Nikko and Meals

Right, first of all was going to try and do two blogs a week since i said that i haven't publish one so I'm going to make a new resolution not to make any more stupid resolutions and keep my big mouth shut. I actually started a blog to try and publish two a week but when i read it back a couple of times i realised it was just so much drivel. I still have it as a draft so you never know i may try and improve on it and publish sometime who knows.

First thing I'm going to do is vent a bit about work so just bare with me for a few lines.

Last couple of days work has almost turned into a four letter word that shouldn't said be in polite company, ever thing's OK but there too much talking about nothing. We are almost to the stage where we have a meeting to arrange another meeting and things seems to get said over and over again and it's doing my head in a bit. Sorry if that sounds a bit negative but I'm not kidding people keep repeating the obvious all the time it probably wouldn't be so bad if it was only mentioned once but it gets repeated. Sometimes I think i must come from a different planet, maybe it's just that i was brought up in a different work environment. This hasn't just started it's been going on for a long time now meetings for the sake of meetings repeating the obvious all the time, just seems to have got to me over the last couple of days and I felt like venting a bit so there you go. Things could be worse at least the pays good well it's not bad anyway, enough of this got to get to bed early have a meeting first thing tomorrow to arrange the afternoons meeting, so got to plow on with.

The last week or so has just shot past can hardly believe it's almost the end of February, don't worry it'll be Christmas before you know it and will all start again.

Haven's done a lot in the last couple of week hence no blogs, well that's not exactly true last Sunday had a drive up to Nikko, cant find a web address for it but you can see it on this link http://wikitravel.org/en/Nikko basically it's one of the best shrines in Japan and a real tourist attraction unfortunately i am not one of the best tourists, seen one shrine seen em all so to speak.

Seriously it's all very nice up there i say up there as it's quite a lot higher then where I'm living so it's a fair bit cooler when you finally make it. The town it,s self sort of a mix of the really old and the really new and the sort of half way stuff you find in most towns, lots of quaint little coffee shops, restaurants and arty type shops catering for all the tourists, which by the way there have not bee that many of them when I've been there, probably more a summer destination. Anyway i still need to go again Sundays follow Saturday and i go out Saturday nights get in late or early Sunday mornings take your pick, sleep in and the rest is history. Basically i was late getting to Nikko and did not have time to see a lot. I'd been hoping for some snow up there though i hear it's really nice and picturesque with snow on the ground and we'd had snow a few days before that where I'm working, no snow there when i got there though.

Went out fora a meal the other day as one of the German guys at work was going home and was not coming back so we all went to the "Big Menu Chinese" have mentioned this place before and got to say it's a nice place and the food is always great. I had the lambs liver and leek concoction, i like Liver anyway and it was really good. The rest had an assortment of stuff normally we just share everything but this time we didn't which suited me as my liver was as they say very moreish and i will definitely have it again some time when i go back. The other thing that is good about the restaurant is that the staff are all very friendly, but there again i find that with everyplace i go over here. There's no surly looking faces letting you think they are doing you a favour by serving you and could you please eat up quickly so they can finish.

Like i say not an awful lot has been going on, I'm pretty much working 6 days a week now so on the seventh i tend not to do a lot and treat it as a day of rest as it was intended to be in a biblical sense but just miss out the church bit.

Photos haven't turned out to well from the restaurant but don't blame me I'm in them not taking them, my camera is crap though really need to get a new one.

Broken Or Not

Last couple of days work has almost turned into a four letter word that shouldn't said be in polite company, ever thing's OK but there too much talking about nothing. We are almost to the stage where we have a meeting to arrange another meeting and things seems to get said over and over again and it's doing my head in a bit. Sorry if that sounds a bit negative but I'm not kidding people keep repeating the obvious all the time it probably wouldn't be so bad if it was only mentioned once but it gets repeated. Sometimes I think i must come from a different planet, maybe it's just that i was brought up in a different work environment. This hasn't just started it's been going on for a long time now meetings for the sake of meetings repeating the obvious all the time, just seems to have got to me over the last couple of days and I felt like venting a bit so there you go. Things could be worse at least the pays good well it's not bad anyway, enough of this got to get to bed early have a meeting first thing tomorrow to arrange the afternoons meeting, so got to plow on with the blog.
Changing the subject and going back to my driving theme on the way to and from work i cross a junction where sometimes the lights or should i say arrows are all green, that is the left arrow is green straight ahead is green and the right turn all green at the same time. No problem you would think but when all the arrows are green there's also a red light on, what the ........ ! what's that all about, must mean something surly
Well I've been meaning to ask about this for a while now and the other night by chance i was taking a couple of Japanese guys back to Utsunomiy, so i asked them about it good job they could speak English ehh.
They both had no idea what the hell i was talking about and must have though i was nuts even said very politely that maybe the light was broken or i was seeing things. What they were really thinking was that i had lost it after all there's no traffic lights in Japan that didn't make sense. I even showed them the traffic light when we passed it, damm only one green light on just my luck, needless to say they really though I'd lost it then but humored me anyway.
Next day on the way back home success the three arrows were green and it had a red light on, needless to say they had never seen it before and still thought it was broke but didn't think i was quite as nuts. Ahh well at least i tried to get to the bottom of it I'm taking them home again tomorrow so maybe well see it again. Want to get i photo of the lights but will feel a bit of a dipstick if i pull up at the side of the road to take photos of traffic lights, get a life for Christs sake Steve i can here you saying.
Changing the subject as there is only so much you can write about traffic lights, economy is going down the tubes over here as well, people are getting lid off right left and center, part of the project I'm working on has been moth balled till things pick up, won't affect me or our bit of things but will effect some of the contractors on site sucks for them a bit.

Closing Down

Well that's another week gone Mondays turn into Fridays before you know it, Saturday night now and I'm just getting ready to go out for the night, am sure it will turn out pretty much the same as last week though.

Not a lot's happened since i last posted a blog but I'm going to try and post two a week from now on, one Wednesday or Thursday and one on Sunday it's a bit ambitious to say the least but that's the plan, so watch this space as they say.

Like i say not much has happened since i last posted but from what i here on the news from sounds like the UK is almost shut down because of snow, at least i don't have that to contend with on my drive to work, it's bad enough trying to get there as it is. Driving here is sort of one of my pet hates, most people drive so damn slow, yeah i know they're sticking to the speed limits but if you ask me it's far to slow. The max speed limit here is 100kph and that's on major roads, most of the roads i go on the speed limit is 50kph that's about 35mph, I'm not talking about in town either, it's really frustrating, anyway enough of that my blood pressure is going up thinking about it.

Guess the major thing that has happened is that i found out the other day that the gym I've been going to since i got here will be closing at the end of March, bit of a bummer as i like it and it's easy to get too. The gym is called Water Water bit of a stupid name for a gym if you ask me especially as it hasn't got a swimming pool and the only water to be seen is the bottled type, they also sell a drink called "Pocari Sweat" doesn't conjure up a great image does it, maybe these two had contributed to it closing. Actually I'd thought there had been a lot more people joining since Christmas but apparently they're not making any money so what do i know. Guess the financial crisis is being felt everywhere, felt sorry for the staff though have got to know a few of them since I've been going there, most can't speak much English but a couple of them can and we always have a chat. They are all mostly young kids straight out of college/university, bit of a rude awakening to their working lives. Seems they were told last Sunday the place would be closing and were all really shocked, none of them had an inkling about it apparently, anyway looks like I'll be looking for a new gym to go to in a few weeks, and they'll all be looking for new jobs.

Talking about the gym normally drive up there and the other day spotted a building tucked out of the way on the road i take which looked fairly interesting, would not have noticed it but it was lit up and sort of a red colour. Have been meaning to take the camera and go for a look see but usually i forget it, anyway today "Sunday" i managed to remember it on my way to the gym to try and get over my hang over from being out last night up at Lions Head and Birdland.

Turns out the building is some sort of big red thing, with a couple of really mean looking guys guarding it with serious six packs, no seriously it some sort of shrine grave yard type deal, don't really know as i can't read Japanese. It was tucked away up sort of a back ally and behind a police station, it's funny what you come across here totally out of the blue or should i say red, it's a real mix of old and new to say the least. Took a couple of photos in the day then after I'd finished at the gym walked back down and took another couple of photos.

Bad Ass Rabbit

Well we all went to a little Italiano restaurant last night or Should i say Saturday night which turned out to be really good. Luckily the guy who organised it all was Japanese as the menu was completely in Japanese and horror of horrors no pictures to be seen, guess it was a bit too up market for that.
As we didn't know what we were ordering we left it to Nagata san who did a real good job with the ordering, one dish i was a bit sceptical of it was the fish dish he ordered, just small whole fish with the bones and everything in, heads feet or fins the lot. You eat the whole thing so did not really fancy that but in for a meal in for a fish as they say "hu" anyway tried it and they were surprisingly good, could not even tell there was any bones or anything else inside so after that could eat anything so bring it on. The rest of the meal was pastas and salads and of course the obligatory Pizza at least over here that is.
The restaurant it's self was nice little place tucked away in a small street, from what i can gather it's frequented by the Honda F1 team when they're in town as there was photos of the cars on the wall along with the signatures of the drivers Button and Barrichello. Guess they won't be using it anymore now as Honda are selling the team, did take some photos of the place but they're on my phone and i can't get them off at the minuet, if i manage to get them off my phone i will add couple later
After the meal it was down to the Lions Head for a few beers and then up to a club called Birdland. Actually there are what seem like thousands of bars here and hundreds of restaurants mostly Japanese style usually pretty small bars some big ones as well there are a few other restaurants around which vary from Indian to German to Mexican all nice but only a few western style places to go for a drink. Utsunomiya also has the usual cinema complexes, bowling alleys and the like, it's a big town/city after all over 500,000 people.
Anyway that was pretty much the night over, like i say went up Birdland with some friends few beers plenty of chat and then home in the wee hours of the morning, sounds pretty boring but it was enjoyable, not quite like going down the local in the UK, although i guess Lions Head is getting to be my local now.
Sunday are usually a day for sleeping in getting up late cleaning the apartment and doing the washing, actually sometimes sleeping late getting up and just slobbing out for the rest of the day and doing nothing except watching TV, always feel guilty if i do that though but only for about a second or two.
This Sunday though i was a good boy and did my jobs did miss going to the gym though i just couldn't face it, will have to make up for it later though and it usually hurts it i miss too many days, getting to old i guess.
As I'm writing this is Wednesday the 4th February and I'm trying to make an effort to do a few more blogs this month, don't know if i can keep it up but I'm going to try. As i said before work is getting busier we've got both the Fred's another couple of Americans and two Germans so the office is bursting at the seams right now, it's going to be like this for a while now.
Not a lot has happened this week up to now as you can tell form the blog, did go to a Superbowl party on Monday night though at Fred apartment. Didn't really want to but had to be sociable as everyone else from work was going so along i popped. For anyone that doesn't know what the Superbowl is it's the American equivalent of the FA cup in England, when you don't really know what the rules are and a 1 hour game last 3 hours because of the commercials it's really boring.
Would rather watch a 5 day test match between England and anyone than this and that's saying something, the Americans seemed to enjoy it though i knew who won and i was dieing to to say but that would be cruel wouldn't it or, would it.
So that's pretty much been the week up to now not much to talk about as you can see and it's really difficult to do a blog when you ain't got nothing to write about, it is for me anyway. Guess i should be more imaginative or make stuff up, i mean no one would know would they only me so am going to post it as can't think of anything else to say.
Haven't got any photos to go with the blog either so am just posting a Bad Ass Rabbit video some one sent to me, it's where the title of the blog comes from and is nothing at all to do with what anything at all.

End Of January

Well it's the 31st of January today the rest of the month seems to have shot past hardly feels like four weeks since i got back to Japan.

Been at work today have worked the last three Saturdays, even stayed in last night as i was going to work what a god boy i am, mind you i'd been out Thursday with the guys from work for a meal, we went to a Shabu Shabu restaurant, for those that done know what Shabu Shabu is and I'm one it's basically very thin slices of meat usually beef put into a pot of boiling water or what they call dashi (broth) and swishing it back and forth several times, apparently Shabu-shabu roughly translates to "swish-swish" see bet you didn't think i knew so much, actually i don't, thank god for Wikiepedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shabu-shabu to cut a long story
short it's poached meat but that don't sound as good as Shabu Shabu does it. After the restaurant a few of us went to a place called FreeFlight, a bar about five minuets from the apartment, unfortunately after that i made the wrong decision and decided to go to another place which is why i feel bad all day Friday and did not go out. You make these kind off stupid decisions after beer which sound good at the time but aren't, i even tried Karaoke again and should have known better.

Not a lot else has been happening lately apart from the obvious work that is, which is going real well but getting pretty busy hence the working Saturdays, we will starting the commissioning soon and it will probably get even busier.

Did have a bit of a disaster though a couple of days ago, my Kettle broke have been having to boil water in a pan till i get a new one, guess it's not the end of the world though.

Yep i know it's boring but honestly not a lot has been happening, it's not like being on Holiday I'm at work pretty much 6 days a week now and day to day life is pretty boring. Typical day sort of goes like this, get up about 7am get to work for about 8.30am,It's about 1hrs drive each way from my apartment. Get back 6.30 - 7pm try and go to the gym for an hour or so, although don't make it as often as i used too. Back from the gym about 9pm something to eat watch a bit of TV and to bed, get up about 7am and so on, don't have time to do a lot as you can see.

Most of this things i do revolve around going to the gym, out for meals and out a few beers, not really that exciting is it, so Saturday night is probably my only big night out, Sunday is pretty much taken up with looking after the apartment which can take a bit of time. I'm glad I've got the apartment and am not living in a Hotel for the freedom it gives you but one thing about living in an hotel you don't have to wash your own bedding or go and buy things like heating oil to keep warm.

So that's it it's the end of January, tonight I'm going out with my mate Razer who lives in the next apartment but one to me and some other friends. We're going to an Italian restaurant for something to eat then to the Lions Head and maybe Iceman for a few bees and no doubt after that to Birdland until the wee hours i should think.

We have had some snow since I've been back was expecting more to be honest but it was just a light covering, am going to put in a couple of action shots from work of yours truly. The one showing me eating I've actually used as my profile picture for Facebook, only joined to keep in touch with Ben and Joe but now have a total of 7 friends, wow ain't that something know them all from Utsunomiya.

Anyway check out the photos below, the guy with me is from our office in the states.

First Meetup

So anyway like i said in the last blog went to Tokyo the other weekend, hadn't been there for what seemed like ages. Had joined one of the local Tokyo meet up groups http://www.meetup.com/ a couple of weeks before that, this one was for British Expats. Thought i would give it a go what could i loose the worst that could happen was it would be crap. I was getting a bit bored with weekends spent in Utsunomiya even though i know people there now so am always guaranteed to bump into the same people in the bars i go and can hang around with them, there are only a few western style places to hang out in Utsunomiya after all.

The next meeting of this group was scheduled to be on Saturday the 17th Jan so the plan was to go there see what it was like if i liked it would probably go to another one if not had not lost anything. I was planning to make a night of it as the last train back from Tokyo to Utsunomiya is about 11pm and the first one next morning is 6am, so the last one is way way to early once you have made the trip to Tokyo so after the Meetup thingy finished the plan was to hit Roppongi and get a train back some time early morning. I'd be there on my own but by that time should have had a beer or three so would be able to talk to people no problem, Roponggi is always crawling with westerners and a lot of them would be in the same boat as me, just wish it was the summer and T shirt weather.

So the 17th came round and to be honest was thinking of not going, it was cold outside and and just popping up the road to the Lions Head looked a lot more inviting than getting on a train to Tokyo and staying up until the next morning. Told myself not to be such an old wimp get to Tokyo and try to make the most of being in Japan, so that's what i did got the train to Tokyo.

Didn't leave until about apartment until about 8pm had been thinking i would get the regular train but that takes nearly 2 hours so opted for the Shinkansen as i was late which is only 45min but is twice the price, what the hell it's not like i go every weekend.

The train station which is only 5 minuets from my apartment so set out to get my ticket and got to the platform about 10mis after walking out the door, trains go really regularly so only had to wait about another 10 minuets Couple of photos showing a deserted platform at Utsunomiya station, there were people there but they were all hiding as it was bleeding cold, you can probably tell cos I've taken to wearing a Beanie, good old Primart it was only a quid.

Got to Tokyo before 9pm, train only makes 3 stops so doesn't take long, Tokyo station was just a mass of people from being no one at Utsunomiys station there was just a stream of people and had to get on to the underground, now i know what it must feel like to be a salmon fighting your way up stream.

Finally made it to the underground station caught the train to Ebisu which is where i thought i was going, was looking for a bar called the FootNik http://www.footnik.com/ Turns out though that when i had checked it out on the net there were two and I'd brought the map to the wrong one which is about par for the course, didn't know all this till i went in for a drink though and it looked a bit sparse on the foreigner front so i asked around. Turns out the place i wanted was about three stops down the way, so had a beer and caught the next train to Osaki. The bar was nice and obviously catered for the football watching crowd there were lots of screens and had premiership football on a regular basis. In Japan football is pretty big so you get a mixed clientele it's real popular through Asia especially the English premier league. Food in the bar looked good as well though i didn't try it this time. The bar had a pretty varied menu along with all the old favorites Fish and Chips, Bangers and Mash and something called English Chicken Pie.

Was getting late by this time i finally made it so there was not that many people left, mostly the drinkers of the group but had a good time nevertheless, everyone was friendly so will probably go to another one. Had to keep one eye on the clock as well as i needed to catch the last train to Roponggi the drink was flowing though so gave up on this idea and opted for a Taxi instead, got to the nights final destination about 2am Sunday morning and it was heaving.

Went to quite a few of the bars i went in Ben and Tristan when they were here and a couple of new ones, had a pretty good time and there were plenty of people to talk to and quite a few i didn't want to. It's part of the deal being in Roponggi though you get pestered by touts quite a bit trying to get you to go into their bars, best thing to do is not to make eye contact with them but that's hard for me not to do as i always feel ignorant, it's not too bad though you just have to say no a couple of times as you are walking away.

Just added the photo below of a shop front i passed on my way back to the underground in Roponggi not sure what time it was but must have been late/early as there was no one around anyway i thought it looked good even though i was drunk, am sure it's an expensive place though.

Next thing i knew it was about 8am and i was in McDonald's having breakfast, not sure what it was but it tasted pretty good. After breakfast it was time to head to the underground get back to Tokyo Central and the train back to Utsunomiya. Getting the train on the way back is always a little bit trickier after you've been drinking all night than it is on the way in and you're sober. The other thing you've got to do is try not to fall asleep on the train and miss your stop, got back to the apartment and into bed around 10am, got to say that was a nice feeling it had been a long night come Sunday morning, will probably do it all again in another month or so though.

Back In Japan

It's well into January now and so much for resolutions, all I've posted this month so far has been catch up blogs from last December.
Flew back to Japan on the 2nd Jan and got here on the third was expecting snow when i got back to Utsunomiy there hadn't been any, which probably was just as well as i was at work again on the 5th. Flew back KLM this time which meant i had to go through Amsterdam and then on to Narita. Met a girl on the plane and we chatted a bit so it made the time go a bit faster, she turned out to be an Oboe player and was in a concert orchestra, had quite an interesting conversation about here making reeds for her Oboe, which is the bit that makes the noise. No really it was quite interesting especially the fact that she made them herself, she was really into it. The other thing she seemed to do was knit, she was knitting a hat, made me smile as she must have made a mistake and by the time we got to Japan there was less knitting on here stick thingies than when she had started with in Amsterdam. The other thing i noticed when coming in to land at Narita was that you could see mount Fuji out of the window, i didn't know it was mount Fuji but the girl told me. Had thought it was a lot further away from Tokyo but there it was lots of snow on top, made me think of Ben and Tristan climbing it in the rain. Took a picture of it which does not do it justice as it was actually quite impressive.



So that was pretty much it for the flight then next thing i was at the airport and getting the bus back to Utsunomiya. The bus takes about three hours but you don't need to change like you do if you get the train just sit back and relax till you get there, no dragging your bags around Tokyo station looking for the next train.
So I'm back in my apartment time to try and get my head down for a bit, then go out for a few beers to help me sleep the night, try and avoid any kind of jet lag. Bit of a sleep and then out into the night see what's going on, not much I'm sure but anyway i went up to the Lions Head and then after that on to Birdland till the wee hours and my usual bar of chocolate and sandwich on the way home. It's bit like having a kebab in the UK when you've been out for a few beers but there aren't any Kebab's over here well not on the way to my place there ain't.
That was it for my first weekend back the next thing would be work, we were expecting a few more people from the US so we would have another office full and be busy. Actually it would be quite interesting going back to site and seeing what had been going on for the two weeks we'd been away.
Don't seem to be able to stick to any of my NY's resolutions that my be because i didn't make any NY's eve but the next day and probably they don't count if you do that. While I'd been back in the UK had not been to the gym, had told my self that when i got back to JP would try and hit it a bit harder but it's been the opposite since I've been back up to now have only managed to go a few times, ah well guess in the overall scheme of things it don't really matter.
Been back at work about three weeks now and all I've got to say on the subject is that's it's a four letter word.
Last weekend went to Tokyo, a mate of mine had joined a group over the Internet just to meet some people in Tokyo and had mentioned that it to me so thought i would give it a go. Had been planning to go to Tokyo again anyway, Joined this British Expats meet up group which had a meeting last weekend so thought i would give it a go, i know it sounds a bit sad but what the heck when in Japan as they say or should that be Rome. I know some people in Utsunomiy now but no one in Tokyo so time to broaden my horizons, what could it harm may actually be OK it was down the pub after all so couldn't be all bad, will tell you about it in the next blog.