Monkey In A Bottle

Thought I’d post a blog mainly photos of Utsunomia and a couple of the surrounding area. Utsunomia’s the city where I’m staying it’s about 100kms from Tokyo and in Tochigi prefecture which is just like a county in the UK, so it would be like Leicester in Lestershire.
Anyway like I say a few photos of the local area, there are a couple of a shop I passed almost everyday on my way to the gym, pretty nondescript shop run down really so I’ve never even looked in the window except for the other day when I was passing and something caught my eye, guess what I saw, you’ve guessed it it’s the title of the blog “ Monkey in a Bottle” not sure if it was real or not but it looked pretty real to me. The next thing I saw was a bottle full of what looked like pickled snakes skins, the shop must be something to do with herbal remedies or something like that anyway check out the photos. Since I’ve been over here everyone generally has been really polite even the young kids, The main problem is no one wants to speak when you first meet them even if they can speak a little bit of English in case they make a mistake, if you meet them a few time they gradually start speaking if they can speak English a bit. Then you get the other’s who are leaning English and just want practice there English on you, no one is pushy and everything is polite but people who can speak English just like to practice with native English speakers which fair enough if you ask me.
The other day though I was quite surprised went up the steps to the local shrine which just happens to be round the corner from the gym, there was a little old guy there drinking form the fountain. Got talking to him and he spoke great English and even wanted to pose for me while I took a photo of the fountain, turned out that his favorite county was England and he went there two or three time a year, think he would have gone on talking all day if I’d let him, nice guy though and very polite.

There are some other photos of the temple which was nice and peaceful, people bowed to the shrine on the way in and again on the way out, they also left what i think are prayers tied to railings near the shrine.

Couple of photos outside town of the rice paddy's which at this time of year are a really nice shade of green.

Just changing the subject a little was in a book shop the other day just looking at some of the books, had to take some photos as the covers were had such vivid covers think they call it Manga over here bit like comics am sure some of the local were wondering who this crazy foreigner was taking photos of books. But wait look what i came across lurking on the shelves in among the Manga, it seems they get everywhere and there's no escape even over here, yes good old Tony and Hilary.

Enough of this waffling on just wanted to down load a few photos, this Manga stuff is really big over here, comics for grown up really. The other thing that takes a bit of getting used to is that in the book shops is that the books all seem back to front but most are read from the back to the front so the back page is actually the front page if you get my drift.

I'm going back to the UK on the 25th July for a week for my mums 90th birthday party so don't know if I'll post again between now and then. In fact as I'm posting this I've actually been to the UK and am now back in Japan, had this post pretty much complete before i left though as a draft before i left so just posted it.

Other thing is my oldest son Ben is coming over with a mate of his to visit on the 13th August for a couple of weeks, they're having to fly to Nagoya first and then get the train to Utsunamiya from there it worked out cheaper that way, flying into Tokyo was over twice as much as flying into Nagoya, work that one out. Anyway am looking forward to that, August though is the hottest time of the year and the most humid so hope they're prepared for that.

Moving In 2

It's been a few days since i moved in and have bought a few more things for the apartment and my new bed has been delivered it's probably a better bed than i have at home, no more sleeping on the Futon for me which can get a bit hard sometimes.

Bought myself a sofa, had previously been sitting on a cushion on the floor which was OK for a day or two, the sofa cost me 4,000 Yen from Aladdin's cave had been looking all over for something and was just about to go and splash out on a new one when i came across it.

4,ooo Yen is about 20quid in our money so all in all a good deal, it needed a bit of cleaning up and it took me a while and a bit of sweating to get it into the apartment, remember I'm 9 floors up don't think it will ever come out unless i smash it up. I know you're all probably thinking 20 quid for a sofa it can't be much cop, but it's not that bad, good job it was only a two seater else I'd never have got it in the lift in the first place let alone the apartment.

Also bought a dining table and four chairs 13,000yen, just over 60quids worth, another good deal, although i don't really need one, this came from Aladdin's cave as well, I'm one of their best customers at the moment.
Going to Aladdin's cave is a bit of an experience in it's self if you go at the wrong time not a sole speaks any English and i mean any not English, catch it just right and there's a lady who can speak a bit what with that and with sign language, pointing etc we get there.

Still need quite a few things but I'm starting to get there, main things are a gas burner and a washing machine, i still need all the other stuff to go with everything such as pots and pans, plates knives forks and probably 100 other things etc. There's loads of places over hear to get small things and of course there is the 100Yen store, which is about 50p to you or me and i guess the equivalent of Poundstretcher or something like that, it's another good place to go and check out.

So anyway now I've the apartment if anyone wants to come out for a visit they're more than welcome, I've go a spare bedroom even got a spare bed to go in it, think my oldest son Ben and his friend are coming over for a visit sometime mid August.

Now I'm sort of settled in am looking at the things i need to make things a bit more comfortable like a good Internet connection and some satellite TV.

Oh the other thing i did over the last couple of days was to open a bank account.

Actually I've been trying to do this for a week or so ever since i got my alien registration card, apparently you need this to be able to open an account.

Have been trying to open an account at the post office, apparently this is one of the biggest banks in Japan, anyway been down to two different places and no one would talk to me in English, was starting to wonder what was wrong with me.

No seriously most young people are taught English in schools so I know some one would have been able to speak it there. Problem is over here is it goes back being shy, no one want to make themselves look a foolish in front of their friends so they just tend to say they can’t speak English as it’s less hassle then maybe making a mistake or so everyone seems to think.
From a foreigners point of view it’s frustrating as you know at least one person would be able to speak English, funny thing is usually once you find someone that is prepared to speak they can usually write and read English much better than they can speak and in a lot of case really well. I’m told this is mainly because at schools they do a lot of theoretical work and not so much oral work.
Had been going down Third time lucky went to a different bank and found someone who could speak a little English or at least who was not afraid to try luckily for me.
Now I have a bank account with the Ashikaga Bank, check out the bank book, Asian cultures especially the Japanese seem to be big into cartoon/caricatures and that sort of thing. Looks a bit like it should be a kids bank book to me but there you go everyone gets them, the young the old and any passing foreigner, i mentioned it to a guy i know over here and he has one just the same.

Moving In

Well I've gone and done it moved out of the hotel and moved into the apartment moved in on the 4th July, independence day in America and a little bit of an independence day for me as well thank you very much.

The day before i went round all the off houses i could find and Aladdin's cave, couldn't find a lot did mange to by myself a TV and stand also a fridge and Microwave not forgetting a Kettle to make tea oh and a coffee table, there was actually lots of thing to be had but did not fancy a lot and did not want to rush into anything.

The apartment was totally empty in the photos you can see the TV and fridge but there was nothing and i mean nothing even had to buy some of the light fixtures, courtesy of Hard Off

As you have probably noticed from the photos one of the surprises of the apartment is that it has a Buck Rogers toilet seat which i couldn't remember, it's a pink one though not sure what that means.

The other slight down side i never noticed before is in the Kitchen area, the cupboards above the sink are so low that i know I'm going to bang my head all the time, in fact I've already done it a few time, on the plus side it should encourage me to find a Japanese lady to do the cooking think banging the head would not be a problem then.

Anyway i digress had always planned on buying a new bed so on the day i was moving in of i went to a store called Nitori, if you know me you know i like leaving things till the last minuet, wanted to get a double bed and needed something to sleep on pretty quick.

The bed i wanted was not in stock surprise surprise so i ordered it, would be deliver on the 11th, that's what they said and have come to accept that if you are told something like that in Japan then it happens, unlike other places i can think of.

So anyway i had a bed on order but nothing to sleep on tonight, so i start looking round at the single beds. To cut a long story short found a cheap single bed frame and a mattress that i though i would get, i could get everything in the car so did not have to worry about them delivering it.

When it came time to buy, no mattress in stock, decided not to bother with the mattress and hit on the idea of a Futon on the frame. yes this will work i thought

For anyone that doesn't know Futons are traditional sleeping mattress that you lay on the floor, very popular in Asia, I've slept on a few in my time but they can be a bit uncomfortable if you're not used to them.

I'm told that now almost 50% of Japanese house holds now use western style bed, if you're wondering who told me it was the guy that had been with me all the time in the shop who spoke really good English, he'd lived in California for over three years. You don't really think it would have been this easy to go into a Japanese shop order beds and stuff with out being able to speak Japanese do you, come on now.

Anyway thanks to the guy from Nitori no not Del Monte, i even got him to help me out with finding an Internet service provider who by the way said he would come round at 10am the next morning Saturday or so i thought but it turned out to be 10 on Sunday morning, am sure it was me who got it wrong.

So anyway i had a bed now and i was sorted, it was Friday night i was going out and i didn't really care how hard the bed was, not until the next morning anyway.

More to follow just a couple of shots from the balcony of my apartment, at the front and back.

The view from the back is of a school yard and swimming pool. Think the kids are up to about 12years old as they all look real small and seem to have games and things on every Saturday morning, starting way to early for me coss it gets get pretty noisy especially when they're playing Baseball, seem like they to do some kind of chanting, the other photo is from the front

Actually I'm quite enjoying it all for some strange reason it reminds me of living in a bedsit or flat when i was young which seems like a long time ago sometimes, more later.

The Apartment

Fred No 2 went back to the US on the 3rd as it was the Independence days holiday over there on the 4th, not sure who they got independence from, could it have been the Brits.
Now I’m just left with the original Fred so I don’t have to keep putting a number after there names.
On the 2nd had picked up the keys to my apartment, didn't move right in as it was unfurnished which is pretty standard for Japanese apartments. It had been a bit of a palaver getting things sorted so I could pick up the keys, had to get a guy from Honda to vouch for me and had to get money transfer from the states, not hard just quite a lot of running around, anyway got it all sorted in the end after a bit of sweating.
Like I say picked up the keys on the 2nd but was not intending on moving in for a couple of days, needed to get at least a bed sorted as I didn’t fancy sleeping on the floor, I know it’s Japanese style but I’m a soft westerner after all, also had to get the electricity, water, and gas turned on as a minimum.
Basically i was going to stop at the hotel for another couple of days, it sounded like a plan to me anyway.
Didn’t do anything as regards the apartment of the 2nd other than go down and see where my parking space was, bit of a shock when I found it. The space was tucked away under the ramp for the second floor car park. Thought I would never get the car in with out hitting the roof on the concrete every time or something of the sort.
It ran through my mind that this was why the apartment was still on the market, everyone else had seen the parking space and said thanks but not thank you very much. Me, being a dumb foreigner had not actually looked at the parking space prior to getting the keys. Shot off to fetch the car as I’d walked to the apartment this time, came back in the car and tried the parking space out a few times. Found it was better to reverse into the space off the main road only needed to shunt around a couple of times doing it this way and it worked out pretty well. It was bit like the Krypton Factor but there was more space to the parking space than I thought and the car was not that big anyway so everything should be OK, as they say practice makes perfect. After that went back to the hotel and out with the Fred’s as it was Fred No2 last night in Utsunomiya for a while, pretty uneventful night went for a pizza and that was pretty much it.
Next day took Fred to the bus stop and he was off, I on the other hand had to go and pick up my Alien Registration card from city hall, I’d applied for this when I first got here and now it was my day to become a legal alien. In Japan if you are going to be here for more than 90 days or are working here you have to apply for one of these cards, it’s just an ID card really. All Japanese have ID cards and if you’re are a foreigner it’s just called and alien registration card probably a couple of other differences but basically the same.
Went down to fetch the card with usually Japanese punctuality the card was ready and waiting for me when I got there, had to change my address while I was there as well as I would be moving into the apartment.
It’s a definite no no to be found with one of these cards with the wrong address on it, you have a bit of lee way but if you don’t inform them in a timely manner not exactly sure what happens but don’t think you are ever heard from again, not really but don’t want to find out what happens though, but they do like you to keep it up to date.
Got the card and with the address changed on it so then it was off to try and find some stuff for the apartment.
Fred has already got an apartment and been it a couple of months and he had introduced me to what they call Off Houses. There’s Hard Off, Book Off, Garage Off, basically they are second hand stores, Off House sells furniture, Hard Off sells electronic goods, guess what Book Off and Garage Off sell, I’m not giving prizes for the correct answer.
There’s also one that sells cloths and jewelry but forget the name, but it’s definitely something off, no it’s not Cloths Off.

While we are on the subject of names you have to be a little careful with some of them as a slip of the tongue is all it would take to say something you didn’t mean.

Also found another place which is pretty much a junk shop and it’s crammed full from floor to ceiling, it reminds me of Aladdin’s cave, not that I know what Aladdin’s cave looks like only what I think it

might look like, in other words it has everything. This place actually has everything from Samurai swords, to gas burners to Pachinko Machines.

Got to say though think the Off Houses and the junk shop will be well worth looking into, who knows what I'll find. This piece is getting a bit drawn out so will sign off with a couple of shots of the of the apartment building for now with more to follow on the apartment set up, my apartment on the 9th floor by the way.

Plonkers Or What

Leos just gone back to the states and the project manger for this job is arriving over later this week, his name’s Fred I’ll call him Fred No2 as the other one was here first, it can get a bit complicated, I’ll have two Fred’s with me for the next few days what a joy.He’s a good bloke though same as the other Fred first met him in Korea years ago for that matter I met both of them there about 10yeas ago, now I’ve said that seem like the last 10 years have shot past.
The day before Fred No 2 arrived when to see the apartment I was thinking of getting for a second time, it was the best of the ones I’d seen. Went with a guy called Takizawa San nice bloke but he spoke almost as much English as I spoke Japanese so it was hard work but we got along like a house on fire especially as we couldn’t talk to each other but he know me and I knew him, the first time I had seen the apartment I’d had Megume with me to interpret. To cut a long story short decided to take the apartment and I gave him the thumbs up which I guess is the universal language for OK or yes, went back to his office and started the paperwork rolling. There was a lady in the office who spoke decent English and they had been through the same process with Fred No 1 so they knew what to do even if I didn’t. Basically had to get a Japanese person to vouch for me, was going to use the same one as Fred No had and I’d already asked him so no problem there, the other thing was to get the deposit money agents fees and all the rest wired over from the states and I would have an apartment, should all take about a week or so then I could pick up the Keys and the fun would begin.
So that was the apartment out of the way and Fred No2 arrived the next day when we were going out to site for meetings and stuff, he’d not been there got along time and needed to catch up with a few things and check on progress.
On site the next day and Fred No 2 had brought some chin straps for the hard hats on site that were shipped from the states, in Japan hard hats have to have a chin strap apparently to conform to H&S regulations, we'd been using some borrowed has from the Japanese.
Fred No 2 being the project manager wanted to use our company's hard hats and was adamant that he was not going to wear a Japanese one, so he brought chin straps from the US. Hence the title of this blog “Plonkers Or What” the chin straps he brought were basically just fancy bits of elastic and in my opinion were a damm site worse looking and worse to wear than the ones on the Japanese hard hats.
Didn’t say anything but as soon as Fred No2’s gone I am using the Japanese one again and going back to being cool and not a plonker, check out the photo an you’ll see what I mean. We also have to wear sort of a safety belt thing with a hook on for tying off at heights, god only knows why we have to wear it when you’re at ground level just another one of the mysteries of the East. Wearing that’s another thing I’m going to do for a while and then sort of forget about it. You can probably guess why I hit on the title for the blog now you’ve seen the photo.
Moving on to Saturday the 28th June, myself the two Fred’s and our interpreter Chris were all going out for a meal and it was at the best possible price as Fred No2 was paying.
Don’t think I have mentioned we had an interpreter before his name is actually Krzysztof, he’s Polish but speaks fluent Japanese, at least it is to me, no seriously it is really good I can’t tell the difference when he speak to a native Japanese guy speaking.
Went to a Japanese restaurant, food was really good Chris had translated the menu to English so at least we could order ourselves with out having to ask about everything, yes we did get desert and this time we only got one each. Did not really realize before but have eaten at quite a few Japanese restaurants now and the food is not spicy at all, to be honest some of it can be a bit bland.
I took Fred No 2 up the Lions head after the meal for a drink or two to round the night off all in all a nice night, met some guys I knew there. In Utsunomia there are basically three type’s people, native Japanese, foreigners who come over here to work for Honda and then the contingent of English teachers, who are a pretty mixed bunch from Brits to Aussies to Americans not forgetting the Canadians. I’m sure I have missed out somebody but the ones we met that night were English teaches and all from the UK, actually a couple of them from Yorkshire, a small world like I say not a bad night.