Random stuff last few days in JP

Almost forgot the weekend i was leaving there was a festival in town, I was actually there for it last year as well they call it the Mia Matsuri. Not sure about the Mia bit but Matsuri means festival and it's some sort of religious festival but think it has developed into of a commercial money maker, bit like Christmas Easter for us, good fun though.

Basically all the main streets in town are blocked off lots of stalls selling beer, food and all sorts are set up, there are precessions through town for about two days.

Lots of drumming and dancing in the streets, decorated floats (dashi) going past that sort of thing, the main theme though seems to be guys and girls for that matter carrying the local “Kami”

Actually what’s happening is that on the festival each year the local shrines “Kami’ (shinto deity) is carried through the town in “mikosh” (sort of a sedan chair) This is the only time each year the “Kami” leaves the shine. In each town/city there are lots of shrines some really quite small to the really big or important ones.

Anyway it’s quite a spectacle and pretty good fun, there are even some foreigners taking part on some of the “mikosh”, oh everyone carrying these are dressed up in traditional dress, which all looks good. Just banged in a couple of photos of yours truley for good measure.

Gone

Well Junes well and truly gone, actually that’s a slight bit of an under statement as it’s almost Christmas now and my date for leaving Japan was the 3rd August so I'm back in Blighty now.

It only seems like yesterday but was over three months ago, how time flies when you're having fun in Blackpool as the saying goes, for those of you that don't know I've managed to swap Tokyo for Blackpool, can't I make a good deals eh. Seriously though it will be good to get back and see everyone, like I say I’d got my date for leaving the land of the rising sun and had have got to get rid of the apartment and all the furniture in there, leave the apartment as it was when I took it on so to speak empty, hopefully there’ll be no deductions and I can get all or most of my deposit back.
I normally like to do things by myself as much as possible if can, I mean anyone can ask for help right. So although I knew a few people who could help me with translating and getting rid of things from the apartment thought I’d try and do as much myself as I could and ask for as little help as possible bearing in mind I was in deepest darkest Japan (Utsunomiya) which actually had been a great place to live.
Was actually going to miss my little apartment, when I’d first took it on had wondered if I would like living there but it was great and in a great location. I got my self set up with things like (Sky perfect TV) no relation to Sky over in Europe but basically the same thing, satellite TV. Don’t know about you lot but I like to have some noise on in the back ground when I get home, music or TV but at least something especially when you’re away by yourself, makes it feel more home like.

Like I say had to start winding down the apartment getting rid of stuff and closing things out like bills. Over here had the same bills as in the UK, Gas, Elect, Water, Internet and my TV, these were the things that I couldn’t handle myself as I couldn’t speak Japanese and you had to phone up to arrange a close down/final bill. So I decided what day I was leaving the apartment, I decided on the 29^th July and I’d move into a hotel for the final few days. System is great over here you phone up the utility company tell them when you are leaving they arrange to meet at a certain time on that day (this is Japan they give you a time and they’re there). They arrive take a meter reading and the gas or the electric is actually closed/shut off on that day and because the meter is electronic they can plug in a hand held and actually give you the final bill there and then, why can’t we do this in the UK I’ll never know.

This was all the bills sorted everything finished on the same day, while this had been going on I’d been getting rid of the furniture and stuff, so things I’d given away like the washing machine and fridge, the rest had to get taken away. Thought I would get some money for it especially as I’d paid over $600 just for my bed, but boy did I had a rude awakening cost me $100 to get everything taken away, It all had to go so there was nothing I could do about it. Actually don’t know how I got everything in the moving guys had to cut up my settee as they could not get it through the door, go figure, also I’m sure everyone says this but I don’t know how I had managed to get so much junk after only being there just over a year.

I’d also had to ship some of my cloths and stuff back to the UK as I’d accumulated quite a bit of stuff in the year or so I’d been here, fare to much to carry on the plane, don’t now where it had all come from but luckily I wasn’t paying to ship it back the company was.

I’d also had to clean up the apartment after everything was out before the final inspection by the estate agents, now as I didn’t know what this entailed but to make sure I got a much of the deposit back as possible did a thought clean. I mean I was down on my hands and knees with a bowl of water and a cloth cleaning for what seemed like hours, so I was a bit put out when the guy just came in and did a cursory look and said OK, don’t think I needed to bother cleaning and just needed to sweep up, but you live and learn.

So that’s me out of 903 Winds Sugi and into the EST house just across the road, the EST house is sort of a hotel come apartment block, you can hire rooms in for extended periods bit like a long stay hotel in the states. The EST house or EST1 to be precise was a bit run down but thought it would be OK for a few days, the German guys who had been working on site had stayed here so how bad could it be.
So that’s me almost out of Japan, it’s been a bit of an adventure and got to say I like Japan, there is still a lot of the place I need to see so I’ll be back at some point to do that.

Although I’ve been here for over a year for most of that I’ve been working 6 days a week and on the 7^th just wanted to rest as the good lord did. Had always though I would have time at the end of this project to do all the touristy things that I wanted too but it’s turned out I don’t/didn’t have time to do any of that that. Don’t get me wrong I’ve been here over a year so have done and seen quite a few things but there are still lots of things I want to do.

There are some great things about Japan probably the best thing being the people themselves, they are friendly, honest, and helpful, well that what I found anyway.

The other great thing is the punctuality from train to busses to appointments if they say it runs at that time then it does and If you’re not there then you’ve missed it, actually there are too many good things to list may do a bolg on the things I like/don’t like about Japan at some point who knows.

Couple of things I won’t miss though are the red tape and the slow driving not really huge problems or issues but It’s just not something you look forward too.

People Leaving

Just looked at the blog and found this in the drafts folder from when I was I was in Japan so thought finish it off and do a few more and get up to date with the saga.

God Junes gone I don't know what's been going on much, but do know I was a bit of a slob did not go to the gym for a whole month. Think I'd said that didn't really like the new place I was at so when my membership was up didn’t rejoin. It took most of June before I decided on another one. I've got go to say though it's really easy not to go to the gym, to be honest after a days work going to the gym is a bit of a pain in the arse. I mean if you don't get back home till around 6.30 -7 pm going to the gym can take around 2hrs with the getting there changing showering and all that, before you know where you are it’s 10pm. The other thing you always have people asking to go out for meals or a drink that kind of stuff and they always want to go at around 8pm that sucks as well you can't do both, on top of that try fitting a bit of telly or slob out time in around the edges, can’t be done it so it ends up almost impossible to go all the time, well that's my excuse and I’m standing by it. Like i say finally did decide on another gym it was called central gym and was just down the road from my house, I mean literally 5 mins walk away form the apartment.

One of the other things that's be happening is that a few people I’ve got to know over here are leaving and have to go back home as their stints over here are up. Even my neighbour Raza who’s in my apartment block has left had and back to Indonesia so I'm the only one on my floor now, I mean there were only two apartments on my floor and one has always been empty. Most of these guys work at Honda plants in other country's and were over here for a 2 year period, at the mother ship so to speak, training or learning the Japanese way of doing things something like that.

Anyway had a couple of parties, BBQ and the like, even played a bit of baseball which is a bit of a first for me, it was OK and much to my surprise I wasn't as bad even though I say so myself, after all it's only hitting a ball with a stick, cricket sort of but doesn't last for 5 days.

Just going to add some photos need to get up to date pretty quick as I'll be leaving myself soon, got a flight booked for the 3rd August right now.

June is the rainy season in Japan so if anyone is ever planning holiday over here try and avoid June/Early July as it's pretty damm wet.

Anyway below are some photos of a BBQ I went to for a couple of friend, Reza and Keith, it was at a place called

BBQ was for Keith and Raza, Keith is the one in the middle of the photo below on the left who's going back to the states and Raza is in the one on the right below and going back to Indonesia

I't was day me and Raza bought some chicken and stuff along with a load of beer, i got a football and a couple of things to chuck and kick around but turns out we were out numbered and base ball was the game of the day.

I also brought a car boot or trunk if you're from the states full of broken bits wood from site. Funny thing to keep in your boot I know but we had planned a bonfire fireworks and all that for Saturday night but the days got switched to Sunday cos of the weather so it never happened. I ended up taking it all back to site, the Japanese blokes had been looking at me strange when he was putting old bits of wood into the car you should seen them when I unloaded it and was taking it back.

May 2

This blogs called May 2 but I can’t really remember much else of what happened in May that’s probably a good thing as I don’t think there was much going on.
I’ve been working 6 days a week now for probably the last 4 months up to May so no time to do much other than work with the high lights of the week getting a lie in on Sundays and doing the weekly wash, pretty boring huh, as they say over here “same same”
Been out for a few meals n drinks stuff like that, went to Tokyo one night for a few beers and the like, Tokyo is a great city but you need time to see it and plan out what you want to do and that not,s my forte. Any way it was all very nice, went Shibuya and Roppongi again and even fitted in an new area for me Shinjuku, took the video camera with me this time so did not get any one shot photos.
Oh nearly forgot for most of May borrowed my mate Razers bike, what they call a “Mamachari” chari is Japanese slang for bike and I’ll leave you to guess what Mama means.
Now these aren't real pretty bikes but as everyone or almost everyone rides this type you never feel out of place. I mean you see young kids, cool kids and senior citizens business men dressed up in their suits going to work, girls done up to the 9’s going out riding em so no problem. Got to say I enjoyed it like I say never felt out of place should have bought one when I first got here. One of the great things about having the bike was that you sort of go places you never would have if you were walking and sort of explored the little back streets it was real quick and not much effort, walking you probably could not be bothered, anyway I really enjoyed have the bike.
Oh the other thing I guess I did in May was to join a new gym my old one “water water” if you remember had closed, joined a big gym at the big shopping centre “Bel” Mall” the other end of town but as I had the bike I could cycle up there. Actually I’m not even a member of that gym now only joined it for a couple of months (the minimum) for a look see and didn’t really like it, to crowded for my liking. One good thing that came of it though was on the bike ride up there found a couple of nice restaurants and bars sort of tucked away in side streets which I would never have found if I’d been going in the car so that was good.
One of the places was a “Gyoza” shop Utsunomiyas famous for Gyoza by the way, well the tourist authority promotes it as the speciality of the town, and there sure are a lot of restaurants that sell it, to be honest It’s over rated if you ask me there seem to be hundreds of different types but only a couple of different tastes, guess the taste is too subtle for me.
Right so now I’m just going to throw in a few photos vies of Utsunomiya etc, the flowers by the way weren't mine I was just holding them for a mate of mine who was taking them to a girl he had pissed off, don’t really remember the details except it involved quite a bit of beer and crawling, not on you knees but to this girl

The photos below are of a night we went out with Arei san or Arry as we call him mainly cos that's what the name comes out like when we say it. We went to a Karaoke bar, usually they have young girls in them that want you to buy them drinks but apparently he knew the owner who tuned out to be a pretty old lady, she was good fun though and made us welcome. You can see by the photo when she stood next to Scott how small she was mind you he is about 6'3

May No 1

I’m feeling pretty guilty about this blog, although I’m posting this for May it’s actually a week or so into July right now. I haven’t posted for nearly 2 Months but in my defence It’s shot past and as anyone who ever looks at this blog will know I’m not the most conscientious person when it comes to posting anything.
Actually I really do have good intentions but by the time I’ve done a days work It’s hard to get going and get motivated, to be honest sometimes I just can’t be bothered. It’s so easy once you get home just to chill out watch a film or go for a beer, anything for that matter that dosen’t involve anymore typing, the next days work comes around too quick as it is.
Anyway I’m just going to do a post for the whole of May and then for the whole of June to see if I can get up to date, that is if I can remember what I did in May and June.
Like I say things have shot past can hardly believe I’ve been here over a year now, an things are just sort of blending into each other. These two entries will be a lot of photos that is if I can figure out what photos are and where I put them.
So what did I do in May, can’t remember so got to go an look at photos see if the refreshes my memory.
Just been looking at the photos don’t think I did that much in May apart from the usual, work, eat and sleep.
Think I’ve mentioned it before but we always stop at the 7/11 on a morning to get some breakfast some sarnies or something like that. Anyway the owner’s always asking us to go out with him, he likes talking to Westerners practicing his English he also real friendly and want to show off bits of Japan to us. Arie san, call him that cos that’s his name had asked lots of times before and we’d never been, it’s not that we didn’t want to it’s just when you’re working six days a week it’s always tempting not to do anything on the seventh apart from go to church, Yeh right.
So anyway this time me and one of the German guys Mike went out with him, Arie took us to a local Winery called Coco Farm and Winery http://www.cocowine.com/english/harvest.html for a spot of wine tasting and something to eat. Unfortunately didn’t take any photos while I was there, left the camera in the car.
I did take some on the way though, we stopped at a service station, actually it was more of a self service station, coffee and tea was all out of vending machines so was the chips and hot dogs. Now I don’t know a lot about vending machines but if you ask me these were the up market type. Cot to say the coffee was good, the machine even played a little video of the coffee making process while you waited. I’d never seen a fries and hot dog machine before so I was well impressed, and they were good not soggy or anything just as if they were freshly made by a little man in the back of the thing.
So after that it was on to the winery for the wine tasting, now neither me or Mike knew much about wine, but it tasted ok and it had alcohol in it, poor old Arie san couldn’t have any as he was driving, ah well rather him then me. Actually me and Mike had both been out the night before and were a little hung over to say the least, we couldn’t be seen to falter and let the side down even though alcohols was probably the last thing we wanted at 1pm when we’d not got home till about 4am that morning, we managed it though. Next thing it was lunch and another bottle of wine, water for Arie, we were feeling better by this time so the meal and the wine went down really well and as we didn’t pay that was even better.
So that was the wine tasting out of the way now we though he would just take us back home but he had other ideas, first he took us round his older sisters to introduce us to her. She was really nice and gave us green tea and some little gifts, a fan and a toothpick holder with tooth picks I might add, nothing big just a little tokens but it was real nice. I mean have you been round someone’s house out of the blue before, someone you didn’t know and who couldn’t speak your language who gave you a gift I mean wow, she just disappeared into the kitchen and got them. I’m mean we’d just turned up out of the blue no one knew we were coming. She then got out the map and asked us where we came from and which country’s we’d been to, Arie translated as she couldn’t speak a work of English but we got there in the end.
So we were back in the car now we really thought we’re off home, but not this time he took us to his house which was about an hours drive away and showed us round it. His wife wasn’t there which was probably just as well for him because it was a bit messy and she’d probably have been pissed, not at us but at him for bringing strangers round when it was messy.
Arie then wanted to take us for a meal, I mean we’d only eaten about three hours ago but he insisted he wanted to take us for horse meat, he said he knew a really good restaurant that specialised in horse meat. So off we go in the car again, but it was shut so plan B was to take us to a little Sushi type place, for beer, Sake and Suchi, not necessarily in that order.
Check out the photos we had some kind of deep fried fish which he called devil fish, plus other assorted bits of Sushi and some Yakitori which is usually meat an a skewer bit like a kebab. Old Arie san was to drunk by this time to drive us or himself home, actually there is no drinking alcohol at all if you drive in Japan, so he was going to get what they call a Daiko.
A Daiko is basically a taxi service, a small car with two people come to get you where you are, one of the guys takes you home in their car while the other one drives your car home, pretty neat hey,
I’ve seen it when the guy usually pretty drunk just tosses his car keys to the Daiko guys who go off to find his car then come back pick him up and off they go, I mean it works there are literally thousand of them here.
Wonder if many cars would go missing in the UK if they had this service there, think I know the answer, it’s not a problem here though. I can see it now especially in a big city back home, two strangers come to pick up some drunk guy who gives then his car keys, would probably seem like Christmas to them.

Sushi Ondo

Well it's May golden week is over and we've been back at work for a few days now, did get to Tokyo over the Holiday but not much to report there really. Did find a new Sushi restaurant to go to though, it's called “ Sushi Ondo” part of a larger chain called “Genki Suchi” the Ondo bit is basically the lower end of the market and it’s know for doing 100Yen Sushi.
All or most of the plates are 100yen, the way you get you food is on a conveyor belt that winds round the table on the be/t are plates with food on “Sushi” you pick up a plate of what you fancy from the conveyor and eat it. The way you keep track of what you spend is to collect plates, in Ondo most all of the plates are 100yen so if you have five plates hay presto 500 yen plus tax of 5% so 550yen, simple as that, in some of the Suchi bars different colour plates mean different pricesDon’t get me wrong though the quality of the food in this 100yen place is great, I’ve been a few times now and it’s always been good. There’s quite and extensive menu and if you don’t see whizzing round what you want you just order it from a little menu display screen on your table which goes right through to the kitchen and in a couple of minuets it’s winding it’s way to you. There must be some kind of wireless thingy close to the table linked to the plate you ordered cos when it gets near your table it actually calls out the table number just in case you’re engrossed in eating the raw squid you picked up earlier, how cool is that.

Never thought I would be eating much raw fish but got to say it’s quite nice with a bit of Soy Sauce and Wasabi (like horseradish-hot). Never had Sushi it in the UK but don’t imagine it’s a patch on what you can get over here and if it is I’m sure it costs and arm and a leg, don’t think there is any of the 100yen (70p) a plate in good old Blighty.

Like coming here the staff are really friendly and helpfull and showed me how to use the little menue display on the table to order things. When i was looking through it i came across a plate of chips, was tempted to order some but after all I was here to eat Suchi, could not hepl taking a photo of some though when they came near my table.

Check out the crab soup i ordered below, cause i didn't know it was crab soup when i ordered it thought it was Miso soup. Miso soup is pretty traditional in Japan but guess what it doesn't have crab in it, you get with most meals and I quite like it, think this half a crab was hiding when i ordered it. Soup wasn't what it thought it was but it tasted OK, I left the crustacean thought, well i tried it but it was all shell and no meat.

Shibuya Crossing

The other Sunday got up a bit earlier than usual wasn't sure what i wanted to do so ended up catching the train to Tokyo. It was a bit later in the afternoon than i would have liked but if you get the fast train you can be there in 50 minuets, costs about 30 quid but it's not like i do it ever weekend and Tokyo's a bit more exotic than going to London. There again i am a Brit, I'm sure if you're Japanese and going to London would be more exciting than going to Tokyo, just different points of view.
So there i was on the train didn't know what to do or where to go in Tokyo, decided on an area called Shibuya, i remembered the name from when my son Ben was here last year. We went there one night, apparently there's is one of the busiest crossings in the world there and we though we were on it but we weren't, i remembered that and thought i would go and check it out and try and find this bloody big crossing couldn't be that hard to find could it.
When you get the train in Utsunomiya to go to Tokyo, you normally travel to Tokyo central station and get the underground from there, well at least i do. Got to love the train systems here, not only is everything on time, lots of the ticket machines are automatic with an English option, even i can use them and that's saying something, this saves loads of time no queuing up which is great.
So I'm in Tokyo station had to get underground or metro as they call it here, got on the Marunouchi line to the Ginza line than off at Shibuya, sounds so much more exciting than getting on the Central line and Circle line, but there again i guess it depends where you're from.
While i was on the metro could not resist taking a photo of this guy and his bag, may just be me but i don't think i would have had a bag like this when i was his age unless i had a death wish, there again different cultures and outlooks. There doesn't seem to be any problems over here with what most young lads in the UK would probably think was a bit effeminate or girlie, and if they didn't someone would and most likely would and pick on them, none of that seems to happen over her, at least from what i can see it dosen't










Anyway get of in Shibuya go out of the station and nearly get killed walking onto the busiest crossing in Japan, didn't really just thought i would say that as the crossing is right at the station and i don't know how we missed it last time, except to say we had all have a couple of beers.
Like i say it was getting a bit late, so i just did a bit of people and crossing watching, while i was at the crossing and took a bit of a video. There was a Starbucks close to the crossing, though I'd go and sit on the second floor and look at the window and take the video, when i got to it realised that I wasn't the only one who had that idea there was a queue to get in, this Starbucks must defiantly be the busiest in Japan and probably one of the busiest in the world, was worth a photo in it's own. Check out the coffee shop above and the crossing below.

That was it for the crossing now for a look round Shibuya and for something to eat, and then on to Roppongi later for a few beers. Not much to report as it was getting late, decided there was not enough daylight to go to the park, apparently there is a nice shrine there, seen one shrine seen em all so to speak maybe next time. So just a couple of shots from Shibuya one as it was still light and one when the lights came on, need to get here earlier next time next time.

Back on the Ginza line and head for Roppongi, it's Sunday night so i don't expect there to be much going on there. Friday and Saturday nights the place is heaving and i doubt if you could walk from one end of the street to the other without getting accosted by the bar touts at least 20 time. These guys all seem to be from Africa, somewhere like Nigeria or Kenya and are usually pretty big and persistent, there's no problem with them but if you are not used to it it can be a bit intimidating, as i say no problems just ignore them is the best way and they leave you alone, thry never to make eye contact or talk to them.

As i though it was pretty dead and hardly got approached to go in any bars, which was good.

Did go to a couple of the places i went with Ben and Tristan when they were here. One of them was called Geronimo's I'm sure they will remember it. Geronimo's is a shot bar, the idea is if you bang the drum when in there you have to buy the bar a round of shots, would not recommend it as it can be expensive. When we were in there last year bet we got at least 4 drinks or shots bought by strangers or suckers depends on how you look at it, no one was buying today though. Like i say it was a bit dead Sunday and all that with work tomorrow. Other place i went to have a look around was Roppongi Hill, Ben and Tristan can probably remember the spider as well.

That's pretty much it time to get the last train back no stopping all night this time need to be a good boy as it's work tomorrow

Rice and Golden Week

It's almost the end of April and a big holiday is coming up in Japan called Golden Week, this also coincides with when the rice planting season starts or is in full swing. Golden week's really just a term the Japanese use for a week when a few holidays coincide, things like Emperors day, Children's day and Constitution day. Anyway a few days holiday in the same week, it's a pretty big thing here, they won't even let us into site on a couple of days and we really, really, really, wanted to go in "NOT". So we've got a couple of days holiday we weren't expecting not really time to do much with it though will probably just go to Tokyo.

Back to Golden Week, the farmers have been flooding the rice paddy's over the last week or so, when you leave site looks like you're about to drive through a big lake, site is sort of on a hill and as you drive out and down the hill all you can see is flooded rice paddy's it's bit surreal.

Been taking a few photos as they've been progressing, these guys work hard all the time they're in the fields when I go to work and when I'm on the way home. Mostly its older guys, and from and what i can gather the younger kids don't really want the long hours and hard work so clear off the the city, works too hard in the fields, you don't very often see a young farmer here. I'm not saying i blame them going to the city it's bit like in the UK not a lot of people want hard work me included, but there again as my son once said to me I'm no spring chicken anymore so i guess i can be excused.

Like i say no one wants to work in the fields so of they go off to the city's and sell sub prime lones, well in the US that's what they do, I'm sure it's something similar in Japan. What the hell is a "Sub Prime Lone" by the way and who thinks of these names, guess they called it that because it better then calling it a "F...g Stupid Lone " FSL for short, you know what happened after that, but i digress this ain't a political blog.

Work in the rice fields must have been hard years ago before it got mechanised cos you see a lot of old lady's that must have worked in them from dusk till dawn. Some of these lady's are so bent over there noses nearly touch the floor, they can't straighten up from being stooped over all day planting rice and stuff, kids have got it easy now i bet they say to each other, that is if i could understand Japanese

It's nowhere near that bad now but it's still hard work, but they do have a lot of machinery, come on this is Japan the second biggest economy in the world and they have robots here for f.... sake so a tractors not exactly hard is it, they also have these neat little rice planter.

The photos above are from the rice paddy, one when its been planted and the thing that does the planting, not sure how quick it goes but when i was watching it it seemed to belt along, photo on the left is one i took one night leaving work.

Like i said above one of the day of golden week is Children's day, or "Kodomo no hi" think that right anyway.

Children's day is supposed to be to sort of respect kid's personalities and bring the health and happiness. Traditionally Japanese family's hang out what they call "Koinobori" which i think is flag in the shape of a carp. The black ones are for the farther the man the red for the woman and the blue for the oldest son smaller blue ones are for younger sons not sure about the girls.