The Weekend

Well the week end's almost over and on the 31st Fred No 1 is leaving the land of the rising sun for good, not sure if he is happy or sad about that. I'm sure he wants to get home but it's always a bit strange when you leave a project after working on it for so long in fact sometimes it's pretty difficult especially if you have made friends either at work or in the local community. Phoned him up last night to see if he wanted to go out for a beer or three with us, we haven't been going out together all that much since he's been here but it was getting close to him going home so though i would see if he wanted to come out to play.

Everyone was in an Italian restaurant told Fred where it was and that i would meet them later as i didn't want anything to eat after all I'm only here for the beer. Actually I'd never been to this place before it was only just down the road really from me, in what i refer to as the red light area.

The red light area I'm talking about is only about 3 minutes walk from my place and it's an area literally fulls of small bars and restaurants. Most of the bars cater to Japanese guys and are places where you pay for an hour at a time and can drink Whisky or Soju for free, it's not really free it in the price for the hour. In these kind of places there are girls inside who's job it is to come and sit with you try to get you to buy them a drink and stay longer, or extend as they call it here. Each hour costs another 3,ooo yen about $30 and these are the cheaper places, anything you buy other than Whisky or Soju also cost extra. Don't ask me how i know just take it from me that i do, I've been here quite a while after all. I know it all sound strange but the Japanese love it and to them it's normal and is just like going down the pub, oh almost forgot all these place have Karaoke and that's real popular.

Oh the guy in the red shit with the long hair is my mate Lee, it was his birthday the other day we had a few drink on that as well, have work with Lee on about 4 projects now he's a good guy.

Anyway we are all out eating and drinking, in my case just drinking and guess where we ended up for an hour, got to say it was pretty enjoyable i even sang karaoke which I'm told was quite memorable in a forgettable sort of way. Then came the dreaded word "Sasae" which is guaranteed to put a damper on the night, basically It means stay and pay another 3,000 Yen. It's always hard to resist this a it's said so sweetly but i did resist and decided to go home, i know it all sounds a bit naff, i mean why pay $30 just to talk to a girl and sing badly for an hour sounds crap right. If you are with friends though and go ever now and then it can be real good fun believe it or not.

So that was Saturday night over with apart from negotiating the way home, luckily for me it was only a 5 minute walk to my apartment, right on the doorstep so to speak not sure if that's a good or a bad thing though. one thing i did notice on the walk home though was the Kebab van, reminded me of a night out in the UK and the obligatory Kebab on the way back home after some beer. I't all seemed a little surreal to see one in Japan though, just goes to show everyone likes a kebab after some beer or in this case Sake, will have to try one another night.

To night Sunday just been out for a meal, found a new restaurant a few days ago that i liked so went there with Fred for something to eat. Place a bit of a hole in the wall really but i find these smaller places are the sort i like better not plush or swanky pretty down to earth and usually the food is great they also have lots more character than the bigger plusher places.

We had sort of a bowel of noodles in an earthenware pot that is literally red hot, i mean it's not red but if you touched it I'm sure your hand would stick to it and you would get first degree burns. The HSE in the UK would have a fit if this happened in a restaurant "Blighty" not to say anything of the restaurants liability, well lets just say it wouldn't happen. They bring out the hot pot full of noodles and vegetables, no meat in sight, then they bring out a big dish of sort of a soup either spicy or non spicy what ever you want and pour it over the noodles, the heat from to pot cooks everything, and let me tell you it was great. When the soup is first put in they give sort of paper sheets to protect yourself from all the spitting an splashing from the pot, like i say it's just all boiling away right in front of you.

Imigration Office Revisited

Today I've been down to Utsunomiyas Immigration office, not for me but for Scott who's been here about a month now. I've just been the chauffeur, a pretty expensive one as it took all day, but just the driver.
Scott is going through the same process as i had to go to get a work and multi entry visa and then an alien registration card so it brought back some memories apart from the fact that i did it in mid summer and not when it was peeing down.


The process isn't exactly hard to do just a bit frustrating as you have to wait for everything, first of all you need to get there before 9am stand in the que outside.When you finally get to go in you have to pull a number bit like going to the butchers, so the lower the number the better right. If you don't get there early you get a high number guess what we were late, Scott was out last night it didn't really bother me as i wasn't the one waiting but it sucked. We got to the office just after 9 and everyone had just gone in so i guess they got a high number teach him to be late.


Anyway dropped them off at the immigration office while i went to the bank to pay some bills and other stuff. I kept in touch with them, turns out they got number 3o or something, and it wasn't lucky number 30 either i can tell you. When i heard heard the number I knew it was going to take at least till after dinner from past experience, sucked a bit for them like i say but i toddled off to the gym and arranged to meet them back at the immigration office at about 1pm as i'd nothing much to do but wait for Scott and Chris our interpreter.
First time I've been to the gym middle of week day, it was good though there was no one much around there so no waiting for anything Yip Hee, It's a shame it will be closing at the end of the month, it's real convenient for me and i've got to know quite a few people that go there now. I still haven't decided on a new gym yet thinking about one called Golds, but i digress so back to the days events
Got back to the Imm office at about 1 they were no where to be seen, but i did see my mate Gav (Gavin) while i was waiting for them, he was surprised to see me especially as he owed me some dosh and wasn't expecting to give it to me today, told him not to bother till next time but he gave me half of it anyway, nice one mate.
Scott and Chris turn up around about then they had been getting some stamps for the paperwork and still needed to get one more. Turns the money that Gavin had given me back I lost it almost as soon as he gave it to me, Scott needed to borrow some to get another stamp, talk about easy come easy go.

So eventually we got his visa sorted out, then it was on to city hall to try and get his alian registration card, same thing there take a number and wait in line but here the que was not as big.

Filling In The Blanks

Well March is almost over got to say it's shot past, I've been busy and there has been a lot of coming and going at site. We've had over ten people in the office at one time sometimes and it's been crowded to say the least, but as of right now we are back down to about five.

A lot has gone on since i last did a blog but to be honest i can't remember most of it, my fault for not keeping up to date but there you go just shows i am not one of the best blogger's around in fact i probably come somewhere at the bottom of the list but who cares.

Like i say since i last posted a blog there been plenty of people over here which means plenty work, plenty of meals and nights out not necessarily in that order so will just try and fill in some of the blanks.

Apart from me and Fred No1 we have had five more Americans, two more Germans a Croatian and a couple of Japanese guys living in our office. Oh i almost forgot two more English lads were over as well for a couple of weeks which was a real treat for me, it was like being in the United Nations for a couple of weeks in the office. Not that i have any idea what the UN is like but it's probably chaos just like it was in our office for a few weeks.

The photo on the left is of us in a bar called FreeFlight the two Germans Mike and Andy the two Brits Ben and Andy, Scott from the States and Vlado from Croatia.

The English lads were from a company in the north of England had met them both before good lads so it was a good laugh when they were there, for once i did not have to explain what i was saying, Americans don't seem to understand phrases and sayings like "Bob's your uncle" and "you don't get owt for nowt"

Ben and Andy sent a spirit level over by post, unknown to me they sent some steel toe capped work boots as well. Few day before they got here i got phone call for customs about the packages turns out the spirit level was duty free but they would have to pay $100 import duty on the work boots, what the F... Couldn't believe it anyway managed to negotiate it to up to about $60 yep my negotiating skill suck a bit as you can see. The work boots cost more in import duty than they cost in the UK apparently it's because they were leather, remember that if you come to Japan you can't sent personal items through the post if you don't have a visa.

Both Ben and Andy have gone back to the UK now so have the Germans, Croatian and four of the Americans, one of the Germans Michael will be back soon though which is another story in it's self. Won't go into too much detail but basically the site Acoustic installation contractor has gone bust to put it in a nut shell. When another acoustic installation contractor is appointed by the Japanese Mike will be back from Germany to supervise the installation, that should start again some time early April.

The other big thing that is happening is that Fred No 1 is leaving Japan at the end of this month, he is flying back to the states on the 31st march for good, he has another project to start the beginning of May. To be honest i think we have been together too long as we are both basically ding the same job and tend to overlap a bit, if we had been married I'm sure we would be getting a divorce by now, we are both a bit frustrated with each other so it's probably a good thing for the both of us.

We went out for what was billed as his final meal the other night it was a good night out and i am sure we will be doing it again before he leaves for good. Megumi one of Fred friend organised the meal in the Hotel where she works the Richmond Hotel, food was great, all sorts of stuff including Sushi and Sashimi and something called Natto.

Well I'd never tried Natto before heard about it but not tried it, Natto's apparently fermented soya beans and smells like hell, bit of an acquired taste so I'm told and not many westerners like it. In for a penny in for a Yen so to speak hell i've eaten Kimch in Korea and everyone told me that was pants but i quite liked it. The Natto turned out not to be as bad as i was told, everyone was watching me when i ate it, i was expecting it to taste and smell worse than and rugby players jock strap after a hard match it didn't. not my favorite food by any stroke of the imagination but not repulsive either.

Photos above are of Fred last meal, sound a bit ominous, i added the one of the top of my head as for some reaso Mike who is Megumis husband who is a bit of a photogropher was taking photos of it. he was just trying out the setting on my camera and chose my head as a subject took a lot of stick over the glare it was giving off, if you can't laugh at yourself who can you laugh at.

Job wise things are pretty hectic we are moving away from construction now as it almost finished and starting on the commissioning which is scheduled for a few months then the final aero commissioning will take place, not particularly interesting but there you go.

Apparently after this project there may be work for me on a project over in the UK for a while, had been thinking i may pack it all in after this project or at least only work about 6 months of the year depending on the money of course. Sounds like this thing in England does come off it will be OK as there will be some times when nothing is going on an i can go off and do my own thing what ever that may be so will see what happens. Looks like i will be over here till the middle of the year though but from what i can gather if the UK project does come off it may not start till August so it may work out.

Took a load of photos the other day dont know what the hell happend to them because when i went to down load em they wernt there, must have pressed the wrong button that sucks a bit as i was in places or dsoing thing i probabbly won't get chance to again.

That's about it for now I'm sure there are plenty of things i'v forgot but as i cant remmber it dosent mater much does it.

The photos below are just out side my apartemt one isd of a drinks vending machine which are all over here the other is of a road work sign, so polite the Japanese.