before i put my money in and got my ticket, don't know what it was, but it was good and I'd have it again if i could remember the picture and which button i pressed.

Fancied a beer after this but after searching around for a while could not find any where open, getting the feeling that the Japanese don't drink in the afternoon but surly that can't be true can it? Was getting to be around 2-15pm by this time so gave up looking for an open bar and off i go again to the immigration office to get my visa, got there around 2.30, still about 10 people before me, decided to wait anyway as i didn't want to go to the back of the queue or even to the next day if my turn came up and i wasn't there. Finally got to the counter at about 3.30 tried in my fluent Japanese to explain what i wanted, luckily there was a guy there who spoke a bit of English as well, finally got my visa about half an hour later.

After this went to get my alien registration card sorted, once I get it guess I’ll be a legal alien, as in the words of the song by Sting “I’m A Legal Alien” this time in Japan though and not New York. You need an alien registration card in Japan if you're going to be there more than 90 days, needed to go to another building to get this which was another ticket machine type of deal but luckily i was the first in the queue or should i say it was getting late and they closed at five. Had to get some photos taken for the card so off i go to the photo booth in the building basement, got my money out and went in just like the ones we have in the UK, or so i thought. Sat down put in my 600 Yen, composed myself waited and waited some more absolutely nothing, it had a touch screen on it pressed everything i could see not looking at the instruction as i was in a hurry, not a sausage. There was a lot more instructions then the ones i had been in in the UK and at first glance though they were all in Japanese, well they were until i discover the instruction in English button, great big blue one right in front of me. Oh forgot to mention it was about 95F inside the booth while all this was going on and to say i was sweating would be an understatement, starting to think that when i finally did get it sorted it and took a photo it would look like I'd just been in the shower.

Success finally found out how to get the instructions in English, press the big blue button dummy, there was a lot more things to go though before you actually got to press the button to take the photo.

Finally got there and managed to mop up the sweat before the photo was taken, they weren't the most flattering photos I've ever had but beggars can't be chooser. Off i run upstairs with the photos as it was nearly closing time and i didn't want to come back the next day this made me sweat even more, got back to the desk dripping wet think the lady wondered what the heck had been going on and why it had took me so long, anyway to cut a long story short should get my card the first week in July.

Path of The Bike

Well have been here just over a week now, and I’m settled into the hotel, the room is a bit small but it’s spotless. View of the front of the hotel and one out of the window.
Went out the first night I was here with the Fred guy I will be working with, it was raining of course so about half way through we had to buy an umbrella.
Went to my first Japanese restaurant it was a sit on the floor style, didn’t bother me as I was used to doing that in Korea, although I’m a bit older now and when I got up I could tell I was older, you need to keep in practice with these things as it stretches muscles you don’t know you had.
We weren’t exactly sure what we ordered as it was all in Japanese and as you know my Japanese is non existent much the same Fred’s so we were back to pointing and sign language. There were pictures on the menu but you can’t exactly tell from the picture what’s in it and I’m not a squid type of person, I can eat it but would not choose too as to me it tastes of nothing.
Food came and everything was good, mine was better than Fred’s though just judging by the look of it, anyway my first impressions of the food were very positive, I’ll try some sushi another day have had it quite a bit in Korea but to be honest I think Sushi is over rated but I’m here to be convinced otherwise and apparently Japan is the place to be for Sushi.
After the food we stumbled into a bar, well we didn’t stumble into the bar literally on the way to the restaurant some guy tried to get us to go into bar, we decided to go on the way back just to be curious, big big mistake cost us $30 each, for that $30 you get an hour in the bar and as much Whisky or Soju as you can drink in that hour free, if you like Whisky or Soju or are an alcoholic it could be a good deal, but if you drink beer like me it’s a bit of a bummer, you only get one beer free and have to buy the rest, there’s also girls that come and talk to you to try and get you to buy them drinks. Sure enough bang on sixty minuets they asked us if we wanted to say, we didn’t so we left don’t think I will be going there again thank you very much, in fact I know I won’t.
So that was the first night over with, next day it was just a familiarization day, looking round the city seeing where things were and a trip to the job site, pretty uneventful really. Decided not to get a car for a few days as pretty much everything I needed to do was local to where I was staying, and i could get a ride into the job site.
Day after went to the immigration office, we needed an interpreter for this a girl from the hotel restaurant came with us Megumi, who was the girl friend of a guy that Fred knew.
Got there about 11:30 in the morning, took a ticket from the machine, number 41 and they were only on number 10, did not look good for getting seen until a lot later, decided to come back the next day. Before we left Megumi spoke to the staff got me the correct forms and went of to buy me some visa stamps and helped me to fill in the forms so that I could come back the next day by myself and get everything done, that would be interesting.
After that thought we would go off and look at some apartments especially as we had Meg with us to do all the talking. Went to see a guy call Mr Takizawa he took us round some apartments, most I did not like but there was one that looked promising. Once again no one could could speak English, so good for Megumi helping me only cost us a meal, that's not quite true there was one lady in the office that once she knew i was from England told Meg she had just been there. Turns out she could speak a bit of English and had just been to Blackpool for a dancing competition, she was a ballroom dancer, showed us all the photos and everything. I though of all the places for here to go was Blackpool, but from what i could make out she had a good time there.

That was pretty much another day taken care of, everyone was really friendly and tried real to be helpful to a couple of illiterate foreigners.

Other thing i had noticed since i first got here i had noticed that instead of motorbikes and scooter's everyone seems to go round on bicycles, push bikes to you and me. Riding on the path is the normal here, you only ride on the road to get across it. there are literally thousands of bike and all of them on the path, everyone from old people to school kids especially school kids thousands of them, so you have to watch what you're doing or you could get a bike where you don't want a bike. It's almost like they creep up on you on purpose and you could get paranoid about it, but it's the same for everyone.

The type of bike that seems really popular is what I'm going to call the old sit up and beg type bike. Seems really strange to see most people using this when you think of them as being old fashioned, but everyone uses them here. Seems really strange seeing someone who is pretty trendily dressed and obviously thinks they are cool, or in a business suit riding one of these bikes, sometimes with an umbrella up or talking on a mobile phone, want to try and get a picture but am always too late.

West Meets East And A Buck Rodgers Toilet

So anyway I'm on the train the first train i get is just a regular train and not the high speed Shinkansen, i have to go to Tokyo station to get this one. One thing I've already noticed since being in Japan is that everything is well organized and if there's a rule everyone follows it, not quite like in the UK. On things like the escalators for instance, everyone stands perfectly on the left and those that want to walk can pass on the right, there's not one person standing on the right side.
Train was along those lines it pulled up in the station perfectly aligning the carriages to the numbers on the platform, it also left to the second it said on the schedule, i was impressed.
After about 50mins I'm in Tokyo station, now to find the Shinkansen was looking forward to this as it was the first high speed train i had ever been on, Shinkansen sounds so much better than fast or express train or new trunk line which apparently is the literal translation. Tokyo station is huge didn't have much time to look around as the train was scheduled to leave in 15mins and i had to find where it went from, wandered around like a bit of an idiot for a couple minuets until I got my bearings then spotted a sign. Everything was pretty well signed after I knew what to look for and i only had to ask or show my ticket once and didn’t need to use my extensive language skills.
Train was a bit of a disappointment I'd envisioned it belting along at 300kph and whizzing round the corners but it didn't get anywhere near that, doubt it got above 150kph, you couldn't really tell as it moved so smoothly. Didn’t realize at the time but there we made three stops and where I was going was only about 70kms away so it could not get up to speed.
Travel was Bullet proof though even for a first timer like me, when you neared a station a tannoy system announced it in both Japanese and English, how cool is that even a Yorkshire man couldn't’t go wrong.
Finally arrived at Utsunomiya and it was raining, just my luck reminded me of England, apparently it's the rainy season over here lasts for about a month, oh happy days.
I'm in the station just wondering where my hotels is and thinking about walking out in the rain when i spot it about 200 yards away, a sign saying Richmond hotel sticking up on the skyline like an omen.
This is where I'll be staying until i get an apartment sorted out, now i just had to negotiate the way there and hope my reservation was good and some one could speak English. Off i go into the rain to find the hotel, first thing i spot when i get out of the station was a MacDonald's, well if all else fails at least i can eat here but I'll try not to.
Got to the hotel reception was a bit wet, soaking actually must have looked a bit funny trying to dodge the rain drops as i still had two bags in tow. Everyone else i saw had an umbrella except the stupid foreigner, damm i nearly put a small one in my suit case.
Umbrella use in Asia is just seen as the smart thing to do, women even use them for sun shades, for some reason in the UK it's seen as unmanly or wimpish form an early age and that sticks with you a bit so we don't tend not to use them as much, a bit or rain won't hurt me I'm English until you get pneumonia, it may just be that no one likes carrying them though.

So anyway I'm at the hotel reception armed with my little piece of paper that says i have i reservation or at least that's what i hope. Luckily one of the girls speaks a bit of English and i get checked in, have to pay in advance though and it was via sort of an ATM machine everything was automated think you could probably check into a hotel in Japan with out the need for a receptionist.

Then up to my room which is on the 13th floor, not sure if that's an omen or not, but there again we are in Asia and four is though of as unlucky and not thirteen. So any way into my room and what do i find but a Buck Rodgers toilet, I've used the name my son Ben gave it when he asked me if i had one the other day.

There was also a novel little hot water boiler come humidifier in my room, at least I'll have something to boil water with for tea bags i carted over here, the other photo is a view looking out of my hotel window.

Land Of Rising Sun- Getting There

On my way to Japan, a place called Utsunomiya, going over there to work for a while but once again the blog won't be about work.
Anyway had to leave the house at 5.3o in the morning on Monday the 2nd bit early for me but had a flight booked from Birmingham to Tokyo, via Zurich so needs must. I was Flying on Swiss Air, never flown with these guys before but it was pretty good flight as I'm not the world best flyer, I'm almost in the camp of if we were meant to fly we should have wings, but that's not going to happen.

Like i say pretty good flight although when the plane landed at Zurich i thought we might have lost part of the undercarriage as he came down a bit hard to say the least, but we were down and the first leg over.

Had about an hour in the airport before i caught my next flight, just about enough time to navigate my way to the next terminal and get through security, don't think you'd want much less time than this to catch an interconnecting flight. The airport was efficient though, which is pretty much what i would have expect from the Swiss, ran like clockwork must be all the watches.

Couple of photos below of the airport and my connecting flight.

Arrived in Tokyo at about 8am the next day, first thing was to get through security and pick up my bags, security was pretty easy just took quite along time. Japans another place you have to give you finger prints and have your photo took, wonder how long it will be before they do this in the UK. Couple of shots below of Narita airport, it was 8-o'clock in the morning so not a lot of people around.

Anyway got through no problem, got my bags and out into the terminal, took a bit of time to orientate my self as i had to find where to get the Train to Utsunomiya well first of all i had to get some cash.

Decided to send my bags direct to the hotel by courier to save lugging them all around and on the train, no fun when your in a foreign county and you don't really know where your going. The baggage deliver service was great cost me about 3000Yen about 15quid was well worth it and in typical Japanese style well organised.

After doing this off i trot to find out how to get the train, i can't speak a word of Japanese so i was relying on someone speaking a little English. Actually that's a lie i can speak a few words but you don't get very far on hello, goodbye, Kamikaze, Karate and Banzai.

Found the train ticket counter and no problem and found i could actually speak a couple of other words, Utsunomiya and Shinkansen which is where I'm going and the high speed train that takes you there. So with my very limited Japanese and their English no problem got the tickets three of them and off i went to the train station. Haven't been on a train for year in the UK, the girls had explained to me that i used all the tickets at the turnstile, it gave me them all back. When i caught to next train i used all the tickets again but it kept one and just gave me two back as I'd completed the first leg of the journey and so on at each stage until you were at your destination and it kept all the tickets. Very good i though if it all worked but i needn't have worried everything was ultra efficient and even for stupid first time users like me there was staff at the turnstiles to help it you needed it and i did for the first one. The other thing about the trains and the tickets was that all the seats were pre-booked which was great as you were guaranteed a seat.

So on the train i get and start my journey to Utsunomiya and to my hotel, more to follow.